Liu Tsung-yüan and Intellectual Change in T'ang China, 773-819 (Cambridge Studies in Chinese History, Literature and Institutions)

This book is the first comprehensive study in a Western language of Liu Tsung-yiian (773-819), a major literary and intellectual figure in Chinese history. The main aspects of Liu's life and work are explored: the social and cultural background of his family, his relationship with the ku-wen prose reform and new canonical scholarship in the mid-T'ang, his social and political criticism, his views on Confucian doctrine, and his sentiments and reflections regarding the private realm of human life. But the scope of this study goes beyond the "life and work" of this principal intellectual figure. With his special emphasis on the connections between Liu's thought and mid-T'ang intellectual change, the author offers a new interpretation of the origins of the T'ang-Sung intellectual transition. Through a comparison of Liu's ideas with those of other major Confucian thinkers, Jo-shui Chen modifies the conventional view that the mid-T'ang Confucian revival led by Han Yii (768-824) and Liu Tsung-yiian was a precursor of Sung Neo-Confucianism. He suggests that the mid-T'ang Confucian movement was essentially a revival of an old form of Confucianism and that Liu's was a powerful voice expressing this sentiment. But some new elements, particularly certain ideas held by Han Yii and his followers, emerged in this revival, finally paving the way for the burgeoning of Neo-Confucian metaphysical and moral philosophy.

Cambridge Studies in Chinese History, Literature, and Institutions General Editors Patrick Hanan and Denis Twitchett

LIU TSUNG-YUAN AND INTELLECTUAL CHANGE IN T'ANG CHINA, 773-819

Other books in the series Glen 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, 1949-70 Christopher Howe Wage Patterns and Wage Policy in Modern China, Ray Huang Taxation and Government Finance in Sixteenth-Century Ming China Diana Lary Region and Nation: The Kwangsi Clique in Chinese Politics, 1925-37 Chi-yun Chen Hsiin Yueh (A.D. 148-209): The Life and Reflection of an Early Medieval Confucian David R. Knechtges The Han Rhapsody: A Study of the Fu of Yang Hsiung (53 B.C.-A.D. 18)

J. Y. Wong Yeh Ming-ch'en: Viceroy of Liang Kuang (1852-8) Li-Li Ch'en Master Tung's Western Chamber Romance (Tung hsi-hsiang chu-kung-tiao): A Chinese Chantefable

Donald Holzman Poetry and Politics: The Life and Works of Juan Chi (A.D. 210-63) C. A. Curwen Taiping Rebel: The Deposition of Li Hsiu-Cheng Patricia Buckley Ebrey The Aristocratic Families of Early Imperial China: A Case Study of the Po-ling Ts'ui Family Hilary J. Beattie Land and Lineage in China: A Study of Tung-ch'eng County, Anhwei, in the Ming and Ch'ing Dynasties William T. Graham, Jr. "The Lament for the South": Yii Hsin's Ai Chiang-nan fu Hans Bielenstein The Bureaucracy of Han Times Michael J. Godley The Mandarin-Capitalists from Nanyang: Overseas Chinese Enterprise in the Modernisation of China, 1893-1911 Charles Backus The Nan-chao Kingdom and T'ang China's Southwestern Frontier A.R.Davis T'ao Yuan-ming (A.D. 365-427): His Works and Their Meaning Victor H. Mair Tun-huang Popular Narratives Ira E. Kasoff The Thought of Chang Tsai (1020-1077) Ronald C. Egan The Literary Works of Ou-yang Hsiu (1007-1072) Stanley Weinstein Buddhism under the T'ang Robert P. Hymes Statesmen and Gentlemen: The Elite of Fu-Chou, Chiang-hsi, in Northern and Southern Sung David McMullen State and Scholars in T'ang China Arthur Waldron The Great Wall of China Brian E. McKnight Law and Order in Sung China Hugh R. Clark Community, Trade, and Networks: Southern Fujian Province from the Third to the Thirteenth Century Denis Twitchett The Writing of Official History under the T'ang J. D. Schmidt Stone Lake: The Poetry of Fan Chengda (1126-1193)

Liu Tsung-yuan and Intellectual Change in T'ang China, 773—819 Jo-shui Chen University of British Columbia

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

Published by the Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 IRP 40 West 20th Street, New York, NY IOOI 1-4211, USA 10 Stamford Road, Oakleigh, Victoria 3166, Australia www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521419642 © Cambridge University Press 1992 First published 1992 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Chen, Jo-shui. Liu Tsung-yiian and intellectual change in T'ang China, 773-819/Jo-shui Chen. p.

cm. - (Cambridge studies in Chinese history, literature, and institutions) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0—521-41964-6

1. Liu, Tsung-yiian, 773-819 - Criticism interpretation. 2. Chinese literature - T'ang dynasty, 618-907 - History and criticism. 3. Philosophy, Confucian. I. Title. II. Series. PL2673.Z5C53 1992 895.1'8309- dc20

A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN-13 978-0-521-41964-2 hardback ISBN-10 0-521-41964-6 hardback

Transferred to digital printing 2005

92-9047 CIP

To my parents

Contents

Acknowledgments viii Maps x Chronology xi Abbreviations xii

Introduction i Literati and thought in the early and middle T'ang 7 2 Liu Tsung-yiian and the circumstances of Ch'ang-an 32 3 805: The abortive reform 66 4 Declaration of principles: Tao and antiquity 81 5 Heaven, the supernatural, and Tao 99 6 Literary theory, canonical studies, and beyond 127 7 Sources of Liu's Confucian thought 149 8 The private sphere 163 Conclusion 188 i

Glossary

194

Bibliography Index

vn

217

199

Acknowledgments

In the long process that was the making of this book, I have incurred debts of gratitude to many individuals and institutions, far more than I can appropriately list here. This project began as a Ph.D. dissertation under the direction of Professor Ying-shih Yii. For many years, I have learned from Professor Yii's works, his seminars and lectures, and from private conversations with him. To him I am deeply indebted for both intellectual stimulation and personal support. I also owe a great deal to my two other teachers at Yale, Professors Beatrice Bartlett and Jonathan Spence, for their support, guidance and useful comments on my dissertation. Special thanks are further due to Professors Denis Twitchett and Hoyt Tillman. Both read the book manuscript and offered valuable suggestions; Professor Twitchett was particularly encouraging in the final stage of my writing. Many friends and colleagues rendered generous help in various ways. Laurence Cunningham, Michael Duke, Philip Holden, Robert Kramer, Charles Yim-tze Kwong, Karin Preisendanz, Edwin Pulleyblank, Catherine Swatek, and Joanna Waley-Cohen gave advice about content or style, or both, saving me from errors of all kinds. Peter Bol, Josephine Chiu-Duke, Im Tae Hee, Kang Le, Li Po-heng, and Mao Han-kuang gave me important research materials, or helped me to obtain them. Tokumoto Hiroko assisted in the matter of Japanese pronunciation; Lissa Shiao-ling Chen acted as my computer teacher. To all of them I would like to express my deep appreciation. My thanks go also to the staffs of the various libraries where I did most of the research: the Sterling Memorial Library of Yale University, the Faculty of Arts Library of Tokyo University, and both the Main Library and the Asian Library of the University of British Columbia. For the financial aid I received to support my research and writing, I am grateful to the Cultural Foundation of the United Daily News (Taipei), the Council on East Asian Studies of Yale University, the Mrs. Giles viii

Acknowledgments

Whiting Foundation, and the University of British Columbia. Moreover, at Cambridge University Press, Herbert Gilbert, Frank Smith, and Virginia Walsh have facilitated the publication of this work with their kind and prompt assistance. On this occasion of completing my first book, I also wish to acknowledge the help I have received in the general course of my life. Most fundamentally, my parents' interest in the humanities inspired me as a child, and their support for my scholarly pursuits has been strong and sustained. My sister's and brother's affectionate concern for my wellbeing is always an important source of strength for me. Throughout my graduate years and my career as a junior academician, my parents-inlaw and my brother-in-law, Chou Hung-hsien, have been consistently supportive. I must not forget the late Mr. Walter Spruegel and Mrs. Walter Spruegel, either. As my landlord and landlady from 1982 to 1987, they provided my wife and me with a warm and stable American home. To all of them I say thanks with love. Finally, my wholehearted gratitude to Chou Wan-yao, my wife and best friend, for her help, advice, and understanding.

Maps

i

4

Migration of the Hsi-chiian branch of the Ho-tung Liu Clan 41 2 Liu Tsung-yiian's activities in the city of Ch'ang-an 45 3 Western outskirts of Ch'ang-an 46 Liu Tsung-yiian's activities in the adjacent areas of Ch'ang-an 52 5 Western outskirts of Yung-chou 184

Chronology

Former Han Later Han Three Kingdoms Western Chin Era of Disunion North: Sixteen Kingdoms Northern Wei Eastern Wei Western Wei Northern Ch'i Northern Chou South: Eastern Chin [Liu] Sung Southern Ch'i Liang Ch'en

202 B.C.-A.D A.D. 25-220 220-280

265-316 301-439

386-534

534-550

535-556

550-577 557-581 317-420 420-479 479-502 502-557

557-589

Sui

581-618

T'ang

618-907 618-626 627-649 650-683 684-690 690-705 705-709 710-712 712-755 756-761

Emperor Kao-tsu Emperor T'ai-tsung Emperor Kao-tsung Empress Wu [Wu] Chou Empress Wu Emperor Chung-tsung Emperor Jui-tsung Emperor Hsiian-tsung Emperor Su-tsung Emperor Tai-tsung Emperor Te-tsung Emperor Shun-tsung Emperor Hsien-tsung Five Dynasties Northern Sung Southern Sung

762-779

780-804 805 806-820 907-960 960-1127 1127-1279 XI

Abbreviations

CTS CTW CYKWC CYLY HCLC

HTS LTYC LYHC Taisho TCTC TFYK

THY TKSC TLHW TTCC

YTC

Chiu T'ang shu Ch'uan T'ang wen Ch'en Yin-k3o wen-chi Chung-yang yen-chiu-yiian li-shih yu'-yen yen-chiu-so chi-k'an Han Ch'ang-li chi Hsin T'ang shu Liu Tsung-yuan chi Liu Yu-hsi chi Taisho shinshit daizokyo Tzu-chih Vung-chien Ts }e-fu yuan-kuei T'ang hui-yao Tu Kung-pu shih chi T3ang Lu Ho-shu wen-chi T'ang ta chao-ling chi Yuan Tz'u-shan chi

Introduction

In China, the study of the Confucian classics and the discourse on Confucian doctrine have been an uninterrupted tradition; China thus produced no Confucian "renaissance" in the sense of the fourteenth- and fifteenth-century Italian humanist Renaissance. However, this does not mean that Confucianism has always maintained a high degree of intellectual vitality. In premodern China, at the intellectual level, the longest and most profound decline Confucianism suffered occurred during the period from approximately the third to the tenth century, that is, from the disintegration of the Han empire to the start of the Sung dynasty. This was an epoch in which Taoism and Buddhism successively predominated. However, the situation was reversed in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, with the emergence of a tradition commonly referred to as Neo-Confucianism. The Neo-Confucian movement of the Sung (9601279) not only marked a potent Confucian revival, but also established Confucianism as the mainstream of thought in China until the May Fourth Movement of the early twentieth century. Neo-Confucianism, indeed, is one of the few key intellectual breakthroughs in China. This book concerns an intellectual development in the middle of the T'ang dynasty (618-907) that had important bearings upon the origins of this breakthrough. Neo-Confucianism, however, is a vague and controversial term; some clarification about its usage in this book is thus required. Generally speaking, there are three views on this issue. The first equates NeoConfucianism with the so-called Learning of the Way (Tao-hsiieh), that is, the Sung-Yuan-Ming currents of Confucian thought in the areas of metaphysics, theories of human nature, and instructions on moral cultivation.1 A prevailing assumption behind this view is that Tao-hsiieh 1 This is the earliest established and most widely used meaning of Neo-Confucianism. For a recent example of this usage, see Daniel K. Gardner, "Modes of Thinking and Modes of Discourse in the Sung: Some Thoughts on the Yii-lu ("Recorded

Liu Tsung-yuan and intellectual change in T'ang China

was the most original and representative intellectual current in SungMing China. The second is a broader view, according to which NeoConfucianism includes all the Confucian intellectual trends in the Sung and late imperial times that are related to Tao-hsueh in one way or another. Neo-Confucianism with this definition thus can be said to encompass the whole Confucian tradition from the Sung to the end of the Ch'ing. 2 The third view holds that Neo-Confucianism is so ambiguous a notion that it is virtually useless in historical description. It should be replaced with other terms, preferably those actually used historically.3 In this book, "Neo-Confucianism" will be used, and it will designate the Confucian tradition in general from the middle of the Northern Sung throughout late imperial China. In other words, this usage is close to the second view just introduced. The following three points explain my considerations in taking this stance. First, many criticisms of the term "Neo-Confucianism" expressed in recent challenges to its legitimacy are valid. However, despite all its difficulties, "Neo-Confucianism" as a descriptive concept is valuable in at least one way: It can be used to represent a distinctive phase in Chinese intellectual history, the late imperial era during which Confucianism was the mainstream philosophy, and to show that this current of thought was different in some profound ways from older Confucian traditions. One may argue that in this sense "Neo-Confucianism" is too diffuse a rubric, which seems to include Conversations") Texts," The Journal of Asian Studies, 50:3 (August 1991), pp. 574-603, particularly n. 1 on p. 574. In China, the Tao-hsueh tradition is better known as "Learning of Principle" (li-hsueh). But this term did not emerge until the mid-thirteenth century, long after the formation of Tao-hsiieh, and was closely associated with one specific philosophic school (the Ch'eng I-Chu Hsi school). See Wm. Theodore de Bary, "Introduction," in Wm. Theodore de Bary and JaHyun Kim Haboush, eds., The Rise of Neo-Confucianism in Korea (New York, 1985), pp. 14-15; Hoyt Tillman, "A New Direction in Confucian Scholarship: Approaches to Examining the Differences Between Neo-Confucianism and Tao-hsiieh?" Philosophy East and West, 42:4 (forthcoming, October 1992). The most notable advocate of this view is Wm. Theodore de Bary. See his "A Reappraisal of Neo-Confucianism," in Arthur F. Wright, ed., Studies in Chinese Thought (Chicago, 1953), pp. 81 —in; "Introduction," in Wm. Theodore de Bary and JaHyun Kim Haboush, eds., The Rise of Neo-Confucianism in Korea, pp. 4-17. For a view emphasizing the continuity between Ch'ing scholarship and intellectualism and SungMing Confucian philosophy, see Ying-shih Yii, "Some Preliminary Observations on the Rise of Ch'ing Confucian Intellectualism," Tsing Hua Journal of Chinese Studies, N. S., 11:1 and 2 (December 1975), pp. 120-9. Hoyt Tillman argues forcefully for this position in his "A New Direction in Confucian Scholarship." This article and Wm. Theodore de Bary's "Introduction" also contain general discussion about various usages of the term "Neo-Confucianism." For a view similar to that of Hoyt Tillman, see Peter Bol, "This Culture of Ours": Intellectual Transitions in T'ang-Sung China (Stanford, Calif., 1992), chap. 1, sec. 4.

Introduction

any and every one in late imperial China who considered himself a Confucian.4 In the study of intellectual history, however, it is sometimes unavoidable to use one single term to characterize a lengthy period, which is inevitably complex. "The Enlightenment" is an established designation, but it certainly does not imply that all intellectuals in eighteenth-century France were philosophes. My second point is that "Neo-Confucianism" seems an acceptable label for the post-T'ang Confucian tradition. Although Tao-hsiieh was but one of many Confucian intellectual currents in the Sung, the impact of this new type of thought or thinking on other Confucianoriented intellectual activities, education, and popular culture apparently grew with the passage of time. Moreover, it appears to me that NeoConfucianism was new in a more fundamental sense: It was concerned with and tried to answer a set of questions that were previously ignored by the Confucians. Tao-hsiieh was only the most notable product of this larger trend. Third, I would like to emphasize that this book is concerned with the character of the T'ang-Sung intellectual transition and with the origins of the Neo-Confucian tradition; it does not directly deal with Chinese thought in the Sung or later. Therefore, these points are neither an attempt to settle the controversy about the term "NeoConfucianism," nor an expression of my definite views on this issue. I define Neo-Confucianism as the Confucian tradition in the Sung and late imperial times solely for the purpose of using it as a working concept in my treatise. In addition, in this study, Tao-hsiieh will sometimes be referred to as "Neo-Confucian philosophy" or "Neo-Confucian metaphysical and moral philosophy." Sung Neo-Confucianism was not a sudden revolution; it stemmed from a long and complicated intellectual transition. It is a consensus among scholars that the origins of the Neo-Confucian tradition can be traced back, at the earliest, to the mid-eighth century, right at the middle point of the T'ang dynasty, when an interest in searching for the original Confucian spirit and the guidance of Confucian principles began to appear in several areas of intellectual activity. The most critical period for the development of this newly revived Confucianism into a lasting and viable intellectual tradition, it is also generally agreed, came in the first quarter of the ninth century. At that time, almost an entire generation of leading literary men, with varying degrees of devotion and in various ways, endeavored to advance the Confucian cause; its bestknown and most-vocal champion is none other than Han Yii (768-824). 4

For this point, see Hoyt Tillman, "A New Direction in Confucian Scholarship."

3

Liu Tsung-yuan and intellectual change in T'ang China

My book will deal with this critical phase in the T'ang-Sung intellectual transition; specifically, it is an exploration of the thought and sentiments of Liu Tsung-yiian (773-819) and their relationship to the mid-T'ang Confucian revival. Before explaining what this work attempts to achieve and the reasons for my choice of this theme, I would like to make a few comments on our present knowledge about the mid-T'ang Confucian revival. Modern scholarship has extensively examined three main topics concerning the mid-T'ang Confucian revival. The first is the early ku-wen (ancient prose) reform, initiated by a group of prose writers in the middle of the eighth century. The second is an innovative, interpretative form of classical studies, which occurred simultaneously with the early ku-wen movement but was unrelated to it; it was proposed by two thenobscure classicists: Tan Chu (724-70) and Chao K'uang (fl. 770-80). 5 The principal significance of these two movements in intellectual history lies in the fact that they were the very forces inaugurating the mid-T'ang Confucian renewal, and studies on them have given us a clear picture of the initial stage of the Confucian revival. The other issue having received close scholarly attention is the thought of Han Yii and, to a lesser extent, that of Li Ao (774-836), a literary follower of Han and a like-minded thinker.6 This is definitely a subject of cardinal importance. As is well known, Han was the indisputable leader of the mid-T'ang Confucian revival at its apex. But more central to the development of T'ang-Sung Confucianism, he was also a visionary one. Han not only defended and promoted Confucian values vehemently, but also challenged Buddhist and Taoist world views to the core — this proved to be the key motivating factor for the Confucian effort to start forging a new philosophy that could contend with Buddhist and Taoist metaphysics and ideas of spirituality. Li Ao was the most creative and accomplished T'ang thinker in this regard. 5

Since these two movements will be dealt with in much detail later in this book, I shall only give basic bibliographical information here. For some sound discussions on the early ku-wen movement, see Peter Bol, "This Culture of Ours,"" chap. 4; Ch'ien Ghi-po, Han Yii chih (Shanghai, 1957), chap. 1; Hayashida Shinnosuke, "Todai kobun undo no keisei katei," Nippon Chugokugakkai ho, 29 (October 1977), pp. 106-23; David McMullen, "Historical and Literary Theory in the Mid-Eighth Century," in Denis Twitchett and Arthur F. Wright, eds., Perspectives on the T'ang (New Haven, Conn., 1 973)> PP- 33 I ~4 I - Most studies on the scholarship of Tan Chu and Chao K'uang are in Japanese and Chinese. For a basic idea of it, see David McMullen, State and Scholars in T'ang China (Cambridge University Press, 1988), pp. 101-3. 6 The most systematic and comprehensive treatment of Han as a man of letters and ideas is Charles Hartman, Han Yii and the T'ang Search for Unity (Princeton, N. J., 1986). For a thorough examination of Li Ao's thought, see Timothy Hugh Barret, "Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism in the Thought of Li Ao" (Ph.D. dissertation, Yale University, 1978).

Introduction

Despite the contribution of modern studies, however, systematic and reliable knowledge of the mid-T'ang Confucian revival still eludes us. From the point of view of intellectual history, the primary inadequacy in our present understanding of this subject is that it is unbalanced. We know a great deal about a few things and very little about many others, and the few things that we know are not enough to tell the basic story. For example, the insights that the studies on the incipient ku-wen movement and the scholarship of Tan Chu and Chao K'uang can provide on the origins of Neo-Confucianism are quite limited, since the midT'ang Confucian revival did not grow into a major and independent intellectual movement until the early ninth century. Moreover, despite their leading roles in the Confucian movement of the early ninth century, the thought of Han Yii and Li Ao, as this book will show, was not very representative of the contemporary Confucian mentality. In other words, although the ideas of Han and Li more than anything else foreshadowed the Sung Confucian philosophy, they alone are far from being able to reveal the characteristic features of the mid-T'ang Confucian revival. This work represents an effort to explore the character of the midT'ang Confucian revival through a study of Liu Tsung-yiian, another seminal Confucian intellectual figure in the time of Han Yii and Li Ao. Liu and Han together are actually remembered in the East Asian world as the two T'ang ku-wen master stylists.7 I will scrutinize all aspects of Liu's life that are related to the intellectual changes of his time. They include the social and cultural backgrounds of his family, his life and career, particularly his involvement in an abortive political reform, his views on the Confucian doctrine, his relationship with the ku-wen movement and the new canonical scholarship, his social and political criticism, and his sentiments and reflections regarding the private realm of human life. This is not an intellectual biography in the strict sense. My foremost goal is to try to shed more, and hopefully new, light on the mid-T'ang Confucian revival through an appreciation of Liu's life and thought. All issues will be examined in view of their connections to or implications for the nature and evolution of this Confucian revival; matters without direct bearing on this subject, such as Liu's poetic and prose art, will appear only as background when and if they are mentioned. 7 There are numerous studies of Liu Tsung-yiian by literary scholars and, to a lesser extent, by religion and philosophy scholars. But few major studies have been conducted from the viewpoint of intellectual history or the origins of Neo-Confucianism. For a comprehensive bibliography of Liu Tsung-yiian, see William H. Nienhauser, "A Selected Bibliography of Liu Tsung-yiian," Shu-mu chi-k'an, 20:1 (June 1986), pp. 205-43.

Liu Tsung-yiian and intellectual change in T'ang China

Three reasons explain my selection of Liu Tsung-yiian as the focus of this study. First, since our understanding of the mid-T'ang Confucian revival is unbalanced, an in-depth study of another prime leader of this movement at its apogee seems helpful for improving that understanding. Second, Liu's concerns and interests covered nearly all facets of the Confucian revival in question. He is thus an unusually good individual case through which one may gain insight into the wider phenomenon of which it is a part. If "to see a world in a grain of sand" is possible, Liu is a grain of sand worth exploring. Third, Liu's efforts as a Confucian thinker focused primarily on revitalizing Confucianism as a political philosophy, and this was a vision considerably different from that of Han Yii and Li Ao. More important, this book intends to demonstrate that Liu's Confucian ideal was far more representative than that of Han and Li in their own time. That is to say at least in the mid-T'ang, the yearning to rekindle and realize Confucian political ideals was more important as a source for the Confucian movement than was the endeavor to construct a Confucian moral and metaphysical philosophy to rival Buddhist and Taoist teachings. Liu's frame of mind was a traditional one according to which Confucianism governed only the social, behavioral aspects of human existence, whereas the inner, spiritual life was the domain of Buddhism or Taoism. This suggests that in essence the mid-T'ang Confucian revival was not a movement of new Confucianism; rather, it was chiefly a revival of old-fashioned Confucianism, yet in it a new type of Confucianism burgeoned. I believe that this treatise on Liu Tsung-yiian can well illustrate this basic feature of the mid-T'ang Confucian revival and hence add to our understanding of the origins of Neo-Confucianism. Finally, I would like to note that I do not wish to reduce Liu Tsungyiian to merely a constituent of an intellectual movement. Whenever possible, I shall seek to show that Liu was not just living for an intellectual cause; in fact, quite often, his responses to concrete social and personal situations gave life to a resurgent intellectual tradition.

1 Literati and thought in the early and middle T'ang Liu Tsung-yiian was born in the eighth year of the Ta-li era of Emperor Tai-tsung of the T'ang dynasty, most of which fell within the year A.D. 773. The year itself was not one of major historical significance, but the period around Liu's birth saw the most drastic changes and the most serious turmoil T'ang China had ever experienced. The catalyst of these changes was the An Lu-shan rebellion, which broke out in 755 and ended in 763. After this rebellion China became a politically divided land. The military and political forces supporting An Lu-shan and his followers continued to rule the northeastern provinces, where the rebellion had originated.1 Many regional military commanders in the rest of China who had gained power during the courts effort to put down the rebellion, on the other hand, started asserting semiindependent status. These two combined factors greatly weakened the central government and resulted in almost incessant military revolts or threats of revolt.2 On the social level, the rebellion dealt a grave blow to the prestigious Shan-tung aristocracy, whose principal base, the Lo-yang area, was destroyed,3 accelerating the overall decline of the aristocratic 1 The northeast (known as Ho-pei in the T'ang) was also culturally alienated from the mainstream of Chinese society. See Ch'en Yin-k'o, T'ang-tai cheng-chih shih shu-lun kao, Ch'en Yin-k'o wen-chi (Shanghai, 1980-2; hereafter abbreviated as CYKWC) 5, pp. 25-8; Edwin G. Pulleyblank, The Background of the Rebellion of An Lu-shan (London, 1955), pp. 75-8i. 2 For a survey of T'ang military regionalism after the An Lu-shan rebellion, see C. A. Peterson, "Court and Province in Mid- and Late T'ang," in Denis Twitchett, ed., The Cambridge History of China, vol. 3, part 1, Sui and T'ang China, 589-906 (Cambridge University Press, 1979), pp. 464-560; Edwin G. Pulleyblank, "The An Lu-shan Rebellion and the Origins of Chronic Militarism in Late T'ang China," in John Curtis Perry and Bardwell C. Smith, eds., Essays on T'ang Society (Leiden, 1976), pp. 49-59. The separatist challenges to the T'ang also contributed to the eunuchs' ascendancy at court, because emperors grew distrustful of the regular military and bureaucratic apparatus. 3 The famous mid-T'ang financial minister Liu Yen (715-80) gave a vivid report about the ravaging of this area in a letter to Yuan Tsai (d. 777), then the most powerful prime

Liu Tsung-yuan and intellectual change in T'ang China

class, a process that changed the fabric of Chinese society forever. In addition, the devastation of the north by continuous fighting complemented the rise of the southeast as the national economic center, and this marked a fundamental shift in China's economic and social geography. As one of the foremost writers and thinkers of his time, Liu Tsungyuan participated in another vital change: the far-reaching Confucian revival movement, which first sprang up in the 740s and 750s and eventually led to the emergence of Neo-Confucianism in the Northern Sung. As a young intellectual and official in the metropolitan area in the late eighth century, Liu came under the influence of this movement in its initial stage, and later played a leading role at its apogee in the early ninth century. In order to appreciate fully the implications of Liu's state of mind and intellectual endeavors and those of his comrades, as this book sets out to do, it is necessary to describe first the main features of literati culture and intellectual trends in the early and middle T'ang.

Intellectual classes The characteristic social structure of the Era of Disunion and of the Sui period, in which the aristocracy dominated the top levels of the political system and, more important, enjoyed deep-rooted social esteem, survived to the early and middle T'ang. In modern historiography, "Chinese medieval aristocracy" refers to the social group composed of the families and clans that for generations had occupied prominent social and political positions, in most cases from the early fourth century on. These families and clans were known during the T'ang as "old clans" (chiu-tsu), "noble clans" (kuei-tsu), "scholar clans" (shih-tsu), or "illustrious clans" (ming-tsu).4 In the early and middle T'ang, it is probable that the majority of notable intellectuals came from this aristocratic class, which generally valued education and culture.5 minister. See Liu Hsu et al., Chiu T'ang shu (Peking, Chung-hua shu-chii edition, 1975; hereafter abbreviated as CTS), 123:3512-13. 4 For those terms, see Utsunomiya Seikichi, "Todai kijin ni tsuite no ichi kosatsu," in his Chugoku kodai chuseishi kenkyu (Tokyo, 1977), pp. 632-6; Ch'en Yin-k'o, T'ang-tai chengchih, p. 78; Imabori Seiji, "Todai shizoku no seikaku sobyo," Rekishigaku kenkyu, 9:11 (December 1939), p. 67. For a perceptive description of the main features of medieval aristocracy, see Patricia Buckley Ebrey, The Aristocratic Families of Early Imperial China (Cambridge University Press, 1978), pp. 2-33. 5 According to the estimate of Mao Han-kuang, 71 % of the total chin-shih degree holders during this era were from aristocratic families. We should also bear in mind that the chin-shih examination was a major channel through which the literati of lower origins acquired high social and political status. Thus, even allowing for a certain degree of error in Mao's estimate, it is still safe to make the statement footnoted here. For Mao's

8

Literati and thought in the early and middle T'ang

Yet the T'ang aristocracy was far from a homogeneous entity. According to the theory of Liu Fang (fl. ca. 740-65), a mid-T'ang historian and genealogist, there were four regionally based aristocratic groups, each with its separate historical roots in the pre-Sui period of political division between north and south.6 The most powerful and prestigious of the four was the Shan-tung (East of the Mountains) aristocracy. This group comprised a number of great clans that had originated in the North China Plain, particularly in modern Hopei and Honan, 7 and had stayed in the north during the pre-Sui period of nonChinese rule to lead the native Chinese effort in coping with the alien regimes. During the Era of Disunion, generally speaking, these clans did not have connections with the military and political bloc that founded the Sui and T'ang dynasties, the "Kuan-Lung group," whose power base was in the Wei River area (in modern Shensi).8 Consequently, in the early T'ang, not only did the Shan-tung aristocracy hold little share of political power, but its undisputed social prestige incurred the hostility and repression of the imperial house. In 659, for example, intending to curb this group's pretensions and influence, Emperor Kaotsung prohibited intermarriage among members of ten, mostly Shantung, aristocratic lineages, though this only added to their self-conceit estimate, see his "T'ang-tai t'ung-chih chieh-ts'eng she-hui pien-tung" (Ph.D. dissertation, National Cheng-chih University, 1968), pp. 259-60. 6 See Denis Twitchett, "The Composition of the T'ang Ruling Class: New Evidence from Tunhuang," in Arthur F. Wright and Denis Twitchett, eds., Perspectives on the T'ang, pp. 5 0 - 1 . Liu's original essay on this theory appeared in Ou-yang Hsiu et al., Hsin T'ang shu (Peking, Chung-hua shu-chii edition, 1975; hereafter abbreviated as HTS), 199:5676—80. See also Ch'tian T'ang wen (rpt. Taipei, 1965; hereafter abbreviated as CTW), 372:7a-nb. This is a thesis widely cited by scholars with approval. 7 In his "The Composition of the T'ang Ruling Class," p. 50, Denis Twitchett identifies Shan-tung as modern Hopei. It is true that, in T'ang texts, as a geographical concept Shan-tung often means "East of Mt. T'ai-hang" and thus corresponds roughly to present-day Hopei. However, in connection with social grouping, Shan-tung actually stood for a much larger area. For example, both the T'ai-yiian Wang clan and the Ying-yang Cheng clan appeared in Liu Fang's list of the Shan-tung aristocracy (HTS, 199:5677). Yet T'ai-yiian is in modern central Shansi and Ying-yang in modern Honan. The reason for this discrepancy is that the designation of Shan-tung as the entire North China Plain plus most of modern Shansi Province was an old notion arising in the Warring States era (403-221 B.C.) and prevalent in the Han, and the T'ang people continued to use it when referring to Shan-tung aristocrats. For detailed discussions of this problem, see Chang Jung-fang, "Shih-lun T'ang-tai te Shan-tung yii Kuan-tung," Shih-huoyueh-k'an, 13:1-2 (May 1983), pp. 45-57; Hsing I-t'ien, "Shih-shih Han-tai te Kuan-tung Kuan-hsi yii Shan-tung Shan-hsi," in his Ch'in-Han-shih lun-kao (Taipei, 1987), pp. 85-120. For a generally accurate explanation of "Shan-tung" as it is used in the term "Shan-tung aristocracy," see also Howard J. Wechsler, "Factionalism in Early T'ang Government," in Arthur Wright and Denis Twitchett, eds., Perspectives on the T'ang, p. 89. 8 For the definition of "Kuan-Lung group," see Ch'en Yin-k'o, T'ang-tai ch'eng-chih, pp. 12-19. For details, see also chap. 2, sec. 1.

Liu Tsung-yiian and intellectual change in T'ang China

and to their adoration by society.9 Nevertheless, over time, especially after the reign of Empress Wu (684-704), they also became an important part of the ruling circle.10 Prior to the An Lu-shan rebellion, members of the most distinguished Shan-tung families, such as the Po-ling Ts'uis and the Chao-chiin Lis, were already concentrated in the national political and cultural centers, that is, the areas of Lo-yang and, to a far lesser extent, Ch'ang-an. 11 The second aristocratic group, which shared many common traits with the Shan-tung aristocracy, was the Kuan-chung group. It included illustrious clans that had originated in the Ho-tung (modern southern Shansi) and the Kuan-chung (modern Shensi, particularly the Wei River valley) regions, and they, like the Shan-tung aristocrats, stayed in the north during the era of north-south division. Though powerful locally and highly cultured, these clans had never acquired nationwide prominence. Yet their political fortune changed when the Northern Wei (ruled by the Hsien-pi people) split into two kingdoms in 534 and a group of its military and political leaders established the However, it should also be pointed out that the pressure from the central government did have some effect on the behavior of these families. At least for a short time after the court's ban on their intermarriage, they continued the practice but in a secret manner. See Liu Su, Sui-T'ang chia-hua (Shanghai, 1957), p. 19. For a concise description of the political and social status of the Shan-tung aristocracy in the T'ang, see Ho Ch'i-min, "T'ang-ch'ao Shan-tung shih-tsu te she-hui ti-wei chih k'ao-ch'a," in his Chung-ku men-ti lun-chi (Taipei, 1978), pp. 287-311. According to Mao Han-kuang's statistics regarding the social background of T'ang officials, the Shan-tung aristocrats had already entered the government in large numbers at the beginning of the T'ang. (See his "T'ang-tai t'ung-chih chieh-ts'eng," pp. 147-51.) But this conflicts with descriptive information in historical texts. See Ch'en Yin-k'o, T'ang-tai cheng-chih, 77-8; idem, "Chi T'ang-tai chih Li-Wu-Wei-Yang hun-yin chi-t'uan," CYKWC 2, pp. 234-40; even Mao's own "Chung-ku Shan-tung ta-tsu chu-fang chih yen-chiu: T'ang-tai chin-hun-chia yii hsing-tsu-p'u," Chung-yang yen-chiu-yuan li-shih yu-yen yen-chiu-so chi-k'an (hereafter abbreviated as CYLY), 54:3 (1983), pp. 22-39. The central problem with Mao's statistics, and the statistical approach in the study of ancient history in general, is that he did not, and due to the lack of materials was probably unable to, examine the individual cases of supposed Shan-tung aristocrats serving the early T'ang regime. Like other major illustrious medieval clans, the Shan-tung aristocratic clans were all huge ones; wide disparities existed in social status between various branches and families within a clan. Many Shan-tungese working for the early T'ang government were perhaps only nominal members of the Shan-tung aristocracy. This was certainly the case with the ancestors of a brother-in-law of Liu Tsung-yiian. See Jo-shui Chen, "The Ho-tung Liu Clan and the Family of Liu Tsung-yiian: Some Facts and Interpretations" (unpublished manuscript). For a more convincing discussion of this topic, see Patricia Ebrey, Aristocratic Families, p. 112.

This trend started perhaps in the late fifth and early sixth centuries, but accelerated during the T'ang. See Patricia Ebrey, Aristocratic Families, pp. 28, 91-3; Mao Hankuang, "Ts'ung shih-tsu chi-kuan ch'ien-i k'an T'ang-tai shih-tsu chih chung-yanghua," CYLY, 52:3 (1981), pp. 499-504. 10

Literati and thought in the early and middle T'ang

Western Wei (later succeeded by the Northern Chou) in the Kuanchung and Lung-hsi areas. The native Kuan-chung elite joined this regime. After the Northern Chou leaders conquered the whole of China and founded, in succession, the Sui and T'ang empires, the political importance of the Kuan-chung Chinese aristocrats increased drastically. This appears also to have improved their social standing.12 The third aristocratic group was the southern aristocracy. It was composed of two subgroups: emigre families from the north and eminent native families. The emigre families were those clans that had moved to the south from the north when the so-called Five Barbarian Groups overthrew the Western Chin dynasty in 311. These emigre families were the most prominent and respected aristocratic clans in China at that time. After migrating to the south and helping to establish the Eastern Chin, their power and prestige actually surpassed those of the imperial house. The eminent native families also gained political power and the recognition of the emigre aristocracy through representing the interest of the southerners in resisting the northerners' domination. During the sixth century, however, amid military rebellions and political turmoil, the political power of the southern aristocracy sharply diminished. After the conquest of the south by the Sui, the southern aristocrats were apparently unable to rival the great northern clans in social prestige. Nevertheless, it appears that aristocratic southern families continued to be treated by society, and continued to regard themselves, as distinguished families, until the dissolution of the aristocracy as a whole at the end of the T'ang. 13 The last aristocratic group had a peculiar feature; it was made up of families of alien origin. The members of this group were the descendants of the ruling-class clans of the northern neighboring peoples who had 12

Probably due to its relative obscurity within the ranks of medieval aristocracy, there are no comprehensive studies on the Kuan-chung aristocracy. For works on individual clans, see Takeda Ryuji, "Monbatsu to shite Kono Yoshi ni tsuite no ichi kosatsu," Shigaku, 31 (1958), pp. 613-43; Yano Chikara, "Haishi kenkyu," Shakai kagaku ronso, 14 (1965), pp. 17-48; idem, "Ishi kenkyu," Shakai kagaku ronso, 11 (1961), pp. 49-64 and 12 (1962), pp. 26—42. There is also a new study dealing with Ho-tung aristocratic families before the Sui. See Mao Han-kuang, "Chin-Sui chih-chi te Ho-tung ti-ch'ii yii H o - t u n g ta-tsu," in Chung-yangyen-chiu-yuan ti-erh-chieh kuo-chi Han-hsiieh hui-i lun-wen-chi

(Taipei, 1989), pp. 579-612. 13 For a thorough study of the southern aristocracy in the pre-Sui period, see Wang I-t'ung, Wu-ch'ao men-ti, 2 vols. (rpt. Hong Kong, 1978). For the social and political status of leading southern aristocratic clans during the T'ang, one may consult Mao Han-kuang, "Wo-kuo chung-ku ta-shih-tsu chih ke-an yen-chiu: Lang-yeh Wangshih," CYLY, 37:2 (1967), pp. 581-3, 607-9; Josephine Chiu-Duke, "The Wu chu'n Lu Clan as an Example of Bureaucratization in the T'ang," B. C. Asian Review, 3/4 (1990), pp. 106-49. For bibliographic information on this subject, see Chiu-Duke's article, p. 107, n. 1. 11

Liu Tsung-yiian and intellectual change in T'ang China

infiltrated into China proper after the close of the Later Han and had ruled north China from the beginning of the fourth century to the late sixth century. Yet this group lacked self-identity, and its social prestige bore no comparison to that of the native aristocracy. In fact, most such families, including the imperial clan of the T'ang, whose maternal ancestry was non-Chinese, established themselves mainly by military skills. Some of these families, nevertheless, did indeed develop into socially respected clans, particularly those of Hsiung-nu and Hsien-pi descent. One example was the Fang clan that settled in Lo-yang; it produced Fang Kuan (697-763), a famous intellectual leader who served as a prime minister during the Su-tsung reign (756-61 ). 14 The grand poet Yuan Chen (779-831), a contemporary of Liu Tsung-yiian, was a descendant of the Hsien-pi imperial clan.15 During the early and middle T'ang, intellectuals of nonaristocratic background were gradually becoming visible on the national scene. Since these people came from any part of society other than the "old clans," they did not constitute a discrete class or social group. It seems that the majority of intellectuals in this category belonged to locally prominent families, many of which had a long history of official service.16 Ch'en Tzu-ang (662-702) and Chang Chiu-ling (673-740), both eminent writers, came from this type of family.17 In the T'ang, certain families of lower social origins also had grown into nationally well-known new "scholar clans," principally by means of the newly developed civil

14 For some basic information about Fang Kuan and the Fang clan, see CTS, 111:33204 and HTS, 71b: 2399-400, 139:4625-8. In HTS, 71b: 2399, it is reported, apparently according to the Fang clan's own genealogies, that the forefathers of this family were originally from China. But this is clearly a false claim, made to conceal its "barbarian" roots. See Yao Wei-yuan, Pei-ch'ao hu-hsing k'ao (Peking, 1958), pp. 157-8. 15 For a sound genealogical study of the T'ang families of alien origins, see Su Ch'ingpin, Liang-Han ch'i Wu-tai ju-chii Chung-kuo chih fan-jen shih-tsu yen-chiu: Liang-Han chih

Wu-tai fan-hsing-lu (Hong Kong, 1967), pp. 355-595. It should be noted that the above description of the T'ang aristocracy is only a general characterization. The real situation was much more complicated, for medieval China had a complicated history. The family of Liu Tsung-yiian, for instance, belonged to the Kuan-chung aristocracy, but it had resided in the south for a while. See chap. 2, sec. 1. 16 In his perceptive "The Composition of the T'ang Ruling Class," Denis Twitchett points out that this type of family also was a major component of the T'ang ruling class. See pp. 76-9. 17 For Ch'en's case, see Ogawa Tamaki, ed., Todai no shijin: sono denki (Tokyo, 1975), pp. 108, 117; for Chang's case, see P. A. Herbert, Under the Brilliant Emperor: Imperial Authority in T'ang China as Seen in the Writings of Chang Chiu-ling (Canberra, 1978), p p .

14-16; Yang Ch'eng-tsu, Chang Chiu-ling nien-p'u fu-lun wu-chung (Taipei, 1964), pp. 1-4. 12

Literati and thought in the early and middle T'ang

service examination system.18 Yet officialdom was not the sole passage through which intellectuals of nonaristocratic origins achieved social esteem; a good many Buddhist monks and Taoist priests apparently came from the lower classes. However, it seems that few prominent intellectuals ascended directly from the peasantry. 19 Because of their divergent backgrounds, the intellectuals from lower social strata clearly did not share a common cultural character. As to the "illustrious clans," they differed not only in regional basis, but also in cultural and intellectual tendencies. Nonetheless, this situation can be understood only in the context of the general intellectual atmosphere during the early and middle T'ang. Intellectual atmosphere There is no question that Buddhism was the leading intellectual current in the early and middle T'ang - actually, throughout the T'ang. The rise of Buddhism certainly did not begin in the T'ang; it had developed into the predominant religion in China by the mid-fourth century at the latest, remaining so for a long time to come. In an edict issued in 637, Emperor T'ai-tsung (reigned 627-49), who was often anti-Buddhist,20 testified to this situation: The worship and belief [of Buddhism] . . . initially sprang up in ordinary families and neighborhoods, but werefinallyin vogue at court. . . . As a consequence, this doctrine of foreign culture grew into the most favored of all wonderful theories, while, to the contrary, the teachings of China fell behind the Buddhist vehicle. It has already been many generations since people began to go astray and forgot to return.21 In the early ninth century, when the mid-T'ang Confucian revival was reaching its height, Shen Ya-chih (fl. ca. 810-30), a disciple of Han Yii, was still able to make the following observation: Since Buddhism was first practiced in China, there have been almost as many of our countrymen studying its tenets as there have been Confucians. . . . In the 18 Cf. Ch'en Yin-k'o, T'ang-tai cheng-chih, pp. 79-80; Mao Han-kuang, "T'ang-tai t'ungchih chieh-ts'eng," pp. 112-16. 19 Systematic studies of T'ang literati of nonaristocratic background are virtually nonexistent. For an analysis of the T'ang political elite of nonaristocratic origins, see Mao Han-kuan, "T'ang-tai t'ung-chih chieh-ts'eng," pp. 47-106. 20 For Emperor T'ai-tsung's attitude and policies toward Buddhism, see Stanley Weinstein, Buddhism under the T'ang (Cambridge University Press, 1987), pp. 11-27. 21 Tao-hsiian, ed., Chi ku-chin Fo-Tao lun-heng, chuan 3, in Taisho shinshu daizokyo (Tokyo, 1924-34; hereafter abbreviated as Taisho), vol. 52, p. 382, cited in T'ang Yung-t'ung, Sui-T'ang Fo-chiao shih kao (Peking, 1982), p. 16. Unless otherwise noted, all translations in this book are mine. l

3

Liu Tsung-yuan and intellectual change in T'ang China

present time, however, the Confucian Way has somewhat decayed and already cannot match Buddhism. 22

Buddhism, we should stress, was more than a religious faith popular among both the literati and the populace; it also contributed highly original philosophical ideas and abundant scholarship. The early T'ang saw the emergence of three principal Buddhist schools: the Fa-hsiang (or Consciousness-only), the Hua-yen, and the Ch'an (Zen). In addition, the T'ien-t'ai school, founded during the Sui, continued to be active in the T'ang, actually enjoying a philosophical renewal during the eighth century. Historically speaking, the Ch'an was clearly the most important of all these schools. It was, in particular, its southern sects that revolutionized Chinese Buddhist doctrine and culture in many ways, and, by the middle of the eighth century, Southern Ch'an had also become more prevalent than any other school. 23 Furthermore, Buddhist intellectual energy and creativity was manifested in the scholarship achieved. In the area of translation, Hsiian-tsang (604-64) alone rendered seventy-four sutras into Chinese from Sanskrit, and I-ching (635-713) translated another fifty-six.24 The influence of a teaching as vigorous and as popular as Buddhism can hardly be overestimated. Whereas numerous intellectuals without strong religious affiliations assented to, in varying degrees, Buddhist worldviews, those rejecting Buddhism categorically were a rarity. 25

22 23

Shen Ya-chih, Shen Hsia-hsien wen-chi (Ssu-pu ts'ung-k'an edition), p. 48. One may argue that the teaching of Pure Land (ching-t'u) was more popular than Ch'an. But it is highly questionable whether or not the Pure Land teaching could be considered a school, since it was a common element in many schools. For this point, see T'ang Yung-t'ung, Sui-T'ang Fo-chiao, p. 223. See also Mochizuki Shinko, Chugoku jodo kyori shi (Kyoto, 1942), pp. 127-328. 24 For a concise description of the T'ang Buddhist scholarship, see T'ang Yung-t'ung, Sui-T'ang Fo-chiao, pp. 18-22, 65-104. 25 For the attitude of T'ang secular intellectuals toward Buddhism, see Fujiyoshi Masumi, "Todai bunjin no shukyokan," Rekishi kyoiku, 7:3 (July 1969), pp. 28-35; T'ang Yung-t'ung, Sui-T'ang Fo-chiao, pp. 31-40; Tsuda Sokichi, "Toshi ni arawarete iru Bukkyo to Dokyo," Toyo shiso kenkyu, 4 (May 1950), pp. 3-24. It should be mentioned that most T'ang Buddhist opponents based their criticism on the socioeconomic consequences of Buddhist predominance, as they saw them, rather than on challenges to Buddhist doctrine. Also, fervent attacks on Buddhism usually came from religious Taoists, chiefly because Taoism and Buddhism were competing for the authority in the same, namely religious, dimension of human life. For the BuddhistTaoist conflicts in the T'ang, one may consult Ch'ing Hsi-t'ai, Chung-kuo Tao-chiao ssu-hsiang shih kang, vol. 2 (Chengtu, 1985), pp. 761-822; Kubota Ryoon, Chugoku Ju Do Butsu koshoshi (rpt. Tokyo, 1977), pp. 299-386; Tokiwa Daijo, Shina ni okeru Bukkyo to Jukyo Dokyo (second edition, Tokyo, 1966), pp. 630-52. The most noted figure in this category was Fu I. See Arthur F. Wright, "Fu I and the Rejection of Buddhism," Journal of the History of Ideas, 12 (1951), pp. 33 - 47. 14

Literati and thought in the early and middle T'ang

However, it is crucial for understanding T'ang culture to point out that few, if any, T'ang minds were not affected by the Buddhist presence. Aside from Buddhism, Taoism, both as a Lebensanschauung and as a religion, also figured prominently in the T'ang cultural and intellectual world. It is quite clear that, in T'ang times, the strength of this tradition did not lie in formal philosophical inquiry; such practices were infrequent and appear to have been inconsequential.26 Taoism as a worldview appealed to T'ang intellectuals in a different way: It provided them with a basic ideal of philosophical Taoism of pre-Ch'in and early medieval China, the quest for individual spiritual serenity and freedom.27 This was a yearning still deeply cherished by numerous T'ang literati. These people believed that, beyond the sphere of human civilization and everyday obligations, or, as they sometimes phrased it, "the net of mortal life" {ch'en-wang),28 there existed a realm of the natural that transcended the relativity of worldly values and could engender true mental peace. The Taoist sensitivity of T'ang intellectuals is vividly manifested in a poem written by Wei Ying-wu (736?—91?), a leading mid-T'ang poet. This verse records Wei's feelings at a banquet with some local literati, held in the government complex of Su-chou (in modern Kiangsu) where he was the prefect:29 26

For lists of Taoist scholarly and philosophical works, see HTS, 59:1517-18; CTS, 47:2027-9. The majority of these writings are commentaries on the Taoist classics such as the Lao Tzu and the Chuang Tzu, and the best-known author in this category was a Taoist clergyman named Ch'eng Hsiian-ying (fl. ca. 630-55). It was common in the T'ang for adherents of religious Taoism to use the texts of the Lao Tzu and the Chuang Tzu to support their religious ideas. This was a particularly notable feature of the so-called school of Double Mysteries (ch'ung-hsuan). For a basic idea of this "school," see Sunayama Minoru, "Dokyo Jugenha hyobi: Zui shoto ni okeru Dokyo no ichi keifu," Shukan Toyogaku, 43 (1980), pp. 31-44. The best-known Taoist philosophical work of this dynasty is perhaps Wu-neng Tzu (The Master Who Is Capable of Nothing, by an anonymous author, completed in 887 according to the preface). 27 This ideal figured differently in classical Taoism and Neo-Taoism of the third and fourth centuries A.D. While classical Taoism cannot be completely defined along the lines of the search for spiritual liberation and transcendence, Neo-Taoism may be. Between the two principal Taoist classics, it is evident that the Chuang Tzu concerns itself mainly with the spirituality of individuals, whereas messages in the Lao Tzu seem more complicated and practical. For some general discussions about classical Taoism, see A. C. Graham, Disputers of the Tao (La Salle, 111., 1989), pp. 170-235; Benjamin I. Schwartz, The World of Thought in Ancient China (Cambridge, Mass., 1985), chap. 6. 28 For this term referred to by T'ang literati in the context of praising Taoist values, see Tsuda Sokichi, "Toshi ni arawarete iru Bukkyo to Dokyo," p. 25. 29 Stephen Owen, The Great Age of Chinese Poetry: The High T'ang (New Haven, Conn., 1981), p. 309, with minor changes. In his book, Owen also noted that "return," "return to what is basic and natural" from "the artificial world," was a theme often appearing in High T'ang (roughly the eighth century) poems. See pp. 41-6, 79, 262-3.

Liu Tsung-yuan and intellectual change in T'ang China

The guards, a dark mass of painted pikes; In our feast chamber, a clear scent hangs in the air. Then, from over the sea, the wind and rain arrive, And I feel free and easy in the cool of the pond-side tower. A troublesome malady recently melted away, And fine guests once again fill my hall. I'm ashamed that I dwell so loftily, That I cannot observe my people's welfare. When principle is grasped, dilemmas are put aside; When one's nature is fulfilled, act and form are forgotten. Though fresh meat is forbidden by season, Fruits and vegetables can fortunately be enjoyed. One moment I drink a cup of wine, The next moment hear compositions, gold and jade. The spirit rejoices, the body feels light, The imagination ready to soar over winds.

The opening lines of this poem depict the delicate and pleasant atmosphere at the banquet. Then a sense of guilt arises in Wei's mind; he feels he may have had too comfortable a life and neglected a prefect's duty to "observe" the people's well-being. This feeling, however, quickly gives way to a reflection on the higher goal of existence: to grasp "principle" and fulfill "one's nature." In such a life, worldly values are transcended, and "dilemmas," like that caused by the present concern for the people, are "put aside." With this realization, he becomes so relieved that "the spirit rejoices, the body feels light." What Wei describes in this poem, without question, is a physical presence as an official and a heart yearning and searching for Taoist fulfillment and enlightenment. It is the Taoist principle that gives life true joy and wisdom. As a religion, Taoism thrived and enjoyed a large following during the T'ang. Yet it is also clear that the prestige and popularity of Taoism could not compare to that of Buddhism, and the religion contributed little to original philosophical thought - it often simply appropriated Buddhist concepts wholesale for its own use.30 Religious Taoism appealed 30

For a court official's comment on the status of religious Taoism, see CTS, 127:3580. It should be noted that the T'ang imperial house frequently promoted the Taoist religion, partly because the supposed founder of Taoism, Lao Tzu (allegedly named Li Erh), shared the ruling family's name: Li. For a description of the relationship between the Taoist religion and the T'ang emperors, see Kubo Noritada, Dokyoshi (Tokyo, 1977), pp. 219-36. For a general survey of T'ang religious Taoism, see Sunayama Minoru, "Dokyo to Zui-T6 no rekishi shakai," in Akizuki Kanei, ed., Dokyo kenkyu no susume (Tokyo, 1986), pp. 8-37. For a detailed study on the T'ang Taoist appropriation of Buddhist doctrine, see Kamata Shigeo, Chugoku Bukkyo shisoshi kenkyu (Tokyo, 1968), pp. 9-256. 16

Literati and thought in the early and middle T'ang

to the T'ang Chinese primarily for two things it offered: protection and salvation by Taoist gods, and a road to immortality, or at least to longevity.31 The latter was particularly attractive to intellectuals and many of them pursued it strenuously. The teaching about immortality not only gave hope for a pain-free and lasting physical existence, but also provided a remarkably concrete vision of an extramundane life. "With elixirs, the body is ever healthy/Without calculation, one's mind is naturally tranquil" - this epitomizes the T'ang image of an accomplished Taoist. 32 During the first half of the T'ang era, Confucianism was the least vibrant of the three major intellectual traditions, but far from extinct. In the early T'ang, Confucian classical scholarship, the center of the Confucian intellectual movement since the second century B.C., was still productive. Under the auspices of the T'ai-tsung and Kao-tsung (reigned 650-83) governments, eminent classicists, led by K'ung Ying-ta (574-648), jointly compiled and authored the Wu-ching cheng-i (The True Meaning of the Five Classics), which became the standard canonical textbooks for Chinese educational and examination systems, and indeed the most authoritative and widely used commentaries on Confucian classics, for nearly four centuries to come. Private scholarship also persisted, though it did not flourish.33 However, while the Confucian canon continued to be a principal curriculum in early T'ang education, as it was throughout imperial China, scholarly classical studies were confined to only a small circle of specialists, many of whom apparently belonged to aristocratic families.34 Although these scholars as individuals were by and large esteemed members of the society, their academic endeavors were usually met with indifference from the educated public. In the opening paragraph of the collective biography of classical scholars, the authors of the Old T'ang History (Chiu T'ang shu, completed in 945) characterized the T'ang 31 32

See Sunayama Minoru, "Dokyo to Zui-T6 no rekishi shakai," pp. 16-20. This is a couplet in a poem written by Hsu Hun (fl. 830S-50S). Although Hsu is a late T'ang figure, these two lines no doubt reflect the general view of T'ang intellectuals on Taoism. For the poem, see Chiang Ts'ung-p'ing, Hsu Hun shih chiao-chu (Taipei, 1973), p. 197. For some further discussions of the issue of immortality among T'ang intellectuals, see chap. 5, sec. 2 and 3. 33 For the main features and evolution of early T'ang classical scholarship, see David McMullen, State and Scholars in T'ang China, pp. 67-94; P i Hsi-jui, annotated by Chou Yii-t'ung, Ching-hsueh li-shi (Shanghai, 1934), pp. 197-208. 34 There is no study on the social background of the early and middle T'ang classicists. This impression is drawn from my reading of the classicists' biographies in the Old T'ang History {Chiu T'ang shu) and the New T'ang History (Hsin T'ang shu). See CTS,

9-57, 189^4959-75; HTS, 198:5635-58, 199:5659-70317

Liu Tsung-yuan and intellectual change in T'ang China

intellectual climate as "valuing literature and slighting Confucianism" (chung-wen ch'ing-ju),35 It is an essentially accurate statement, particularly for the period before the An Lu-shan rebellion. More important, canonical scholarship in the early T'ang was an intellectual backwater. It neither brought into being refreshing Confucian ideas, nor was guided by any epistemological or philosophical vision. Confucian classicists at that time were mainly philologists or experts in specific subjects related to the Confucian canon. Their undertaking, simply put, represented a continuation of the canonical-studies tradition of the preceding Era of Disunion, a tradition known for its emphasis on expounding old commentaries and its concerns with ritual problems in aristocratic life.36 Besides classical scholarship, other Confucian-oriented academic activities, such as history and ritual study, also eschewed developing new intellectual outlooks.37 It seems fair to say that, prior to the middle of the eighth century, Confucian scholarship was alive and well, but not inspiring. During that period of time, no individual could legitimately be referred to as a Confucian thinker. Confucianism fared much better as a system of values governing conduct; it remained a crucial ideological pillar of the Chinese social and cultural order. The literati at large still believed that serving society and improving the welfare and morality of the populace were among their most important duties. Even the often self-centered and strongly Taoistminded poet Li Po (701-62) once wrote that he "wishe[d] to bring wisdom and skills into full play, longing to become the emperor's prime minister, and to bring great order to all of the territory, and to clear and unify the land within the seas." 38 The fundamental basis of Confucian 35

CTS, i8ga:4939. In the genre of "standard history" (cheng-shih) to which CTS belongs, "JM" (usually translated as "Confucian" or "Confucianism") conventionally refers to Confucian canonical scholarship. This is a tradition originating in the "Ju-lin chuarC (the "Biographies of the Confucian Scholars") of Ssu-ma Ch'ien's (b. 145 B.C.?) Records of the Grand Historian (Shih chi) and Pan Ku's (32-92) Han History {Han shu). See Burton Watson, tr., Records of the Grand Historian of China Translated from the Shih Chi of Ssu-ma Ch'ien, vol. 2 (New York, 1961), pp. 395-412; Pan Ku, Han shu (Peking, Chung-hua shu-chii edition, 1962), 88:3589-621. 36 Cf. Ma Tsung-huo, Chung-kuo ching-hsueh shih (rpt. Taipei, 1966), chaps. 6 and 7; Su Shao-hsing, "Liang-Chin Nan-ch'ao Lang-yeh Wang-shih chih ching-hsueh," in his Liang-Chin Nan-ch'ao te shih-tsu (Taipei, 1987), pp. 230-40. 37 David McMullen's State and Scholars in T'ang China is a comprehensive treatment of T'ang Confucian-oriented intellectual undertakings. For this subject, see also Lii Ssu-mien, Sui T'ang Wu-tai shih, vol. 2 (Peking, 1961), pp. 1260-375. 38 Li Po, Li T'ai-pai wen-chi chi-chu (1758 edition), 36:14a. For aspects of the famous Taoist-oriented poets Li Po and Wang Wei (699-759) as aspirants for public service, see Ch'en I-hsin, "Wang Wei te cheng-chih sheng-huo ho t'a te ssu-hsiang," in his T'ang-shih lun-ts'ung (Changsha, 1980), pp. 116-25; idem, "T'ang-tai mo-hsieh chihshih fen-tzu yin-i ch'iu-hsien te cheng-chih mu-ti: chien-lun Li Pai te cheng-chih li-hsiang ho ts'ung-cheng t'u-ching," ibid., pp. 155-80. 18

Literati and thought in the early and middle T'ang

values in the early and middle T'ang, however, was family life. Values such as filial piety and brotherliness were not only unquestioned, but also universally glorified.39 An exceedingly symbolic sign of the strength of Confucianism in this regard is that, throughout the T'ang, the members of the Buddhist Sangha, who according to Indian tradition considered themselves to be beyond the authority of secular norms, faced tremendous social and political pressure to pay reverence to their 4-0

parents. Another salient feature of early T'ang Confucianism is that, in terms of social support, it had a clear regional and class foundation. The most resolute Confucian followers during the T'ang were northern aristocrats, who were best known for their classical education and for their seriousness about ritual and their strict observance of established rites and norms in family life. They particularly took pride in their high standards of behavior, which society regarded as the distinctive emblem of this cultured group. This was especially true of the Shan-tung aristocrats.41 In fact, Confucianism was cherished by the northern society as a whole. For example, during Emperor T'ai-tsung's reign, a number of high officials and official historians, all of northern origins but not necessarily with illustrious family backgrounds, such as Wei Cheng (580-643), Li Pai-yao (565-648), and Ling-hu Te-fen (583-666), launched fervent attacks based on Confucian-inspired views of literary didacticism and utilitarianism against the ornamental and "effeminate" literature that flourished mainly in the south.42 The southern aristocracy, on the other hand, was more intensely interested in literary writing and Buddhism. 39 The medieval Confucian emphasis on family life started in the third century. See Yii Ying-shih, "Han-Chin chih-chi shih chih hsin-tzu-chueh yii hsin-ssu-ch'ao," in his Chung-kuo chih-shih chieh-ts'eng shih lun (Taipei, 1980), pp. 324-27. 40 After a period of fervent debate, in 662, Emperor Kao-tsung issued an edict declaring that the Buddhist clergy should prostrate themselves before parents to pay homage to them. See Stanley Weinstein, Buddhism under the T'ang, pp. 14-15, 32-4; Kenneth K. S. Ch'en, The Chinese Transformation of Buddhism (Princeton, N.J., 1973), pp. 78-81. The court also attempted to compel clergymen to do obeisance before the throne, but they succeeded in resisting this request during the entirety of the T'ang. It seems that society gave the Buddhist community greater pressure to reverence parents. See Kenneth Ch'en, The Chinese Transformation, pp. 14-60. Liu Tsung-yiian, though fond of Buddhism, also insisted that Buddhists should fulfill their ethical obligations in this world. See chap. 8, sec. 3. 41 For the T'ang northern, especially Shan-tung, aristocratic culture, see Ho Ch'i-min, "T'ang-ch'ao Shan-tung shih-tsu," pp. 297-300; Utsunomiya Seikichi, "Todai kijin," pp. 645-8; Imabori Seiji, "Todai shizoku no seikaku sobyo," Rekishigaku kenkyu, 10:2 (February 1940), pp. 165-79. 42 See Mou Jun-sun, "T'ang-tai nan-pei hsiieh-jen lun-hsiieh chih i-ch'ii yii yinghsiang,"

Hsiang-kang

chung-wen

ta-hsu'eh chung-kuo wen-hua yen-chiu-so

(September 1968), pp. 50-88. l

9

hsueh-pao, 1

Liu Tsung-yuan and intellectual change in T'ang China

Yet the native segments of this group, culturally speaking, seem relatively more conservative - and thus more Confucian.43 In summary, during the early and middle T'ang, Confucianism was still a viable and even powerful cultural force, but not an invigorating intellectual tradition. Although classical studies continued and Confucian values were honored, there was not much critical thinking within the Confucian camp. We might refer to Confucianism at that time as an "ideology" instead of a "philosophy." Indeed, the survival of Confucianism as a system of ideas probably had more to do with the persisting strength of the social and family order, which Confucianism had come to support and justify, than with any intellectual effort on the part of the Confucian faithful. Our picture of the early T'ang intellectual scene, however, will be utterly incomplete and even misleading if confined to a mere examination of Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism as separate traditions. In order to appreciate the true nature of the T'ang intellectual world during the pre-An Lu-shan rebellion era, we must take into consideration two additional factors. First, the most prestigious activity in the secular sector of T'ang high culture, as is well-known, was literary writing, especially the composition of poetry. The status of belles lettres can best be exemplified by the unrivaled prominence in the T'ang civil service recruitment system of the chin-shih examination, which emphasized elegant composition in both prose and poetry, and by the profound respect chin-shih graduates received from the entire society.44 Literary writing and Buddhist think43

During the time of northern and southern division prior to the Sui, southern Buddhism was known for its doctrinal studies and philosophical development and it prevailed in the upper classes. In the north, on the other hand, this religion enjoyed more popular support. See E. Ziircher, The Buddhist Conquest of China: The Spread and Adaptation of Buddhism in Early Medieval China (Leiden, 1972), pp. 4-9; T'ang Yungt'ung, Han-Wei Hang-Chin Nan-pei-ch'ao Fo-chiao shih (rpt. Taipei, 1982), pp. 428-36, 487-545. For an insightful discussion of the conservative character of native southern literati in early medieval China, see T'ang Ch'ang-ju, "Tu Pao-p'u-tzu t'ui-lun nan-pei hsiieh-feng te i-t'ung," in his Wei-Chin Nan-pei-ch'ao shih lun-ts'ung (Peking, 1955), pp. 351-81. See also Lin Li-hsueh, Pao-p'u tzu nei-wai p'ien ssu-hsiang hsi-lun (Taipei, 1980), pp. 149-53; Yii Ying-shih, "Ming-chiao wei-chi yii Wei-Chin shihfeng te yen-pien," in his chih-shih chieh-ts'eng, p. 366. In addition, among early T'ang classicists, there were many native southerners. This appears to show that a strong tradition of canonical scholarship existed in this social bloc. Cf. HTS, 198:5635-58,

