| The Comments of a Recluse by Wang Fu has had a major influence on Chinese intellectual history. It is one of the very few extant primary sources of information on the governmental activities and daily life of the middle years of the Later Han dynasty (A.D. 25-220). Secondly, Wang Fu has been recognized as an exemplar by later reformers in China and Japan. In addition, the book is one of the longest surviving works representing the syncretic and critical thinking of Later Han dissidents.To Chinese political theorists' continuing debate on human nature, Wang Fu contributed his ideas and developed the concept of the worthy ((' )(, ) ) and related this concept to governmental institutions and practices. Like others of his time, he considered worthies to have both strengths and weaknesses unlike many, he thought such men were far from rare in his own era. For Wang Fu, even the weaknesses of worthies were useful if they were recognized honestly and used appropriately, by the individual in his life-long education, and by the ruler in making official assignments. In addition to this analysis of human nature, education and the methods of selecting the worthy, Wang Fu also described what he felt would improve operation of the existing governmental structure, one in which an active ruler determined policy and supervised officials while allowing them considerable autonomy in their implementation of these policies in their mandated jurisdictions.These arguments were not abstract theories but a response to the conditions of his day. Wang Fu had, through his friendships with Chang Heng, Tou Chang, Ma Jung, and Ts'ui Yuan, access to information on the dominance of the consort clans, selection procedures, and governmental structure. Therefore, we can conclude that the Comments are indeed "sufficient for the observation of the customs and government of that time: as stated by Fan Yeh, the author of the standard History of the Later Han.To use the Comments as an historical source, we need to understand his attitudes and opinions, and to see those opinions in the context of the problems and debates of his time. This dissertation deals with both tasks, and also provides essential background information for this first extended analysis of Wang Fu's political thought and translations of major portions of the Comments. |
