Zhou Dunyi Research Articles

『御定宋史筌』 「遼傳」을 통해 본 『宋史』 改修의 역사적 의의

Eojeong Songsa jeon 御定宋史筌 is a rewriting edition of Songshi 宋史 compiled by King Jeongjo and his Gyujanggak subjects in Joseon dynasty. Songsa jeon is characterized by (1) the creation of the imperial biographies of Danzong and Modi, the last emperors of the Southern Song dynasty, (2) the inclusion of Liao, Jin, and Mongol dynasties in its' biographies, (3) the creation of an independent Wuxian Biography for the five Neo-Confucianism scholars from Zhou Dunyi to Zhu Xi, and (4) the creation of Yimin Biography to honor those who had been loyal to the Song dynasty. However, it is difficult to say that the authenticity, which is one of the backgrounds of the compilation of Songsa jeon, has been fully considered. This article compares Liao Biography 遼傳 in Songsa jeon with Liao Biography in Songshi Xinbian 宋史新編 to determine the significance of Songsa jeon's compilation. As can be seen from the legend of Songsa jeon, Joseon dynasty defined Liao and Jin as 'the vulgar ethnic groups in the northeast' and 'the subject states of Goryeo dynasty', and did not recognize Mongol empire as 'authenticity' even after completely destroyed Song. In addition, Goryeo Biography is placed at the top of the biographies of the foreign states to express the criticism, and Liao, Xixia, Jin, and Mongol dynasties are arranged in the order of their founding. The characteristics of Liao Biography in Songsa jeon are as follows. First, Songsa jeon takes the form of the biography more strictly than Songshi Xinbian. Second, Songsa jeon is more thoroughly orthodox than Songshi Xinbian, including the use of Song's reign title. And in terms of content, the records of Qidan Guozhi 契丹國志 cited in Songsa jeon are basically quoted from Xu zizhi tongjian gangmu 續資治通鑑綱目. Furthermore, to express respect for Song, the Battle of Gaoliang River and the Battle of Qigou Pass, in which the Song were greatly defeated from Liao, are described very briefly. In addition, the articles from the Goryeo dynasty were recorded without omission, reflecting the position of Joseon dynasty, the bearer of the compilation. Finally, all the records on Civil Service Examination, Confucianism, and book editings are included in Songsa jeon. Its purpose is to represent the lessons. This indicates the intention that if even Liao, as the barbarian, had developed the rituals and the rites, then Joseon, as 'the inheritor of Chinese culture,' should work even harder to promote the rituals and the rites. Furthermore, considering the arrangement of the biographies of foreign states in Songsa jeon, the placement of Goryeo Biography at the top implies that Goryeo had a more advanced the rituals and the rites than Liao, Jin, Xixia, and Yuan. I think it is the ultimate intention of Joseon dynasty to express from the biographies of foreign states in Songsa jeon. On the other hand, the scholars of Qing Dynasty also tried to revise Songshi, but all of them were not completed. In this sense, the completion of Songsa jeon has historiographical significance.

Ideologicheskaya sistema neokonfucianskogo nastavleniya Chzhou Dun'i v dinastii Sun

The Neo-Confucianism initiated by Zhou Dunyi influenced the development of thought in China for hundreds of years. In thousands of words of philosophical works, Zhou Dunyi constructed a complete ideological system of edification. The integrity of this system is manifested in the fact that he explored the premise of edification, framed its contents, provided the way of edification, and even presupposed its effect.

