38 Analects 4.15 and 15.3.
39 “To abandon things” is to search for abstract theories and neglect actual things and affairs. This is an approach Zhang criticizes in a number of his essays.
40 Kongzi often spoke of these together; for example, see Analects 4.2, 6.23, 12.22, etc. Mengzi often spoke of these two together; for example, see Mengzi 1A1, 2B2, 3B4, etc.
41 Analects 17.4. Mengzi tried to persuade King Hui of Liang and King Xuan of Qi to take up the Confucian cause. For examples of his conversations with the former, see Mengzi 1A1—5, for the latter, see 1A7, etc.
42 Analects 7.1 and Mengzi 7B3. Zhang’s point in this last section is that Kongzi’s methods and aims were closer to the ideal, whereas Mengzi presented a more defensive view in an attempt to ameliorate a more benighted age. Still, understanding the latter is the best way to grasp the former.
Notes to Letter 1
1 Zhu Canmei was the son of the Prefect of Yongping and looked to Zhang for guidance in his education and life course. Zhang did not get along with Canmei’s father, who was Zhang’s superior, and so was happy to take up the role as “master” to the younger Zhu. This letter, written in 1783, is consciously modeled on Han Yu’s famous essay to Li Yi, included in the Appendix.
2 See Essay II, note 30.
3 For the Three Dynasties, see Essay 1, note 43.
4 For this practice, see chapter 1 of the Book of Rites. For an English translation, see Legge, The Li Ki, vol. 1, p. 106.
5 This sentence mentions the distinctive name of and several key terms used by Song-dynasty neo-Confucians for their metaphysically laden expression of the tradition.
6 For the importance of suoyiran, see Essay 1, note 10.
7 The Great Appendix 1.12. Compare Essay 1, note 69.
8 Mengzi 6A15.
9 This is a common phrase expressing certainty of one’s judgment. See Mengzi 3B9.
10 See Mengzi 2A7, 4A4, and related passages.
11 Mengzi 2A6. This phrase describes how one is to cultivate the heart-mind. For a discussion of this idea, see my Ethics in the Confucian Tradition, pp. 92—93.
12 Analects 19.22.
13 Analects 5.28.
14 Zhang’s language here echoes Mengzi’s description of how the “four sprouts” that constitute our endowment of moral tendencies need to be nurtured into their full forms as virtues. For a discussion, see my Ethics in the Confucian Tradition, pp. 88—95.
15 Fu Qian ARM was a well-known textual scholar of the later Han dynasty (25—220 C.E.); he wrote a notable work on the Commentary of Zuo. Zheng Xuan (127—200) was a renowned and prolific commentator of the same period.
16 Sima Qian and Ban Gu were both famous historians. See the Introduction, note 22, and Essay 5, note 21, respectively.
17 Mengzi 1A3.
18 For the notions of “basic stuff’ and “embellishment” and the ideal of balancing the two, see Analects 6.18 and 12.8. Compare note 20 below.
19 See Han Yu’s “Letter in Reply to Li Yi” in the Appendix.
20 Analects 3.8.
Notes to Letter 2
1 This letter, addressed to his kinsman and friend Zhang Runan , was written in 1766.
2 Zhang Shouyi was another relative and like Runan an important conversation partner for Zhang Xuecheng during the time he resided in Beijing and was preparing for his first attempt at the imperial examination.
3 Chang‘an was the capital during a number of eminent dynasties. By association, it came to mean a place where one competes for recognition and success.
4 The Xiang is a major tributary of the Yangtze River. It runs through Hunan province and here is used to refer to Hunan, where Zhang’s family was residing at the time.
5 Like many young people of his time, Zhang married very young. He and his wife resided with his parents as Zhang continued to study for the official examinations. For a description of this period of his life, see Nivison, The Life and Thought, pp. 23—25; and Paul Demiéville, “Chang Hsüeh-ch’eng and His Historiography.”
6 Zhang’s father was assigned to be magistrate of Yingcheng, a city in the lake district of Hubei province, and was provided official quarters there.
7 Yan and Qin were ancient states in the northern parts of China; Chu and Yue were ancient states in the southern reaches of the empire.
