Post classical Chinese philosophy: names, terms, concepts

Li Yuan/Tang Gaozu

• Neo-Confucianism

• First emperor of the Tang dynasty

• Rebellion against the Sui → dethroning child emperor

• Turkic descendent

• Legitimized himself by portraying himself as upholder of traditional Chinese values

  • Promoted Confucianism as a state doctrine

• Was a Daoist himself

• 5 years later: decreed the reduction of Buddhist and Daoist temples and clergy

Fu Yi

• Neo-Confucianism

• Ordained Daoist priest

• Astrologer that advised the Tang court to reduce the numer of Buddhist clergy and monestaries

• Claimed that before Buddhism appeared in China, everyone revered the teachings of Confucius and Laozi

• Request to Abolish the Buddhist doctrine (written in 621)

  • “I request that the heretical teachings of the hu Buddha be returned to
    India, and that all the śramaṇas (monks) be sent back to their home-
    towns”

  • “the evil hu multiplied and flourished, and the majority of them mixed
    together with the hua (Chinese) [...] the dissolute language of the evil
    hu was used in the studies of the ru (Confucians)”

  • "(if the Han Chinese) were to transmit the teachings of Confucius to the Western Regions, the hu would certainly be unwilling to practice them. [...] The Buddha is
    a household ghost of one particular clan and cannot simultaneously act
    as a ghost for other lineages. How can a living being be urged to give
    offerings to a dead yi? This is a case of cheapening a bright jewel (=
    Confucianism) and treating a fish eye (= Buddhsim) as precious. [...] To
    administer the people, all that is needed is one chapter of the Classic of
    filial piety and two chapters of the Laozi; there is no need for the Bud-
    dhist texts to be widely read”

Hu (used by Fu Yi)

• Buddha

• Buddhists

• Buddhism

A state of ‘chaos’ (used by Fu Yi)

The innocent folk are no longer loyal to the Confucian elite because the Confucian elite itself has gone astray from the correct path (because of interest in Buddhism) and therefore is no longer a model to be followed

Li Shimin/Tang Taizong

• Son of Li Yuan/Tang Gaozu

  • Disagrees with the advice Fu Yi gives to his father (anti-buddhist)

• Supportive towards Buddhism

• Title of Heavenly Qaghan

  • “I am the Son of Heaven of the Great Tang, an henceforth also will at-
    tend to the affairs of the Qaghan”

  • Shows his will to accommodate non-Chinese in his empire

• Quote by Mark E. Lewis:

  • “testified to Taizong’s vision of the empire as encompassing both
    Chinese and nomads, a vision that he regarded as his own particular
    contribution”

    • Multicultural awareness among Chinese elite

Han Yu

• Neoconfucianism Tang dynasty

• Anti-buddhist

• “Yuandao'“ On the origin of Thruth

  • “What I call the true dao, [...] is the one that was transmitted from Yao
    to Shun, and then to Yu; subsequently to Tang, then to Wen, Wu, and
    the Duke of Zhou. They transmitted it to Confucius, who transmitted it
    to Mencius. With the death of the latter, the transmission was stopped.
    Xunzi and Yang Xiong have derived elements from it, but not profound-
    ly enough; they have spoken about it, but not precisely enough”

    • Shows that Mengzi gained importance during the Tang

• “Jian ying Fo gu biao” Memorial concerning the Buddha-bone

  • Wars the court of the dangers of venerating Buddhist relics

Li Ao

• Neoconfucianism Tang dynasty

• “Fu xing shu” Essay on the Return to Nature

  • “It is one’s nature (xing) that makes sure one becomes a ‘saint’. It are
    feelings (qing) that bring chaos to one’s nature. [...] Nature and feelings
    are intricately connected. Without nature, feelings would have nothing to
    arise from: feelings arise from nature. [...] Nature is the mandate of
    heaven. The wise one receives [nature] without ever getting into chaos.
    Feelings are the movements of nature. Ordinary people are subject [to
    feelings] without ever knowing their origin. [...] The nature of an ordinary
    person is not different from that of a wise one. However, it is blinded by
    the feelings with which one constantly lives in conflict. That is why [an
    ordinary person] reaches the end of his days without having been able to
    even throw one glance on his nature.”

• Discussion on nature (xing), feelings (qing) and the way in which a ‘saint’ (sheng) deals with these two

  • See discussion on human nature

    • Confucius + Mengzi → good

    • Xunzi + legalists → bad

Mengzi (quote on human nature)

“The nature of human beings is good, just as water streams down-
wards. There are no human beings whose nature is bad, in the same
way as there is no water that does not stream downwards. By damming
the water and guiding it, one can force it to stream upwards [...] How-
ever, does this movement accord with the nature of the water? Human
beings can be brought to do bad things, but this is an infringement on
their nature”

• Human nature is good

• Neoconfucianism: renewed discussion on human nature

Xunzi (quote on human nature)

“Human nature is bad; its goodness is crafted [...] It is clear that the
nature of human beings is bad and that its goodness is crafted. [...]
Nature is what is naturally so, and cannot be learnt or imposed. [...]
What cannot be learnt and cannot be imposed and is within human
beings, is nature. What can be learnt and can be imposed in human
beings is crafted. This is the difference between nature and what is
crafted”

• Human nature is bad

• Neoconfucianism: renewed discussion on human nature

Dong Zhongshu (quotes xing qing)

“Heaven has yin and yang, in the same way as the [human] body has
feelings and desires’.