44

Chin-shih had been the leading civil service examination since the second half of the seventh century, during the reign of Emperor Kao-tsung. For some sound studies of the T'ang chin-shih examination and chin-shih degree holders, see Suzuki Torao, "To no shinshi," Shinagaku, 4:3 (October 1927), pp. 29-51; Takeda Ryuji, "Todai senkyo no ichi sokumen," Shigaku, 20:1 (November 1941), pp. 15-52. For an outstanding 20

Literati and thought in the early and middle T'ang

ing, indeed, were the two most creative and influential forces in the intellectual arena not only in the early T'ang but also throughout the dynasty. Consequently, dominant intellectual figures in the T'ang came mostly from these two camps. 45 The supremacy of literature in the T'ang secular intellectual community indicated the important fact that ideological or philosophical issues were not the primary concerns of its members; this was particularly the case before the burgeoning of the Confucian revival in the mid-eighth century. Second, although philosophical thinking played no significant role in the early T'ang nonreligious intellectual world, secular literati then did indeed share a common basic intellectual outlook. This was a view that considered Confucianism as dealing only with the external, socialbehavioral, and this-worldly aspects of human life, whereas Taoism and Buddhism took charge of its internal, spiritual, and transcendental aspects. We may term this view as "Taoism within and Confucianism without" (for those with Taoist bent) or "Buddhism within and Confucianism without" (for those with Buddhist bent). "Taoism (or Buddhism) within and Confucianism without," in fact, had been a universal intellectual premise in China since the third and fourth centuries, when Taoism and Buddhism firmly achieved their predominance in the intellectual arena. One early product of this mind-set is Ko Hung's (283-363) famous Pao-p'u tzu {The Master Who Embraces Simplicity), the first part of which, entitled "Inner Chapters" (Nei-p'ien), advocated religious Taoist beliefs and ideas, and the second part of which, titled "Outer Chapters" (Wai-p'ien), promoted a Confucian vision of family and social life.46 This dichotomy remained a fundamental comprehensive treatment of the relationships between the chin-shih examination and literary writing in the T'ang, see Fu Hsiian-tsung, T'ang-tai k'e-chuyu wen-hsileh (Sian, 1986). For descriptions of the situation by T'ang people themselves, see Feng Yen, Feng-shih wen-chien chi chiao-chu, ed. by Chao Chen-hsin (rpt. Taipei, 1962), pp. 13-16; Wang Tang, T'ang yu-lin (Shanghai, 1957), pp. 275-7. There are some further explanations about the chin-shih examination culture in this book, in chap. 2, sec. 4, in the context of discussing Liu Tsung-yiian's early life. 45 Cf. Denis Twitchett and Arthur Wright, "Introduction," in Denis Twitchett and Arthur F. Wright, eds., Perspectives on the T'ang, pp. 18-20, 37-8. 46 Cf. J a y Sailey, The Master Who Embraces Simplicity: A Study of the Philosopher Ko Hung, A.D. 283-363 (San Francisco, 1978), ix, pp. 316-46, 387-464. It should be noted that, since the rise of Neo-Taoist philosophy at the close of the Han era, there were serious conflicts between Neo-Taoism and Confucian family and political ethics, a phenomenon commonly known in Chinese intellectual history as "naturalness," or "spontaneity," (tzu-jan) versus "teaching of names" (ming-chiao). This conflict had largely disappeared in the north after the collapse of the Western Chin in 316, although it continued in the south. Yet after the fourth century, this confrontation also gradually dissipated in the south, with Confucianism being recognized as the guiding principle governing individual behavior and interpersonal relationships as Confucian ritual and legal theories absorbed some Neo-Taoist elements. See Ying-shih Yii, 21

Liu Tsung-yuan and intellectual change in T'ang China

character of the Chinese mind at least until the end of the eighth century, when it began to face challenges from a few participants in the Confucian revival movement. Moreover, the status of Confucianism and Taoism/Buddhism were not equal in the framework in question. Evidently for the majority of medieval intellectuals, the spiritual world was more fundamentally important than the practical and social one in terms of the perfection of human life. According to a fourth-century thinker, Sun Ch'o (320-77), whereas the latter was "appearances" (chi), the former was "what makes appearances appearances" (so-i chi).47 Ko Hung, despite his passionate defense of Confucian morals and behavioral mores, also made it clear that he regarded the Taoist teaching as the "essential" (ben) and the Confucian teaching as a "nonessential" (mo).48 These views expressed by the Sun Ch'os and Ko Hungs continued to be representative of the early T'ang mind. The authority of Buddhism or Taoism in the sphere of spirituality and the limited role of Confucianism were recognized even by those closely associated with the Confucian intellectual tradition and those critical of Taoism and Buddhism. For example, Wang Chi (585-644), a younger brother of the legendary Sui Confucian teacher and propagator Wang T'ung (584?-6i7), 49 once said that, despite his family background, he for some time did not bother to read Confucian classics, since he was not to become an official at court. "If one does not wish to cross the Yangtze River and the Han River, why does one need a ship? Without thinking about [flying over] the sky, why does one need wings?" - so argued Wang. 50 In his criticism of the favorable treatment of Buddhism by the government of Emperor Chung-

47

48

49

50

"Individualism and the Neo-Taoist Movement in Wei-Chin China," in Donald Munro, ed., Individualism and Holism: Studies in Confucian and Taoist Values (Ann Arbor, Mich., 1985), pp. 141-3. Sun Ch'o, "Yii Tao lun," in Sen Yu, Hung-ming chi, chu'an 3, in Taisho, vol. 52, p. 17, cited in Yoshikawa Tadao, "Rikucho shidaifu no seishin seikatsu," in his Rikucho seishinshi kenkyu (Kyoto, 1983), p. 19. Yoshikawa's article (pp. 3-42) is an excellent study of the general character of medieval Chinese thought. For this subject, see also Nakajima Ryuzo, Rikucho shiso no kenkyu: shidaifu to Bukkyo shiso (Kyoto, 1985), pp. 3-23See Wang Ming, ed., Pao-p'u tzu nei-p'ien chiao-shih (Peking, 1985), chap. 10. An English translation of this chapter is in James R. Ware, Alchemy, Medicine, Religion in the China of A.D. 320: The Nei P'ien of Ko Hung (Pao-p'u tzu) (Cambridge, Mass., 1966), chap. 10. There have been many controversies and doubts about Wang's life, teaching and career. Yet there is no question that he was an actual historical personality and a lone passionate Confucian advocate in his time. For a comprehensive and careful treatment of this issue, see Howard Wechsler, "The Confucian Teacher Wang T'ung (584?617): One Thousand Years of Controversy," T'oung pao, LXIII (1977), pp. 225-72. Wang Chi, Wang Wu-kung chi (Ts'ung-shu chi-ch'eng ch'u-pien edition), p. 79. 22

Literati and thought in the early and middle T'ang

tsung (reigned 705-9), Yuan Ch'u-k'e, a minor official, also took pains to affirm the legitimacy of Buddhism in the following fashion: The three teachings [i.e., Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism] are all established [because] each has what it is respectively responsible for and needs to accomplish. They should not overstep [their respective roles]. Practicing Buddhism is the foundation of cultivating the self, while practicing Confucianism the source of putting the state in good order. Cultivating the self is the ground on which [better] future incarnations rely; putting the state in good order is the responsibility for the present time.51 The following paragraph seems to demonstrate even more accurately the cultural Zeitgeist of China in the early T'ang. This is a statement made by Wang Wei (699-759), o n e °f t n e m o s t outstanding T'ang poetic artists, in a letter to a hermit: A gentleman will be contented if he can spread humanity, putting into practice righteousness, saving the country, and benefiting the people. Yet even if his way cannot be carried out, he still does not wish to be discontented. If one can separate one's body from one's mind and attend to both principles and affairs, then one will be always contented wherever one goes.52 Surely, "body" and "affairs" here are the metaphors of this world, whereas "mind" and "principles" those of an otherworld. When an official's Confucian self was frustrated, it was an appropriate time to seek another self. He did not even have to resign his position, for body and mind could be separated. Aside from secular intellectuals, Buddhist and Taoist clergymen also, in general, took "Taoism (or Buddhism) within and Confucianism without" as the truthful characterization of the cultural positions of the three teachings. Certainly, it comes as no surprise that they tended to emphasize strongly the superiority of the Buddhist or Taoist life over the earthly, Confucian one. 53 51

CTW, 176: n b - 1 2 a . For the scanty biographical information concerning Yuan, see HTS, 22:475, 122:4345, 132:4526; Hsu Sung, Teng-k'o-chi k'ao (Nan-ching shu-yuan edition of 1888; rpt. Taipei, 1972), 5:17b; Lao Ke and Chao Yueh, T'ang Yii-shih-t'ai ching-she t'i-ming k'ao (Yueh-ho ching-she ts'ung-ch'ao edition, rpt. Taipei, 1972), 3:16b. 52 Wang Wei, Wang Yu-ch'eng chi chien-chu (Ssu-pu pei-yao edition), 18:9b. 53 For some Buddhists' comments in relation to the notion of "Buddhism within and Confucianism without," see Tao-hsiian, ed., Kuang hung-ming chi, in Taisho, vol. 52, pp. 97, 174, 221; Yen-tsung, ed., Chi sha-men pu-ying pai-su teng shih, in Taisho, vol. 52, p. 465, the notes in which Yen-tsung criticized the memorials arguing that members of the Buddhist Sangha should pay reverence to the emperor and their parents. For a Taoist's comments in this regard, see Kuo Ch'ing-fan, Chuang Tzu chi-shih (Hsin-pien chu-tzu chi-ch'eng edition, rpt. Taipei, 1978), pp. 121, 123, 462-3, the annotations of Ch'eng Hsiian-ying. In the materials just referred to, sometimes there appears the view that the Taoist political philosophy of "non-action" was the best way of 23

Liu Tsung-yuan and intellectual change in T'ang China

Since the view of "Taoism (or Buddhism) within and Confucianism without" was shared by virtually the entire early T'ang intellectual elite, it is a crucial element for understanding the basic character of the Chinese mind during that period. This mode of thought indicates, then, that for these intellectuals, Confucianism was not in any serious way in conflict with Buddhism and Taoism; rather, they compensated each other. One was frequently a Confucian and a Buddhist or Taoist simultaneously. It is even quite imaginable that one was a Confucian, Buddhist and Taoist all at once, though as ideologies and religions, Taoism and Buddhism often clashed.54 Nevertheless, in general conception, Confucianism and Taoism/Buddhism were not equal partners; whereas Buddhism and Taoism were usually, in Paul Tillich's term, the "ultimate concern" of individuals, Confucianism emerged often as a means of governing the state and maintaining the established social and family order, not as an end in itself. For the purpose of this book, the importance of "Taoism (or Buddhism) within and Confucianism without" lies in the fact that it is only against this background that the implications of the mid-T'ang Confucian revival in general and the thought of Liu Tsungyuan in particular can be fully appreciated.

Intellectual changes after the 750s It is irrefutable that, in the middle of the eighth century - about the time of the calamitous An Lu-shan rebellion - an intellectual change of farreaching significance loomed in the community of secular literati. This development, in short, was the renewal of Confucianism as a body of ideas and values with strongly living relevance, and it marked the inception of the mid-T'ang Confucian revival. Three groups of intellecgovernance. Yet ideas of this sort apparently did not gain much currency during the early T'ang. 54 It is worth noting that "Taoism (or Buddhism) within and Confucianism without" was by no means a unique medieval Chinese phenomenon. "Buddhism within and Confucianism without" was also the typical mentality in early and middle Koryo dynasty Korea (ca. the ioth-i3th centuries). At that time, according to Ki-baik Lee, "Koryo Confucians by no means completely rejected Buddhism; instead, regarding it as the doctrine for achieving spiritual tranquility and otherworldly salvation, they felt that it could exist side by side with Confucianism." See Ki-baik Lee, A New History of Korea, tr. by Edward W. Wagner with Edward J. Shultz (Cambridge, Mass., 1984), p. 130. See also Yi Pyong-do, Han-kuo shih ta-kuan (Han'guk sa taeguan), Chinese translation by Ho Wu-song (Taipei, 1961), p. 187. The reason for the situation in Korea is essentially that Buddhism and traditional Confucianism were already deeprooted in Korean thought, but Neo-Confucian moral and metaphysical philosophy had yet to be accepted in Korea. This seems to suggest that, with similar major constituents, similar general intellectual atmospheres could develop in the different areas in the East Asian world.

24

Literati and thought in the early and middle T'ang

tuals championed this change. The first comprised poets who expressed Confucian sentiments in their works, and had two notable representatives: Tu Fu (712 — 70), the greatest poet of China in the eyes of many, and Yuan Chieh (719-72). Tu's Confucian mentality is well-known and conspicuous.55 Whereas other eminent poets of his generation and earlier, such as Wang Wei, Meng Hao-jan (689?-740), and Li Po, were primarily concerned with the self in their art as well as in their life, Tu's mind was frequently on society and the people. His social observation and criticism gave birth to some of his most memorable lines, such as: "Behind Vermilion Gate, the reek of meat and wine / Over streets where lie the bones of the frozen dead." 56 Actually, Tu consciously identified himself with Confucian ideals. Two couplets of his read: He was simpleminded enough to pledge himself to the goals In his secret heart comparing himself to Chi and Hsieh.57 Hope to help my sovereign to succeed better even than Yao and Shun, To restore the purity of culture and civilization.58 The "he" in the former couplet refers to Tu Fu himself; Yao and Shun and Chi and Hsieh were legendary ancient sage-kings and their ministers who brought about peace and well-being to their people, and who were praised by Confucians. In his impoverished and fatigued old age, Tu's self-image was still "one Ju-ju between the Heaven above and the Earth below." 59 Fu-ju means "broken-down man of learning" - but also "stubborn Confucian." Yuan Chieh's Confucian sentiments were, if anything, more overt. He wrote many poems passionately describing popular suffering and denouncing the government's misrule, particularly in the aftermath of the An Lu-shan rebellion - and winning Tu Fu's praise.60 Yuan went so far as to characterize his writings as moralistic literature. He stated in the preface to his own collected works: "My purpose has always been to 55 See A. R. Davis, Tu Fu (New York, 1971), pp. 80, 100-1, and this section below. 56 Tu Fu, Tu Kung-pu shih chi (Shanghai, Ssu-pu pei-yao edition; hereafter abbreviated as TKSC), 1:14a, as translated in Stephen Owen, The Great Age of Chinese Poetry, p. 196, with a minor change according to William Hung's translation in his Tu Fu: China's Greatest Poet, vol. 1 (Cambridge, Mass., 1952), p. 88. For a detailed discussion of the themes of compassion for popular suffering in Tu's poetry, see Shan Chou, "Tu Fu's Social Conscience: Compassion and Topicality in His Poetry," Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 51:1 (June 1991), 5-53. 57 TKSC, 1:13b, adapted from Stephen Owen, The Great Age of Chinese Poetry, p. 195; William Hung, Tu Fu, vol. 1, p. 87. 58 TKSC, 1:1a, as translated in William Hung, Tu Fu, vol. 1, p. 56, with minor changes. 59 TKSC, 15:13a, following Stephen Owen, The Great Age of Chinese Poetry, p. 215. 60 See Stephen Owen, The Great Age of Chinese Poetry, pp. 225-38; TKSC, 7:11b-12a. 25

Liu Tsung-yuan and intellectual change in T'ang China

encourage loyalty and filial piety, to induce charity and compassion, to urge fairness and uprightness, and to lead people to preserve integrity and accept their lot in life."61 Yuan launched a poetic movement to promote Confucian literary principles, which, as Yuan understood, required the written word to deliver moral messages and to reflect hardship in society. In 760, he compiled a poetic anthology entitled The Satchel Anthology (Ch'ieh-chung chi), and this booklet (containing only twenty-two poems!) aimed to make known several contemporary obscure poets who, according to Confucian literary standards as Yuan saw them, wrote poems worthier than those held in popular esteem.62 Despite the fact that both Tu Fu and Yuan Chieh achieved high regard in the history of Chinese literature, neither their literary works nor their thought gained significant influence in their own time. In mid-eighthcentury China, the most powerful impetus advocating Confucian values and ideas perhaps came from a number of active literary men who formed a loosely knit group. They were, most notably, Hsiao Ying-shih {lll-b9)> L i H u a (715-66), Chia Chih (718-68), and Tu-ku Chi (725"77)- 63 Three facets of the intellectual tendencies of the Hsiao Ying-shih group deserve mention here. First, despite being renowned primarily for their writing skills, the members of this group showed great interest in Confucian classics. Yet they paid no heed to established commentaries, rejecting conventional philological or textual approaches, and having no intention of becoming classicists in any sense. For them, the Confucian classics were the source of wisdom and the measure of right and wrong in a living, practical sense. They held that one should grasp the whole and fundamental meaning of the Confucian canon through exercising one's own judgments. 64 61

Yuan Chieh, Yuan Tz'u-shan chi, edited by Sun Wang (Shanghai, i960; hereafter abbreviated as YTC), p. 155, as translated in David McMullen, "Historical and Literary Theory in the Mid-Eighth Century," p. 340, with minor changes. 62 For Yiian's literary ideas, see David McMullen, "Historical and Literary Theory," PP- 336-7> 34-063 There are differing opinions about Hsiao's date. Here I follow Lo Tsung-ch'iang's dating, which I consider correct. See his Sui-T'ang Wu-tai wen-hsueh ssu-hsiang shih (Shanghai, 1986), p. 271. The best collection of biographical materials on the members of this group is in Ch'ien Chi-po, Han Yu chih, pp. 5-26. For the interconnecting relations among them, see Hayashida Shinnosuke, "Todai kobun undo no keisei katei," pp. 109-16; David McMullen, "Historical and Literary Theory," pp. 308-20. It should also be noted that Yuan Chieh seems to be close to some members of this group. 64 See Sun Ch'ang-wu, "Han Liu i-ch'ien te 'ku-wen' lun," Wen-hsueh p'ing-lun ts'ung-k'an, 16 (October 1982), pp. 280-82. 26

Literati and thought in the early and middle T'ang

Second, they stressed that Confucian values, especially those concerning social and political order, were not merely ideals on paper, but rather that they should be put into practice. Hsiao Ying-shih, apparently the foremost leader of this faction, gave an unequivocal manifesto of the two attitudes described above in the following statement: Learning does not mean quoting arguments and theories, collecting essays and words, and using them to arouse topics of conversation and to squeeze in and out the implications of diction. In terms of insightful understanding, that approach is really low and shallow. What a scholar should engage in is observing grand principles and rules, and fertilizing virtue and righteousness.65 It appears that the Hsiao group began to display their Confucian orientation around 750, shortly before the An Lu-shan rebellion.66 Nevertheless, it is clear that the rebellion and its disastrous consequences greatly intensified their Confucian consciousness. Chia Chih, for instance, vehemently attributed the rebellion to moral degeneration, suggesting that rededication to Confucian ethical values could help bring the country back to orderliness. He stated: If the way of ancient sage-kings wanes, the way of mean men naturally grows. When the way of mean men grows, rebellious ministers and disobedient sons accordingly emerge. The phenomenon of ministers killing their sovereigns and sons killing their fathers did not arise overnight. It resulted from a gradual tendency. What does "a gradual tendency" mean? [It refers to the situation in which] the virtues of loyalty and faithfulness decline, the customary sense of shame gets lost, nonessential intellectual activities prevail, and the Confucian Way fails to flourish. . . . Intellectuals are most crucial to the cultivation of good culture. [Yet] in recent times, they only liked to pursue office. . . . In consequence, when An Lu-shan arose, all the four seas shook; once Shih Ssuming [An's partner] launched another revolt, ten years were not enough [for our society] to restore itself. If the Way of propriety and modesty had prospered and humane and righteous customs had reigned, in every neighborhood [we would have found people] to be honored as loyal subjects and filial sons. [If so,] treasonable actions would not have sprung up and people would not have been moved [by the An rebellion].67 Last but not least, the Hsiao Ying-shih group was best known, both to contemporaries and scholars of the later ages, for initiating prose reform. This reform contained two basic theses. With regard to the substance of 65 66 67

Ch'uan T'ang shih (Chung-hua shu-chii edition, i960), vol. 5, p. 1594. See Tu-ku Chi, "Chien-chiao Shang-shu Li-pu yiian-wai-lang Chao-chun Li-kung chung-chi hsii," in Tu-ku Chi, Pi-ling chi (Ssu-pu ts'ung-k'an ch'u-pien edition), p. 82. CTW, 368:1b-2a. It seems that Li Hua's Confucian conviction also became much firmer after the rebellion. See Liu San-fou, "Ri Ka no shiso to bungaku," Chugoku bungaku ronshu, 4 (May 1974), pp. 66-70. 27

Liu Tsung-yuan and intellectual change in T'ang China

literary works, they asserted that writing should aim to explicate the Confucian Way or the principles implied in Confucian classics. In other words, literature should serve moral purposes. With regard to the form of literary works, they attacked the ornate and antithetical prose style that had dominated for over five hundred years - parallel prose (pHenwen).68 They held that this popular "modern" style for prose writing was a product of literary technicalism, and, in order to achieve the didactic goal of literature, it needed to be changed.69 These people, in short, were the founders of the T'ang ku-wen movement, which reached its apex in the early ninth century and gave rise to many masterpieces in the art of prose, though they themselves failed to develop an alternative writing style.70 It should be emphasized here that the Hsiao Ying-shih group did not launch an independent Confucian intellectual movement. What they did mainly was to promote Confucian ideals in the context of discussing the raison d'etre of literature and the principles of writing. Consequently, due to the prominence of this group, the early mid-T'ang Confucian revival was almost completely identified with the ku-wen movement. Finally, a momentous development occurred in the realm of specialized studies of the Confucian canon. Tan Chu (724—70), together with Chao K'uang (fl. 770-80), pioneered a redirection in this area of scholarship. Tan was an expert in the Spring and Autumn Annals (Ch'un-ch'iu). From 761 to 770, he worked on a major project of annotating this classic. After Tan's death, his works were revised and enlarged by Chao K'uang, who had an in-depth discussion with Tan on the Annals in the last year of his life. Two vital innovations appeared in their works.71 First, respecting textual exposition, in contrast to old tradition, Tan and Chao refused to adhere to the authority of only one of the three established exegeses of the Spring and Autumn Annals: the Tso Commentaries (Tso chuan), the Kung68

For the essential features of the p'ien-wen style, see James R. Hightower, "Some Characteristics of Parallel Prose," in Soren Egerod and Else Glahn, eds., Studia Serica Bernhard Karlgren Dedicata (Copenhagen, 1959), pp. 60-91. 69 There are many studies about the literary thought of this group. See David McMullen, "Historical and Literary Theory," pp. 331-41; Lo Ken-tse, Sui-T'ang wen-hsiieh p'i-p'ing shih (Shanghai, 1947), pp. 111-16; Liu San-fou, "Ri Ka no shiso to bungaku," pp. 62-71; idem, "Dokko Kyu no bungaku ni tsuite," Chugoku bungaku ronshu, 5 (March 1976), pp. 15-22. The best study of Hsiao Ying-shih's life and ideas is in Hiraoka Takeo, Keisho no dento (Tokyo, 1951), pp. 92-139. 70 For a worthy study of the formation of the T'ang ku-wen movement, see Hayashida Shinnosuke, "Todai kobun undo," pp. 106-23. 71 Tan did not finish his works in the final form. After his death, his disciple Lu Ch'un and his son Tan I collected his works and sent them to Chao K'uang for modification. See HTS, 200:5706. These works are still extant.

28

Literati and thought in the early and middle T'ang

yang Commentaries (Kung-yang chuan), and the Ku-liang Commentaries (Ku-

liang chuan). In presenting their understanding of the text of the Annals, they freely chose explanations from all three exegeses and other scholarly sources; sometimes they offered their own new ideas.72 The real target of canonical study, for Tan and Chao, was the classics themselves rather than the existing interpretations of the classics. Second, Tan and Chao asserted that the ultimate purpose of canonical scholarship was to detect the sages' underlying principles. They charged that the three authoritative commentaries on the Spring and Autumn Annals all contained mistakes in their explications of these precepts. It is clear that, in their view, the study of Confucian classics was a means whereby one might comprehend the sages' messages rather than an end in itself. A genuine inquirer into Confucian ideas thus had to liberate himself from textual scholarship.73 In addition, their choice of the Spring and Autumn Annals as the principal subject of their scholarly endeavor also revealed that they were interested in Confucian doctrines primarily as guiding principles for social and political actions, since this classic was supposedly written by Confucius to pass his moral judgments on political events of the Spring and Autumn era. Tan Chu and Chao K'uang had been active mostly in the lower Yangtze River area. It seems that their circle was unknown to their contemporaries in national cultural centers like Ch'ang-an and Lo-yang. It was probably their follower Lu Ch'un (737-805) who introduced their theories and works to the national cultural elite around the 780s.74 The cause of the resurgence of Confucian consciousness in the middle of the eighth century appears somewhat complicated. Yet, as explained earlier, the most critical factor was apparently the profound social and political crises created and exposed by the An Lu-shan rebellion. Many works expressing Confucian sentiments by Tu Fu and Yuan Chieh, for example, were direct responses to this event and its consequences. Tan 72

See Lu Ch'un, ed., Ch'un-ch'iu chi-chuan tsuan-li (Ku-ching-chieh hui-han edition), i:ia-i6b.

73 There are many studies on Tan Chu's and Chao K'uang's classical scholarship and their views regarding Confucian principles. For the most important points about this topic, see Chang Ch'un, "Tan Chao Lu san-chia Ch'un-ch'iu chih shuo," Ch'ien Mu hsien-sheng pa-shih-sui chi-nien lun-wen-chi (Hong Kong, 1974), pp. 149-54; Inaba Ichiro, "Chu To ni okeru shinjugaku undo no ichi kosatsu: Ryu Chiki no keisho hihan to Tan-Cho-Riku shi no Shunjugaku," in Chugoku chuseishi kenkyukai, ed., Chugoku chuseishi kenkyu (Tokyo, 1970), pp. 390-96; David McMullen, State and Scholars in T'ang China, pp. 101-3. 74 See Chang Ch'un, "Tan Chao Lu," pp. 149-150. For further developments of the new classical scholarship initiated by Tan and Chao and Liu Tsung-yiian's relationships to it, see chap. 2, sec. 4 and chap. 6, sec. 2.

29

Liu Tsung-yuan and intellectual change in T'ang China

Chu and Chao K'uang also seem to have commenced their project after the rebellion.75 The Confucian revival in question, particularly in its connections to the ku-wen movement, clearly also had roots in another literary development, the ongoing poetic reform that had originated earlier in the T'ang. Both traditional and modern scholars generally credit Ch'en Tzu-ang (661-702) with the inauguration of this movement; he and his supporters attacked the aestheticist poetry of the Six Dynasties and the early T'ang and called for a return to the more realistic style exemplified by the Book of Poetry (Shih ching) and the works of the Han era. This movement exerted a particularly profound influence on the prose reform of the Hsiao Ying-shih group. 76 In addition, the impetus for the midT'ang Confucian revival might be attributable to a long-term social development: the mixing of northern and southern cultures after the unification of the Sui and the T'ang. For instance, most members of the Hsiao group were literary men of northern origins, whereas its leader Hsiao Ying-shih was a southerner who had grown up in the north. 77 Perhaps we could construe the new fashion of Confucian thought of the Hsiao group as, to a degree, a product of the interactions between the somber northern Confucian culture and the freer southern literary culture. 78 Almost all of the aforementioned intellectuals taking part in the early Confucian revival died before 780.79 From 780 to the end of the eighth century, this movement persisted, yet it did not really expand. In the literary arena, the prose reform favoring a return to antiquity apparently came to center stage. Liang Su (753-93) was the prime leader of the second generation of the ku-wen writers and theorists.80 In the field of Confucian canonical scholarship, Tan Chu's disciple Lu Ch'un went to 75 76

77 78

79 80

For information about when Tan Chu and Chao K'uang commenced their project, see CTW, 352:25b, 618:4a. This theory was proposed by Ch'ien Mu. See his "Tsa-lun T'ang-tai ku-wen yiintung," in Ch'ien Mu, Chung-kuo hsueh-shu ssu-hsiang shih lun-ts'ung, vol. 4 (Taipei, 1978), pp. 16-19. For important evidence supporting this thesis, see Li Hua, CTW, 315:8b. Yet I would like to point out a difference between these two movements. While both promoted realistic literature, the inceptive ku-wen movement led by the Hsiao group had a much clearer ideological, that is, Confucian, orientation. For Hsiao's early life, see Hiraoka Takeo, Keisho no dento, pp. 112-16, 121. Certainly, this point is only a hypothesis that needs to be tested by empirical studies on the family and social background of the participants of the mid-T'ang Confucian revival. There are not yet systematic studies on the interactions between various culturally divergent elite groups during the T'ang. Ch'en Yin-k'o mentioned this problem once, but did not go further. See his T'ang-tai cheng-chih, pp. 86-7. The only exception was Chao K'uang, whose date we do not have. For the life of Liang Su, see Kanda Kiichiro, "Ryo Shuku nempu," in Toho gakkai soritsu nijugo shunen kinen tohogaku ronshu (Tokyo, 1972), pp. 259-74.

30

Literati and thought in the early and middle T'ang

the capital. Ch'ang-an, where he met other like-minded classicists, Shih Shih-kai (734-802) for one.81 A breakthrough took place around the turn of the ninth century, however. A new generation of intellectuals, particularly men of letters, transformed the Confucian revival from primarily an attachment to the growing ku-wen movement and the new style of classical studies into an intellectual movement in its own right. These intellectuals began to reflect on and examine the Confucian doctrine per se, and it is safe to say that they were the first Confucian thinkers during the T'ang. It was in their hands that a lively Confucian intellectual tradition was reborn after almost five centuries of stagnation. This paved the way for the return of Confucianism as the main current of thought in China and for the emergence of a new type of Confucianism in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Liu Tsung-yiian was one of the cardinal leaders at the apogee of the mid-T'ang Confucian revival, and we are about to enter his world. 81

See Lii Ssu-mien, Sui-T'ang Wu-tai shih, vol. 2, pp. 1297-300.

31

2 Liu Tsung-yiian and the circumstances of Ch'ang-an We do not know where Liu Tsung-yuan was born, but it is certain that he spent most of his youth in Ch'ang-an and its neighboring areas.1 During the last fourteen years of his life, when he served in southwestern frontier provinces as a banished official, in his heart and in his poems Ch'ang-an was the "hometown" to which he dreamed of returning.2 Having been back only once for a short recall, he died in Liu-chou (in present Kwangsi) in 819 at the age of forty-six. His family members and friends, however, buried him in Ch'ang-an. 3 Without question, by virtue

Some major studies on Liu Tsung-yiian claim that Ch'ang-an was Liu's birthplace, but evidence supporting this assertion is lacking. For such works, see William H. Nienhauser, Jr., et al., Liu Tsung-yiian (New York, 1973), p. 27; Sun Ch'ang-wu, Liu Tsung-yiian chuan lun (Peking, 1982), pp. 1, 8; Wu Wen-chih, Liu Tsung-yiian p'ing-chuan (Peking, 1962), p. 16. Nienhauser and Wu even go so far as to determine the exact area of Ch'ang-an where Liu was born, though with different conclusions. For more careful discussions of this problem, see Chang Shih-chao, Liu-wen chih-yao (Peking, 1971), vol. 3, p. 355; Shih Tzu-yii, Liu Tsung-yiian nien-p'u (Wuhan, 1958), p. 7. Although Liu once wrote, "I have lived in the capital for thirty-three years," he in fact spent his early teens in the middle Yangtze River valley region. This will be discussed in this chapter. See Liu Tsung-yiian, Liu Tsung-yiian chi (for information about this work, see the next note), p. 664. See Liu Tsung-yiian, Liu Tsung-yiian chi (Peking, 1979; hereafter abbreviated as LTYC), pp. 60-2, 781, 1146, 1212, 1264. Though many editions of Liu's collected works exist, LTYC is the most recent and perhaps finest. LTYC is based upon the Hsin-k'an tsengkuang pai-chia hsiang-pu-chu T'ang Liu hsien-sheng wen-chi, which, in turn, is one of the earliest extant editions, published around 1200, and which, like some other early editions, contains valuable notes written by Sung scholars. Throughout this book, I will use LTYC as the basic text when citing or referring to Liu's writings. For information about LTYC, see Wu Wen-chih, "Chiao-tien hou-chi," in LTYC, pp. 1505-7. Among the best studies on the transmission and the constitution of Liu's collected works are Araumi Hajime, "Ryukatoshu no genryu," Kokugakuin daigaku kiyo, 15 (March 1977), pp. 72-110; Ch'ien Mu, "Tu Liu Tsung-yiian chi," in his Chung-kuo hsiieh-shu ssu-hsiang shih lun-ts'ung, vol. 4, pp. 70-81; Wu Wen-chih, ibid., pp. 1501-10. Han Yti, Han Ch'ang-li chi (Kuo-hsiieh chi-pen ts'ung-shu edition, Shanghai, 1958; hereafter abbreviated as HCLC), 32:71; CTS, 160:4212. 32

Liu Tsung-yuan and the circumstances of Ch'ang-an

of his long residence in that city and his deep affection for it, Liu was truly a man of Ch'ang-an. Ch'ang-an in T'ang China was, for most of the time, a glorious city.4 It was the imperial capital, a vast metropolis, and the cosmopolitan hub of all East Asia. In the last quarter of the eighth century, when Liu resided there, despite the fact that the city had suffered great physical damage not long before from the An Lu-shan rebellion and the Tibetan invasion of 763, Ch'ang-an's economic and cultural activities were more thriving than ever. At that time, Ch'ang-an had a population of approximately one million. People of all professions, classes, races, and nationalities, ranging from native peasants, soldiers and grandees to Persian traders, Japanese Buddhist monks and Central Asian wineshop waitresses, gathered there. 5 In the large and many-faceted city of Ch'ang-an, the scope of Liu's activities was limited and his social status clear. He came from a family of literati, and remained a member of the scholar class throughout his life. Nevertheless, as was described in Chapter 1, both the composition of the intellectual classes and the content of high culture under the T'ang were quite complicated. In order to understand the precise social and cultural background of Liu, it is necessary to scrutinize those parts of Ch'ang-an with which the young Liu was most familiar, and in which he was nurtured. Lineage Family background generally plays an important role in the formation of an individual's mentality, and this was especially true in the case of the T'ang intellectuals. This was due to the fact that the T'ang was a highly stratified society, one that we do not see in China in subsequent periods. Among literati, as discussed before, there was a clear distinction between those from old aristocratic families and those of obscure origins. Within

During the period between 657 and 736, because of the difficulty of water transportation between Ch'ang-an and the south and the resulting shortage of economic supplies, the central government often operated in Lo-yang. Empress Wu spent all but two years of her entire reign (684-705) there. This period may be considered as the low point of Ch'ang-an under the T'ang. See Ch'iian Han-sheng, "T'ang-Sung ti-kuo yii yun-ho," in his Chung-kuo ching-chi-shihyen-chiu (Hong Kong, 1976), vol. 1, pp. 283-96. Studies on Ch'ang-an during the T'ang are numerous. For excellent general descriptions, see Hsiang Ta, T'ang-tai Ch'ang-an yii Hsi-yii wen-ming (Peking, 1957), pp. 1-116; Hsu P'ing-fang, "T'ang-tai liang-ching te cheng-chih ching-chi ho wen-hua shenghuo," K'ao Ku, 1982:6 (November 1982), pp. 647-56; Ma Te-chih, "T'ang-tai Ch'angan yii Lo-yang," ibid., pp. 640—6; Sato Taketoshi, Choan (Tokyo, 1971), pp. 103-250; Arthur Wright, "Changan," in Arnold Toynbee, ed., Cities of Destiny (New York, 1967), pp. 138-49; Wu Po-lun, Hsi-an li-shih shu-liieh (Sian, 1979), pp. 148-248. 33

Liu Tsung-yuan and intellectual change in T'ang China

aristocracy, there also existed several culturally divergent segments each with its own time-honored traditions. The family of Liu Tsung-yiian belonged to a kin group that by the time of his birth had continuously produced social and political leaders for at least fifteen generations. In medieval China, they were known as "Ho-tung Liu." 6 The history of Ho-tung Liu makes clear that this group was among the major components of the aristocracy - what are commonly referred to as the "old clans," "noble clans," "scholar clans," or "illustrious clans." As virtually all these clans did sooner or later, by the early fourth century the Ho-tung Liu clan had grown so large that it ceased to function as an active kinship unit; it broke into branches among which the connection was often more spiritual and symbolic than actual. For the purpose of introducing Liu Tsung-yuan's family background, we shall concentrate on discussing only the subdivisions of Ho-tung Liu to which Liu's family was closely related. Nevertheless, a brief account of the overall development of the clan is still necessary. According to tradition, the ancestors of the Liu clan settled in Hsieh district of Ho-tung commandery (chiin) (in the southwestern corner of present Shansi Province) in the late third century B.C. During the Western Chin era (A.D. 265-316), the Lius had apparently already become a leading clan in the Ho-tung region; reportedly, at least two of its members attained high office in the central government.7 Like many other great clans, however, the Ho-tung Liu clan did not begin to play a conspicuous role in history until the second decade of the fourth century, when the Western Chin collapsed under the attacks and uprisings of the so-called Five Barbarian Groups and China fell into a north-south For generally accurate genealogical information of "Ho-tung Liu," see LTYC, pp. 293-4; UTS, 73a:2835~54; Ts'en Chung-mien, ed., Yilan-ho hsing-tsuan ssu-chiao-chi (Shanghai, 1948), vol. 2, pp. 713-29; Wang I-t'ung, Wu-ch'ao meng-ti (Hong Kong, 1978), vol. 2, table 35. In this book I shall refer to Ho-tung Liu as a "clan" or "lineage." Yet this kinship group, like most other illustrious medieval lineages, was so loosely knit that "clan" and "lineage" are only convenient labels for it; these terms do not have the implications they are given by various social scientists. The anthropologist Maurice Freedman once proposed that the word "lineage" be confined to permanent organized groups and that other and temporary, usually of higher order, groupings based on agnation be described as "clans." See his "Introduction," in Maurice Freedman, ed., Family and Kinship in Chinese Society (Stanford, Calif., 1970), pp. 13-14. For the problem of "clan" in medieval China, see Patricia Ebrey, Aristocratic Families, pp. 21-2, 116; David Johnson, "The Last Years of a Great Clan: The Li Family of Chao Chiin in Late T'ang and Early Sung," Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 37:1 (June 1977), P- 98See HTS, 73a:2835. I follow Charles Hucker's A Dictionary of Official Titles in Imperial China (Stanford, Calif., 1985) in translating chiin as commandery. See p. 200. This dictionary will be my principal reference book for English translations of Chinese official titles and administrative terms.

34

Liu Tsung-yiian and the circumstances of Ch 'ang-an

division. Two major branches of the lineage were formed at this point. A clan leader named Liu Cho led his family members in migration to the south, where refugees from the north were establishing the Eastern Chin. After resettling in Hsiang-yang (in present Hupei), they developed into a major aristocratic lineage. Cho's descendants appear as the "eastern members" {tung-chuan) in the genealogical records of the Ho-tung Liu clan.8 Facing the chaos and danger that accompanied the ending of the Western Chin, Liu Cho's uncle Ch'i made a very different decision. Ch'i chose to stay in the north and cope with the new, ethnically non-Chinese rulers, probably with his own local power base as a support. After his militia was defeated in 396 by the troops of a Ch'iang (proto-Tibetan) chief, Ch'i's son Kung finally brought his clansmen and following to the south. The destination of Liu Kung's group was Yu-chou (in present southeastern Honan and northwestern Anhwei), then an area on the border between the north and the south. Five generations of Kung's family then served the southern dynasties until Kung's great-grandson Liu Seng-hsi defected in 500 to the north, to the Northern Wei dynasty, which had unified North China in 439. Ch'i's and Kung's offspring came to be known as the "western members" (hsi-chuan) of the Liu clan, and this is the branch to which Liu Tsung-yiian belonged.9 Liu Seng-hsi's return to the north marked a drastic shift in the history of the hsi-chuan branch of the Ho-tung Liu clan. Prior to this, the hsi-chuan leaders were basically local magnates whose central concern was to protect their fellow clansmen and subordinates in an age of disorder and For the early history of the tung-chuan branch, see Hsiao Tzu-hsien, Nan-Ch'i shu (Peking, Chung-hua shu-chii edition, 1972), 24:445-53; HTS, 73a:2835, 2850-4; Shen Yueh, Sung shu (Peking, Chung-hua shu-chii edition, 1974), 77:1981-91; Ts'en Chungmien, ed., Yuan-ho hsing-tsuan ssu-chiao-chi, vol. 2, pp. 724-5; Wang I-t'ung, Wu-ch'ao menti, vol. 2, table 35. For the early history of the hsi-chuan branch, see Fang Hsiian-ling et al., Chin shu (Peking, Chung-hua shu-chii edition, 1974), 106:2761-80, 107:2781-5, 117:2977; Li Yen-shou, Pei shih (Peking, Chung-hua shu-chii edition, 1974), 64:2778; Ling-hu Te-fen et al., Chou shu (Peking, Chung-hua shu-chii edition, 1971), 22:369; HTS, 73a:2835; Ssuma Kuang, Tzu-chih t'ung-chien (Peking, Ku-chi ch'u-pan-she edition, 1957; hereafter abbreviated as TCTC), 108:3436, 143:4458-60; Wei Shou et al., Wei shu (Peking, Chung-hua shu-chii edition, 1974), 71:1565-80. For the overall situation of the powerful native Chinese clans in the north after the downfall of the Western Chin, see Chin Fa-ken, Yung-chia luan hou pei-fang te hao-tsu (Taipei, 1964), pp. 76-97, 151-9. Ho-tung Liu had other, though mostly obscure, subdivisions. For information about these branches, see Wei shu, 35:826; Sung shu, 77:1991; Chou shu, 32:560-2; HTS, 73a:2846-g; Wei Cheng et al., Sui shu (Peking, Chung-hua shu-chii edition, 1973), 73:618-19. For a more detailed study of the history of the Ho-tung Liu clan, see Jo-shui Chen, "The Hotung Liu Clan and the Family of Liu Tsung-yiian: Some Facts and Interpretations."

35

Liu Tsung-yuan and intellectual change in T'ang China

wars. After Send-hsi joined the Northern Wei government and served as a high-ranking bureaucrat, 10 however, his descendants became active in national politics for over one hundred years. More significant, members of the hsi-chiian Liu clan played a conspicuous role in the Kuan-Lung group, the ruling group of the Sui and early T'ang eras. During the late sixth century and the first half of the seventh century, Ho-tung Liu was one of the most politically prominent clans in China. 11 In the 520s and early 530s, not long after Liu Seng-hsi's return to the north, a series of civil wars broke out in Northern Wei, resulting in its splitting into Eastern Wei and Western Wei in 534. Seng-hsi's sons went to the Kuan-chung area (the center of which was Ch'ang-an), obtaining high positions in the Western Wei regime, though they generally stayed outside the kernel of this military regime, which had a strong North Asian cultural background. As a consequence of aristocratic social and political life, the children and grandchildren of the Liu brothers remained in the elite community that governed Western Wei and the succeeding Northern Chou, thus participating in its great enterprises: the conquest of the whole of China and the building up of the Sui and T'ang empires.12 Under the Sui and the early T'ang, the hsi-chiian line apparently became closer to the power center of the Kuan-Lung group. The clearest indication is perhaps the frequent matrimonial relationships between this clan and the imperial houses. In terms of the historical fate of the hsi-chiian Lius, the most important marriage was that between Empress Wang and Kao-tsung, the third emperor of the T'ang. 13 Empress Wang was Kao-tsung's first wife. Although it was her mother, rather than her father, who belonged to the hsi-chiian Liu clan, politically she was more closely linked to the Liu family. Her patron at court was Liu Shih, 10 For sources about Liu Seng-hsi's career, see Chou shu, 23:369; Pei shih, 64:2778; Wei shu, 71:1580. 11 According to Liu Tsung-yiian, around the 650s, some twenty members of the Ho-tung Liu clan at the same time held office in the Department of State Affairs (Shang-shu sheng), the highest executive branch of the T'ang central government. He gave two numbers on two occasions; one is 22 people and the other is 18. See LTYC, pp. 635, 1098. Liu's figure surely includes members of other branches of Ho-tung Liu, which might or might not belong to the Kuan-Lung group. 12 For Liu Seng-hsi's progeny in Western Wei and Northern Chou, see Chou shu, 22:369-70, 38:680-2, 46:827-9; Pei shih, 64:2278-91. 13 During the Sui and the early T'ang, over three generations, there were four marriages between hsi-chiian Lius and imperial lineages. Empress Wang's was the last. See Sui Shu, 45:1238, 47:1272-3, 80:1798-9; CTS, 51:2169-70, 77:2681-2; HTS, 76:3473-4, 112:4173, 4177-8. A hsi-chiian member later became a rank 3 concubine of Emperor Hsiian-tsung (reigned 712-55), but at that time the Ho-tung Liu family had already lost its political importance. See this chapter and CTS, 107:3257, 3267-8; HTS, 82:3606, 3613.

36

Liu Tsung-yuan and the circumstances of Ch 'ang-an

her uncle and a fourth-generation ancestor of Liu Tsung-yiian. 14 (See Figure 2.1.) The peak of the hsi-chuan Lius' fortune, however, did not last long. In the years 654-59, the clan suffered a sudden and calamitous blow from none other than the future sole female "emperor" and one of the most idiosyncratic, ruthless and shrewd rulers in Chinese history: Wu Chao, or Empress Wu. Empress Wang's marriage to Emperor Kao-tsung was arranged by Kao-tsung's father, Emperor T'ai-tsung, and his great aunt Princess T'ung-an when he was a mere prince. 15 However, at the latest by 654, the fifth year after Kao-tsung's enthronement, Empress Wang had completely lost the emperor's favor to Wu Chao, then a rank 2 imperial concubine. Shortly after, Wu maneuvered to convince Kaotsung to seek to replace Wang with herself. This attempt by Kao-tsung drew stiff opposition from the core members of the Kuan-Lung leadership, in all probability because Empress Wang was a Kuan-Lung group insider while Wu was not. Through a delicate yet hard power struggle, Wu Chao and Kao-tsung prevailed. Wu not only became empress; she also quickly seized ultimate power. During this process, Empress Wang was imprisoned and executed in an extremely brutal way by Empress Wu; Liu Shih was first forced to resign from the office of prime minister, and finally, together with a number of other chief Kuan-Lung magnates, was executed after being charged with treason. Immediately following Shih's death in 658, the court, under Wu's control, enslaved and exiled many of his family members and close relatives and demoted thirteen Liu clansmen serving in the central government. 16 In short, the hsi-chuan branch tumbled as the first victim 14 Empress Wang's father (Wang Jen-yu) was a descendant of an important member of the military ruling circle that founded the Western Wei and Northern Chou. Since he was only a local official and died soon after his daughter became empress, his family seems to have played no role in Empress Wang's political struggle, a struggle that, as we will see, led to the political downfall of hsi-chuan Lius. Cf. CTS, 51:2169; HTS, 76:3473. 15 CTS, 51:2169-70; HTS, 76:3473, 83:3641-2; TCTC, 199:6270, 6273, 6278, 6285-6. 16 For a chronological account of this struggle, see TCTC, 199:6284, 6286-92, 200:62935, 6303-4, 6312-17, 6322. With regard to the relationship between the early T'ang political power structure and Wu's ascent, I adopt Ch'en Yin-k'o's interpretation. See his "Chi T'ang-tai chih Li-Wu-Wei-Yang hun-yin-chi-t'uan," CYKWC 2, pp. 240-8. I am fully aware of the criticism Ch'en's thesis on early T'ang factionalism aroused, mainly in Chang Ch'iin, "Lun T'ang K'ai-yiian ch'ien te cheng-chih chi-t'uan," Hsin-ya hsueh-pao, 1:2 (February 1956), pp. 281-302; Hu Ju-lei, "Lun Wu-Chou te she-hui chi-ch'u," Li-shih yen-chiu, 1955:1, pp. 85-96; Howard J. Wechsler, "Factionalism in Early T'ang Government," pp. 87-120. After a careful examination of the original materials, however, I believe that Ch'en's interpretation can hold, at least the part concerning Empress Wang's fall and Empress Wu's rise. The best study supporting and elaborating on Ch'en's thesis I know of is in Wang Ch'ien, Wang Ch'ien Sui-T'ang shih lun kao, ed. by T'ang Ch'ang-ju et al. (Peking, 1981), pp. 132-88.

37

Liu Tsung-yuan and intellectual change in T'ang China

Kuei Ghing-yu Ch'i | Kung | X

Ch'un | Cho (the eastern members)

X Ch'i (?) Seng-hsi Ch'ing Tan Tse

K'ai

Wang Jen-yu = nee Liu Shih

Tzu-hsia

I

I

Empress Wang

Ts'ung-yu Ch'a-kung Chen

Tsung-yiian X = name unknown Figure 2.1. Simplified genealogical table of the western members {hsi-chiian) of "Ho-tung Liu."

of Empress Wu's rise, for it happened to be her first hurdle. It never regained its political prominence, even after the decline of Wu's clique. Empress Wu fundamentally changed the social basis of the T'ang regime by enlarging it during her forty-year rule; the Kuan-Lung group no 38

Liu Tsung-yuan and the circumstances of Ch 'ang-an

longer predominated in the political arena. 17 By the middle T'ang period, the hsi-chiian branch of the Ho-tung Liu clan was nothing more than an ordinary "old clan." Basically, the hsi-chiian Liu branch was a typical Kuan-chung lineage in the northern Chinese aristocratic tradition, notwithstanding its southern experience. Several characteristics of this branch deserve our special attention. First, the hsi-chiian Liu clan had undoubtedly occupied an eminent position in the Kuan-Lung community. On the national social ladder, however, the Ho-tung Lius never entered the topmost echelon of aristocracy. During the Era of Disunion, though a clan of local importance that had been active in northern politics for some time, the hsi-chiian branch was, in terms of social prestige, a far cry from such Shan-tung families as the Po-ling Ts'uis and the Chao-chun Lis. The position of the tung-chiian branch in the southern aristocracy also seems to have been peripheral. 18 During the Sui and T'ang periods, Ho-tung Liu was certainly not listed in the most respectable "Five Clans" or ten "Families Forbidden to Intermarry." 19 Furthermore, although in the Sui and the early T'ang the hsi-chiian Lius' political connections brought its members to national prominence, very few of them ascended to the policy-making level within the ruling group. To put it simply, both socially and politically, the hsi-chiian branch of Ho-tung Liu was at best a first-rate second-class clan. Second, the cultural bent of the hsi-chiian Lius, like that of many Kuanchung aristocratic clans, was rather amalgamative. True, the early Hotung Liu leaders emerge in historical documents mostly as regional militia organizers, and this martial tradition lingered in both the hsichiian and tung-chiian branches until the eve of the founding of the Sui.20 But it is unmistakable that from the early sixth century on the hsi-chiian Lius by and large distinguished themselves by cultural rather than martial achievements. This was, clearly, because unification and peace had already returned to north China and military skills became less desirable. The cultural tradition of the hsi-chiian branch contained both characteristically southern and northern elements. In accordance with southern ethos, acquaintance with literary works was apparently urged 17 See Ch'en Yin-k'o, "Chi T'ang-tai chih Li-Wu-Wei-Yang hun-yin-chi-t'uan," pp. 248—50; idem, T'ang-tai cheng-chih, pp. 14-23. 18 See Sung shu, 77:1981-90; Nan-Ch'i shu, 24:445-53. 19 For the ten "Families Forbidden to Intermarry," see chap. 1, sec. 1. For the so-called Five Clans (the Po-ling and Ch'ing-ho Ts'uis, the Fan-yang Lus, the Chao-chun Lis, the Ying-yang Chengs, the T'ai-yiian Wangs), see HTS, 199:5678. 20 See Chin shu, 117:2977; Chou shu, 46:828; Pei shih, 64:2278, 2281-2, 2288; Sung shu, 77:1981-90.

39

Liu Tsung-yiian and intellectual change in T'ang China

in the family education; many hsi-chiian Lius were said to be good writers. With regard to life-style, it appears that the hsi-chiian branch adhered to the northern aristocratic tradition, stressing moral discipline, particularly the tight observance of established norms and rites. In addition, calligraphy, oratory, and general study of Confucian classics and history all were of great importance to the Liu family's learning. 21 Third, from the time of the mid-sixth century, the hsi-chiian branch had not only become active on the national level, but, more significant to the transformation of its character, it had also begun to loosen its local ties. Although we are not clear about the places of residence of major hsi-chiian figures in Western Wei and Northern Chou, there is no evidence that any of them ever lived in their native Ho-tung. 22 Up to the Sui and early T'ang, many hsi-chiian members - including some of Liu Tsung-yiian's direct forefathers - had apparently established permanent residence in Ch'ang-an. For generations they were buried in its southern suburban uplands. 23 Like typical medieval aristocrats, the hsi-chiian Lius were truly, as a forerunner of the T'ang Confucian revival movement Chia Chih put it, "men of East, South, West, and North." 24 Also like the majority of these aristocrats, the Lius at last became men of the center. 25 (For the movement of the hsi-chiian Lius, see Map i.)

21

See Pei shih, 64:2278-89; CTS, 77:2681-2, 107:3267-8; HTS, 82:3613, 112:4177; LTYC, p. 826. 22 Yet, around the time when China was reunited by the Sui (589), there were some tung-chuan members who moved back to their homeland from the south. See Mao Han-kuang, "Chin-Sui chih-chi Ho-tung ti-ch'ii," pp. 589-90. 23 See Mao Han-kuang, "Ts'ung shih-tsu chi-kuan ch'ien-i k'an T'ang-tai shih-tsu chih chung-yang-hua," CYLY, 52:3 (1981), pp. 494-6; LTYC, pp. 273-4; Sung Min-ch'iu, Ch'ang-an chih (Ssu-k'u ch'uan-shu chen-pen edition), 11:5b. Cf. LTYC, p. 320. Mao's article is a sound study on the "centralization" of the scholar clans in T'ang times. Yet in his discussion on the Ho-tung Liu clan, Mao cites a popular document with erroneous information. This is Liu Tsung-yiian's epigraph written by Han Yii, which wrongly referred to Liu Shih as Tsung-yiian's great-granduncle and apparently misled the authors of Liu Tsung-yiian's biographies in both C7IS* and HTS. For Han Yii's original writing, see HCLC, 32:96. Mao also misquoted a piece of material concerning the family of a brother-in-law of Liu Tsung-yiian's as one concerning Liu's own family. 24 CTW, 368:3a. 25 It was a common phenomenon in the T'ang for old clans to leave their local bases and settle in the national political and cultural centers: the areas of Ch'ang-an and Lo-yang. See Patricia Ebrey, Aristocratic Families, pp. 81-3, 91-2; Mao Han-kuang, "Ts'ung shih-tsu chi-kuan ch'ien-i." The "centralization" of the T'ang old clans is a very complicated phenomenon, with many factors contributing to its occurrence. The Shan-tung aristocracy seems to be the last group to be centralized. For an insightful interpretation of this topic, see Ch'en Yin-k'o, "Lun Li Hsi-yiin tzu Chao ch'ien Wei shih," CYKWC% pp. 1-7. 40

Liu Tsung-yuan and the circumstances of Ch'ang-an

Map i. Migration of the hsi-chuan branch of the Ho-tung Liu chan.

Family Throughout the second half of the seventh century and the first half of the eighth century, most of the hsi-chuan Lius remained men of the center, as did Liu Tsung-yiian's lineal ancestors.26 They seem to have stayed in Ch'ang-an until the An Lu-shan rebellion began and spread rapidly in early 756.27 Facing the threat of war, Liu Chen, Tsung-yiian's father, led his clan, including his parents, to the Wang-wu ranges in Hotung to take refuge. Later, the prolongation of the fighting prompted 26 The only known exception was, as described before, the family and close relatives of Liu Shih, who were exiled to the southern frontiers by Empress Wu. Around 710, after their descendants were pardoned and the court summoned Shih's great-grandson Wu-t'ien for public service, Wu-t'ien escorted Shih's remains back to Ch'ang-an for reburial. The court honored this return by providing the coffin for Shih's remains. See CTS, 77:2682; HTS, 112:2177—8. For Liu Tsung-yiian's own statement about his family's identity with the imperial capital, see LTYC, p. 1189. 27 There are no materials explicitly pointing out that Tsung-yiian's family lived in the Ch'ang-an area prior to the An Lu-shan rebellion. Yet there are indications that it probably did not move away before this catastrophic event. The clearest indication is that, before the deaths of Tsung-yiian's father and eldest uncle, they had been planing to rebury in Ch'ang-an their parents - Tsung-yiian's grandparents - who had died in the south. See LTYC, pp. 317-18, 326-7.

41

Liu Tsung-yuan and intellectual change in T'ang China

Liu's lineage to move to the south, as numerous upper-class families then did. This time it went to the deep south: the Wu area in the lower Yangtze River basin. In the mid-760s, after An's rebellion ended, Liu Chen went back to the north to take up office, resettling his immediate family in Ch'ang-an. The majority of his clan members seem to have stayed in Wu continuously; both of Chen's parents died and were buried there. 28 This was a normal situation then, as a poem by the famous writer Ssu-k'ung Shu (740-90?) testifies: "When the world fell into turmoil, we went south together. / As the time clears up, you return north alone." 29 The general condition of Liu Tsung-yiian's family and immediate lineage was very similar to that of the hsi-chiian branch of the Ho-tung Liu clan as a whole: It was an unextraordinary constituent of an aristocracy in gradual decline. Nevertheless, it is important first of all to stress that Liu's family did, after all, belong to the aristocratic class. Liu was keenly aware of the prestigious status of his family and clan, and frequently referred to it as a "great family" (ta-chia) or "great clan" (tatsu). He often explicitly took pride in the long, illustrious history of his clan and in the fact that it kept on producing distinguished figures even in the aftermath of Empress Wu's oppression.30 On the other hand, he was also realistic enough to detect his family's position within the aristocratic community. In an epitaph written for the wife of a paternal great-uncle, Liu enthusiastically extols her clan - the exceedingly respected "Chao-chun Li" and one of the "Five Clans" - as "pure and eminent," while characterizing his great-uncle's, namely his own, clan as merely one "of huge size." 31 Also, "the declined family" was an image he used to represent his family in a number of works.32 I would like to say a word or two here about the marriage partnership of Liu's family in order to shed further light on its social position. It is 28

29 30 31 32

See LTYC, pp. 294-5, 326-7. Tsung-yiian's eldest uncle, who was younger than Liu Chen, lived in the Yii-hsiang district of Ho-tung before taking the civil service examination. (LTYC, pp. 312-13) However, this probably does not imply that the Liu family resided in Ho-tung in the early T'ang. Tsung-yiian's uncle might have stayed in Ho-tung while his family moved south, or, more likely, he might have returned there after the suppression of the rebellion, say, to prepare for the examinations. Liu Tsung-yiian once said unequivocally that Ho-tung was the hometown of his family only "in ancient times" (LTYC, p. 606). For a careful discussion about the relationship between Tsung-yiian's family and Ho-tung, see Sun Ch'ang-wu, chuan-lun, p. 1. For the migration movement of aristocratic families to the south during the An Lu-shan rebellion, see CTS, 148:4002. Ch'iian T'ang shih, vol. 9, p. 3315. See LTYC, pp. 180-1, 316, 326, 633, 635-6, 790, 1098. LTYC, p. 329. LTYC, pp. 332, 336, 340, 633, 790.

42

Liu Tsung-yiian and the circumstances of Ch 'ang-an

evident that Liu's family still retained quite tight Kuan-Lung group connections. The family of Tsung-yuan's wife and those of the husbands of his two, both elder, sisters all belonged to this social and political bloc. The family of Tsung-yiian's wife was from the Hung-nung Yang lineage, a famous, vast, and formerly powerful Kuan-chung clan. Liu's father-inlaw, Yang P'ing, was once mayor of Ch'ang-an. 33 Liu's family also attained marriage relationships with celebrated Shan-tung clans; Liu's mother was a Fan-yang Lu and one of his greataunts a Chao-chun Li. However, we have no idea of which branches their families were connected with. Since both Fan-yang Lu and Chaochun Li were immense lineages, Liu's mother and great-aunt did not necessarily bear distinguished family backgrounds.34 There are only two other known families that had marriage partnerships with Liu's extended family. Both were apparently newly risen families of high- and middle-level local officials.35 The social footing of the marriage partners of Liu's family seems to accurately reflect that of Liu's family itself: Most of them were obviously second-rate members of the T'ang upper classes. In terms of economics, Liu Tsung-yiian came from a well-to-do family. Although no information about the financial resources of Liu's family in Wu survives, we have records of its three properties in Ch'ang-an. The Liu family owned two houses within the city, either simultaneously or in different time periods. One was located in Ch'in-jen Ward, a residential area of patricians and ranking officials, and the other in Shan-ho (Kuang-lu?) Ward. 36 The family also possessed an estate of several chHng 33

For the history of the family of Tsung-yiian's wife, see HTS, 715:2365-81, 160:49701; CTS, 146:3967-8; LTYC, pp. 339, 1047-9; $ui shu, 48:1281-92. For the family of the husband of Liu's eldest sister, see CTS, 74:2620-5; HTS, 720:2773-5, 99:3920-3; LTYC, pp. 231-2, 346-7. For the family of the other sister's husband, see CTS, 84:2801-8; HTS, 7^:2212-15, 108:4085-92; LTYC, pp. 234-6, 336. 34 The information provided by Liu Tsung-yiian about the immediate families of his mother and great-aunt is scanty and vague. See LTYC, pp. 325, 328-9, 637, 906. I am also unable to find relevant materials in other, including genealogical, sources. 35 See LTYC, pp. 257-9, 317? 33 I- 3> I J 73- Liu Tsung-yiian often referred to Lu Wen and his brothers, all Liu's political and intellectual comrades, as his cousins (LTYC, pp. 255-6, 638, 1070). Actually they were Liu's very distant relatives: Lii's mother came from a tung-chuan family of Ho-tung Liu. See Lii Wen, "T'ang ku Hu-nan t'uanlien kuan-ch'a ch'u-chih shih . . . Tung-p'ing Lii fu-chiin fu-jen Ho-tung-chiin Liu fu-jen mu-chih-ming ping hsii," in Lu Hsin-yiian, ed., T'ang-wen shih-i (rpt. Taipei, 1962), 27:i5a-i6a. 36 See LTYC, pp. 296, 341, 781. Shan-ho Ward is one of the very few wards whose locations have not been determined, and its character is hence unclear. Some scholars have theorized that it might be the northernmost ward at the west side of the Chu-ch'ueh-men Avenue, which crossed over the center of the city. (See Map 2.) This ward might also be called Kuang-lu Ward. For explanations of this problem, see Hiraoka Takeo, Choan to Rakuyo, chizu (Todai kenkyu no shiori 7; Kyoto, 1956), p. 34; Hsii Sung, T'ang liang-ching ch'eng-fang k'ao (Lien-yiin-i ts'ung-shu edition, 1848), 4:ia-b.

43

Liu Tsung-yiian and intellectual change in T'ang China

(i ch'ing = ioo mou = approx. 14 acres) in the western outskirts of Ch'ang-an throughout the time Tsung-yiian lived in the capital and afterward. On this land were fields, hundreds of fruit trees, ponds, and villas.37 Land in the Ch'ang-an area was expensive, so Liu's family was obviously rich. Moreover, there was within the Liu clan a comparable case in terms of the value of an estate of this kind. A fourth cousin of Tsung-yiian's who lived on an estate of five ch'ing in Nanking had about three hundred servants. 38 (For the residences of the Liu family in Ch'ang-an, see Maps 2 and 3.) Apart from income generated from its properties, the major source of income for the family was apparently the salaries of family members who served in the government. In the middle and late T'ang, following the 780s, salaries of government officials, especially those of local officials, were considerable.39 Whenever he acquired a government post, Liu Chen took many relatives from afar to live with his family and supported them. While holding a sinecure in Yung-chou (in present southern Hunan) as an exile, Tsung-yiian was easily able to buy several pieces of land beside the upper stream of a brook, and built beautiful gardens there. His regular monthly stipend then reached 33 strings of cash (kuan) (33,000 cash [JX>£W]), but a hillock he purchased roughly the size of a mou cost only 400 cash.40 Despite this, it is equally noteworthy that the

37

38 39

40

In his authoritative study on Ch'ang-an and Lo-yang under the T'ang, Hsu Sung failed to mention that Liu Tsung-yiian's family owned a house in Shan-ho Ward. See his ch'eng-fang k'ao, 3:1 ia. For general analyses of the regional configuration in the city of Ch'ang-an, see Ma Te-chih, "T'ang-tai Ch'ang-an yii Lo-yang," p. 642; Sato Taketoshi, Choan, pp. 167-9. For information about the residents of Shan-ho Ward, see Hsu Sung, ch'eng-fang k'ao, 4:13a; Ch'eng Hung-chao, T'ang liang-ching ch'eng-fang k'ao chiao-pu chi (Ou-hsiang ling-shih edition, 1897), 14a. LTYC, pp. 61, 326, 781, 841, 1189-90, 1202, 1212, 1264. For discussions about this type of landholding, which many historians refer to as chuang-yuan (great estates, or manors), see Denis C. Twitchett, Financial Administration under the T'ang Dynasty (Cambridge University Press, 1963), pp. 16-22; Teng Kuang-ming, "T'ang-Sung chuang-yuan chih-tu chih-i," Li-shihyen-chiu, 1963:6, pp. 135-50. For Liu Tsung-yiian's own statement about the price of land in Ch'ang-an, see LTYC, p. 766. For the case of Liu's cousin, see LTYC, p. 633. See Ch'en Yin-k'o, "Yuan-Pai-shih chung feng-liao-ch'ien wen-t'i," CYKWC 3, pp. 60-73; Ch'iian Han-sheng, "Chung-ku tzu-jan ching-chi," in his Chung-kuo ching-chishih yen-chiu, vol. 1, pp. 127-30; Wang Fu, T'ang hui-yao (Shanghai, 1955; hereafter abbreviated as THY), vol. 3, pp. 1655-63; Tsukiyama Jisaburo, Todai seiji seido no kenkyu (Osaka, 1967), pp. 561-3, 572-5. See THY, vol. 3, p. 1659; LTYC, pp. 326, 329, 642, 750, 764-5. I use the term "regular monthly stipend" because local officials usually had extra income other than their regular salaries. See Ch'en Yin-k'o, "feng-liao-ch'ien wen-t'i," pp. 69-70; Tsukiyama Jisaburo, Todai seiji seido, pp. 575-7. One structural reason for the officials' ability to enjoy the good life was long-term deflation after the 780s. See Ch'iian Han-sheng, "T'ang-tai wu-chia te pien-tung," in his ching-chi-shih yen-chiu, vol. 1, pp. 178-202; P'eng Hsin-wei, Chung-kuo huo-pi shih (Shanghai, 1958), pp. 214-18; Denis

44

Liu Tsung-yuan and the circumstances of Ch }ang-an

1 I I

A Liu's residence B Liu's residence C Chi-hsien-tien Academy

I• •• ••• C T J DDDD DDDD DDDD DDDD D Censorate E Ministry of Rites (Department of State Affairs)

Map 2. Liu Tsung-yiian's activities in the city of Ch'ang-an. (Adapted from Sato Taketoshi, Choan, between pages 112 and 113.)

fortunes of the Liu family could definitely not stand comparison to those of the most affluent.41 Culturally, Tsung-yiian's family still displayed distinctive features of the northern aristocratic tradition in its life-style. It paid great attention Twitchett, Financial Administration, pp. 46-7, 74-83. In his Han Yii, p. 117, Charles Hartman gives a detailed estimate of Han's official income. Yet he probably overestimates Han's salary. After the An Lu-shan rebellion, the T'ang government began to pay its officials mainly in cash while reducing greatly the part of their income in the form of grain. Hartman obviously did not take this important change into consideration. Cf. Ch'iian Han-sheng, "Chung-ku tzu-jan ching-chi," in his Chung-kuo ching-chi-shihyen-chiu, vol. 1, p p . 127—31.