8 For Fu Qian and Zheng Xuan, see note 15 of Letter 1 above.
9 Han Yu is the by-now-familiar master of ancient prose from the Tang dynasty. For Ouyang Xiu, see Essay 5, note 19.
10 For Cheng Yi and Zhu Xi, see the Introduction, note 10, and Essay 1, notes 26 and 51.
11 For this story, see the “Strategies of Yan” chapter of Strategies of the Warring States (Zhan Guo Ce ). For an English translation, see J. 1. Crump, tr., Chan-kuo ts‘e (Ann Arbor, MI: Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan, 1996), 496.
12 Dai Dongyuan or Dai Zhen was one of the greatest scholars of the Qing dynasty and Zhang’s contemporary. For more on his life and his philosophy, see the Introduction, note 46. Xiuning was Dai’s native county, located in Anhui province.
13 “Before Heaven” and “after Heaven” refer to the metaphysical distinction between the states prior to and after the generation of the phenomenal world. The Yellow River Chart and Book of the Lo River were revealed to the mythical Emperor Yu on the back of turtle and are said to be the basis for various magical and divinatory texts, including, some say, the Book of Changes.
14 The “Three Comprehensive [Studies]” (Santong ) are three books on official institutions and regulations: the Tongdian of the Tang dynasty, the Tongzhi of the Song dynasty, and the Tongkao of the Yuan dynasty. For the “Offices of the Zhou,” see Essay 1, note 64.
15 Zhu Yun (1729—81) was a successful senior scholar who resided in Beijing and was Zhang’s teacher, patron, and friend. For a brief account of his life and work, see Hummel, Eminent Chinese of the Ch’ing Period, vol. 2, pp. 198—99.
16 This is the theme of Zhang’s essay Breadth and Economy (Essay above).
17 Mo Ling refers to Moling shanren , the literary name of Pan Zhengya , a Qing scholar renowned for his clever mastery of poetry and ancient prose.
18 For the “eight-legged essay” style, see Essay 7, note 6.
19 Sima Qian and Bangu were famous historians of the Han dynasty. For more on them, see the Introduction, note 22, and Essay 1, note 96 respectively. Ouyang Xiu and Song Qi , with the help of others, compiled the New History of the Tang Dynasty.
20 The twenty-one official histories are the official histories covering each dynasty from the Han to the Qing. Zhang does not count some of the revised works that figure into the normal reckoning of twenty-four official histories.
21 Yun Gong or Zhang Yuanye was a cousin, and helped on this project.
22 Shaoxing is a city in Zhejiang province. It was Zhang’s ancestral home, well known for its fragrant and powerful wine.
23 Su Xun (1009—66) wrote a work called the The Principles of Genealogy (Puli ). Shao Tingcai (1648—1711), father of Shao Jinhan, wrote two Prefaces on Mr. Quan’s Genealogy (Quanshi puxu and Quanshi puhouxu ). For more on Shao, see the entry on him in Hummel, Eminent Chinese of the Ch‘ing Period, vol. 2, pp. 638—39.
24 When Zhang’s father served as master of the local academy in Tianmen, Hubei, the magistrate asked him to write a local history of the area. Zhang’s father invited his son to collaborate on the project, and the two of them worked on it together. The result was A Local History of Tianmen (Tianmenzhi ). Given what is said here, Zhang later revised this work. For a discussion of this early fatherson collaboration and its influence on Zhang’s views about local history, see Nivison, Life and Thought, pp. 25—29.
25 Zhang’s second son, Zhang Huafu , who posthumously published Zhang’s major works.
Notes to Letter 3
1 Zhang wrote this letter to Shen Zaiting the son of his former teacher, in 1789. It served as a kind of cover letter accompanying and explaining Zhang’s essay “Breadth
and Economy.” See Nivison, Life and Thought, p. 154.
2 Taiping is located in east-central Anwei. Bozhou is located in the northwest corner of Anwei.
3 Yangzhou is a city on the north bank of the Yangtze.
4 Mengzi 4B14.
5 The quote is from his “Letter in Reply to Liu Zhengfu” (Da Liu Zhengfu shu For a complete translation, see Hartman, Han Yu and the Tang Search for Unity, pp. 253—55.
