Studies On The Si-Shu-Xue (四书学) In The Yuan Dynasty

On the history of the Si-Shu-Xue, the Yuan dynasty is a period that worthy of our special attention. The dissertation studies the Si-Shu-Xue of the Yuan dynasty from the following aspects: the historical and cultural background of its rising; the systematism and the effect of its official learning position; its geographical distribution and learning succession; its school, pedigree and features. The dissertation also makes objective evaluation of the position of the Si-Shu-Xue of the Yuan dynasty in academic history.Zhaofu, a Confucian in the south China, was captured to the north in the war of Mongolia attacking Southern Song Dynasty. Then he gave lectures in the Tai-Ji-Shu-Yuan (太极书院). It's the beginning of the propagation of the Si-Shu-Xue in the northern area. The north-forwad propagation of the Si-Shu-Xue gave a heavy pound to the traditional ways of study and interpretation ancient books in the north. Xu Heng, Liu Yin and other Confucians in the north turned to study the argumentation of Si-Shu, combining profundity with virtue. Kublai, the representative of Mongolia rulers, after widely getting in touch with the people and culture of Han ethnic, gradually realized the importance of Confucian's theory in stabilizing the regime, and he finally chose "administering the country with Confucian" as his cultural policy. Although this policy oscillated during the implementation process, the content of Si-Shu was obvious day by day. The Si-Shu-Xue of the Yuan dynasty developed under this historical background.The Si-Shu-Xue did not enter the official learning area in the Southern Song dynasty at the time when Zhu Xi lived. Reversely, it suffered a lot in the "Qing-Yuan-Dang-Jin" (庆元党禁). Although since Li-Zong (理宗) times of the Southern Song dynasty the Si-Shu-Xue gradually entered official area from popular and realized its systematism of official learning in certain degree, it was not confirmed as a country's policy from beginning to the end. The Imperial Examination restored during the Yuan-Ren-Zong (元仁宗)'s Huang-Qing (皇庆) and Yan-You (延祐) period. The rule was that the first examination's question should be chosen from the Si-Shu, and should only be judged by Zhu Xi's annotations. In this way, the Si-Shu-Xue's official position was firstly affirmed as the country's policy. The systematism of the Si-Shu-Xue's official learning position had a powerful conductive function. Therefore, the Si-Shu-Xue got a wider popularizing in the society of the Yuan dynasty. Imperial college and local schools of Yuan dynasty also took Si-Shu and Xiao-Xue (《小学》) as the most important teaching materials. The systematism of the Si-Shu-Xue's official learning position also gave Si-Shu-Xue obvious features of Imperial Examination-rization. At this time, many books, which were for the Imperial Examination, appeared.Observing the Si-Shu-Xue of the Yuan dynasty from the geographical distribution, there were mainly three academic centers: northern China, Jiang-Zhe (江苏,浙江) province and Jiangxi province. The Fujian province, where held academic activities most frequently before Zhu Xi's death, became relatively bleak. Hu-Xiang district, once had a lot of academic associations, became rare active. These were the new trend of the dissemination of Si-Shu-Xue in the Yuan dynasty, which had direct relationship of the north-forward movement of the Yuan dynasty's politic center. Observing the learning succession of the scholars of the Si-Shu-Xue, the formation of the center of Si-Shu-Xue in the north was credited to Jianghan (江汉) Zhao Fu; And the formation of two Si-Shu-Xue centers in the south, Jiang-Zhe province and Jiang Xi provingce, was credited to Zhu Xi's best student Huang Gan.As far as the Si-Shu-Xue's school pedigree in the north, there were mainly three schools: the school of Lu-Zhai (鲁斋学派), taking Xu Heng as representative; the school of Jing-Xiu (静修学派), taking Liu Yin as representative; and the unique one, school of Chen-Tian-Xiang (陈天祥派). The school of Lu-Zhai took Si-Shu as the divinities, what they commented on never beyond Zhu Xi's words. Their works were easy to understand, but they realized the academic relationship between Xiao-Xue and Si-Shu from the complete system of Zhu Xi's Si-Shu-Xue. The school of Jing-Xiu took the analytical and reserved attitude to Zhu Xi's Si-Shu. Compare with the school of Lu-Zhai, they worked more careful and attentive in Si-Shu-Ji-Zhu (《四书集注》). They opposed Zhu Xi's opinion on the relationship of Si-shu and Liu-Jing (《六经》), and advocated that Liu-Jing should be studied first. Their efforts of trying to reverse the superficial at the time of late Song dynasty and early Yuan dynasty, showed their matter-of-fact spirit. Chen Tianxiang did not belong to the school of Cheng-zhu (程朱学派), and he was deeply affected by Wang Ruoxu, a Jing's Confucian. Cheng Tianxiang wrote fifteen volumes' Si-Shu-Bian-Yi (《四书辨疑》) , criticizing and supplementing the Si-Shu-Ji-Zhu, showing the distinctive features of northern academic.As far as the Si-Shu-Xue's school pedigree in the south, there were also mainly three schools: the school of Bei-Shan (北山学派), taking Jin Luxiang and Xu Xian as representatives; the school of Cao-Lu (草庐学派), taking Wu Cheng as representative; the school of Xin-An (新安学派), taking Chen Li, Hu Bingwen and Ni Shiyi as representatives. The school of Bei-Shan called themselves "the real successors of Zhu Xi's scholarship", highly praised Zhu Xi's Si-Shu-Xue. In certain degree, they had the spirit of doubting and analyzing, so they kept much academic vigor. However, in the later period, they were limited to annotating classics, made the Zhu-Xue (朱学) to the dead end of "seeking results from the annotation". The school of Cao-Lu criticized the mistakes of Zhu Xi's words, but they thought those were only little flews. They also agreed to Zhu Xi's Dao-Tong-Lun (道统论) of Si-Shu-Xue. What they contributed most was combining the studies of Zhu and Lu, and making Zhu-Xue and Lu-xue obtain the chances of survival. The school of Xin-An treated Zhu Xi as an outstanding Confucian, and they took protecting and keeping authentic of Zhu Xi's words as their responsibility. They mainly did one job on the former Si-Shu-Xue works, called "deleting those disobeyed Zhu Xi", showing their distinct features of "Zong-Zhu" (宗朱).In conclusion, the total achievement of Si-Shu-Xue in the Yuan dynasty was not high, but it has its unique position in academic history. Firstly, in the Yuan dynasty, Si-Shu-Xue realized systematism of its official learning position for the first time. In this way, learning and authority combined effectively. Si-Shu-Xue was popularized in the widest range from upper class to the lower class; and it produced profound effect to the Chinese society. Secondly, the Si-Shu-Xue of the Yuan dynasty "combined Zhu and Lu's studies". It played transitional role between Song dynasty's Li-Xue (理学) and Ming dynasty's Xin-Xue (心学).