Multicultural and political variations were the main characteristics of the Yuan Dynasty in Chinese history. As a result of such socio-political situation, the Yuan Dynasty saw a unique epoch. The socio-political situation that scholars experienced during this dynasty was more complicated than any other dynasties in Chinese history. For that reason, it is of epoch-making significance to conduct a study of these scholars’ outlook on life and their alternative lifestyle during the Yuan Dynasty. Meanwhile, some current researchers argue that the Study of Confucian Classics (經學) was at a low ebb during the Yuan Dynasty, and accordingly, it is not worth conducting much research on the literature of this period. Nevertheless, such points of view seem to be too subjective and arbitrary, possibly misleading other scholars. It is the writer’s intention to find out the true state of affairs concerning the Study of Confucian Classics during the Yuan Dynasty and reevaluate the remarkable achievements of the literature of that time.
The thesis consists of five chapters, closely related to two aspects: scholars’ outlook on life and their Study of Confucian Classics in the Yuan Dynasty. The first two chapters are focused on the studies of what kind of outlook on life that the scholars held and how they reacted accordingly when they faced a new socio-political situation during the Yuan Dynasty. Chapters Three to Five are closely related to the Study of Confucian Classics in the Yuan Dynasty, providing thorough analysis of how the study was carried out, achievement, distinctive features, and various schools of the study in the Yuan society. The following is the description of each chapter.
-Chapter One-
The Thoughts and Reactions of the Scholars
During the Song, Jin and Yuan Dynasties
Facing the dynastic changes, psychologically, what outlook on life did scholars really have in the Song, Jin and Yuan dynasties? On the other hand, in reality, what kind of appropriate and positive actions did they take when they had to respond to the new socioeconomic challenge? These are the main issues that the writer will discuss in detail in this chapter which contains three sections. The first section analyzes the socioeconomic background of northern China which was in a state of war between the Jin and Yuan dynasties. The analysis shows what sort of difficulties that scholars had to face under the threat of life or death at that time. The next section discusses what voluntary and active actions the scholars in northern China took so as to preserve the literature of Confucian Classics and its cultural characteristics (保種存文). Then, the following discussion covers how the scholars in northern and southern China, who were under the control of the new dynasties, i.e. the Jin-Yuan, Song-Yuan, and Yuan-Ming dynasties, gradually changed their thoughts about the traditional orthodox ideas of the Han Chinese against the barbarian culture. In addition, it is also an important point in this section examining how Chinese orthodox thought affected the scholars’ outlook on life and their alternative lifestyle during the Meng-Yuan ages.
-Chapter Two-
Scholars’ Dilemma After the Meng-Yuan Unification of China
This chapter, based on analysis of large data, examines various motivations and choices the scholars had regarding their willingness of serving as officials for the new dynasty after the Meng-Yuan unification of China. There are three sections in this chapter, examining three types of scholars respectively: scholars who were willing to become officials for the new dynasty (出仕元廷之士人), scholars who refused to take up the post of officials for the new dynasty (絕意仕進之士人), and scholars who preferred to remain recluses (游移仕隱之士人). This chapter discusses all kinds of reasons that caused these scholars to make their own decisions. Through such analysis, it reveals the similarities and differences of attitude towards life between scholars in the Meng-Yuan Dynasty and those in other dynasties.
-Chapter Three-
The Influence of Official Policies in the Yuan Dynasty
Toward Study of Confucian Classics
The highlight of this chapter is the analysis of the relevant measures adopted by official policy in the Yuan Dynasty so as to find out the possible policy effects on the development of the Study of Confucian Classics at that time. The three sections in this chapter first examined the fact that all emperors of the Yuan Dynasty advocated Confucianism. As a result, the implementation of various relevant policies played a positive role in the development of the Study of Confucian Classics. Secondly, the influence of the imperial official policies can be viewed from the imperial examination system in the Meng-Yuan Dynasty. The writer demonstrated the fact that the Study of Confucian Classics was set as an important component in the imperial examination system during the Yuan Dynasty, which was a turning point in the imperial procedure of employing officials. Consequently, the strong washback effect of the imperial examination system played a very positive role in the spread of the Study of Confucian Classics. Furthermore, this chapter discussed the institutional establishment of the Study of Confucian Classics in educational curricula at both national and local levels, the development of various academies of classical learning, and the teaching contents of such academies of classical learning at different places. All these show that school education had a strong influence on the Study of Confucian Classics. Finally, this chapter also demonstrated the spread of Confucianism in outlying areas, which is one of the features of the development of the Study of Confucian Classics in the Yuan Dynasty.
-Chapter Four-
The Development and Distribution of
the Study of Confucian Classics in the Yuan Dynasty
This chapter discusses in detail the progress of “Study of Confucian Classics” both chronically and synchronically in the Meng-Yuan Dynasty, showing how the study of the classics was developed at different places and at different times. First of all, chronically, the Study of Confucian Classics during this dynasty could be divided into three periods for the purpose of this thesis. Then, the writer demonstrated when Meng-Yuan had unified China, different academia from both northern and southern China, which had originally developed on their own, started to have academic exchanges on a large scale. The focus of this thesis is on the academic influence from southern China on the development of the Confucian classics in northern China. Furthermore, synchronically, the writer has presented a statistical analysis of the number of scholars of Confucian classics and amount academic works they produced in the twelve main administrative provinces during the Meng-Yuan Dynasty, which provided empirical evidence of the rise and fall of the Study of Confucian Classics. Another key point of this chapter is focused on the phenomenon that “the major academic achievement of the Study of Confucian Classics was shifted from northern China to the South,” revealing the historical background of China’s academic change from the Yellow River valley to the lower Yangtze River valley. Finally, this chapter analyzes the influence of various possible causal factors such as war, politics, economy, population, schools, academic atmosphere, book carving business and traffic, etc. in the geographic distribution of the Study of Confucian Classics in the Yuan Dynasty.