6 Zhang mistakenly attributes the quote to Cheng Hao, but it belongs to his brother. See Essay 2, note 37.
7 For the ideas expressed in the opening lines of this paragraph, see Zhang’s essay “On the Dao” (Essay 1 above).
8 For Fu Qian and Zheng Xuan, see Letter 1, note 15. Han Yu and Ouyang Xiu were famous writers of the Tang and Song respectively. For the latter, see Essay 5, note 19. For Zhou Dunyi and Cheng Hao, see Essay 2, note 4, and Essay 1, note 51 respectively.
9 For the importance of suoyiran, see Essay 1, note 10.
10 Ma Rong (76—166) was a famous commentator of the Han dynasty. For Zheng Xuan, see note 8 above.
11 See Mengzi 7A15.
12 See Mengzi 2A6. The ideas in these last two paragraphs figure prominently in Zhang’s essay “Breadth and Economy” (Essay above).
13 In other words, there was a renaissance of speculative philosophy, the rise of a new fashion.
14 For the “Three Comprehensive [Studies],” see Letter 2, note 14 above. For the Complete Collection of the Four Treasuries, see the Introduction, note 1.
15 Xiong Bolong (1617—69) and Liu Zizhuang who earned the presented scholar degree in 1630, held similar views and often are referred to together. Explaining Simple and Analyzing Compound Characters (Shuowenjiezi ) is an early dictionary by Xu Shen (58—147). Jade Chapters (Yupian ) is a circa 543 C.E. Chinese dictionary edited by Gu Yewang (519—81) during the Liang dynasty.
16 For Wang Yinglin, see Essay 7, note 10. Song Lien (1310—81) was another prominent scholar who specialized in textual studies. For more on him, see Goodrich and Fang, Dictionary of Ming Biography, vol. 2, pp. 1225—31. The “notebooks” were a characteristic genre of the “evidential learning school.” For a discussion, see Elman, From Philosophy to Philology, pp. 48, 72, and 174—76.
17 In these striking paired lines, Zhang plays on important ideas about the role of literature.
18 Zhang mistakenly attributes these lines to Tao Zhukong , another name for the mythically rich Fan Li . But traditionally they are attributed to Bai Gui . See chapter 128 of Records of the Grand Historian. For a translation, see Watson, Records of the Grand Historian, p. 438.
19 Paraphrasing Mengzi 1A7, where Mengzi talks about the need for a kind of reflective equilibrium or “weighing” when making moral decisions.
20 For these three types of “worldly immortality” see the Introduction, note 47.
21 From section 28 of Zhou Dunyi’s Penetrating Book of Changes (Tongshu ). Zhou, though, was quoting Kongzi. See the Commentary of Zuo, 25th year of Duke Xiang. For a translation, see Legge, The Ch’un Ts‘ew, p. 517.
22 The “recorded conversation” genre of writing purports to accurately reflect the conversations of a teacher with his disciples. Thus it was thought to capture a more spontaneous and authentic style of inquiry. It was developed into a distinctive form under the influence of Chinese Buddhism but was fully integrated into later Confucian writings and is most distinctive of Song-dynasty Confucians. One can, though, trace its source back to the Analects itself.
23 Ruan Yuan (1764—1849) was an outstanding commentator and textual scholar of the Qing dynasty (1644—1911), famous for his historical study of the Chinese chariot.
24 Analects 19.22.
25 For Zhu Jun, see Letter 2, note 15.
26 Wang Huaizu was the author of an extant study of the “six types of characters,” which refers to a system of analysis describing how constituent elements are combined to form more complex characters.
27 The expression “greater part” echoes Mengzi 6A15. Zhang here is taking the opportunity to respond to critics who thought that he had failed to notice the apparent plagiarism. Zhang is seeing Zhu’s drawing upon Wang’s work as an example of how different types of good scholarship can support one another.
28 For Dai Zhen see the Introduction, note 46.
29 Zhang is using the contrasting concepts of hot and cold and substantial and tenuous of traditional Chinese medicine to describe how one must pursue a “healthy” course of learning. In Chinese medicine, when “substantial” forces are built up in the body there is warmth and health. When these forces dissipate, one’s energies become “tenuous,” often resulting in chills. Zhang sees this as parallel to the situation of substantial learning’s supporting true literary art; writing based on vague or tenuous learning is hollow and less vigorous.