The Voice of Peace: Philosophical Musicality as a Promoter of Peace in Confucianism

The main focus of this article is the explanatory power that music has in Confucianism according to the Analects (Lunyu 論語) and The Classic of Rites (Liji 禮記), which is reaffirmed in the Song Dynasty by Zhou Dunyi in the chapters on music in Tongshu (通書, The Penetrating Book). The article suggests that Tongshu’s chapters on music demonstrate the non-linear and non-metaphysical musical nature of Confucianism. According to this suggestion, the chapters introduce a dynamic, living model for the Confucian Way, on its own terms. This musical model supports the early Confucian vision of a multifaceted person, progressing in a multi-dimensional Way within a multi-layered polysemic world. Progressing along the Way, self-cultivation appears as one’s task to develop the various musical potentialities inherent in her or himself. The article opens with the epistemological idea of “musical knowledge” acquired by attuned hearing that winds up in a creative, peacemaking heart. Next, it introduces the ontological idea of a government that models cosmic harmony, depicting the leader as having an orchestral conductor’s aptitude; last, it presents a pragmatic perspective on the idea of musical education through the rules of propriety, depicting the practitioner as a skillful music player.

Influence of Buddhism on Philosophy of Zhou Dunyi in Song(宋) Dynasty

주돈이(周敦頤, 1017-1073)의 ‘무극태극설(無極太極說)’은 유학의 ‘태극(太極)’과 노장의 ‘무극(無極)’ 개념을 조화시킨 것이다. 이것은 불교에서 바다와 파도의 비유로 표시되는 일심(一心)과 식(識)의 해석으로 이해할 수 있다. 대승기신론 에서 ‘태극’은 의언진여(依言眞如)와, ‘무극’은 ‘이언진여(離言眞如)’와 연관이 된다고 보기도 한다. 만물이 태극을 포함한다는 견해는 불교의 ‘일즉일체(一卽一切)’ 사상의 해석이다. 주돈이가 무극태극설을 주창하게 된 것은 당대 종밀(宗密)의 원인론 과 대승기신론 을 통하여 대승불교 사상을 접하였기 때문이었을 것이다. 그러나 논자는 무극· 태극의 관계는 이언진여· 의언진여의 관계보다는 심진여문· 심생멸문의 관계로 보는 것이 더 타당하다고 생각한다. 종밀 사상은 노자 사상을 대승기신론 의 아라야식 사상을 가지고 해석하는 데서 출발한다. 이러한 사고 방식으로 역(易) 을 볼 때, 태극은 혼돈의 일기(一氣), 즉 아라야식이 되고, 여래장이 된다. 이 때 불생불멸의 여래장은 무극이라고 할 수 있다. 따라서 ‘태극이무극’이 된 것이다. 이처럼 주돈이 철학에서 노장 사상과 역 의 조화는 불교를 매개로 하였고, 이 점에서 불교가 영향을 끼쳤다고볼 수 있다.

How Does Genuineness-Substance (Cheng-Ti) Act?: A Clarification of the Phenomenon of Genuineness Based on Zhong Yong

Based on the text Zhong Yong 中庸 (Right and Norm), this article clarifies the phenomenological experience of genuineness (cheng 誠). The Introduction presents the discussion of genuineness-substance from Zhou Dunyi 周敦頤 and Mou Zongsan 牟宗三, pointing out their omission of the concrete activity of genuineness. Section 2 explains concepts such as ti 體 (noumenon, substance, and original status), the endowment of Heaven, the original nature (xing 性), right (zhong 中), norm (yong 庸), with an indication that genuineness denotes keeping and developing an original status. Section 3 then shows that the original status of human nature is the endowment of emotion, reason, will, and so on, and the original status of the Heavenly way is the tendency of [ceaseless] growing. Under a holistic view, Section 4 expounds in detail the meaning of the statements “from genuineness to illumination” and “from illumination to genuineness” by making use of the distinction between nascent genuineness and refined genuineness. Section 5 reveals the creativity of genuineness in terms of the activating effect, which is caused by human beings’ exertion of their potentials. From the perspective of Zhong Yong, this section also demonstrates the inner logic by which Neo-Confucianism is developed and differentiated into the learning of the heart-mind (xinxue 心學) and the learning of pattern (lixue 理學). This section also examines whether or not Zhu Xi’s 朱熹 doctrine is unorthodox, as Mou Zongsan proposes.