41

Here is an example concerning the life of the wealthiest in T'ang. On the kuei-mao day of the second month, 767, the famous general Kuo Tzu-i (698-781) came to the capital from the military region where he was the governor. Five high-ranking officials, including Wang Chin, the poet Wang Wei's younger brother, gave a banquet for Kuo at Kuo's mansion; for it, each of the five people contributed 300,000 cash (CTS, 11:286). For other examples, see Lii Ssu-mien, Sui-T'ang Wu-tai shih, vol. 2, pp. 834-7; Wu Po-lun, shu-lueh, pp. 219-22; Wu Hsien-ch'ing, T'u-ti wen-fi {Chung-kuo ching-chi shih-liao ts'ung-pien T'ang-tai p'ien 2; Peking, 1937), pp. 23—36.

45

Liu Tsung-yuan and intellectual change in T'ang China

Map 3. Western outskirts of Ch'ang-an. The asterisk indicates the approximate location of the Liu family estate. This location is determined through consultation with Otagi Hajime, "Todai ryokyo kyorison ko," Toyoshi kenkyu, 40:3 (December 1981), pp. 28-69; Wu Po-lun, "T'ang Ch'ang-an chiao-ch'u te yen-chiu," Wen-shih, 3 (October 1963), pp. 157-69. to ritual observance; the second-eldest sister of Liu's was particularly strict about this. According to Liu's accounts, she did not take a bath or wash her hair and ate food without any salt or vinegar for "three years" in mourning the death of their father. Undoubtedly she intended to follow to the extreme the mourning rites for one's father prescribed in the Confucian classics and in contemporary ritual regulations as an expression of her grief.42 Another sign of the Liu family's adherence to the northern aristocratic tradition was the close relationships they 42

For the case of Liu's sister, see LTYC, pp. 336-7. Her mourning period was perhaps twenty-five or twenty-seven months (the common interpretations of the length of the "three-year mourning period"). Even so, her ritual observance still seems too rigorous. For example, in the Records of Rites (Li chi), a Confucian classic, there are two theories concerning a mourner's diet. One says that mourners can begin to have vegetables with salt and vinegar one year after their father's death; the other that mourners are forbidden to have salt or vinegar for two years. The practice of Liu's sister apparently followed the latter, more stringent, theory, and even exceeded what that rule required. Cf. Wang Meng-Ou, Li chi chin-chu chin-i (Taipei, 1969), vol. 2, pp. 557, 581, 751, 833; Chang Ching-ming, Hsien-Ch'in sang-fu chih-tu k'ao (Taipei, 1971), pp. 281-4, 297-8; Hsiao Sung, Ta-T'ang K'ai-yuan li (rpt. Tokyo, 1972), i5o:5a-6a. Also, early T'ang emperors made some changes in ritual regulation. Nevertheless, the length of the mourning period for parents was not included, though it was so suggested by a scholar. See Ku Yen-wu, Yuan-ch'ao-pen jih-chih-lu (Taipei, 1970), pp. 161-2. For the Liu family's general concern with ritual, see LTYC, pp. 294, 317-18, 326, 340. 46

Liu Tsung-yiian and the circumstances of Ch 'ang-an

maintained with their relatives, many of them distant. 43 In addition, Liu Tsung-yiian's family showed strong intellectual and literary—artistic orientations. They possessed a large quantity of books and Wei-Chin calligraphic works; music appeared to be a family hobby. Both a scholar and a writer, Liu's father held the ming-ching degree and his eldest uncle the prestigious chin-shih degree. His mother and two sisters were also well-educated.44 In sum, Liu Tsung-yiian was born into a family environment and tradition set at the center of the T'ang world and immersed in most of the main currents of medieval Chinese culture. As a member of this family, he probably never suffered economically. His social position was trickier: It was high enough to bestow upon him a touch of the aristocratic life, but low enough to force him to find his own way to success and respect. Early life Liu Tsung-yiian appears to have enjoyed a generally peaceful and comfortable childhood and adolescence. Most of the time he resided in Ch'ang-an. Prior to his twenties, there was probably only one extended period during which he was away from this city. In the mid-78os, when in his early teens, Tsung-yiian and his family spent about five years in the middle Yangtze River valley region where his father then worked under a military governor named Li Chien. Chien was the maternal grandfather of Tsung-yiian's future wife, nee Yang, and it was in his family that Yang grew up after her mother's premature death. The Lius thus seem to have escaped the turbulence and hazards of war in Ch'angan brought about by Chu Tz'u's rebellion (from the tenth month, 783, to the sixth month, 784) . 45 One matter that clearly occupied Liu Tsung-yiian's early life was 43

See LTYC, pp. 190, 306, 322—3, 326, 335, 631-2, 767, 1100, n 7 3 . In medieval China, northern aristocrats usually kept much closer relationships with their clansmen than their southern counterparts. See Yii Ying-shih, "Ming-chiao wei-chi yii Wei-Chin shih-feng te yen-pien," in his Chung-kuo chih-shih chieh-ts'eng shih lun (Taipei, 1980), pp. 370-2. 44 See LTYC, pp. 294-5, 313, 317-18, 326, 335, 781, 826. 45 See LTYC, pp. 285, 339, 602-3, 1164; Shih Tzu-yii, nien-p'u, pp. 10-11. Sun Ch'angwu's account of the life of the Liu family in 783 and 784 is not reliable. His description is essentially based on his change, without much basis, of the wording of a related statement by Tsung-yiian. See Sun's chuan-lun, pp. 12-13 and n. 10 on p. 34. In addition, in a poem, Liu Tsung-yiian wrote that he went to "the South of the [Yangtze] River" as a child (LTYC, p. 1189). Ho Ch'o (1661-1722), a Ch'ing scholar, suggested that "the South of the River" meant the Wu area to where many Liu clansmen moved amid the An Lu-shan rebellion. This is probably wrong. No

47

Liu Tsung-yiian and intellectual change in T'ang China education. By the time he was three years old his mother had already begun to teach him to read poetry. 46 Later, he might have studied at the Imperial University (T'ai-hsiieh),47 but, if he did, he apparently left promptly. By the middle T'ang, governmental schools had long deteriorated and were subject to considerable social disdain. Liu recalled in 798: When I was a young man I thought of going to the Imperial University to receive instruction in order to set my goals and prepare myself for life. B u t . . . it was said that the students formed coteries, insulted the elderly and reviled the wise, that some had fallen into evil ways, were failing in their studies, and thought only of their palates, that some delighted in sophistry, distorted right and wrong, and argued amongst themselves, while others harried and abused their elders and superiors and reviled and cursed the authorities. Very few kept apart and behaved themselves. Hearing this, . . . I turned to the local school for my education. 48 Liu essentially received his education at the family school; what he referred to as the local school was probably set up by his clan or other clans of similar social status. He also harvested advice from his father's intellectual friends. 49 This was the standard type of "scholar clan" education during Liu's time. Alternatively, young scholars of lower social origins whose families could not afford to establish their own teaching facilities often studied in religious institutions, especially Buddhist temples. 50

46 47 48

49

50

indication exists to suggest that Tsung-yiian was ever in Wu, and "the South of the River" most likely referred to the places like Chiu-chiang (in present Kiangsi), where Tsung-yiian had stayed with his father as a teenager. For Ho's comment, see Ting Hsiu-hui, Liu Ho-tung shih hsi-nien chi-shih (master's thesis, National Taiwan Normal University, 1974), p. 133. LTYC, p. 326. LTYC, p. 664. When speaking of his educational experience, Liu customarily referred to the Imperial University as T'ai-hsueh. Tai-hsiieh was an informal designation; the official name of the university was Kuo-tzu chien. LTYC pp. 868—9, a s translated in Jennings Mason Gentzler, "A Literary Biography of Liu Tsung-yiian" (Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, 1966), pp. 63-4, with minor changes. For the general situation of the governmental schools, see Kao Ming-shih, "T'ang-tai kuan-hsiieh te fa-chan yii shuai-lo," Yu-shih hsueh-chih, 9:1 (March 1970), pp. 10-38. See LTYC, pp. 213, 580, 868-9. Yang Ning and Yang Ling, the twin uncles of Tsung-yiian's future wife, were the only senior family friends whom Tsung-yiian mentioned as having granted him instructions. Since Tsung-yiian's father, Chen, was apparently quite active in the intellectual circles of Ch'ang-an, Tsung-yiian might have acquired advice from Chen's other friends. For a long list of Chen's friends, see LTYC, pp. 298-308. See Kao Ming-shih, "T'ang-tai ssu-hsiieh te fa-chan," Wen-shih-che hsueh-pao, 20 (June 1971), pp. 219-89; Yen Keng-wang, "T'ang-jen hsi-yeh shan-lin ssu-yiian chih fengshang," in his T'ang-shihyen-chiu ts'ung-kao (Hong Kong, 1969), pp. 367-424. 48

Liu Tsung-yiian and the circumstances of Ch }ang-an

Liu was never an ordinary student; he was what one may call a "child prodigy." In their works in memory of Liu, three leading mid-T'ang writers and intellectual figures recorded Liu's youthful genius and celebrity. Han Yii (768-824) said that the teenaged Liu was "clever and sharp, with sweeping knowledge."51 Liu Yii-hsi (772-842) wrote, "Tsung-yuan as a boy gained unusual fame at the beginning of the Chen-yuan period [785-804]." 52 And according to Huang-fu Shih (active ca. 805—35), Tsung-yiian's early writings could be likened to "billows in autumn and brocades with designs portending good luck." 53 As an outstanding student in the T'ang, Liu Tsung-yiian was evidently well-versed in ancient classics and histories, which, in most cases together with belles lettres, constituted the major materials of elite education. Not surprisingly, however, in the literary-minded intellectual community of Ch'ang-an, it was his ability to use his classical knowledge creatively in literary writing that, above all, earned him high regard. Blessed with this acknowledged talent, Liu headed for the chin-shih examination in 789, at the age of sixteen. In eighth-century China, the chin-shih degree was undisputedly the most honorable qualification title in the entire political and educational system. The chin-shih examination was thus extremely competitive and difficult. Even Liu Tsung-yiian needed four attempts before passing this annual civil service examination.54 Despite this, Liu must have been a very young chin-shih, as it was not uncommon for examinees to try for a couple of decades before they could succeed.55 Receipt of the chin-shih degree conferred the lowest mandarin rank, rank o,b2, but no actual appointment. Liu could not immediately seek government jobs, at any rate. In the fifth month of 793, three months after his examination success, his father, Chen, died, and Liu Tsung-yiian entered the mandatory period of mourning, barred from taking office.56 Liu apparently spent much of the following few years with his eldest uncle in the

51 HCLC, 32:69. 52 Liu Yii-hsi, "T'ang ku Shang-shu Li-pu Yiian-wai-lang Liu-chun chi-chi," in his Liu Yii-hsi chi (Shanghai, 1975; hereafter abbreviated as LYHC), p. 172. For Liu Tsungyiian's own description of his early renown, see LTYC, p. 1111. 53 Huang-fu Shih, "Chi Liu Tzu-hou wen," in Huang-fu Shih, Huang-fu Ch'ih-cheng wen-chi (Ssu-pu ts'ung-k'an ch'u-pien edition), p. 25. 54 For Liu's struggle with the chin-shih examination, see Shih Tzu-yii, nien-p'u, pp. 13-14. 55 Cf. Fu Hsiian-tsung, T'ang-tai k'o-chu, pp. 182, 326-39; Ma Tuan-ling, Wen-hsien t'ung-k'ao (Wan-yu wen-k'u edition, 1935), p. 276b. The success rate of the chin-shih examination was about 2 - 3 % . Certainly, many people never passed the examination even after long struggles. 56 Wang Shou-nan, "T'ang-tai wen-kuan jen-yung chih-tu chih yen-chiu," in his T'angtai cheng-chih shih lun-chi (Taipei, 1977), pp. 82-3, 129.

49

Liu Tsung-yiian and intellectual change in T'ang China

Pin-Ning (Pin-chou and Ning-chou) area, northwest of Ch'ang-an. 57 Though near the capital (Pin-chou is about seventy-five miles from Ch'ang-an), Pin-Ning was actually a military front facing the Tibetans. This situation was created by the Tibetan acquisition of a huge area of T'ang territory during the An Lu-shan rebellion, when the T'ang court transferred its crack troops then guarding the northwest to the east to fight the rebellion.58 By 793, Liu Tsung-yiian's eldest uncle, the beloved uncle with whom Tsung-yiian was closest (and unfortunately, the sole uncle whose name is unknown to us), had been for about five years a senior staff officer at the headquarters of the Pin-Ning military governor, in charge of finances of the army stationed there. 59 Tsung-yiian's frequent visits to his uncle provided him with an excellent, and possibly the first significant, opportunity to observe practical politico—military affairs at first hand. He seems to have investigated the frontier area through extensive travel, as far as the military fortresses in Ching-chou, the major front against the Tibetans under the command of another military governor. His connection with the Pin-Ning establishment went even beyond the tenure of his uncle.60 It is reasonable to assume that Liu's Pin-Ning experience contributed to the formation of his lifelong concern for the fundamental political problems of his time. Liu Tsung-yiian's uncle died of a sudden illness in the ninth day of the first month, 796. Tsung-yiian escorted his coffin back to Ch'ang-an for burial, and probably never returned to Pin-Ning. Meanwhile, Tsungyiian's mourning period for his father was over, and he had just married Miss Yang, or was about to do so, fulfilling an agreement made between the two families thirteen years earlier.61 It was the natural moment for Liu to try to commence his official career. For a T'ang chin-shih, there existed several channels for obtaining regular government positions. The formal and direct channel was to pass selection examinations (hsu'an) held by the Ministry of Personnel.62 Doubtless, with the intent of seeking the best proof of his qualifications, Liu chose the hard way: He took the special "vast erudition and grand composition" (po-hsiieh hung-tz'u) selection examination. Po-hsiieh hung-tz'u, which judged the writing skills 57 58 59

See Shih Tzu-yii, nien-p'u, pp. 15-16. See TCTC, 223:7146-7. For Liu Tsung-yiian's relationship with this uncle, see LTYC, p. 318. For Liu's uncle's career in Pin-Ning, see ibid., pp. 313, 317. 60 See LTYC, pp. 178-9, 590-1, 712-13, 811-12. 61 For Liu's marriage to Miss Yang, see LTYC, pp. 317-18, 339. 62 For a lucid explanation on this problem, see Wang Shou-nan, "T'ang-tai wen-kuan jen-yung chih-tu yen-chiu," pp. 46-72.

50

Liu Tsung-yuan and the circumstances of Ch'ang-an

of the examinees, was a test aimed at discovering elite bureaucrats. 63 Two years passed before Liu prevailed in this examination. In 798, at age twenty-five, Liu received his first official appointment as an editor at the Chi-hsien-tien Academy, an academy cum library subordinate to the Secretariat (chung-shu sheng). A few (four?) years later, he became an assistant (with the title of district defender) to the magistrate of Lan-t'ien district of the greater Ch'ang-an area. In 803, he was promoted to the post of investigating censor in the Censorate, and in early 805, to that of vice bureau director (yuan-wai lang) in the Ministry of Rites. 64 Yuan-wai lang ranked 6b 1, one degree higher than the rank of deputy censor (6b2), the post Tsung-yiian's father had held at the time of his death. 65 This is not an appropriate place to explain in detail the system of transfers within the mid-T'ang civil bureaucracy. Suffice it to say that Tsung-yuan enjoyed a series of smooth and unusually fast promotions. Indeed, all the positions that he attained up to this point were on the shortest track that we know of for a junior official to be promoted to key offices in the central government.66 In "Cherries and a Blue Gown Lady" (Ying-t'ao chying-i), a T'ang short story, the protagonist, Student Lu, dreams that he rises from a mere young man of letters to the status of a leading statesman through a perfect career. In that dream, up to the point of being a yuan-wai lang, Lu goes through a process remarkably similar to that of the young Liu's career. The only differences are the following: Student Lu passed the examinations and had a brilliant start in government service thanks mainly to a helping hand from an aunt with good connections, and second, Lu took one more post than did Liu before receiving the appointment ofyilan-wai lang.67 (For the locations of Liu's activities in Ch'ang-an and its adjacent areas, see Maps 2 and 4.) 63 64 65 66

67

See Matsumoto Akira, "To no senkyosei ni kansuru shomondai," in Suzuki Shun sensei koki kinen toyoshi ronso (Tokyo, 1975), pp. 391-414.. Shih Tzu-yii, nien-p'u, pp. 20-33. LTYC, p. 296. For an overview of the transference system of the T'ang civil bureaucracy, see Sun Kuo-tung, T'ang-tai chung-yang chung-yao wen-kuan ch'ien-chuan t'u-ching yen-chiu (Hong Kong, 1978), particularly pp. 181-248. To realize how fast Liu was promoted, one may consult Sun Kuo-tung, ibid., pp. 7-8, 53-8; Wang Tang, T'ang yu-lin, p. 277. Denis Twitchett wrote a brief survey of the T'ang examination system and bureaucratic career structure in his The Birth of the Chinese Meritocracy: Bureaucrats and Examinations in T'ang China (London, 1974). This story is very similar to another T'ang, and highly famous, story: "The World in the Pillow" (Chen-chung chi), by Shen Chi-chi (c. 740-800). For an excellent explanation of "Cherries and a Blue Gown Lady," see Sun Kuo-tung, "Ts'ung Meng-yu-lu k'an T'ang-tai wen-jen ch'ien-kuan te tsui-yu t'u-ching," in his T'ang-Sung shih lun-ts'ung (Hong Kong, 1980), pp. 17-36. Yet Sun makes a mistake in referring to the po-hsueh hung-tz'u examination as a decree examination (chih-chu). "Po-hsueh hung-

51

Liu Tsung-yuan and intellectual change in T'ang China

u

\

J

Ning-chou

chou

y

xi

^

Pin-chc

N_ \_ Lan-t'ien^-—

0

100km

Map 4. Liu Tsung-yiian's activities in the adjacent areas of Ch'ang-an.

In his late twenties and early thirties, Liu Tsung-yiian was definitely a rising star in political circles, but he was by no means only a professional administrator. He continued to be an active writer, and, more important for his self-identity, he was a man of ideas and ideals. Indeed, he saw himself situated in the intellectual rather than the political community. As he said around 815, "I had lived in the imperial capital for thirtythree years . . . coming and going [to various places]. Those whom I had discourse with were none but scholars." 68 It was also in Ch'ang-an's intellectual community that he developed the ideas that guided his political actions and that formed the groundwork for his later, mature thought. Finally, there is a sad note about Liu's personal life. Amid his brilliant career, family tragedy struck repeatedly. His wife and two sisters - all of his immediate family members save his mother - died from illness within four years, between 799 and 802.69 tz'u" was indeed used as the name for the decree examination in 731 - but only in that year. See Liu Po-chi, T'ang-tai cheng-chiao shih (Taipei, 1974), p. 159; THY, p. 1388. Nevertheless, what the term means in this story is apparently a selection examination held by the Ministry of Personnel. 68 LTYC, p. 664. 69 See Shih Tzu-yu, nien-p'u, pp. 23-8.

Liu Tsung-yuan and the circumstances of Ch }ang-an

"Mentors" and peers During the mid-T'ang, a variety of intellectual circles existed in Ch'angan, notably in the literary and religious (Buddhist and Taoist) communities, and among scholars of classical and historical studies.70 In a generalist culture, these communities naturally overlapped to some extent. There is no question that Liu Tsung-yiian was primarily attached to the literary community. Yet he also had connections with classical scholars and Buddhist monks. The literary community in Ch'ang-an was not only the most prominent among all the intellectual communities but also far larger than any other. A good many literary men served as ranked officials in the central and local governments in the Ch'ang-an area; talented and not-sotalented writers routinely came out of Ch'ang-an's aristocratic and upper-class families. Moreover, hundreds of chin-shih hopefuls poured into the capital every year. They furnished an unceasing supply of new blood for the literary world there. 71 T'ang literary men were enthusiastic in pursuing companionship or organizing groups among themselves. Thus we see such terms as "Hsiao (Ying-shih)-Li (Hua)," "Yuan (Chen)-Po (Chu-i)," "Ten Talents in the Ta-li Era (766-79)" (Ta-li shih-ts'ai-tzu), and 'Four Friends in the Mountain" (Shan-chung ssu-yu) - all appellations of renowned literary groupings in the second half of the eighth century and the beginning of the ninth. 72 It is clear that there were emotional and artistic motives for the formation of groups of this kind. Their formation often resulted from the mutual appreciation of their members both as individuals and as writers. In the area of writing, the members of these assemblages helped, learned from, and, no less passionately, competed with one another in artistic terms. In personal life, they held close relationships; their shared moments and experience frequently constituted the common themes of their works. The exchange of their feelings through artistic media, chiefly poems, in many cases elevated their friendships to a highly sensitive and spiritual level.73 70

For an excellent study of the social composition of Ch'ang-an, see Nunome Chofu and Seo Tatsuhiko, "Todai Choan no toshi keitai," in Nunome Chofu, ed., To So jidai no gyosei keizai chizu no sakusei kenkyu seika hokokusho (Osaka, 1981), pp. 65-85. 71 For a vivid description of this situation, see HCLC, 37:15. 72 See Nunome Chofu and Nakamura Takashi, To saishi den no kenkyu (Osaka, 1972), pp. 187-9, I 94~7 3 2 O 3 - 6 , 313-24; HTS, 202:5769-70. See also Hans Frankel, "T'ang Literati: A Composite Biography," in Arthur F. Wright and Denis Twitchett, eds., Confucian Personalities (Stanford, Calif, 1962), pp. 70-2; Hu Chen-heng, Tang-shih t'an-ts'ung (Hsiieh-hai lei-pien edition), 4 : i a - b . 73 For a revealing explanation of the T'ang literary grouping, see Ch'en Yin-k'o, Yiian-

53

Liu Tsung-yiian and intellectual change in T'ang China

What is described above, nonetheless, falls far short of telling the whole story about T'ang literary groupings. In fact, behind the bustling collective activities of the men of letters, especially those in Ch'ang-an, lay an even stronger and plainly utilitarian motivation: the desire to establish connections and build reputations in order to obtain practical benefits. This was particularly well-known as a prominent feature of the chin-shih examination enterprise. The T'ang did not practice the anonymity measure in the civil service examination that was to be carried out by all dynasties beginning with the Sung; all examination papers remained signed. It became customary in the T'ang for the chinshih candidates to make every effort to influence the examiners' choices prior to the actual test. The standard strategies were to achieve fame through peer consensus, and to present one's works to the examiners and established writers. Beyond the circle of the chin-shih candidates, the same sorts of activities also prevailed among the new chin-shih graduates and junior officials.74 The T'ang intellectuals outside the religious communities, certainly including literary men, were notorious for their indifferent, even scornful, attitudes toward both teachers and the idea of teaching and learning. The relationship between the older and younger generations, therefore, was often expedient in nature. The devoted teacher-disciple bond that became so deeply and firmly rooted in Chinese culture in subsequent periods - even down to the present day - scarcely existed.75 While Liu Tsung-yiian was in Ch'ang-an, the teaching-learning problem never came into his mind (it was brought to his attention later by Han Yii).76 And in actual life, young Liu probably did not take any acquaintances in the older generations of literary Ch'ang-an as his models - intellectually, artistically, or spiritually. There is no question that Liu Tsung-yiian was in general highly regarded among senior literary men in the capital and that many eminent scholar-officials competed to claim him as their "pupil." 77 There existed, roughly, three types of relationships between Liu and

74 75 76 77

Pai-shih chien-cheng kao, CYKWC 6, pp. I - I I . For a perfect example concerning the intimate relationship between T'ang literary men (that between Han Yii and Meng Chiao), see Lo Lien-t'ien, Han Yiiyen-chiu (Taipei, 1977), pp. 155-62; Stephen Owen, The Poetry of Meng Chiao and Han Yii (New Haven, Conn., 1975), chap. 7; Yu Hsinhsiung, Meng Chiaoyen-chiu (Taipei, 1984), pp. 114-23. See Wang Ting-pao, T'ang chih-yen (Shanghai, 1957), pp. 23-44; Takeda Ryuji, "Todai senkyo," pp. 32-8. For details, see chap. 6, sec. 3. See LTYC, pp. 871, 880. See HCLC, 32:69.

54

Liu Tsung-yuan and the circumstances of Ch }ang-an

these people. Despite being genuinely gifted, Liu still, as the social environment and his own ambitions required, sought to impress accomplished writers personally. Ch'iian Te-yii (759-818), a seasoned poet and writer of official rescripts, was one to whom Liu submitted his works as a youth. Liu also had a nominal master, Ku Shao-lien (741-803), the examiner who passed him in the 793 chin-shih examination.78 However, Liu Tsung-yuan did receive instruction in writing from some veteran writers. They included, Yang Ning (d. 803) and Yang Ling,79 the twin brothers of Liu's father-in-law, Yang P'ing, and Ts'ui Yuan-han, an unsociable writer who began to establish a reputation in his late forties.80 In addition, Liu was on good terms with a number of other elder literary men, though their real relationships with him remain obscure to us. Among them were Chou Chun-ch'ao, Hsu Meng-jung (743-818), Mu Chih, and Yang Yu-ling (753-830). 81 All the people just mentioned, with the exception of Chou Chun-ch'ao, were prominent figures in either the literary or the political arena. Ch'iian Te-yu and Ts'ui Yuan-han, in particular, distinguished themselves as the leading writers of their generation. Although it seems clear that none of these figures exerted a strong influence on Liu's thought - none of them, in effect, was known for possessing forceful views on general intellectual issues or literary theory - in one respect they probably still made a significant contribution to Liu's intellectual 78

Liu wrote a letter solely for the purpose of making his talent known to Ch'iian so that his prospect for passing the examination might be helped. See LTYC, pp. 909-11. For its English translation, see Jennings Gentzler, "Literary Biography," pp. 33-7. For Ch'iian's life and achievement, see CTS, 148:4001-5; HTS, 165:5076-80; Nunome Chofu and Nakamura Takashi, To saishi den, pp. 309-11. I have no knowledge about any other senior writer to whom Liu might have submitted his works, but, in his letter to Ch'iian, Liu stated clearly that he often actively sought senior intellectuals' attention regarding his writing skills. For Ku's life and his relationship with Liu Tsung-yiian, see HTS, 162:4994-5; Hsu Sung, Teng-k'o-chi k'ao (Nan-ching shu-yuan ts'ung-shu edition of 1888; rpt. Taipei, 1972), 10:28a, 13:13a-!6b; LTYC, pp. 600, 804-5. For evidence about Liu's effort to build connections with the established elite before passing the chin-shih exam, see LTYC, p. 600. 79 See LTYC, pp. 213, 300, 580; HTS, 160:4970-1; Ch'iian Te-yii, "T'ang ku Shang-shu Ping-pu lang-chung Yang-chiin chi hsii," in Ch'iian Te-yii, Ch'uan Tsai-chih wen-chi (Ssu-pu ts'ung-k'an ch'u-pien edition), pp. 196-7. 80 For the relationship between Ts'ui and Liu, see LTYC, pp. 655, 922. Ts'ui was a good friend of Ch'iian Te-yii and, also like Ch'iian, an acclaimed prose stylist. See CTS, 137:3766-7; HTS, 203:5783-4; Ch'iian Te-yii, "T'ang ku Shang-shu Pi-pu langchung Po-ling Ts'ui chiin wen-chi hsii," in his Ch'iian Tsai-chih wen-chi, pp. 195-6. 81 See LTYC, pp. 588, 779-84, 839-40, 1050-2, 1143-5, IJ57> J I 74- For Chou's biographical information, see Hsii Sung, Teng-k'o-chi k'ao, 14:1b. For Hsu's, CTS, 154:4099-103; HTS, 162:4999-5001. For Mu's, CTS, 155:4166-4167; HTS, 163:5016. For Yang's, CTS, 164:4292-4; HTS, 163:5031-3.

55

Liu Tsung-yiian and intellectual change in T'ang China

development: They helped expose Liu to the growing ku-wen (ancient prose) movement. Some of them, namely Ch'iian Te-yii, Hsu Mengjung, and, most distinctly, Ts'ui Yuan-han, supported the basic ideas of this movement.82 This likely stimulation, however, did not go beyond the conceptual level; most of the extant prose works of these writers, as well as those of the young Liu Tsung-yiian, were written in the rather conventional style that Liu abandoned in his intellectual and artistic maturity. Of all Liu's senior acquaintances in the literary community known to us, one person stands out: Wei Ghih-i. Wei was about ten years older than Liu, and his relationship with him was long, close, and somewhere between friend and patron. Literary writing does not seem to have played a noteworthy role in their relationship, though in the early 790s young Wei was a favored writer of Emperor Te-tsung (reigned 780805). Wei's primary importance for Liu lay in the fact that Wei was a leader of an intellectual group to which Liu was tightly attached and whose actions would lead Liu to both success and disgrace.84 This group and its constituents will be discussed later. Liu Tsung-yiian was definitely much closer to his peers than to the older generation. Nevertheless, his relationship with the majority of his friends of the same generation as himself within the literary world carried little weight in his intellectual life. Most of these friends, mainly fellow chinshih candidates and graduates as well as colleagues, were merely his social companions, and some of these "friendships" may even have been made with the consideration of establishing connections. There were also some who became Liu's personal friends for a while but apparently had 82

For Ch'iian's writings endorsing the ku-wen ideas, see Lo Lien-t'ien, ed., Sui Tang Wu-tai wen-hsiieh p'i-p'ing tzu-liao hui-pien (Taipei, 1978), pp. 136-8. For Hsu's, see ibid., pp. 145-6. For Ts'ui's, see CTW, 523:230-240, 26b-28a. Ts'ui was a disciple of Tu-ku Chi and a close friend of Liang Su - Tu-ku and Liang being the two leading ku-wen advocates prior to the rise of Han Yii. 83 As Ch'iian Te-yii, Hsu Meng-jung, and Ts'ui Yuan-han asserted that writing should be the expression of Tao, another pillar of the ku-wen movement - stylistic innovation had not yet become an important element in their literary undertaking. The symmetrical sentence structure continued to dominate their essays. For the comments of traditional literary critics on Liu's early works, see Wu Wen-chih, ed., Liu Tsungyiian chu'an (Peking, 1964), vol. 1, pp. 55, 139-40. Liu Tsung-yiian himself also pointed out the stylistic difference between his essays written before and after his banishment in 805. See LTYC, pp. 864, 873. 84 For Wei's career, see CTS, 135:3728-9, 3732-3; HTS, 168:5123-4. For the Wei-Liu relationship, see Tu Mu, "T'ang ku T'ai-tzu-shao-shih Ch'i-chang-chun K'ai-kuokung tseng T'ai-wei Niu-kung mu-chih-ming ping-hsii," in his Fan-ch'uan wen-chi (Ssu-pu ts'ung-k'an ch'u-pien edition), p. 69; Pien Hsiao-hsiian, Liu Yu'-hsi nien-p'u (Shanghai, 1963), p. 32.

56

Liu Tsung-yuan and the circumstances of Ch'ang-an

no lasting impact on him. In the latter category was Yuan Lun, who achieved the highest place in the 793 chin-shih examination, and later passed into oblivion.85 After taking office and beginning his own career, Liu became actively associated with two groups of young intellectuals. The first (which I shall at times refer to as Group A) consisted almost entirely of the most noted literary men of Liu's generation. All but a couple of them attained the chin-shih degree in the 790s.86 This was a loosely knit circle, whose members diverged in intellectual and career orientations. It included Han Yii, who was already an ardent advocate and practitioner of ku-wen ideas and whose literary achievement clearly had surpassed that of Liu at the time.87 Furthermore, there were those who apparently concentrated on the pursuit of political careers and whose talents in writing served only to prove their intellectual capacity. Thus we find within this group the following future statesmen: Hsiao Fu (d. 837?), Li Chien (764-821), Ts'ui Ch'iin (772-832), and Ts'ui Yen (768-836). 88 Wang Ya (d. 835), another member of this group, turned out to be highly successful in both political and literary spheres.89 Given the nonintellectual nature of the group, its contribution to Liu's development as a thinker and writer was probably quite limited. Yet the 85

86

87

88

89

For some information about Liu's social companions, see LTYC, pp. 596-7, 1055-7. For information about Yuan Lun and another personal friend of Liu's, see ibid., pp. 599-601, 1076-8; Hsu Sung, Teng-k'o-chi k'ao, 13:13b. Interestingly, despite the high prestige of the chin-shih degree in general, most T'ang top chin-shih graduates did not become important figures of their times. An incomplete list of number one chin-shih graduates appears in Nunome Chofu and Nakamura Takashi, To saishi den, pp. 78-82 from the back. The best evidence about the existence of this grouping is in LTYC, pp. 277-8, 589, 802; HCLC, 1:23-4, 22:47. The chin-shih graduates in this group included Han T'ai (795), Han Yii (792), Hsiao Fu (791), Li Chien (798), Li Ching-chien (799), Liu Tsung-yiian (793), Liu Yu-hsi (793), Lii Wen (798), Ts'ui Ch'iin (792), Ts'ui Yen (795), Tu-ku Shen-shu (797), and Wang Ya (792). See Hsu Sung, Teng-k'o-chi k'ao, I2:27b-i4:23a. Prior to 805, Liu had not yet written any of his important works, while Han had already written some of his. Ou-yang Chan (d. 802?), another dedicated ku-wen writer might also belong to this group. There are no records showing that Liu knew Ou-yang, yet Ou-yang was a good friend of Han Yii and Tsui Ch'iin, both of whom Liu befriended in this grouping. See HCLC, 22:47. Both Hsiao and Ts'ui Ch'iin became prime ministers (CTS, 172:4476-9, 159:4187-90; HTS, 101:3957-9, 165:5080-2). Li Chien became the minister of rites and that of punishment (CTS, 155:4125; HTS, 162:5005). Ts'ui Yen was also once the minister of rites and served for a long time in the powerful position of military governor (CTS, 155:4118-19; HTS, 163:5017-18). The young Liu seems to have been very close to Li Chien and Ts'ui Ch'iin. See CTS, 169:4401-5; HTS, 179:5317-19- Yet he and his family were slaughtered in 835 in the bloody coup d'etat known as the "Sweet Dew Incident".

57

Liu Tsung-yiian and intellectual change in T'ang China

presence of Han Yii within it still bespoke Liu's early connection with the ku-wen movement. Liu was also familiar with Han's radical antiBuddhism and his view that the ultimate value in human existence lay in an ethical life rooted in this world.90 The character of the second peer group to which Liu Tsung-yiian was attached (Group B) was distinctly different from that of Group A. Group B was very much integrated and possessed a clear sense of direction. Although its members had diverse backgrounds, literary men still constituted a major portion of it. Aside from Liu Tsung-yiian himself, several other rising stars in literary Ch'ang-an were active in this group: Han T'ai, Li Ching-chien, Liu Yu-hsi, and Lii Wen (772-811) of them, the latter two later earned notable positions in the history of Chinese literature). 91 Like Liu Tsung-yuan, these people also belonged to Group A at the same time. However, literature played no significant role in bringing together these promising literati, Liu Tsung-yiian, and some other young intellectuals. Their group may be characterized as an intellectual group with specific political goals, or as a rather secretive political alliance with intellectual interests. Its members embraced a vision of launching drastic political reform. Their intellectual discourse obviously centered on contemporary political issues, statecraft in general, and the principles of a proper social and political order.92 Here is Liu Yii-hsi's description of the young Lii Wen as an inspiring leader of this group: When [Lii] grew older, his goals became greater. He thus put aside literature and made friends with outstanding and virtuous people. He endeavored to cultivate [a lofty] bearing, examining actualities according to their names, longingly taking as his greatest goals the fulfillment of kingliness and the realization of people's well-being. . . . He studied and discussed with his friends the methods of [achieving] kingliness, hegemony, wealth and power [of a state], and the way of loyal subjects and filial sons. .. . He thought that he would appear to hold sun and moon high and march forward if he [acted] according to these 9c 91

SeeHCLC, 20:18-19. Lii was also known as a ku-wen theorist and writer. See Ma Ch'eng-su, Lii Ho-shu hsueh-p'u (Taipei, 1977), pp. 3, 103-10. Liu developed into a poet as well as an essayist with distinctive style. See Wolfgang Kubin, "Liu Yii-hsi," in William H. Nienhauser, Jr., et al., eds., The Indiana Companion to Traditional Chinese Literature (Bloomington, 1986), pp. 592-3. 92 See LTYC, pp. 217, 255-6, 653, 818-19; LYHC, pp. 188, 256; Lii Wen, Tang Lii Ho-shu wen-chi (Ssu-pu ts'ung-k'an ch'u-pien edition; hereafter abbreviated as TLHW), i:7a-b, 8:7a—b. Most works of the members of this group other than Liu Tsung-yiian, Liu Yii-hsi and Lii Wen have been lost. Hence we have no access to their reports of and reflections on the activities of this group.

58

Liu Tsung-yuan and the circumstances of Ch }ang-an

words and principles . . . and who could block this force and claim to be brighter than it?93

Group B was also joined by a number of able young bureaucrats, among them Ch'en Chien, Han Yeh, and Ling Chun. Ch'en, a finance specialist, apparently held interests in religion and literature as well, having connections with Liang Su, the famous ku-wen master and Buddhist propagator of the late eighth century. Ling was a classicist and historian, whose writing on T'ang military history was referred to extensively by Ssu-ma Kuang in his magnum opus, Tzu-chih t'ung-chien.94 In addition, this group did indeed have mentors. They were Wei Chih-i, who has already been introduced, Wang Shu-wen, the person who almost single-handedly transformed the zeal and ideas of these young intellectuals into a meteoric reform movement, and Lu Ch'un (d. 805), a prominent canonical scholar and the intellectual guru of the group. Classical scholars in Ch'ang-an were of course fewer in number and socially less prominent than were literary men. Many of these scholars served in institutions in charge of ritual and educational affairs, such as the Court of Imperial Sacrifices (T'ai-ch'ang ssu) and the Imperial University (Kuo-tzu chien).95 Intellectuals with "scholar clan" backgrounds were also commonly well-versed in the classics. Lu Ch'un, however, was no ordinary classicist; he occupied a crucial place in the history of Confucian canonical studies. He was the most eminent follower of Tan Chu and Chao K'uang's new classical scholarship. Thus, he became one of the first T'ang classical specialists who rejected the traditional technical and fragmentary approaches to the classics and endeavored to expound the underlying meaning of the Confucian canon. 93 LYHC, p. 171. 94 For biographical information about Ch'en, see Lao Ke and Chao Yueh, T'ang Shangshu-sheng lang-kuan shih-chu t'i-ming k'ao (Yueh-ho ching-she ts'ung-ch'ao edition, rpt. Taipei, 1972), I7:i2b-i3a; Pien Hsiao-hsiian, '"T'ang ku hsiang-kung chin-shih Ying-ch'uan Ch'en-chiin mu-chih' te shih-liao chia-chih," Wen-wu, 1986:2, p. 70. Pien and the editors of CTW (CTW, 684:9b) hold that Ch'en was once a subordinate of the legendary financial minister Liu Yen. Yet there is no conclusive evidence to support this assertion. For Ch'en's intellectual interest, see CTW, 684:12a-13a. For Ling's life, career and writings, see CTS, 135:3737; HTS, 58:1485, 168:5127; LTYC, pp. 263-5, 1208-9; Ch'en Chen-sun, Chih-chai shu-lu chieh-t'i (Yii chih-t'i wu-ying-tien chen-pan edition, rpt. Taipei, 1967), 5:13b. The relationship between Ling and Liu appears to have been intimate. Their friendship in all probability began in Liu's Pin-chou years (793-6). At that time Ling was a high-ranking staff officer for the Pin-Ning military governor (LTYC, pp. 264, 1209; Shih Tzu-yii, nien-p'u, pp. 14-16). For information about Han, see CTS, 135:3736; HTS, 73a:286g, 168:5127. 95 See HTS, 198:5635-200:5723.

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Liu Tsung-yiian and intellectual change in T'ang China

Moreover, despite keeping a continued interest in ritual, the focal topic of medieval classical studies, like his mentors, he was principally concerned with the proper way of governing. The prime subject of his scholarship was the Spring and Autumn Annals, in which Confucius allegedly delivered his messages of political judgment. Lu did not write much of his own. Yet it was in his hands that the works of Tan and Chao were collected and edited, and he was also the person most responsible for introducing their scholarship from the lower Yangtze (Wu) area to the national elite in Ch'ang-an. In this way Lu pioneered what was to become the redirection of Sung classical studies.96 Lu Ch'un's teacher-disciple relationship with Liu Tsung-yiian was brief and remained largely nominal throughout,97 but Lu was clearly the senior scholar with the greatest intellectual influence upon Group B as a whole.98 This fact betrays a new development in the middle T'ang: Whereas literary creation continued to enjoy an unparalleled prestige among intellectual activities, as a form of education and intellectual power, literature alone no longer satisfied the growing interest of many literati in the public realm of human life. They began to look anew to the old Confucian texts for fresh insights on sociopolitical principles. Around 802, Liu Tsung-yiian, Liu Yii-hsi and Han T'ai also together attended the classes on the Book of Poetry offered by Shih Shih-kai, 96

In both CTS and HTS, Lu Ch'un fe appeared as Lu Chih g \ In 805, the last year of his life, the court, under the control of the Wang Shu-wen faction, appointed him as the tutor of the heir apparent, the future Hsien-tsung emperor. Hsien-tsung's original name was Li Ch'un :{f. (changed into Ch'un $$ after his designation as the crown prince), so that Lu had to change his name (from Ch'un to Chih) in accordance with the rules of avoidance. For Lu's life, see CTS, 1890:4977-8; HTS, 168:5127-8; LTYC, pp. 208-10. For Emperor Hsien-tsung's name, see CTS, 14:406. Lu did write a work interpreting the theories of Tan and Chao on the Annals, which is called Ch'un-ch'iu chi-chuan shih-i and is still extant. For general discussion about his place in the history of Chinese classical studies, see Lii Ssu-mien, Sui-T'ang Wu-tai shih, vol. 2, pp. 1298302. There is more discussion on the mid-T'ang new canonical scholarship in chap. 6, sec. 2. 97 LTYC, p. 819. Liu did not meet Lu until early 805 when Lu was recalled from Chekiang to the capital. Before taking the office of provincial governor, Lu had served at court for at least ten years up to the mid-79os. Lii Wen was then Lu Ch'un's disciple (HTS, 160:4967; TLHW, 4:4b-5b), and some other members of Group B might also have encountered him during that period. For information about Lu's career, see Lao Ke and Chao Yueh, lang-kuan t'i-ming k'ao, i:i4a-b, 17:11a. In addition, in 804, in the capacity of governor of T'ai-chou (in modern Chekiang), Lu also received Saicho (767-822), the famous founder of Japan's Tendai (i.e. T'ien-t'ai) school, who came to China to study and collect Buddhist writings. For a detailed study, see Tozaki Tetsuhiko, "Liu-ch'uan Jih-pen te yu-kuan Lu Chih te shih-liao chih jo-kan k'ao-cheng," Chung-kuo che-hsiieh-shihyen-chiu, 1985:1, pp. 49-58. 98 According to Liu Tsung-yiian's report in LTYC, p. 819, most major figures of this group enthusiastically studied Lu's classical exegeses and interpretations. There were no other comparable cases to this.

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another unorthodox classicist and a popular professor at the Imperial University." Among Tsung-yiian's peers there were also some classical scholars.100 Liu Tsung-yiian perhaps exaggerated slightly when, as an exile in Yung-chou, he claimed that he "had searched for the Buddhist Way for thirty years" - that is, since childhood.101 Yet there is little doubt that he appreciated Buddhism, even though this sentiment did not surface much in his writings and activities until he left Ch'ang-an in 805.102 With regard to Liu's Buddhist connections during his Ch'ang-an years, there now survives only the record of three Buddhist monks with whom Liu came to be friends. All three were stationed in the south and went to the capital only for visiting purposes. One of them, Ling-ch'e, was better known as a poet than as a religious figure.103 We have no knowledge about the relationship between Liu and the native Buddhist community of Ch'ang-an, which, despite suffering a considerable decline after the An Lu-shan rebellion, remained large and relatively lively. It seems safe to assume that this relationship, if there was one, was tenuous at best.104 It is worth mentioning here Liu Tsung-yiian's involvement in an incident of student protest. This incident took place in the ninth month, 798, when approximately two hundred Imperial University students rallied for a few days in front of the Ta-ming Palace to plead for the withdrawal of the decree banishing Yang Ch'eng (736-805), a deputy rector of the university,105 to Tao-chou (in present southern Hunan). Yang was a greatly celebrated figure during the Chen-yuan reign because of his idiosyncratic yet principled deeds. He gained esteem 99 100

101 102 103 104

105

Wang Tang, T'ang yu-lin, p. 50. For information about Shih, see HTS, 200:5707; HCLC, 24:71-2. There were, for instance, Ling Shih-hsieh (LTYC, pp. 651-2), P'ei Chin, Liu's brother-in-law (LTYC, pp. 234-6, 572-4), and someone who might be Yuan Yii. For the identification of the last person, see LTYC, p. 818; Chang Shih-chao, Liu-wen chih-yao, pp. 965-6, 1003; Yii Hsien-hao, T'ang t'zu-shih k'ao, vol. 4 (Hong Kong, 1987), p. 2034. LTYC, p. 671. The best evidence about the early development of Liu's taste for Buddhism is seen in an essay written immediately after he arrived in Yung-chou (LTYC, p. 751). For his much deeper involvement with Buddhism after 805, see chap. 8, sec. 3. See LTYC, pp. 667-9, 683-4, 1181; HCLC, 20:18-19. For a biographical sketch of Ling-ch'e, see Tsan-ning, Sung kao-sen chuan, chu'an 15, in Taisho, vol. 50, p. 802. For Buddhism in Ch'ang-an during the mid-T'ang, see Tsukamoto Zenryu, To chuki no Jodokyo (Kyoto, 1975), chap. 2. In Liu Tsung-yiian's extant works, there is not a single word about the native Buddhist community of Ch'ang-an. This is the ground of my inference. The title of this position was Kuo-tzu ssu-yeh, meaning the director of education of the Imperial University. See Robert des Rotours, tr., Traite des fonctionnaires et traite de Varmee, vol. 1 (Leiden, 1948), p. 443. 6l

Liu Tsung-yuan and intellectual change in T'ang China

in his early years as an ascetic hermit and moral model. In 788, he finally accepted the summons of the court to become a Grand Master of Remonstrance (Chien-i ta-fu), a position whose principal function was to remonstrate with the emperor about what he considered improper conduct or policy.106 Yang, however, disappointed Ch'ang-an's intellectual circles by his complete silence, and it was not until seven years later that he took dramatic action. Early in 795, when the widely respected Lu Chih (754-805) was removed from the office of prime minister, exiled, and in danger of losing his life, Yang led a number of officials in memorializing the emperor on behalf of Lu and refused to leave the palace for several days. He subsequently even threatened to humiliate publicly P'ei Yen-ling (d. 796), the main actor with the emperor behind Lu Chih's adversity, if P'ei were to be appointed prime minister. Although Yang was thereby demoted to service at the Imperial University, P'ei did not obtain the prime ministership. This episode does not seem to have led to a transformation of Yang's character. His 798 banishment directly resulted from his defiance of the court's punishment of an Imperial University student who was charged with making "incorrect" political criticism.107 Though Yang's banishment dismayed him, for he took Yang as an example to follow, Liu Tsung-yiian was thrilled and overwhelmed by the students' demonstration. He apparently deemed the students' action to be a manifestation of the spiritual awakening of contemporary intellectuals, and a sign of the revival of the ancient Way. It reminded him of the magnificent and heroic student movement in the late second century A.D. He sent a long letter to the student leaders to express admiration, and then wrote an essay to be inscribed on a stone tablet to commemorate Yang Ch'eng's contribution to education at the university.108 In reality the Imperial University in the mid-T'ang was an unimportant, petty institution; the students' unsuccessful challenge to the court did not lead to many social or intellectual repercussions.109 Liu Tsungyiian's vehement response to it, however, perfectly illuminated his self106 Charles Hucker, Dictionary, p. 148. 107 For Yang Ch'eng's life and the Lu Chih-P'ei Yen-ling incident, see CTS, 135:37227> 139:3817, 192:5132-4; HTS, 157:4931, 167:5108, 194:5569-72. Yet there was an irony in this drama. While Liu and the members of Group B doubtless adored both Yang Ch'eng and Lu Chih, P'ei Yen-ling was the father-in-law of Lii Kung, Lii Wen's brother and a political comrade of Liu too (HTS, 160:4966-7; LTYC, p. 256). 108 LTYC, pp. 204-7, 867-70. Liu probably had reason to be excited. Traditional China saw its first major student movement in the late second century, at the end of the Later Han. Another large-scale student movement came only during the early twelfth century, on the eve of the fall of the Northern Sung. 109 Cf. the part on Liu Tsung-yiian's education in the last section.

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assigned role as an idealistic activist. As a highly reputed writer and official, Liu was, of course, not merely a peer of the university students. Though younger than some of them, to a certain degree he was their adviser. This remained the status he enjoyed vis-a-vis many other younger literati in his last years in the capital. 110 To sum up, while in Ch'ang-an Liu Tsung-yiian's contact with the literary world was lengthy and varied but rather superficial. In the depth of his heart lay a zeal for political reform and comradeship with likeminded intellectuals. Furthermore, he grew serious about canonical studies. Liu was one of a new type of T'ang literary men. Literature gave these men success, renown, and, obviously, spiritual joy of a sort. But they were striving, in their different ways, to grasp one fundamental thing: the Tao of the human world.

Tendencies and ideas Unlike many literati who gave up the art of writing after passing the civil service examinations, Liu Tsung-yuan retained his literary reputation as a rising junior official. He was in great demand, busy writing inscriptions, occasional essays for farewell parties, and memorials on behalf of various offices and officials.111 Liu's artistic talent and interest were not confined to literary writing. He loved music and calligraphy, too. Indeed, in later years he developed into one of the top calligraphers of his day, excelling in the chang-ts'ao "draft-cursive" script, though this achievement did not earn him a permanent place in the history of Chinese art as his prose and poetry did in literature. 112 On his own admission, however, while in Ch'ang-an Liu was neither very sincere nor reflective about writing. He confessed that he equated literary creation with rhetorical techniques on the one hand and belittled this kind of play on the other. 113 On his scale of values, literature was clearly outweighed by conscientious political enterprise. The ultimate concern of the young Liu rested in the improvement of the world by means of government. He, as suggested before, was a single-minded selfno

A student leader at the Imperial University named Ho Fan was definitely older than Liu. See HCLC, 14:35-6; HTS, 194:5572. For Liu Tsung-yiian's status in Ch'ang-an as an adviser to junior intellectuals, see LTYC, pp. 880, 884. i n See Shih Tzu-yii, nien-p'u, pp. 24-5, 27-9, 31-3, 42-6. 112 See LTYC, pp. 826, 843, 886, 1460. According to Shen Tseng-chih (1851-1922), a famous Chinese scholar at the turn of the century, Tachibana no Hayanari (d. 842), a famous Japanese calligrapher who had traveled to China, followed Liu's style. I do not know what the basis of this claim is. See Shen's Hai-jih-lou cha-ts'ung (Shanghai, 1962), p. 338. 113 LTYC, pp. 824, 873.

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styled Confucian crusader, taking as his task "the revival of the Tao of Yao, Shun and Confucius and to benefit and bring peace to the masses." 114 For him, "writing . . . is just like the mastery of chess." 115 In other words, Liu worked and studied with a cause in mind, but rarely wrote about what he thought or aimed at. It is certain that some of the ideas Liu discussed extensively in exile had earlier roots. 116 Nevertheless, his want of interest in serious writing prior to his banishment leaves us with little material concerning his early thought. Among his extant works dated with certainty before 805, only one essay reveals with clarity his views on certain intellectual problems attracting the attention of mid-T'ang intellectuals. This essay, "On the Cha Sacrifice," presents its issues and reasoning in the context of expounding the meaning of an ancient rite. Cha was a ceremony conducted at the end of the year by the T'ang court to offer thanksgiving to various spirits for their help in making the year peaceful. An intriguing feature to this rite was that, if a disaster struck a certain locality in a certain year, no sacrificial offering would be made to the guardian spirit in that place for that year. This ceremony originated in ancient times and was described in classics on rites.117 Liu Tsung-yiian argued that the real intention of ancient sages establishing (or endorsing) this rite was to warn men rather than to punish gods. He wrote, I am unable to see spirits. I cannot tell whether they accept the sacrificial offering. . . . If creatures that are unfathomable and beyond comprehension, that are obscure and cannot be grasped or held are punished and deprived in this way, then what will be done to those whose features and actions are solid and substantial? The sacrifice may be spread out for the spirits, but its purpose is to serve as an admonition to men.118 Liu then went on to emphasize that this point did not imply a theory of correlation between Heaven (or Nature) and human behavior. That is, he did not mean in any way that natural disasters came as warning or retribution from Heaven for human misconduct. Using a modern concept, we may say that he actually gave a "symbolic" interpretation of the ritual. Unquestionably, Liu set up this possible misunderstanding because he intended to repudiate in this essay the correlative cosmology

114 115 116 117 118

LTYC, p. 780. See also p. 876. LTYC, p. 824. For example, see LTYC, p. 30. See Wang Meng-ou, Li-chi chin-chu chin-i, vol. 1, p. 344. LTYC, p. 458, as translated in Jennings Gentzler, "Literary Biography," p. 80.

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of Han Confucianism,119 which remained an integral constituent of Confucian ideology in the T'ang. The last point Liu made was that he considered the practice of ancient ceremonies meaningless unless people grasped their spirit. He stated, "If the Tao is not understood while the formalities of ancient times are observed, then the name is preserved but the substance of the teaching becomes obscure." Hence, "[i]f the principles of the teachings are understood, then it is even permissible to dispense with the formalities of ancient times." 120 Though short and the only extant "philosophic" essay from Liu's early years, this work foreshadows with remarkable precision both Liu's specific views and the general tenor of his thought in its maturity. It shows that the young Liu firmly believed that the Confucian Tao should be the guiding principle of human affairs. But the world was largely ignorant of the Tao; the Tao was, sadly, often obscured by the things that were intended to illuminate it, such as Confucian rites and ideas. In short, there was already a revivalist note to Liu's thought before his exile: He wanted Confucianism to regain its fundamental spirit and relevance to the living world. The first stage of Liu Tsung-yiian's life abruptly ended in the eighth month of 805. Before this moment, he was a flamboyant intellectual rapidly ascending the social and political hierarchies. After this moment, he found himself a grieved, depressed, and somewhat resentful minor official living in the most undeveloped areas of China. Nevertheless, it was under such desperate circumstances that he transformed himself into an eminent writer and thinker with tremendous historical significance. Upon Liu's death, Han Yu said that there was no doubt in his mind that Liu would not have produced the writings destined to be transmitted to future generations had he not been exiled.121 However, I am equally confident in my belief that Liu's later works can be truly understood only in light of his early political and intellectual life and family background. I have depicted and analyzed all major aspects of Liu's youthful experience in Ch'ang-an, except the event in which the actions of Liu and his political comrades came to a culmination: the 805 reform. 119 LTYC, pp. 458-9, especially notes; Jennings Gentzler, "Literary Biography," pp. 81-2, especially notes. 120 LTYC, pp. 458-9, as translated in Jennings Gentzler, "Literary Biography," pp. 81-2, with minor changes. Liu made similar points in another early work. See LTYC, pp. 687-8. 121 HCLC, 32:71.

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3 805: The abortive reform

Emperor Te-tsung died on the twenty-third day of the first month, 805. The crown prince Li Sung, aged forty-four, whose posthumous imperial title was Shun-tsung, ascended the throne three days later. 1 At this 1

Han Yii et al., "Shun-tsung shih-lu," HCLC, wai-chi, 6:86-7; Bernard S. Solomon, The Veritable Record of the T'ang Emperor Shun-tsung (Cambridge, Mass., 1955), pp. 2 - 3 . Solomon's book is a translation of the Shun-tsung shih-lu - the earliest extant work of the shih-lu genre and the sole extant T'ang shih-lu, which is commonly considered as Han Yii's work - with introduction and annotations. There are some questions about the credibility and authorship of the Shun-tsung shih-lu that need to be explained here. First, some scholars contend that this work in its present form was not written by Han Yii but by Wei Ch'u-hou (773-828), and consequently we cannot use it as a document showing Han Yii's attitude toward the 805 politics (Pulleyblank, Chang). There are also scholars who express opposing views. In my opinion, due to the insufficiency of extant evidence, neither side has made its case completely convincingly. This controversy, however, should not have serious effect on the presentation and arguments of this chapter, the theme of which is the politics of the Shun-tsung reign. I am not using the Shun-tsung shih-lu to demonstrate Han's views; it will basically be treated as a contemporary source of information. Second, for some, who hold that the present edition of the Shun-tsung shih-lu is Han Yii's product, it is a problematic document in terms of the reliability of the information it contains, since Han's work underwent revision around 830 due to the eunuchs' dissatisfaction with the original version. (Cf., for instance, Michael Dalby, "Court Politics in Late T'ang Times," p. 604.) Yet it is important to point out that the eunuchs' demands encountered firm opposition from scholars and officials at court. Emperor Wen-tsung thus decided to ask official historians to remove only the parts concerning the eunuchs' maneuvers in the inner palace and to keep the rest of the work intact. (See CTS, 159:4192-3.) If the Shun-tsung shih-lu is indeed Han's work, we have definitely lost important material about the eunuchs' role in the replacement of Emperor Shun-tsung with Hsien-tsung, but not that depicting the activities of the Wang Shu-wen clique to which Liu Tsung-yiian belonged. Third, in my view, whether the present edition of the Shun-tsung shih-lu was authored by Han or Wei, it should be safe to consider it as representing the common understanding of the history of the Shun-tsung reign in the political establishment of the early ninth century, since there was no significant split of opinions in this regard. The Shun-tsung shih-lu now in our hands certainly contains bias against the Wang Shu-wen group, but this group was opposed by virtually the entire ruling elite. Han Yii is well known to have had a grudge against the Wang group when the Wangs were in

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juncture, to the astonishment of the political establishment in the capital, an obscure figure named Wang Shu-wen led approximately a dozen middle-level officials - including Liu Tsung-yiian - to seize the real power at the court. Wang's rise was certainly unorthodox and the stuff of which legends are made. Prior to Te-tsung's decease, Wang had been made an attendant official of the future Shun-tsung emperor because of his skill at chess. Yet curiously, he eventually won the crown prince's trust and respect by his passionate, and in the opinion of many, persuasive, political reformism. He also recruited as his allies three personal companions of the heir apparent: Wang P'i, a calligrapher; Li Chung-yen, a eunuch; and Niu Chao-jung, Shun-tsung's favored concubine. More amazingly, he succeeded in gaining a following among the best and the brightest of the young intellectuals in Ch'ang-an: the group composed of Liu Tsung-yiian, Liu Yu-hsi, Lii Wen, Ch'en Chien, and others introduced in Chapter 2 (Group B). Two senior scholar-officials, Wei Chih-i and Lu Ch'un, also joined this clique.2 This political alliance had been taking shape gradually during the period of ten years or so before 805, without the knowledge of most of Ch'ang-an's elite community.3 power. Nevertheless, he later eased his animosity toward the Wang group, and his friendship with Liu Tsung-yiian was strengthened considerably in subsequent years. (For details, see n. 30.) It is hard to say that Han would be more prejudiced against the Wang group in his writing than other scholars would have been. In sum, it seems to me that the present edition of the Shun-tsung shih-lu is a work whose author(s) tried to produce a faithful record of the turbulent year of 805; if carefully used, it is still the most important and reliable source material regarding the 805 coup d'etat. For important studies of the Shun-tsung shih-lu, see Chang Kuo-kuang, "Chin-pen 'Shuntsung shih-lu' fei Han Yii so-tso pien," Wen-hsueh p'ing-lun ts'ung-k'an, 7 (October 1980), pp. 328-40; Ch'en Kuang-ch'ung, "T'ang shih-lu tsuan-hsiu k'ao," Liao-ning ta-hsueh hsueh-pao, 1978:3, pp. 52-4; Ch'ii Lin-tung, "Han Yii yii 'Shun-tsung shih-lu,'" She-hui k'o-hsueh chan-hsien, 1979:3, pp. 138-41; idem, "Kuan-yii 'Shun-tsung shih-lu' te chi-ke wen-t'i," Pei-ching shih-fan ta-hsueh hsueh-pao, 1982:1, pp. 45-53; HCLC, wai-chi, 6:85, Chu Hsi's note; Edwin G. Pulleyblank, "The Shun-tsung shih-lu," Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, XIX (1957), pp. 336-44; Bernard Solomon, Veritable Record, xi-xxiii. 2 CTS, 135:3732-4, i89b:4977-8; HTS, 168:5125, 168:5127-8; TLHW, 8:7b. 3 Bernard Solomon, Veritable Record, pp. 3-4, 54; CTS, 135:3732-6; HTS, 168:5123-5; LTYC, pp. 344, 798. Another famous senior official and scholar, Tu Yu, was also both politically and intellectually associated with the Wang clique. Tu was Liu Yii-hsi's mentor and patron, but his relationship with the group as a whole was probably very tenuous. For a slightly different view, see Edwin G. Pulleyblank, "Neo-Confucianism and Neo-Legalism in T'ang Intellectual Life, 755-805," in Arthur F. Wright, ed., The Confucian Persuasion (Stanford, Calif., i960), pp. 1 0 9 - n o . One might wonder why court officials, usually with sharp eyes and ears, failed to discover the existence of this political clique. Surviving historical materials provide no clear answers to this question. It seems that, by 803, some at court had noticed the grouping of the Wangs, but it finally did not reach the attention of the political establishment. (Bernard Solomon, Veritable Record, p. 54.) There are also no indications that those aware of the existence of

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Wang must have been a quixotic figure. It obviously was unrealistic for a person of his stature to consider himself the top decision maker in the future government, advising the heir apparent that "so-and-so should be a general and so-and-so should be a minister."4 While the naivete of Wang and his associates foreshadowed the ill fate of their coup d'etat, it nevertheless led them to display dramatically to the world the emotions and mind-set of a significant segment of the mid-T'ang intellectual circle.

The event Wang Shu-wen became the equivalent of chief of staff to the emperor upon Shun-tsung's enthronement, though his role in the beginning was still a secret. Wang wasted no time in making his own personnel arrangements in order to solidify the power of his clique and to implement its policies. By the middle of the third month, Wei Chih-i was a prime minister and Wang himself a Han-lin academician as well as vice commissioner of salt and iron, a position allowing him directly to control government finance and participate in the process of general policymaking at the same time (the Han-lin Academy being the personal advisory council for the emperor). 5 Most of Wang's younger followers acquired vital posts in the Department of State Affairs. Among them, Liu Tsung-yiian (ayilan-wai-lang in the Board of Rites), Liu Yii-hsi, and Han T'ai appear to have been particularly active. In addition, Wang P'i, Li Chung-yen, and Niu Chao-jung served as messengers between Wang Shu-wen and the ailing new emperor. Although the Wang clique had put several senior officials in high office as figureheads, it soon gave up, and was surely incapable of, concealing its dominance at court.6 The Wang group did indeed move quickly in carrying out certain reformist measures. Nevertheless, the base of its power was shaky from the start. The new emperor had been gravely ill since the ninth month, this grouping knew of its reformist goals. A probable reason is that Wang Shu-wen, the organizer and leader, was outside of court politics prior to Shun-tsung's ascension, and most other members were merely middle-level officials having little impact on major government decisions. 4 Bernard Solomon, Veritable Record, p. 54; HTS, 168:5125. 5 For a clear introduction of the Han-lin Academy in the T'ang, see Yano Chikara, "Todai ni okeru Kanringakushi-in ni tsuite," Shigaku kenkyu, 50 (April 1953), pp. 63-70. The Salt and Iron Commission was the most important finance office in the central government during the T'ang after the An Lu-shan rebellion. See Denis Twitchett, Financial Administration, pp. 51-8, 109-20. 6 See TCTC, 236:7607-12, 7614; CTS, 135:3736, 160:4210, 4214; HTS, 168:5128. See also Pien Hsiao-hsiian, Liu Yu'-hsi nien-p'u, p. 42.