Notes to Letter 4
1 This letter was written to his friend Chen Jianting in the winter of 1789. In it Zhang lays out his ideas and motivation for “On the Dao” and “On Learning” and argues for the unique character and value of these essays and his other work.”
2 Shao Jinhan (1743—96) was one of Zhang’s close friends. He earned the “presented scholar” degree during the reign of Qianlong (1735—96) and won an appointment to work on the Complete Collection of the Four Treasuries. See the Introduction, note 1. For a brief account of Shao’s life and work, see Hummel, Eminent Chinese of the Ch’ing, vol. 2, pp. 637—38.
3 Shi Yucun was another good friend who lived in Hubei. Zhang stayed with him in the winter of 1789.
4 For the General Principles of Literature and History, see the Introduction, note 48.
5 Zhang’s eldest son Yixuan returned from Beijing in the winter of 1789.
6 For these men and their respective works, see Essay 1, note 1.
7 Approaching What Is Correct (Erya ) is the earliest Chinese dictionary, much of it dating from the third century B.C.E. For the “six types of characters,” see Letter 3, note 26. The definitive authority for this system of classification was Xu Shen and his Explaining Simple and Analyzing Compound Characters. See Letter 3, note 15. For further explanation, see Elman, From Philosophy to Philology, pp. 212— 13. Both of these works represent the kind of dry, scholastic scholarship that Zhang and so many others decried as largely pointless.
8 For the Six Classical disciplines, see Essay 1, note 78. Zhang’s argument here is reminiscent of what he says in “Conventional Convictions” (Essay 4 above).
9 Zhang’s point here is that contemporary scholars should study how best to respond to their own time, just as Kongzi did. Compare “On the Dao” (Essay 1) Section Two.
10 Zhang’s point roughly is that morality and literature are not metaphysically queer, abstract endeavors but aspects of everyday things and affairs. As such, what they demand is not some timelessly correct response but action keyed to one’s particular historical circumstance.
11 Zhang is here expressing, in his characteristic way his theory that the dao does not exist apart from the play of historical events. Given this fact, it is the Duke of Zhou and not Kongzi who marks the culmination of the evolution of the dao. This argument is developed most fully in Section One, parts 5—7, of Essay 1.
12 This is a highly compressed account of Zhang’s elaborate evolution of the dao described in Section One of Essay 1.
13 This expression comes from the Mengzi and traditionally is understood as referring to Kongzi as the ideal embodiment of classical culture. Zhang argues that since the Duke of Zhou was historically situated at the apex of Zhou culture, this designation properly belongs to him. See Section One, parts 5—7 of Essay 1.
14 Compare Section One, part 6 of Essay 1.
15 “On Learning” immediately follows “On the Dao” in the General Principles of Literature and History.
16 Zhang here is paraphrasing the view he presents in Section Three of “On Learning” (Essay 2 above) and playing on Analects 2.15.
Notes to Appendix 1
1 Han Yu alm
ost certainly has Mengzi 4B19 in mind here. It tells us that the sage-king Shun “acted out of benevolence and righteousness; he did not just act benevolently and righteously.”
2 Han Yu is invoking an important but largely neglected feature of the concept of de, which often is translated as “Virtue.” In its earliest occurrences, the term had no specifically ethical connotation. It was more like the older sense of the Latin virtus: the natural power or propensity of a given thing or creature. In the Book of History we find examples of “inauspicious Virtue” (xiong de and “bad Virtue” (e de ), the first of which Han Yu notes below. For these examples, see Legge, The Shoo King, pp. 244, 256. The Commentary of Zuo describes a special “womanly Virtue” (nü de —a prominent feature of which is the ability to attract men. See Legge, The Ch’un Ts’ew, p. 192. As Han Yu goes on to argue, this makes the term de an “open concept”; its meaning gets fixed differently by different schools or contexts of use. The same is true for the term dao, which can mean any number of ways of doing, being, or seeing.
On Ethics and History Page 23