『참동계』와 태극(태일)-음양-오행 체계

Until recently, academic consensus held that Zhou Dunyi’s Taijitu (Taiji Diagram) originated from Cantongqi. However, a new debate has arisen wherein some scholars question that theory and related theories. They criticize these previous theories because the books and charts used as evidence in those theories were published after the lifetime of Zhou Dunyi, and this disqualifies their influence on his thought. However, identifying certain authors as being of a slightly later period than Zhou Dunyi does not definitively answer whether or not Zhou Dunyi’s diagram was based on Cantongqi. I approached this problem from a different perspective. Zhou Dunyi’s Taijitu is based on the system of taiji (Taiyi), yin-yang, and the five movements. Consequently, the formation of this system should be traced back historically. In the process of tracing it back, I intended to explain that the main character of Cantongqi is closely related to the formation of the system of taiji (Taiyi), yin-yang, and the five movements. The system of taiji (Taiyi), yin-yang, and the five movements was first established as a religious theological system in the Han Dynasty. In this process, yin-yang and the five movements were combined by Dong Zhongshu, and the five movements were introduced by Han Dynasty scholars as a method of interpreting the I-ching. However, Han Dynasty scholars did not form this system. In the late Han Dynasty, Cantongqi adopted the theological system of yin-yang and the five movements to theoretically form the system of taiji (Taiyi), yin-yang, and the five movements. Cantongqi was able to form this system because of the logic that yin-yang is the essence of the I-ching. Cantongqi does not have the same schematic as Taijitu. However, the system of taiji (Taiyi), yin-yang, and the five movements appears and extracts the components that make up Taijitu. Therefore, I do not think we should hastily agree with the recent claims made by scholars.

Reading Taijitu Shuo Synchronously: The Human Sense of Wuji er Taiji

This article suggests that reading Zhou Dunyi’s 周敦頤 Explanation to the Diagram of Supreme Polarity (Taijitu Shuo 太極圖說) synchronously instead of diachronically yields a new understanding on the relatedness between infinitude and finitude, or on the One and many. Zhou’s attitude is introduced as a living riddle, in which “Non-Polar and Supreme Polarity” (wuji er taiji 無極而太極) is understood as a new conceptual construct, and one which is issued as a call for action at the end of the text: it is a call to investigate the beginnings and endings of one’s life. In this way, the text demonstrates how a person embodies the cosmological as riddle. The article follows both the diagram and text. It first refers to the riddle, then moves on to its embodiment in the ongoing processes of living as yin-yang 陰陽, the five phases, qian 乾 and kun 坤, and the myriad things, including human beings. According to the approach presented here, it is the sage who is the human embodiment of “Non-Polar and Supreme Polarity.”

Influence of Interaction: A Study of Zhu Xi’s Reading of the Taijitu Shuo and the Tongshu

ABSTRACTZhu Xi, as a great leader of Neo-Confucianism, established the succession of the Way and raised Zhou Dunyi to the position of successor of Mencius. Zhu Xi drew attention to Zhou’s thought and wrote a commentary on his Taijitu Shuo 太極圖說 (Discussion of the Taiji Diagram) and Tongshu 通書 (Penetrating the Scripture of Change). During the process of annotating these two works, Zhu discussed the texts with scholars such as Li Tong, Lü Zuqian, Zhang Shi, and Lu Jiuyuan to improve his annotation. The suggestions from other scholars affected Zhu’s explanation of Zhou’s works. This essay studies the interaction between Zhu and his friends and attempts to explain how Zhu’s commentaries on the Taijitu Shuo and Tongshu were affected by other scholars’ suggestions.

The Influence of Chan Buddhism on Zhou Dunyi

As a foundation of Chinese Neo-Confucianism, Zhou Dunyi had exerted a tremendous, profound and far-reaching influence upon the history of Chinese Neo-Confucianism during the Song and Ming dynasties, particularly since the growth of Neo-Confucianism through the efforts of Zhu Xi (1130-1200). Zhou Dunyi’s Diagram of the Supreme Ultimate had been popularized in the Neo-Confucianism. This paper is an integrated study of the influence of Chan Buddhism on Zhou Dunyi, investigating the formation of Zhou Dunyi’s philosophy as influence of Chan Buddhism. The study will be carried out from these main aspects: (1) the Chan Buddhism’s influence on the life of Zhou Dunyi, (2) the relationship between Chan Buddhism and Zhou Dunyi’s philosophy of the Book of Changes.