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804, before his accession, and his speech was impaired. There were even controversies in the inner palace about whether or not he should succeed to the throne. 7 Most court officials showed antagonism toward the Wang clique immediately after it came to power. By late in the third month, the powerful eunuch leadership had apparently already decided to side with mainstream bureaucrats, and succeeded in pressing Shun-tsung to declare his twenty-seven-year-old eldest son heir apparent. This was the first sign that the imperial support of Wang Shu-wen might not be able to resist the opposition massing against it.8 On the twenty-third day of the fifth month, Wang was even deprived of the Han-lin academician title by eunuchs acting in the emperor's name. Hence he lost the right to attend the decision-making meetings in the Han-lin Academy. Through Wang P'i's laborious negotiation, the eunuchs eventually granted Shu-wen special permission to go to the Academy once every few days, but his title was not renewed. There was no question now of who had the upper hand. 9 Wang and his comrades sought to regain their control at least twice. After Emperor Shun-tsung designated his eldest son as his heir apparent, Wei Chih-i appointed Lu Ch'un to be the crown prince's tutor, in the hope that Lu could make the future Hsien-tsung emperor understand their actions and goals. The crown prince was clearly anxious to take his father's place, and he was ill-disposed toward the Wang clique, which was the principal obstacle to his succession. Lu's attempt to explain only invited his own humiliation.10 In the early fifth month, the Wang group made a daring and tricky move. It tried to take over the Palace Armies (chiefly Shen-ts'e Armies), the only armies under the direct command of the court during the middle and late T'ang, which were stationed in Ch'ang-an and its adjacent areas. Wang Shu-wen assigned Han T'ai to execute this mission, with Fan Hsi-ch'ao, a prominent senior general, as his figurehead. This was a very risky maneuver, since the Shen-ts'e Armies had been firmly controlled by the eunuchs for some twenty years and were thus a pivotal power base for them. Despite the initial lack of awareness and confusion on the part of the eunuchs, they easily blocked Wang's CTS, 159:4179-81; HTS, 164:5045. People involved in the affairs of the inner palace were primarily the eunuchs and imperial personal advisers (Han-lin academicians in particular). Bernard Solomon, Veritable Record, pp. 19-21; TCTC, 236:7613; CTS, 14:408-9, 184:4767; HTS, 165:5075, 207:5868. Bernard Solomon, Veritable Record, p. 29. CTS, 1890:4977-8; HTS, 168:5128.

Liu Tsung-yiian and intellectual change in T'ang China

plot. By then - that is, around the middle of the sixth month - the fall of Wang Shu-wen was clearly only a matter of time.11 The fatal blows against the Wang clique were finally struck in the subsequent two months. On the twenty-eighth day of the seventh month, an imperial edict appointing the crown prince as regent was issued. On the fourth day of the eighth month, the Shun-tsung emperor abdicated. According to Liu Yii-hsi's account in his autobiography, no courtier had an opportunity to meet with Emperor Shun-tsung during those critical days, and no outsider knew what had really happened deep inside the palace. Liu Yii-hsi, a core member of the Wang group, insinuated that it was the eunuchs who forced the emperor to step down.12 Not surprisingly, the enthronement of Hsien-tsung meant disaster for Wang and his associates, though ironically Liu Tsung-yiian, as an official duty, drafted congratulatory letters to the new emperor on behalf of many courtiers.13 It is quite clear that the new emperor, the eunuchs, a good many officials, and perhaps also some regional military governors all wanted members of the Wang group to be severely punished. Wang Shu-wen, Wang P'i, Wei Chih-i, and seven of their followers (of course including Liu Tsung-yiian, Liu Yii-hsi, and Han T'ai) were sent into exile.14 Only two key members of the group escaped penalties: Lii Wen and Li Ching-chien. Lii had gone to Tibet in 804 as a T'ang envoy, 11 See TCTC, 231:7445-6, 234:7539, 235:7580, 236:7615, 7617. The Wang clique's trick was to appoint Fan, with Han as his chief staffer, to a newly created military governorship whose duty was vaguely defined. Then Fan and Han attempted first to take command of the Shen-ts'e troops in the western and northern outskirts of the capital. See T'ang ta chao-ling chi, comp. by Sung Min-ch'iu (rpt. Peking, 1959; hereafter abbreviated as TTCC), p. 320. For the history of the Shen-ts'e Armies and their importance in the system of Palace Armies after the 760s, see T'ang Ch'ang-ju, T'ang-shu ping-chih chien-cheng (Peking, 1962), pp. 96-107; Obata Tatsuo, "Shinsakugun no hatten," in Tamura hakushi taikan kinen jigyokai, ed., Tamura hakushi shoju toyoshi ronso (Kyoto, 1968), pp. 205-20. 12 Bernard Solomon, Veritable Record, pp. 44-5, 52; LYHC, p. 394; TTCC, pp. 113, 118. This was obviously a point of speculation or suspicion for other people at that time. Immediately after Shun-tsung's abdication, a commoner (Taoist magician?) named Lo Ling-tse tried to persuade a military governor to overthrow Hsien-tsung's regime, claiming that he was following the secret order of the retired emperor (and had many allies). Though ending in Lo's execution, this episode seems also to suggest that the Wang clique won some sympathizers in the capital. See CTS, 143:3901; HTS, 148:4780; TCTC, 236:7622. 13 LTYC, p. 1000. See also pp. 954-5, 957-9. 14 TCTC, 236:7619, 7622-3. A statement in CTS gives an impression that military governors were vitally instrumental to the ouster of the Wangs (14:409). Actually, only a couple of influential military governors took part in the anti-Wang campaign and, in my judgment, their role was far less decisive than that of the eunuchs. For the involvement of military governors, see CTS, 140:3824-6, 146:3959-60; TCTC, 236:7616-17; HTS, 108:4091-2; Chang Shih-chao, Liu-wen chih-yao, pp. 1358-61.

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and was detained there until late 805. 15 Li was in Lo-yang observing mourning rites for his mother throughout the time the Wang group was in power.16 Further to this, Lu Ch'un died of illness in the immediate aftermath of Shun-tsung's abdication.17 Emperor Shun-tsung himself died, allegedly of illness, on the nineteenth day of the first month, 806. Wang Shu-wen was executed in that year (Wang P'i had already died, shortly after his banishment). In the eighth month, the court proclaimed that, in the event of any general amnesty, the punishment of the other eight exiled Wang clique members would not be included.18 Thus the Wang group was utterly destroyed.

Some points of analysis Although both contemporaries and scholars of subsequent ages overwhelmingly condemned and even ridiculed it as no more than a farcical bid for power, there is no question that the 805 coup d'etat led by Wang Shu-wen was a movement that was reformist in nature. It was certainly a reformist movement in a literal sense, because most of its participants 15 See Ma Gh'eng-su, Lu Ho-shu hsueh-p'u, pp. 48-56; Ogawa Shoichi, Zentoshi zakki (Kyoto, 1969), pp. 19-39. The Tibetan grounds for detaining Lii are not clear; all materials at our disposal only vaguely stated that it was because of the succession crisis in China {Lu Ho-shu hsueh-p'u, p. 53). 16 Bernard Solomon, Veritable Record, p. 56. Another member named Fang Ch'i was also not punished, since he took up an appointment as a military governor in the southern frontier before Wang's fall. See HTS, 139:4629. Yet Fang appears not to be a central figure in this group. 17 CTS, 14:412. 18 See CTS, 14:410-18, 135:3736; TCTC, 236:7619. There is a conspiracy theory concerning Shun-tsung's death. Some Chinese scholars argue that Emperor Shuntsung was murdered by his son and the eunuchs, but the "evidence" they present is very problematic. For this claim, see, for example, Wang Yiin-sheng, "Lun erh-Wang pa-Ssu-ma cheng-chih ke-hsin te li-shih i-i," Li-shih yen-chiu, 1963:3, pp. 105-30; Chang Shih-chao, Liu-wen chih-yao, pp. 155-69. However, an incident took place that might reveal Emperor Hsien-tsung's feeling of shame toward his father. In the middle of 819, when courtiers met to discuss the denomination of the honorable imperial title (tsun-hao), which was about to be presented to Emperor Hsien-tsung, Huang-fu Po, a prime minister as well as confidant of the emperor, suggested adding the term "virtue of filial piety" (hsiao-te) to the draft title. Ts'ui Ch'iin, another prime minister and a lifelong friend of Liu Tsung-yiian, opposed this motion, contending that "sageness" (jui-sheng), a term included in the draft title, already implied "filial piety." Huang-fu's suggestion was thus dropped. Emperor Hsien-tsung was very unhappy with Ts'ui's remarks; shortly after, he used an excuse to demote Ts'ui. Although there is no way to determine why Ts'ui Ch'iin made this comment, Emperor Hsien-tsung was undoubtedly sensitive about people's views on his relationship with his father. See CTS, 15:469, 159:4189; HTS, 165:5081-2; Ch'en Yin-k'o, T'ang-tai cheng-chih, p. 97. In addition, according to TCTC, 236:7619, Wang Shu-wen was ordered to commit suicide.

Liu Tsung-yuan and intellectual change in T}ang China

considered themselves reformists. The idealism of Liu Tsung-yiian and his peers did not vanish when they enjoyed the taste of power. According to an apparently eyewitness report about the 805 episode, Liu and his comrades compared themselves to Yi Yin, the Duke of Chou, Kuan Chung, and Chu-ko Liang - all ancient model prime ministers, in a gesture that was criticized as haughty. 19 Even in his humble letters written in exile to high courtiers requesting favors, Liu still insisted on his innocence, saying that his goal and that of Wang Shu-wen was "to establish humanity and righteousness [in the world] and improve the culture of the masses." 20 Liu Yii-hsi once wrote satirically that their error lay in "believing in the Tao rather than following [the trend of] the time." 21 But it was the policies and measures of the Wang clique that constituted the strongest evidence of its reformist spirit. First, soon after coming to power, the Wang group banished Li Shih, the notoriously harsh and insensitive mayor of Ch'ang-an and a confidant of Emperor Te-tsung. Li regarded the collection of wealth for the emperor's coffers as his prime duty. He was so hated that, as he left the capital, a large number of common people armed with stones waited on the roads to assault him. On the other hand, several respected exiled officials, victims of the chaotic politics in the last years of Te-tsung's reign, were recalled; two of these were Lu Chih and Yang Ch'eng. 22 Second, Wang and his associates carried out a major reform in the operation and organization of the imperial palace. They ordered the dismissal of some nine hundred imperial concubines and court girls,23 and, more notably, abolished several practices that for a number of years had become large sources for the abuse of power by eunuchs and palace servants. The so-called palace marketing (kung-shih) was the most controversial of all the objects of the shake-up in this respect. Palace marketing was an informal way of referring to a system established in the late 790s under which eunuchs took charge of purchasing goods for the palace in Ch'ang-an's markets. Previously this job had been done by regular bureaucrats, a system that had worked well. After the eunuchs took over, however, they employed oppressive buying tactics. The price they paid was far lower than the original value of the 19 CTS, 135:3734; TCTC, 236:7609-10. 20 LTYC, p. 780. For Liu's revelation of similar sentiments, see pp. 54-5, 841, 1209, 1221.

21 LYHC, p. 188. 22 See TCTC, 236:7604, 7611; CTS, 135:3730-2, 149:4014. Unfortunately, both Lu and Yang died days before the imperial edicts reached their places of exile. 23 Wang Ch'in-jo et al., eds., Ts'e-fu yuan-kuei (rpt. Taipei, 1972; hereafter abbreviated as TFYK), vol. 1, p. 481. 72

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goods. Later, the eunuchs even sent out people without any official credentials to the markets; merchants could no longer tell whether those "buying" goods at a low price (and still exacting commissions) really did this on behalf of the palace. This kind of conduct caused great grievance in society: "In reality, it was robbery," charged the author of the Shuntsung shih-lu.24

Third, the Wang clique prohibited officials from sending "tribute" (chin-feng) to the throne. Since the mid-78os, an increasing number of officials (mainly regional governors and financial commissioners) had "thoughtfully" given personal gifts, either in the form of cash or of precious goods, to the emperor. They claimed that their contributions came from special fiscal surpluses of their offices. In fact, they were usually part of regular revenue or even illegal surcharges on the populace. As to the function of these tributes, they for the most part represented bribes to the throne: They were the price paid by certain powerful officials in exchange for the emperor's overlooking their misconduct.25 These measures of the Wang clique were greatly welcomed by the people at the time, for they removed in a clear-cut fashion the most obnoxious and criticized practices of the second half of the Chen-yuan era, a fact that even Wang's opponents admitted. 26 In his old age Liu Yii-hsi also stated confidently: "People did not hold that what Wang Shu-wen did from the spring to the autumn [of 805] should be condemned." 27 True, Wang and his associates did not work on the fundamental or structural problems of the mid-T'ang polity, such as regionalism and even separatism brought about by the existence of autonomous militarized provinces. Yet this is understandable, considering the short 24

For the practice of palace marketing, see Bernard Solomon, Veritable Record, pp. 15-18; TCTC, 235:7578-80, 236:7596-7, 7602, 7610. For other abuses by the eunuchs and palace servants, see Veritable Record, pp. 16-17; TCTC, 236:7610-11. 25 For the problem of tribute contributions during Te-tsung's reign, see TCTC, 235:7572, 7589, 236:7596, 7610-11; TFYK, vol. 4, pp. 2026, 2032-3. For an important original document about the reform measures of the Wang group, see TTCC, pp. 9-10. 26 See Bernard Solomon, Veritable Record, pp. 17-18. For a view, contrary to general opinions, defensive of the Te-tsung emperor, see Michael T. Dalby, "Court Politics in Late T'ang Times," in Denis Twitchett, ed., The Cambridge History of China, vol. 3, part 1, pp. 580-601. Yet this view probably cannot hold in face of overwhelming material indicating otherwise. 27 LYHC, p. 394. There may be another way to argue for the reformist character of the Wang clique. Wang Shu-wen's effort to organize young intellectuals itself was strong circumstantial evidence of the genuine nature of his reformism. A close relationship with the emperor, such as Wang's with Shun-tsung, could easily lead a person to power and affluence, as had happened so many times in T'ang history. Therefore, Wang's search for intellectual partners would be quite inexplicable, had he not been motivated by something beyond personal ambition. Unfortunately, due to the scarcity of materials about Wang the person, we do not know the concrete reasons for his being a potential reformer.

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duration of their reform and the difficult power struggle in which they were involved. In fact, all but one of the Wang clique's reformist measures took place during the first two months of the clique's tenure at court, that is, during the second and third months, 805. Despite the short duration of his authority, Wang Shu-wen had already shown a hard-line attitude toward recalcitrant military governors,28 an attitude that foreshadowed a major policy of the subsequent Hsien-tsung regime. Why, then, was the Wang group opposed by virtually the entire ruling elite so that it failed to survive? Why were its contemporaries and traditional Chinese scholars in general so critical of it?29 This was due to the combination of a variety of factors. Most important, Wang Shu-wen and his allies were not generally regarded as reformists in their own time. Rather, in the eyes of numerous other bureaucrats - young and old, some of them Liu Tsung-yiian's personal friends, Han Yii for one - they, Wang's young followers in particular, were merely a small bunch of inexperienced and untrustworthy adventurers. They were guilty of at least two transgressions: irregular promotions (self-promotions as well as promoting, regardless of regulations, those whom they appreciated) and monopolizing power.30 28 See TCTC, 236:7616-18. 29 The opinions of traditional scholars were certainly greatly influenced by the works on the T'ang written during the T'ang, Five Dynasties, and Sung periods. For typical criticism on the Wang clique, see Fan Tsu-yii, T'ang chien (rpt. Taipei, 1973), 17:1a— 2b; Wu Wen-chih, ed., Liu Tsung-yuan chu'an, vol. 1, pp. 20, 32, 99, 105-7, J^3? 2O35 vol. 2, pp. 612, 701. Yet a number of distinguished scholars and writers, such as Fan Chung-yen (989-1052), Wang Shih-chen (1526-90), Chiao Hung (1541-1620) and Wang Fu-chih (1619-92), expressed sympathetic views toward this group. See Wu Wen-chih, ed., Liu Tsung-yuan chu'an, vol. 1, pp. 3 0 - 1 , 82, 96-7, 132-3, 153, 256, 264; vol. 2, p. 309. The most noted and scholarly defense of the Wang clique in premodern China was made by the famous Ch'ing historian Wang Ming-sheng (1722-97) in his Shih-ch'i shih shang-ch'u'eh (the Tung-ching ts'ao-t'ang edition of 1787, rpt. Taipei, i960), 74:1 a-5a. Modern scholars, as far as I know, have universally abandoned traditional bias against the 805 coup. In addition, the Wang group apparently had some sympathizers in the contemporary ruling elite. Two of them were P'ei Tu (765-839), a foremost statesman in the early ninth century, and the grand poet Po Chii-i (772-846). See CTS, 160:4211-12; HTS, 168:5129-31, 203:5792; Ch'en Yink'o, Yiian-Pai-shih chien-cheng kao, pp. 266-8. Certain personal friends of Liu Tsungyuan who became prominent ministers after 805, such as Li Chien and Ts'ui Ch'iin, had also always been loyal to the exiled Liu. 30 Bernard Solomon, Veritable Record, pp. 45, 54-5; TCTC, 236:7610; CTW, 453:33-4!). See also LTYC, pp. 780, 794-5, 797-8. For Han Yii's aversion to the Wang clique, see Charles Hartman, Han Yii, pp. 52-64; Lo Lien-t'ien, Han Yiiyen-chiu, pp. 65-70. For the hostility of another peer friend of Liu Tsung-yiian, see CTS, 163:4257; HTS, 160:4968; LTYC, pp. 671, 863. However, the relationship between Han Yii and Liu Tsung-yiian, the two foremost mid-T'ang intellectual figures, was complicated. Roughly speaking, their relationship underwent three stages. Prior to 803, at least from 801 to 803, Han was Liu's close colleague and fellow writer. During the period between 804 and 806, Han was a fervent opponent of Liu and his political comrades.

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They certainly committed those things of which they were accused. In a word, the violation of the rules of the game in a bureaucratic community by the members of the Wang group alienated and enraged their colleagues. It appears that the Wang clique acted much like an antiestablishment party in modern democratic or revolutionary politics. In the traditional Chinese political system, there was usually little room for such a power play.31 Furthermore, not everyone within the Wang camp was bent on reform; Wang P'i, for instance, was greedy and openly corrupt. However, even the integrity of those genuine reformists sometimes came under suspicion. Any group in power naturally attracts opportunists. When members of the Wang clique occasionally satisfied the requests of such people, Liu Tsung-yiian complained in retrospect, the clique was attacked both by people whose demands it could not meet and by its political adversaries, most likely on the grounds of nepotism and corruption.32 Finally, the humble social origins of Wang Shu-wen and Wang P'i apparently also inflamed the intolerance of highbred literati. Both Wang The two crucial reasons why Han was so critical of the Wang clique were, first, Han strongly suspected that this group, particularly Liu Tsung-yiian and Liu'Yii-hsi, was responsible for his banishment in late 803, and second, Han never shared the intensity of political activism and reformism of the young intellectuals in the Wang clique and thus perceived their grouping as principally motivated by personal ambition. Nevertheless, after the 805 coup, the anger of Han, a quite emotional person, apparently gradually diminished. More importantly, while in Yung-chou, Liu Tsungyiian became an admirer of Han's prose writing and, to a lesser extent, his Confucian ideas. Han was also highly impressed by Liu's new literary works. This literary and intellectual affinity substantially improved their personal relationship. Yet it should be noted that Liu never entered the inner circle of Han's friends, which included such famous intellectual figures as Meng Chiao, Chang Chi and Li Ao. For details, see Ch'ien Chi-po, Han Yii chih, pp. 63-9; LYHC, p. 404; Lo Lien-t'ien, Han Yii yen-chiu, pp. 162—74; Ch'ien Chung-lien, Han Ch'ang-li shih hsi-nien chi-shih (new edition, Shanghai, 1984), vol. 1, pp. 238-343; Chiang Fan, "Han Yii yii Wang Shu-wen chi-t'uan te 'Yung-chen kai-ke,'" Fu-tan hsiieh-pao, 1980:4, pp. 67-74; Yen Chang, "P'ing-chia Han Yii ho Yung-chen ke-hsin kuan-hsi te chi-tien ch'ien-chien," Tang-tai wen-hsiieh, 1 (April 1981), pp. 254-67. 31 The character of the Wang clique appears to be quite different from that of ordinary "factions" (p'eng-tang) in traditional Chinese politics, for factions in general were not formed for the purpose of seeking sweeping policy and personnel changes. Of noted factions in premodern Chinese political history, Wang An-shih's "New Party" of the Northern Sung seems to resemble most closely the Wang Shu-wen clique. Probably not coincidentally, both "parties" had the support of emperors. Without such support, a political group would lack legitimacy to launch drastic reforms in a political system characterized by regulation and normalcy. For some general comments on the traditional Chinese conception of political factions, see David S. Nivison, "Ho-shen and His Accusers: Ideology and Political Behavior in the Eighteenth Century," in David S. Nivison and Arthur F. Wright, eds., Confucianism in Action (Stanford, Calif., !959)3 PP- 219-3232 See LTYC, pp. 780, 795, 797; CTS, 135:3736; HTS, 168:5126; TFYK, vol. 10, p. 5727.

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Shu-wen and Wang P'i were native southerners from today's northern Chekiang. P'i was described in contemporary historical records as "ugly and with a Wu accent." 33 Shu-wen did not receive much better treatment. Initially a minor local official and chess player, he was judged as only "having a smattering of learning." 34 After the designation of Hsientsung as Shun-tsung's heir apparent, it was reported, Shu-wen often looked sad, intoning in tears Tu Fu's famous lines on Chu-ko liang: But before he could conquer, he was dead; And heroes have wept on their coats ever since. The official history stated that "those hearing of it all laughed in their sleeve." 35 Regarding the social origins of the Wang clique members, there is another notable feature. Among those of Wang's partners for whom biographical information is available, none belonged to the prestigious Shan-tung aristocracy. Liu Yu-hsi and Fang Ch'i were the only two known Shan-tungese, but both were probably descendants of Hsien-pi non-Chinese noble families. The rest came either from the Kuan-Lung circle or from the south, or had other modest backgrounds. This was also a distinctive difference between the young political comrades of Liu Tsung-yiian (Group B) and another peer group in which he was involved (Group A). In Group A there were a number of scions of illustrious Shan-tung clans, including Li Hsing-min, Ts'ui Ch'iin, and Ts'ui Yen.36 It is certainly not easy to extrapolate any wider significance from Han Yii et al., "Shun-tsung shih-lu," 10:13. I*1 Bernard Solomon, Veritable Record, p. 55, "Wu accent" appears as "Southern accent." 34 Bernard Solomon, Veritable Record, p. 55. 35 Han Yii et al., "Shun-tsung shih-lu," 10:13. The English translation of Tu Fu's lines is from The Jade Mountain: A Chinese Anthology, tr. by Witter Bynner, from the text of Kiang Kang-hu, rpt. in Witter Bynner, The Chinese Translations (New York, 1978), p.

33

123.

36

For Liu Yii-hsi's family background, see Pien Hsiao-hsiian, Liu Yu-hsi nien-p'u, pp. 1-2; Chou shu, 17:284. Historically Liu's family also had a close relationship with the Kuan-Lung circle. For Fang's, see HTS, 7^:2399-400; Pei-shih, 55:1991; Yao Weiyuan, Pei-ch'ao hu-hsing k'ao, pp. 157-8. For the family background of some of Liu Tsung-yiian's other peers, see HTS, 72a:2592 (Li Hsing-ch'en, Li Hsing-min), 72^2647 (Wang Ya), 72^2759 (Ts'ui Ch'iin), 2762 (Ts'ui Yen), 73a:2855 (Han T'ai), 73a:286g, 126:4432-40 (Han Yeh), 162:5005 (Li Chien); LTYC, pp. 263-4 (Ling Chun); Ma Ch'eng-su, Lu Ho-shu hsiieh-p'u, pp. 19-21 (Lii Wen, Lii Kung, Lii Jang); CTS, 135:3737 (Ch'eng I), 171:4455 (Li Ching-chien); Pien Hsiao-hsiian, " 'T'ang ku hsiang-kung chin-shih . . . te shih-liao chia-chih," p. 71 (Ch'en Chien). In addition, Lu Ch'un was a native of Wu (HTS, 168:5127), and Wei Chih-i was from a Kuan-chung family (HTS, 74a:3O46, 3107, 168:5123). I should also stress that "modest background" here is defined in terms of the social and cultural hierarchy of the T'ang elite rather than of political status; Lii Wen, Han T'ai, and Han Yeh all came from politically prominent families.

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this single case; nevertheless, I would like to suggest here that it might be taken as an indicator that, toward the late T'ang, social and cultural forces less eminent than the old Shan-tung aristocracy took the lead in the effort to find new directions for a society then undergoing profound change and facing many difficulties. At any rate, the three factors just discussed - the Wang clique's violation of the rules of a bureaucratic system, its tainted elements, and the personal background of its leaders - together created a formidable hostile environment in which this group became exceedingly isolated and vulnerable. Other problems also troubled Wang and his associates. The group's principal backer, the conscientious and reform-minded crown prince, 37 became disabled even before his enthronement as Shun-tsung. This not only severely weakened the Wangs' position at court, but, more crucially, brought about a rulership crisis that gave the eunuchs a perfect pretext to intervene.38 Furthermore, the perceived, and at least in Liu Tsung-yiian's case real, arrogance and overconfidence of the young intellectuals in the Wang camp offended many of their colleagues. The young Liu, by his own admission, had an abrasive personality. When in conflict with someone, he wrote later in a regretful tone, "I . . . would either confront him or turn my back." 39 Even the subsequent history of the T'ang undermined the reputation of the Wang clique. The Hsien-tsung government was basically a reformist regime. It achieved the much acclaimed "Yuan-ho Restoration" (806—20), effectively strengthening central control over military provinces and restabilizing the political order — though the "tribute" to the throne recommenced.40 This development contributed to the fact that the majority of traditional historians have overlooked the nature and significance of the 805 coup d'etat. Some scholars have gone so far as to characterize the Wang clique merely as an obstacle to the rise of a "sagacious monarch." 41 The stereotypical historical image of Wang Shuwen, Liu Tsung-yiian, and their comrades thus became "a company of small m e n " (ch'un-hsiao).42 37 38 39 40 41 42

See CTS, 14:410; HTS, 7:205; Bernard Solomon, Veritable Record, pp. 1-2. For the eunuchs' dominance of the T'ang court after the late eighth century, see Ch'en Yin-k'o, T'ang-tai cheng-chih, pp. 94-127; Wang Shou-nan, T'ang-tai huan-kuan ch'u'anshih chihyen-chiu (Taipei, 1971), pp. 19-143. LTYC, p. 856. See also LTYC, p. 795; HCLC, 32:71; LYHC, pp. 172, 256; TCTC, 236:7610; Wu Wen-chih, ed., Liu Tsung-yiian chu'an, vol. 1, p. 65. See Charles A. Peterson, "The Restoration Completed: Emperor Hsien-tsung and the Provinces," in Arthur Wright and Denis Twitchett, eds., Perspectives on the T'ang, pp. 151-91; TCTC, 240:7752, 241:7769-70; TFYK, vol. 4, p. 2033. See HCLC, 3:11; HTS, 168:5143. See, for instance, CTS, 138:3738, 140:3825.

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Other reformist tendencies Despite causing surprise and resentment among the ruling elite, the venture of the Wang Shu-wen group was by no means a unique phenomenon in the mid- and late T'ang political and intellectual climate. In fact, it was only one in a series of reformist waves during the late eighth and early ninth centuries. Some of these reformist endeavors were launched solely by a single individual. The most famous of these individuals was Lu Chih, originally an adviser and then prime minister of Emperor Te-tsung, whose reformist zeal, integrity, candor, and capability earned him high esteem both in his own time and in history.43 Liu Pen was another notable case. As a candidate for the 828 decree examination, he made a direct and vehement attack in his examination essays, unrivaled in the T'ang, on the eunuchs - on their illegitimate grip upon power and on the consequent political corruption and social misery. This was an extremely sensitive issue to raise at the time, since eunuchs had controlled the imperial succession for over two decades, and reportedly had murdered two emperors (Hsien-tsung and Ching-tsung). Liu's papers stunned the capital's literati, but also to some extent stimulated them. Many officials criticized the examiners' failure to pass Liu. A successful examinee even petitioned the throne to repeal his success "in order to do [Liu] Pen justice." 44 Liu probably never took an examination again. The eunuchs were certainly furious with Liu; under their pressure, he had no opportunity to enter regular office for the remainder of his life.45 In addition, many intellectuals with ardent social concerns also formed groups to try to express or carry out their goals, though most of these groups exerted little influence on actual politics.46 Nonetheless, there existed a reformist coalition whose impact was much greater than that of the Wang Shu-wen clique: the Li Hsiin-Cheng Chu group. Emerging in the early 830s, this group, like the Wang clique, was also accused of consisting of "haughty and adventurous scholars" with grand ideas; actually, the deeds and tactics of its leaders were much more controversial than those of the Wangs. Despite this, it is evident that the 43

See Hsieh Wu-hsiung, Lu Hsiian-kung chihyen-lun chi ch'i wen-hsueh (Taipei, 1975), pp. 97-9. For Lu's life and career, see Denis Twitchett, "Lu Chih (754-805): Imperial Advisor and Court Official," in Arthur F. Wright and Denis Twitchett, eds., Confucian Personalities (Stanford, Calif., 1962), pp. 84-122. 44 HTS, 178:5306. See also CTS, 190^5065-77; TCTC, 243:7856-9. 45 CTS, 190^5076-7; TCTC, 243:7858. According to HTS, 178:5306-7, in his old age, he was even exiled by the eunuchs to Liu-chou, the place of Liu Tsung-yiian's last exile, and died there. 46 See, for two examples, CTS, 130:3625, 3628-9; Ch'ien Chi-po, Han Yu chih, p. 28.

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Li-Cheng group strove to change drastically the T'ang political course. (The "restoration" that Emperor Hsien-tsung accomplished fell apart almost immediately after his death.) This clique decided, with the secret consent of Emperor Wen-tsung (reigned 827-40), that the first step must be to remove the eunuch domination of the court. Probably encouraged by initial success, Li Hsiin set up a conspiracy to wipe out the whole eunuch organization by force on the twentieth day of the eleventh month, 835. The eunuchs uncovered this scheme at the last minute, precipitating the notorious bloody "Sweet Dew Incident" in which not only the constituents of the Li-Cheng group and their families but also hundreds of high-ranking officials and government clerks were massacred.47 The "Sweet Dew Incident" violently demoralized T'ang intellectuals. No reformist campaigns occurred in the rest of the T'ang. However, it is important to point out that the political reformism of T'ang intellectuals during the several decades following the An Lu-shan rebellion was the first attempt of this type since the great protest movements in the late second century. Though not a match, in terms of scope and intensity, for either Later Han protests or Northern Sung reformist movements,48 the mid-T'ang reformism and activism unequivocally marked the intelligentsia's gradual departure from the medieval reclusive spirit as well as from ritualistic and familistic Confucianism. The collapse of the 805 reform dealt a devastating blow to Liu Tsungyiian and almost every other member of the Wang Shu-wen clique.49 Even in their jubilant days, a gloomy atmosphere had been present. The weather in Ch'ang-an was bad; it had rained incessantly during the first quarter of 805 until the appointment of Hsien-tsung as heir apparent. The official history related that people joyfully referred to the clearingup of the weather as a signal of Heaven's will.50 47

See TCTC, 245:7895-916; Michael Dalby, "Court Politics in Late T'ang Times," pp. 654-9; T'ang Ch'en-yeh, Li Te-yu yen-chiu (Taipei, 1973), pp. 483-501; Tung Naipin, "T'ang-jen k'an Kan-lu chin pien," Chung-hua wen-shih lun-ts'ung, 1981:1, pp. 105-6. 48 For outlines of these two movements, see Rafe de Crespigny, "Political Protest in Imperial China: the Great Proscription of Later Han, 167-184," Papers on Far Eastern History, 11 (March 1978), pp. 1-36; James T. C. Liu, Reform in Sung China: Wang An-shih (1021-1086) and His New Policies (Cambridge, Mass., 1959). 49 There was probably only one exception: Ch'eng I. In 809, while other members of the Wang group remained in exile, Ch'eng was the only clique member to be reappointed to a regular office, thanks to his extraordinary expertise in government finance. He even rose to the post of prime minister at the end of Hsien-tsung's reign. See CTS, 123:3521-2, 135:3737-8;//7S, 149:4805-6, 168:5142-3. 50 See Bernard Solomon, Veritable Record, p. 25; CTS, 37:1363; TFYK, vol. 1, pp. 228, 282.

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After the exile of many of the participants of the 805 reform, those who had avoided this fate also shared a profound sense of the destruction of a dream. Here is a poem written in collaboration by Lii Wen, his brother Kung, and Li Ching-chien:51 LC

First we sawflowersall over the branches; Then we sawflowersall over the ground. LW Just hold [a cup of] the invigorating wine; Do not let drop heart-breaking tears. LK Our deep sincerity has long been suppressed; The fragrant season, by itself, maintains its charm. LC Just laugh and sing to pass the long day Who knows our feeling at this moment?

51 TLHW, 2:10a-1 ia; Chi Yu-kung, T'ang-shih chi-shih (rpt. Taipei, 1971), vol. 2, p. 683.

80

4 Declaration of principles: Tao and antiquity In the ninth month, 805, Liu Tsung-yiian was banished from the capital and made prefect of Shao-chou (in present central Hunan). While he was on his way to Shao-chou, the court increased the severity of its punishment of the Wang clique members, reassigning Liu farther south, to Yung-chou (in southern Hunan), and demoting him to marshal (ssuma). He stayed in Yung-chou for ten years. In early 815, after being back in Ch'ang-an, through the court's recall, for less than two months, he received yet another punitive appointment. This time he went farther down to the utmost southwest, to Liu-chou (in present Kwangsi), as prefect, and died there five years afterward.1 In the eyes of Liu and of contemporary intellectuals on the whole, both Yung-chou and Liu-chou belonged to the "barbarous areas." 2 Accompanied by his mother and her nephew Lu Tsun, Liu Tsungyiian arrived in Yung-chou at the end of 805. Life in Yung-chou for Liu was in general lonely, painful, and boring. His elderly mother died in the fifth month of 806; he felt deeply guilty about the suffering his political fall brought on her. 3 Having long been widowed, Liu was unable to find an appropriate marriage partner because Yung-chou's literati class was small and the available families did not want to marry their daughters to, as Liu himself put it, "a convict." More important, Liu had no sons. He had lost a boy in his consort nee Yang's miscarriage shortly before 1

See Shih Tzu-yii, nien-p'u, pp. 41-107. Prior to the second banishment in 815, Liu apparently thought he would have a good chance to serve at court. See LTYC, pp. 1002-3, 1152—3, 1159. For an incident leading to the persistent plight of the Wang faction members, see CTS, 160:4211; HTS, 168:5219. 2 See, for example, LTYC, pp. 798, 916; HCLC, 6:70-1; Edward H. Schafer, The Vermilion Bird: T'ang Images of the South (Berkeley, Calif., 1967), pp. 7, 18-78. 3 LTYC, pp. 55—6, 325—7; HCLC, 6:71. Liu was in particular sorry about two matters. First, his mother, in her old age, had to make a long journey and settle in an undeveloped area, and, second, the inadequacy of medical care in Yung-chou contributed to her rapid demise. 8l

Liu Tsung-yuan and intellectual change in T'ang China

her death, and his concubines in both Ch'ang-an and Yung-chou produced only daughters. His health was failing; splenauxe and tremblings afflicted him constantly. The fear of leaving the world without a male descendant created considerable anxiety for him.4 Liu perhaps even felt a sense of isolation within his broken family. A few years after arriving in Yung-chou, children in this household (probably including child servants, Liu's daughters and the children of his cousins who had come to join him) were all speaking in the local dialect, of which Liu was ignorant. 5 Liu's social life was not very satisfactory, either. He spent a great deal of time with Yung-chou's tiny literati community, many of whose members were fellow exiles. Yet, except for the young Wu Wu-ling who later was to teach briefly at the Imperial University, Liu apparently met no intellectual or spiritual companions.6 Furthermore, he was prohibited from taking any administrative duty. During the mid-T'ang, the post of marshal in the southern frontier regions, legally one of the highest assistants to a prefect, had already become a standard sinecure in which to place banished courtiers as a severe chastisement.7 To the great frustration of Liu, a zealous public servant, his only contribution to Yung-chou's government was occasionally to write courtesy letters for prefects.8 In Liu's Yung-chou experience, nevertheless, he could still find aspects in which he discovered comfort, peace, and meaning. He enjoyed cultivating flowers and trees and playing with his daughters. 9 Excursions in the breathtaking scenery in that area provided the weary and melancholy Liu with much relief. His landscape essays written there turned 4

5 6 7 8

9

See LTYC, pp. 56, 339-40, 362, 503, 647, 779, 781, 784, 790-1, 801-2; HTS, 203:5792. The authors of Liu Tsung-yuan (William H. Nienhauser, Jr., et al.) claimed that Liu married in Yung-chou (pp. 32, 121). This is incorrect. The woman they pointed to as Liu's spouse was in fact his, as termed by Liu himself, "sexual companion" (chi). See LTYC, p. 349. For a clear explanation of Liu's marital status, see Sun Ch'ang-wu, chuan-lun, pp. 191-2. In addition, Liu's eldest daughter died in 810, at the age of nine (LTYC, p. 341-2). According to Liu's description of the symptoms of his own disease, he seems to have suffered from malaria. See LTYC, p. 798. At least two paternal cousins had joined Liu Tsung-yuan in Yung-chou, but we do not know when they went there. Cf. LTYC, pp. 767, 1100-1. See LTYC, pp. 30, 415-28, 465-6, 612, 789, 825, 842, 1134, 1136; HTS, 203:5788-92. Cf. Sun Ch'ang-wu, chuan-lun, pp. 153-63. Yet he seems to have found a good friend in a Buddhist monk. See chap. 8, sec. 3. See LTYC, pp. 13, 178, 1024; Yen Keng-wang, "T'ang-tai fu-chou liao-tso k'ao," T'ang-shih yen-chiu ts}ung-kao, pp. 105-15. See LTYC, pp. 955-6, 999-1000. These two letters were sent to the emperor. He also wrote a letter of the same nature on behalf of Liu Kung-ch'o, military governor of Hunan from 811 to 813 — and a very distant uncle (LTYC, pp. 552-3, 635, 993-4; HTS, 73a:2847). See LTYC, pp. 1178-9, 1223-34.

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out to be his most celebrated and appreciated works. Buddhism seems to have formed another main pillar of his moral strength. He established a close relationship with Hunan's Buddhist community, especially the T'ien-t'ai and the Disciplinary schools.10 Last, but most vital to Liu's development into a major intellectual figure, he devoted himself to serious study, thinking, and writing. Considering it an important change in his life, he informed many friends and relatives of this new effort. The following paragraph is from a letter to Li Chien: I recently acquired several hundred volumes (chuan) of classics, history and works of philosophers. I have studied them strenuously - usually as soon as my tremblings mitigated slightly, and have been able to see clearly the intentions of the sages and the reasons of the worthy scholars and gentlemen for setting their goals. I myself also have written dozens of works.11 Liu gave two reasons for this transition. First, study and writing could help him pass the time, and sometimes even bring about spiritual contentment. Second, Liu believed, rightly, that he probably would have no chance of making a political comeback. In order to satisfy his aspirations for improving the world, he felt that he could only, and should, explore his ideals and express his thoughts in theoretical terms. "If the Way of assisting in government and benefiting the people," he thus told Wu Wu-ling about his motivations for writing, "cannot be realized in the present, it should be transmitted to later ages" 12 - a sentiment that has been voiced countless times by traditional Chinese intelligentsia. Liu Tsung-yiian's experience in Liu-chou was in sharp contrast with that in Yung-chou. Although Liu-chou was more distant from Ch'ang-an than was Yung-chou and was being troubled by the revolts of neighboring aborigines during Liu's tenure as its prefect, Liu must have felt more fulfilled and happier there. The post of prefect not only kept him occupied but also granted him an opportunity to serve society in a practical way, an opportunity for which he had always hoped. In addition, he had a son during this period, perhaps not from a legitimate marriage. (Another son was born after his death.) 13 Yet the new type io See Shih Tzu-yii, nine-p'u, pp. 55-6, 75; William Nienhauser et al., Liu Tsung-yiian, chap. 4. For details, see chap. 8, sec. 3. II LTYC, p. 802. 12 LTYC, p. 824. For Liu's own accounts and reflections on his endeavor in study and writing, see also pp. 783-4, 789, 822, 856, 1254. 13 For Liu's life in Liu-chou, see Jennings Gentzler, "Literary Biography," pp. 280-95; Sun Gh'ang-wu, chuan-lun, pp. 314-25; Shih Tzu-yii, nien-p'u, pp. 91-105. However, Liu was definitely no longer exalted, as he was in his youth. His continued exile and failing health made him sometimes very depressed. See Shih Tzu-yii, nien-p'u, pp. 106-7.

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of life also led Liu to reduce his writing output dramatically. In Liuchou, he did not produce a single essay of either philosophic or artistic importance. That is to say, considering his life as a whole, he played the role of a wholehearted thinker and writer only during the time in Yungchou. What, then, were the foci of Liu Tsung-yiian's intellectual quest? Liu characterized them as "expounding the Tao and 'antiquity' [ku] and studying literary writing thoroughly." 14 Tao and antiquity were the central themes in Liu's thought. They will be the subjects of this and the next chapter, and I shall examine the significance of Liu's literary theory in his Confucian thought later. The meaning and problem of Tao and "antiquity" Liu Tsung-yiian sometimes described himself as "a student of antiquity." 15 In this context, Liu did not mean that he aspired to become a historian. For him, "antiquity" here was not equivalent to remote historical times. Rather, it referred to a special part of ancient civilization: the part embodied by, in Liu's own words, "ancients with great achievements" or "ancient heros and virtuous people." 16 Yao, Shun, and Confucius - all Confucian sages - were the most distinguished of the worthy ancients, and the records and events related to them were the objects of Liu's learning.17 It is hence clear that in Liu's vocabulary "antiquity" was synonymous with the Confucian ideal. In other words, "antiquity" actually indicated, as he often termed it, "the ancient Tao,"18 the Tao that was discovered, expressed, and realized to some extent in ancient times. It is now necessary to explain why Liu Tsung-yiian used the term "antiquity" to designate the Tao, the Way. "Antiquity" appeared very early in Chinese intellectual history as a symbol of ideal human existence; it was already a commonplace among pre-Ch'in thinkers. Han Fei Tzu (d. 233 B.C.), the leading Legalist theoretician, once made this 14 LTYC, pp. 878-9. Liu did not use this phrase directly to characterize his intellectual undertaking. But this was what he implied in a letter in which this expression appears. In this letter of moderate length, written around 813 and addressed to a young person seeking his instruction, Liu used this phrase twice, stressing that the Tao, "antiquity" and writing were those things that he had responsibility to teach to those looking for his advice. In the same letter, he also suggested that knowing the Tao and antiquity should be the goal of an aspiring student. 15 See LTYC, pp. 54, 432. 16 LTYC, pp. 638, 876. 17 See LTYC, pp. 54, 209, 220, 277, 582, 780, 841, 1254, 1272. 18 See LTYC, pp. 463, 744, 854.

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remark: "Confucius and Mo Tzu both followed the ways of Yao and Shun, and though they differed in those matters which they accepted and rejected, each claimed to be following the real Yao and Shun. But since we cannot call Yao and Shun back to life, who is to decide whether it is the Confucians or the Mohists who are telling the truth?" 19 The relationship between Liu's use of "antiquity" and that of the classical philosophers, however, was apparently remote and indirect. A strong contemporary intellectual current had formed the background for his choice of this term. Antiquity had emerged as an important emblem for the ideal state of human affairs in the T'ang mind since the inception of the Confucian revival movement in the mid-eighth century. At first, this idea gained prominence mainly in connection with literary thought; a group of men of letters discontented with "modern" writing, as was discussed in Chapter 1, took "ancient" - pre-Ch'in and Han - literary principles as they understood them as antidotes. Moreover, some writers, like Li Hua, Yuan Chieh, and Liang Su, evidently conceived antiquity to have broader cultural import: It should also be the standard of, for instance, personal behavior and ritual practices.20 Yet it was in the last decade of the century in the intellectual circle centered around Han Yu that antiquity started to acquire an explicitly abstract, transcendental, and even spiritual quality. There is a perfect example in the opening of a poem composed by the young Han, probably in 793, to extol his intimate poet friend Meng Chiao (751-814): Master Meng is a scholar of rivers and seas; Ancient in mien, ancient in mind. He has read the works of the ancients, And of him it can be said, "Antiquity is now."21 The following was how Meng Chiao described "antiquity" as the ultimate source of his courage in existing: Hold with antiquity, don't lose antiquity. If you lose antiquity, the will easily crumbles; 19 Ch'en Ch'i-yu, Han Fei Tzu chi-shih (Hong Kong, 1974), the fiftieth chapter, "Hsien hsu'eh" p. 1080, following Burton Watson, tr., Han Fei Tzu: Basic Writings (New York, 1964), p. 118; W. K. Liao, tr., The Complete Works of Han Fei Tzu, vol. 2 (London, J 959)> P- 298. 20 For Yiian's cultural interpretations of antiquity, see Yuan Chieh, Yuan Tz'u-shan chi, pp. 77-9; for Li's, see CTW, 315:40-70, 3i7:7b-ioa; for Liang's, see CTW, 520:17a, 522:4a-b. For a summary of the T'ang Confucian revival at its inception, see chap. 1, sec. 3. 21 HCLC, 5:58, as translated in Charles Hartman, Han Yu and the T'ang Search for Unity, p. 8.

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If you lose antiquity, the sword also breaks; If you lose antiquity, the lute also laments.22 Liu Tsung-yiian's perceptions of "antiquity" and "Tiso," as I shall illustrate, differed considerably from those of the intellectuals in Han Yii's circle. Nevertheless, quite assuredly, Liu's frequent allusion to "antiquity" in Yung-chou and his encouraging young scholars to "learn the ancient [ku] Way and write in the ancient style" 23 came about under the influence of Han Yii and his comrades, for they were those most responsible for the rise of antiquity as an all-embracing cultural vision in the early ninth century. 24 Yet in declaring his principles with regard to the nature and the realization of a good world, Liu used the term "Tlao" more often than "antiquity." While Liu's antiquity was a Confucian version of the ideal antiquity, his Tao generally referred to the Confucian Way. Liu often defined the Tao as "the ways of Yao, Shun and Confucius,"25 particularly emphasizing that the Way of Confucius was the supreme guide for Confucians and that even primeval sage-kings "could not match his greatness." 26 He once gave a clear characterization of Tao as follows: In their teachings, the sages established the Middle Way to show to the people in the subsequent ages. [The Way] refers to humanity, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trustworthiness. These are called the "Five Constancies." This means that these ideas can be constantly practiced.27 Without question, Liu cherished the Confucian Way more than any other ideal or doctrine. As a sympathizer of Buddhism, he at times designated Buddhist tenets as the Tao. But this happened only in his works dealing exclusively with Buddhist activities or ideas. In addition, 22

23 24 25 26 27

Meng Chiao, Meng Tung-yeh shih-chi, ed. by Hua Chen-chih (Peking, 1959), pp. 61-2, as translated in Stephen Owen, The Poetry of Meng Chiao and Han Yii, p. 181, with a minor modification. Owen translated the term "£M" in this poem as "the past." In order to keep the reader aware of the fact that Meng used the word "ku" to indicate his spiritual source, I changed "the past" into "antiquity," though, artistically speaking, Owen's is probably a better rendering. For Meng's embrace of the idea of antiquity, see Stephen Owen, The Poetry of Meng Chiao and Han Yii, pp. 181-2; Yu Hsin-hsiung, Meng Chiaoyen-chiu, pp. 42-4, 127-9. LTYC, p. 854. See also pp. 847-8, 857, 871-90. Charles Hartman discusses Han Yii's idea of antiquity extensively in his Han Yu and the T'ang Search for Unity. See particularly pp. 8, 150-1, 217-18. LTYC, p. 856. See also pp. 54, 209, 220, 277, 656, 780, 1053, 1254, 1265, 1272. LTYC, p. 121. See also pp. 660, 819, 852, 880. LTYC, p. 88.

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though occasionally praising the philosophy of the Lao Tzu,28 he disdained the ideology of religious Taoism. The word Tao in the Confucian intellectual tradition, as in the Taoist and Buddhist traditions, represented the ultimate truth of the world and the perfect mode of human action.29 During the T'ang, prior to the An Lu-shan rebellion, when Confucianism was less than a meaningful force in Chinese intellectual life, however, the Confucian Tao aroused little interest among the literati. Confucianism then, as explained in Chapter 1, was primarily associated with rites concerning family order and scholastic studies of the Confucian canon. More important, while mentioning Tao, leading Confucian classicists in the early T'ang overwhelmingly adopted the Taoist definition. For instance, in his "Preface to the Commentaries on the Book of Etiquette and Ceremonial [the / Li]," Chia

Kung-yen (fl. mid-seventh century) stated his rationale for Confucian exegetics: "I have heard that the fundamental nature of Tao is emptiness. Without language [we] cannot manifest its profundity. Language is sometimes elusive; without commentaries [we] cannot apprehend the principles implied in it." 30 To most Confucians after the ninth century, especially Sung and Ming Neo-Confucian philosophers, Chia's linking of the Taoist Tao and the Confucian classics would have seemed bizarre and even outrageous. Although we do not know Chia's exact considerations in this linking, it nevertheless reflected the typical medieval mentality that the metaphysical or fundamental essence of the cosmos was in the Taoist (for Buddhists, Buddhist) sphere and Confucianism was merely suited for dealing with worldly matters. 31 And it seems that, for Chia, mundane Confucian values did not deserve the name of Tao. The fortunes of the Confucian Tao had improved since the mid-eighth century. With the emergence of a Confucian revival, many intellectuals, most conspicuously, men of letters, began to perceive Confucianism as a holistic aggregate of principles for establishing a reasonable and moral social order. They claimed that their writings aimed to illuminate the Confucian Tao or that they wished to act according to the Tao. Nonetheless, it is also evident that, in their surviving works, very few of the pioneers of this movement directly touched on the problems regarding 28 29

See LTYC, p. 662. For an example of a Confucian conception of Tao in medieval China, see Liu Hsieh, tr. by Vincent Shih, The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons (Hong Kong, 1983), pp. 18-21.

30 31

CTW, 164:6b. For ideas revealed in early T'ang Confucian exegeses, see Yang Hsiangk'uei, Chung-kuo ku-tai she-huiyu ssu-hsiangyen-chiu (Shanghai, 1962), pp. 365-85. See chap. 1, sec. 2.

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the substance of the Confucian Tao; their intellectual discourse was mainly confined to literary theory, new approaches to canonical studies, and concrete sociopolitical issues.32 Furthermore, the conventional mentality of "Taoism (or Buddhism) within and Confucianism without" continued to enjoy a highly prominent presence in the thought of the participants of the early Confucian revival movement. Both Liang Su, perhaps the ku-wen writer and advocate most respected by the generation of Han Yii and Liu Tsung-yiian, and Lu Ch'un, the guru of the young intellectuals in the Wang Shu-wen clique, advocated such a view. "The Tao of the virtuous and wise men," said Liang, "has an active and a tranquil aspect. The aspect which is active and can be utilized produces beneficial effects on the present age. The aspect which is tranquil and cannot be utilized will be transformed into something like a beam of light, existing eternally. Therefore, both Hsu Yu of the time of Yao and Yen Kuang of the Han dynasty did not work in this world. They wandered beyond the realm [of this world], in order to make people of the later ages hear of a pure style of life and long for it." 33 This passage appears to suggest that the tranquil, pure, everlasting, and Taoist aspect of the Tao had superior value to its active, practical, temporary, and Confucian counterpart. However, a critical development in the Confucian revival occurred in the late eighth and early ninth centuries. Many in the generation subsequent to Liang and Lu, such as Han Yii, Li Ao, Li Kuan (766?94?), Ou-yang Chan, and Lii Wen, began to take a far more serious and careful look at the Confucian Tao per se;34 Han was undisputedly the leading advocate of this new campaign. During this period, not only did the Confucian Way become the focus of an intellectual discourse for the first time in many centuries, but the medieval conception of a split Tao faced sharp challenges. It was also during this period that the mid-T'ang Confucian revival reached its peak. Liu Tsung-yiian's examination in Yung-chou of the Confucian Tao and antiquity, doubtless, was a product of this intellectual climate. 32

See David McMullen, "Historical and Literary Theory," pp. 307-42; this book, chap. 1, sec. 3. 33 CTW, 520:6a. See also 519:10a. The term "beyond the realm" (fang-wai) was taken from the Chuang Tzu. See Burton Watson, tr., Chuang Tzu: Basic Writings (New York, 1964), p. 83. For a further explication of this idea, see Yii Ying-shih, "The Philosophic Breakthrough and the Chinese Mind" (unpublished paper), pp. 35-7. Certainly this quotation cannot represent a whole picture of Liang's thought. In terms of spirituality, he was principally a Buddhist. For Lu Ch'un's description of the inner and outer dimensions of the Tao, see CTW, 6i8:2b~3a. 34 For an estimation of Li Kuan's date, see Ts'en Chung-mien, T'ang-chi chih-i, in his T'ang-jen hang-ti lu (wai san-chung) (Shanghai, 1962), pp. 430-34. 35 LTYC, p. 852.

Declaration of principles: T a o and antiquity

Furthermore, it is quite clear that the single person exerting the greatest influence on Liu's work in this direction was none other than Han Yii. In a letter sent to his brother-in-law Yang Hui-chih in 811, Liu wrote that "the Tao I am referring to is the one that Yao, Shun, Yii, Kao-tsung [King Wu-ting of the Shang], King Wen, King Wu [both of the Chou], the Duke of Chou, and Confucius all followed."35 It is almost certain that this statement was directly adapted from Han's well-known and unprecedented claim made in "The Essentials of the Way" (Yuan Tao) that the Confucian Tao was transmitted from Yao and Shun down to Confucius and Mencius. Despite the existence of subtle discrepancies between their apparently identical statements, Liu's evocation of a notion that was exclusively Han's proves how deeply Liu's intellectual endeavor in Yung-chou was indebted to Han, his former political adversary. 36 Aspects of Tao Liu Tsung-yiian was not the type of thinker who set forth his ideas in a formal and organized manner. He never even presented a single systematic explanation of his notion of Tao. Nonetheless, he did repeatedly make a number of emphatic points on the nature of the Confucian Tao. First of all, Liu's Tao was a public Tao, and in his own words, "the Tao of Impartiality," or literally "the Tao of Great Public-spiritedness" (takung chih tao)?1 That is to say, for him, a fundamental characteristic of Tao was that it was the Way to bring about the well-being of the public, the Way to serve the whole of the people. This quality of Tao differed sharply from the motivations and reasons behind most human actions: 36 Although we do not have hard evidence about the exact date of the writing of "The Essentials of the Way," this work was probably composed in 805 or earlier. See Lo Lien-t'ien, Han Yiiyen-chiu, pp. 70, 207—8, 446. Han's original statement in question is: "Yao taught it [i.e., the Tao) to Shun, Shun to Yii, Yii to T'ang, and T'ang to Kings Wen and Wu and the Duke of Chou. These men taught it to Confucius and Confucius to Mencius, but when Mencius died it was no longer handed down." See Wm. Theodore de Bary et al., Sources of Chinese Tradition, vol. 1 (New York, i960), p. 379. For insightful interpretations of the above citation, see Ch'en Yin-k'o, "Lun Han Yii," CYKWC 2, pp. 285-6; Yii Ying-shih, Chung-kuo chin-shih tsung-chiao lun-li yii shang-jen ching-shen (Taipei, 1987), pp. 46-7. There exist two differences between Han's statement and Liu's adaptation. First, Liu took Mencius off and added King Wu-ting of the Shang to Han's list of the carriers of the Tao. This change reveals Liu's disagreement with Han's interpretation of the Confucian Tao, and I shall explain this problem in this and the next chapter. Second, Liu did not say that the Tao was passed down from one sage to another. Han Yii owed his idea of "succession of the Tao" to the newly emerged Ch'an Buddhism. This was perhaps too aberrant for Liu to accept. 37 LTYC, p. 31. See also LTYC, p. 1304; Jennings Gentzler, "Literary Biography," p. 192.

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self-interest. The first full manifestation of public-spiritedness in history, according to Liu, arose when Yao passed the throne to Shun instead of to his own son.39 Liu's perception of Tao in this respect came out unequivocally in his interpretation of Confucius' goal in life. To a question about why the sayings of Yao and Shun appeared in the last chapter of Confucius' Analects, a book presumably only to record the discourses of Confucius and his disciples, he answered: The greatness of the Analects is best displayed in this place. These are the statements about the Way that Confucius often recited. Confucius was a vessel protecting the living people. [But] he was not born early enough to meet Yao and Shun, and the succession they passed on could not reach him. Neither did he have the power of King T'ang [of the Shang], and he himself could not become a "Heaven-appointed officer." The living people were unable to benefit from his virtue. Every day Confucius saw and heard the fatigue, death, resentment and outcry [for help] of the people, but [he saw that] his own virtue was dying out and had no means to be put into practice. So he often recited those statements about the Way and could only do this. [Relieving the people] was the great desire of the sage!40 In fact, Liu regarded public-spiritedness as more than just a feature of Tao; it was the highest Confucian value. He expressed this view dramatically in his criticism of Mencius. Mencius had made the wellknown affirmation that members of a political society should act strictly in accordance with "humanity and righteousness' and not care about their own interest or profit at all. The failure to do so, Mencius warned, would result in incessant conflicts and the disintegration of this society.41 Liu accused Mencius of being blind to social reality. He wrote: "Mencius 38

See LTYC, p. 94. Liu did not make this point explicitly, but it is implied in his statements. 39 LTYC, p. 31. 40 LTYC, pp. 111-12. "Heaven-appointed officer" (t'ien-li) was a term borrowed from the Mencius, and referred to the ruler receiving the mandate of Heaven and observing moral principles revealed by Heaven. See D. G. Lau, tr., Mencius (Middlesex, Eng., 1970), p. 82. For Mencius and later Confucians in general, King T'ang was such a "Heaven-appointed officer" who rightfully overthrew the tyrannical King Chieh of the Hsia. This term also appears in the chapter "the Conquest of Yin" (Yin cheng) in the forged ancient text of the Book of History, which during the T'ang was in general believed to be authentic. See Ch'ii Wan-li, Shang-shu shih-i (Taipei, 1956), pp. 12-15, 175; Chang Hsi-t'ang, Shang-shu yin-lun (Sian, 1958), pp. 74-77, 128-69. It should also be noted that, despite using the term "Heaven-appointed officer" here, Liu Tsung-yiian was actually opposed to identifying the moral Way with Heavenly imperatives. 41 See D. C. Lau, tr., Mencius, pp. 49, 173-4. However, Liu's views on Mencius were, after all, basically favorable, and he liked to quote Mencius. See LTYC, pp. 82, 468, 630, 634, 1312.

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loved the Way but had no feelings [toward the people]. The effect of [policies based upon] his ideas would be slow and deficient. Mencius did not possess as much sense of urgency as Confucius had toward [the livelihood of] the people." 42 Two points need to be made here in order to shed further light on the implications of the above citation. First, Liu's acceptance of the role of self-interest in human activities did not contradict his advocacy of public-spiritedness. It is clear that, in his mind, public-spiritedness essentially indicated the concern of the social elite with the interests of the populace. Second, Liu seems to deem compassion, the sages' sympathy for the suffering of the people and their eagerness to find a solution for it, to be the basis of Confucian beliefs and ideas.43 He himself resolved to be a person of compassion regardless of the circumstances he encountered. At the end of a letter written in Yung-chou to Chou Chiin-ch'ao, an elder fellow literatus and former neighbor in Ch'ang-an, Liu made this moving statement: "If I follow the Way of the early sages and act according to 'Great Centrality,' even though banished ten thousand times, I would not alter my mind. Most of the above is the same as that which I said to you in the past when we were in the western outskirts of the capital, and I was too stupid to change. . . . Uncle, . . . although you do not have a prosperous official career, do not forget the suffering of the living people! Then the Way of the sages will be very much blessed."44 Another major characteristic of the Confucian Tao in Liu's vision was the Tao as the Way of government.45 This was certainly the other side of the same coin of the Tao as the public Way. Liu Tsung-yiian, as Confucians almost universally did, held that the most effective means of realizing one's commitment to the public welfare was to take office. "The Great Person (Ta-jen) has no [definite] form, / Simply going along with the Way. / The reason why the Way is great / Is that [it makes one] the people's parent," 46 he declared. In traditional Chinese language, both written and colloquial, "to be the people's parent" meant "to govern," and local magistrates were customarily referred to as "officials who were 42 43 44 45 46

LTYC, p. 564. The Ch'ing scholar Ho Ch'o questioned the authenticity of this essay. Yet his doubt rested completely on subjective feeling. For Ho's opinion, see I-men tushu chi (the 1769 edition), the part on Ho-tung cki, chuan 2, 2a. In addition to the passage just cited, see LTYC, pp. 521-2, 840. LTYC, p. 841. "Great Centrality" (Ta-chung) was a term Liu frequently used to refer to the Confucian Tao. It will receive close examination in this section. See LTYC, pp. 78, 8 2 - 3 , 117—18, 460, 521-2, 660, 799, 1053. LTYC, p. 522. 91

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like parents" (fu-mu kuan) or simply "parents" (/w-mw).47 A Confucian official, Liu contended, was decidedly worthier than a Confucian scholar: [When] one acquires office, one [should] carry out in actual affairs the ways of the Book of Poetry, the Classics of Rites, and the Spring and Autumn Annals, benefiting

the people, [always] keeping in mind [the necessity] to live up to Confucius' pen and tongue. Only by doing that, is one entitled to be called a Confucian. Can one be a practicing Confucian by talking and reading?48 On the other hand, public service ought to observe moral principles. When circumstances prevent an official from performing his duty faithfully, he should quit his post. Liu wrote: "Office is a vehicle of the Way. It would be wrong for them to be separated. There has never been one who, fulfilling his official duties, strayed from the Way, or one who abided by the Way and did not carry out his official duties properly." 49 Liu's assertion that "office is a vehicle of the Way" is a vital revelation of the nucleus of his thinking and emotions. As an active participant of the ku-wen movement, he also believed that a primary purpose of literature was to illuminate the Way. 50 Yet, in his mind, the relationship between government and the Tao seems closer than that between literature and the Tao. While writing was an instrument to demonstrate the character of the Way, government was a locus in which to carry it out. Public office for him almost resembled a religious institution, designed to transform the kingdom of earth into the kingdom of Heaven. The close affinity between the Confucian Tao as a whole and the Way of government in Liu's thought perhaps also played a major role in his use of an eccentric term for the Confucian Tao. In his writings, Liu time and time again referred to the Tao as "Ta-chung" (literally, "Great Centrality") or "Ta-chung chih tao" ("the Way of Great Centrality"). 51 This was an unusual labeling of the Confucian Tao; not only his contemporary intellectuals but also, as far as I am aware, Confucians throughout history only very rarely used the term "Ta-chung" to designate the Tao.52 47 48 49 50 51 52

See, for example, Ch'ii Wan-li, Shang-shu shih-i, "Hung-fan," p. 63; Chiao Hsiin, Meng Tzu cheng-i (the chu-tzu chi-ch'eng edition, rpt. Taipei, 1978), p. 37; Wu Ching-tzu, Ju-lin wai-shih (Peking, 1977), pp. 77-8. LTYC, p. 660. LTYC, p. 82. Cf. William Nienhauser et al., Liu Tsung-yuan, p. 60. See chap. 6, sec. 1. LTYC, pp. 56, 88, 91, 106, 193, 209, 463, 822, 827, 833, 841, 1304. In works contemporary with Liu's, I have found only four places in which the term "Ta-chung" is used. One is in an essay of Ch'iian Te-yii, a prominent writer introduced in chap. 2, sec. 4 (CTW, 492:15a). The other three all appear in works related to the Wang clique members. One is in an imperial edict announcing major policies issued

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Liu Tsung-yiian never provided his grounds for this choice of vocabulary. However, unquestionably, the term ilTa-chung" in his usage was related to the prevalent idea oi "chung" which signified "centrality," "the middle way," or "the optimal state of affairs." In fact, in some cases, he interpreted "Ta-chung" verbatim, as "optimum" or "centrality." 53 Moreover, it is obvious that Liu's "Ta-chung" owed its roots, though probably only in part, to the text the Doctrine of the Mean (Chung-yung). Originally a chapter in the Records of Rites and selected by Chu Hsi as one of the Four Books, this text, as its title betrays, contains insights into the notion of chung, and began to gain popularity in the mid-T'ang. 54 Liu Tsung-yiian was well-versed in this document, and sometimes just used the terms "Chung-yung" and "Ta-chung" interchangeably.55 Nevertheless, since "Ta-chung" was, after all, a peculiar term and does not appear in the Doctrine of the Mean, Liu must have consciously adopted in from other sources. The most likely textual origin of this term was the forged K'ung An-kuo's commentaries on the Book of History (authored ca. early fourth century), whose authenticity was rarely questioned until the Southern Sung. 56 In the chapter "Great Plan" (Hung-fan) in the History, a statement reads that "To Yii Heaven gave the great Plan with its nine Divisions . . . the fifth [of which] was the 'Establishment and Use of

53

54 55 56

upon the enthronement of Emperor Shun-tsung (TTCC, 2:9), and Liu perhaps took part in the drafting of that document. In addition, Liu Yii-hsi used this term twice. (LYHC, pp. 33, 43.) It is possible that this term enjoyed a certain degree of currency in the Wang group. Moreover, in 847, Emperor Hsiian-tsung designated the period of his reign as "Ta-chung." In the edict making this announcement, he (or rather the court) did not explain the reason for the choice of this name. See CTW, 82:3a-8b. See LTYC, pp. 91, 463. In three other cases, Liu literally used the term "' chung-tao" ("the middle way") to designate the Confucian Tao. (LTYC, pp. 88, 531, 809.) "The middle way," or "centrality," (chung) is certainly a quite elusive idea. Roughly speaking, it essentially meant "the optimal state of affairs" or "moderation." For a brief discussion of the meaning of "chung" in ancient China, see Ch'en Man-ming, Chungyung ssu-hsiangyen-chiu (Taipei, 1980), pp. 2-16. Furthermore, Liu a number of times referred to the Buddhist truth as "the middle way," or "centrality," and even "Great Centrality," too (LTYC, pp. 153, 160, 164, 166, 671). In Buddhism, "Centrality" (chung), or more often "the Middle Way" (chung-tao, madhyamapratipad), was also referred to as the Buddhist truth. This concept was formed by Gautama the Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, himself; in the Chinese Buddhist context, it was particularly important in the doctrine of the T'ien-t'ai school. It was quite possible that Liu's appreciation of Buddhism and the T'ien-t'ai doctrine contributed to his choice of the word "centrality" as the symbol of Tao. For the idea of "centrality," or "the middle way," in Buddhism in general, one may consult Mochizuki Shinko, Bukkyo daijiden (Tokyo, 1936), pp. 3663-5; for the Buddha's conception of the middle way, see Jamshed K. Fozdas, The God of Buddha (New York, 1973), p. 45. See Charles Hartman, Han Yii, pp. 176-9, 337. LTYC, pp. 822, 1053, 1265, 1288. Moreover, for Liu's reference to other ideas in the Doctrine of the Mean, see pp. 564, 876. See Chang Hsi-t'ang, Shangshuyin-tun, pp. 74-7, 128-60.