-Chapter Five-
Summary of the “Study of Confucian Classics” in the Yuan Dynasty
This chapter examines the development of the Study of Confucian Classics during the Yuan Dynasty from certain aspects so as to demonstrate how the study was different from that in any other dynasties in Chinese history. First of all, the Study of Confucian Classics could be examined along with the changing position of the “Five Classics (五經)” and the “Four Books (四書)” during that historical period. Next, the position of the “Four Books” was evaluated in terms of its position in the imperial examination systems of the Song, Yuan and Ming Dynasties, and in terms of the main research interest of scholars at that time. This part shows the process of how the “Four Books” surpassed the “Five Classics”. Then, viewed from the angle of academic history, this chapter analyzes the change of how the ban of the School of Cheng-Zhu (程朱) in the Song Dynasty was lifted in the Yuan Dynasty, and how the School of Cheng-Zhu (程朱) became the mainstream of the official school in the Yuan Dynasty. Moreover, another feature of academic development in this period was discussed according to the review of “the Spread of the Study of Lu in Yuan (元代陸學的流傳)”, which shows that the educational tendency of the Confucian started to pay much more attention to both “Zun De Xin”(尊德性) and “Dau Wen Xue”(道問學) in the Yuan Dynasty. However, the study style of the Confucianism since the Song Dynasty also changed under the influence of the pragmatism from Mongolian culture, which emphasized the combination of theory and practice, and the study style of practicability. Finally, viewed from the sociopolitical aspect, this chapter analyzed the development of the study style of practicability in the Yuan dynasty, and examined the phenomenon that the authority in the Yuan stressed the importance of “the Study of Confucian Classics” and regarded poetry and prose-poetry with disdain.
This thesis reveals that the social status of the scholars in the Yuan Dynasty was made relatively inferior under the control of the alien tribe whose deliberate manipulation and differentiation considerably affected the scholars’ outlook on life and their decisions in politics. Their outlook on life and lifestyle preference should be closely linked with the historical context and times, which had its own historical significance in respect of those scholars’ outlook on life. In this sense, some researchers’ criticism to these scholars in the Yuan Dynasty seemed to lack sympathy as these critics overlooked the unique sociopolitical conditions in the Yuan Dynasty.
This study shows that although there were various unfavorable factors in the development of “the Study of Confucian Classics” during the Yuan Dynasty due to the fact that its rulers did not support it whole-heartedly, it was a time when scholars had a relatively free environment to pursue their studies according to their own academic interest. The rulers of the whole Yuan Dynasty did not impose any academic ban like what was done by rulers of other dynasties. Thus, it was possible for scholars to keep “the Study of Confucian Classics” and continue their research in that sociopolitical context. In addition, it should never be ignored that school education and academies of classical learning were quite popular in the Yuan Dynasty, and the main teaching content was the Confucian classics. Hence, the Study of Confucian Classics developed at an unprecedented rate, and its study scope outshined that of any other previous dynasties. Still, the “Study of Confucian Classics” became to be the principal test content of the imperial examination system during the Meng-Yuan Dynasty, which reversed the tradition of emphasizing poetry and prose-poetry as the main test content since the Tang, Song and Jin Dynasties. The strong washback effect of the imperial examination policy brought about a change in the focus of learning in the Yuan Dynasty. Therefore, judging from the popularity of the Study of Confucian Classics, the Yuan Dynasty should not be ranged lower than any other dynasties in Chinese history. All in all, there is much evidence to support that the academic environment in the Ming and Meng-Yuan epoch certainly promoted the development of the Study of Confucian Classics.
In the final analysis, it shows that the works written by scholars in the Yuan Dynasty was both quite abundant and valuable. No matter whether the issue was studied quantitatively or qualitatively, it is incorrect to make a claim that the Study of Confucian Classics experienced a sharp decline at that time. With new research data, it is worthwhile to re-evaluate historically the Study of Confucian Classics of the Yuan Dynasty. What is more, in the history of Study of Confucian Classics, the Yuan Dynasty played a remarkable role in inheriting the previous knowledge and passing the enlightenment to the following generations. It can not be denied that the origins of the study styles in the Ming-Qing period were based on the Yuan Dynasty. There are many well-known instances to support this fact, such as: Textual Criticism (考據之學) and the Compilation of Unpublished Works (考據之學), which were of concrete proof. Furthermore, the Confucians in the Qing Dynasty had two pieces of great contribution to the Study of Confucian Classics. One is to have made a clear distinction of the definition of “Zhou Yi”(周易) and the other is the examination and correction of “Guwen Shangshu” (古文尚書) and of the fake “Kong Legend” (傳). The origin of these two academic achievements could certainly be linked with the contribution made by the scholars of the Yuan Dynasty. In addition, the Confucian scholars in the Yuan Dynasty not only inherited the Study of Argumentation (Yi Li) from the study style in Song, but also learned and developed the classic tradition of Exegesis and Laws and Rules from the Study of Confucian Classics in the Han-Tang Dynasty. They collected the merits of Studies of the Classics in both Han and Song, and then gathered them to form their own study style in the Yuan Dynasty. This kind of style of study directly inspired the style proposed by the scholars of early Qing Dynasty: Gu Yanwu, Huang Zongxi and Wang Fuzhi who advocated the style of adopting both the merits of the Han and Song (漢、宋兼采). According to all the analysis in this thesis, it can be concluded that the Study of Confucian Classics in the Yuan Dynasty cannot be described without a saving grace, but instead, it should hold a certain status in the Study of Confucian Classics in Chinese history.