Post-classical Chinese philosophy bringing together Taoist and Confucian beliefs
Xuanxue
(
simplified Chinese
:
玄?
;
traditional Chinese
:
玄學
;
pinyin
:
Xuanxue
;
Wade?Giles
:
Hsuan
2
-hsueh
2
), sometimes called
Neo-Daoism
(Neo-Taoism), is a metaphysical
post-classical
Chinese philosophy
from the
Six Dynasties
(222-589), bringing together
Taoist
and
Confucian
beliefs through revision and discussion. The movement found its scriptural support both in Taoist and drastically reinterpreted Confucian sources.
Xuanxue
, or "Mystic Learning", came to reign supreme in cultural circles, especially at
Jiankang
during the period of division. The concept represented the more abstract, unworldly, and idealistic tendency in early medieval Chinese thought.
Xuanxue
philosophers combined elements of Confucianism and
Taoism
to reinterpret the
I Ching
,
Daodejing
and
Zhuangzi
.
Definition
[
edit
]
The name first compounds
xuan
(
玄
) "black, dark; mysterious, profound, abstruse, arcane." It occurs in the first chapter of the
Daodejing
("
玄之又玄
,
?妙之門
"). The word
xuan
literally depicts a shade of deep, mystical, dark red.
Daodejing
speaks of the
Dao
as
Xuan
, more specifically underpinning the depth, utter impenetrability, and the profound mystery of the
Dao
.
[1]
Xue
(
學
) means "study, learn, learning"; thus,
xuanxue
is literally the "learning" or "study" of the "arcane", "mysterious", or "profound". Therefore, the meaning of
xuanxue
can be described as "study of the mysterious or profound".
In
Modern Standard Chinese
usage,
xuanxue
can mean "Neo-Taoism", "
esoteric
", "
metaphysics
", "
spiritualism
", or "
mysticism
".
The New Treatise on the Uniqueness of Consciousness
by
Xiong Shili
defines
Xuanxue
as "dark/obscure/mysterious/profound learning". The concept can be described by such abstractions as "to initiate no action", "emptiness", "one and the many", "root and branches", "having and not having", and the "emotional responses" and "pattern".
[2]
In modern Chinese,
Xuanxue
is also taken to refer to
astrology
,
geomancy
and other popular
religious arts
.
[1]
Another translation of
xuanxue
could be "learning of the dark."
[3]
History
[
edit
]
Xuanxue arose after the
Han dynasty
(206 BCE-220 CE) in early
Medieval China
. It is mainly represented by a few scholars, namely
Wang Bi
(226-249),
He Yan
(d. 249),
Xiang Xiu
(223?-300),
Guo Xiang
(d. 312) and
Pei Wei
(267-300).
[1]
In general, these scholars sought to reinterpret the social and moral understanding of Confucianism in ways to make it more compatible with Taoist philosophy.
[1]
Xuanxue
philosophers of the
Han dynasty
were concerned with restoring unity and harmony to the land, not by condemning the teachings of the
sages
, but by interpreting them in new ways.
Xuanxue
thinkers thereby developed their theories by reinterpreting the relationship between Taoist and Confucian texts through an appreciation of their common themes.
[1]
Through this
syncretic
movement, the "Way of Mysterious Learning" (
Xuanxue
) emerged.
Two influential
Xuanxue
scholars were Wang Bi and Guo Xiang, editors and leading commentators on the
Daodejing
and
Zhuangzi
, respectively.
[1]
For instance, the
Daodejing
exists in two received versions named after the commentaries. While the "Heshang Gong version" explains textual references to Daoist meditation, the "Wang Bi version" does not.
Richard Wilhelm
said the Wang Bi commentary changed the
Daodejing
"from a compendiary of magical meditation to a collection of free philosophical
apercus
."
One of the major defining features of Zhengshi Xuanxue is the "
Pure Conversation
" (
?談
) gatherings that took place among political and intellectual elites from the 3rd century onward, through which intellectuals questioned tradition and shared their ideas during the
Wei
-
Jin
and
Six Dynasties
periods.
[4]
These sessions were transformed versions of the more politically charged "Pure Criticism" (
?議
) protests of the later Han, which were, in turn, continuations of political remonstration practices.
[4]
Much of Xuanxue had become divorced from the realities of life and afforded an escape from it.
During the 5th-century CE,
Xuanxue
formed a part of the official curriculum at the
Guozijian
, together with Ru (
Confucian
learning),
Literature
, and
History
.
[1]
Although
Xuanxue
does not represent one monolithic school of thought, it does encompass a broad range of philosophical positions.
Function
[
edit
]
The goal of
Xuanxue
is to bring to light the nature and function of
Dao
, which appears dark and impenetrable. It started from the assumption that all temporally and spatially limited phenomena (anything "nameable"; all movement, change, and diversity; in short, all "being") is produced and sustained by one impersonal principle, which is unlimited, unnameable, unmoving, unchanging, and undiversified.
[5]
Rather than a school of set doctrines,
Xuanxue
is a broad, dynamic intellectual front. Many
Xuanxue
scholars argued that "words cannot fully express meaning," as meaning transcends the limiting confines of language.
Xuanxue
seeks to bring together Confucian and Daoist ideologies with fresh annotation and discourse, working with the classical definitions, doctrines, and rules set by previous philosophers.
[1]
The concept of
Wu
is central to
Xuanxue
. It is translated as "
nothing
", "nothingness", "
non-being
", and "
negativity
".
[6]
The Tao can literally only be described as nameless and formless, not having any characteristics of things. That the Tao is the "mother of all life" is also central to
Xuanxue
ideology. Because of the Tao being the beginning of all things, while simultaneously being indescribable and non-being, the Tao is said to be "dark" or "mysterious" (
xuan
).
[6]
Misinterpretations
[
edit
]
Xuanxue
should not be misinterpreted as interchangeable with the
Dao
. Rather,
Xuanxue
is the study of the mystery and darkness of the intangible.
Dao
represents
xuan
, the mystical that is central to the philosophy. The
Dao
supplies the subject matter/basis for the "Mystic Learning" that underpins the thinkings and teachings of
Xuanxue
.
[7]
Xuanxue
aims at unlocking the mystery of the
Dao
, but should not be confused with a revival of preceding schools of Taoism.
[1]
Xuanxue
is committed to analytic rigor and clarity in explicating the meaning of
Dao
, employing the new, contemporary language of the time. However, critics sometimes condemn it as "dark" because they judge it as obfuscating and detrimental to the flourishing of
Dao
.
[8]
They use phrases like "dark words" (
xuanyan
) or "dark discourse" (
xuanlun
) in a pejorative sense, indicating that to them
Xuanxue
was nothing but convoluted empty talk. In these contexts,
xuan
may be translated as "abstruse", "obscure", or words to that effect.
[8]
To classify
Xuanxue
as merely "Neo-Taoism" misleadingly reinforces suggestions that Wei-Jin thinkers were only "reinterpreting Confucianism through the lens of Taoism" (Chan 2010: 5). Chan points out that since
xuan
(
玄
) is already something "obscure" and "insubstantial" in Chinese,
xuanxue
can be left "untranslated, though not unexplained" (Chan 2010: 6).
Xuanxue
is also often classified as "Profound Learning". Although "profound" is more appropriate than "dark", ambiguity is still an issue with this classification.
[8]
Xuanxue
is not a kind of scholasticism that pitches one school against another. Instead of seeing them as attempting to reconcile Confucianism with Taoism, it may be suggested that they were primarily concerned with the substantive issue of the relationship between
mingjiao
and
ziran
.
[8]
References
[
edit
]
Further reading
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]