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Huang-chi? " 5 7 In expounding the term "huang-chi" which according to modern philology, signifies "rulers' laws or principles," 58 K'ung's commentaries claimed that "huang-chi" meant "ta-chung" "great centrality." The commentaries stated that Heaven demanded that "all conduct [of rulers] follow the Way of Great Centrality." 59 This became the standard interpretation of "huang-chi" in T'ang Confucian classical exegetics. K'ung Ying-ta's True Meaning of the Book of History made lengthy expositions of the phrase "the Way of Great Centrality," and Liu must have read it.60 In addition, Liu once declared that Lu Ch'un's teaching was the Way of Great Centrality. But in Lu's extant works the term "great centrality" does not appear; he only used "huang-chi" to denote the Confucian ideal.61 Based upon the fact that "Ta-chung" appeared in T'ang Confucian exegeses as a synonym for "huang-chi" whose establishment was a duty bestowed upon rulers by Heaven, it is reasonable to infer that in Liu Tsung-yiian's mind "Ta-chung" had strong associations with the Way of government. The occasional juxtapositions of "Ta-chung" and terms related to political ideals in Liu's writings further support this argument. 62 To sum up, Liu's idiosyncratic and conspicuous reference to the Confucian Tao as "Great Centrality" or "the Way of Great Centrality" was probably a reflection of his obsession with the moral responsibility of government. As a dedicated political reformer, Liu certainly held strong opinions on the matter of government. Nonetheless, he was apparently not interested in abstract political principles, and in his extant writings he made only one attempt to define the Way of government. He said: "The means whereby the sages established [the order of] all under heaven were called humanity and righteousness. Humanity guided their mercy and righteousness their judgment. Mercy meant affection [for the 57

Ch'ii Wan-li, Shang-shu shih-i, pp. 6 0 - 1 , as translated in James Legge, The Chinese Classics, vol. I l l , The Shoo King (Hong Kong, i960), pp. 323-4, with a minor change. 58 See Ch'ii Wan-li, Shang-shu chi-shih, Ch'ii Wan-li hsien-sheng ch'iian-chi 2 (Taipei, 1983), p. 118; Liu Chieh, "Hung-fan shu-cheng," in Ku Chieh-kang, ed., Ku-shih pien, vol. 5b (rpt. Hong Kong, 1963), pp. 399-41. 59 K'ung Ying-ta et al., Shang-shu cheng-i (Ssu-pu pei-yao edition, rpt. Peking, 1957), 12:2b.

60

Ibid., 12:3a—b, 7a, 8b~9b. In his Liu Tsung-yuan chuan-lun, Sun Ch'ang-wu mentions that the term "ta-chung" first appeared in the Ta Yu hexagram of the Book of Changes (p. 91). He is probably right, but the use of this term there seems to have little to do with Liu's "Ta-chung." "Ta-chung" in the Changes was only an adjective (meaning something great and in the center), lacking substantial significance. See James Legge, The I Ching (second edition, rpt. London, 1963), p. 225; Nan Huai-chin and Hsu Ch'in-t'ing, Chou 1 chin-chu chin-i (Taipei, 1974), p. 103. 61 CTW, 618:4b. 62 See LTYC, pp. 209, 833, 1304.

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people], while judgment meant appropriateness. This is the entire Way of government." 63 Since Liu's political thought itself does not directly concern us here, I shall not introduce at length his specific political views. Suffice it to say that his ideas in this respect came mostly as responses to the mid-T'ang political crisis. For instance, he strenuously advocated the value of loyalty toward the court, and proposed minimal government intervention in people's lives. 64 The former, unmistakably, aimed to counter prevailing military regionalism, whereas the latter can be understood only against the contemporary practice by the central government of collecting heavy levies to finance an overly high level of military spending. 65 Third, Liu Tsung-yiian also emphasized that Tao was the Way of the human world, no less and no more. By this, he meant that the Confucian Tao represented the moral principles governing human behavior and activities, and that there existed no additional cosmological or metaphysical truth on which the Confucian Tao was based. He especially resented the conventional theory that regarded Heaven as the ultimate source of all Confucian values. He said: Some people concentrate on talking about Heaven rather than about man. This is a misapprehension of the Way. Why do they not study the mind of the people and then [try to] perfect our own [i.e., humans'] Way? When our Way is fully realized, the people will be transformed [and civilized]. Therefore we know that the blue [over our heads] cannot participate in our affairs and be capable of understanding them.66 To be sure, this was the problem to which Liu granted most extensive discussion and about which he held very strong opinions. His rejection of the Heavenly Tao was a very peculiar, and indeed extreme, view within the Confucian tradition. I shall give a detailed examination of this view and its implications in the next chapter. Finally, I would like to discuss Liu Tsung-yiian's opinions about the relationship of Tao to historical and social reality. Liu made it clear that the human world for him was to a large degree an inflexible objective entity. Some elements of society and history, he argued, were given and would not easily change according to people's wishes. The world, 63 LTYC, p. 78. Cf. William Nienhauser et al., Liu Tsung-yiian, p. 64. 64 See LTYC, pp. 138-45, 175-9, 473~465 For a detailed discussion of Liu's political views, see Jennings Gentzler, "Literary Biography," chap. 7. 66 LTYC, p. 90.

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consequently, was not totally subject to being molded according to the Tao. Hence people could not, Liu continued, attribute all the deeds and ideas of ancient sages to the Tao. The sages took certain actions and vindicated certain ideas not out of the consideration that they accorded with the Tao, but merely because they were required by the situations in which they found themselves.67 In his famous and controversial "On Feudalism" (Feng-chien lun), Liu brought forth a theory that we may call "social evolutionism." In this treatise, he contended that ancient feudalism, which was reportedly founded and preserved by sage-kings and extolled in the Confucian classics, did not take place because of the sages' designs. Instead, both its emergence and destruction were outcomes of impersonal historical developments. Liu concluded: "The feudal system did not result from the intentions of the sages, but from the conditions of the times." 68 Although many modern scholars consider Liu's heterodox theory of "social evolutionism" shown in "On Feudalism" to be his most original and interesting idea, Liu expressed similar views only sketchily in one other piece of writing. 69 As a matter of fact, the relationship between the Tao and social reality was not the subject of "On Feudalism." Its subject lay in the merits and demerits of feudalism and the centralized administrative system, traditionally called "the prefectural system" (chiin-hsien), as political institutions. The underlying concern behind this essay was probably the legitimacy of the autonomous military governorship in the mid-T'ang, which many in Liu's time compared, not necessarily with the intention to justify it, to old feudalism. 70 Liu's purpose was apparently to deny any intrinsic value that might be attached to a divided political system. "Social evolutionism" in this work merely served as an argument to prove his political opinions. In short, Liu's observations on the problems regarding the Tao and social reality appear not to be the core of his thinking. 67 See LTYC, pp. 69-75, 1280-1, 1291. 68 LTYC, p. 70, as translated in Jennings Gentzler, "Literary Biography," p. 195. "Conditions" in the original text is "skill" which actually meant both conditions and the forces forming the conditions. "On Feudalism" was without question among those of Liu's works that have attracted greatest interest from scholars. There exist numerous traditional as well as modern analyses and remarks on this essay. For some important critical appraisals, see Wu Wen-chih, ed., Liu Tsung-yuan chu'an, vol. 1, pp. 45-6 (Su Shih), 92-4 (Hu Yin), 118-19 (Chu Hsi); vol. 2, pp. 441-4 (Yuan Mei); Chou I-liang and Wen Chung, Tu Liu Tsung-yuan feng-chien lun (Peking, 1974). 69 See LTYC, pp. 1280-1. 70 See Chu Tzu-ch'ing, "Liu Tsung-yiian "Feng-chien lun' chih-tao ta-kai," in his Chu Tzu-ch'ing ku-tien wen-hsueh lun-wen chi (Shanghai, 1981), p. 397; HCLC, 39:38; HTS, 78:3537. For this point and other mid-T'ang discourses on the "feudalism" problem, see Edwin G. Pulleyblank, "Neo-Confucianism and Neo-Legalism in T'ang Intellectual Life, 755-805," pp. 97-104.

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Nonetheless, despite the absence of his own elaboration, the implications of this view of Liu's do not completely escape us. To begin with, since the ancient sages' speech and actions were not always in agreement with the Tao, the latter was independent of the things they sanctioned and wrote, such as Confucian rites, ideas, and classics. This is also a view Liu expressed unequivocally in his youth.71 On the other hand, Tao could exist in times other than antiquity and in places outside the Confucian tradition. In quest of the Tao one should, Liu wrote, "inwardly investigate antiquity, and outwardly investigate surrounding things." 72 It might also be in every segment, including the lowest stratum, of the society.73 Last, Liu's theory of "social evolutionism" might help to explain the enthusiasm for historical studies that he disclosed at times, for this notion required one to understand social reality correctly while pursuing the improvement of the world. He certainly was unable to conduct serious historical research in the culturally peripheral Yung-chou and Liu-chou. However, in 814, Liu did complete a biographical study of Tuan Hsiu-shih, a respected general and martyr loyal to the court who was killed in 783 during the Chu Tzu rebellion, and presented it to the Office of Historiography. In the Northern Sung, Sung Ch'i (998-1061) incorporated this document into Tuan's biography in the Hsin T'ang-shu, the New T'ang History.14" The basic features of Liu Tsung-yiian's conception of the Confucian Tao are now clear. Liu's Confucian Way was the Way of the mundane world, with particular emphasis on its being the Way of the public realm of human life. In addition, he asserted that Confucian doctrine was a set of principles that should and could be carried out in the real world; it did not exist merely in the words of classics or the formalities of rituals. The fact that the concept of the Confucian Way became the primary subject in Liu's thinking itself shows that Liu was not a regular Confucian follower; he strove to probe the Confucian spirit and enhance its living relevance. As indicated before, Liu belonged to the first generation of T'ang intellectuals who commenced serious discourse on the Confucian 71 See chap. 2, sec. 5. This problem will receive further scrutiny in chaps. 5 and 6. 72 LTYC, p. 531. Cf. also pp. 789-90. 73 See LTYC, pp. 472-3, 531. Cf. the discussion on his idea of "teacher" (shih) in chap. 6, sec. 3. 74 Around the same time in which he presented his biographical work on Tuan, Liu sent a letter to Han Yii, then a compiler in the Office of Historiography, to explain his intentions. See LTYC, pp. 811-12. For his discussion about history, see also pp. 807-9. His work on Tuan's biography is on pp. 175-9. Sung is the author of biographies in the New T'ang History. For Tuan Hsiu-shih's biography in the New T'ang History, see HTS, 153:4847-53, 4861.

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Way. His efforts, and those of this sort by other contemporaries, were a new phenomenon in medieval Chinese history, and clearly signaled the resuscitation of Confucianism as an intellectual tradition after more than five centuries of Taoist and Buddhist dominance. Liu's characterization of the Confucian Way as the Way of the public world represented an important formulation of the widespread mid-T'ang sentiment that Confucianism should be established, or reestablished, as the guiding principle of government to remedy the political ills of the time. In terms of personal background, there is no question that this view represented an intellectual incarnation of his own political commitment. However, Liu's overall outlook regarding the Confucian tenets was rather conventional. In contrast to some fellow participants in the Confucian revival movement such as Han Yii and Li Ao, his Confucian Way had little to do with the internal life of individuals. Yet it should be noted that, at least intellectually, Liu was far more concerned with public affairs than with personal life; in his mind the Confucian Way no doubt outweighed any value placed in the latter sphere.

5 Heaven, the supernatural, and Tao Throughout his writings, Liu Tsung-yiian took pains to make the point that the human world was a self-sufficient realm, and did not have any connection with phenomena outside or beyond its domain. All the moral principles that he upheld and deemed part of the Tao were secular both in their origins and in their effects. These principles were neither derived from superhuman, transcendental imperatives, nor would their application result in practical happiness as a reward from a higher being or through the workings of an invisible supreme law. Likewise, the failure to follow the Confucian Tao would not necessarily lead to disaster. Liu once charged that stupidity and deception were what produced talk about the correlations between this world and the otherworld.1 As stated in Chapter 4, these were Liu's most distinctive as well as most fully elaborated ideas. It is my hope that a detailed examination of them will bring more light to the nature of and nuances within his Confucian ideas. Following this discussion, I shall compare Liu's notion of the Confucian Tao with those of other leading Confucian intellectuals in his time, so that the historical significance of his thought can be illuminated.

On "superstitions" Liu fired his criticism at virtually all major types of conceptions pertaining to higher entities in his time: popular supernatural beliefs, the Taoist quest for longevity and immortality, and the Confucian idea of Heaven. In the category of popular belief, Liu assailed just about every practice and idea of which he spoke: miracles, divination, witchcraft, physiognomy, astrology, geomancy (feng-shui), the blessing of ancestors, good or bad portents, the worship of spirits and deities, the sacrifice of animals to gods, and the idea of lucky and unlucky days. In a word, the 1 LTYC, p. 1292.

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whole body of what rationalist moderns refer to as "superstition" was his target.2 Liu made his distaste for superstitions most visible in Against the Conversations of the States (Fei Kuo-yii), the only work he intended to write in the form of a book.3 This book was full of attacks on and ridicule of ideas vindicating the supernatural that were recorded in the Conversations of the States (Kuo-yii), an ancient historical document about the Western Chou and, in the main, about the Spring and Autumn period.4 The following is a typical example. A story in the Conversations of the States related that a minister named Fan Wen Tzu of the state of Chin was worried that the current ruler of his state was too arrogant and aggressive, and that this would cause calamities for the state of Chin and thus for Wen Tzu himself. Consequently Fan Wen Tzu asked the priest of his clan temple to pray for him to die early in order to avoid these upcoming disasters. He, indeed, died one year afterward.5 On this account, Liu commented: "Had the early or late death depended on clan priests, who would not have chosen a good clan priest to pray for him? [The story] that Wen Tzu prayed for death and got it is really a prime example of absurdity." 6 In terms of style, this kind of comment reminds us of Voltaire's assaults on the irrationality of the Bible and the dogma of the Christian churches in such works as the Philosophical Dictionary and the Sermon of the Fifty, though Voltaire's remarks were more sophisticated.7 2 There exist a great many examples in this respect in Liu's writings. See LTYC, pp. 88, 181, 719-20, 741-4, 746-7, 752, 1277-8, 1285, 1288, 1291-2, 1294, 1300-1, 1307, I I 3 SJ l3J5, i3 I 9-2o, 1323-43 In most major Sung bibliographies, Against the Conversations of the States appeared as an independent book. See Ou-yang Hsiu et al., Cheung-wen tsung-mu chi-shih (the Yiieh-yat'ang edition, rpt. Taipei, 1968), 1:33a; Ch'ao Kung-wu, Chiin-chai tu-shu chih (the Wang Hsien-ch'ien edition, rpt. Taipei, 1967), 3:11a; HTS, 57:1441. See also LTYC, p. 822. Against the Conversations of the States is in LTYC, pp. 1265-328. I shall try to elucidate Liu's intentions in writing this work in chap. 6, sec. 2. 4 For a brief introduction of the Kuo-yii, see Stanley Mickel, "Kuo-yii," in The Indiana Companion to Traditional Chinese Literature, pp. 524—5. 5 For this story itself, see Kuo-yii, edited by Shang-hai shih-fan ta-hsiieh ku-chi cheng-li tsu (Shanghai, 1978), p. 423. 6 LTYC, p. 1313. 7 See Francois Voltaire, Philosophical Dictionary, tr. by Peter Gay (New York, 1962); idem, Sermon of the Fifty, in Peter Gay, ed., Deism: An Anthology (Princeton, N.J., 1968), esp. pp. 146, 150-4. The vast differences in the cultural backgrounds and historical times of Liu and Voltaire disallow a ready comparison of their thought. Yet, -their condemnations of authoritative sources of wisdom as superstitious apparently constitute a similarity. Like those of Voltaire, the motivations behind Liu's criticism were not monolithic. Nevertheless, it is unquestionable that reverence of reason and the laws of nature played no vital role in Liu's attacks on superstitions, as it did in Voltaire's. Liu's central argument was, rather, that superstitious beliefs led human beings to deviate from the proper goals and tasks of their lives. For details, see this chapter, sec. 3. As to why he chose the Conversations of the States as the object of his criticism, see chap. 6, IOO

Heaven, the supernatural, and T a o

The firmness of Liu Tsung-yiian's distaste for belief in the supernatural is shown especially distinctly in an epitaph he composed for a Buddhist monk. Despite probably not being an enthusiastic devotee, Liu had been sympathetic to Buddhism all his life. Most noteworthily, though an insider of the Confucian revival movement, he had several times gone to the defense of Buddhism against the fervent anti-Buddhist Han Yii. 8 Nevertheless, Liu did not shun expressing his disapproval of the Buddhist entanglement with the supernatural. He ended the tomb inscription of Hui-k'ai, a leader of the Disciplinary school in Hunan, this way: It is also said that, while a child, the master [Hui-k'ai] once dreamt that a bulky man, wearing a plain white cap and shoes, approached and told him: "The person who would reside on the Southern Sacred Mountain [Nan-yueh, i.e., Mount Heng in Hunan] and magnify my Way must be you." The prophecy was subsequently fulfilled. When Hui-k'ai was about to pass away, at night there came light, the sound of pipes and musical stones; all people around saw and heard that. There exist a good many other stories of this kind about him. Since Confucians do not talk about things of this nature and yet Wu-jan repeatedly asked me to write [Hui-k'ai's stories], I make them known at the end [of this inscription]. Wu-jan, a daughter of the Wei family, which has been illustrious and honorable for ages, is currently in charge of [Buddhist] discipline and rules on Mount Heng.9 Yet Liu was certainly incorrect in saying that Confucians did not talk about the supernatural. What he really must have meant was that Confucians "ought not to" talk about the supernatural or that Confucians like him did not believe in the supernatural. One major target, indeed, in his criticism of the supernatural happened to be Confucian mythology. In his "Heavenly Answers" (THen tui), a long and difficult ch'u-tz'u-sty\e essay composed in the form of a reply to Ch'ii Yiian's famous "Heavenly Questions" (T'ien wen), Liu charged that many ancient legends, including some regarding Confucian sage-kings, were nonsensical. He dismissed, for instance, the story that Yii was born through a crack in his mother's back. 10 Moreover, he wrote an essay to sec. 2. However, it should be noted that Liu's "empiricist," or "realist," intellectual instinct was still a factor behind his attacks on beliefs in the supernatural. For an interpretation of Liu's thought along this line, see Shigezawa Toshio, "Ryu Sogen ni mieru Todai no gorishugi," Nippon Chugokugakkai ho, 3 (1952), pp. 75-84. 8 See HCLC, 20:18-19; LTYC, pp. 673-4. 9 LTYC, p. 173. Hui-k'ai appeared as Hui-wen in Yao Hsiian (968-1020), ed., T'angwen ts'ui (Yu-yiian ts'ung-k'an edition, 1890), 62:7b. 10 See Fu-tan ta-hsueh chung-wen-hsi ku-tien wen-hsueh chiao-yen tsu, T'ien wen T'ien tui chu (Shanghai, 1973), pp. 34-5. See also pp. 39, 61, 66, 80. Liu's "Heavenly Answers" was an extremely difficult text. There was a joke in the Northern Sung that the "Heavenly Answers" was the best work to test and expose the real, and low, academic quality of the emperor's teachers and study companions. See Wu Wen-chih, Liu IOI

Liu Tsung-yuan and intellectual change in T'ang China

ridicule the legends that depicted Fu Hsi as having an ox's head, Nii Kua as having a snake's trunk, and Confucius as having a face like a mask. He concluded: "[Many] who adore sages do not look for sages among men, but must [search] among oxen, snakes and masked faces. So they eventually gain nothing from the sages." 11 These myths were not merely the products of popular culture. They occupied a central place in the so-called Learning of Prognostication and Apocrypha (ch}an-wei) of the Later Han, which continued to maintain its presence in the T'ang Confucian intellectual tradition. 12 To be sure, Liu did not dissociate himself entirely from the superstitions and magic of his day. While so often ridiculing such beliefs in writing, he occasionally followed common superstitious practices himself; they were simply too prevalent for almost anyone in T'ang society to avoid involvement with them. 13 As a renowned writer serving in public office, Liu sometimes had to compose letters on behalf of certain offices or high officials to congratulate the emperor on the alleged occurrences of auspicious omens as messages of Heavenly approval concerning the condition of the polity.14 When invited by either communities or individuals to write essays designed to commemorate special events, he sometimes had to comply with popular supernatural interpretations of those events. For example, he once produced a stone inscription to celebrate miracles that took place on the roof of a hut in which a filial son dwelt by his father's grave.15 In addition, his works show that

11

12

13 14 15

Tsung-yuan chu'an, vol. i, p. 81. Furthermore, the only comment of Huang Chen's, a Southern Sung scholar who wrote extensive criticism of Liu's works, on "Heavenly Answers" was "incomprehensible." See Wu Wen-chih, Liu Tsung-yuan chu'an, vol. i, p. 164. T'ien-wen T'ien-tui chu is a fairly good annotated edition of this essay. LTYC, p. 469. For the stories about Fu Hsi and Nii Kua, see Yuan K'o, Chung-kuo shen-hua ch'uan-shuo tz'u-tien (Shanghai, 1985), pp. 43-4, 163-4. For the story about Confucius, see Wang Hsien-ch'ien, Hsu'n Tzu chi-chieh (the chu-tzu chi-ch'eng edition, rpt. Taipei, 1978), p. 47. Ch'an was the name for oracles and predictions; wei referred to a literature containing esoteric explanations of the classics. The studies of the Han ch'an-wei are abundant. For concise introductions, see Jack L. Dull, "A Historical Introduction to the Apocryphal (Ch'an-Wei) Texts of the Han Dynasty" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Washington, 1966), pp. 5-14; Robert P. Kramers, "The Development of the Confucian Schools," in Denis Twitchett and Michael Loewe, eds., The Cambridge History of China, vol. 1, The Ch'in and Han Empires, 221 B.C.-A.D. 220 (Cambridge, 1986), p. 759. For the application of the ch'an-wei in T'ang classical studies, see Kusuyama Haruki, "Moshi Seigi shoin no isho," in Yasui Kozan, ed., Shin'i shiso no sogoteki kenkyu (Tokyo, 1984), pp. 197-226. See also the next section. For a discussion of T'ang superstitions, see Lii Ssu-mien, Sui-T'ang Wu-tai shih, vol. 2, PP- I399-J4I2. Set LTYC, pp. 961-75. LTYC, pp. 549-50. See also pp. 127-36, 279-80, 527-8, 537-40. 102

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he voluntarily sought fortune-telling at least twice: once just prior to an examination, once shortly after the announcement of his 805 banishment. 16 Despite these instances, judging from the whole of his writings, Liu's fundamental opposition to supernatural beliefs is beyond doubt.

The superhuman in Confucianism and religious Taoism In arguing for his vision of a self-sufficient human world, Liu also assailed two ideas of the superhuman that had closer relationship with high culture: the Taoist quest for longevity and immortality and the Confucian conceptions of Heaven. For the followers of religious Taoism, longevity and immortality did not belong to the supernatural realm. They still fell within human reach, notwithstanding that, to achieve these conditions, people needed to make extraordinary efforts. From the commonsense viewpoint of Liu Tsung-yiian, however, the Taoist assertions about longevity and immortality were incredible.17 Yet many people in T'ang times had different ideas; the Taoist practices designed to lengthen human life, chiefly the taking of elixirs, following special diets, and performing breathing exercises, were exceedingly popular within the upper classes. It was said that elixirs contributed to the untimely deaths of six emperors. Furthermore, among those addicted to Taoist prescriptions appeared many prominent intellectuals in the late eighth and early ninth centuries, including Yuan Chen, Li Chien, and Ts'ui Ch'iin, the last two being friends of the youthful Liu. 18 A number of friends and relatives close to Liu also enthusiastically pursued longevity; in one case, the taking of ground-up stalactites, which were used as a drug, probably claimed the life of one of Liu's brothers-in-law. It was in Liu's letters to these people attempting to persuade them to give up their unrealistic and dangerous undertakings that he voiced his unequivocal and strong objection to the ideology of religious Taoism. 19 In addition, there exists no sign that Liu 16 LTYC, pp. 51, 627. 17 For a revelation of Liu's views on the feasibility of high longevity and immortality of humans, see LTYC, pp. 842-3. 18 For the involvement of the T'ang upper classes with the Taoist pursuit of longevity and immortality, see Chao I, Nien-erh-shik cha-chi (Ssu-pu k'an-yao edition; Taipei, 1958), pp. 247-8; Lo Lien-t'ien, Han Yu yen-chiu, pp. 129-33. For a T'ang theory of immortality, see Ch'ing Hsi-t'ai, Chung-kuo Tao-chiao ssu-hsiang shih kang, vol. 2, pp. 605-33. 19 For the death of Liu's brother-in-law, see LTYC, pp. 232, 1102. For his letters, see pp. 835-45. Cf. also p. 1193. 103

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might, as the grand poet Po Chii-i did, have contradicted his words by trying Taoist pills himself.20 In terms of origin Heaven is certainly not a Confucian concept. In preConfucian antiquity, it was a common conviction that Heaven (or 77, God on High) represented the Supreme Being in the superhuman realm, which arranged the order of the natural and human world, judged the rights and wrongs of the rulers, and intervened in human affairs for the sake of enforcing its decrees. 21 During the Spring and Autumn era, people often even took Heaven's will as justification for whatever happened or whatever they wished to happen. 22 After the age of Confucius (551?—479 B.C.), various schools, most importantly Confucianism, Taoism, and Mohism, formed their own interpretations of Heaven, based on the old conceptions. 23 From the middle of the Former Han (202 B.C.-A.D. 8) onward, however, at the level of high culture, Heaven became principally conjoined with Confucianism for the following reasons. First, in the third and early second centuries B.C., the so-called School of Yin and Yang developed a sophisticated and elaborate cosmology ofyin and yang and the Five Elements (or Five Forces, Five Phases); people in the early Han almost universally accepted the cosmology as the precise laws of Heaven. In their struggle to win for Confucianism the status of orthodox social and political ideology, Confucian thinkers, most notably Tung Chungshu, incorporated the yin-yang cosmology into the Confucian system of ideas and values. 24 Second, ancient books in which the early conceptions of Heaven appear frequently, such as the Book of Poetry, the Book of 20

21 22 23 24

See Ch'en Yin-k'o, Yiian-Pai shih chien-cheng kao, CYKWC 6, pp. 321-7. Many scholars also believed that Han Yii, a critic of religious Taoism in general and the search for longevity in particular, ironically died from taking elixirs. For Han's attitudes toward the Taoist religion, see Ch'en Yin-k'o, "Lun Han Yu," CYKWC 2, pp. 289-93; HCLC, 34:92-4. For a summary of controversy over Han's "drug problem," see Lo Lient'ien, Han Yu yen-chiu, pp. 128-34. Benjamin Schwartz, The World of Thought in Ancient China, pp. 51-5. See Tsuda Sokichi, Saten no shisoshiteki kenkyu (Tokyo, 1935), pp. 612-43. Cf. Li Tu, Chung-Hsi che-hsueh ssu-hsiang chung te t'ien-tao yu shang-ti (Taipei, 1978), pp. 58-182. See Li Han-san, Hsien-Ch'in liang-Han chihyin-yang wu-hsing hsueh-shuo (Taipei, 1967); Chou Fu-ch'eng, Lun Tung Chung-shu te ssu-hsiang (Shanghai, 1961); Vitalty A. Rubin, "The Concepts of Wu-hsing and Yin-yang," Journal of Chinese Philosophy, 9:2 (June 1982), pp. 132-55. There were variations in Han Confucian cosmology. According to a recent fine study of Tung Chung-shu, the concept of Five Elements was absent from Tung's cosmological scheme; in his system Tung employed only the ideas ofyin and yang. See Gary Arbuckle, "Restoring Dong Zhongshu (BCE 195-115): An Experiment in Historical and Philosophical Reconstruction" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of British Columbia, 1991), particularly Introduction; part II, chap. 3; part IV, chaps. 2 and 3. IO4

Heaven, the supernatural, and Tao History, and the Tso Commentaries of the Spring and Autumn Annals, were

preserved, studied and taught by Confucians. These books actually became part of the Confucian canon. 25 Liu Tsung-yiian was critical of practically every conception of Heaven in the Confucian intellectual tradition. He did not overtly challenge the archaic idea of Heaven that enjoyed the greatest commendation of later Confucians, the Heaven that heeded the voice of the populace and accorded its mandate to rule to the virtuous. This version of Heaven existed in the Poetry and the History as follows: "Great is God on high / Beholding the lower world in majesty / Surveying the four quarters [of the kingdom] / Seeking the ills of the people"; 26 "Heaven thereupon sought a true lord for the people, and conferred its decree of distinction and favor on T'ang the Successful, who punished and destroyed the sovereign of Hsia." 27 As a matter of fact, Liu had composed two poems in imitation of the style of the Poetry to glorify his own dynasty. 28 In his verse, the founders of the T'ang, not surprisingly, received the mandate of Heaven rightfully, and Liu described how Heaven acted in the two stanzas quoted below: If Heaven is truly godlike, He should give attention to humanity. What does God follow? He should comply with humanity.29 God on high observes the condition of the people, He has neither force of action, Nor power of obstruction. Not to move, not to stop, God only takes the people as Its Ultimate.30 25 See P'i Hsi-jui, Ching-hsileh li-shih, pp. 1-90. 26 Ch'ii Wan-li, Shih-ching shih-i, p. 214, following James Legge, The Chinese Classics, vol. IV, The She King (Hong Kong, i960), p. 448; Arthur Waley, The Book of Songs (London, 1937), p. 255. 27 James Legge, The Chinese Classics, vol. Ill, The Shoo King, p. 497, with a few modifications. 28 Liu's composition of these two poems also stood for his application of the literary principles of "return to antiquity" (Ju-ku). Some other pieces of Liu's verse were written in this spirit as well. See LTYC, pp. 1-25. As pointed out in chap. 1, sec. 3, the call for return to ancient literary style took place in the poetic arena earlier than in the field of prose writing. The leading figure of this poetic movement in Liu's time was Po Chii-i. See Ch'en Yin-k'o, Yiian-Pai shih chien-cheng kao, CYKWC 6, pp. 117-21. 29 LTYC, p. 36. In another edition of the collected works of Liu Tsung-yiian, which has been lost, the last line is "He should go after the people." See LTYC, p. 36. 30 LTYC, p. 39. For an exposition of this stanza, see Chang Shih-chao, Liu-wen chih-yao, p. 26. Yet Chang's interpretations of the latter part of this poem (p. 27) are very 105

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However, it is obvious that Liu's Heaven here differed distinctly from that depicted in the Poetry and the History. His Heaven, or God on High, had a very passive character. It lacked independent will, simply taking the people's will as its own. Liu even doubted whether Heaven possessed power over human activities at all. Yet these two poems do not adequately reflect Liu's whole outlook on Heaven. In fact, his real opinions, as we shall see, were far more radical than those implied in the lines just cited. In his Against the Conversations of the States, for

example, he bluntly dismissed various discussions of Heaven in the Spring and Autumn period as "silly," "absurd," "forced interpretations," "superfluous statements," "nothing to do with virtue and righteousness," and "the talk of those wizards who were without integrity."31 The focus of Liu Tsung-yiian's criticism of the Confucian notions of Heaven was actually the entanglement of Han Confucianism with the cosmology of yin and yang and the Five Elements. The basic idea of this cosmology (or, as Benjamin Schwartz has pointed out, "anthropocosmology" might be a more accurate term) 32 was that there exist interactions between the sphere of Heaven (including nature and the portions of human life beyond human control) and that of Man. The categories of yin and yang and the Five Elements could explicate these correlations in a precise manner. 33 In the Confucian adaptation of the yin-yang anthropocosmology, Heaven demonstrated its moral judgments through the activities of the natural world. Thus, human actions were (indirectly) responsible for natural phenomena, and also for the fate of human beings resulting from the occurrence of these phenomena. Disasters always signified warnings against human misconduct, whereas wonders represented Heaven's approval of certain developments in the human sphere. 34 In short, in Han Confucian philosophy, the Tao was identified with Heaven as interpreted by the theories ofyin and yang and the Five Elements. Liu Tsung-yiian considered the Han Confucian acceptance and appropoliticized; he, quite overtly, tried to use Liu's poem as a support for the leadership of Mao Tse-tung. 31 LTYC, pp. 1271-3, 1278, 1283, 1302, 1307, 1313. 32 Benjamin Schwartz, The World of Thought in Ancient China, p. 350. 33 See Li Han-san, yin-yang wu-hsing hsueh-shuo, pp. 1-102. 34 For introductory works about the ideology in this respect, see Ku Chieh-kang, Ch'inHan te fang-shih yu ju-sheng (Shanghai, 1955); Michael Loewe, "The Religious and Intellectual Background," in Denis Twitchett and Michael Loewe, eds., The Cambridge History of China, vol. 1, pp. 708-13. 35 These five essays are "Righteous Omens" (Chen fu), Parts I and II of "On the Seasonal Commands" (Shih-ling lun), and Parts I and II of "On the Decision of Penalties" (Tuan-hsing lun). Part I of "On the Decision of Penalties" has been lost. 106

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priation of the yin-yang cosmology to be a grave transgression of the fundamental tenet of Confucianism. He wrote at least five treatises with the specific purpose of refuting this facet of Han Confucianism.35 In one of them, which was to be presented to the emperor, he wrote passionately: Wu Wu-ling, an exile in the prefecture where your minister [i.e., Liu himself] is banished, asked me: "Was Tung Chung-shu's reply about the omens which signified the reception of Heaven's Mandate of the three dynasties [Hsia, Shang, Chou] in his memorial really wrong?" Your minister said: "It was wrong. But it was not only Chung-shu [who was wrong]. From Ssu-ma Hsiang-ju to Liu Hsiang, Yang Hsiung, Pan Piao and Piao's son Ku, they all ignorantly followed [Tung], citing ancient auspicious things to fit [the theory of] the reception of Heaven's Mandate. Their talk was like that of vicious shamans and blind astrologers, cheating and confusing later generations, unable to [make people] understand the sages' grounds for establishing the Ultimate, and unable to manifest [the sages'] highest virtue and glorify their great accomplishments. . . ."36 Tung, Ssu-ma, Liu, Yang, and the Pans all were eminent and historically important Han thinkers, scholars, and writers. This paragraph perfectly displays the great intensity of Liu's sentiments concerning the problem of Heaven and Tao, since Han writers were otherwise admired by Liu for their exemplary works of ancient prose.37 The following is another statement by Liu assailing Han Confucianism; this time his target was the "Monthly Commands" (Yueh-ling), a work edited by Former Han scholars and a chapter of the Records of Rites.38 He stated: The Way of the sages does not investigate to the extreme the strange phenomena and attribute them to spirits, and does not call on Heaven in order to gain a sense of loftiness. Benefiting the people and dealing with business properly are what the Way is all about! I see that the theories propounded in the "Monthly Commands" carelessly matched everything with the Five Events [i.e., humanity, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trustworthiness] and the Five Elements, and wanted governmental measures to be carried out [according to this system]. Did this not stray too far away from the Way of the sages? . . . Things like this are just the talk of blind astrologers; they were not produced by the sages.39 36 LTYC, p. 30. Tung's memorial Liu referred to is in Pan Ku, Han shu, 56:2498-505. 37 See, for instance, LTYC, pp. 576-7. 38 Wang Meng-ou, Li-chi chin-chu chin-i, vol. 1, 243-72. 39 LTYC, pp. 85-6. At the beginning of this essay, Liu stated that "Monthly Commands" was written by Han Confucians on the basis of an earlier work, Lu-shih ch'un-ch'iu (Lu Spring and Autumn), which was completed in 240 B.C. This is in accordance with modern scholarly opinions. 107

Liu Tsung-yuan and intellectual change in T'ang China

Liu Tsung-yiian's own view on the relationship between Heaven and the human world was simple and clear-cut: "It is not that Heaven takes any part in [the sphere of] man"; 40 "good and evil, early death and long life, honor and lowliness are things which issue forth by different paths. One should not infer [Heaven's] joy or anger from them." 41 After the interval of the anti-cosmological movement of Neo-Taoism in the third century A.D., 42 correlative cosmology played a greatly diminished role in T'ang Confucian ideology and scholarship in comparison with that in Han Confucianism. Nonetheless, T'ang literati by and large still conceded, no matter to what extent they truly believed in it, the existence of a general interacting relationship between the Heavenly and the human spheres. K'ung Ying-ta's True Meaning of the Book of Poetry and True Meaning of the Records of Rites continued to adopt

the Han mythological interpretations of classical texts. For instance, in explaining that the central theme of the poem "King Wen" in the Poetry was King Wen's reception of the mandate of Heaven to establish a new 40 LTYC, p. 816, following H. G. Lamont, "An Early Ninth Century Debate on Heaven: Liu Tsung-yiian's T'ien Shuo and Liu Yii-hsi's T'ien Lun, an Annotated Translation and Introduction, Part II," Asia Major, vol. 19, part 1 (1974), p. 81. 41 LTYC, p. 1077, as translated in H. G. Lamont, "An Early Ninth Century Debate on Heaven, Part I," Asia Major, vol. 18, part 2 (1973), p. 204. About the last sentence of this passage, Lamont says that it "is ambiguous in the original and may also possibly mean that one should not react emotionally to one's lot; this interpretation, however, it rather unlikely in the context" (n. 91, the same page). I agree with his opinion. 42 See T'ang Yung-t'ung, "Wang Pi's New Interpretation of the / Ching and Lun-yu," tr. and annotated by Walter Liebenthal, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 10 (1947), pp. 124-61; Yii Ying-shih, "Han-Chin chih chi shih chih hsin tzu-chueh yii hsin ssuch'ao," in his chih-shih chieh-ts'eng shih lun, pp. 282-8. My use of the term Neo-Taoism certainly indicates that I do not agree with E. Ziircher's contention that hsuan-hsueh should be the correct designation for what is often called Neo-Taoism. (E. Ziircher, The Buddhist Conquest, pp. 86-7.) Ziircher is right in pointing out that ming-chiao (the Doctrine of Names) and hsuan-hsueh (Dark Learning) cannot be simply regarded as two rival schools of thought. His implied inference is that hsuan-hsueh thus cannot be considered as a strand of Taoist thought. Yet Confucianism and Taoism do not have to be rival schools of thought, as "Taoism and Buddhism within and Confucianism without" was a common philosophy of life held by early medieval Chinese intellectuals. The central problem that I have with Ziircher's position is that hsuanhsueh is too narrow a term to represent the intellectual trend of the third and fourth centuries, which strove against Han Confucianism in so many ways. For example, it may not be appropriate to place the ideas and mentality of people like Juan Chi (210-63), Hsi K'ang (223—62) and other members of the "Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove" simply under the banner of hsuan-hsueh. Also, I am puzzled by Ziircher's statement that "Dark Learning was both created by and intended for literati, i.e., politicians and state officials, and definitely not by Taoist masters, hermits or cavedwelling mystics" (The Buddhist Conquest, p. 87). Why do Taoists have to be hermits or cave-dwelling mystics? I am neither convinced by Ziircher's use of Ko Hung's opposition to the so-called hsuan-hsueh to argue that hsuan-hsueh is hence not Taoist. For me, it simply illustrates the difference between philosophic Taoism and religious Taoism. 108

Heaven, the supernatural, and Tao

dynasty, which would become the Chou, 43 K'ung cited a large quantity of prognosticatory and apocryphal texts (ch'an-wei) produced in the Han. According to these documents, Heaven actually granted King Wen a certificate; Heaven dispatched a phoenix to bestow on him "The Lo Writing" (Lo shu), a mystic diagram, first coming out of the Lo River during the time of Yii, which was "the words and teaching of the heavenly gods to rulers." 44 K'ung Ying-ta's case might be a little extreme, but that of Lii Ts'ai was definitely not. Lu was noted for his editing and compilation, under the court's auspices, of divination and geomancy manuals according to "rational" principles in 641, and that task drew for him the animosity of the magicians. 45 Nevertheless, in the preface to the texts about personal fortune, he still upheld the conventional idea that "High Heaven is without partiality, always helping the good people; the calamity and happiness [of the people] as responses are like shadows and echos." 46 Furthermore, there is a mid-T'ang example of the customary discourse on Heaven. Chang Chiu-ling (673-740), an eminent writer and famous prime minister under Emperor Hsiian-tsung, argued, in a memorial written around 717 (five years after Hsiian-tsung's accession), that the emperor should perform in person the sacrificial ceremony to Heaven: [Your humble minister] thinks that Heaven is the chief of the hundred gods and the source from which kings [on earth] receive their mandate. . . . At present, a hundred kinds of grains grow excellently; birds and beasts are all submissive; yi and ti barbarians yield themselves inward [to our side]; weapons and armor are laid down. It is desirable now to . . . perform the Feng and Ch'an sacrifices to Heaven, in order to exhibit the beauty of [your] accomplishments and virtue and to show gratitude to the goodwill of the gods as a recompense.47 To conclude, Liu Tsung-yiian's attacks on the affiliation of Confucianism with the yin-yang anthropocosmology were not purely historical criticism. They also represented his efforts to denounce a generally unquestioned element of contemporary Confucian ideology. 43

44 45 46 47

King Wen surely did not establish the Chou dynasty himself. It was his son King Wu who, through overthrowing the Shang House, established the dynasty. Yet ancient Chinese traditions (as told by the Chou people) recognized that King Wen had already received the mandate of Heaven. Without question, this belief was based upon the fact that King Wen laid the foundation for the eventual Chou conquest of Shang. K'ung Ying-ta et al., Mao Shih cheng-i (Ssu-pu pei-yao edition, rpt. Peking, 1957), vol. 4, pp. 1283-6. See CTS, 79:2719-27; THY, 36:651-6; Jen Chi-yii et al., Chung-kuo che-hsueh shih, vol. 3 (Peking, 1964), pp. 16-22; Hou Wai-lu et al., Chung-kuo ssu-hsiang t'ung-shih, vol. 4a (Peking, 1963), pp. 108-40. CTS, 79:2721. CTS, 99:3097. This quotation is in a slightly different version in HTS, 126:4425-6. 109

Liu Tsung-yuan and intellectual change in T'ang China

Despite being conversant with the Mencius and the Doctrine of the Mean, the vital classical Confucian texts containing expositions on the ontological foundation of morals and on the relationship between human nature and ethics, Liu apparently did not pay much attention to these problems. Nonetheless, there does exist among Liu's works an essay, entitled "On Heavenly Honors" (T'ien-chueh lun), dealing with this set of themes, which earned serious interest from some of Liu's fellow Confucian thinkers, such as Han Yii and Li Ao, and subsequently developed into a focal issue for Sung Confucianism. "Heavenly honors" was a term Mencius coined to refer to virtues like humanity, righteousness, conscientiousness and trustworthiness, in order to illustrate his theory that human nature is intrinsically good.48 In this context, Heaven was designated as the source of a divine part of the inborn nature of human beings, the part that gave one the potentiality or capacity to act morally and, if necessary, to so act against one's other desires, including the desire to live.49 It is safe to say that here Heaven was a concept of transcendence rather than one of supernatural force. In his essay, Liu Tsung-yuan did not expound upon his understanding of the idea "Heavenly honors." But he made it crystal-clear that he was opposed to the direct connection of morals with Heaven. He did indeed give men's inborn nature a role in ethical life. He held that people with, in his own terms, high "enlightening power" (ming) and strong "will" (chih) would be better equipped to grasp moral values. In his view, these two features, intelligence and will, were the only elements in human ethical life that men "receive from Heaven." 50 He then hastened to clarify what he meant by this: Someone asked: "You say that Heaven grants people [intelligence and will]. Is it like opening a storehouse and measuring things to give to someone?" I said: "No. It only means that individuals happen to acquire [different kinds of] ether [ch'i]."51

As to the question of the n a t u r e of moral values, Liu provided the following answer: What morals are to man is what yin and yang are to Heaven; what humanity, righteousness, conscientiousness and trustworthiness are to man is what spring, autumn, winter and summer are to Heaven. . . . One should use one's 48 D. C. Lau, tr., Mencius, p. 169. 49 See D. C. Lau, tr., Mencius, Book VI, Part I, and Book VII, Part A. For the outline of the Mencian theory of human nature, see D. C. Lau, "Theories of Human Nature in

Mencius and Shyntzy," Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, XV, 3 (1953),

PP- 545-5150 LTYC, pp. 79-80.

51 LTYC, p. 80. IIO

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enlightening power to understand morals and use one's will to obtain them. One [then] employs the fundamentals of morality, developing the nature of the Five Constancies [humanity, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trustworthiness], expanding them so as to fill the whole cosmos, spreading them so as to inspire the hundred generations that follow. This is the enterprise of the sages.. . . Morals and the Five Constancies are things existing in the sphere of man. 52

This passage is far from philosophically lucid. Nevertheless, we can still discern that Liu seemed to perceive moral values as the rules of human action, which await people's discovery and observance. Although he did not define what kind of rules moral norms really were, this seems to be a line of thinking close to Hsiin Tzu's (ca. 340-245 B.C.) theory of morality. 53 The primary importance of "On Heavenly Honors," however, does not lie in the points or arguments Liu made to counter Mencius. He was not genuinely interested in moral philosophy, at any rate. The cardinal significance of this essay appears to be that it demonstrated Liu's sensitivity, or more accurately, oversensitivity, to any suggestion that forces in the ultramundane realm took part in human activities. Rationale Now I need to explain why Liu Tsung-yiian possessed all the above views on the relationship between the Heavenly and the human spheres and why he was deeply interested in this problem. First of all, Liu had a naturalistic notion of Heaven. He considered what was generally labeled as Heaven to be purely Nature. He declared: "Chuang Chou spoke of Heaven as what is natural. I agree." 54 Heaven was entirely composed of chH (roughly translatable as material force and biological essence), having its own laws and vicissitudes, which were purposeless with regard to the actions of people. 55 Liu enunciated this point throughout his writings, particularly emphatically in Against the Conversations of the States, "Heavenly Answers," and the essays written with the intention of debating with Han Yii and Liu Yii-hsi on the nature of Heaven. 56 52 Ibid. 53 Cf. John Knoblock, Xunzi: A Translation and Study of the Complete Works, vol. 1 (Stanford, Calif., 1988), pp. 8 0 - 1 . 54 LTYC, p. 80, following Jennings Gentzler, "Literary Biography," p. 190, and William Nienhauser et al., Liu Tsung-yiian, p. 48. 55 For a general explanation of this concept, see Ch'ien Chung-lien, "Lun ch'i," Ku-tai wen-hsueh li-lun, 5 (August 1981), pp. 129-39. For a valuable study of the idea of ch'i in the T'ang, see Fukui Fumimasa, "Zui-T6 Godai no ki no gainen: Ju Do Butsu sankyo ni okeru ki," in Onozawa Sei-ichi et al., Ki no shiso (Tokyo, 1978), pp. 314-32. 56 LTYC, pp. 441-3, 816-17. For a detailed report of this debate, see H. G. Lamont, "Debate on Heaven, Part II," pp. 37-85. Ill

Liu Tsung-yiian and intellectual change in T'ang China

In "Heavenly Answers," he even laid out his cosmological knowledge and speculations in a quite concrete fashion.57 The following is Liu's eloquent reasoning for his conception of Heaven contained in an essay rebutting Han Yii: That which is above and blue, the world calls Heaven. That which is below and yellow, the world calls Earth. That which fills the space between in undifferentiated unity, the world calls the Primordial Ether [yuan-ch'i]. Cold and Heat, the world calls the yin and yang. All of these, no matter how vast, are not different from fruits and gourds, abscesses and piles, grasses and trees. Were someone to succeed in exterminating the insects that eat holes in things, could these things pay him back? Were someone to aid harmful creatures in breeding and proliferating, could these things resent him? Heaven and Earth are immense fruits and gourds. The Primordial Ether is immense abscesses and piles. Yin and yang are immense grasses and trees. How can they reward meritorious service and punish harmful acts? Merit is self-attained [through men's own actions], and disaster is self-inflicted.58 Those who expect rewards or punishments [from Heaven] are making a big mistake. . .. You should just believe in your [principles of] humanity and righteousness, wander in the world according to these principles, and live [in this way] until your death. How can you attribute the causes of existence and extinction, of success and failure, to fruits and gourds, abscesses and piles, and grasses and trees?59 57

See Fu-tan ta-hsiieh chung-wen-hsi ku-tien wen-hsueh chiao-yen-tsu, T'ien wen T'ien tui chu, pp. i-12; Hou Wai-lu and Li Hsiieh-ch'in, "Liu Tsung-yuan 'T'ien tui' tsai Chung-kuo wei-wu chu-i shih shang te k'o-hsiieh ti-wei," Li-shihyen-chiu, 1962:3, pp. 9-20.

58 The authors of Liu Tsung-yuan understand this sentence as that "merit is attained [through one's action] and calamity is self-invited." See William Nienhauser et al., Liu Tsung-yuan, p. 49. This is contradictory to Liu's thought and thus probably incorrect. Liu's position was that individuals' fortunes had nothing to do with their merits or wrongdoings. Otherwise, it could easily lead to the assumption that there was something like Heaven or karma behind the cosmic drama that rewarded the worthy and punished the wicked. For Liu's expression of his opinions in this respect, see Tanaka Toshiaki, "Ryu Sogen no tendo kan ni tsuite no bunseki," Osaka Kyoiku daigaku kiyo, 24:2 (1976), pp. 98-101; LTYC, p. 1077. However, Liu believed that a large portion of human suffering was created by men themselves as a collective group. He stated, "production and increase as well as calamity and ruin are all due to Heaven; laws and regulations as well as chaos and rebellion are all due to men." (LTYC, p. 817, as translated in H. G. Lamont, "Debate on Heaven, Part II," p. 81. Yet "men" in Lamont's article appears as "Heaven," which is probably an inadvertent mistake or a misprint.) See also Hu-nan-sheng Liu Tsung-yiian shih-wen hsiian-chu tsu, Liu Tsung-yiian shih-wen hsuan-chu (Changsha, 1979), p. n o . It should also be mentioned that Tanaka's article is a sound general description of Liu's perception of Heaven, though he does not discuss Liu's treatment of Heaven as a concept of transcendence. 59 LTYC, pp. 442-3, following Jennings Gentzler, "Literary Biography," pp. 188-9. In modifying Gentzler's rendering, I also consult H. G. Lamont, "Debate on Heaven, Part II," pp. 68-9. For Liu's other important statements about the character of Heaven, see LTYC, pp. 91, 153, 465-6, 1053, 1269. 112

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Abscesses and piles were certainly not pleasant equivalences of Heaven. Liu probably did not intend to degrade Heaven by using such metaphors, but in so doing he did indeed dramatically highlight his fundamental belief in the character of the so-called Heaven. 60 Second, Liu had serious doubts about the psychological origin of the search for the superhuman. Clearly, he thought it was essentially self-interest in a very narrow and debased sense, not principle of any kind, that motivated such pursuits. In this connection, Liu launched particularly harsh criticism toward the Taoists' efforts to achieve longevity and immortality. He wrote: Those lean immortals in mountains and beside waters have nothing to do with me. They see the chaos of the world as if it were orderliness; they see the disaster of the people as if it were gain; they see the violation of the Way as if it were righteousness. [The fact] that they have long lives and continue to be alive and that others die young is certainly unable to move them even a little. They blindly run about, muddledly passing their days, and appearing composed and satisfied. Digging up herbs and concocting mineral drugs, they work for the profit of their own flesh and bone, but become more stupid day by day. Other people do not benefit [from their activities]; they alone enjoy them. If these immortals live this way for hundreds and thousands of years, in a sense their lives become shorter and shorter. How can they consider their arrangements to be clever?61

Here is another example: The reason why a gentleman takes office is that he wants to carry out the Way; the purpose of his staying in private life is to attend to his virtue in solitude.... If you [Lou T'u-nan, a friend of Liu's both in Ch'ang-an and Yung-chou] carelessly think that attempting to achieve longevity is the Way, then that is not what I call the Way. Our bodies' [eventual] dwelling in the earth is not something which we [as individuals] can gain the prerogative to avoid. If 60 As has been indicated, the above quoted passage is Liu's rebuttal of a statement by Han Yii on the relationship between Heaven and men. Han first used these analogies in his statement. See H. G. Lamont, "Debate on Heaven, Part II," pp. 66-8. It should be noted here that, since the 1950s, many scholars in China have characterized Liu's thought, particularly his views on Heaven, as "materialism" or "atheism." These, in my opinion, are not adequate concepts to interpret his ideas. Most important, Liu never asked the questions regarding the essence and constitution of the world. Although he apparently believed that ch'i was the most fundamental constituent of the world, it is still questionable whether or not for him ch'i was only a "matter." In addition, Liu's opinions about the existence of the supernatural were far from clear, though he unequivocally denounced belief in it. For two works representative of the materialistic interpretation of Liu Tsung-yiian's thought, see Hou Wai-lu, "Liu Tsung-yuan te wei-wu chu-i che-hsueh-ssu-hsiang ho she-hui ssuhsiang," in Chou K'ang-hsieh, ed., Liu Tsung-yuanyen-chiu lun-chi (Hong Kong, 1973), pp. 1-20 from the back; Wu Wen-chih, "Liu Tsung-yiian wu-shen-lun ssu-hsiang yen-chiu," in Chou K'ang-hsieh, ed., ibid., pp. 33-6 from the back. 61 LTYC, p. 840, "3

Liu Tsung-yuan and intellectual change in T'ang China

someone is fortunate enough to like to seek the goals of Yao, Shun and Confucius and is always afraid of failing to reach them, and if he is fortunate enough to have opportunities to put into practice the Way of Yao, Shun and Confucius and always feels unsatisfied, then it is all right for him to have a long life. If someone seeks [the Way of Yao, Shun and Confucius] and instantly [thinks he] acquires it, and if he tries to put it into practice and instantly becomes contented, then who will be sorry even though he dies young? Now you regard breathing as food, diet as spirit, doing nothing as leisure, not dying as life. But trees and rocks deep in the mountains, turtles and snakes in the great waters all reach old age. What do they have to do with the Way?62

Two points can be made concerning these two passages. To begin with, even if Liu had not challenged the attainability of great longevity, immortality, or any form of communication with the supernatural (which he had done at least once), 63 these would still be undesirable goals. The quest for these goals, Liu argued, would lead to a totally meaningless life. According to an amusing analogy in the last quotation, the life of an immortal was no different from that of a turtle. Furthermore, Liu directed his criticism in this connection purely toward elite Taoists. This demonstrated that he considered helping the populace to be the irrefragable obligation of the literati and the primary source of meaning in their lives. It also showed that Liu's denunciation of the ideas of the superhuman and Heaven was intimately related to his assertion of the Confucian Tao as the Way for the welfare of the people. I can support this point by the fact that, in his criticism of the superstitions, the majority of his targets were those practices conducted by sociopolitical leaders.64 Liu's third reason for his attacks on the traditional views concerning the relationship between the Heavenly and the human spheres was that emphases on Heaven often constituted impediments to proper human actions. Liu Tsung-yiian admitted that ancient sages sometimes claimed that supernatural forces such as spirits lent support to their teaching. Yet he doubted that the sages genuinely believed in the existence of the supernatural or its function as they described it. He contended that they simply utilized this kind of talk to help persuade the uneducated to follow the right track in life. In general, the worship of or reference to Heaven only did disservice to the well-being of the people, since it was 62

LTYC, p. 656. Cf. Jennings Gentzler, "Literary Biography," p. 156. See also LTYC, p. 283. 63 See LTYC, p. 374. 64 Liu's criticism with reference to the common people appears only in LTYC, pp. 719-20, 743-7, 752-3114

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completely irrelevant to the real problems in life.65 On the subject of divination prior to war recorded in the Conversations of the States, Liu commented: "The reason why the sages used divination was perhaps to direct and control the uncultured populace. They did not intend to use it constantly and [try to] claim that the prophecies would be fulfilled. Later silly and evil people mystified divination, constantly using it, and claiming fulfillment. On the contrary, this merely obstructed the important affairs [of society]." 66 He also said: "When two states were about to fight a war for their survival or extinction and the lives of people were at stake, [the leaders of a state] did not concentrate on realities, but were only concerned with the power of spirits. Their project would thus be in danger." 67 To give another example, in discussing the prevalent idea of government by almanac, an idea that was systematically elaborated in such pre-Ch'in works as Kuan Tzu and Lii-shih ch'un-ch'iu and put into practice to a substantial degree during the Han periods,68 Liu asserted that it was absurd that rewards had to be given in spring and summer and punishments in autumn and winter. The purpose of rewards and punishments, he held, lay in their usefulness as encouragement to the worthy and deterrent to the vicious. The government, therefore, should carry out its rewards and punishments as soon as possible after the occurrence of related events. Yet the idea of seasonable rewards and punishments based upon correlative cosmology went straight against this principle, thus becoming a hindrance to the realization of the Tao. Moreover, Liu added that it was inhuman to let a person receiving the death penalty in the spring to pass the whole summer, wearing cangue, fetters and manacles, in a prison cell waiting for execution.69 In summary, for Liu, the ideas of Heaven and the supernatural were not only erroneous but also harmful in practical terms. Because Liu was critical of the ideas of Heaven and the supernatural, he was certainly in principle opposed to the offering of sacrifices to Heaven and the spirits made by the state. As he had done in his early years in such essays as "On the Ch'a Sacrifice," Liu stressed in Against the Conversations of the States that sacrifices and rituals were only symbolic 65 For a good example, see LTYC, pp. 741-2. 66 LTYC, p. 1291. For his point that sages at times invoked the names of spirits as an expedient method of educating the populace, see also pp. 91, 125. For such a claim in the Book of Changes, see James Legge, The I Ching, p. 230. 67 LTYC, p. 1285. 68 For a detailed explanation, see Li Han-san, yin-yang wu-hsing hsiieh-shuo, pp. 62-102, 161-90.

69

LTYC, pp. 9 0 - 1 . For a similar case, see p. 720.

Liu Tsung-yuan and intellectual change in T'ang China

expressions of people's vital concerns. Sacrifices and rituals would in no way bring about the realization of their wishes. In the case of rulers, if they failed to translate the intention behind state rites, supposedly concern for the ruled, into practical measures to improve the welfare of the ruled, these rites were simply useless.70 However, I would like to point out emphatically that, despite his indisputably negative opinions regarding ritual in the realm of the public affairs, Liu was an unswerving defender of the importance of ritual in private life. He asserted that only in the observance of rites and established norms could one carry out one's ethical obligations. This apparently had to do with his aristocratic family background.71 The following points sum up Liu Tsung-yiian's thoughts on Heaven and the supernatural: Liu considered the traditional Confucian interpretations and worship of Heaven and the popular and Taoist quest for the supernatural or the higher form of physical existence to be fallacious. More important, very often, in the name of Tao, these beliefs lured the state and social elite into meaningless and absurd conduct and into the neglect of their responsibility toward the populace. In order to demonstrate to the world the true essence of the Confucian teaching, Liu felt, these deviations had to be exposed and corrected.72 Now I need to illustrate the implications of Liu's ideas about the relationship between the Heavenly and human spheres for the whole of his Confucian thought. As has been demonstrated, a principal characteristic of the Confucian Tao in Liu's vision was that the Tao was basically the Way of the public realm of human life. In comparison with the 70

See LTYC, pp. 1267-8, 1326. On p. 1268, Liu went so far as to say that, if the government was indeed practicing benevolent policies, state rites would lose their raison d'etre. This sort of radical statement has caused bitter denunciation of Liu by some later Confucians. For example, see LTYC, the same page, a note by Huang T'ang, a Southern Sung scholar. 71 See LTYC, pp. 170-1. Cf. chap. 2, sec. 2. The famous Sung writer Su Shih (Tung-p'o, 1036-1101), an admirer of Liu's literary style, once summed up Liu's thought in this way: "The general outline of Master Liu's thought is that he considered rituals and music to be empty vessels and Heaven and men to be mutually unresponsive." This is indeed an insightful observation, provided that "ritual and music" refer only to public or state rituals. Su made this remark in a letter to a friend. The letter itself is not preserved, but this comment was recorded by a contemporary scholar and thus widely cited. See Chang Shih-chao, Liu-wen chih-yao, p. 1307. On the same page, Chang states that he does not understand Su's first point. Chang's work is the largest existing study on Liu (14 vols.). Nevertheless, although it provides us with good literal explications of many of Liu's works, it does not cast much fresh light on his ideas. One crucial problem with this work is that Chang seems frequently to want to use the ideas and expressions in Liu's writings to praise the conditions of contemporary China, as he saw them. 72 See, for example, LTYC, pp. 822, 825, 1265, 1328.

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ideas of some other contemporary Confucians, especially Han Yii and those around him, this is a rather conventional outlook; Liu's Tao was still confined to the social, worldly dimensions of human existence. On the other hand, however, Liu's outright rejection of the possibility that Confucian principles had any transcendental, cosmological, or superhuman foundation was both idiosyncratic and extreme. True, human affairs had always been the primary concern of Confucianism from its inception; Confucius said: "Till you have learnt to serve men, how can you serve spirits?" and "Till you know about life, how are you to know about death?" 73 But it was generally assumed that Confucian values had heavenly principles as their basis. Prior to Liu's time, strict naturalists and humanists, such as, notably, Hsiin Tzu and Fan Chen (active around the turn of the sixth century), definitely belonged to a small minority within the Confucian tradition. 74 In the early ninth century, the relationship between Heaven and "man" suddenly became a popular intellectual moot point. Many eminent Confucian figures in Liu's generation expressed opinions that echoed his perception of Heaven. Han Yii, Po Chii-i, Yuan Chen, Lii Wen, Liu Yii-hsi, Li Ao, and Niu Seng-ju (779-847), the initial leader of the "Niu party" in the notorious and prolonged factional strife at court in the first six decades of the ninth century, 75 all at one time or another asserted the separation of human activities and the cosmic and supernatural forces. Lii Wen, for instance, once wrote the following lines: "Not in Heaven, not in the spirits / Only in the Way should a minister put his trust. . . / Ascendancy and collapse, order and upheaval / Depend on virtue, not on cosmic cycles." 76 Nevertheless, it is evident that Liu Tsung-yiian's views concerning this issue were more radical than those of any of the thinkers mentioned above. None of them, for one thing, ever went so far as to claim that Heaven was nothing but Nature. Liu's enthusiasm concerning the problem of Heaven apparently also exceeded that of his fellow Confucians; none in his generation, according to the extant literature, wrote more extensively than he about it. 77 In 73 Arthur Waley, tr., Analects of Confucius (London, 1938), p. 155, with minor changes. Cf. also D. C. Lau, The Analects (Middlesex, Eng., 1979), p. 107. 74 For a brief review of naturalist thought before the mid-T'ang, see H. D. Lamont, "Debate on Heaven, Part I," pp. 184-95. 75 See CTS, 172:4469-75; HTS, 174:5229-32; Michael T. Dalby, "Court Politics in Late T'ang Times," in Denis Twitchett, ed., The Cambridge History of China, vol. 3, part 1, pp. 639-45. 76 TLHW, 8:4a. Cf. H. G. Lamont, "Debate on Heaven, Part I," p. 198. Liu Tsung-yiian referred to this remark in his Against the Conversations of the States (LTYC, p. 1283). 77 Due to the limited quantity of extant materials and the fact that these people and Liu Tsung-yiian were all peers with slight differences of age, it is very difficult to 117

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addition, Liu's conception of Heaven conflicted directly with mainstream Sung-Ming Confucian philosophy, one of whose original contributions was to provide metaphysical foundations for Confucian humanist values. It is not easy to explain why Liu went farther than his contemporaries in the common direction that called for the separation of the Heavenly and human spheres, because the intellectual figures of his time had different reasons for taking this stand and, more important, different understandings or interpretations of this stand. Nonetheless, it is certain that this discourse on Heaven represented an endeavor by the intellectual leaders of Liu's generation to combat a prime misconception in Confucian ideology and to restore the true spirit of Confucianism. These thinkers, including Liu, shared a similar basic point; they all stressed that the focus of human actions should be the realm of man rather than that of the superhuman, the moral life of this world rather than the happiness and profit that supernatural powers could allegedly bring about. 78 One reason why Liu held radical views on this issue was clearly that he felt more strongly than did most of his contemporaries about this basic point. His profound conviction of the naturalistic notion of the cosmos also contributed to the rigidity of his position. Liu's peculiar and radical treatment of the relationship between Heaven and the Tao clearly shows that he was engaged in the exploration of the essence of Confucianism or the redefining of the Confucian Way. He basically conducted his search in a negative way. In order to recover the Confucian Tao, which he believed had been obscured for centuries, he vehemently worked to cast out what he deemed to be questionable elements associated with Confucian ideology and prevalent in society at large. Yet, unlike that of Immanuel Kant, his "critical philosophy" did not purport to construct a new set of principles; he was contented with the traditional framework of Confucian thought. determine the network of influence in relation to this subject. Yet it seems clear that Liu Tsung-yiian and Liu Yii-hsi were the central figures of this discourse. For a brief discussion of mid-T'ang cosmological criticism, see John B. Henderson, The Development and Decline of Chinese Cosmology (New York, 1984), pp. 104-6. 78 This intellectual exchange is difficult to summarize because it was not a philosophical debate in a meaningful sense. There lacked commonly accepted definitions of "Heaven" and "Man," and participants often made arguments on different assumptions. Roughly, Han Yii's views were the most inconsistent and ambiguous, whereas Liu Yii-hsi's had the greatest philosophic sophistication. There exist a number of studies on this subject. See Ch'en Yin-k'o, Yuan-Pai shih chien-cheng kao, CYKWC 6, pp. 303-6; Ch'ien Mu, "Tsa-lun T'ang-tai ku-wen yiin-tung," Chung-kuo hsiieh-shu, vol. 4, pp. 57-9; H. G. Lamont, "Debate on Heaven, Part I," pp. 197-9; Ghao Chi-pin, "Liu Yii-hsi ho Liu Tsung-yiian wu-shen-lun ssu-hsiang yen-chiu," in Chou K'ang-hsieh, ed., Liu Tsung-yiian yen-chiu, pp. 37-58 from the back; Shigezawa Toshio, "Ryu Oseki no tetsugaku," in Toho gakkai soritsujugo shunen kinen tohogaku ronshu

(Tokyo, 1962), pp. 116-25.

