Wang T’ung and the Confucian Orthodoxy:the Reception History of Wang T’ung’s Philosophy and the Significance during the Sung Dynasty

• Main Authors: Shih-Hsuan Ke, 葛世萱
• Other Authors: 何澤恒
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2013
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/btc78y

博士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 中國文學研究所 === 101 === This dissertation is concerned about the changing position in the Confucian Orthodoxy of Wang T’ung during the Sung Dynasty. The Sung Confucianists emphasizd the Confucian Orthodoxy when they faced the prosperity of Buddhism and Taoism.But they had different opinions about how the five Confucianists in the Han and Tang Dynasty inherited Mencius,who were Xun-zi, Dong Zhong-Shu, Yang Xiong, Wang T’ung and Han Yu.The position of Wang T’ung was steady at the beginning of the Sung Dynasty,but wavered gradually. Finally, all the five persons were rejected by the Neo-Confucianism scholar,Cheng Yi. The Neo-Confucianism Orthodoxy had influended the Confucian Orthodoxy,but schalors during the beginning of the Sung Dynasty had also considered about the literary issues at the same time.This was the great point wavered the status of Wang T’ung in the Confucian Orthodoxy.Since The revival of Confucianism and the ancient prose movement were intently related,how the connection of the Confucian Orthodoxy and the literary orthodoxy had effected the Confucian posion of Wang T’ung was very considerable. The Confucian status of Wang T’ung was revival at the middle of the Southern Sung Dynasty.Different from the Northern Sung,the debate between Zhu Xi and Cheng Liang was issue inside the Neo-Confucianism.Great value of Wang T’ung from the schalors in Yongjia school was also the same.Feats was the reason why the schalors in Yongjia school valued Wang T’ung.In fact,the original meaning of the Confucian Orthodoxy from Mencius had included the ideal of statecraft. The study of Confucian classics had established closely related to the politics.Statecraft was an important part of Wang T’ung’s philosophy,and he had also made his own “Continued Classics”.So the changing of Wang T’ung’s Confucian position can possibly reflected how the Confucianists concerned about politics in the Southern Sung Dynasty. The first part of this dissertation is the study of Wang T’ung’s philosophy.His theory of Confucian classics,politics and metaphysics were explained as much as possible.Some shortages of former evidential studies about Wang T’ung and his books were trying to inferenced.Then,according to “Zhong-shuo”, his theory of“the three Classics are all History”,and the claims of politics and metaphysics were discussed.After comprehensively analyzing Wang T’ung’s philosophy,the characteristics and value of his thoughts were clarified,and the result revealed great fusion of Confucianism and Taoism in his philosophy.All the topics above will become the background knowledge of those following discussions. The second part of this dissertation is to comprehend why Wang T’ung’s Orthodoxy position had changed,which including to anylize the differences of the definition of the Confucian Orthodoxy,and to observe how the development of the study of Confucian classsics,literature,politics and philosophy in Sung Dynasty were interacted each other.First of all was discussions about the ideological background of these Sung intellectuals.The inferences of the late Tang Dynasty intellectuals like Pi Rixiu and Sikong Tu were noticed.Secondly,this dissertation also pay attation to the status of “Zhong-shuo” in the system of imperial examatation in Sung Dynasty,especially through those tse wen political questions.Generalizing the authors ,contents and times of tse wen could confirm that atmosphere of society and politics really inference how intellectuals commented Wang T’ung in Sung Dynasty.According to this,how intellectuals valued Wang T’ung was a great point of view to analyzing the schalorship progress of Sung Dynasty. By comparing the Confucian Orthodoxy theories of the five intellectuals(Liu Kai, Zhiyuan Sun Fu,Shi Jie,,Qisong) at the beginning of Sung Dynasty, relationship between the Confucian Orthodoxy and the literary orthodoxy was confirmed to effected the Confucian status of Wang T’ung.Although the Neo-Confucianism scholars in the northern Sung Dynasty rejected Wang T’ung from the Confucian Orthodoxy ,his metaphysics of Tao and the ideal of statecraft were still emphysized by some of them,especially Cheng Yi ,Zhu Xi and the schalors in Yongjia school.It looks like the values of Wang T’ung ‘s theory were not all nagitive at that time,and he still represented some kind of the Confucian foretype.Even though,the explainations of Wang T’ung’s philosophy were not focused on Wang T’ung himself anymore.Instead of that,the intellectuals during the Sung Dynasty were more concerned about how Wang T’ung’s concepts could support their own theories. In conclusion,through out all the discussions above,not only some indistinct details of the developments between the revival of Confucianism and the ancient prose movement were revealed and reconsidered,but also Wang T’ung’s position in Chinese intellectual history was revalued again.