Hsün Yüeh (A.D. 148-209): The Life and Reflections of an Early Medieval Confucian

254 Pages·1975·8.465 MB·English

by  Chi-Yun Chen

CAMBRIDGE STUDIES IN
CHINESE HISTORY, LITERATURE AND INSTITUTIONS
General Editors
PATRICK HANAN AND DENIS TWITCHETT
Hsün Yüeh
(a .d . 148-209)
Other books in the series
olen dudbridge: The Hsi~yu chi: A Study of Antecedents to the
Sixteenth-Century Chinese Novel
Stephen Fitzgerald: China and the Overseas Chinese: A
Study of Peking’s Changing Policy, 194ÎM970
Christopher Howe: Wage Pattons and Wage Policy in Modem
China, 1919-1972
ray huang: Taxation and Governmental Finance in Sixteenth-
Century Ming China
Diana lary: Region and Nation: The Kwangsi Clique in Chinese
Politics, 1925-1937
David r. knechtges: The Han Rhapsody: A Study of the Fu of
Yang Hsiung (53 b.c.-a.d. 18)
Hsün Yüeh 148 209
(a d . - )
The Life and Reflections of an
Early Medieval Confucian
by
CHI-YUN CHEN
Associate Professor of History
University of California, Santa Barbara
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
CAMBRIDGE
LONDON . NEW YORK . MELBOURNE
Published by the Syndics of the Cambridge University Press
The Pitt Building, Tmmpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1RP
Bentley House, 200 Euston Road, London NW1 2DB
32 East 57th Street, New York, NY 10022, USA
296 Beaconsfield Parade, Middle Park, Melbourne 3206, Australia
Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number: 74-79135
isbn: 0 521 20394 5
First published 1975
Printed in Great Britain
at the University Printing House, Cambridge
Euan Phillips, University Printer
To
C H ’IEN MU
and
YANG LIEN-SHENG
WITHDRAWN —
IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY
* What I have recounted here may be examined against real facts and verified;
they rightly constitute counsels of lasting value which may be applied in
myriad situations without becoming unreasonably inflexible.*
(Han-chi, hsü)
* One must comprehend the law of nature and examine the nature of men;
peruse the canonical Classics and cross-examine them against the records of
past and present events; take heed of the different conditions of men and
penetrate into their subtlest details; avoid the extreme and grasp the mean;
take reference from the Five Elements in their mutations; and place all these
in different combinations and sequences; then one may dimly envisage an
approximation of the ultimate truth.*
(Han-chi, Lun)
* Words should be simple and straight; but why were the words of our Sage
so subtle and intriguing? The answer is : Truth itself is subtle and intriguing;
to communicate the truth, the Sage could not but use subtle and intriguing
words.*
(Shen-chien)
4 Symbols cannot perfectly represent the quintessence of things; words cannot
fully convey the intent of what one wishes to say. Therefore, the Six Classics,
though extant, are but the dregs left behind by the Sage.*
0HsQn Ts'an)
Contents
Preface page ix
The Hsün family tree xi
1 Introduction: The Confucian élite in an era of transition 1
2 Imperial decline and the new élite 10
The literati in a conservative régime 10
Persecution, agitation, and the Hsün family of Ying-ch’uan 19
Confucians, Taoists, and the Yellow Turbans 30
3 The Han-Wei transition 40
Civil turmoil and ‘restoration* 40
Bureaucracy, political loyalty, and the new leaders 47
The early Chien-an era, a.d. 196-210 58
4 Hsün Yüeh: Family background, official career, and political
attitudes 66
The period of obscurity prior to a.d. 196 66
Service at the * restored ’ Han court, a.d. 196-209 75
5 Hsün Yüeh’s works: The Han-chi (Chronicles of Han) 84
The official apologia 84
The historian's discourses (shih-lun) 93
Cosmology, canonical authority, and history 105
Historiography 112
6 Hsün Yüeh’s works: The Shen-chien (Extended Reflections) 127
From history to reflective thinking 127
Confucianism and Taoism in ch'ing-t'an 136
Confucianism, Legalism, and Hsün Yüeh’sc ounsels 148
7 Conclusion: The world after Hsün Yüeh 162
Notes to the text 17®
Bibliography 214
Index 231
vii

Preface
In publishing this book, I wish to express my gratitude to Professor
Ch’ien Mu (founder of the New Asia College and the New Asia Research
Institute, Hongkong) and Professor Lien-sheng Yang (the Harvard-
Yenching Professor of Chinese History, Harvard University). Professor
Ch’ien introduced me to the study of China’s history some eighteen
years ago; Professor Yang guided me through my doctoral programme
at Harvard and has given me constant advice and assistance since. To
both of them, this book is dedicated.
This book is based partly on my doçtoral work at Harvard. I am
grateful both to the Harvard-Yenching Institute and to the Harvard
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences for their Fellowships and travel
grants in support of my study and research. I wish to express my thanks
to Professor Robert Hightower who read and criticized my draft disser­
tation and to Dr Glen Baxter for his good counsel and help. I am also
much indebted to my friend Professor Edward Dreyer (now at the
University of Miami) who read the entire draft of my dissertation and
helped me in many ways to improve the English style.
A great part of my original dissertation was written while teaching
at the University of Malaya. I am thankful for the assistance of my
former colleagues there and for the liberality of the University in grant­
ing me study leave. I am particularly grateful to Professor Wolfgang
Franke of the University of Hamburg who was visiting professor in the
University of Malaya during my stay there and who introduced me to
German scholarship related to my field. Many studies and publications
by Japanese scholars mentioned in the book were consulted during my
stay at the Institute of Humanistic Studies of the Kyoto University.
I wish to thank Professors Yoshikawa Kojiro, Miyazaki Ichisada, and
especially Hiraoka Takeo for their hospitality and valuable assistance.
The revision of my original dissertation into the present book was
completed at Santa Barbara, California. I am greatly indebted to the
University of California at Santa Barbara for Faculty Research Grants
ix
x Preface
in 1968/70 and a Faculty Fellowship in the summer of 1969 which
enabled me to broaden the scope of my study and to rewrite my disser­
tation into its present form. And I am most grateful for the support
and encouragement which I have received from my colleagues in the
Department of History at Santa Barbara, especially Professor Immanuel
C. Y. Hsü. I wish to thank Mrs Ronald Hathaway for her comments
and criticism on my English style.
Finally I am grateful for the advice and scholariy criticism from
Professor Denis Twitchett, Editor of the series of Cambridge Studies
in Chinese History, literature and Institutions, who spent many hours
reading and editing the typescript. I am truly thankful for the valuable
assistance which I received in many ways from Dr Michael Loewe,
reader for the Press, Mr Colin Jones, Editor of the Press in New York,
and Mr Michael Black, Publisher and Editorial Director of the Press
in England. But for their efforts, I cannot imagine when and how this
book may be published.
It is impossible to acknowledge all the help which I received from
my family, my friends, and the academic world at large. They form the
holistic world order in which I find my being.
Of course, the responsibility for whatever shortcomings and mistakes
remain rests solely on myself.
Santa Barbara, California
C. Y. C.