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The largely negative approach of Liu's intellectual undertaking apparently contributed to the paucity of his discernible influence on later Confucian thought, especially in contrast to thinkers like Han Yii and Li Ao. However, Liu's effort in the rationalization of the Confucian Way still affected the T'ang-Sung intellectual scene. In a well-known and symbolic move, Ou-yang Hsiu (1007-72), an eminent early Sung Confucian figure, severed a long tradition by eliminating all correlations between events in nature and political activities in his "Treatise on the Five Elements" (Wu-hsing chih) of the New T'ang History.79 Other Confucian directions Generally speaking, Liu Tsung-yiian's characterization of the Confucian Tao as primarily the Way for the people and the Way of the public world represented a main current of Confucian thought in the late eighth and early ninth centuries. Actually, the call for carrying out Confucian principles as the guidance of political life was already a salient feature of the Confucian revival movement in its inceptive stage, since, as shown in Chapter 1, the sudden surge of this movement was to a considerable extent the direct response of certain intellectuals to the An Lu-shan rebellion and its immediate consequences. The contents of Confucian intellectual discourse diversified as the revival proceeded. Nevertheless, the ordering or reordering of state and society remained a pivotal concern in the Confucian consciousness during Liu's time. The formation of the Wang Shu-wen clique and its initiation of the 805 reform were clearly products of this concern. Aside from Liu, the most notable thinker in his generation who emphasized the political aspects of the Confucian Way was Lii Wen, Liu's close friend and comrade in the Wang Shu-wen clique. In an essay vividly depicting Lii's aspirations, Liu Yii-hsi characterized the spirit of Lii's thought as "illuminating the kingly Way." 80 In Liu Tsung-yiian's words, Lii's goal in life was "to assist the ruler." 81 Lii's single most important philosophical work was "On the Transformation of the World by Human Culture" (Jen-wen hua-ch'eng lun). This treatise, as the title shows, set out Lii's definition or vision of culture; for him, culture (wen) was the expression of the Tao whereas the Tao was the basis of culture. He held that the key components of the culture created by the sages to put human society in order included "the culture of house and 79 HTS, 34:871—3. Ou-yang also launched a campaign to remove the citations of the Han prognosticatory and apocryphal texts in the True Meaning of the Five Classics. See Ou-yang Hsiu, Ou-yangyung-shu chi (Shanghai, 1958), vol. 3, pp. 35-6. 80 LYHC, p. 17. 81 LTYC, p. 1053. See also p. 220.

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family," "the culture of court," "the culture of official and office," "the culture of punishment and governance," and "the culture of teaching and civilizing."82 Evidently, three of the five "cultures" he listed - the culture of court, the culture of official and office, and the culture of punishment and governance - belonged to the realm of government. The revival of the Way of government was, in fact, such a prevailing yearning that even Li Ho (791-817), the short-lived, self-absorbed poetic artist known for his abstruse and romantic poetry, left us with a number of works of social and political criticism.83 The search for practical means to establish a satisfactory political order also contributed to the renewed interest of certain intellectuals, some of them Liu Tsung-yiian's friends, in Legalism and in the works of pre-Ch'in military experts and Diplomatists (Tsung-heng chia).84 Furthermore, the idea that Confucian values governed only the social and behavioral dimensions of human life and left spirituality to other teachings continued to be the dominant intellectual premise. Among the major intellectual figures of the early ninth century, Po Chii-i was a classical example of practicing the philosophy of "Taoism and Buddhism within and Confucianism without." Although in public life Po played the role of the leader of the new yiieh-fu movement - the counterpart in the poetic arena of the ku-wen movement - and of a straightforward censor, in private life he ardently sought wisdom and comfort from Buddhism and Taoism. After his death, his home was donated for conversion to a Buddhist temple. 85 Probably owing to the fact that the public character 82

See TLHW, 3:11b, io:3b-4b. Thus far there are no good systematic studies on Lii's thought. For some insightful comments on this subject, see Ch'ien Mu, "ku-wen yiin-tung," chung-kuo hsueh-shu, vol. 4, pp. 63-4, 68-9. 83 In his "Preface to the Collected Works of Li Ho," Tu Mu (803-52), another outstanding poet and a grandson of the famous statesman and scholar Tu Yu (735-812), accused Li's poems of lacking "resentment and criticism of the rule and misrule of princes and ministers." An English translation of Tu's "Preface" is in J. D. Frodsham, Goddesses, Ghosts, and Demons: The Collected Poems of Li He (London, 1983), xi-xii. Yet this opinion has been repudiated by modern critics. See Chou Ch'eng-chen, Li Ho lun (Hong Kong, 1971), pp. 82-101; Yang Wen-hsiung, Li Ho shihyen-chiu (Taipei, 1980), pp. 227-9. 84 Cf. Edwin Pulleyblank, "Neo-Confucianism and Neo-Legalism," pp. 97-113. Yet Pulleyblank may have caused some misunderstanding by referring to this tendency as "Legalism." It seems that there did not exist any genuine Legalist intellectual trend; the interest of certain mid-T'ang intellectuals in Legalist works basically arose for the purpose of serving their rather "Confucian" goals. It may be better characterized as "utilitarian Confucianism." For Liu Tsung-yiian's friends with interest in Legalist works and military science, see LTYC, pp. 255, 1391-2. For a study of Southern Sung "utilitarian Confucianism," see Hoyt Cleveland Tillman, Utilitarian Confucianism: Ch'en Liang's Challenge to Chu Hsi (Cambridge, Mass., 1982). 85 For the life and thought of Po Chii-i, see Ch'en Yin-k'o, Yuan-Pai shih chien-cheng kao, CYKWC 6; Arthur Waley, The Life and Times of Po Chii-i (New York, 1949); Wang Shih-i, "Shih-lun Pai Chii-i ssu-hsiang te fa-chan," in his Pai Chu'-iyen-chiu (Shanghai, 1954), PP- 53-98. 120

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of Confucianism was widely taken for granted, few writers in Liu Tsungyiian's generation attempted to define Confucianism along these lines in their works. An exception was Liu Yii-hsi, who once gave this predominant idea a lucid expression: Confucianism [attempts to] govern the living beings with the Middle Way, rarely talking about human nature (hsing) and fate (ming). Hence it ceases to flourish as the world declines. Buddhism [attempts to] save the suffering with great compassion, widely revealing the doctrine of causation and karma. Hence it is increasingly honored as the time becomes evil.86 However, Han Yii and some intellectuals in his circle took a quite different approach toward the Tao than did Liu Tsung-yiian, Lii Wen, Liu Yii-hsi, and their like. Han perceived the Confucian doctrine as the all-embracing guiding principle of human life; he did not place any particular emphasis on the public world or government. The Tao simply meant the proper way of life; it was a secular but also an ethical life. Han gave a concise and polemical presentation of his vision of the Confucian Tao in the "Essentials of the Way" (Yuan Tao)y which has secured the status of a classic in Chinese thought and literature since the Northern Sung: What were the teachings of our ancient kings? To love universally, which is called humanity; to apply this in the proper manner, which is called righteousness; to act according to these, which is called the Way; to [follow the Way and] become self-sufficient without seeking anything outside, which is called virtue. The Book of Poetry, the Book of History, the Book of Changes and the Spring and Autumn Annals are their writings; rites and music, punishments and government, their methods. Their people were the four classes of scholar-officials, farmers, artisans, and merchants; their relationships were those of sovereign and subject, father and son, teacher and friend, guest and host, elder and younger brother, and husband and wife. Their clothing was hemp and silk; their dwelling halls and houses; their food grain and rice, fruit and vegetables, fish and meat. Their ways were easy to understand; their teachings simple to practice. 87 I n this statement, H a n m a d e it clear that not only punishments a n d government b u t also fish a n d m e a t were relevant to the Tao, Liu T s u n g yiian probably would not have quarrelled with this claim in principle. It is certain that, when Liu spoke of the Confucian virtues such as h u m a n i t y , righteousness, propriety, a n d trustworthiness, they were not merely referred to for their implications in the area of public affairs. His 86 LYHC, p. 43. 87 HCLC, 11:62, as translated in Win. Theodore de Bary et al., Sources of Chinese Tradition, vol. 1, pp. 378-9, with minor changes. 121

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Confucian Tao also included values in personal life, particularly family life. For instance, he had praised his cousin Lu Tsun for "always keeping in mind the Way of filial piety, respect, loyalty and honesty," and a Taoist priest named Chang Yin for still maintaining his devotion to family members. 88 Yet it is also clear that these values failed to receive significant examination from Liu. Han Yti's most important contention, however, was that only the ethical secular life taught by ancient sages was the proper way of life. The Tao existed only in this world; any effort to find the ultimate Way or truth outside family and social life would be fruitless. Han's message was unequivocal: Buddhism and Taoism (both philosophic and religious) were incorrect teachings. Buddhists and Taoists actually violated the fundamental duties of human beings by pursuing the so-called Way beyond the realm. He illustrated this point brilliantly in a poem written around 795: In Kuo-chou, in the county of Nan-ch'ung, Was a poor girl named Hsieh Tzu-jan. Young and foolish, ignorant of everything, All she had heard of was the existence of the gods. With no care for her life she studied their lore, It was on Goldspring Mountain. From worldly splendor and the desire for glory cut off, The love and concern of father and mother renounced. Human life is set amid thousands of different kinds, It is knowledge most of all that is virtuous. How can they not trust in themselves But instead wish to stray seeking strange beings? There are constant principles in human life, For male and female there are fixed relations. Clothes for the cold, food for hunger Are to be found in weaving and tilling. Downwards such principles preserve children and grandchildren, Upwards they preserve parents and ruler. If deviating from this Way, One is but ruining one's own life.89 LTYC, pp. 282-3, 637. See also pp. 263, 608, 633, 678. HCLC, 1:20—1, as translated in Stephen Owen, The Poetry of Meng Chiao and Han Yu, pp. 43-4, with minor modifications. It was reported that Hsieh Tze-jan ascended into the sky, becoming an immortal, on the twelfth day of the eleventh month, 794, at 10 A.M. (at the time of ch'en). This became a famous Taoist legend. For Han's ideas reflected in this poem, see also his "Essentials of the Way" in HCLC, 11:60-3 passim. There are many studies on Han's thought and the background of its formation. 122

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This was where Liu Tsung-yiian and Han diverged. True, Liu's Confucian Tao was the Way of this world, and he denied any connection between the spheres of Heaven and Man. Yet he firmly believed that there existed legitimate styles of life other than the Confucian secular life. He had in mind, among other things, the searches for psychological tranquility, spirituality, and wisdom based upon philosophic Taoism, and more important, Buddhist tenets.90 In contrast, Han vehemently argued that ethical this-worldly life was the sole meaningful means of existence. Hence, the Confucian virtues were in a sense sacred; this was the reason why Han designated them as "Heavenly Constancies" (T'ien-ch'ang).91 Heaven here certainly did not indicate a cosmic power. Despite stopping short of further explorations, he apparently assumed that the Confucian ideals rested on a transcendent or ontological foundation. In sum, in view of Han Yii's leadership in the mid-T'ang attempt to elevate the significance of everyday life and thus the Confucian Tao to the plane of sanctity, it is no wonder that Confucians and scholars of subsequent generations universally reckoned him as the foremost precursor of Neo-Confucianism. There was an obvious weakness in Han's counteraction against Buddhism and Taoism. The greatest intellectual appeal of these two teachings in medieval China lay in their proposed arrangements for personal spiritual life. In Han and Liu's time, Buddhism undisputedly dominated this area of Chinese culture. Han was keenly aware of this problem, but he failed to provide effective Confucian alternatives for the Buddhist interpretations of the fundamental nature of the world and the existential meaning of self. His response to the Buddhist challenge was rather simplistic and missed the target somewhat. Han contended that Confucianism also requested people to cultivate their states of mind. Yet this cultivation was not an end in itself; it was a preparatory effort for best carrying out one's role as a member of family and society. In addition, he wrote a philosophical essay on human nature and psycholCharles Hartman's Han Yii and the T'ang Search for Unity is a new and commendable major study on the life and thought of Han. Other important works include Ch'en Yin-k'o, "Lun Han Yu," CYKWC 2, pp. 285-97; Sun Ch'ang-wu, "Lun Han Yii te ju-hsiieh yii wen-hsiieh," Wen-hsiieh p'ing-lun ts'ung-k'an, 13 (May 1982), pp. 239-62. It should be noted here that, although Liu Tsung-yiian also attacked the Taoist search for immortality, his grounds were different from those Han gave in the above quotation. Liu's reasoning, as has been analyzed, was that such conduct was motivated by selfishness, so that he only criticized intellectual Taoists, instead of poor girls or boys. According to the inner logic of his thought and as he himself implied, it would be all right for an intellectual to pursue immortality and longevity if he had already fulfilled his social obligations. 90 For the details of Liu's views on private life, see chap. 8. 91 HCLC, 11:62. 123

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ogy, though its impact seems to have been negligible. Nevertheless, it should be noted that Han's assertion of the importance of spirituality in Confucian life contributed greatly to the rekindling of Confucian interest in private spiritual endeavor. 92 Within Han's circle, however, one person, Li Ao, stood out for developing a Confucian theory of inner life and constructing a metaphysical foundation for Confucian values. Li, a friend, literary follower, and nephew-in-law of Han Yii, systematically set out his metaphysics and moral philosophy in the famous and well-acclaimed "Writings on 92

See HCLC, 11:63-5. For Han Yii's views on the private and public aspects of Confucian life, see also Charles Hartman, Han Yii and the T'ang Search for Unity, pp. 12-13, 149-51, 155. Despite its many accomplishments as the principal study of Han Yii in English, Hartman's book has a serious problem in its analysis of Han's Confucian ideas. In chapter three, Hartman painstakingly argues that Han was not merely a precursor of Neo-Confucianism in terms of calling Confucian attention to new issues; he, in cooperation with Li Ao, "had in fact already worked out many of the major 'philosophical' premises that underlie the 'Neo-Confucian synthesis'" (p. 174). I doubt, however, that this claim can be upheld. The primary difficulty with this contention is its weak textual basis. The main source Hartman uses to "reconstruct" Han's moral and metaphysical philosophy is the Random Notes on the Analects (Lun yii pi-chieh), traditionally attributed to Han Yii and Li Ao. This text has long been suspected by many scholars as a Northern Sung forgery. In his effort to defend the authenticity of the Random Notes, the arguments and evidence Hartman presents (pp. 339-41) are essentially the same with those in Chi Yiin et al., Ssu-k'u ch'uan-shu tsung-mu t'i-yao (Shanghai, 1933), pp. 715-16 and in Tanaka Toshiaki, "Kan Yu Ri K6 Rongo Hikkai ni tsuite," Nippon Chugokugakkai ho, 30 (1978), pp. 96-100, though he does not consult the latter. He gives only one new, and far from conclusive, piece of evidence. Studies on the Random Notes seem to indicate that this text contains some of Han's original commentaries on Confucius' Analects and that this text, in a different form from the present one, already circulated in the middle of the Northern Sung. But serious questions about its authorship remain. For example, in extant T'ang records (including those concerning Han's exegeses of the Analects) and even early Sung bibliographical information, there exists no indication that Li Ao ever wrote any work on the Analects or coauthored it with anyone. In the Random Notes, curiously, not only are as many remarks attributed to Li as those to Han, but some of them appear in the form of dialogue between Han and Li. See Han Yii and Li Ao, Lun yii pi-chieh (Ku-ching-chieh hui-han edition), 1:1 ib, 2:6b~7a, n b - i 2 a , i 4 a - b . I am not denying the possibility of the text in question being authentic. Yet it seems to me that it is methodologically risky to accept the Random Notes at face value in studying Han Yii's thought. It is on this reflection that my summary of Han's philosophical ideas is based. For a critique of Hartman's treatment of Han Yii's "interior ideas," most points of which I agree with, see also David McMullen, "Han Yii: An Alternative Picture," Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 49:2 (December 1989), pp. 632-50. Moreover, in a new study on Southern Sung Confucianism, Hoyt Tillman observes that dialogues within the Tao-hsueh camp were conducted at three levels: speculative philosophy, cultural values, and comment on policy. Chu Hsi and other Southern Sung Confucians used the term " Tao" on all these three levels. Following this differentiation of the concept of Tao, we may say that Han Yii's Tao mainly referred to principles concerning cultural values, but these principles were based on higher grounds. For Tillman's analysis, see his Confucian Discourse and Chu Hsi's Ascendancy

(Hawaii, 1992), "Introduction."

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Returning to One's True Nature" (Fu-hsing shu). This is not an appropriate place to scrutinize this series of treatises. Simply put, Li held that the sage, the Confucian ideal of personality, was a person who had realized his "nature" (hsing). The nature of human beings was bestowed by Heaven, and all people shared the same nature. The reason why most people did not become sages was that their "feelings" (ch'ing) obscured their true nature. If one, through self-cultivation, quieted down and thus clarified one's feelings, nature, whose character could be described as "sincerity" or "honesty" (ch'eng), would be revealed and would direct one's life. One would then naturally act properly, that is, in accordance with Confucian norms. Li wrote, The nature is the decree of Heaven. . . . Therefore it is sincerity that the sage takes as his nature, absolutely still and without movement, vast and great, clear and bright, shining on Heaven and Earth. When stimulated he can then penetrate all things in the world. In action or at rest, in speech or in silence, he always remains in the ultimate. 93

There seems to be no question that Li's metaphysical and spiritual philosophy took shape under the influence of Buddhism and Taoism.94 Nonetheless, Li's thought certainly represented a highly original effort on the part of Confucianism to answer in its own way questions posed by Buddhist and Taoist philosophy, regarding the essence of the world, the relationship between the essence of the world and men, and how an ideal personality could be realized in one's inner, private life. Confucians in the Sung era felt a more and more urgent desire to answer these questions. Their solutions formed the main current of Sung-Ming Confucianism: the Neo-Confucian metaphysical and moral philosophy, or the "Learning of the Way" (Tao-hsueh).

93 Timothy Hugh Barrett, "Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism in the Thought of Li Ao," Ph.D. dissertation, Yale University, 1978, pp. 226, 234. For the whole text of the "Writings on Returning to One's True Nature," see Li Ao, Li Wen-kung chi, 2:8-12. For the translation and a detailed annotation of this work, see Timothy Barrett, "The Thought of Li Ao," pp. 214-97. 94 Traditional wisdom is that Li's intellectual life was closely related to Ch'an Buddhism. It was said that Li had sought instruction from Yao-shan Wei-yen, a famous Ch'an master, and most of these records came from Buddhist texts. Some modern scholars had serious doubts about the authenticity of this connection. In reality, they had proved convincingly that it was forged by Ch'an Buddhists, probably to show their superiority to newly emerging metaphysically oriented Confucians. Nevertheless, it is still almost universally agreed that Li used Buddhist and Taoist frameworks of analysis to establish his theory of human nature and self-cultivation. For two good studies of Li's thought and his alleged relationship with Ch'an Buddhism, see Timothy Barrett, "The Thought of Li Ao," pp. 83-213; Onishi Harutaka, "Fukuseisho ni tsuite," Kaitoku, 38 (Kyoto, 1967), pp. 52-73. 125

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Two conclusions can be drawn from my elucidation of Liu Tsung-yiian's Confucian ideas and the position of his thought in the contemporary Confucian intellectual flowering. First, the exploration of the spirit of Confucianism launched by Liu's generation was a diverse endeavor. Liu's Confucian philosophy, epitomized by his characterization of the Confucian Way as the guiding principle of public life, was shared by the majority of the Confucian exponents of his time and belonged to the mainstream of the mid-T'ang Confucian revival movement. Although this type of thought already went far beyond the conventional medieval scholastic, ritualistic, and familistic Confucianism, it did not, in continuing to concede the realm of spirituality to Buddhism and Taoism, challenge the basic medieval intellectual premise of "Buddhism and Taoism within and Confucianism without." In this sense, the general intellectual outlook of Liu Tsung-yiian and other like-minded contemporaries was still rather conservative. In contrast, the Weltanschauung symbolized by the ideas of Han Yii, viewed as ultraconservative by many modern Chinese who have the Neo-Confucian orthodoxy in mind, represented a more novel voice. The second conclusion is that, although people like Liu Tsung-yiian and Han Yii took active part in the mid-T'ang Confucian movement simultaneously, conceptually at least, they were separated by being part of two very different dimensions of the same movement. Liu was devoted to the revitalization of Confucianism without attempting to change the fundamental character of traditional Confucian tenets. While striving for the same goal, Han and his adherents inaugurated a profound redirection of Confucian thinking; they not only conduced to a Confucian revival but also achieved the inception of a new version of Confucianism. It is my considered opinion that the differentiation between "Confucian revival" and "Confucian innovation" is critical for understanding the genesis of the Neo-Confucian intellectual tradition. Sung-Ming NeoConfucian thought owed its origin to the mid-T'ang Confucian revival, but the T'ang forerunner of Neo-Confucian vision was not the midT'ang Confucian revival itself - it arose from this revival. The central importance of Liu Tsung-yiian in Chinese intellectual history lies in the fact that he was a leading figure and a quintessential member of the midT'ang Confucian revival movement at its apex. In turn, this Confucian revival was important as a pivotal historical development in itself and as the matrix of intellectual orthodoxy in late imperial China.

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6 Literary theory, canonical studies, and beyond In spite of possessing forceful views on the Confucian doctrine, Liu Tsung-yiian was far from a speculative thinker who immersed himself in abstract ideas. The mid-T'ang Confucian revival itself, in fact, did not display the features of an independent intellectual movement until the early ninth century. At its inception, the Confucian revival was inseparable from - or, perhaps not too exaggeratedly, parasitic on some new trends in literary ideas and studies of the Confucian canon. While the ku-wen (ancient prose) movement was indisputably the prime foundation of the Confucian renewal, the Confucian exegetics exemplified by the work of such classicists as Tan Chu and Shih Shih-kai also contributed to this development. By the early ninth century, although the discourse of leading Confucian intellectuals on the Confucian teaching had gone beyond issues in literary writing and classical scholarship, virtually all of them were writers and a number of them held deep interest in classical studies. In other words, literary theories and canonical scholarship continued to be important constituents of the Confucian revival. As a leading ku-wen master and a follower of the new classical scholarship pioneered by Tan Chu, Liu Tsung-yiian was involved in these two areas of intellectual activity even more deeply than most of his comrades. An examination of his views on, and practice of, writing and classical studies, therefore, should shed further light not only on his own thought but also on the contemporary intellectual scene as a whole. Literary theory In the history of Chinese literature, Han Yti and Liu Tsung-yiian stand as a pair of giants emblematic of the T'ang ku-wen movement, the prelude to the Northern Sung ku-wen movement in the late tenth and early eleventh centuries that turned ancient-style prose (which, unlike 127

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parallel prose, used random-length lines) into the standard prose style that was maintained until early in our century. As a loner in the southwestern frontiers whose principal intellectual activity was selfstudy, Liu never played an aggressive role in theoretical formulation or discourse; he attained his status almost solely through his achievements in composing superior pieces of writing. He demonstrated that ancientstyle prose was an excellent means of communicating thoughts as well as of creating works with literary value. Moreover, he helped develop a new set of genres for prose writing, such as landscape essays, fables, and biographical sketches, which ancient-style prose could be used effectively to accomplish.1 Nevertheless, Liu did express his reflections on literary principles at times. The following is one of his most renowned and comprehensive statements on this subject: When I was young, I thought that the craft of writing lay in being clever with words. As I grew older, I came to realize that the purpose of literature is to illuminate the Way. For this reason, I am unwilling to produce compositions that sparkle and glitter, or to devote myself to writing colorful and mellifluous works, and to think of this sort of thing as ability. I think that in those works which I have shown to you [Wei Chung-li, an aspiring author seeking advice], I have come close to the Way, although I truly am not certain whether they are, in fact, close to the Way, or far from it. . . . Whenever I sit down to write, I never jot down my thoughts frivolously, for fear of producing a superficial and undignified composition. I never dare to slight the task with condescension, for fear of producing a loose composition, lacking in gravity. Nor dare I write when my mind is not clear, fearing that this will result in ambiguous and confused phrases. I never approach the task with a conceited attitude, for fear of producing a piece that is arrogant and pretentious. I condense my thoughts for the depth of my writing, amplify them for clarity, extricate any obstacle to perspicuity, and pare down my writing to keep it terse. I stir it up to make it refreshing, but preserve the essentials to keep it solid. In this manner, I try to give wings to the Way.2 This passage comes from a letter Liu wrote around 813; it contains two main points. The first is that literature is not an end in itself, but a tool with which to illustrate the Tao. Liu made this assertion in many other works. He once claimed that to intellectuals literature was a nonessential (mo). Yet, it was a nonessential that "ought not to be neglected easily"; 1 For Liu's contribution to the art of ku-wen, see Ch'ien Mu, "ku-wen yiin-tung," Chung-kuo hsueh-shu, vol. 4, pp. 30-55; William H. Nienhauser et al., Liu Tsung-yuan, chaps. 3 and 4; Huang Yiin-mei, Han Yii Liu Tsung-yuan wen-hsueh p'ing-chia (Chi-nan, 1979). PP- 101-27. 2 LTYC, p. 873, as translated in Jennings Gentzler, "Literary Biography," pp. 168-9, with minor changes. 128

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it could help them grasp and enunciate the essentials (pen), namely, the Confucian principles. If writing was used properly in this direction, it was, after all, not a "nonessential." 3 Second, Liu argued for the importance of rhetoric in writings. He held that a well-written work would serve the illumination of the Confucian Way more effectively than one without artistic merit.4 He gave a more articulate explanation on another occasion: "Even the coarse, common language is sufficient to fulfill the functions [of writing]. Lacking literary style, however, it will be incapable of stimulating or arousing the reader, and will fail to impress students of later times. To write compositions that will not endure is not the path the true gentleman follows."5 Typical of a ku-wen proponent, Liu asserted that pre-Ch'in and Former Han masterpieces were paradigmatic for realizing these two goals of literature. 6 Although the views of Liu Tsung-yiian expounded above did not encompass his whole thinking on literature, there is no question that they were at its core.7 Liu's notion of literature as a means of illuminating the Tao was actually, as is well known, the very basic idea behind the ku-wen movement since its inauguration in the middle of the eighth century. However, it is worth noting here that Liu became an unequivocal supporter of ku-wen principles only after he was exiled to Yung-chou in 805. As mentioned before8 and as indicated at the outset of the long citation taken from his 813 letter to Wei Chung-li, Liu claimed that, while in Ch'ang-an, he had slighted writing, viewing it merely as a craft without higher ends. This might be an exaggeration; his works sometimes seem to indicate otherwise. In any case, it is undoubtedly true that at that time he had yet to embrace the ideal of ancient prose. The clearest literary vision he expressed in his early 3 4 5

6 7

LTYC, p. 789. See also pp. 578-9, 644, 822, 825, 880-1, 886, 1265, 1328. For this view of Liu's, see also Peter Bol, "This Culture of Ours," chap. 4, sec. B.2. It is noteworthy that, in the above citation, Liu linked the refinement of style to the author's state of mind. For the same point, see also LTYC, pp. 790, 880. LTYC, p. 578, as translated in Jennings Gentzler, "Literary Biography," p. 175, with minor changes. Liu made this statement before his exile, that is, at a time in which he had not yet shown firm support for the ku-wen movement. This passage is quoted here because it completely agrees with his later thought. For the same opinion of Liu's, see also LTYC, pp. 569-70, 880. See LTYC, pp. 576-7, 873, 880. For more extensive analyses of Liu's literary theories, see Jennings Gentzler, "Literary Biography," chap. 6; Ch'ien Mu, "ku-wen yiin-tung," Chung-kuo hsiieh-shu, vol. 4, pp. 30-4; Kao Hai-fu, "Liu Tsung-yiian lun wen," Jen-wen tsa-chih, 1980:1, pp. 32-8; Sun Ch'ang-wu, Chuan-lun, chap. 7. A useful collection of Liu's comments reflecting his literary ideas is in Lo Lien-t'ien, ed., Sui T'ang Wu-tai wen-hsiieh p'i-p'ing tzu-liao hui-pien

(Taipei, 1978), pp. 189-95. 8 Chap. 2, sec. 5.

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years was that a good piece of writing should be an "inspirational and allegorical work" (hsing-chi chih tso).9 "Hsing" (to inspire, to incite) and "chi" (allegory) are very old ideas, which appear in such prominent works as Confucius' Analects and Liu Hsieh's The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons.10 These notions do not necessarily contradict ku-wen ideas, since inspirations and allegories related to writings may be of moral nature. Yet there is no indication that Liu ever adopted a moralistic interpretation of"hsing" and "cAz."11 In Liu's time, the currency of the idea that literary writing should serve the purpose of the Tao clearly became greater than ever, thanks largely to the prestige and advocacy of Han Yii. Han's conception of the relationship between the Confucian Way and literature seems slightly different from that of Liu's. Han was often of the opinion that the Tao and literature were indivisible from each other. Good writing was itself an expression of the Way, and only those grasping the Way could produce good writing. Ancient literature deserved the study of his contemporaries, Han felt, not only because of its style but also because of the Wray it carried. In his famous letter to Li I, he said: If you wish to attain [the standard of] those who "established their words" in antiquity, then do not expect a quick success. . . . You must nourish the roots [of their achievement] and wait for the fruit. . . ; for when the roots flourish, then the fruit ripens. . . .Just so are the words of the humane and just man beautiful and prolific.12 9 LTYC, p. 861. 10 "Hsing" is a key but highly ambiguous idea in the tradition of Chinese literary criticism. It contains two main implications: The first is to inspire (the reader); the second refers to a method of literary presentation that uses the depiction of a natural phenomenon to suggest certain human emotions. In its latter sense, "hsing" is close to the Western concept of "allegory" or "metaphor." Thus "hsing" is also commonly associated with the idea of "cfo"" (or "t'o" which means the same as "chi"). For some discussion of this subject, see James J. Y. Liu, Chinese Theories of Literature (Chicago, J 975)> PP- 108-10. 11 On one occasion before his banishment, Liu praised a contemporary writer's works as "rooted in the Tao." Yet, since he was describing another person's writing, the statement might not be taken as exemplifying his own idea of literature. Due to the scarcity of information, we do not know the young Liu's exact views on literature, though we are sure that he was not a participant in the ku-wen movement. For a sound discussion of Liu's early literary thought, see Lo Tsung-ch'iang, Sui T'ang Wu-tai wen-hsueh ssu-hsiang shift, pp. 248-9. 12 HCLC, 16:58, as translated in Charles Hartman, Han Yii, p. 242, with a minor change. Chapter 4 of Hartman's Han Yii is an excellent treatment of Han's literary theory and style. For his literary thought, see particularly pp. 241-57. Hartman translates ku-wen as "literature of Antiquity," which is uncommon but certainly more in accordance with Han's conception of literature. For this topic, see also Peter Bol, "This Culture of Ours," chap. 4, sec. B.i; Ch'ien Mu, "ku-wen yiin-tung," Chung-kuo hsueh-shu, vol. 4, pp. 37-42; Lo Lien-t'ien, Han Yiiyen-chiu, pp. 229-37. 130

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Unlike Liu Tsung-yiian, Han was never solitary; with an outgoing and warm personality combined with a profound sense of mission, he established himself as an eminent leader among contemporary men of letters. 13 That the purpose of literature lay in the illustration of the Confucian Way thus became a consensus - or at least a cliche - among Han's many friends, disciples and followers.14 This idea gained reception beyond the arena of prose writing. During the early ninth century, a movement appeared in the poetic world that produced many works depicting social realities, particularly the hardship of the populace, in unusually plain and colloquial language. The most notable and influential figure in this development was Po Chii-i, who, at least until the late 8ios, affirmed that poetic composition should emulate the Book of Poetry) it should be done "for the sovereign, for his ministers, for the people, for the world, for specific events - not for the sake of literature." 15 Liu Tsung-yiian's view that the style of writing was as valuable as its substance was also a common idea in the ku-wen movement. When this movement first arose, discourse on prose style centered on attacking the ornateness and technicalities of parallel prose. The ku-wen theorists then propounded a simple, unadorned, and archaic type of writing. Toward the end of the eighth century, however, the ku-wen adherents gradually shifted their emphasis to the creation of a more novel and artistic ancient-style prose. Han Yii, again, was a principal voice in this direction. He once stated: "If the Way of the sages . . . makes use of literature, then we must honor those who do it well. And these are none other than those who can establish themselves and do not follow others." 16 One may wonder how Han could campaign for original, idiosyncratic writing and the return of ancient-style prose simultaneously. The answer, at least at the theoretical level, exists in his assertion that, in the case of writing, people should follow the ideas, and not the diction, of the ancient sages.17 In short, Liu Tsung-yiian's literary thought belonged to the mainstream ku-wen theories of his day; it to a large degree resembled 13 For Han's personality and literary leadership, see Ch'ien Chi-po, Han Yii chih, pp. 43-414 For a brief introduction of the so-called Han school writers, see Kung Shu-chih, Han Yii chi-ch'i ku-wenyiin-tung (Chungking, 1945), pp. 68-85; Ch'ien Chi-po, Han Yii chih, PP. 58-11315 Po Chii-i, Pai Hsiang-shan shih-chi (Ssu-pu pei-yao edition), 3:1a, as translated in Charles Hartman, Han Yii, p. 359. For the general character of this new poetic trend, see Lo Tsung-ch'iang, Sui-T'ang Wu-tai wen-hsueh, pp. 274-308. For discussions of this topic with focus on Po Chii-i, see Ch'en I-hsin, "Ts'ung Yiian-Pai ho Han-Meng liang ta shih-p'ai liieh-lun chung-wan-T'ang shih-ko te fa-chan," in his T'ang-shih lunts'ung, pp. 325-67; Suzuki Shuji, Todai shijin ron, vol. 2 (Tokyo, 1973), pp. 213-28. 16 HCLC, 18:81, following Charles Hartman, Han Yii, p. 255. 17 HCLC, 18:80.

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Han Yii's views. The fundamental belief of Liu's, and Han's alike, was that literature should serve the promotion of the Tao as well as strive for artistic merit. Before proceeding further, I would like to add a note on the origins of the ku-wen movement. This movement, especially at the stage in which Liu and Han were leaders of it, did not stem solely from the pursuit of the Way by certain literati and their admiration for pre-Ch'in and Han prose. It is very likely that popular literature was also a vital resource for the creativity of the ku-wen writers of Han and Liu's generation. The freer, more natural language used in popular literature apparently helped ku-wen writers liberate their writing style; they in turn experimented with the new ku-wen style in writing a form of popular literature: the short story.18 About a dozen of Liu Tsung-yiian's extant works bear distinctive features of this genre.19 This is another strong indication that, in the mid-T'ang, new cultural forces originating in lower social strata began to play an increasingly prominent role in the Chinese intellectual scene. In Liu Tsung-yiian's thought as a whole, the relationship between literature and the Confucian Way was twofold. In the first place, as just demonstrated, literature was an effective tool with which to illuminate the Tao. Liu's serious intellectual endeavor in Yung-chou was to a considerable extent stimulated by the literary and intellectual movement led by Han Yii. There is no doubt that, in Liu's mind, his consequent 18 This is a controversial issue. Some scholars believe that the ku-wen movement resulted purely from the evolution of elite prose-writing tradition. I agree with the majority of those writing on this topic that there is enough evidence to suggest a high possibility of the influence of popular literature on the ku-wen movement. Nevertheless, the relationship between these two traditions might not be as close as the one proposed by Ch'en Yin-k'o between ch'uan-ch'i stories and ku-wen prose. For the most important discussions on this issue, see Ch'en Yin-k'o (using the romanization of Tschen Yinkoh), "Han Yii and the T'ang Novel," Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, i (April I 93^)> PP- 39—43; idem, Yuan-Pei-shih chien-cheng kao, CYKWC 6, pp. 2-7; Ch'ien Mu, "ku-wen yiin-tung," Chung-kuo hsiieh-shu, vol. 4, pp. 27-30, 52; idem, "Tu Yao Hsiian T'ang-wen ts'ui," Chung-kuo hsiieh-shu, vol. 4, p. 86; Liu K'ai-jung, T'ang-tai hsiao-shuo yen-chiu (Shanghai, 1947), chap. 1; Y. W. Ma, "Prose Writings of Han Yii and Ch'uan Ch'i Literature," Journal of Oriental Studies, 7:2 (Hong Kong, 1969), pp. 195-223; Wang Yiin-hsi, "Shih-lun T'ang ch'uan-ch'i yii ku-wen yiin-tung te kuan-hsi," in Wen-hsueh i-ch'an hsuan-chi, 3 (Peking, i960), pp. 321-32. Sun Ch'ang-wu argues, quite convincingly, that the ku-wen movement was also influenced by the translated Buddhist literature. See his "T'ang-tai 'ku-wen yiin-tung' yii Fo-chiao," in his T'angtai wen-hsueh yii Fo-chiao (Sian, 1985), pp. 17-23. 19 For some of these works of Liu, see LTYC, pp. 467, 471-4, 533-5. One important difference between these works and the short story in general is that Liu always made explicit statements about the implications of the stories he wrote, thus making his works more like essays in which stories merely served the function of arguments. For this point, see Wang Yiin-hsi, "Shih-lun T'ang ch'uan-ch'i," p. 324. 132

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participation in the ku-wen movement mainly represented a part of his effort to restore genuine Confucian principles. Second and perhaps more important, in Liu's mind, the Way and literature, however close their relationship might be, were never identical. When he was young, he was a genuine Confucian crusader, but not a ku-wen partisan. Later he still held that the capability of literature to advance the Confucian cause was limited. Although literature could illuminate the Way, it could not realize it. As was shown in Chapter 4, he asserted that the true Confucians were those taking righteous political actions, not those writing and reading. In an essay written around 813, Liu quite openly expressed the view that literature was irrelevant to the ordering of the state and society, which he saw as the prime Confucian value. In this essay, he voiced his opposition to some contemporary suggestions that the chin-shih examination should evaluate candidates' moral sense and practical skills, instead of literary writing. 20 Yet Liu's reasoning was not based on any perceived linkage between composition and the skills required by an official. His essential argument for keeping the present system was that chin-shih examinees were the best and the brightest of the whole country because writing was, in the eyes of his contemporaries, the best proof of intellectual merit. The key to acquiring competent officials thus should lie in transforming chin-shih graduates into men of action and virtue or finding literary men with those qualities. 21 Moreover, although Liu had made claims in support of the ku-wen movement that writing was merely a vehicle to convey the meaning of the Way and that good writing aimed to illustrate the Way well, his literary practice was at times incongruous with his theory. It appears that he often treated writing as a form of art in its own right. Many essays that he wrote with deliberation, the famous series of "Records of Excursions in Yung-chou" included, pertain little to the Confucian principles. On the other hand, some of his explicitly didactic works, the Against the Conversations of the States for example, had an unrefined style. In summary, for Liu Tsung-yiian, although literary writing should aid in the pursuit of the Confucian Way, the two aspects were more like two tasks with their own independent lives. 20

Such opinions were quite common in the mid-T'ang. Simply put, they represented the resentment toward the cultural and political eminence of literary men by people such as aristocratic traditionalists, political realists and classicists. For those opinions, see David McMullen, State and Scholars in T'ang China, pp. 241-4; Robert des Rotours, tr., Le Traite des Examens: Traduit de la Nouvelle Historie des T'ang (Paris, 1932), pp. 195-9. 21 LTYC, p. 625. As far as I know, in the extant works of Liu, there is only one statement that equates the value of writing with that of government. But that statement was made by Lii Jang, Lii Wen's brother. See LTYC, p. 639.

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The relationship between the Confucian cause and literature in Liu's intellectual life reflected the general relationship between the midT'ang Confucian revival and concomitant literary trends, particularly foreshadowing the future course of the ku-wen movement. After the generation of Han Yii and Liu Tsung-yiian, the idea of literature as an instrument with which to illuminate the Way played an increasingly diminished role in the ku-wen movement. The focus of this movement shifted almost completely to the experimentation with ancient-style prose as a writing style. This tendency showed itself most clearly in the ideas and works of the "successors," such as the second- and third-generation disciples, of Han Yii; a perfect example was the notorious claim of Sun Ch'iao (fl. ca. 855-85) that the highest literary criterion was eccentricity, uniqueness.22 In the late T'ang, the Confucian movement had basically departed from the ku-wen movement, and from any other literary trend. 23 The character of Liu Tsung-yiian's relationship with the ku-wen movement reveals a significant twist in the development of the mid-T'ang Confucian revival. Prior to Liu's generation, the Confucian revival was championed by literary men who concentrated their intellectual energy primarily on prose reform. Yet it is clear that this cause alone could no longer satisfy many of their intellectual heirs. In Liu's case, at least we can say that, although he was still best known as a writer, that was not the way he chose to define himself.

Canonical studies While in Ch'ang-an, as described in Chapter 2, Liu Tsung-yiian was attracted to the new vogue of Confucian exegetics that concerned itself principally with the underlying rather than literal meaning of the Confucian canon. He established a strong and lasting relationship with a group of young intellectuals deeply influenced by the new-style classicist Lu Ch'un. Liu intensified his involvement with classical scholarship 22

See Liu Kuo-ying, T'ang-tai ku-wenyun-tung lun-kao (Sian, 1984), pp. 308-12; Lo Lient'ien, Han Yuyen-chiu, pp. 250-4. For sure, Sun Ch'iao still asserted that the purpose of writing was to illuminate the Tao. But evidently this notion was no longer the soul of the ku-wen movement. 23 True, during the Northern Sung (960-1126), there was a revival of the ku-wen movement, which was also a notable part of the Sung Confucian intellectual movement. Yet this movement had no direct connections with the T'ang ku-wen movement, which lost most of its strength in the late ninth century. New types of parallel prose, such as the so-called san-shih-liu style and hsi-k'un style, became the most appreciated writing styles until the emergence of the Sung ku-wen movement. See Chang Jench'ing, Chung-kuo p'ien-wen fa-ta shih (Taipei, 1970), vol. 2, pp. 488-521.

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during his years in Yung-chou; nearly all of his works connected with this subject were written during this period. His attitudes toward the Confucian classics and use of them in his writings reflected many of the profound changes intellectual Confucianism was then undergoing. Liu did not say much about his views on the nature of canonical studies, but he made his basic position very clear. In a comment on this issue, he wrote: "Ma Jung and Cheng Hsiian were merely two scholars of passages and sentences [of the classics]. Although in our time there are many scholars of passages and sentences, fortunately I am not one of them." 24 "Scholars of passages and sentences" (chang-chil shih) is a frequently occurring term in the history of classical studies that refers to those focusing on the detailed and fragmented exposition of the texts under their study and ignoring their overall implications.25 However, Ma and Cheng were no ordinary scholars. Both of the second century A.D., they were among the greatest Han classicists; in fact, Cheng was from all accounts one of the most distinguished and historically important classicists in the entire tradition of Confucian exegetics.26 By displaying contempt toward such men of lofty stature, Liu made a declaration in a dramatic manner: He was a firm supporter of the recently initiated challenge against the conventional approaches in classical scholarship that centered on detailed explication of canonical texts and followed established commentaries.27 The purpose of classical studies, he maintained, was to grasp "the mind of the sages" 28 and "the origins of the Way." 29 In other words, the Confucian canon was only a means through which the comprehension of the Tao might be achieved; one should not lose sight of this vision while studying the classics. 24 LTYC, p. 878. 25 For an early reference of this term, see Pan Ku, Han shu, 75:315926 See Honda Nariyuki, Shina keigakushi ron, pp. 224-31; Ch'ien Mu, "Liang-Han po-shih chia-fa k'ao," in his Liang-Han ching-hsiieh chin-ku-wen p'ing-i (Hong Kong, 1958), pp. 219-21.

27

This is certainly a much simplified characterization of traditional classical scholarship. But it was indeed the perception of the traditional approach held by supporters of new-style classical studies like Liu Tsung-yiian. Generally speaking, the Later Han (A.D. 25-220) saw the apogee of philological inquiry into the Confucian canon. This trend suffered severe blows in the Neo-Taoist movement of the third century. Yet, in medieval China, philological exegetics remained a main force within the weakened Confucian camp. For the relationship between the Neo-Taoist movement and Confucian exegetics, see T'ang Yung-t'ung, "Wang Pi's Interpretation," pp. 125-61; Yii Ying-shih, "Han-Chin chih chi shih chih hsin-tzu-chiieh yii hsin-ssu-ch'ao," in his Chung-kuo chih-shih chieh-ts'eng shih lun, pp. 275-90. For Confucian exegetics in the Era of Disunion, see Chien Po-hsien, Chin-ts'un Nan-pei-ch'ao ching-hsiieh i-chi k'ao (Taipei, 1975); Lii Ssu-mien, Liang-Chin Nan-pei-ch'ao shih (Shanghai, 1980), vol. 2, pp. 1371 — 80. 28 LTYC, p. 218. 29 LTYC, p. 873.

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Nonetheless, I would like to point out that it was evidently not Liu's contention that classics were unworthy of technical inquiry or could be subject to free interpretations. On the contrary, he apparently believed that an objective understanding of the classical texts constituted the foundation for the further search for the Way itself. In a letter to Liu Yii-hsi discussing some problems respecting the Book of Changes, he repeatedly emphasized the importance of the old commentaries for contemporary scholarship. He wrote: "When a gentleman is engaged in scholarly studies, before he proposes his unique ideas, he must investigate existing books exhaustively. Only after doing this and finding no similar ideas, can he be justified in claiming his contribution." 30 A classicist, he followed, "must first read exhaustively the writings of previous people. Only after he finds errors in them, can he provide his opinions to replace them." 31 This "conservative" facet of Liu's thinking on the studies of the Confucian classics was probably related to his family background. It is feasible that a person coming from an old "scholar clan" and obviously having received a rigorous classical education would continue to appreciate traditional scholarship while also endorsing a more interpretative approach. Liu's attitude in this respect also played a decisive part in his attacks on Ch'an Buddhism's view that the Buddhist sutras had little to do with Buddhahood.32 In Liu's works written in Yung-chou that involve canonical scholarship, three Confucian classics came under discussion: the Book of Changes, the Spring and Autumn Annals, and Confucius' Analects. Liu wrote only one essay on the Changes and on the Analects respectively;33 his major interest was in the Spring and Autumn Annals. Liu's writings concerning the Annals demonstrate several distinctive features. First, his interest in this classic shows that, spiritually, he still adhered to the Tan Chu-Lu Ch'un school after Lu's death and his own departure from the capital. As pointed out before, the Annals was the primary subject of the scholarship of the Tan-Lu group. This indicates that this school paid its greatest attention to the Confucian principles with regard to political actions, since the Annals was supposedly a book in which Confucius passed his moral judgments upon the political events of the Spring and Autumn era. 34 It was only natural for Liu, who 30 LTYC, p. 814. 31 LTYC, pp. 814-15. For Liu's general position on canonical studies, cf. also pp. 208-9, 819—20, 912, 1208. 32 For Liu's views on Buddhism, see chap. 8, sec. 3. 33 LTYC, pp. 459-60, 813-15. 34 See chap. 1, sec. 3.

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defined the Confucian Tao primarily as the Way of public life, to explore this text and try to find lessons or reasons in it. The second salient characteristic of Liu's discussion of the Annals was that his approach was highly unsystematic and unconventional. Although Tan Chu, Chao K'uang, and Lu Ch'un campaigned against philological, fragmented approaches in Confucian exegetics, they were still specialists in this area in a very strict sense. They conducted and presented their research methodically; in their works various theories in the established exegeses received careful analysis and evaluation. Liu, on the other hand, hardly ever saw himself as a classicist. He never wrote any commentaries on the Annals, a regular method in which an expert would treat a classic,35 nor any formal disquisition on this work.36 Most of his writings involving the interpretations of the Annals were produced in relation to the enunciation of his own thought. Third, Liu's works on or about the Annals were more than positive presentations of his understanding of the Confucian Way. He also strove to denounce the (in his eyes) reprehensible and un-Confucian elements in the traditional scholarship about this classic. In order to exhibit concretely the character of his canonical "studies," I shall examine two of his works concerning the Annals. The first work is an essay entitled "Discourse on the Consultation by Duke Wen of the State of Chin about the Magistracy of Yuan" {Chin Wen-kung wen shou-yiian i). This essay is a comment on a record in the Tso Commentaries of the Spring and Autumn Annals, a historical text that traditionally a school of classicists believed contained accurate interpretations of the Annals. In 636 B.C., the king of Eastern Chou bestowed the region of Yuan (in present northern Honan) on Duke Wen of the State of Chin. The people of Yuan complied with the king's decision, but only after a brief resistance. Cautioned, Duke Wen sought advice from a eunuch named Po Ti before appointing one Chao Ts'ui to the magistracy of Yuan. Liu assailed Duke Wen's consultation with a eunuch. He stressed that he would not argue that Duke Wen made a wrong appointment - which he conceded was probably not the case. 35 Yet Liu wrote commentaries on the Fa yen (Model Sayings) of Yang Hsiung (53 B.C.-A.D. 18). Yang was a major Han Confucian thinker, and his Fa yen was a work in imitation of Confucius' Analects. See David Knechtges, The Han Rhapsody: A Study of the Fu of Yang Hsiung (53 B.C.-A.D. 18) (Cambridge University Press, 1976), pp. 1, 6-7. Liu's commentaries have been lost. See Chi Yun et al., Ssu-k'u ch'uan-shu tsung-mu t'i-yao, p. 1882. For some possible surviving fragments, see LTYC, pp. 1401-3. 36 Liu had written a letter to a friend, who might be Yuan Yii, discussing explanations of certain passages in the Spring and Autumn Annals. This is the sole work in his extant writings devoted to concrete, technical problems regarding this classic. See LTYC, pp. 818-20. For the identification of the friend in question, please consult chap. 2, n. 100.

'37

Liu Tsung-yuan and intellectual change in T'ang China

Rather, his criticism was based on the grounds that a ruler should reach governmental decisions with his ministers publicly, namely, at court, instead of doing this with eunuchs or personal confidants. Liu accused Duke Wen of setting a bad precedent, which opened the door for the eunuchs' intervention in government and abuse of power in later ages. In criticizing Duke Wen, Liu claimed, he was following a principle in the Spring and Autumn Annals that those indirectly responsible for moral transgressions should also be condemned, a principle that at least two principal commentaries agreed could be discerned from the Annals?1 Regarding this work of Liu's I have two points to make. To begin with, it is actually not a study of the Annals. What Liu did was to apply a principle he thought to be implied in the Annals to a historical event recorded in a commentary on this classic. By so doing, he not only reaffirmed the principle of the Annals in question but, more important, established or upheld a political principle of his own. Furthermore, Liu's essay was not mere classical criticism. There is no doubt that the real target of his criticism was the political situation of his own day, in which the eunuchs were on the road to nearly absolute domination of the court. This also reveals how intimate the relationship was between his classical studies, his Confucian ideas and his contemporary concerns. Another, and more peculiar, work to be analyzed is Against the Conversations of the States, a book without apparent connections with canonical studies. As extensively discussed in Chapter 5, this is an important work in which Liu enunciated certain of his key ideas through the form of a critique of the Conversations of the States (Kuo-yii). However, Liu's intentions in authoring it will not fully come to light if we fail to apprehend why he chose the Conversations of the States as the object of his criticism. To answer the question, we have first to understand the nature of the Conversations of the States as a document. Although modern scholarship has not yet successfully determined the date of the completion of the Conversations of the States, not to mention its author, it is evident that this is an ancient book (probably written before the second century B.C.) in which many events of the Western Chou and the spring and autumn period are recorded.38 What concerns us here, 37

Liu's essay is in LTYC, pp. 99-101. For the background of the theme story in this work, see James Legge, The Chinese Classics, vol. 5, The Ch'un Ts'ew with the Tso Chuen, pp. 194-6. For the conventional exposition about the criticism of the Annals of those bearing indirect responsibility for moral transgressions, see James Legge, ibid., pp. 287-90, 672-4; Ch'un-ch'iu Ku-liang-chuan chu-shu, by Fan Ning and Yang Shih-hsun (Shih-san-ching chu-shu editon), i2:3b~5a; i8:3b-4a. 38 The most recent, and perhaps the best, major studies of this text appear in Chang I-jen's Kuo-yii Tso-chuan lun-chi (Taipei, 1980). The first three articles are especially worth reading for a basic grasp of the up-to-date knowledge in this field. I need to

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nonetheless, is not what this book really is, but how it was perceived by the T'ang literati. From the first century A.D. onward, scholars in general held that Tso Ch'iu-ming wrote both the Conversations of the States and the Tso Commentaries of the Spring and Autumn Annals (Tso chuan); the former was also commonly referred to as the Outer Commentaries of the Spring and Autumn Annals (Ch'un-ch'iu wai-chuan). During the T'ang, this text often appeared with the title the Outer Commentaries of the Spring and Autumn Annals: The Conversations of the States (Ch'un-ch'iu wai-chuan Kuo-yii).39 These facts reveal two aspects of the understanding of the Conversations of the States by pre-Sung Chinese (and also by many after the period). First, people viewed this book as a supplement to the Tso Commentaries. Much shorter than the Tso Commentaries, the Conversations of the States is about two-thirds comprised of narration of events also covered in the former work.40 Second, since the end of the Former Han (around the turn of the Christian era), the Tso Commentaries was widely regarded as more than a historiographic work. It gained the designation as a principal "commentary" on the Annals, that is, a work aiming to interpret the implications of this classic.41 The Conversations of the States thus also became a part of the corpus of the studies of the Annals.42 True, not all scholars of pre-Sung China shared the opinions concerning the Conversations of the States just stated. For instance, Chao K'uang, one of the "Big Three" in the T a n - L u school that inspired Liu's inquiry into the Confucian canon, suspected that the Conversations of the States and the Tso Commentaries were written by two different persons.43 Nonetheless, Liu Tsung-yiian basically accepted the conventional theories. He clearly took it for granted that Tso Ch'iu-ming was the author of both texts. 44 In Against the Conversations of the States, he twice referred to the Tso

39 40 41 42 43

44

mention that, although this text records many ancient events, it does not necessarily mean that it was written as a historiographic work. See Chang I-jen, "Lun Tso-chuan yii Kuo-yii te kuan-hsi," in his lun-chi, pp. 38-41. For another major study of this text, see Alan Imber, Kuo Yii, an Early Chinese Text and Its Relationship with the Tso Chuan (Stockholm, 1975), 2 vols. See Chang I-jen, "Kuo-yii pien-ming," in his lun-chi, pp. 1-18; Wei Chao, Kuo-yii Wei-shih chieh (the 1033 edition, rpt. Taipei, 1956), p. 5; Sui shu, 32:932; CTS, 46:197980. See Chang I-jen, "Lun Tso-chuan yii Kuo-yii te kuan-hsi," in his lun-chi, pp. 41-77. The other principal commentaries are the Kung-yang Commentaries and the Ku-liang Commentaries. In all bibliographies in standard dynastic histories prior to the Sung, the Conversations of the States was listed under the category of the classic of the Spring and Autumn Annals. See Lu Ch'un, ed., Ch'un-ch'iu chi-chuan tsuan-li, 1:12a. According to modern studies, Chao's view was probably correct. Some prominent scholars have been mistaken in attributing this view to either Tan Chu or Lu Ch'un. For example, see HTS, 200:5706; Ch'ao Kung-wu, Chun-chai tu-shu chih, 3:10b. See LTYC, pp. 823, 1265-6, 1271, 1318 passim in the "Against the Conversations of

139

Liu Tsung-yuan and intellectual change in T'ang China Commentaries as the Inner Commentaries (nei-chuan), and this beyond doubt

shows that he had in mind the supposition of the Conversations of the States being the Outer Commentaries of the Spring and Autumn Annals.45

Now we shall look directly into Liu's own considerations in his choosing to criticize the Conversations of the States as a means of attacking and rectifying erroneous ideas in the Confucian tradition. The first reason he gave was that the Conversations of the States was a book of great literary worth and enjoyed a large audience. He stated unequivocally: As a work of literature, Mr. Tso's Conversations of the States is profound and outstanding. Hence it naturally has always been a favorite. But frequently his views are dangerously misleading and inconsistent with the teachings of the sages. Fearing that scholars might be infatuated with the brilliance of the style, becoming engulfed in a swirl of moral confusion . . . , I have written Against the Conversations of the States, based on the principles of reason.46 This was certainly an argument arising from his idea that the purpose of literature was to illuminate the Tao41 Another of Liu's reasons was that, although the Conversations of the States contained so many preposterous ideas and narrations, scholars generally "compared it to the six classics" or "regarded it as being close to the classics." As an authoritative text in the Confucian tradition, it therefore had misled intellectuals, and Liu felt compelled to expose its flaws.48 The best evidence supporting the contention that Liu envisioned Against the Conversations of the States as a work related to canonical scholarship appears in a letter he wrote to Wu Wu-ling, one of his few friends in Yung-chou. After stating that, as a humiliated exile, he had no illusions about his book being appreciated, Liu wrote: "How do I dare to hope that [Against the Conversations of the States] will be like [a work] in the Han times which the court established an academic chair to teach? How do I dare to have this thought which would be laughed at by the whole world?" 49 There is no question that "a work" here refers to a Confucian canonical work, since in the Han, court academicians were allowed to teach only Confucian classics and works interpreting them. It is possible

45 46 47 48 49

the States." In the epilogue of the Against the Conversations of the States, Liu commented that a chapter of the Conversations of the States was filled with so many miraculous stories that that part might not be Tso's work (p. 1328). Yet this is Liu's only remark of this sort. See LTYC, pp. 1280, 1318. LTYC, p. 1265, as translated in Jennings Gentzler, "Literary Biography," p. 159, with minor changes. For this reason, see also LTYC, pp. 822, 825; Liu San-fou, "Liu Tzu-hou chuan-chu Fei Kuo-yii te chih-ch'u," Ku-tien wen-hsiieh, vol. 7, part 1 (August 1985), pp. 476-85. See LTYC, pp. 822, 1328. LTYC, p. 825. 140

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to guess that, when Liu spoke of what he dared not think, he already pointed to the direction in which he was thinking. He considered Against the Conversations of the States, at least to a degree, a canonical study.50 This text was certainly not a regular classical study; it may be characterized as a work of "classical criticism." Liu intended to demonstrate that a substantial part of a text in the corpus of Confucian classics clashed with the Way. It should be safe to say that the implicit rationale behind this project of Liu's, and many of his other works, was his belief that the true purpose of canonical scholarship lay in the pursuit of the Tao and that the Tao existed beyond the classics themselves. Using Jiirgen Habermas's.terminology freely, we may say that Liu's classical study was not motivated by "technical" or "practical" interest; it was motivated by "emancipatory" interest.51 In addition, Against the Conversations of the States might well be considered an indirect criticism of the Tso Commentaries. An entry in Liu's work explicitly deals with the Tso Commentaries' interpretation of a passage in the Annals.52 Moreover, thirteen accounts in the Conversations of the States that he fiercely assails (out of a total of sixty-seven) have similar counterparts in the Tso Commentaries. It is understandable why Liu did not overtly attack the Tso Commentaries itself, provided my conjecture is accurate. In terms of temperament and family background, it would seem too iconoclastic for him to do so. Aside from long having been an integral part of the Confucian canon, during the T'ang the Tso Commentaries enjoyed the status of the orthodox interpretation of the Annals] K'ung Ying-ta's True Meaning of the Spring and Autumn Annals was actually a series of subcommentaries on the Tso Commentaries.53 Liu Tsung-yuan's interest in and work on canonical studies signified not only the continuation of the new Confucian exegetics inaugurated by 50 As far as I know, in all extant bibliographies compiled in the Sung that included the Against the Conversations of the States, this work was listed under the category of classics. But this does not necessarily mean that the editors of those bibliographies had investigated Liu's intentions in writing it and reached the same conclusion as I do. It was probably only owing to the fact that this work had something to do with the Conversations of the States. See HTS, 57:1441; Ou-yang Hsiu et al., Ch'ung-wen tsung-mu chi-shih, 1:33a; Cheng Ch'iao, T'ung chih (Shanghai, 1935), 63:760; Ch'ao Kung-wu, Chun-chai tu-shu chih, 3:11a. 51 These three terms are the key concepts in Jiirgen Habermas's Knowledge and Human Interest (published in 1968; English translation, Boston, 1971). For a brief explanation of their original meaning, see Richard J. Bernstein, "Introduction," in Richard J. Bernstein, ed., Habermas and Modernity (Cambridge, Mass., 1985), pp. 8, 10-12. 52 LTYC, pp. 1296-7. See also p. 820. 53 See K'ung Ying-ta, "Ch'un-ch'iu cheng-i hsii," CTW, 146:12a-13b; P'i Hsi-jui, Ching-hsueh li-shih, pp. 197—9, 204—6. 141

Liu Tsung-yuan and intellectual change in T'ang China

Tan Chu and Chao K'uang but also the expansion of this movement to become a more integrated and important component of the mid-T'ang Confucian revival. There is no question that the pivotal figure in the transformation of classical studies from a for-a-long-time-technical field into a potent, creative intellectual force was Lu Ch'un. It was Lu who was most responsible for introducing the ideas and works of Tan and Chao, who had been active in the Wu area, to the intellectual communities of Ch'ang-an. 54 He was also instrumental in calling to the attention of literary men the new developments in Confucian exegetics and their implications.55 Liu Tsung-yiian appreciated this encounter so much as once to say that it was really a blessing for him to have been born late enough to have opportunities to benefit from this type of learning. 56 The interpretative, holistic approach in Confucian canonical studies became much more popular after Lu's death in 805. It developed into a major trend of classical scholarship in the ninth century. During this period, there appeared a large number of works on the Confucian canon written in this spirit,57 and the most favored subject was still the Spring and Autumn Annals. According to my own estimate, out of the forty-eight known T'ang books on this classic, which are listed in Chu I-tsun's (1629—1709)

monumental

Ching-i k'ao (Investigations of Meanings in

the Classics), twenty-nine were written after 805; among the nineteen authored before this time, eight were the unorthodox works of Tan Chu, Chao K'uang, Shih Shih-kai, and Lu Ch'un. 58 As for the prevailing idea 54

55 56 57

58

It should be noted that in the immediate aftermath uf the An Lu-shan rebellion, Wu actually became a national cultural center; almost all early prominent figures in the ku-wen movement were at one point or another active in that area. However, no indications exist that, in their lifetime, Tan and Chao's endeavors attracted attention from national elite leaders. See chap. 2, sec. 4. LTYC, p. 819. There have been no systematic studies on the history of classical studies in the T'ang. This observation is based on my examination of Chu I-tsun's monumental bibliographical study of the Confucian exegetics, the Ching-i k'ao (Ssu-pu pei-yao edition). Chu I-tsun, Ching-i k'ao, 176:1a-178:11a. Due to the lack of information about the date of the writing of certain works, the numbers given here are approximate. Some works I assume authored after 805 might have been written before 805 or in the Five Dynasties era. Some works by early T'ang classicists might have been written during the Sui dynasty or even earlier. Yet I believe these numbers at least exhibit a general trend. In addition, it has been pointed out that a book that Chu I-tsun listed as a study on the Annals authored in the early T'ang was actually not a work on this classic. See Weng Fang-kang, Ching-i k'ao pu-cheng (Yiieh-ya-t'ang ts'ung-shu edition), 7:i4a-b. I would also like to note that all books in this count directly treated the Annals. Books like Liu Tsung-yiian's Against the Conversations of the States and essays on this topic, which were not circulated independently, are not included. 142

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of canonical studies in the late T'ang, Tu Mu (803-52), a leading poet and prose writer, reported that it was vogue in his time for people to say that the exegetics of Cheng Hsiian and his like was responsible for the obscurity of the sages' messages.59 The following is what Liu K'o (d. ca. 839), a famous intellectual figure in the time of Liu Tsungyiian,60 said about his approach to canonical studies in the preface to his Essentials of the Three Commentaries on the Spring and Autumn Annals {San-chuan chih-yao):

I hate to see that. . . scholars wade streams but are confused about their sources, that they abandon the classics and only study their commentaries, and that they pick up the words in the classics but do not understand why they are said so. . . . So I dare to collect the absolutely correct words in the three commentaries [i.e., the Tso, Kung-yang, and Ku-liang commentaries], listing them under the main text of the classic [of the Annals]61 It is also noteworthy that not all the classical studies taking new approaches resulted from the influence of the T a n - L u school. Liu K'o, for example, seems to have no connections with this circle whatsoever. He claimed that he received instruction on the scholarship of the Annals from two obscure, secluded scholars.62 This appears to suggest that the new form of canonical studies did not emanate from a single source; it represented a specific response of intellectuals of different backgrounds to a changing intellectual atmosphere at large. In addition, the liberalization in the field of Confucian exegetics produced certain radically subjectivistic views and works. A well-known case in point was Lu T'ung, a friend and follower of Han Yii, who consciously skipped all the existing scholarship while studying the Annals. In a poem praising Lu, Han described his approach this way: The three commentaries of the Spring and Autumn Annals bound high on the attic, He faced the surviving main text alone, investigating it thoroughly.63 Last but not least, it is quite evident that, during the ninth century, many of those engaged in canonical studies were no longer classicists in 59 Tu Mu, Fan-ch'uan wen-chi, p. 111. 60 For the life and career of Liu K'o, see Edwin G. Pulleyblank, "Liu K'o, a Forgotten Rival of Han Yii," Asia Major, N. S., 7 (1959), pp. 145-60. 61 CTW, 742:19b. 62 See CTW, 742:8a-b, 12b-13b. 63 HCLC, 5:39. A work of Liu Tsung-yiian's on Confucius' Analects was also guilty of being too subjective. See LTYC, pp. 459-60, particularly Huang T'ang's note on p. 459. For Charles Hartman's discussion of Han Yii's method of canonical studies, see his Han Yii, pp. 176-85.