周敦颐与阳明心学

周敦颐与阳明心学

Circles of Verse

It is well known that Yijing symbolism was woven into alchemy. But Zhang Boduan's Wuzhen pian (an exposition of neidan in verse) also has numerical structures linked to that symbolism embedded within its structure. That presents opportunities to learn more about Daoist texts’ conveyance of meaning via esoteric symbolic interpretation. In addition, the commentator Yu Yan (1258–1314), perhaps inspired to combine jindan with Cheng–Zhu thought by Zhou Dunyi's Taijitu shuo (itself originating from the Daoist Chen Tuan) and possibly Tantric Buddhist dhāraṇī and maṇḍala, developed graphic illustrations (tu) of alchemical practice that influenced late-imperial Daoist works like the Xingming guizhi.

Neo‐Confucianism and Zhou Dunyi's Philosophy

AbstractUsing a term coined by the contemporary Chinese philosopher Mou Zongsan, we could define Zhou Dunyi's thought in terms of ‘moral metaphysics’. Zhou Dunyi (1017–1073), a thinker who lived in Northern Song period (960–1127), developed a philosophy that shows an ontological link between the cosmic order of the universe and the human moral reality. His contribution consists of two short works, Penetrating the Book of Changes (Tongshu) and Discussion of the Supreme Polarity Diagram (Taijitu shuo). These works played a fundamental role in creating the metaphysical structure of the neo‐Confucian thought: Zhu Xi emphasized Zhou Dunyi's contribution to the neo‐Confucian philosophy and, more precisely, he pointed out how Zhou Dunyi's ideas helped to define the conceptual framework of neo‐Confucianism. Moreover, Zhu Xi legitimized Zhou Dunyi's role as the pioneer of the ‘Learning of the Way’, or the renewed neo‐Confucian tradition. This paper aims to provide an overview of Zhou Dunyi's crucial role in the field of neo‐Confucianism. At the same time, we stress the need for further analysis in order to fully understand the value of Zhou Dunyi's philosophy in the Song period intellectual context.

Joseph Adler, Reconstructing the Confucian Dao: Zhu Xi’s Appropriation of Zhou Dunyi (reviewed by Kirill Ole Thompson)

Joseph Adler, Reconstructing the Confucian Dao: Zhu Xi’s Appropriation of Zhou Dunyi (reviewed by Kirill Ole Thompson)

The Formation of Zhou Dunyi’s Role in the Daoxue: A Critical Analysis of Biographical Sources

Abstract This study presents a critical investigation on the biographical sources of the Neo-Confucian philosopher Zhou Dunyi (1017–1073), recognized as a pioneer of the tradition of Learning of the Way (Daoxue), also translated as Neo-Confucianism. Through a relevant translation and analysis of two textual typologies, namely the biographical chronology (nianpu) and the official biography (liezhuan) of Zhou Dunyi, according to their different uses of historiographical materials and epistemological assumptions, we aim to provide a portray of Zhou Dunyi in relation to the context of Daoxue. Zhou Dunyi’s individuality is established by an integration of two conceptual frameworks: one focuses on the historical representation, the other stresses the value of his Neo-Confucian personality. In both cases, there is a dynamics of legitimization of Zhou Dunyi’s role in order to create a Neo-Confucian philosophical and moral paradigm: this paper is an attempt to explain this process of formation and legitimization.

