Research On Pre-Qin Scholars In Yang Xiong’s Vision

In Yang Xiong’s mind,Laozi and Zhuangzi of Taoist school in the pre-Qin period were inferior to the scholars of Confucian school in the pre-Qin period,but higher than other scholars in the pre-Qin period.As for Laozi,Yang Xiong strongly criticized Laozi’s idea of "beating up benevolence and righteousness and destroying Rites",thought that "human beings without learning are no different from birds";he absorbed Laozi’s idea of inaction and advocated the natural inaction of the way of heaven,but he did not completely deduce this idea to human affairs and advocated that human beings should do something;he absorbed Laozi’s idea of "Tao" and "Virtue",and juxtaposed Tao,virtue,benevolence,righteousness and rites and combined "morality" with "benevolence and righteousness" to make "morality" and "ethics" the same concept,which referred to the Confucian content such as benevolence,righteousness,propriety,wisdom and faith,so as to achieve the purpose of helping Taoism into Confucianism;he transformed the "metaphysics" of Laozi’s description of "Tao",which was promoted to a similar position with "Tao",and brought the Confucian ethics into "metaphysics" as an objective rule of human affairs,so as to achieve the purpose of replacing "Tao" with "metaphysics" for Confucian;he absorbed Laozi’s dialectics and put forward "emphasizing on Yang" and "emphasizing on motion" which were different from Laozi’s "emphasizing on Yin" and "emphasizing on motionless" so as to realize the transcendence of Laozi’s dialectics;he also drew on Laozi’s view of the cycle of heaven,put forward the nine stage cycle view,and digitized Laozi’s thought of the relationship between happiness and disaster;he ignored Laozi’s deceitful "wisdom",seemed to give full play to Laozi’s "wisdom" of cognitive ability in language form,advocated great wisdom,and put forward "independent wisdom";he advocated Laozi’s idea of valuing softness and being indisputable as his wisdom of "protecting one’s body".As for Zhuangzi,Yang Xiong criticized Zhuangzi for violating Confucian laws and abandoning rites,that is,"being dissolute and lawless" and "neglecting the relationship of the king and the ministers";he thought that Zhuangzi was so afraid that he put forward the thought of "balancing life and death,the rich and the poor,the noble and the humble",and criticized that this thought violated Confucian sage’s ethics,making the sage’s words meaningless;he thought that although Zhuangzi had wrong words,he also had desirable "Virtue" which was the virtue of natural nature inherited by Zhuangzi from Laozi;he affirmed Zhuangzi’s "less desire" and used it to improve personal moral cultivation;he appreciated Zhuangzi’s talent and gave a pity that Zhuangzi didn’t enter the sage’s door;under the influence of Zhuangzi’s thought of protecting one’s life,he advocated that people should be wise in protecting one’s life,alienate himself from politics,move forward when the time comes,decide to hide or show by themself,and be active for doing something,so as to seek a new way of life for later intellectuals.Confucius,Mencius and Xunzi of pre-Qin Confucianism do not belong to Yang Xiong’s so-called scholars,and their status are naturally higher than other pre Qin philosophers.Their positions in Yang Xiong’s mind are Confucius,Mencius and Xunzi.As for Confucius,in Yang Xiong’s eyes,Confucius learned from Duke Zhou and taught Yan Yuan,who was the orthodoxy of sages;his ideas could "influence later generations" and "be full of heaven and earth",firmly carried out his ideas,even if "aggrieving himself",and put his hope on "later gentlemen" if he could not carry out his ideas in the current time;he was happy to know his destiny and cherished time more for being busy;he wrote "the five classics" to spread the thoughts of sages;he was also a sage who can be compared to heaven and earth so that his words was the highest standard,rule the world by rites,not talk about gods and monsters,show at the right time,be changeable and so on.Yang Xiong advocated to restore the original features of the five classics,through Confucius’ contribution to the five classics,he advocated that the classics could be modified;he inherited Confucius’ benevolence thought,and put forward the theory of "universal love is benevolence" and "self love is the highest benevolence";he affirmed and inherited Confucius’ view of destiny,and advocated the