Liu Tsung-yuan and intellectual change in T'ang China

the conventional sense; they were regular men of letters. That is to say, many classical scholars were those who made themselves known initially with literary writing; typically, they entered officialdom through the chinshih examination. For instance, among the Spring and Autumn Annals scholars active in the ninth century, at least eight were famous literary men, including such figures as Fan Tsung-shih (d, ca. 821), Lu T'ung (d. 835?), Liu K'o, and P'i Jih-hsiu (ca. 834-ca. 883).64 In this light, Liu Tsung-yiian's excursion into classical studies was by no means a special case. In fact, it reflected a growing trend in which the literary men who constituted the main force behind the T'ang Confucian revival were becoming discontented with undertaking an intellectual renewal through the means of literature. They wished to contribute to the Confucian cause in a more direct way. Canonical scholarship was apparently a choice in this direction. It is undoubtedly true that, through their participation in the Confucian revival, the character of T'ang literary men was transformed; in turn, when they embarked on classical studies, they also helped transform this old tradition.

The image of "teacher" It is now clear that Liu Tsung-yiian's yearning for the Confucian Way led to his endeavoring to assume the roles of a new type of writer and, to a lesser extent, classicist. Then, we may ask: Was there an ideal intellectual role or personality in his mind that was more naturally or intimately related to the fulfillment and preaching of the Tao? The answer is positive; it was "teacher," or "mentor" (shih). The true teacher, Liu suggested, should be someone who showed people how to be human, how to follow the Tao.65 This kind of mentor differed fundamentally from those who solely taught book reading. Theoretically, the true teachers did not even have to be educated, as long as people could learn from them about the Way. "One," Liu wrote, "should be in company with those in whom the Way exists, even though they are servants and beggars; one should get away from those in whom the opposite of the Way exists, even though they are lords and marquises." 66 By making this statement, he also highlighted a related 64

For information about the life and participation in classical studies of these people, see HTS, 159:4953 (Fan Tsung-shih); Ch'ien Chi-po, Hanyu chih, p. 107 (Lu T'ung); Chu I-tsun, Ching-i k'ao, 177:20-30 (Liu K'o); Chu I-tsun, Ching-i k'ao, 177:6a (P'i Jihhsiu). Four other figures I have in mind are: Hsu K'ang-tso, Lu Hsi-sheng, Wei Piao-wei, and Ch'en Yueh. For information about them, see CTS, 189^4979; HST, 200:5722-3 (Hsu); HTS, 116:4238 (Lu); CTS, 189^4979; HTS, 177:5274-5 (Wei); Chu I-tsun, Ching-i k'ao, i 7 8 : i a - u a (Ch'en). 65 See LTYC, pp. 531, 871, 878. 66 LTYC, p. 531. See also pp. 878-9.

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notion that the goal of being a pupil lay in the pursuit of the Tao as well. Nevertheless, Liu mentioned the idea of teacher only occasionally. Moreover, with the exception of one case,67 he talked about this topic only when he was forced to respond to the young intellectuals seeking him to be their teacher while he was in the southwest. He made it unmistakably clear that he was willing to offer advice if asked, but declined to be anyone's teacher. One reason he gave was that he was unqualified; another was that, as a banished official and as a matter of personal characteristic, he had no courage to claim such an unorthodox position that would attract unfriendly attention. 68 Liu's attitude toward the idea of teacher is easy to understand. This was not his original idea; it was that of Han Yii. Liu approved of it, but was not prepared to campaign for its realization. Han presented the ideal of "teacher" in his famous "Discourse on Teachers" (Shih shuo).69 "The functions of teachers," he wrote, are to pass on the Way, give instructions, and resolve doubts.. . . One born before me has naturally learned the Way before I have, so I follow him as my teacher. Yet if one born after me has also learned the Way before I have, then I follow him as my teacher; for my teacher is the Way. . . . And so for this reason there is neither rich nor poor, old nor young; where the Way is, there the teacher is.70 This passage demonstrates beyond doubt that Liu's idea of teacher was a precise copy of Han's. For the mid-T'ang educated public, Han Yii's conception of teacher was unusual and quite strange. Han, Liu, and their fellow comrade in the Confucian revival, Lii Wen, pointed out that, after the Han dynasty, "teacher" or "teacher-pupil" had become a much neglected and despised social relationship. They were probably correct, and it could apparently in great part be attributed to basic historical features of the Era of Disunion: the decline of Confucianism as an intellectual force and the collapse of educational institutions as education became monopolized by aristocratic families.71 In the intellectual classes of 67 68 69 70 71

That is "Admonitions about Teachers and Friends" (Shih-yu chen), in LTYC, pp. 53O-I. See LTYC, pp. 871-2, 878-80, 885. This essay was written around 800, and it seems that Liu did not start discussing this issue until the early 810s. See this section. Liu himself twice credited Han Yii with the rise of the ideal of "teacher." See LTYC, pp. 871-2, 878-9. HCLC, 12:75-6, as translated in Charles Hartman, Han Yii, p. 163, with some changes. For education during the Era of Disunion, see Ch'ien Mu, "Liieh-lun Wei-Chin Nan-pei-ch'ao hsueh-shu wen-hua yii tang-shih men-ti chih kuan-hsi," in his Chung-

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the mid-T'ang, "teacher" usually referred to scholars of the Confucian classics and the examiners of the civil service examination vis-a-vis the passed examinees. It was reported that those offering elementary education in country or family schools were ashamed of or upset by the designation "teacher." 72 These were teachers lacking, in the words of Han Yii and Liu Tsung-yiian, "the Way of the teacher" (shih-tao).73 Against this background, it was no wonder that a person of idiosyncrasy and defiance was needed to champion this idea.74 There were people in Han and Liu's time, such as Li Kuan and Lii Wen, who perhaps noticed the problem of the "teacher" independently, but did not propose any new formula to rectify it.75 Although "teacher" and "the Way of the teacher" were not Liu Tsung-yiian's original ideas, his endorsement of them still had important implications in intellectual history. Han Yii formally propounded these ideas in his "Discourse on Teachers" around 800, but it seems that they did not become widely known until the mid-8 ios. 76 Despite the fact that this notion was often confronted with apathy and derision, it also received positive responses; among them were Liu's. More significantly, many young intellectuals enthusiastically began to seek out teachers according to the new model. Liu Tsung-yiian was in great demand. This was definitely not a coincidental phenomenon; it could have taken place only in an intellectual climate in which the quest for the Confucian Way was a primary value. The movement led by Han Yii aiming to redefine "teacher" and to elevate its status bore its plentiful fruits in the

72 73 74

75

76

kuo hsueh-shu ssu-hsiang shih lun-ts'ung, vol. 3 (Taipei, 1977), pp. 159-73; Lii Ssu-mien, Liang-Chin Nan-pei-ch'ao shih, vol. 2, pp. 1335-59. For the comments of Han, Liu and Lii on the problem of "teacher" in medieval China in general and in their own age in particular, see HCLC, 12:76; LTYC, pp. 871-2, 878; TLHW, 3:1 a-3a. Cf. also chap. 2, sec. 4. HCLC, 12:76; LTYC, pp. 825, 871. For Liu Tsung-yiian's noting of Han's courage, see LTYC, pp. 871, 878-9. For the aspect of Han as an iconoclastic intellectual leader in the eyes of his contemporaries, see LTYC, pp. 569-71, 848; CTW, 744:3b; Huang-fu Shih, Huang-fu Ch'ih-cheng wen-chi, p. 24. See TLHW, 3:ia~3a; Li Kuan, Li Yuan-pin wen-chi (Yiieh-ya-t'ang ts'ung-shu edition), 3:9a. A disciple of Hsiao Ying-shih, a prime pioneer of the Confucian revival mentioned in chap. 1, named Hsi-mu Fu also once touched upon this issue. See CTW, 442:1a. Wei Piao-wei (fl. during the 820s) also promoted the ideal of "teacher." His thinking in this regard was apparently influenced by Han Yii. See HTS, 177:5275. For the basis of my dating of "Discourse on Teachers," see HCLC, 12:76. Charles Hartman claims that this essay was written in 802, yet he does not present grounds for this dating. See his Han Yii, p. 167. In Yung-chou, Liu once told an admirer that he never heard of such a theory while in Ch'ang-an (LTYC, p. 880). This strongly suggests that Han did not publicize his idea of "teacher" with the writing of "Discourse on Teachers," because Liu and Han knew each other well in the early 800s.

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Northern Sung Confucian movement. By then, Han and Liu's idea of "the Way of the teacher" had become almost a consensus among literati. The great Neo-Confucian philosopher Ch'eng I (1033-1107) was probably the most noted figure devoted to the embodiment of this ideal.77 Finally, I need to emphasize that, although the idea of teacher just described was a novel one in the Confucian tradition as well as in the general educational environment, there had been a counterpart in medieval culture for a long time. Han Yii suggested that his teacherpupil ideal had existed in ancient times, and was a part of "the ancient Way." 78 In fact, there was no such formula in classical Confucianism, though the teacher-pupil relationship indeed played a quite important role in the intellectual activities in pre-Ch'in and Han China. Han Yii actually had picked up his paradigm from the masters in the Buddhist religion, especially the ideas about "master," or "teacher," in the newly emerging Ch'an school. And this is only one instance of the significant intellectual and inspirational debt that the mid-T'ang Confucian revival owed to Ch'an Buddhism. 79 However, it should be noted that, despite the fact that the master-disciple relationship had thrived in Buddhism for centuries, it apparently had no impact on secular educational and intellectual life. The Buddhist master-disciple relationship was intimately related to the spiritual quest and transformation of individuals. Before the rise of Han Yii and Li Ao, there were no such problems in Confucianism. In summary, Liu Tsung-yiian's ideas and his practice of literary writing and canonical scholarship were highly representative of new trends in the mid-T'ang in these two areas. They show clearly the wide-ranging impact of the Confucian revival. From the viewpoint of intellectual history, the most noteworthy characteristic of Liu's literary endeavor is that, unlike the case of many of his predecessors in the Confucian revival, his participation in the ku-wen movement was not the dominant part of his intellectual effort. His involvement in classical studies, on the other hand, became much deeper than that of previous literary men who took part in the Confucian revival movement, but his approach 77

See Huang Tsung-hsi, Ch'iian Tsu-wang, et al., Sung-Yiian hsueh-an (rpt. Taipei, 1975), 15:48-50. Ch'eng was particularly remembered for his uncompromising fulfillment of an educator's duty as the teacher of Emperor Che-tsung (reigned 1086-1100). 78 HCLC, 12:75-7. 79 For an excellent analysis of the Buddhist origins of Han's notion of "teacher," see Yii Ying-shih, Chung-kuo chin-shih tsung-chiao lun-li yii shang-jen ching-shen, pp. 47-51. See also Charles Hartman, Han Yii, pp. 162-6. For the relationship of Liu Tsung-yiian's thought to Ch'an Buddhism, see chap. 7, sec. 2; chap. 8, sec. 3.

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was radically unconventional and nontechnical. The features of Liu's relationship with literature and canonical scholarship just discussed demonstrate that, in his mind, the pursuit of the Way was a search for righteous values and principles with practical relevance; it could not be reduced to an intellectual exercise. It was on the basis of this vision that Liu contributed to the growth of the mid-T'ang Confucian revival into an independent intellectual movement centered on the exploration of the Tao. The emergence of the ideal of "teacher" was a characteristic symbolic sign of this development.

148

7 Sources of Liu's Confucian thought In my presentation of Liu Tsung-yiian's Confucian thought thus far, I have tried not only to describe his ideas but also to explain why he held those views. The sources of his vision of and devotion to Confucianism should largely have become clear. There is no question that the ongoing mid-T'ang Confucian revival, especially in the forms of the ku-wen movement and new canonical studies, exerted a vital influence on Liu's intellectual endeavor. In his transformation from a man of action to a man of ideas in Yung-chou, this revival provided him with both a sense of direction and a forum for discourse. Moreover, Liu's early political activism and reformism definitely accounted for his characterization of the Confucian Tao. His family background, that of an average aristocratic family from the Kuan-Lung group, seems also to have some bearings on his thought and action. Now I would like to introduce two additional factors that apparently contributed to the formation of Liu's conception of Confucianism, in the hope that they may shed further light on the origins of his Confucian mentality. These two factors are his idea of "the people" and the probable influence of the Ch'an Buddhist movement, which came into being earlier than the Confucian revival.

The rise of the people When one reads Liu Tsung-yiian's works, one cannot help but notice a word that penetrates the entirety of his discussion of the Confucian doctrine. This word is "jen," the people, or simply man. For Liu, the Confucian Way referred primarily to the principles the application of which would advance the well-being of the people, and the literati's compassion toward the plight of the populace was the spiritual foundation of Confucianism. He also asserted that Confucian values dealt only with the realm of man; the extramundane, or the supernatural, was irrelevant. This affirmation largely arose from his position that speculaH9

Liu Tsung-yuan and intellectual change in T'ang China

tions about, or beliefs in, the supernatural did no good for the livelihood of the people. There is no doubt that the welfare of the people was Liu's ultimate concern; it became a principal criterion that he used to determine the propriety of a notion or a value. 1 It may not be an exaggeration to say that it was Liu's concern for the people that brought about his Confucian conviction, rather than the other way around. However, in order to comprehend fully the importance of "the people" to Liu's Confucian ideas, we have to understand further the image of the people in his consciousness. Unlike the use of "people" at various times in the history of human thought, Liu's "people" did not allude to any particular social or economic group; the word stood for all people in the Chinese world. He frequently referred to them as "the living people" {sheng-jen).2 Nevertheless, Liu's affection for the people was not evenly distributed; he held stronger feelings toward people in certain circumstances than for those in others. One category of people to whom Liu paid constant attention was the common people who were suffering, particularly those suffering from oppressive rule. Liu had already exhibited an intense concern with the populace in his early years when he was taking part in the reform politics of the Wang Shu-wen clique. Yet his sympathy with the common people at that time perhaps did not differ much from that of an ordinary young idealist: It was real, but somewhat abstract. As a member of an old clan who had spent most of his youth in the intellectual and official circles of the capital, he probably had few opportunities to meet the people in the fields or on the street. 3 This situation changed after his banishment. In Yung-chou, his contact with the populace became direct, due mainly to the fact that the elite community there was small and that he was alienated from much of it. This contact proved significant. 4 In a number of works written in Yung-chou, Liu presented a vivid image of the people suffering from governmental excess. Among them, the most famous - and the most powerful - one was probably "The 1 Cf. Sun Ch'ang-wu, "Shih-lun Liu Tsung-yuan 'sheng-jen chih-i' te she-hui ssuhsiang," Wen-hsueh p'ing-lun ts'ung-k'an, 5 (March 1980), pp. 154-71. 2 For brief expositions of the idea of "people" in the history of Western civilizations, see George Boas, "Vox Populi," in Philip P. Wiener, ed., Dictionary of the History of Ideas, vol. IV (New York, 1973), pp. 496-500; idem, "The People," in his The History of Ideas (New York, 1969), pp. 167-86. For some examples of Liu's use of the term "the living people," see LTYC, pp. 30, 638, 840-1. 3 For claims by Liu about his early devotion to the benefit of the people, see LTYC, pp. 780, 841. If he indeed possessed concrete and intimate feelings toward the life of the populace while in Ch'ang-an, he never demonstrated them in his writings. 4 For an excellent examination of Liu's relationship with the populace in Yung-chou, see Sun Ch'ang-wu, chuan-lun, pp. 144-53. 150

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Story of the Snake Catcher" (Pu-she-che shuo). This essay relates that in the wilderness in Yung-chou is found a type of snake that is extremely poisonous, but believed to be a precious medicinal substance. The imperial court collects two snakes of this sort from the Yung-chou area annually, and people may submit them to the local administration in lieu of taxes. The family of a person surnamed Chiang has monopolized this business for three generations. Mr. Chiang tells the narrator that both his grandfather and father were killed by the snakes and he has come close to the same fate several times. Feeling sympathetic, the latter offers to ask the local authorities to relieve him of this task. Yet suddenly, Mr. Chiang becomes distressed and is in tears. He refuses, saying: Will you, sir, take pity on me and let me live? The misfortunes this job brings about are never so grievous as the misfortune of restoring the requirement I pay taxes would be. . . . It has been sixty years now since my family came to live in this village, over three generations ago. The livelihood of our village and neighborhood has become more and more difficult by the day. Our neighbors exhaust everything produced from their land and everything coming into their houses [to pay taxes]. Crying, shouting, they become wanderers. Staggering and falling because of hunger and thirst, they confront the wind and the rain, the cold and the heat, breathing a poisonous miasma. They often die toppling on one another. Among the neighboring families of my grandfather in the past, less than one out of every ten are still left. Among the neighboring families of my father, less than two or three out of every ten are still left. Among my neighboring families in the last twelve years, less than four or five out of every ten are still left. The rest either died or moved away. But I alone have survived because I catch snakes. When the ferocious government clerks come to our village, they shout and yell from east to west, darting around and breaking things from south to north, making such a frightful din that not even the chickens and dogs can have peace. I just gingerly get up to look at my urn. After I see that my snake is still there, I feel relieved and go back to sleep again. . . . I only risk death about twice a year. . . . How can this be compared to my neighbors who experience this threat every day? Even if I were to die on my job now, it would still be a later death than the deaths of my neighbors. How could I dare hate my job?5 Hearing that, the narrator can only lament that whereas he used to doubt the truth of Confucius' saying that a tyrannical government is more fierce than a tiger, now he realizes that heavy levies are indeed more harmful than the most poisonous snakes.6 5

LTYC, p. 456, adapted from Yu-shih Chen, Images and Ideas in Chinese Classical Prose: Studies of Four Masters (Stanford, Calif., 1988), pp. 101-2. 6 LTYC, pp. 455-6. The remark just mentioned attributed to Confucius appears in the chapter of "T'an-kung, I I " in the Records of Rites (Li chi). See Wang Meng-ou, Li-chi chin-chu chin-i, vol. 1, p. 150.

Liu Tsung-yiian and intellectual change in T'ang China

Here I have two points to make pertaining to this essay. First, "The Snake Catcher" is not the sole work in which Liu attacks mid-T'ang taxation practices and blames popular suffering upon them. In fact, this issue figures conspicuously in his discussion of contemporary misgovernment.7 Second, the story of "The Snake Catcher" may be fictional and the living conditions in Yung-chou depicted in it may be exaggerated,8 but it does indeed reflect a general depressed social situation in the early ninth century, particularly in the rural areas. In the post-An Lu-shan rebellion era, the T'ang central government encountered an enormous financial strain. While military spending increased immensely in order to cope with Northeastern regionalism ensuing from the An rebellion, the tax base of the court shrank drastically. In 806, for example, of the total 120 prefectures, only 49 submitted imposts to the court; the number of registered households (ca. 1,440,000) was about one-seventh of that in 754 (9,619,254) . 9 Under such circumstances, in order to procure more resources from a smaller population, the taxation system became extremely confusing and oppressive in the areas under the court's control, mostly in the south, in the immediate aftermath of the An rebellion. Still worse for the common people, regional military governors also levied surcharges for their own use. Even the reform of the so-called Two-Tax (liang-shui) system of 780 failed to reduce substantially the burden of the largest and most vulnerable section of the population, the peasants. 10 Liu must have known of this problem while in Ch'ang-an, but he saw it in Yung-chou. However, one of Liu's poems seems to reveal a subtly different feeling he held toward the people's plight. This poem about peasants reads: After breakfast on sleeping-mats, they do what they always do, Herding cattle to the eastern fields, With cocks' crow, brightening village alley; At night they return from the dusky farmland. Another acclaimed work of his on this theme is a poem entitled "Peasant Family, I I " (LTYC, pp. 1238-9). See also pp. 737, 741, 831-3. Liu Tsung-yiian at least tried to make the background similar to the Yung-chou area. In that area, for instance, there indeed existed Chiang families. See LTYC, p. 167. It should be noted that, among 9,619,254 registered households in 754, only 5,301,044 were taxable. See Lii Ssu-mien, Sui-T'ang Wu-tai shih, pp. 767-8. Yet, even though we do not know the figure for the number of taxable households in 806, the shrinkage of the court's tax base is beyond doubt. For the mid-T'ang taxation system and government finance, see Chii Ch'ing-yiian, T'ang-tai ts'ai-cheng shih (Shanghai, 1934; rpt. Taipei, 1978), pp. 17-54; Denis Twitchett, Financial Administration, pp. 24-48, 109-23. For their impact on rural areas, see Wu Chang-ch'iian, T'ang-tai nung-min wen-t'iyen-chiu (Taipei, 1963), pp. 95-132, 152

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They do their utmost at this job of muscular labor; Depend on it to pass their years. Exhaust themselves to contribute taxes and corvee; Resigned only to sleep in empty houses. Children and grandchildren grow day by day. Age after age their lives remain the same.11 This work appears to suggest that, in Liu's mind, the peasants' hardship did not originate solely from a particular social and political situation. It was rather an almost inherent constituent of peasant life. This sentiment of Liu's also indicates that he was concerned with the populace as human beings in their own right, not just as victims of flawed political measures. Yet Liu Tsung-yuan believed that plenty of room existed for officials to work to improve the living conditions of the common people. As repeatedly emphasized before, he also felt that all officials were obliged to do so. However, it is important to point out here that the Confucian value of public service was not the only ground on which he made this moral appeal; he held that the officials' duty to help the populace was actually rooted in the nature of the relationship between them and the people. In an essay in praise of a magistrate (named Hsueh Ts'un-i) of Lingling County of Yung-chou who had abolished previous harsh and unfair taxation practices, Liu explained why he thought Hsueh did the right thing. He wrote: Do you [i.e., Mr. Hsueh] know the duty of all those who are officials on the land? Their duty is to be the people's servants, not to make the people serve them. Those making their living on the land take one tenth [of their income] to hire officials. They want officials to work for justice on their behalf. Those who receive their stipends but neglect their jobs are now all over the world. There are even those who not only neglect their jobs but also steal from the people. Suppose you hire a servant in your home, and that servant receives his salary but neglects his job and steals your property, you would definitely be extremely angry, and then fire him and punish him. Now there are many officials of this kind in the world. Why do the people not dare to express fully their anger and fire them and punish them? It is because the two situations are different.12 Although the situations are different, the principles are the same. . . .13 167-75.

11 LTYC, p. 1238. 12 The original word for "situations" is "i^'A," which Liu also used in the exposition of his theory of "social evolutionism" in "On Feudalism." See chap. 4, sec. 2, particularly n. 68. As mentioned there, this word in fact means both situations and social forces that create certain situations. 13 LTYC, p. 616. For another work in which Liu praised Hsueh, see pp. 737-8.

Liu Tsung-yuan and intellectual change in T'ang China

In this passage, Liu, with forceful language, identified the people as the masters of the Chinese land and officials as their servants. Although social reality prevented the people from exerting this power over officials, it would be the gravest injustice were they to be maltreated by those paid to serve them. Liu's theory of the people being masters over officials set forth in the above quotation was by no means an accidental emotional outburst. It was his consistent belief, which he expressed in two other works, one written prior to and the other after his banishment. 14 This notion of Liu's is also the closest idea one may find in Chinese intellectual tradition to the concept of democracy. It is not an explicit proclamation of government by the people, but it at least establishes that the people, in theory, should control those who govern. The most crucial element that sets Liu's idea apart from that of democracy may be that he never considered how to make the rightful power of the people concrete in institutional terms. This was apparently inhibited by, if we use Liu's own word, the "situations," or "conditions," in which he found himself. Yet in terms of the inner logic of Chinese intellectual history, the most significant thinking Liu developed with respect to the political role of the people appears in a treatise presented to Emperor Hsien-tsung, entitled "Righteous Omens" (Chen-fu). This essay deals with a problem more fundamental than official duty: the basis of a ruler's authority. Liu declared that the people's support was the only source of dynastic legitimacy. He dismissed the notion of heavenly mandate, contending that the omen confirming a ruler's right to rule was nothing but the people's support. The T'ang emperors, he stated, "received their mandate not from Heaven, but from the people." 15 "The mandate of the people" was obviously another radical, and innovative, idea that Liu Tsung-yiian held. Throughout traditional China, the mandate of Heaven had been the predominant ideology of political legitimacy.16 True, the Confucian tradition emphasized the important role the people played in the bestowal of the heavenly 14 See LTYC, pp. 595, 634. 15 LTYC, p. 35. See also p. 30. 16 There were certainly other theories of political legitimation. For example, Sui emperors (Emperors Wen and Yang) and Empress Wu of the T'ang found Buddhist tenets helpful for establishing their legitimacy. See Arthur Wright, "The Formation of Sui Ideology, 581—604," in John K. Fairbank, ed., Chinese Thought and Institutions (Chicago, 1957), pp. 93-104; R. W. L. Guisso, Wu Tse-t'ien and the Politics of Legitimation in T'ang China (Bellingham, Wash., 1978), chap. 4. Early Ch'ing emperors, particulary Emperor K'ang-hsi (reigned 1662-1722), portrayed themselves as heirs of the "Succession of the Way" (tao-t'ung). See Huang Chin-hsing, "Ch'ing-ch'u chengch'iian i-shih hsing-t'ai chih t'an-chiu: cheng-chih-hua te tao-t'ung kuan," CYLY, 58:1 (1987), pp. 105-31. Yet there is no question that they were far less prevalent than the idea of the mandate of Heaven.

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mandate; Mencius, known for his call for tyrannicide, declared that "Heaven sees with the eyes of its people; Heaven hears with the ears of its people," a citation from the Book of History, which is the Chinese version of "vox populi vox Dei."11 Nevertheless, "the people" in this framework were after all a medium of Heaven in its search for a rightful ruler, rather than an independent source of authority. As far as I know, Liu is the sole major traditional thinker directly denouncing the idea of heavenly mandate, 18 and this position surely exhibits once again his profound distaste for the notion of Heaven. But more significant for the topic of this section, it indicates that the well-being of the people occupied so central a place in his mind and heart that he was willing to empower them to the extent that had previously been enjoyed only by Heaven. Also, Liu's originality in the sphere of political ideas seems to suggest that his thinking in this respect was a source, instead of a product, of his Confucian conviction and his exploration of the Confucian Way. Another main assertion made by Liu Tsung-yiian regarding the people concerns their equality. His most important work on this issue is perhaps "The Tale of the Iron Furnace Dock in Yung-chou" {Yung-chou t'ieh-lu-pu chih). "Iron Furnace Dock" was the name of a dock beside the northern city wall of Yung-chou. The narrator in this essay has come to Yungchou by boat for nine years, and has wondered about the origin of this name. He finally finds the answer. A person tells him that there used to be an ironsmith living by the dock. Although both he and his furnace have been long gone, the dock still retains that name. Hearing that, the narrator expresses his surprise at knowing that there really exists something that has a name without correspondent substance. The person replies: 17 See D. C. Lau, tr., Mencius, p. 144; Yii Ying-shih, "Chiin-tsun ch'en-pei hsia te chun-ch'iian yii hsiang-ch'iian," in his Li-shih yu ssu-hsiang (Taipei, 1976), p. 66. It should be noted that the sentence Mencius quoted does not appear in the present edition of the Book of History. 18 In certain works, as pointed out, Liu still showed support for the Mencian conception of the mandate of Heaven. See chap. 5, sec. 2. In the late Ming and early Ch'ing periods, a strong impulse to examine the relationship between rulers and the ruled emerged. Yet the idea of "the mandate of Heaven" did not become a focus of this current. Furthermore, none of the central figures of this current, such as Li Chih (1527-1602), Huang Tsung-hsi (1610-95), and T'ang Chen (1630-1704), argued for officials' obligation to the people on the ground of officials being paid servants of the people as Liu did. Cf. W. Theodore de Bary, "Chinese Despotism and the Confucian Ideal: A Seventeenth-Century View," in John K. Fairbank, ed., Chinese Thought and Institutions, pp. 170-6; Hsiao Kung-ch'iian, Chung-kuo cheng-chih ssu-hsiang shih, vol. 4,

pp. 567-78; vol. 5, pp. 596-611.

J55

Liu Tsung-yuan and intellectual change in T'ang China Why do you only feel strange about this? Today there are people relying on the names of their families to be established in the world. They say: "My family is great. Others cannot match me." Asked about their office and virtue, they say that those are things of a long time ago; they belonged to their ancestors. But those people still claim: " I am great." The world also says: "Such and such families are great." Is there any difference between those people's carrying an empty name and this dock doing the same? If someone, hearing of this dock's name and being short of cooking pots, plows, knives and axes, brings money here, can he get what he wants? Then it is also the same that we cannot find office and virtue in those claiming to belong to great families. [Actually] one's family cannot be glorified even if it retains office but lacks virtue. Yet the world still enjoys being the inferiors of those so-called great families. Why do you not feel strange about that but only feel strange about the name of our dock?19 The targets of Liu's story are unquestionably the class consciousness of the aristocratic families as well as the adulation of those families by society at large. Generally speaking, by the mid-T'ang, the old great clans were in the process of decline. That is to say, despite the fact that many members of this group continued to acquire or maintain high social and political status, the distinction between aristocracy and literati in general had become increasingly blurred, and new social and cultural forces were apparently on the rise. 20 For example, most leading figures of the popular and esteemed Ch'an school of Buddhism came from commoner background in the south. 21 Around 850, after a prolonged, 19 LTYC, p. 756. 20 In his major study on the literati class of the T'ang-Sung society, Sun Kuo-tung contends that aristocracy did not decline until the end of the T'ang. See his "T'angSung chih-chi she-hui men-ti chih hsiao-jung," in his T'ang-Sung shih lun-ts'ung, pp. 213-29. But there are some problems in his work. For one thing, it relies too heavily on incomplete statistics, and fails to examine the concrete conditions of the families of those whom he considers aristocrats and their life-style and cultural tendencies. Moreover, Sun is loose and inconsistent in his definition of "aristocracy." In the opening statement of his article, he declares that his study aims to refute the view that, after the middle T'ang, "old clans" declined and "new families" started to take their place in producing social leaders. According to Sun's data, the people coming from "illustrious," or "great," families constitute 53% of the politically important figures in the middle and late T'ang recorded in CTS (that is, 381 out of 718 people). See Sun's article, pp. 217-18. For me, this already indicates the ascent of nonaristocratic social forces in the political arena. Yet, in his generalizations, Sun combines the members of the old aristocracy and those from newly risen political families into one category, claiming that 69% of the political figures in his data are still from upper-class families (p. 218). It seems to me that this argument is misleading and does not prove his theory of aristocratic decline in the T'ang. Patricia Ebrey holds that the diminishing difference between the T'ang aristocratic families and the rest of the elite was the prime reason for their decline. This explanation seems plausible. But she does not point out clearly the factors that might be responsible for the appearance of this situation. For Ebrey's views, see The Aristocratic Families, pp. 113-14. 21 For a comprehensive study of T'ang Ch'an Buddhism in terms of geographical distribution, see Suzuki Tetsuo, To Godai Zenshu shi (Tokyo, 1985). 156

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fierce power struggle, the Niu (Seng-ju) faction, which contained many literary men from lower social strata, finally triumphed over the Li (Te-yii) faction, which was led by members of eminent Shan-tung old clans. 22 It is certain that Liu's essay reflected this new situation. The real significance of this work in the context here, however, lies in how its author evaluated the social change in question. Clearly, he embraced this development. He suggested that in his time aristocrats, or descendants of the medieval aristocracy, had nothing special to be proud of and that both they and society as a whole should recognize this. 23 In some of his other works, Liu went beyond the acknowledgment and encouragement of the decline of the aristocracy. He affirmed that all people were equal by nature. They were all human beings, and social distinction was artificial and negligible. He once compared people of different social status to the chessmen in a game (called t'an-ch'i), a version of which was crafted by a disciple of his named Fang. All of the chessmen were made out of the same wood, yet they obtained different values and were viewed in different ways by chess players by virtue of being painted in different colors. Nonetheless, Fang did not examine the quality of the individual pieces of wood and then decide to give a better piece a higher value. He simply painted them randomly. Liu asked: "Is there any difference between the way the world differentiates people to be noble or humble and the way Mr. Fang differentiates these chessmen?" 24 Liu Tsung-yiian never argued that there should not be social distinction; he probably did not intend to do so. However, it was definitely his genuine belief that all human beings, like all the chessmen just referred to, were of the same origin. Lives were simply the outcomes of accidental aggregations or groupings of certain ether (ch'i). People were in this sense all equal. 25 On the other hand, Liu insisted that it should be the quality or the merit of an individual, rather than his pedigree, that determined his social or political position. 26 The manner in which Fang 22 23

24 25

26

For an insightful analysis of the nature of the strife between the Niu and Li factions, see Ch'en Yin-k'o, T'ang-tai cheng-chih, pp. 71-94. Another work of Liu's expressing similar opinions is "The Biography of Sung Ch'ing" (Sung Ch'ing chuan). See LTYC, pp. 471-2; Yamazaki Jun-ichi, '"So Sei den' shoko," in Chugoku bungaku ronshu: Megata Masashi hakushi koki kinen (Tokyo, 1974), pp. 299317. LTYC, p. 649. See also p. 648. For Liu's view of life in this respect, see also LTYC, pp. 342, 1261. As prefect of Liu-chou, Liu launched a forceful and effective campaign to liberate child slaves there. It became the most remembered measure in his official career after his 805 banishment. This action was no doubt consistent with his belief in all people as equals. See HCLC, 32:70; CTS, 166:4214; HTS, 168:5142. For this point, see also LTYC, pp. 95-6, 1308.

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differentiated chessmen should not be applied to the human world. We certainly should not forget that Liu himself came from an aristocratic family. His remarks on problems concerning the people and social stratification show that he consciously strove to break the demarcation between the aristocracy and the rest of society, at least the rest of the intelligentsia. Aside from his Confucian idealism, the relatively low and peripheral status of Liu's family within the aristocracy might also have been responsible for the attitude that he held. The above examination of Liu Tsung-yiian's conception of and sentiments about the people has demonstrated how deep, concrete and spontaneous was his concern with the populace. There is good reason to believe that his reflections on the problem of people were not merely derived from his Confucian thought; rather, they in large measure shaped his perception, or his characterization, of Confucianism. Liu's sympathy with the plight of the common people was certainly not unusual in the mid-T'ang Confucian revival. As has been explained, at the inception of this movement, the suffering of the people under social and political crisis figured largely in arousing the Confucian consciousness of many intellectuals. Tu Fu and Yuan Chieh were the most conspicuous examples. In Liu's own generation, Po Chii-i was bestknown for being a mouthpiece for the populace through poetry.27 Nevertheless, it is also true that not all of the participants of the Confucian revival movement displayed a high degree of sensitivity toward popular misery; Liu Tsung-yiian was one of those who did. Liu's egalitarian sentiments or strong identification with the people as a whole, on the other hand, was definitely much less representative. Indeed, as far as my knowledge goes, he was unique among his peers in articulating antiaristocratic feelings.28 It is nearly impossible to know the reason for this peculiarity; suffice it to say that it is another manifestation of the character of Liu's Confucian thought, which bears an overwhelming emphasis on the amelioration of the sociopolitical life of human beings.

27

For the cases of Tu and Yuan, see chap. 1, sec. 3. For the case of Po, see Suzuki Shuji, Todai shijin ron, vol. 2, pp. 213-28. 28 In his Han Yu, Charles Hartman maintains that Han Yii held strong antiaristocratic sentiments (pp. 137-8). But this is not a convincing contention to me. What Hartman describes is mostly Han's resentment against the excesses of politically powerful officials and noblemen. His criticism of the privileged seems not directed primarily at the socially prestigious "illustrious families" or "old clans." I need also to point out that, although the prestige and power of the old aristocracy was abating in the midand late T'ang, in society there existed no antiaristocratic movement.

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A Buddhist parallel Finally, there is probably another factor that bore a significant part in the formulation of Liu Tsung-yiian's Confucian thought: the new Ch'an (Zen) Buddhism. As is well-known, a movement of revolutionary nature, led by Hui-neng, took place within the Ch'an school of Buddhism around the turn of the eighth century. 29 The central message of this movement, simply put, was that the enlightenment of one's mind was the only way to Buddhahood; to a Buddhist's spiritual development, conventional religious practices, such as doctrinal inquiry, prayer, observance of the vinaya, and even meditation, were in the last analysis irrelevant. The disciples and followers of Hui-neng formed the Southern Ch'an school, and grew from obscurity into a prominent sect during he second half of the eighth century. 30 In spirit, the Ch'an revolution resembled greatly the mid-T'ang Confucian revival at the stage when Han Yii and Li Ao were leaders. Both represented a potent endeavor within an intellectual tradition to return to its fundamental teaching; however, the Ch'an "reformation" started about a century earlier and gained broader interest from both the elite and the masses than did the Confucian revival movement. It is thus quite reasonable for one to think that the former influenced the latter in one way or another. Although the precise interrelations between Ch'an Buddhism and T'ang-Sung Confucianism still await further exploration, modern scholarship has shown beyond doubt that the Southern Ch'an Buddhism was a vital source of inspiration for Han Yii in forming his visions of Confucianism.31 The influence of Ch'an Buddhism on Liu Tsung-yiian's conception of Confucianism, however, is less obvious. It appears that he never utilized any specific Ch'an idea in his explication of the Confucian doctrine, and his attitude toward the Ch'an school was highly critical. 32 Nevertheless, I do detect three concrete similarities between Liu's Confucian thought and the general Ch'an tenets. 29 About the same time, another school, the Niu-t'ou school of the lower Yangtze River area, seems independently to have taken a similar direction to Hui-neng's Ch'an Buddhism. Yet the movement initiated by Hui-neng later absorbed this school. See In-shun, Chung-kuo Ch'an-tsung shih (Chia-i, 1971), chap. 3; Suzuki Tetsuo, To Godai Zenshu shi, pp. 206-74. 30 There is an enormous volume of literature on the early Southern Ch'an School. For a general description of this topic, see Abe Cho-ichi, Chugoku Zenshushi no kenkyu (Tokyo, i960), chap. 1. 31 See Ch'en Yin-k'o, "Lun Han Yu," CYKWC 2, pp. 285-8; Charles Hartman, Han Yu, PP- 5 - I 5 J 93—9; Yii Ying-shih, Chung-kuo chin-shih tsung-chiao lun-li, pp. 44-50. See also this book, chap. 6, sec. 3. 32 For details, see chap. 8, sec. 3.

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First, new Ch'an Buddhists were in general skeptical about the usefulness of sutra studying for enlightenment and advocated liberal reading of the Buddhist scriptures. In The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch (Liu-tsu t'an-ching), the most important early Ch'an work, which was allegedly authored by Hui-neng and definitely in wide circulation by the early ninth century, 33 a paragraph reads: [The] Buddhas of the three worlds and all the twelve divisions of the canon are from the beginning within the nature of man. If he cannot gain awakening with his own nature, he must obtain a good teacher to show him how to see into his own self-nature. But if you awaken by yourself, do not rely on teachers outside. If you try to seek a teacher outside and hope to obtain deliverance, you will find it impossible.34 "Teachers" here certainly include the Buddha and the Buddhist canon, and this passage clearly signifies that sutra reading should be at best a supplemental means toward the attainment of Buddhahood. Despite the existence of conservative views, the stances of most early Ch'an Buddhists on this issue were more radical than that of the Platform Sutra.35 The famous Pai-chang Huai-hai (720?-814), for example, once said: "You are not allowed at all to read the canon, learn the doctrine, and seek knowledge of any kind. . . . When one achieves the understanding of the doctrines of Three Vehicles . . . one will find the Buddha lost." 36 Opposition to the study and the authority of the scripture thus became a principal trademark of Ch'an Buddhism. Second, the Ch'an school emphasized the importance to enlightenment of experience in real life. The Platform Sutra taught: From the outset the Dharma has been in the world; Being in the world, it transcends the world. Hence do not seek the transcendental world outside, By discarding the present world itself. Erroneous views are of this world, Correct views transcend this world.37 33

34 35 36 37

For a solid study on this text, see Philip B. Yampolsky, "Introduction: Ch'an in the Eighth Century," in The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch, tr. and annotated by Philip B. Yampolsky (New York, 1967), pp. 1-110. In an essay written in 815, Liu Tsungyuan reported that Hui-neng's work was "all over the world." See LTYC, p. 150. Philip Yampolsky, tr., Platform Sutra, p. 152. See In-shun, Chung-kuo Ch'an-tsung shih, pp. 331-45. Tsang-chu I-kung, ed., Ku tsun-suyu-lu (rpt. Taipei, 1972), 1:24a. There are various interpretations of the Three Vehicles; they all refer to different levels of the Buddhist Way. Philip Yampolsky, tr., Platform Sutra, p. 161. 160

Sources of Liu's Confucian thought

In practical terms, the Platform Sutra declared: "If you wish to practice, it is all right to do so as laymen; you don't have to be in a temple. If you are in a temple but do not practice, you are like the evil-minded people of the West. If you are a layman but do practice, you are like the people of the East who practice the good. Only I beg of you, practice purity yourselves, this then is the Western Land." 38 The point of these two passages is evident: Enlightenment simply means the spiritual transformation of the people of this world; this world is a natural arena in which one strives to achieve enlightenment, and reclusion in man-made religious institutions does not necessarily lead to a transcendental liberation. Like antischolasticism, this notion also developed into a salient characteristic of the new Ch'an Buddhism. 39 Third, if the two Ch'an ideas just discussed were addressed chiefly to the elite Buddhists, the Southern Ch'an school had a message to the people of all social strata: The essence of a Buddhist life was to practice the Way rather than to acquire happiness or fortune. This message, too, appears in the Platform Sutra: The ignorant person practices seeking future happiness, and does not practice the Way, And says that to practice seeking future happiness is the Way. Though he hopes that almsgiving and offerings will bring boundless happiness, As before, in his mind the three evil karmas are created.40 Leading Ch'an masters of the late eighth and early ninth centuries such as Pai-chang Huai-hai and Ta-chu Hui-hai were also known to have endeavored to denounce the utilitarian elements in Buddhism.41 One of their primary targets, it is obvious, was the popular Pure Land teaching, which claimed that the invocation of the Buddha Amitabha could lead to the rebirth in a paradise named the Western Land. 42 An early-ninthcentury critic of the Ch'an school charged that Ch'an followers were 38 39

Philip Yampolsky, tr., Platform Sutra, p. 159, with a minor change. See Lai Yung-hai, Chung-kuo fo-hsing tun (Shanghai, 1988), pp. 276-8; Yii Ying-shih, Chung-kuo chin-shih tsung-chiao lun-li, pp. 16—26. Nevertheless, this feature seems not to have yet attracted much interest from Buddhism scholars. 40 Philip Yampolsky, tr., Platform Sutra, p. 154, with a minor change. Three evil karmas referred to the karmas of deed, word, and thought. 41 For Pai-chang Huai-hai's view, see Tsu-t'ang chi (completed in 952; rpt. Taipei, 1972), p. 274. For Ta-chu Hui-hai's view, see his "Ta-chu Hui-hai yii-lu," in Shih Chiin et al., eds., Chung-kuo Fo-chiao ssu-hsiang tzu-liao hsu'an (Peking, 1983), vol. 2, part 2, pp. J 75-6. 42 The Platform Sutra also criticized the Pure Land approach. See Philip Yampolsky, tr., Platform Sutra, pp. 156-9.

Liu Tsung-yiian and intellectual change in T'ang China

mistaken in thinking that seeking good fortune and blessing through the Buddhist faith and practices was illusory.43 As has been demonstrated, in setting out his Confucian thought, Liu Tsung-yiian also advocated a liberal approach to canonical studies and the relevance of Confucian tenets to the real world. Furthermore, he fiercely attacked the intellectuals' pursuit of personal happiness in the name of the Way, specifically in the case of the adherents of religious Taoism. This parallel to new Ch'an doctrine can hardly be a coincidence. I am not suggesting that these views on his part resulted from a conscious acceptance of certain Ch'an notions. No evidence indicates so, and Liu was neither the only nor the earliest Confucian to show any of these tendencies.44 Nevertheless, the point here is that the intellectual environment in which Liu's Confucian thought came about was one deeply indebted to Ch'an Buddhism for new ideas; few thinking men in his time could be immune from the often-indirect influence of this school. Without understanding this historical fact, the origins of Liu Tsung-yiian's vision of Confucianism, as well as that of his comrades, cannot be fully grasped. 43

This critic was a prominent Buddhist monk named Shen-ch'ing (d. 814). See Shench'ing, Pei-shan lu, Taisho, vol. 52, pp. 612-13; Chang Tsun-liu, "Sui-T'ang Wu-tai Fo-chiao ta-shih nien-piao," in Fan Wen-Ian, T'ang-tai Fo-chiao (Peking, 1979), p. 242. 44 It was common among mid-T'ang Confucians to advocate the first two ideas. Yet it seems that very few of them brought up the problem of the Way vis-a-vis interest and happiness. In addition to Liu Tsung-yiian, Liang Su, the most prominent ku-wen leader of the generation preceding Liu, made this appeal in an essay. Yet his Way there was the Buddhist Way. See CTW, 519:10a-11 a.

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8 The private sphere

Despite his commitment to government service and his conception of Confucianism as a philosophy of the public good, Liu Tsung-yiian was forced to stay out of public affairs for ten years after his banishment in 805. While pondering and writing on Confucian principles in Yungchou, he had to face the most basic reality in his life: He was de facto a private person, and a lonely one. He had to, and indeed did, try to find ways to bring meaning and contentment to the life of the self. In order to achieve an overall understanding of Liu as a person and as a thinker, it is hence necessary to examine this part of his life. In terms of intellectual history, the significance of this task is twofold. First, it will provide a concrete picture of the inner world of a T'ang Confucian thinker in whose age "Taoism and Buddhism within and Confucianism without" remained a general intellectual premise. Second, since Liu was a prime figure in the mid-T'ang Confucian revival movement and since his views on the Confucian doctrine were more conventional and representative than those of people like Han Yii and Li Ao, a probe into his internal experience should be able to shed further light on the nature of this movement. A Confucian sense of mission Liu Tsung-yiian's spiritual life was not just full of self-preoccupation. His concern for the populace and his desire to serve society were deeply rooted in his inner being. During his exile in Yung-chou these feelings emerged from time to time in his poems and private letters.1 Liu's devotion to the well-being of the people ran so deep that it actually became a main raison d'etre for his life. This character of his social concern found its most intense and dramatic manifestation when 1

See, for instance, LTYC, pp. 841, 1152, 1155-6, 1200-1.

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he heard of the death of Lii Wen in 811. Lii had been perhaps Liu's most esteemed friend and political-intellectual comrade during his years in Ch'ang-an. After Liu's exile, Lii's importance to him had increased even further. As mentioned previously, Lii, despite being a member of the Wang Shu-wen faction, escaped the fate of banishment due to his detention in Tibet when the Wang clique was in power. In Liu's mind, Lii thereupon became a substitute for himself, who was still in office and still had the opportunities to realize his youthful aspirations. Consequently, Lii's untimely death at the age of thirty-nine struck Liu more than one might expect the passing of a close friend (and a remote cousin) would; it was the final destruction of his dreams and the death of his ideal self. In despair, he wrote the following statement in his eulogy to Lii: Since friends died and faded away and the task that I undertook with aspirations was terminated,2 I had only hoped that Hua-kuang [Lii Wen's tzu, courtesy name] could effectuate his great plans, succeed and gain glory, and make contributions in our time. Then it would have made other people understand what [i.e., the principles] we established ourselves on. Now, again, it is over! My Way has come to an end! Although I still exist, my spirit is also dead! Facing the river, I cry loudly. Everything is over!3 Yet it was extremely difficult for Liu to bear the thought that his and his comrades' efforts had been in vain. At the end of the eulogy, his tone turned almost religious: Alas! Hua-kuang! What are you doing now? Have you ceased to be or are you still acting? Are you in the dark or can you still be seen? Is it possible that you have dissipated into the Great Void and will be in the company of the cosmic change forever? Will you be formed into light to help brighten the world? Is it possible that you have become rain and dew to moisten and benefit4 the earth underneath? Will you become a thunder bolt to give vent to your resentment and anger? Is it possible that you have become a phoenix or a unicorn, a lucky star or propitious clouds to give a home to your spirit? Will you become gold, tin or jade to rest your soul? Is it possible that you will become a man of virtue again to continue [to work for] your goals? Will you rise up to become a god to accomplish what you consider righteous?5 We know for sure that Liu stubbornly disbelieved in Heaven, gods, the supernatural or afterlife; he actually made this point again at the 2 This sentence no doubt refers to the collapse of the Wang Shu-wen group in 805 and the consequent death and exile of its members. 3 LTYC, pp. 1053-4. 4 The verb in the original text is tse, whose literal meaning in this context is "to moisten." But tse also signifies "to benefit." Here it is apparently a pun. 5 LTYC, p. 1054.

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beginning of his eulogy to Lii. The passage quoted above is clearly designed to show in the strongest possible way his feelings aroused by Lii's death. For example, by saying that Lii might occupy noble positions in the universe, such as being transmuted into a phoenix, a star, or jade, Liu expresses his profound admiration for Lii. Most crucial to our topic here, this passage indicates that Liu perceived Lii's aspirations to serve society to be the essence of his life. Even after his death, if possible, Lii would still strive to help the people on earth in one way or another. 6 Considering Liu's identification with Lii, it is safe to say that Liu was also referring to himself.7 We do not have direct information about how the wish to contribute to the public good became a spiritual pillar of Liu's existence. However, a clue to this problem is that we do know Liu believed that this kind of longing could be the outcome of one's mental effort, rather than ensuing from life experience, especially for the privileged. He provided an observation in this respect in an essay, perhaps written in the early 8ios, in honor of the decision of Lii Jang, Lii Wen's younger brother, to take the civil service examination. Liu noticed that Lii was obviously a person with great concern for society, but he wondered how this concern had arisen. Lii, Liu noted in the essay, came from such a rich family that he disliked grains and rice (and only favored meat). Because of his introspective character, he did not travel around much, and thus did not even have many opportunities to observe the hardship of the populace. Nevertheless, Liu considered Lii's care for the people explicable: These all happen inside a person: that [a certain feeling] is accumulated in his heart, that it is [then] acquired in sincerity, and that this process repeats itself again and again. He [Lii Jang] was told [about people's life]; then he understood. It was shown to him; then he commiserated. It is a situation where the outside world refines the self and [external] things stir up the spirit. When [commiserative] feelings were accumulated inside [him] and sincerity was acquired, his virtue could not be surpassed.8 Liu's point is quite clear: One need not suffer in order to know suffering. He appears to suggest that, through conversation, reading and other indirect means, a person has the capability to understand and develop 6

There is no reason to think that Liu's encomium made for Lii was only a formality. Among the twenty-four eulogies Liu wrote upon the deaths of his friends and relatives that were preserved in his collected works, the one written for Lii Wen is unique. 7 For this point, see also Shimizu Shigeru, "Ryu Sogen no seikatsu taiken to so no sansuiki," Chugoku bungaku ho, 2 (April 1955), p. 59. Shimizu's article is an excellent analysis of Liu's essays on Yung-chou's landscape as reflections of his state of mind. For this subject, see this chap., sec. 4. 8 LTYC, p. 639.

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feelings regarding things with which he has not had immediate contacts. When understanding and feeling deepen, Liu implies, a concrete concern and a will to act upon it result. Needless to say, Liu Tsung-yiian's analysis applied to Lii Wen as well. Liu's family perhaps was not as wealthy as that of the Lii brothers, for the Liis belonged to a politically more successful family.9 Yet the environment in which Liu grew up, like that of the Liis, probably did not allow him to form a natural empathy for popular suffering. It might not be too bold to assume that Liu developed a Confucian sense of mission after some mental endeavor and that reflections on misery in society and the literati's responsibility for lifting it constituted a significant part of his inner experience. Largely because Liu was sure in his sincerity regarding political reform and because public service was important for the meaning of his life, he was sharply bitter and resentful about his banishment. This sentiment seems to have persisted for quite a long period of time.10 He wrote approximately ten fables to attack fervently his persecutors and the establishment; they were sometimes likened to vicious worms, apes, eagles, and snakes. In the same works, Liu also satirized his own naivete and straightforwardness in pursuing reforms.11 Liu at times compared himself to the primary historical symbol of political conscience in China: Ch'ii Yuan, a minister of the state of Ch'u during the early third century B.C. who committed suicide after being driven into exile by, the Chinese believed, sinister forces at court.12 Both the grandfather and father of the Liis had served as regional military governors, occupying a position that was extremely important and powerful in the T'ang after the An Lu-shan rebellion. See Ma Ch'eng-su, Lii Ho-shu hsiie/i-p'u, pp. 21-2. We do not have the dates for most of the writings in which he expressed his anger. But it is unlikely that he completed some fifteen works of this nature within a short period of time. Occasionally, Liu's bitterness appears to arise from the banishment itself rather than from the fact that the banishment was brought about by a just cause. For an example in this category, see LTYC, pp. 63-4. Although scholars universally agree that many of Liu's allegories allude to his political enemies and his political predicament, it is very hard, in fact, impossible, to determine the specific targets of these works. For a work attempting - in vain, I think - to do so, see Tuan Hsing-ming, Liu Tzu-hou yu'-yen wen-hsiieh t'an-wei (Taipei, 1978). Jennings Gentzler also uses some of Liu's fables to interpret his political views; see his "Literary Biography," pp. 224-32. Liu's fables commonly considered on this subject are in LTYC, pp. 47, 49-50, 436-9, 451-2, 465-6, 487-98, 1239-42, 1244-7. F o r a discussion of the problem of allegory in Liu's exile writings, see Charles Hartman, "Alieniloquium: Liu Tsung-yiian's Other Voice," Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews, 4:1 (January 1982), pp. 23-73. For Liu's "persecution consciousness" in general, see Matsumoto Hajime, "Ryu Sogen no gugen ni tsuite: haiboku no gyakusetsu," Tsukuba Chugoku bunka ronso, 2 (1982), pp. 45-59. For the historical reality and legend about Ch'ii Yiian, see Lawrence A. Schneider, A Madman of Ch'u: The Chinese Myth of Loyalty and Dissent (Berkeley, Calif., 1980). For

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Thus, in protesting the mistreatment he suffered, Liu often chose to use the style of sao-fu poetry, which Ch'ii Yuan allegedly inaugurated. 13 In a sao poem entitled "Mourning Ch'ii Yuan," he wrote: Oh! I am saddened that those in office today Have no concerns with the evil and good of the time. Oh! they fear but that their emoluments are not abundant, Grieving that their careers do not prosper. Oh! withdrawn, I walk silently by myself — My opinions were not put into practice. Oh! since dishonorable ways cannot be removed, I lament that the world forgets you, Sir.14 In other works, although Liu Tsung-yiian was still self-righteous, he was not self-pitying. He showed a willingness to accept the consequences of his early actions on the one hand, and swore to himself not to change his principles on the other. In an essay composed in the form of a dialogue with an immortal lady, Liu asked the immortal to teach him how to be crafty so that he would no longer be harmed. The immortal admonishes him: You should have a sense of shame. [If] flattering faces and untruthful language [are needed to gain something], you should rather become humble than become noble; do whatever you consider appropriate. . . . Be determined in your mind; hold firmly your views. If you can realize your ideals, that will be wonderful; if that effort fails, do not profane and debase yourself.15 Grateful for the immortal's sanction, Liu promises: "I will stick to my artlessness throughout my life; even death will not frighten me." 16 On another occasion, he wrote with the tone of a martyr, "What I worry about is the Way, not trouble." 17 Survival of the self Liu Tsung-yiian's state of mind in relation to his youthful political activities and banishment was actually more complicated than that just described. He was far from feeling himself a martyr; he had, in fact, contradictory impulses. There were many moments in Yung-chou when Liu's identification with Ch'ii, see Ono Shihei, "Ryu Sogen no bungaku: 'Cho Kutsu Gen bun' o meguru ichi shiron," Miyagi Kyoiku daigaku kiyo, i (March 1966), pp. 119—34. Liu Tsung-yiian also contemplated suicide at least once. But he attributed it to his guilty feeling over his mother's death in Yung-chou. See LTYC, pp. 55-6. 13 See Araumi Hajime, "Ryu Sogen to Soji to," Kokugakuin zasshi, 57:1 (April 1956), pp. 59~ 6 4; 57:4 (September 1956), pp. 55-62. 14 LTYC, p. 518. 15 LTYC, p. 490. 16 Ibid. 17 LTYC, p. 530. See also p. 529.

Liu Tsung-yuan and intellectual change in T'ang China

he seriously pondered whether it was worth fighting for his reformist cause at the expense of personal fortune. Frequently, the implied answer was negative. In his extant writings, Liu never declared that the goals and motives behind his involvement with the 805 coup were problematic. But he did concede that he erred in the means he adopted to achieve his aims. He did this in the many letters he sent to courtiers and powerful provincial officials with the purpose of pleading with them to help him gain pardon, 18 as well as in a number of poems obviously intended to express private feelings. In these works he essentially blamed his adversity on his "stupid nature and young age." Yet now he would try to "change evil ways and reform." 19 There is no doubt that Liu's frequent regrets about his early behavior and his humble requests for forgiveness largely stemmed from his profound sense of helplessness. After his banishment, he felt that the whole world turned against him; his exile seemed unending. 20 Many friends abandoned him, even destroying the letters they had received from him. 21 Liu was so demoralized that he sometimes told himself and the officials to whom he turned for help that he would be more than gratified should the court discharge him and allow him to lead a farming life.22 He once compared himself to a shaky tree that "sharp axes come to seek after" and to "the thin frost stepped on by everybody." 23 Liu's feeling of vulnerability and his at times compromising attitude toward the political establishment are certainly understandable and indeed quite natural. Nonetheless, he went further than just being humble; he sometimes advocated a philosophy of life that justified and encouraged self-protective deeds. This philosophy suggested that the survival and satisfactory preservation of the self were the supreme values for a human being in a complex and perilous world. A person should bear with dissatisfactions and conduct himself harmoniously with others. Not only was this a cardinal principle of interpersonal relations, but such a person could also then easily stay unharmed. Liu Tsung-yiian presented this view most emphatically in the works written to and for Yang Hui-chih, a younger brother of his deceased 18 For these letters, see LTYC, pp. 779-806, 891-9, 915-26, 928-9. There was even a letter to Wu Yiian-heng (758-815), a political adversary who was twice prime minister (807, 813-15), to seek reconciliation. For Wu's antagonism toward the Wang Shu-wen clique, see CTS, 158:4159-60, 160:4210; HTS, 152:4833. 19 LTYC, pp. 58-9. See also pp. 54, 433-4, 1161. 20 See, for example, LTYC, pp. 63—4. 21 See LTYC, pp. 79, 432, 794-5. 22 See, for example, LTYC, pp. 784, 791, 802, 1194. 23 LTYC, p. 1255.

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wife. H e considered that Y a n g had the same frank and confrontational tendencies that he himself possessed in his early years. H e asked Yang to change. In a letter he wrote: Being upright inside and not misled by things outside is the way of a gentleman. Nevertheless, if a person displays his uprightness openly so that it stands out for all the world to see, the world will definitely take him as its enemy. Why? Because good people are few and evil people are many. Therefore, those who love you are few, and those who will harm you are many. This is the reason why I want you to be square within and round without. Now I write the "Discourse on the Wagon" for you, and you may read it carefully.25 Liu's theory of the wagon goes like this: A crucial reason why a wagon can carry heavy loads and still run smoothly is that it is "square within and round w i t h o u t . " T h e square part of a wagon refers to its inside and the round p a r t its wheels. Without the square part the wagon cannot carry goods; without the round part it cannot transport the goods it carries. A person, Liu argued, should behave after the model of a wagon, keeping his principles in his mind and dealing with the imperfect society tactfully. 26 T h e emphasis of this theory, however, lay unambiguously on the latter point, the " r o u n d " side. Liu's "Discourse on the W a g o n " ends in this way: Hui-chih . . . becomes better and better as he grows up. Inside he is truly square. Yet I really want him to shoulder great responsibilities and carry them out in the world. I am afraid that he is still not good enough at being round outside, so my discussion of the wagon is a gift to him. 27 Furthermore, Liu Tsung-yiian contended that taking a realistic approach to social relations was by no means a compromise for a principled intellectual. This approach was in fact a part of the ancient Tao. T o prove that it was a correct teaching, he drew mostly from Confucian texts for support. H e cited sentences from the Confucian canon such as: " Y a o was sincerely courteous, and capable of all complaisance" (The Book of History)] " S h u n was mild and respectful, and entirely sincere" (the spurious ancient text of the Book of History); " E n t e r not a state that is in peril; stay not in a state that is in chaos" 24 See LTYC, pp. 461-3, 847-58. 25 LTYC, pp. 847-8. 26 27

See LTYC, pp. 461-2. See also pp. 849-58. LTYC, p. 463. It is interesting to note here that two of the most radical and critical intellectual figures in Chinese history, Hsi K'ang (223-62) and Lu Hsiin (Chou Shu-jen, 1881-1936), also asked their juniors, in their cases their sons, to behave in a socially acceptable manner. See Lu Hsiin (Chou Shu-jen), Erh-i chi, in his Lu Hsiin ch'uan-chi (Peking, 1956), vol. 3, pp. 391-3; Yii Ying-shih, "Wu-ssu yiin-tung yii chung-kuo ch'uan-t'ung," in his Shih-hsuehyu ch'uan-t'ung (Taipei, 1982), p. 102.