Zhu Xi’s completion of Confucius’ humanistic ethics

The archetypal Neo-Confucian philosopher, Zhu Xi (1130–1200), worked out a compelling summation of Confucius’ humanistic ethics, centered on Ren (humaneness, humane) practice and cultivation. Faced with competing philosophies and religions, Zhu Xi strove to deepen and broaden Confucius’ ethics and core teaching of Ren. He drew on Zhou Dunyi’s “Explanation of the Diagram of the Supreme Polarity” to lay a naturalistic foundation for Confucius’ ethics, and on Zhang Zai’s “Western Inscription” to affirm the consanguinity between cosmos and humanity. He opened his “Treatise on Humanity” by linking Ren with the pervasive cosmic impulse to create, thus showing that the Way of Ren is not limited to the proper conduct of human affairs but springs from a pervasive beneficent creative impulse in the world. Zhu Xi also worked out a justification for Confucius’ Humanistic ethics centered on Ren cultivation and practice. This justification supports a sort of relational Humanistic ethics, the East Asian counterpart to Kant’s justification of an individual centered Humanistic ethics. Taken together, Zhu Xi’s mature comments and reflections on the formation of a moral exemplar (junzi) show that he, like Kant, set forth several conditions for the moral worth of ethical agency, decision, and action. For Kant, the moral agent must will to act from duty out of respect for reason (the Moral Law) which underlies the Golden Rule as the Categorical Imperative. Zhu Xi’s account is more practical and less theoretical than Kant’s. Zhu Xi’s aspiring moral exemplar undertakes his learning, cultivation, and practice in the spirit of reverence. Such reverence not only assures the concentration and seriousness of his dedication but purifies his mind-heart (xin) such that he becomes increasingly discerning of Heavenly pattern (tianli), which in turn sharpens his sense of appropriateness (yi). This deeper discernment also catalyzes his moral determination of will (zhuzai) to form within and to anchor his motivation to live by Ren, humanity. As Kant’s model incorporates the role of love and the Golden Rule, Zhu Xi’s centers on the cultivation of Ren and Confucius’ formulation of the Silver Rule, which are grounded in love and empathy. These teachings express a deeply emotional, relational, yet still rational form of Humanism that shows promise for a more salient Humanism by underscoring the unity of cosmos, nature, and humanity in a moral-ethical perspective.

Yinyang: The Way of Heaven and Earth in Chinese Thought and Culture by Robin R. Wang (review)