• 2 aspects in the human psychology → parallel to yin and yang

  • Xing: nature

  • Qing: feelings

    • Because of feelings a human being becomes bad

“When one states that the nature is good, then what about the
feelings?”

• “feelings and desires” spoil a man’s nature

Zhu Xi

• Song neoconfucianism

• Brought the 4 books (Lunyu, Mengzi, Daxue, Zhongyong) together as basis for a Neoconfucian interpretation of Confucianism

• Wrote commentaries on the 4 books

• Wrote Jin si lü (Reflections on Things at hand)

Zhou Dunyi

• Song neoconfucianism, derivations from the cosmological theories of daoism

• Taiji tu shuo (Explanation of the Diagram of the Supreme Ultimate)

  • An explanation (shuo) of the schematic representation (diagram, tu) of how a human being and the things of the world have been formed

• The world has been formed through yin and yang + 5 phases (wu xing)

  • These originated in the highest principle: the ‘supreme ultimate’ (taiji)

• Tongshu (Book to Explain Changes)

  • Based on the Yijing (Book of Changes)

  • Central concepts: Qi, 5 phases, Li (pattern)

    • Li = immaterial and metaphisical patterns that are the basis of the material/physical

    • Li equates the ‘supreme ultimate’

    • A human beings nature is good because it has Li within

      • Humans become bad through contact with the outside world

      • Human nature is constructive (ti)

      • Duality of good and bad are funtional (yong)

  • “[Concentrating on] the one is the essence. [Concentrating on] the one
    is being without desires. Being without desires is being empty in
    quietude, and to go straight in one’s movements. If one is empty in
    quietude, one is enlightened; if one is enlightened, one understands
    everything. If one goes straight in one’s movements, then one is im-
    partial; if one is impartial, one comprises everything. If one is en-
    lightened and impartial, and if one understands everything and one
    comprises everything, is one not near the aim?”

  • “The wise one settles himself on the middle (zhong), correctness
    (zheng), humaneness (ren), and justice (yi). [...] He is the highest norm
    for mankind. Therefore, ‘the virtue (de) of the wise one is equal to that
    of heaven and earth, his brightness (ming) is equal to that of sun and
    moon, his orderliness (xu) is equal to that of the four seasons, and his
    good and bad fortune (jixiong) are equal to that of ghosts (gui) and
    spirits (shen)’. The noble one (junzi) develops good fortune, while the
    petty men (xiaoren) develop bad fortune.”

    • The aim of a wise one (shengren) is to harmonize the world and society, and to order life according to cosmogonic principles

Shao Yong

• Song neoconfucianism, derivations from the cosmological theories of daoism

• Huangji jingshi (Cosmological Chronology)

  • Describes tge cosmological evolution on the basis of the trigrams of the Yijing

  • “The supreme ultimate is a unity which does not move. It produces
    duality, and this duality is spirit. This spirit produces numbers, the
    numbers produce emblems, and the emblems produce instruments (qi
    器). [...] These instruments, through transformation, are brought back
    once more to spirit.”

    • The supreme ultimate (Li) manifests itself in the duality of movement and quietude that, together combine to be spirit

    • Spirit manifests itself in the changes expressed in the succession of broken and unbroken lines in the trigrams of the Yijing

    • Instruments = the things of the world

    • The wise one does not anything yet and there is nothing that is not done

• Guan wu pian (Treatise on the Observation of Things)

  • “That by which heaven observes things, is not with the eyes. Not being
    with the eyes, it is with the mind. And rather than observation with the
    mind, it is observation through their own pattern”.

  • Contemporary world is far from its final destruction, but has already known its most glorious period

  • “The three sovereigns correspond to spring, the five emperors to sum-
    mer, the three kings to autumn, and the five tyrants to winter. The seven
    states correspond to the coldest continuation of that winter. The [rulers
    of the] Han Dynasty were in the category of kings, but fell somewhat
    short [of the original kings]; those of the Jin were in the category of
    tyrants, but were somewhat superior [to the original tyrants]; those of
    the three kingdoms were the more able of the tyrants; those of the six-
    teen states were the more petty of the tyrants; those of the southern five
    dynasties were mere borrowers of the chariots of the tyrants; those of
    the northern five dynasties were mere sojourners in the dwellings of the
    tyrants. Those of the Sui were the sons of those of the Jin, and those of
    the Tang were the younger brothers of those of the Han. The tyrants of
    the commanderies of the end of the Sui were the last feeble waves of
    the Yangzi or Han rivers; those of the military posts of the end of the
    Tang were the last expiring gleams of the sun or moon; those of the five
    dynasties were the lingering stars before sunrise.”

    • Categorizes governments in 4 classes

Zhang Zai

• Song neoconfucianism, derivations from the cosmological theories of daoism

• Zheng Meng (Correct Discipline for Beginners)

  • “When one states that emptiness brings forth ‘ether’, it is so that empty-
    ness is endless while ‘ether’ is limited”

    • Ether = unifying ‘substance’ = both ‘being’ and ‘non-being’ = dao in its totality

• Jingxue liku (Collected Principles of Classical studies)

• Yishuo (Comments on the Book of Changes)

• Taihe = ‘great harmony’ = pattern that is the basis for everything

Cheng brothers

Cheng Yi

Cheng Hao

Lu Jiuyuan