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(Confucius' Analects)] "When the state is ill-governed, a sage is sure by his silence to command forbearance to himself" {The Doctrine of the Mean).28 He once even claimed that it was "the Way Yao, Shun, Yii, King T'ang, King Kao-tsung of the Shang, King Wen, King Wu, the Duke of Chou, and Confucius all followed."29 In making his case, Liu did not do full justice to the Confucian classics; he often quoted them out of context. Although there indeed existed some revelations of the attitude Liu argued for in Confucian texts, this view probably cannot be characterized, as Liu did, as an underlying Confucian principle. In Confucian thought, one cardinal value directly conflicts with the philosophy of self-protection: An intellectual's deeds should heed his moral callings, and social good is more important than personal well-being. Hence Confucius said: "Poverty and low station are what men dislike, but if I cannot do away with them in the right way I will not try to escape from them." 30 Hence Mencius also maintained: "Life is what I want; righteousness is also what I want. If I cannot have both, I would rather take righteousness than life."31 Nevertheless, the views Liu propounded were distinctively characteristic of another intellectual tradition: the Lao Tzu branch of Taoism.32 Liu seems to realize this. While referring to the ideas of modesty and submissiveness, he twice cited the Lao Tzu: "Keep the role of the female"; "soften the glare; be mixed with the dust." 33 In a fu poem with the theme of "square within and round without" as a correct philosophy of life, he wrote: "Purely gentle and purely weak, one will definitely be wounded and enfeebled; purely tough and purely strong, one will definitely lose and be ruined. . . . Properly combining [toughness and gentleness], one then achieves one's end." 34 The language, if not the 28

29 30

31 32

33 34

See LTYC, pp. 851, 853. The translation of these quotations is from James Legge, The Chinese Classics, vol. I l l , The Shoo King, pp. 15, 29; D. C. Lau, tr., The Analects, p. 94 (with a change); James Legge, The Chinese Classics, vol. I, Confucian Analects, The Great Learning, and the Doctrine of the Mean, p. 423. LTYC, p. 852. For discussion about other implications of this quotation, see chap. 4, sec. 1. Due to an apparent corruption, there are two readings for the clause "if I cannot do away with them in the right way." Yet the implications behind these two readings are the same. Here I follow Wang Shu-min's explication. See Ch'en Shun-cheng, Lun-yii i-wen chi-shih (Taipei, 1968), pp. 59-60. For another reading, which is "if I got them in the right way," see D. C. Lau, tr., The Analects, p. 72, n. 1. D. C. Lau, tr., Mencius, p. 166, with minor changes. For the importance of the survival of the self and the means to achieve this goal in the philosophy of the Lao Tzu, cf. D. C. Lau, "Introduction," Lao Tzu Tao Te Ching, tr. by D. C. Lau (Middlesex, Eng., 1963), pp. 26-30, 42; Benjamin Schwartz, The World of Thought in Ancient China, pp. 206-7. See LTYC, pp. 663, 856. The translation of the former sentence is taken from D. C. Lau, tr., Lao Tzu Tao Te Ching, p. 85; the latter is mine. LTYC, p. 45. 170

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ideas, here carries an unmistakable flavor of the Lao Tzu Taoism. 35 He also suggested that there were no basic differences between Confucianism and the thought of the Lao Tzu.36 Apparently, the main reason for Liu's painstaking effort to show Yang Hui-chih that the Confucian sages taught people to be humble and self-protective was in order to strengthen his argument, since Yang was also a sincere follower of the Confucian revival movement. As a champion of Confucian revival, Liu Tsung-yiian's acceptance of the doctrine of self-preservation in the Lao Tzu was neither peculiar in Chinese history as a whole nor in his own time, when Taoist and Buddhist teachings dominated the area of private values. Among his contemporary promoters of Confucian values, Po Chu-i was best known for cherishing the Lao Tzu philosophy of submissiveness and forbearance as a way to deal with conflicts, frustration, and humiliations encountered in social life.37 Han Yii never seems to show any fondness for the Lao Tzu, yet he was notorious for often becoming grossly meek, even sycophantic, toward the powerful after demotions and failures.38 In sum, during his Yung-chou era, Liu Tsung-yiian's views on and sentiments toward his early career and the Confucian cause he then undertook were mixed ones. At times, he was proud, unyielding, and even remained abrasive. 39 At other times, he was apologetic and willingly humble. At still other times, both feelings existed simultaneously in his mind. He genuinely believed that he had made tactical mistakes in early political actions and his past artless handling of personal relationships was a sign of immaturity at that time. On the other hand, he would never give up his goal of serving the people and never compromise on the principles that came along with the endeavor to attain this goal. A number of Liu's poems reflect this mood; one of them reads:

35 For other similar cases, see LTYC, pp. 52-4. 36 See LTYC, pp. 662-3. 37 In his excellent study of the literature and thought of Po Chii-i and Yuan Chen, Yiian-Pai-shih chien-cheng kao, Ch'en Yin-k'o argues that, although Po often exhibited belief in Buddhism, he was essentially a follower of the Lao Tzu philosophy. See pp. 327-31. Regarding this problem, see also Wang Shih-i, Pax Chii-iyen-chiu, pp. 67-71. 38 This characteristic of Han's has been scorned by scholars, even until modern times. See, for example, Ch'en Teng-yiian, "Han Yii p'ing," in Ts'un-ts'ui hsiieh-she, ed., Han Yii yen-chiu lun-chi (Hong Kong, 1978), pp. 62-70; Lin Shu, Han Liu wenyen-chiu fa (rpt. Hong Kong, 1969), pp. 14-15; Wu Wen-chih, ed., Han Yii tzu-liao hui-pien (Peking, 1983), vol. 1, p. 108; vol. 4, p. 1437. 39 In an essay, written in exile, inscribed on the back of his father's tombstone and supposedly aiming to honor his father by listing and introducing his father's friends, Liu, strangely enough, criticized and ridiculed some of them who were powerful political figures. See LTYC, pp. 298-308. 171

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My former ambitions, so bold and true Why these present miseries? Could I have coveted wealth or cheap fame? But I did not consort with the world; I stepped forward, and marched straight ahead, And naturally was shunned by all the people. Tactless in speech, heedless of danger, I am certainly at the meeting point of all calamities; Luckily my death has been delayed, This body preserved through many events. Should there still be time to reform, I shall step out, never deviate, on the path spread before me; To die in barbarian lands is surely my fated lot, What more can I hope from the most illustrious grace? To the Great Centrality I am mated as my companion; What Heaven dictates will not matter!40

Buddhist sensitivities Upon arrival in Yung-chou, Liu Tsung-yiian and his mother, perhaps accompanied by other family members, moved into Lung-hsing Temple located on the western outskirts of Yung-chou, since no other suitable housing existed. Liu claimed that he was delighted with their new residence, for he had been fond of Buddhism throughout his life.41 Whatever degree of truth Liu's statements contain, there can be no question that he previously had had some acquaintance with Buddhism. Moreover, his delight might partly have resulted from the scenario that a religious environment could lift him to some degree from deep anxiety and depression. (For Liu's residences in Yung-chou, see Map 5, page 184) This was only the beginning of Liu's involvement with Buddhism in the later stages of his life. He and his family seem to have lived in Lunghsing Temple for an extended period of time.42 Liu thus established a 40 LTYC, p. 56, as translated in Jennings Gentzler, "Literary Biography," pp. 143-4, with minor changes. 41 See LTYC, pp. 325, 671, 751. In my view, this claim may not be entirely truthful. Cf. chap. 2, sec. 4. If my conjecture is correct, it does not necessarily mean that Liu made false statements consciously. It might be that the tranquility he found in this temple, in contrast to the turbulence he had just passed through, was so comforting that he suddenly felt great attachment to Buddhism. Sun Ch'ang-wu said that Liu's mother was a Buddhist devotee. Although it is highly possible, there exists no direct evidence to substantiate it. See Sun Ch'ang-wu, chuan-lun, p. 283. 42 We do not know exactly how long Liu lived there. Judging from the fact that he described his living conditions in Lung-hsing Temple in many works, it is unlikely that he stayed there only for a short while. His mother also died there in the fifth 172

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close relationship with the Buddhist community of Yung-chou. Chunghsiin, probably the presiding monk of Lung-hsing Temple, may have been Liu's closest spiritual companion during his first years there. 43 In time, he also had extensive contact with the whole Hunan Buddhist circle, especially with clergymen in Hunan's Buddhist center, Mount Heng - the Southern Sacred Mountain. 44 All these contacts no doubt greatly enhanced his Buddhist sensitivities. Nevertheless, it appears that Liu Tsung-yiian was not a practicing Buddhist. There exists no indication whatsoever that he observed the vinaya, meditated, prayed, or chanted the Buddha's name. It seems evident that Liu's relationship with Buddhism was basically an intellectual one: He read sutras and conversed with monks about Buddhist ideas. 45 Yet he apparently had no intention to become, and indeed never became, a serious Buddhist thinker; in his collected works, there is only one essay on Buddhist doctrine. 46 His intellectual pursuit of Buddhism was primarily for private purposes, more precisely, for his spiritual cultivation. He took Buddhism as a source of wisdom, an enlightening Lebensanschauung that could help him achieve a transcendental apprehension of life and the world. Liu expressed unequivocally his appreciation of Buddhist tenets and the mental contentment they brought to him. In an essay describing his room in Lung-hsing Temple, he explained the usefulness of Buddhism to him. At the outset of this essay, he said that this room had a door

43 44

45 46

month, 806. An annotator of his collected works held that Liu had lived in the temple for about five years, until he moved to the houses and gardens he built up in Western Hill, further away from the city (LTYC, p. 1231), but there is no evidence to support his claim. Another difficulty with Liu's initial residence comes from a letter of his to his father-in-law. In that letter, Liu reported that since arriving in Yung-chou five years ago, his house had been damaged or threatened by fire four times because there were many fire disasters in the area (p. 790). This seems to suggest that he lived inside the city. Perhaps Liu had maintained dual residence for some time. Another sign that Liu's family was situated in a Buddhist atmosphere is that, before her death in 810 at the age of ten, a daughter of Liu's, born through an extramarital relationship, became a Buddhist nun. See Sun Ch'ang-wu, chuan-lun, p. 285. See LTYC, pp. 671-2, 751, 754~5> " 3 6 , 1234-6. This relationship was obviously established through more than one channel. In addition to Yung-chou's Buddhist community, Liu's father-in-law, Yang P'ing, military governor of Hunan from 802 to late 805, was apparently also a connecting force between Liu and the Buddhist community of Hunan. Liu's early literary fame might have attracted Buddhists' attention as well. For materials about this matter, see LTYC, pp. 158, 163, 172-3. For this point, see also Lai Yung-hai, "Liu Tsung-yiian yii Fo-chiao," Che-hsiieh yen-chiu, 1984:3, p. 59; Su Wen-cho, "Liu Tsung-yiian yii Fo-chiao chih kuan-hsi," Ta-lu tsa-chih, 55:5 (November 1977), p. 46. This essay is entitled "Tung-hai-jo," Tung-hai-jo being the name of a god of Eastern Sea. See LTYC, pp. 565-7. For related discussion, see this chapter, n. 54.

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opening to the north, and was deep in the woods and always shadowy. Then he decided to open a door on the western wall, since that side of the room faced the Hsiao River, a major branch of the Hsiang River, the main river of Hunan. This being done, he suddenly found that he had acquired a splendid view and a bright room. This revealed to him the nature of the Buddhist doctrine. He wrote: The room is the previous room. The mats and table remain where they were. But, what previously was veiled in darkness has now been revealed. And yet, are these things different [from what they were]? In this way, I became truly aware that the Way of Buddhas could change misguided views into true wisdom, transform those deluded into those enlightened, and remove the great darkness to bring about brightness. Does human nature also differ [before and after awakening]? Should there be someone who can cut a hole through the wall of my profound ignorance, open the doorway to spiritual illumination, and widen the balcony through which I cope with circumstances, I shall gladly follow him.47 Quite clearly, Liu's point h€re was that an essential value of Buddhism was to provide people with insights into the deeper truths of the world, which were usually obscured in everyday life. And, it was hoped, one might be able to benefit from these insights by applying them to actual existence. This was also the feature of Buddhism that he emphasized most frequently and apparently admired most.48 Liu also recorded the psychological and spiritual effects of his search for higher truth in Buddhism in a poem. Titled "Visiting Master Ch'ao's Garden in the Morning to Read Sutras" (Ch'en i Ch'ao-shihyuan tu ch'anching), it reads: Pull up water from the well, rinse cold teeth, Purify the mind, and brush the dust on clothes; Leisurely I hold the pattra leaf sutras, Step out from the Eastern Den to read. Drawing not at all from the True Source, The world vainly follows unreal traces. In the words the Buddha left I seek the mysterious truth How to cultivate and ripen the nature. The enlightened man's garden shelter is still, As moss colors blend in deep bamboo. The sun emerges, mist and dew remain, And green pines appear oil-bathed.

47 48

LTYC, p. 751, following Jennings Gentzler, "Literary Biography," p. 130. For his other comments on Buddhism as a source of enlightening views, see LTYC, PP- 674, 750-

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Placidly, detached from words, from speech, I understand, rejoice - a mind content in itself49

Liu Tsung-yiian once claimed that in Yung-chou he accomplished profound understanding of Buddhist doctrine.50 Yet, because of the private character of his Buddhist study, it is very difficult to determine his conceptions regarding Buddhist philosophy. From scattered expressions of thought, I am sure only of one thing: He greatly appreciated the idea of "the meditation on the mean" (chung-kuan) or "the postulate of the mean" (chung-ti). Most conspicuously associated with the Madhyamakasastra (Chung lun as the Chinese title; attributed to Nagarjuna), this notion was originally the central doctrine of the Madhyamaka, or Middle School, in India. In Sui-T'ang China, it was elaborated on and propagated by the T'ien-t'ai school. The idea, simply put, taught that there were three ways to look at the world. The first was that the nature of the world was empty; nothing in it had essence (the postulate of emptiness). The second was that there did indeed exist phenomena; because they were without essence, they were unreal (the postulate of unrealness). The third was to understand the world in both ways, as empty and as phenomenal at the same time, and never to try to look at it in only one way. This theory was "the postulate of the mean," and the practice of it in existential terms was referred to as "the meditation on the mean." "The postulate of the mean" was the ultimate truth of the world, or the perfect way to comprehend it.51 When commenting on Buddhist tenets, Liu often suggested that this idea was the fundamental Buddhist teaching.52 Chung-hsiin apparently belonged to the T'ien-t'ai school, and Liu's embracement of the T'ien-t'ai ideas might have been influenced by him. 53 Liu himself never gave even the slightest hint as to why he was 49 LTYC, p. 1135, following William Nienhauser, Jr., et al., Liu Tsung-yiian, p. 100. See also Ting Hsiu-hui, Liu Ho-tung shih, pp. 72-80. 50 LTYC, p. 671. 51 For the idea of the "postulate of the mean" in Indian Mahayana Buddhism, see Edward Conze, Buddhist Thought in India: Three Phases of Buddhist Philosophy (Ann Arbor, Mich., 1967), pp. 238-49; for the theories about "the postulate of the mean" and "the meditation on the mean" of the T'ien-t'ai school in Sui-T'ang China, see Hibi Nobumasa, Todai Tendaigaku kenkyu (Tokyo, 1975), pp. 113-216, 278-311. 52 For his reference to "the postulate of the mean" or "the meditation on the mean," see LTYC, pp. 156, 680, 750, 754-5, 1235-6. 53 Cf. LTYC, pp. 754-5, 1235. In Fo-tsu t'ung-chi (completed in the 1270s), a general history of Buddhism written by Chih-p'an, Liu appears as a disciple of Chung-hsiin and therefore also a member of the T'ien-t'ai school. See Fo-tsu t'ung-chi, chiian 10, in Taisho, vol. 49, p. 201. This is a baseless claim. Chih-p'an himself belonged to the T'ien-t'ai school, and his book aimed to establish this school as the Buddhist orthodoxy. This explains why he tried to include illustrious historical figures in his

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attracted to the T'ien-t'ai theory of the mean, and I can only speculate. This theory might well have satisfied his psychological needs. On the one hand, it might have reaffirmed his political reformism and Confucian ideals, since the suffering in this world was an actual phenomenon and needed to be taken care of. On the other hand, it might have provided him with a transcendental perspective on his worldly failure, instructing him that all his endeavors and pains were, after all, passing occurrences in the illusive cosmos, and he should not be obsessed with them. Liu Tsung-yiian provided a clearer picture of himself as an observer and critic of contemporary ideological struggles within the Buddhist camp. Although this aspect of his thought is not directly related to his inner life, it is nevertheless able to throw some light on his Buddhist opinions as well as his thought as a whole. Liu held unambiguous views on the competing Buddhist sects in the middle T'ang. He was a great admirer of the T'ien-t'ai and Disciplinary schools (Lu tsung) and a harsh critic of the Ch'an school. Liu's opposition to Southern Ch'an Buddhism was strong and consistent. He once charged that "today those who are ignorant, stupid, puzzled and give the reins to themselves all falsely claim themselves to be Ch'an practicers and thus confuse the [true] Buddhist teaching." 54 He asserted that there did not exist, as many contemporary Ch'an followers declared, a direct way to Buddhahood simply through the awakening of the mind. He held that, in order to liberate oneself from the suffering of the human world, one had to deal with concrete, actual matters in this world.55 Liu's attacks on Ch'an Buddhism centered on school. For the background of the writing of this work, see Ch'en Yuan, Chung-kuo Fo-chiao shih-chi kai-lun (rpt. Taipei, 1977), pp. 121-8. 54 LTYC, p. 159. In 815, Liu wrote an essay as a stone inscription, in honor of Emperor Hsien-tsung's granting of a posthumous title to the Sixth Patriarch of Ch'an: Huineng. One should not construe this as evidence for Liu's support of the Ch'an school. The composition of that work was purely an official duty, since he was then in Liu-chou, situated in the province where Hui-neng preached his teaching. For Liu's essay, see LTYC, pp. 149-51. Liu's profound distaste for the Ch'an school can best be illustrated by the fact that the sole treatise on Buddhism in his collected works, "Tung-hai-jo," aimed to discredit the Southern Ch'an doctrine. See LTYC, pp. 565-7. For his other criticisms of the Ch'an school, see LTYC, pp. 156, 161, 565-7, 671, 680. Shih-hsien (d. 1734), a Ch'ing Buddhist monk and commentator on "Tung-hai-jo," contended that Liu wrote this essay for the purpose of vindicating the approach of Pure Land. It is true that Liu's essay ends with positive notes on the Pure Land teaching. But there exists no indication that he actively supported this practice. For Shih-hsien's commentary, see Shih-hsien, "Tung-hai-jo chieh," in Dai-Nippon zokuzokyo (Kyoto, 1905-12; rpt. in Hong Kong as Hsu tsang-ching, 1946), vol. 109, pp. 290-5, particularly pp. 290, 293-4. I am grateful to my father, Ch'en Chien-hui, for bringing my attention to this text. 55 See LTYC, p. 567.

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two issues: Southern Ch'an's radical opposition to doctrinal study and to formal self-cultivation. He did not believe that the purification of the self could come about without following definite rules established to regulate personal behavior. He stated categorically, Through rites, Confucianism establishes humanity and righteousness; without rites, it will deteriorate. Through the vinaya, Buddhism retains meditation and wisdom; without the vinaya, it will perish. Therefore, it is not worth talking about Confucianism with those who separate rites from humanity and righteousness; it is not worth talking about Buddhism with those who differentiate the vinaya from meditation and wisdom.56 Liu's stress on the importance of the vinaya in Buddhist life certainly should not come as a surprise. It represented the typical mentality of a T'ang intellectual coming from the northern aristocracy, which was known for its respect of rites in family and personal lives, a mentality we have found existed in Liu's own family. Liu was also deeply antipathetic to the radical and prevalent Ch'an view that sutras and doctrines, indeed language and knowledge, were totally irrelevant to Buddhist spirituality. He argued: "I am unable to hear the words of the Buddha. What exist in the world from him are only his texts. If we do not search in his texts, we cannot obtain his words. If we cannot even obtain his words, how can we know his ideas?" 57 We already know that Liu himself adopted a critical and interpretative approach to the Confucian classics. Yet he was a far cry from an anti-intellectualist; he embraced words and books, never denying the value of the Confucian canon as a treasure of wisdom for guiding human life. The above statement and his other attacks on Ch'an Buddhism on this issue make clearer the true nature of his classical criticism. Furthermore, it needs to be pointed out that, congruous with his views on Confucian exegetics, Liu did not favor philological Buddhist exegetics either. He had once criticized the scholastic study of the Buddhist sutras, which was popular in the late Six Dynasties, the Sui, and the early T'ang. 58 What he hoped to gain from the study of the Buddhist scripture was clearly the same as what he hoped to gain from the Confucian canon: the fundamental spirit of the teaching.59 56 LTYC, p. 170. 57 LTYC, p. 671. See also pp. 156, 160, 680. 58 See LTYC, p. 671. For the Buddhist scholastic studies in medieval China, see T'ang Yung-t'ung, Han-Wei Hang-Chin, pp. 546-67, 718-30; Sui-T'ang Fo-chiao, pp. 79-80, 201-9.

59

Liu once praised a Ch'an priest who wished to reconcile the differences between the Northern and Southern Ch'an schools and held a moderate view on doctrinal exploration. See LTYC, pp. 159-60. In addition, there may be another reason for Liu's anger at Ch'an anti-intellectualism. It seems possible that as one cherishing

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From Liu's criticism of Ch'an Buddhism and his grounds for it, it is clear why he supported the Disciplinary school, whose core teaching was the strict observance of the vinaya, and the T'ien-t'ai school, which had a philosophy that was appreciated by Liu and was based upon the creative interpretation of certain sutras. 60 It is also ironic that, while the new Ch'an Buddhism was an important source of inspiration for the Confucian revival, Liu felt it necessary to criticize it so passionately. It seems to prove again the central place of the Ch'an school in the intellectual scene of the middle T'ang. Last, I have a few words to say about Liu Tsung-yiian's views on the relationship between Buddhism and Confucianism. Liu's basic opinion was unequivocal; he thought that there was no contradiction in essence between Confucian and Buddhist tenets and that they could be reconciled.61 He gave two reasons for taking this position. First, Liu argued in several works written in Yung-chou that, although Buddhist monks or Taoist priests were committed to otherworldly goals, this dedication would not necessarily and indeed should not prevent them from being filial sons and loving brothers. 62 Another reason, expressed in a more forceful way, appeared in his response to Han Yii's criticism of his affinity with Buddhism. In an essay probably written in the early 810s, Liu stated: The Confucian Han T'ui-chih [T'ui-chih being Han Yti's tzu] is a good friend of mine. He has considered wrong my fondness of Buddhist doctrines and criticized my relations with Buddhist monks. Recently . . . T'ui-chih again sent a letter to

Buddhism mainly as an enlightening philosophy of life, he felt that Ch'an's denial of the value of doctrinal exploration challenged the legitimacy of his Buddhist interest. For Liu's criticism of Ch'an Buddhism, see also Koga Hidehiko, "Chishikijin to Bukkyo: Ryu Sogen (Jo)," Hanazono daigaku kenkyu kiyo, 13 (March 1982), pp. 120-2. In his article on the relationship between Liu and Ch'an Buddhism, Shinohara Hisao claims that Liu's emphasis on the codes of behavior represented his approval of Pai-chang Huai-hai's establishment of rules for the Ch'an school. This is an unfounded claim; he apparently misconstrued the "evidence" he presented. See his "Todai Zen to Ryu Sogen," Indogaku Bukkyogaku kenkyu, 11 (March 1963), p. 129. 60 For Liu's admiration of the Disciplinary school, see LTYC, pp. 167-8, 170-1, 684. His admiration for the T'ien-t'ai school was discussed earlier in this section. Aside from the Madhyamakasdstra (Chung lun), the most important sutra the T'ien-t'ai school placed emphasis on was the Lotus Sutra (Fa-hua ching). 61 Liu first expressed this view while he was still in Ch'ang-an, though at that time he made no effort to explain it. See LTYC, p. 669. For a general discussion of Liu's views attempting to reconcile the relationship between these two teachings, see Sun Ch'angwu, chuan-lun, pp. 283-7. 62 See LTYC, pp. 282-3, 678, 683. For the background of Liu's pressing Buddhists to fulfill their ethical obligations in the secular world, see Kenneth Ch'en, The Chinese Transformation, pp. 14-60 and this book, chap. 1, sec. 2.

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upbraid me, and said: "I read your 'Sending Student Yuan off,'64 noticing that you did not condemn Buddhism in it." But there is really something in Buddhism which should not be condemned. [The Buddhist doctrine] is often compatible with the Book of Changes and the Analects. I truly like it. It makes one's mind joyful, and is not different from Confucius' Way. . . . What I accept [in Buddhism] is consistent with the Book of Changes and the Analects. Even if the sages were to return to life, they could not revile me for that. What T'ui-chih finds fault with are the outward manifestations of Buddhism. He says that the Buddhist monks are bald and clad in clerical garb, without the relationships of husband and wife, father and son, neither tilling the soil nor cultivating silk, but living off others. If it were the [whole] truth, even I would not be happy with Buddhism. [But] T'ui-chih dislikes its outer appearance and thereby loses what is within. This is "knowing the stone but not knowing the jade it contains." The above is the reasons why I am fond of the Buddhist doctrine. 65 Two points can be made concerning the implications of Liu's rebuttal. To begin with, Liu reasserted his view that Buddhism was a valuable teaching that provided him with spiritual contentment. He made this point so strongly as to claim that even Confucian sages would not have condemned him if they had returned to life. Such points demonstrate beyond doubt that Liu's attachment to Buddhism was based upon his genuine appreciation of Buddhist ideas as he understood them. 66 Thus, any attack on Buddhism on social and cultural grounds could not shake his admiration for it. 67 This attitude illustrates clearly that he still 63 This letter is not preserved in Han's collected works. 64 The original title of this essay is "Sending off Recluse Yuan, the Eighteenth, on His Journey South" (Sung Yuan shih-pa shan-jen nan-yu hsii), in LTYC, pp. 662-3. "The eighteenth" represents Yuan's rank of seniority among brothers and male cousins within his lineage. It was customary in the T'ang to refer to someone (male or female) in such a manner. According to Ts'en Chung-mien, this rank was decided on in terms of one's seniority among second cousins; male and female cousins were counted separately. See his T'ang-jen hang-ti lu, p. 5. I do not know if this was a uniform rule. 65 LTYC, pp. 673-4. A part of the translation is from William Nienhauser et al., Liu Tsung-yuan, p. 52. 66 In the sentences following the statement just quoted, Liu proceeded to say that seeking tranquil and transcendental moments in life was the reason why he made friends with Buddhist monks. See LTYC, p. 674. 67 Although a different philosophy of life was one reason behind Han Yii's vehement attacks on Buddhism, his most heartfelt reasons were perhaps social and political ones. Like many previous anti-Buddhist literati, he charged that Buddhist monks were not only unproductive but also enticed society and the state to waste a great deal of money on them. Moreover, antiforeignism was another background reason for his attacks. The mid-T'ang xenophobic mood basically resulted from the fact that the leaders of the An Lu-shan rebellion and those of the autonomous Northeast military regions were either non-Chinese or ethnic Chinese assimilated by the northern nomadic culture. But Liu Tsung-yiian was also unhappy with Han's opposition to Buddhism on the ground of its foreign origin. See LTYC, p. 673. For this topic, see 179

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had to a degree the mentality of "Buddhism within and Confucianism without." On the other hand, however, in the midst of a potent Confucian revival and as a leader of this movement, Liu seems to be forced to concede that the Buddhist way of life was problematic. He even needed to defend the Buddhist doctrine by arguing that it did not contradict the Confucian classics like the Book of Changes and the Analects, which contained much discussion on metaphysical problems and personal life, although in fact he showed little interest in Confucian notions of spirituality.68 This appears to suggest that the anti-Buddhist campaign led by Han Yii did constitute a significant challenge to the traditional mentality of "Buddhism and Taoism within and Confucianism without."

Consolation and sublimation through nature Nature was another source of consolation and sublimation Liu Tsungyuan found in exile. Shortly after his arrival in Yung-chou, the weary and perturbed Liu, with the help of servants' labor, began to lead his friends and relatives on explorations into Yung-chou's wild mountains. 69 Perhaps unexpectedly, nature there provided him with enormous contentment and pleasure, and he became almost addicted to wandering among the hills and brooks.70 His profound experience with nature formed the also Charles Hartman, Han Yii, pp. 84-6; T'ang Yung-t'ung, Sui-T'ang Fo-chiao, pp. 31-40; Fu Lo-ch'eng, "T'ang-tai i-hsia kuan chih yen-pien," in his Han-T'ang shih lun-chi (Taipei, 1977), pp. 209-26; Kubota Ryoon, Chugokuju Do Butsu, pp. 387-437. In addition, it needs to be noted that in the past thirty years in China scholars have had heated debates about how the "materialist" Liu could appreciate Buddhism. Some insist that he was thus not a materialist or an atheist; some claim that this only represents the limits of his age and his psychological weakness shown clearly after his exile, but that he was still basically a materialist and an atheist. It appears to me that this is a wrong question, since it is inappropriate to brand Liu's thought as "materialism." Cf. chap. 5, n. 60. Characterizing Buddhism simply as "idealism" is also too unsophisticated and misleading. For some more recent debates, see Ting Pao-lan, "Liu Tsung-yiian shih-chieh-kuan te shih-chih wen-t'i," Che-hsiieh yen-chiu, 1979:2, pp. 6, 56-60; K'o Chao-li, "Liu Tsung-yiian shih-chieh-kuan pien," Che-hsiieh yen-chiu, 1980:3, pp. 60-7; Li Chin-ch'iian, "Lun Liu Tsung-yiian ssu-hsiang te nei-tsai mao-tun," Chung-kuo che-hsiieh-shihyen-chiu, 1985:2, pp. 81-6. 68 According to my account, Liu touched upon this topic only twice. See LTYC, pp. 607, 63769 See LTYC, pp. 762, 767. 70 He was so deeply engrossed in excursions in nature as to propose a theory about them. He claimed that there were two kinds of location suitable for journey: open and recessed ones. He wrote: "The land which stands over steep cliffs, rises above the shadowy and the lush, and stretches far and wide is an ideal open location. The land which is situated on hillocks, hides in shrubs and weeds, has turns and twists, and is narrow is an ideal recessed location." See LTYC, p. 748. It seems that he held this opinion only in the early stages of his Yung-chou era. Later, he apparently became 180

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basis of the writing of his prose masterpieces: his "records of excursions in nature" (yu-chi).71 After Liu was transferred to Liu-chou, he continued his journeys in nature, 72 but they failed to produce impressive works. This might be attributable to the change of his life and state of mind there. Liu was now a prefect with actual administrative duties and the father of a son. Most of his time and energy, which was limited because of his declining health, were probably occupied by these two responsibilities. There is no question that the beauty of Yung-chou's scenery itself was a great attraction to Liu Tsung-yiian. However, the satisfaction he acquired from his extensive journey went beyond pure esthetic enchantment; it included a great deal of emotional response with personal significance. One conspicuous feeling in this regard was that of identification with nature as a higher existence. Toward the end of his famous "Record of Excursion to the Western Hill as I First Found It" (Shih-te Hsi-shanyen-yu chi), Liu wrote: All the land of the surrounding prefectures lay spread below my mats. The undulating contours of the land, the ravines and pools, looked like so many tiny ant hills and little holes. A thousand miles [li] seemed but a foot or an inch, all squeezed and packed together, with nothing hidden from view. The whole area is wrapped in a coil of green and encased in white, and far off it fuses with the sky. It is the same in all directions. Then I understood the uniqueness of this mountain. It is of quite a different sort from those little mounds of earth. Far far off, I merged with the empty boundless space; surging and swelling up from within, I roam with the creator, not knowing how far. I lifted my goblet, and drank it all down, and collapsed to the ground in a stupor. Before I noticed, the sun had set, and the deep darkness of dusk approached from afar. When it arrived, nothing remained visible, and yet I still did not want to return. My heart was stilled, and my body dissolved; I had merged profoundly with all creation. Thus I knew that previously I had not more fond of "the open locations." Most of his "records of excursions" concern this type of scenery. 71 There are numerous studies by literary scholars on Liu Tsung-yiian's records of excursions, especially his so-called eight records of excursions in Yung-chou. Many of these studies also discuss the relationship between Liu's records of excursions and his state of mind in banishment. For some important works on this subject, see Shimizu Shigeru, "Ryu Sogen no seikatsu taiken," pp. 45-74; E. D. Edwards, "Liu Tsungyiian and the Earliest Chinese Essays on Scenery," Asia Major, N.S., 1 (1949), pp. 147-57; Ho P'ei-hsiung, Liu Tsung-yiian Yung-chou pa-chi (Hong Kong, 1974); Ota Tsugio, "Ryu Sogen no sansuiki ni tsuite," Shido Bunko ronshu, 3 (March 1964), pp. 91-162. Shimizu's article is particularly successful in displaying the complex implications of nature in Liu's writings. Since this book is a study of Liu's thought and its historical implications, I shall deal only with the portion of Liu's experience with nature that pertains closely to the essential traits of his inner life. 72 See LTYC, pp. 774-7. 181

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even had a true excursion, and that it was on this occasion that my true excursion began. 73

Mystical union with nature was clearly a deeply felt experience for Liu in Yung-chou. He described it in a number of other works, one of which reads in part as follows: Looking outward from the hillock, one can view heights of mountains and flights of clouds, the flow of brooks and the sport of fowl and beast, all joyfully parading their abilities and displaying their skills as if sent to serve beneath this hill. When one lies down on a mat, one's eyes are comforted by the clear, brisk image of the water, one's ears are lulled by the murmuring sounds, one's spirit soothed by a far-reaching void, and one's heart eased by an abyssal serenity.74

There are two points I would like to make with respect to Liu's mystical encounters with nature. First, it is evident that Liu's experience of contact with the absolute and the infinite relieved him, at least temporarily, from worldly bonds and concerns. In the first passage just quoted, he states that he did not want to return home even though the sun had set. In another piece of writing, he notes that a lake in Western Hill "makes me love to live in the barbarian territory and forget my homeland." 75 Nevertheless, in mentioning "barbarian territory" and "homeland," it seems that he also reveals that, even when enjoying the company of nature, pains and worries in the worldly life are still in the back of his mind; the comfort brought about by nature is limited. Second, Liu's mystical experience was not necessarily a common reaction of a sensitive mind to the wonders of nature. A devout Buddhist believer, for instance, might have very different reflections on the same scenes Liu faced. He might stress the transitoriness of beauty. The preconception behind Liu's, in the language of Romanticism, "natural supernaturalism" was clearly Chuang Tzu's philosophy. Chuang Tzu suggested that there was a transcendental level of existence ("the realm beyond"), which men should long for, and that experience in that realm would make one realize that all values and interests in the ordinary life were relative, and thereby sublimate oneself. One manifestation of the absolute and nonrelative existence was the purity and simplicity of nature; one symbol for the absolute in the cosmos in the Chuang Tzu was "the creator" (tsao-wu-che), a word that Liu once used to describe what 73 LTYC, pp. 762-3, as translated in Jennings Gentzler, "Literary Biography," pp. 252—3, with a minor change. 74 LTYC, pp. 765-6, as translated in William Nienhauser, Liu Tsung-yuan, p. 78, with minor changes. See also Jennings Gentzler, "Literary Biography," p. 256. For Liu's other works touching on the similar experience, see LTYC, pp. 643, 749, 764. 75 LTYC, p. 764. 182

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he encountered in his mystical union with n a t u r e . 7 6 I a m not arguing t h a t Liu T s u n g - y u a n was a follower of C h u a n g T z u ' s philosophy in any meaningful sense; he was too concerned with a n d too tightly related to the secular world to be one. Yet it is reasonably clear that n a t u r e sometimes created " a realm b e y o n d " in which he might w a n d e r temporarily. 7 7 A n o t h e r m a i n function of n a t u r e in Liu's inner life was psychotherapeutic. Liu often treated n a t u r e as a n object to which he gave vent to his r e s e n t m e n t a n d distress. T h r o u g h essays, poems, a n d sometimes, p e r h a p s , p u r e imagination, he talked to n a t u r e . H e shifted to n a t u r e some of his b u r d e n a n d pains; silent a n d seemingly generous, n a t u r e could not b u t listen a n d accept. T h e most representative case of this aspect of Liu's relationship with n a t u r e m a y be seen in his m a k i n g a r r a n g e m e n t s for his new residence a r o u n d 810. After extensive excursions over four or five years, Liu p u r c h a s e d a large piece of land in the J a n Brook valley, located amid his beloved a n d beautiful W e s t e r n Hill area. (See M a p 5.) H e built a n estate there. T h e n , dramatically, he r e n a m e d the J a n Brook 7 8 "Foolish Brook," n a m i n g a little knoll "Foolish K n o l l , " a spring "Foolish S p r i n g , " a ditch "Foolish D i t c h , " a p o n d "Foolish P o n d , " a n island in the p o n d "Foolish I s l a n d , " the house he lived in "Foolish H a l l , " a n d a pavilion "Foolish Pavilion." H e felt obliged to explain why he r e n a m e d the J a n Brook a n d gave it such a derogatory n a m e . H e wrote a b o u t this in two essays, in one of which he contended: The water surface of this brook is so low that it cannot be used for irrigation. Moreover, its currents are too rapid and there are too many islets and rocks in it, so that big boats cannot sail in it. It is too secluded and too recessed, too shallow and too narrow; no dragon will ever stoop to live in it because there is not enough water with which to make clouds and rain. It has nothing of interest to offer to the world. In that respect, it is exactly like me. Consequently, it is justifiable to humiliate it and call it foolish. .. . Now I live under an orderly 76 For the philosophy of Chuan Tzu, see Benjamin Schwartz, The World of Thought, pp. 215—37; Fung Yu-lan, A History of Chinese Philosophy, vol. 1 (Princeton, N.J., 1952), pp. 233-44. For the ideas of "the creator" and "beyond the realm," see Burton Watson, tr., Chuang Tzu, p. 83. For the nineteenth-century European Romantic idea of natural supernaturalism, see Franklin L. Baumer, Modern European Thought: Continuity and Change in Ideas, 1600-1950 (New York, 1977), pp. 274-82. 77 For Liu's other moments as a Taoist in the Chuang Tzu style, see LTYC, pp. 1195, 1211.

78 According to Liu, people in Yung-chou reported that there existed two possible reasons for the name of Jan Brook. One was that a family named Jan used to live in that area; the other had that the water of this brook could dye (also pronounced jaw, but written as a different character) objects. See LTYC, p. 642. In his essays, Liu usually used the first character.

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A. Western gate of Young-chou as of 1828. B. Approximate location of Lunghsing Temple. C. Liu's "Foolish Brook" residence. Map 5. Western outskirts of Yung-chou. (Adapted from Yung-chou fu-chih, 1828 edition, rpt. Taipei, p. 47.) government, but I have gone against principles, and acted perversely when dealing with affairs. Hence no person who has acted foolishly is as foolish as I am. If this is so, then no one in the world can rival my claim to this brook. I have an exclusive title to name it. Although the brook has nothing of interest to offer to the world, it is good at offering a mirror to all things. It is limpid, lustrous, graceful and pure. It tinkles like bells and musical stones. It delights the fool so much that the latter, laughing merrily, is totally infatuated with it and cannot bear to leave.79 In another essay on the same theme, written in the form of a dialogue between Liu and the spirit of the brook, the spirit of the brook protests that it is actually not the worst kind of stream even in terms of its usefulness to society, and that it is unfair to give it such a humiliating name. Liu admits that the Jan Brook still could contribute to irrigation and transportation. But he argues that since his stupidity is unmatched 79 LTYC, p. 643, as translated in Yu-shih Chen, Images and Ideas in Chinese Classical Prose, p. 85, with minor changes. See also LTYC, p. 642.

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and the brook happens to be in company with him, it cannot avoid being tainted by his foolishness. 80 T h e spirit accepts his explanation. J u d g i n g from their satirical tone and their characterization of Liu's early actions as foolish rather than wrong, these essays clearly contain more protest and defiance than regret. However, the point here is that Liu appears to feel unrestrained in expressing his feelings to nature. It seems that he had found very few, if any, intimate personal friends in Yung-chou; in a way, nature filled this hole. 8 1 This again shows that Liu's relationship with nature was fundamentally different from that of those T ' a n g literati, like W a n g Wei and Meng Hao-jan (689-740), who in their poetry took nature as their natural home, a realm for which they yearned. Liu was forced by circumstances to make friends with it. 82 Finally, I shall consider the implications of the landscape of Liu Tsung-yiian's internal world for understanding his thought in its entirety. From earlier analyses, we know that Liu defined Confucianism primarily as a philosophy of the public good; through the exploration of his internal world in this chapter, we also find that Buddhist and Taoist ideas and sentiments were prominently present in this aspect of his life. T h e r e is thus little doubt that Liu's mind still fell generally in line with the traditional medieval mentality of " T a o i s m and Buddhism within and Confucianism without." Nonetheless, two additional points need to be m a d e in order to illustrate the nuances and characteristic features of his life of the self. First, although Buddhist and Taoist thought remained a vital source of Liu's introspection and spiritual cultivation, in comparison to other fellow Confucians who, like him, still more or less maintained the mentality of " T a o i s m and Buddhism within and Confucianism without," his involvement with Buddhism and Taoism was not really deep. In reality, his Buddhist and Taoist ideas and sentiments mainly represented 80 LTYC, pp. 357-9. 81

82

For a moving poem in which Liu describes the "interactions" between himself and nature, see LTYC, pp. 1191-2. Because of his famous and highly acclaimed landscape essays and nature poetry Liu, since the Sung Dynasty, has been considered, along with Wang Wei, Meng Hao-jan, and Wei Ying-wu, as one of the four T'ang masters of natural description and the reclusive mode. See Stephen Owen, The Great Age of Chinese Poetry, p. 303. Yet this view obscures the profound difference between Liu's attitude toward nature and those of the other three writers. Hsia Ching-kuan senses the stylistic divergence of Liu's nature poetry from that of the others, but does not elaborate on it. See his T'ang-shih shuo (rpt. Taipei, 1975), p. 73. In a perceptive study, Yeh Chia-ying points out the qualitative difference between Liu Tsung-yiian and Hsieh Ling-yiin (385-433), another master of nature poetry in Chinese literary history, in terms of their relationships with nature. See Yeh Chia-ying, "Ts'ung Yuan I-shan lun-shih chiieh-chu t'an Hsieh Ling-yiin yii Liu Tsung-yiian te shih yii jen," in her Chung-kuo ku-tien shih-ko p'ing-lun chi (Hong Kong, 1977), pp. 31-71.

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his reactions to his failure in public life. He evidently held some original interest in Buddhism, but there is no question that his exile was the key factor behind the intensification of his attachment to Buddhist teachings in the later stages of his life. This attachment, nevertheless, did not transform him into a devout, practicing Buddhist. Hence his appreciation of Buddhism differed qualitatively from the genuine Buddhist beliefs that some contemporary supporters of the Confucian revival held; one of these people was Liu's close intellectual and political comrade Liu Yiihsi. Yii-hsi described his relationship with Buddhism: I have worked for examinations and officialdom for twenty years; from them I received one hundred worries but not a single gain. Then I understand that what the world calls the Way is nothing but dangerous roads, and that only the doctrine about the other world can best satisfy one's mind. Thus, on my desk and beside my ink-slab, there are many books with [Sanskrit] horizontal lines and [Buddhist] four-line hymns; those people whom I am always prepared to welcome are the fellows of priests and monks.83

This is an account of a kind Liu Tsung-yiian would never have made. Liu's Taoist sentiments were even more directly related to his banishment, as can be seen from his advocacy of a philosophy of selfpreservation in the mode of the Lao-tzu and his somewhat reluctant adherence to nature. Second, like most medieval intellectuals, Liu Tsung-yiian paid little heed to, or was not much aware of, the problem of moral self-cultivation and the related Confucian philosophical discussions. Yet it is important to note that the Confucian commitment to the welfare of the people had become a crucial rationale and support for his very existence, and he was conscious and proud of it. This seems to suggest that Liu's Confucianism also had two aspects: public and private. For him, these two aspects were inseparable: The public one was the manifestation of his inner feeling, whereas the private one was the foundation of his reformist aspirations. Although the Confucian element in Liu's internal life was quite different in nature from the Neo-Confucian quest for spirituality, 83 LYHC, p. 270. For a paragraph describing a similar state of mind, see p. 268. Clearly, Liu Yii-hsi already had strong Buddhist inclinations before the 805 coup. See LYHC, p. 175; LTYC, p. 684. But this belief apparently grew stronger after his exile. For a perceptive study of the relationship between secular intellectuals and Buddhism in the T'ang, see Yamazaki Hiroshi, Chugoku Bukkyo bunkashi no kenkyu (Kyoto, 1981), chaps. 13 and 14. According to Yamazaki's classification, among secular intellectuals with Buddhist interest, there were true Buddhist believers, Taoists who appreciated Buddhism, and Confucians who appreciated Buddhism. Liu Tsung-yiian certainly belonged to the last category, while Po Chii-i belonged to the second category, and Liu Yii-hsi was probably somewhere between the first and the last.

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its presence nevertheless displayed the vitality of a revival of Confucianism in its traditional form. It shows that the longing for the improvement of the world was deeply rooted in the inner being of a leader of this movement; that is, this desire stirred within him independently of the actual circumstances and official capacities he was in. In concluding this chapter, I would like to cite in full a poem of Liu's in which various constituents of his Confucian thought and personality converge in an organic fashion. Entitled "Burying the Skeleton of the Laborer Chang Chin" {Yen i-fu Chang Chin hai), this poem was written after Liu's reburial of a servant whose grave was destroyed by a flood: Life and death arrive at their own pace; Ether [ch'i] aggregates and dissipates. By accident comes a profusion of joy and anger; On a sudden it is gone again. Is a laborer really low and humble? A man of high position is nothing wondrous. One day, when breath stops, Bodies dry and rot, with no distinction of beauty and ugliness. Throughout his life he worked hard in raising horses; Prepared forage, fed animals, and never complained of weariness. After his death, we gave a modest coffin, Burying him at the foot of Eastern Hill. Unfortunately, with a flood unleashed from the mountains, His remains were washed up, lying on the road. Hundreds of bones were exposed; Scattered in disorder, the skeleton was no longer complete. Thanks to the attendants, I was informed; Seeing it, I grieved, in tears. Even cats and tigers enjoy sacrifices; Dogs and horses have covers over their corpses. Standing long, Mr. Chang, I mourned your soul; Did you still know this? With dust-baskets and shovels, we buried you; A ditch now was there to protect. My heart attains peace in doing this; Not that I say you know this. The spring is known as appropriate for burial; The present moment happens to be in that season. Benefiting the people is not something that someone like me can do; I only take care of your private matters.84 84 LTYC, pp. 1261-2.

187

Conclusion

Liu Tsung-yiian died in Liu-chou on the eighth day of the eleventh month (or possibly a month earlier), the fourteenth year of the Yuan-ho era of Emperor Hsien-tsung (819), at the age of forty-six.l Even for a T'ang adult, his life was not long. Yet his mind was so rich and sensitive that it reveals to us a good deal not only about the intellectual landscape and changes of his time but also about a more general human condition: how an idealist tries to transcend the cultural milieu and sociopolitical realities in which he finds himself and how such a person struggles with the persistence as well as the frailty of his aspirations. The focus of this treatise, certainly, has been the examination of the life and thought of Liu in the light of their connections with mid-T'ang intellectual changes. I have paid particular attention to the implications of Liu's ideas and emotions for understanding the nature of the midT'ang Confucian revival and the origins of the Neo-Confucian tradition. In other words, this study was carried out in the hope that it could shed light on the general character of a pivotal intellectual transition in Chinese history through the scrutiny of an individual case. The result, I believe, is fruitful, and the following is a summary of my major findings and points of analysis. Liu Tsung-yiian was born into a family of the Ho-tung Liu clan, which in the social configuration of medieval China belonged to the Kuan-chung aristocracy, a relatively obscure and rarely studied segment of medieval aristocracy. My research shows that, despite its southern The only original source we have about the date of Liu's death is Han Yii's epitaph for Liu. Both in the present edition of Han's collected works (HCLC, 32:71) and in the early Sung literary anthology Wen-yuan ying-hua (completed 987), this date appears as the eighth day of the eleventh month. However, it is reported that in some editions of Han's collected works, the date of Liu's death is the fifth day of the tenth month; CTS also contains the same information. (CTS, 160:4214) For this issue, see the editor's notes in HCLC, 32:71; Shih Tzu-yii, nien-p'u, p. 107.

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experience, Liu's family mostly kept features of the northern aristocratic tradition. This family had been involved in practical political and military matters for centuries and, culturally, emphasized the strict observance of ritual codes. In terms of social prestige, Ho-tung Liu could not stand comparison with leading lineages from another major branch of northern aristocracy, the Shan-tung aristocracy. From the early fourth century to his own days, Liu's family maintained a second-rate upperclass status, though it was politically important in the Sui and early T'ang. Before 805, Liu Tsung-yiian seems to have had a life and career more brilliant than his family background would dictate. He shone as a young student in the cultural milieu of Ch'ang-an, passed the difficult and prestigious chin-shih and po-hsiieh hung-tz'u examinations at an early age, and rose fast on the bureaucratic ladder of the central government. But good fortune appears not to have completely satisfied him; he was also a dreamer, aspiring to improve drastically the condition of the state and the common people. He was, in a word, a self-styled Confucian crusader aiming at political reform. Liu's participation in the 805 coup and reform attempt led by Wang Shu-wen was the culmination of his youthful endeavor as a public-minded intellectual. The collapse of the 805 reform was a turning point in Liu's life. This event not only took him from a distinguished career to prolonged exile, but also turned him from a man of action into a man of ideas. Trapped in Yung-chou, a southwestern frontier area, as a petty official without administrative responsibilities, Liu joined the growing Confucian revival movement by examining and writing about issues that were of great concern to the movement's followers. During his decade-long stay in Yung-chou, Liu established himself as a leading prose stylist of his time and a prominent intellectual figure. He devoted most of his attention in intellectual pursuit to the exploration and illumination of the fundamental teaching of Confucianism, the Confucian Way, which was a common theme of the early-ninth-century Confucian discourse. Within the Confucian revival of the early ninth century, Liu Tsungyiian's ideas belonged to the current of thought that strove to establish (or reestablish) the Confucian doctrine as the guiding principles for social and political actions, and that regarded the fundamental nature of Confucianism as a teaching for the public good. Liu was a powerful and thoughtful voice of this trend, and this is the central finding of this book. In terms of Chinese intellectual history, there are two major implications in finding that Liu's conception of Confucianism was almost exclusively a teaching about the public dimensions of human life. First, it shows that Han Yii's anti-Buddhism and his notion of Confucianism as 189

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the only rightful form of life, though best-known in later ages and in the present day, cannot readily be considered the basic features of the midT'ang Confucian revival. Moreover, by the early ninth century, although there existed signs of new-found interest in the Confucian texts that dealt with interior and metaphysical questions, such as the Mencius and the Doctrine of the Mean,2 Han's attempt to assert or construct Confucianism as the highest authority in private and spiritual life was apparently supported only by some members of the intellectual circle under his leadership, most notably Li Ao.3 It is quite evident that, in Han and Liu Tsung-yiian's time, the majority of the participants of the Confucian revival movement shared views on the Confucian doctrine similar to those of Liu's. Liu's vision of Confucianism was thus more representative than was Han's and more characteristic of the mid-T'ang Confucian intellectual trends. G. H. Palmer has written: "The tendencies of an age appear more distinctly in its writers of inferior rank than in those of commanding genius. . . . [O]n the sensitive responsive souls, of less creative power, current ideals record themselves with clearness."4 Liu Tsung-yiian is not a writer of much inferior rank to Han Yii, but he is certainly a sensitive responsive soul of his age. The second implication of Liu's view of Confucianism as principally a social and political philosophy is that his Confucian thought was still of a conventional type. His mind still operated under the traditional premise of "Buddhism and Taoism within and Confucianism without," that is, the idea that Confucianism dealt only with the external, social and behavioral aspects of human life, while Taoism and Buddhism took charge of its spiritual and transcendental aspects. In view of the fact that Liu's thought was highly representative of that of mid-T'ang Confucian advocates, there is no question that the mid-T'ang Confucian revival was not a movement to develop a new version of Confucianism. It mainly stood for a renewal of interest in Confucianism and an effort to revitalize Confucianism as the guiding principle for the public life of the Chinese world. In regard to intellectual genealogy, the mid-T'ang Confucian revival itself was not the precursor of Sung-Ming NeoConfucianism; it was rather some new elements that emerged in this revival, particularly certain ideas of Han Yii and Li Ao, that paved the way to the burgeoning of the Tao-hsiieh movement, which eventually became the kernel of the Neo-Confucian tradition. The chief importance 2 Cf. David McMullen, State and Scholars in T'ang China, pp. 105-12. 3 For some indications of Han's followers' support in this respect, see Wu Wen-chih, Han Yii tzu-liao hui-pien, vol. 1, pp. 8-9, 34-6. 4 Cited in Arthur O. Lovejoy, The Great Chain of Being (Cambridge, Mass., 1936 and 1964), p. 20. 190

Conclusion

of the mid-T'ang Confucian revival in Chinese history is that it created a new intellectual climate by focusing the Confucian intellectual undertaking on the search for its fundamental principles and by bringing to an end the dominance of Buddhism and Taoism in high culture. It was only in this changed climate that true innovations in the Confucian intellectual tradition were possible. Liu Tsung-yiian's Confucian thought in his intellectual maturity contained many traces of his early experience and mentality. The clearest continuity between Liu's later thought and his life before 805 lies in his characterization of Confucianism as a philosophy for the public good. Psychologically speaking, Liu's explication of the Confucian Tao can be taken as an intellectual manifestation of his never-diminishing yearning to serve the state and the people. From his discussion on the issue of the people and from his deep compassion for popular suffering, which are revealed in many poems and essays, we can be certain that the welfare of the people was, for Liu, not merely the subject of an intellectual exercise; it was something that he wished to contribute to realizing, and an existential concern with great relevance to the meaning of his life. There are other links between Liu's intellectual endeavor in Yungchou and his life in Ch'ang-an. The most notable ones are his participation in the ku-wen prose reform and the new trend of canonical studies initially inspired by Tan Chu and Chao K'uang. Although the young Liu was primarily a politically oriented intellectual, associating himself with like-minded peers, he was exposed to both the ku-wen movement and the new classical scholarship - the latter enjoyed prominence in the political group to which Liu was attached. Liu's involvement in these two most potent movements in the mid-T'ang Confucian revival indicates that, although after 805 he was physically on China's periphery, intellectually he actually moved to the center of the Confucian camp. Liu's views on writing and canonical studies demonstrate clearly his belief that the understanding and realization of the Tao were the ultimate purposes of the lives of the Confucian elite. Literary writing and exploration of the Confucian classics should serve these goals; they were not ends in themselves. Furthermore, some of Liu's intellectual tendencies may also be related to his family background. For instance, his interest in government may have roots in his family tradition and his experience on the Pin-Ning military frontiers before he began his official career. His emphasis on the importance of rites and discipline in both secular and Buddhist life can also be attributed to his northern aristocratic upbringing. Although Liu Tsung-yiian did not challenge the fundamental medieval Chinese frame of mind, and in this study mainly serves as a mirror of

Liu Tsung-yuan and intellectual change in T'ang China

mid-T'ang intellectual developments, as a thinker he was original in many ways. His rejection of the notion of Heaven, his criticism of religious Taoism on motivational grounds, his analysis of the origins of ancient feudalism, his view of rulers as servants of the ruled, and his "egalitarian" social thought are all unusual not only in his own time but also for the entirety of premodern China. They are, assuredly, signs of an active, penetrating, and concerned mind, and evidence of the reinvigorated state of the old Confucian intellectual tradition. The primary source of Liu's intellectual originality, or, to some, eccentricity, is apparently his adamant insistence on treating the well-being of the people as the absolutely highest Confucian value. The best example of this connection is found in his extensive treatment of the problems of Heaven and the supernatural and his vigorous attacks on these notions. The chief grounds for his stance were not naturalistic arguments that denied the existence of supernatural forces or anything that might be called Heaven. His main reason was that these ideas or any action associated with them had no relevance to the amelioration of the world, and that the adherence of intellectuals and the state to these ideas or beliefs could only obstruct endeavors to carry out Confucian values. In Chinese history, Liu is best remembered as a writer and thinker. However, as this book has demonstrated, this was not the self-image he longed for. Throughout his life, his most cherished dream was to be a public servant who did good for the livelihood of the people. His participation in the Confucian revival movement largely represented his effort to compensate for his inability to fulfill such a wish. It is difficult to imagine that without the disastrous consequences of the 805 coup he would have become the writer and thinker we now know. He did not choose to be an intellectual champion of the Confucian cause, but, rather, was forced to be one by circumstances. Thus, intellectual enterprise was more a reflection of his personality than it was a premeditated task, as was the case with Han Yii's Confucian campaign. The intense personal character of Liu's intellectual endeavor has its clearest indication in the constitution of his internal landscape. Though never considering the import of the Confucian doctrine for the spiritual development of individuals, he was nonetheless Confucian to the core of his heart in the sense that the aspiration for serving the populace was a key raison d'etre for his very existence. In Liu's internal world, there were certainly non-Confucian elements, as at the conscious level, Confucianism remained for him a teaching concerning men's social and political roles. During his long exile, Buddhism, Taoism, and excursions in nature all provided him with much solace and meaning; they made his life in Yung-chou endurable, and sometimes even produced joy or 192

Conclusion

feelings of enlightenment. Yet this type of life was not his ideal, because Buddhist and Taoist insights, however penetrating they might be, were not what his self-realization was based on. In terms of intellectual vigor and creativity, it seems that the mid-Tang Confucian revival reached its apex in the generation of Liu Tsung-yiian and Han YiL Nevertheless, after their time, the new intellectual trend, which emphasized the search for the fundamental spirit of Confucianism and the application of Confucian principles to the actual world, did not cease. Moreover, intellectuals emerged who came to accept Han Yii's brand of Confucianism. In the late Tang, Tu Mu (803-52), P'i Jih-hsiu (ca. 834-ca. 883), Lin Shen-ssu (fl. 865-80), and Lo Yin (833-909) were all notable figures who carried on the legacy of the mid-T'ang Confucian revival. It was partly through them that the historical link between the mid-T'ang Confucian revival and the Northern Sung Confucian movement was formed.5 Intellectually, Liu Tsung-yiian apparently did not inspire any major Northern Sung thinkers; in the eyes of most of Sung intellectuals, he was a fine prose stylist and a political opportunist. 6 Yet this should not obscure the fact that Liu played an important role in making possible a process that resulted in the formation of Neo-Confucianism. 5

The in-depth study of late T'ang thought is nearly nonexistent. For the lives and ideas of the intellectual figures mentioned above, one may consult Hsiao Kung-ch'iian, Chung-kuo cheng-chih ssu-hsiang shih, vol. 3, pp. 412-22, 432-4; Miao Yueh, Tu Mu chuan (Peking, 1977); William H. Nienhauser, Jr., PH Jih-hsiu (Boston, 1979); Yung S. Teng, "A Study of the Confucian Thought in Tu Mu's Literary Work," Tsing Hua Journal of Chinese Studies, N.S., 13:1 and 2 (December 1981), pp. 133-60. Among them, P'i seems particularly enthusiastic about Han Yii's vision of Confucianism as a cultural ideal. For the understanding of the origins of Sung Neo-Confucian philosophical ideas, the late T'ang, the Five Dynasties, and the early Sung are certainly more important periods. I expect that the interactions between Confucianism on the one hand and Buddhism and religious Taoism on the other will be a crucial area for investigation. The sorry state of the study of late T'ang and Five Dynasties thought is most markedly reflected, in Peter BoPs "This Culture of Ours.''1 In this new major work on the T'ang-Sung intellectual transition, a period of one hundred and fifty years, from 850 to 1000, is simply left out. 6 For information about Sung perceptions of Liu, see Wu Wen-chih, ed., Liu Tsung-yuan chuan, vol. 1, pp. 21-180; vol. 2, pp. 617-46.

193

Glossary

Anhwei ^i. An Lu-shan cha SB Ch'an # ch'an-wei Chang Chiu-ling Chang Yin 5IH Ch'ang-an Jljk; chang-chii shih chang-ts'ao 5p:| Chao-chiin Li Chao K'uang Chao Ts'ui j£§H: Chekiang $ftC Ch'en Chien I^U "Ch'en i Ch'ao-shih yiian tu Ch'an-ching" Ch'en Tzu-ang "Chen-fu" Mft Chen-yuan ch'en-wang ch'eng !#c Cheng Chu Cheng Hsiian Ch'eng I SB! Chi M chi (allegory) itr chi (phenomenon, trace) ch'i ft Chi-hsien-tien * K J $ ChiaChih MM Chia Kung-yen

Chiang $J Ch'iang ^ CA 'ieh-chung chi

Chien-i ta-fu I chih /£ Chin S "Chin Wen-kung wen shou-Yiian i" M chin-feng 3L1^ chin-shih *Sifc Ch'in-jen H t ch'ing ^ ch'ing (feeling) fit Ching-chou "^ffl Chiu T'ang shu It (

chiu-tsu H R Chou Chiin-ch'ao Ch'u SI Chu I-tsun Chu Tz'u Ch'ii Yiian Chu-ko Liang Ch'u-tz'u Iff j§ Chiian ^ Ch'iian Te-yii Chuang Tzu

chiin S5 Ch'un-ch'iu WiK Ch 'un-ch }iu wai-chuan Ch 'un-ch 'iu wai-chuan Kuo-yu

ch'iin-hsiao I d 194

Glossary

chiin-hsien chung 41 chung lun

Chung-hsiin chung-kuan Chung-shu sheng chung-ti 4*1® chung-wen ch'ing-ju chung-yung Fa-hsiang Fan Chen ?Q$il Fan Hsi-ch'ao ? Fan Tsung-shih Fan Wen tzu Fan-yang Lu Fang B FangCh'i BBk Fang Kuan JfJif /*W Kuo-yu ^Bii§ Feng id" "Feng-chien lun" feng-shui PITK

fu K FuHsi t £ « "Fu-hsing shu" fu-ju )SM fu-mu 3£S fu-mu kuan HanFeiTzu Han T'ai ^ HanYeh ^ HanYu Han-lin Heng (Mt. Ho-tung Ho-tungLiu Honan M S hsi-chuan H Hsiang (river) Hsiang-yang Hsiao (river) Hsiao Fu Hsiao Ying-shih if Slit Hsieh ^ Hsieh Tzu-jan Ht § ^

Hsien-pi Hsien-tsung ^ ^ hsing (nature) 14 hsing (arousing, inspiring) hsing-chi chih-tso ^ Hsii Meng-jung f^ HsuYu I t * hsiian M Hsiian-tsang Hsiieh Ts'un-i Hsiin Tzu ^ ^ Hua-yen ¥ifi huang-chi M@ Huang-fu Shih Hui-k'ai H5fl Hui-neng S t ^ Hunan M^ "Hung-fan" r«*E Hung-nung Yang 5t£ Jtfil Hupei I-ching Jan (brook) -ftjen A "Jen-wen hua-ch'eng Kao-tsung (Shang) Ko Hung mm ku * Ku Shao-lien Ku-liang chuan

ku-wen l*f3C kuan ^ Kuan Chung Kuan Tz

Kuan-chung Kuan-Lung Kuang-lu kuei-tsu K'ung An-kuo K'ung Ying^ta kung-shih 'S'rfi Kung-yang chuan

Kuo-chou ^ffl Kuo-tzu chien

Glossary Kuo-yii IH

Kwangsi Lan-t'ien Lao TZu = li M Li Chien (the maternal grandfather of Liu Tsung-yiian's wife) ^ # Li Chien (Liu Tsung-yiian's friend) ^ ^ Li Ching-chien Li Chung-yen Li Ho $ » Li Hsing-min Li Hsiin Li Hua ^

Liu Shih Liu Tan ffllH. LiuTse fflJIlJ Liu Tsung-yiian LiuTs'ung-yii LiuTzu-hsia Liu-chou Liu-tsu t'an-ching

Lo (river) "/§ Lo shu :&9 LoYin gffi Lo-yang ?§BI Lou T'u-nan S Lu (student) fi LuCh'un Lu Tsun Lu T'ung Liijang Lu Kung Lu Ts'ai LiiWen S ^

Li Kuan Li Pai-yao LiPo $ £ Li Shih Li Sung Li Te-yii ~Liang Su ] liang-shui Lin Shen-ssu Ling Chun S^P Ling-ch'e l i t Ling-hu Te-fen %WM>% Liu Ch'a-kung $0^13 Liu Chen WM Liu Ch'i ffl# Liu Ch'i (great-grandson of the other Ch'i) Liu Ch'ing Liu Ching-yu Liu Cho Liu Ch'un Liu Hsiana: LiuK'ai mm Liu Kuei WWi Liu K'o glJ*pJ Liu Kung Liu Pen S'JM Liu Seng-hsi

Lu-shih ch }uv-ch 'iu

Lii-tsung ^ ^ Lung-hsi Ptl® Lung-hsing (temple) Ma Jung MM Meng Chiao Meng Hao-jan ming (fate) ^p ming (intelligence) ming-ching §^^ ming-tsu mo ^ Mu Chih Nan-ch'ung Nan-yiieh nei-chuan nei-p'ien Ning-chou ^-j" Niu Chao-jung Niu Seng-ju ^ f f NuKua 196

Glossary

Ou-yang Hsiu Pai-chang Huai-hai PanKu IE HI Pan Piao MM Fei Yen-ling i l ^ pen ^ P'ijih-hsiu SC 0 ft p'ien-wen Pin-chou Pin-Ning PoChii-i ^ g l r PoTi f£H po-hsiieh hung-tz'u Po-lingTs'ui tf^ "Pu-she-che shuo" San-chuan chih-yao Eifl

sao-fu SHIS Shan pp Shan-chung ssu-yu _|U 4* EH JL Shan-ho W^0 Shan-tung Shao-chou ShenYa-chih Shen-ts'e # H sheng-jen ^feA shih SB Shih ching if g ShihShih-kai "Shih shuo" SB Shih Ssu-ming shih-tao SBM "Shih-te Hsi-shan yen-yu chi" shih-tsu Shun # Shun-tsung Shun-tsung shih-lu

so-i-chi 0fiUW Ssu-k'ungShu Wj Ssu-ma W]j^ Ssu-ma Hsiang-ju Ssu-ma Kuang ^I Sui |% Sun Ch'iao SunCh'o

SungCh'i ta chia ^C^ Ta-chu Hui-hai Ta-chung ^Cft3 Ta-chung chih-tao ta-jen ^cA ta-kung chih-tao Ta-li ^cM Ta-li shih-ts'ai-tzu Ta-ming ta-tsu T'ai-ch'ang ssu T'ai-hsiieh TanChu t'an-ch'i T'ang (dynasty) T'ang(King) jg Tao M Tao-chou Sffl Tao-hsiieh M^ Ti (God on High) Ti ("barbarians") "T'ientui" "T'ien wen" T'ien-ch'ang "T'ien-chiieh lun" T'ien-t'ai tsao-wu-che Tso Ch'iu-ming Ts ui Ch un g Ts'uiYen g i 5 Ts'ui Yiian-han Tsung-heng chia Tu Fu tt If TuMu Tu-kuChi Tuan Hsiu-shih Tung Chung-shu T'ung-an 1^1 ^ tung-chiian ^ # tzu ^ Tzu-chih t'ung-chien

wai-p'ien ^f)S Wang (Empress)

Glossary

Wang P'i £ ^ £ Wang Shu-wen I K $ Wang Wei zE$l WangYa B ! Wang-wu 3E§ Wei (dynasty) W& Wei (family) # Wei (river) :M Wei Cheng ftft Wei Chih-i # f l l t Wei Chung-li M-^iL Wei Ying-wu M-Mffl) wen i Wen (King) jt Wu (area) ^ Wu (King) K Wu Chao JI£1§ Wu Ting Ji^T Wu Wu-ling -^I^Hc Wu-ching cheng-i S H J E H

"Wu-hsing chih" 51frj£ Wu-jan ^Sfe

yang (idea) ^ Yang (Liu Tsung-yiian's wife) ^? Yang Ch'eng feSt Yang Hsiung S t t Yang Hui-chih WoM*?Yang Ling | § g !

YangNing ^ ^ Yang P'ing SIM Yang Yii-ling ^rK'l^ Yao % "Yen i-fu Chang Chin hai" Yen Kuang Wtit Yi H Yi Yin ffi^P yin | ^ Ying-t 'ao ch 'ing-i fHtt W ^

Yii S yu-chi 8?BH

Yii-chou M'Hi Yiian IS Yiian Chen 7ClH Yiian Chieh 7C$S Yiian Lun $\iBm "Yiian Tao" J^M yiian-ch'i 7C^ Yiian-ho 7C?P Yiian-wai-lang M^f^P yiieh-fu z&fH "Yiieh-ling" / ^ Yung-chou ^cffl "Yung-chou t'ieh-lu-pu chih TK'H] $&$&&]&

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