Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T06:50:52.321Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

15 - Confucian, Legalist, and Taoist thought in Later Han

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

Ch'en Ch'I-Yün
Affiliation:
University of California, Santa Barbara
Get access

Summary

Many thinkers in Later Han China were in a mood of disillusionment and bewilderment. They were dissatisfied with the social environment in which they found themselves; they considered the political, social, and economic practices of the time to be utterly corrupt. From their common Confucian background, these thinkers blamed the ruling regime for failing to curb the evil, and for failing to reform the affairs of the state; these were moral and political failings which they regarded as prime causes of other ills. Some of these thinkers went a step further and cast doubt on the prevailing Confucian doctrines, which for centuries had been the guiding principles of the state. Since these thinkers were nominal Confucians, their distress has been obscured by the so-called triumph of Confucianism in Han times, and by the highly conservative doctrine propagated by the Later Han court as the official Confucian orthodoxy. The tension between the official Confucian teaching as established in Former Han and its nonofficial critique arising in the Later Han not only evinces the diversity and complexity of Han Confucianism; it also marks an important change in the general intellectual trend from Former Han to Later Han.

With the fall of Later Han, the official Confucian orthodoxy perished. Much later it was denounced by the neo-Confucians as well as by many modern scholars as a vulgar mixture of Confucianism, Taoism, Legalism, and yin-yang and Five Elements cosmological thought. On the other hand, the criticism of this orthodoxy by Later Han thinkers has often been praised as being truly representative of the Confucian moral spirit.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1986

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Dubs, Homer H. The History of the Former Han dynasty. 3 vols. Baltimore: Waverly Press, 1938–55. [abbreviation: HFHD]
Ebrey, Patricia Buckley. The aristocratic families of early imperial China: A case study of the Po-ling Ts'ui family. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1978. [abbreviation: Aristocratic families]
Ebrey, Patricia Buckley. “Estate and family management in the Later Han as seen in the Monthly instructions for the four classes of people”. Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 17 (1974). [abbreviation: “Estate and family management”]Google Scholar
Bielenstein, Hans. The bureaucracy of Han times. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1980. [abbreviation: Bureaucracy]
Hervouet, Yves. Le Chapitre 117 du Che-ki (Biographie de Sseu-ma Siang-jou); traduction avec notes. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1972.
Hervouet, Yves. Un poète de cour sous les Han: Sseu-ma Siang-jou. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1964. [abbreviation: Un poète de cour]
Bielenstein, Hans. “Lo-yang in Later Han times.Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, 48 (1976). [abbreviation: “Lo-yang”]Google Scholar
Mather, Richard B., trans. Shih-shuo hsin-yü: A new account of tales of the world. By I-ch'ing., Liu, commentary by Chun, Liu. Translated with introduction and notes. Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press, 1976.
Munro, Donald J. The concept of man in early China. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford Univ. Press, 1969.
Wallacker, Benjamin E.Han Confucianism and Confucius in Han.” In Ancient China: Studies in early civilization, eds. Roy, David T. and Tsien, Tsuenhsuin. Hong Kong: Chinese Univ. Press, 1978.Google Scholar
Chen, Chi-yun (Ch'en Ch'i-yün). “A Confucian magnate's idea of political violence: Hsün Shuang's (128–190) interpretation of the Book of changes,” T'oung Pao, 54 (1968).Google Scholar
Ch'en, Ch'i-yün. Hsün Yüeh and the mind of Late Han China: A translation of the Shen-chien with introduction and annotations. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1980. [abbreviation: Hsün Yüeh and the mind of Late Han China]
Chiang, Jun-hsün Wei-liang, Ch'en, and Ping-liang, Ch'en Chia I yen-chiu. Hong Kong: Ch'iu-ching Yin-wu Kung-ssu, 1958.

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×