Reviewed by: Yinyang: The Way of Heaven and Earth in Chinese Thought and Culture by Robin R. Wang Paul D’Ambrosio (bio) Yinyang: The Way of Heaven and Earth in Chinese Thought and Culture. By Robin R. Wang. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012. Pp. 1 + 250. Hardcover $89.99, isbn 978-1-107-00015-5. Paper $28.99, isbn 978-0-521-16513-6. To date there has been little serious scholarship that focuses directly on yinyang. While its significance is not often doubted, few scholars have seriously addressed the issue on its own. In Yinyang: The Way of Heaven and Earth in Chinese Thought and Culture Robin Wang draws from a wide range of ancient and modern Chinese resources to explain the influence of yinyang thinking in areas ranging from military strategy, medicine, human relationships, and ethics to sexual practice and city planning. The introduction starts by offering a light survey of how yinyang theory has been treated in contemporary English- and Chinese-language scholarship, including English-language dictionary definitions. Instead of criticizing earlier studies, Wang points out their differences, noting that each has something positive to contribute to the discussion. She suggests that her own work can offer a more complex and diverse reading of yinyang. She argues that “yinyang can be thought of as a kind of horizon for much of Chinese thought and culture” (p. 5). In other words, while many thinkers have noted its particular usage and concrete application, Wang finds yinyang to be a characteristic of the structure of Chinese understanding. For her it is both a lens through which all things are viewed and a strategy for effective and productive interaction in both the social and natural worlds. Wang immediately provides a philosophical treatment. Yinyang, as a correlative model, is broken down into six distinct forms: maodun, or contradiction and opposition; xiangyi, or interdependence; huhan, or mutual inclusion; hubu, as complementarity or mutual support; and zhuanhua, or change and transformation. After this Wang discusses yinyang’s productive capabilities as related to sheng, or generation and emergence, as well as harmony and efficacy. The reader is then already introduced to a rich philosophical treatment of the complexity of this issue and, as Wang [End Page 351] draws on texts here ranging from the Zhou Yi (Book of Changes) to Mao Zedong’s writings, just how important yinyang is in the Chinese tradition. This is just the beginning, however, and the outline that Wang provides only serves to elucidate how yinyang thinking serves as a conceptual and practical tool. The work is thereby unique in the problematic it raises, and the broad footing it establishes in framing its task. In the first chapter after the introduction Wang looks at yinyang cosmology, or, what is “above forms” (xingershang). Dao, commonly translated as “the Way,” provides the inroads for envisioning the yinyang relationship to the myriad things. As the generative force behind all things, oneness is at the core of Dao cosmology. However, once change begins to be accounted for, yin and yang are used as correlative concepts of interpretation. Similarly, yinyang thinking theorizes about how things relate, thus making it a strategy for how things harmoniously form a unity, and thereby return to a naturally well-ordered state of Dao. Here the effectiveness of Wang’s distinctive notion of identifying yinyang thinking as a strategy becomes apparent. Dao cosmology also includes qi (vital force or energy) and yi (change), Wang relates yinyang views to these particular aspects as well. Using Zhou Dunyi’s Taijitu (Illustration of the Great Ultimate), which shows how all things transform and become generated, Wang then shows that yinyang thinking is the basic framework for knowing “what is above forms.” The third chapter complements the second as an investigation into yinyang thought and what is “below forms” (xingerxia). Wang argues that “Yinyang is an underlying rhythm animating all existence or all things ‘under heaven’” (p. 20). She looks closely at the Han Confucian Dong Zhongshu and his classification of things into different lei, or categories. Everything in the world can be grouped into these lei, which allows them to be “patterned on yinyang” (p. 96). But lei is also, like yinyang...

Adler, Joseph A., Reconstructing the Confucian Dao: Zhu Xi’s Appropriation of Zhou Dunyi

Adler, Joseph A., Reconstructing the Confucian Dao: Zhu Xi’s Appropriation of Zhou Dunyi

Reconstructing the Confucian Dao: Zhu Xi’s Appropriation of Zhou Dunyi by Joseph A. Adler (review)

