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The Dialogue Between Yang Ju and Chyntzyy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

A. C. Graham
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Extract

Yang Ju is one of the Chinese philosophers of whom we know least. In the fourth century B. C. his doctrines and those of Mohtzyy were the two most successful rivals of Confucianism.1 In the literature of the next century his school is rarely mentioned, perhaps because it had been absorbed into Taoism.2 The most familiar summary of his teaching is that of Mencius:

Type
Articles
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 22 , Issue 2 , June 1959 , pp. 291 - 299
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 1959

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References

1 Mencius (Legge), 3B/9, 7B/26.

2 cf. Ferng Yeoulan Jonggwo jershyue shyy 8th ed., Commercial Press, 1947, 1/173.

3 Mencius (Legge), 7A/26.

1 Liehtzyy, 7/4B, 5A. (Unless otherwise stated, all references to texts are to the editions in the Syhbuh tsonghm ) The two occurrences of (normally ‘if so, then …’) present difficulty. Yang Borjiunn takes them as equivalent to ‘however’ (Liehtzyy jyishyh Shanghai, 1958, 146).

1 cf. Yang Borjiunn, ut sup., 185–245. Jang Shincherng , Weyshu tongkao Commercial Press, 1957 edition, 818–33. Defenders of the pre-Hann origin of the Liehtzyy include Maspero, H., La Chine antique, Paris, 1927, 491Google Scholar f.; Waley, Arthur, Three ways of thought in ancient China, London, 1939, 257Google Scholar-9; Karlgren, B., Poetical parts in Lao-tsï, Göteborg, 1932, 26Google Scholar. But Creel, H. G. (JAOS, LXXVI, 3, 1956, 151) agrees with the predominant Chinese opinion, which I also share.Google Scholar

2 op. cit., 1/168–79.

3 Peking, 1957, 337–50.Google Scholarpower, London, 1934, 34 f.

5 Liehtzyy, Preface, 1B/4.

6 The story of Yang Ju and the King of Liang (7/5B/11–6A/3) is also found in the Shuoyuann (7/17B). The section on the “preservation of self” (7/5B/8–6B/2) resembles certain chapters of the Leushyh chuenchiou which may be connected with Yang Ju (cf. p. 294 below), although it discusses the relation between self and outside things from a slightly different point of view. The conclusion (7/7A/6–10) was clearly added by an editor to modify the uncompromising rejection of ‘reputation’ by the hedonist author. (The pairing of quotations from Yuhtzyy and Laotzyy, 7/7A/6, is found elsewhere in the Liehtzyy, 2/9A/5–9, 6/4A/13f.)

1 Liehtzyy 7/5A/5–5B/11.

2 ut sup., 7/3A/12, 14, 3B/3, 5B/7.

3 ut sup., 7/2A/11–14.

4 ut sup., 7/3B/13–4A/13.

5 ut sup., 7/1B/9, 3B/5.

6 Leushyh chuenchiou, 17/18B/2. Tne late Hann commentator Gau Yeou identifles Yang Sheng with Yang Ju. The Yang Tzyyjiu Juangtzyy, 7/28A/7, 9/17A/5 appears in Liehtzyy, 2/8B/1, 9 as Yang Ju.

7 Hwainantzyy, 13/7A/12–7B/1.

8 The phrase is often written cf. Leushyh chuenchiou, 1/4A/9, 2/5A/5, 7f. (cf. 1/5A/6); Goantzyy 21/2B/5–8.

3 op. cit., 1/170.

1 Emending after Juangtzyy, 9/18A/5.

2 Leushyh chuenchiou, 2/3B/5–10.

3 The first syllable of the personal name is also written and its reading is uncertain.

4 Among the pre-Hann and Hann texts indexed by the Harvard-Yenching Institute and the Centre d'Études Sinologiques de Pekin, he is called Chyn Guuli in the Juangtzyy, Leushyh chuenchiou, Shuoyuann, Shyyjih Chyntzyy in the Mohtzyy alone. In one chapter found, with variations, in both the Mohtzyy and the Leushyh chuenchiou, he is called Chyntzyy in the former (1/7A/2), and Chyn Guuli in the latter (2/10B/8f.). In the Liehtzyy itself, he is always called Chyn Guuli in other parts of the book (5/7B/9), ineluding the Yang Ju chapter (7/4A/10f.).

1 Juangtzyy, 5/7B/4–8A/4.

2 Juangtzyy 9/20B/7–21B/2, Leushyh chuenchiou, 21/7A/3–7B–2.

3 Juangtzyy, 4/3B/4–6, cf. 4/22B/5–23A/3; 5/21A/1; 8/28A/5, 29A/2.

4 Mohtzyy, 12/1A.

1 It is perhaps worth noticing that the lost Shytzyy which had passages in common with the Liehtzyy (cf. p. 293 above) and was perhaps one of its sources, contained a large Mohist element. The surviving quotations include the story of Mohtzyy and Gongshu Ban a list of philosophers in which Mohtzyy comes first and Confucius second, a reference to Yeu rejecting prolonged mourning, and a couple of references to ‘universal love’ (Shytzyy, Syhbuh beyyaw A, 14B–15B; A, 14B/3; B, 2B/8–10; A, 12B/1, 16A/8).

1 If the hedonist author wrote this dialogue, it is almost worthless as evidence that Yang Ju was the contemporary of a disciple of Mohtzyy; for elsewhere (7/2A/14) he presents a dialogue between Goan Jonq (died 645 B.C.) and Yanntzyy (died 493 B.C.). He can hardly have failed to know that these two were not contemporaries; his stories, like others in the Juangtzyy and Liehtzyy, are evidently offered frankly as parables and not as history. But if the dialogue with Chyntzyy comes from an older source, it may be taken as confirming the evidence of a statement in the Hwainantzyy (13/7AB, partly quoted p. 294 above) that Yang Ju criticized Mohtzyy and was in turn criticized by Mencius. The King of Liang with whom Yang Ju is said to have conversed (Shuoyuann, 7/17B, Liehtzyy, 7/5B) was not necessarily the King Huey (370–319 B.C.) visited by Mencius (Mencius, 1A/1), who was the first ruler of Liang with the title of King; the title was sometimes given retrospectively to earlier rulers of a state (Maa Shiuhluen Laotzyy jiawguu Peking, 1956 edition, 13).