dual view of destiny and human affairs;he affirmed Confucius’ principle of "middle",and applied and developed it;he received Confucius’ thought of rites,discussed the essence of rites,and put forward the theory of “self respect is the highest rite”;he affirmed Confucius did "pass on but not add anything new" to the fundamental thought of Confucianism,but advocated to "inherit and create" within the framework of Confucianism.As for Mencius,in Yang Xiong’s eyes,Mencius’ knowledge was no different from that of Confucius;Mencius knew and practiced "the essentials of the sage’ words and virtues";Mencius was brave in righteousness and decisive in virtue,and did not move his heart by the rich or the poor,the noble or the humble,and death or life;Mencius was tough,but he was still a master of various countries.Yang Xiong praised Mencius for inheriting the way of sages to criticize Yang zhu and Mosai,and compared himself to Mencius,so as to raise Mencius’ status;he inherited Mencius’ thought of emphasizing "thinking",emphasized the importance of "thinking",and put forward the theory of "metaphysical thinking";he gave full play to Mencius’ idea of "sages are the same as me",and proposed that everyone can become a sage;he affirmed and advocated the well-field system and Shi-Yi tax advocated by Mencius;he opposed Mencius’ s idea of "sages come out every 500 years" and advocated the historical view of changing according to the time and inheriting or innovating,at the same time which cleared the time barrier for the emergence of sages.As for Xunzi,Yang Xiong’s evaluation of Xunzi is not much.Because Xunzi criticized Mencius,Yang Xiong thought that Xunzi and Mencius were holding the same views with minor differences.Although there are few comments on Xunzi,Yang Xiong has absorbed many thoughts of Xunzi.In the aspect of learning,Yang Xiong’s theory was based on Xunzi’s theory,and he accepted Xunzi’s thoughts to varying degrees in academic efficacy,emphasis on teachers,academic methods and academic spirit;in the aspect of epistemology,Yang Xiong inherited Xunzi’s materialist view,attached importance to the role of mind and sense organs in cognition,emphasized that speech should be tested,and advocated keeping the inner mind clear in cognition;he affirmed and practiced the ideas of understanding thoughts of Confucian sages,imitating the sages and refering to Confucian classics,which were firstly put forward by Xunzi;he put forward the theory of "good and evil are mixed",but influencing by Xunzi’s theory of "human nature is evil",he put more emphasis on the evil and the transformation of the evil in human nature,and his theory of human nature is closer to Xunzi’s theory.Other scholars in the pre-Qin period include Mozi,Gongsun Long,Zou Yan and Han Fei,whoes status in Yang Xiong’s mind shoud be: Han Fei,Mozi,Zou Yan and Gongsun Long.As for Mozi,in Yang Xiong’s view,Mozi blocked the way of Confucian sages and abandoned etiquette because of thrift.Yang Xiong absorbed "universal love" advocated by Mozi,and brought it into the category of "benevolence",thus enriching and developing the Confucian concept of benevolence.As for Gongsun long,Yang Xiong admitted his identity as a "debater" and criticized his tens of thousands of sophistries which can not be imitated and can not be took as a criterion,and he was even less likely to make a "beaver change" to become a sage.As for Zou Yan,Yang Xiong thought that his theory was "unreasonable and unbelievable" so that he was "ignorant between heaven and earth";but Zou Yan had standard speeches in line with "classics" which can finally be stayed in benevolence,righteousness and thrift,and the etiquette and righteousness of the monarch and his ministers;Yang Xiong used Zou Yan’s theory of big and small nine continents for reference to create the space structure of his Taixuan,absorbed Zou Yan’s concept of Yin Yang and five elements to construct the universe model of Taixuan.As for Han Fei,in Yang Xiong’s eyes,it was "the most inhumane" that Han Fei didn’t follow the example of sages so as to emphasize severe punishment and negative education;Han Fei died of the difficulty of "the difficulty of lobbying" which rooted in "lobbying doesn’t follow the way of sages";Han Fei was talented,but it was a pity that he went astray and did not enter the door of sages;the same root of Han Fei and Zhuangzi was Laozi,and Han Fei’s’ status in Yang Xiong’s heart was second only to Taoism.