BOOK REVIEWS JOSEPH A. ADLER, Reconstructing the Confucian Dao: Zhu Xi’s Appropriation of Zhou Dunyi. SUNY Series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2014. x, 331 pp. US$95 (hb). ISBN 978-1-4384-5157-2 Joseph A. Adler’s contribution to Confucian studies aims to clarify the problematic relationship that unites Zhu Xi 朱熹 (1130–1200) with Zhou Dunyi 周敦頤 (1017– 1073). Indeed, why did Zhu Xi choose a minor figure with Daoist connections as the founder of “Neo-Confucianism”? In order to clarify this “appropriation” from one thinker to another, Adler proposes an answer in two parts (argumentation and translations ), divided into eight chapters. The introduction, especially useful to non-specialist readers, recounts the emergence of Song Confucianism and its masters. Unsatisfied with the conventional philosophical explanation for Zhu Xi’s choice of Zhou Dunyi, Adler argues that one must inquire into Zhu Xi’s life and religious practice to understand his thought. Through a well-justified explanation of Confucianism as a religious tradition, Adler asserts that Zhu Xi’s articulation of the difference between belief and action is fundamental to explain “the peculiar shape taken by the Cheng-Zhu school” (p. 7) and, therefore, to analyze the issue of the succession of the Way or daotong 道統. Through the exposition of biographical, historical, and political elements (chapter 1), Adler shows that Zhu Xi’s vision of the Dao 道 is grounded in the differentiation between Buddhist (Chan) and Confucian metaphysical interpretations, as well as in their concrete applications within society. Zhu Xi aims to find the way to cultivate oneself and to practice the Confucian Dao at a governmental level. Regarding the transmission of the Dao, Adler examines its discontinuous structure through the figures of Confucius, Mencius, Han Yu 韓愈, and the Cheng brothers 二程. He then turns to Zhou Dunyi’s life, and to Hu Hong’s 胡宏 (1105–1155) first assertion that Zhou was the one who carried on the Confucian lineage (see Zhu Xi’s Preface to Master Zhou’s Tongshu, translated by Adler on pp. 32–34). For his part, Zhu Xi discovered Zhou Dunyi’s writings in 1152, but only developed a true interest for his thought under the leadership of his teacher, Li Tong 李侗 (1093–1163), beginning in the 1160s. In chapter 2, Adler pertinently considers Zhu Xi’s discursive strategy and campaign with Zhang Shi 張栻 (1133–1180), through pilgrimages and commemorations (some of which are translated by Adler), to establish Zhou Dunyi’s legitimacy. For Zhu Xi, the parallels between the figures of Fuxi 伏羲 and Zhou Dunyi as well as their expressive styles (trigrams and diagram) prove that Confucianism is the sole authentic Dao, and that only these two sages received it directly from Heaven. Thanks to Zhu Xi’s disciples, the idea of Zhou Dunyi being the first sage of the Song dynasty had become orthodox by the Yuan dynasty (1259–1368). Journal of Chinese Religions, 43. 2, 194–219, November 2015© Society for the Study of Chinese Religions 2015 DOI 10.1179/0737769X15Z.00000000024 But Adler points out that this “scenario” has weaknesses, since Zhu Xi’s 1190 prefaces to the Daxue 大學 and to the Zhongyong 中庸 clearly omit Zhou Dunyi in the transmission of the Way to the benefit of Cheng Hao 程顥 (1032–1085). To solve this contradiction, Adler argues that, in this case, Zhu Xi does not consider the transmission of the Way in general, but only the transmission of these two texts in particular that are further linked to the Cheng brothers’ concerns. One may reply that the issue of authenticity or cheng 誠 is nevertheless fundamental to these two texts and to Zhou Dunyi’s Penetrating the Scripture of Change (Tongshu 通書). For Adler, Zhu Xi’s choice in favor of Zhou Dunyi is a reevaluation of his opinion, and he detects three types of issues—sectarian, philosophical, and historical —that would explain the difficulty of including Zhou Dunyi within the Learning of the Way or daoxue 道學. In chapter 3, Adler considers a central issue of Zhu Xi’s thought, that of unexpressed (weifa 未發) and expressed (yifa 已發) heart-mind (xin 心). He shows that Zhou Dunyi’s concept of “interpenetration of activity and stillness” (jing 靜 dong 動) is the key to the...

Drifting among Rivers and Lakes: Southern Song Dynasty Poetry and the Problem of Literary History by Michael A. Fuller

Reviewed by: Drifting among Rivers and Lakes: Southern Song Dynasty Poetry and the Problem of Literary History by Michael A. Fuller Hilde De Weerdt Drifting among Rivers and Lakes: Southern Song Dynasty Poetry and the Problem of Literary History by Michael A. Fuller. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2013. Pp. xi + 526. $59.95. Drifting among Rivers and Lakes is no ordinary book; it is no ordinary literary history either. It accomplishes three things at once. First, it offers an overview of the major poets and developments in poetic practice during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Second, it anchors this overview in a broader consideration of how understandings of literary practice and the structures of aesthetic experience were changing between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries. Finally, this second and central aspect of Fuller’s work also leads to a new model of literary history. In its contextualization of the literary in larger political, social, and cultural processes, the model may appear reminiscent of literary theory after the cultural turn and New Historicism. However, in seeking to ground literary theory in permanent problems relating to human experience, the model also seeks to integrate European and Chinese philosophies of aesthetics. There are several substantial Chinese-language surveys of Song-period literature in general and poetry in particular, but no such work exists in English. In some ways, Fuller’s contribution to The Cambridge History of Chinese Literature foreshadows the more extensive account in Drifting among Rivers and Lakes.1 In that earlier work, Fuller had already begun to tackle the question of how the development of the Neo-Confucian movement of the Learning of the Way [End Page 471] (Daoxue 道學) reshaped writing by challenging the basic assumptions on which literary and poetic practice rested. In Drifting among Rivers and Lakes, Fuller traces the gradual and multifaceted transformations of poetic practice and discourse during the two centuries when the Learning of the Way moved from the periphery to the center of literati life. In so doing, Fuller offers the best account yet of Southern Song poetry. Some of the poets who play a central role in this account are well known (Yang Wanli 楊萬里, Lu You 陸游, Liu Kezhuang 劉克莊, and Wen Tianxiang 文天祥, for example). Traditional surveys accord some space to these figures and represent them as patriotic heroes or average talents in a period that holds little interest for those focused on the traditional genres of Chinese poetry ascendant during the great age of Tang and Northern Song poetry. In contrast to such standard accounts, Fuller’s work contextualizes the work and literary criticism of these poets (and others now forgotten but well known at the time) and explains how poets, both individually and collectively developed and adapted new understandings of poetic practice. In the first chapters, it becomes evident that the Song reconfiguration of the relationships between language, experience, and meaning does not in fact derive from the purported Learning of the Way founders (the Cheng brothers, Zhang Zai 張載, Shao Yong 邵雍, and Zhou Dunyi 周敦頤). The much broader reorientation toward the self and moral cultivation that took place during the eleventh century set the stage for a thorough rethinking of how poets and poetry expressed meaning and activated aesthetic structures. Scholars from the twelfth century onward have recognized and affirmed the central role of Huang Tingjian 黃庭堅 in this transformation of poetic practice. Fuller explains that, in contrast to his more illustrious contemporary Su Shi 蘇軾, Huang Tingjian broke away from the traditional concept of poetic practice as an irrepressible expression of the human response to all sorts of phenomena in the world. Despite sharing the traditional cultural notion that the natural and the human world are coherent and share patterns, Huang Tingjian nevertheless reoriented poetic response away from phenomenal experience and toward texts. The Chinese textual tradition recorded human responses and moral commitments, contained authoritative insights into human nature, and thus provided for attentive readers the opportunity to discover internally the moral order of the phenomenal and human realms— [End Page 472] a moral order whose discovery depended upon aesthetic experience through the reading of texts. The question that Huang Tingjian and his contemporaries left for twelfth-century literati was how the textual...

Bridging the Divide: Literature, Dao and the Case for Subjective Access in the Thought of Su Shi

In the 11th century in China, there was an unusual moment in which a number of philosophers, later associated with the Daoxue—or Neo-Confucian—school, confronted what they perceived as a long-standing sense of disjunction between inner, subjective reality and the structured patterns of the cosmos. One way they sought to overcome this disjunction was by positing new theories of the cosmos that focused on the underlying, shared reality behind the myriad differentiations of phenomena. A potential tension was born that affected how thinkers understood the relationship between wen 文 (writing, literature, culture) and Dao 道 (the cosmic process, the ultimate reality, the normative path). Some thinkers, like Zhou Dunyi 周敦頤 (1017–1073), believed that wen was simply a vehicle for carrying the Dao, and was thus, implicitly, dispensable. This idea was met with resistance from one of the leading intellectual figures of the time—the philosopher, poet and statesman Su Shi 蘇軾 (1037–1101). While some of Su’s contemporaries, in their attempts to demonstrate that the world was real, and that truth was knowable, downplayed the role of individual experience and perception, Su stressed the necessity of subjective, individual experience as giving access, and concrete expression, to Dao. Su’s philosophical project came in the form of defending the enterprise of wen—writing as a creative, individual endeavor—and asserting that the quest for unity with the Dao could only be realized through direct, personal engagement in wen and other forms of meaningful practice. Through his philosophy of wen, Su sought to show that the search for truth, meaning and order did not—and could not—be achieved by transcending subjective experience. Instead, it had to be carried out at the point of encounter between self and the world, in the realm of practice.