 | THE HISTORY OF THE FORMER HAN DYNASTY The history of the former Han dynasty |  |
APPENDIX II
THE DISCUSSION OF THE CLASSICS IN THE SHIH-CH'Ü
PAVILION
Emperor Hsüan greatly encouraged the study of the classics and elevated
Confucian scholars to the highest positions in his government.
He several times ordered that Confucian classical scholars should be
summoned to the court and encouraged to teach what they knew. In
June, 70 B.C., on the occasion of an earthquake, he had his ministers
question widely among the Confucian scholars concerning what should
be done (8: 6b). In all probability, many of these Confucians were
accordingly brought to the imperial court. In Sept./Oct 65., B.C., he
had his highest ministers and Commandery Administrators recommend
learned Literary Scholars to the throne (8: 12a).
The manner in which he became interested in the discrepancies between
the Classics is rather indirect. HS 88: 23b, 24a, in discussing the Ku-liang
and Kung-yang Commentaries on the Spring and Autumn, recounts
that because Hsia-ch'iu Chiang-kung, who was the authority on the
Ku-liang Commentary, was not as skillful in disputation as Tung Chung-shu,
and because Lieutenant Chancellor Kung-sun Hung had been a
student of the Kung-yang Commentary, Emperor Wu had honored the
latter Commentary and had his Heir-apparent Li study it, so that this
Commentary became popular and was studied. The Heir-apparent,
however, privately asked about the Ku-liang Commentary and liked it,
but he was killed and only two teachers of it remained. When Emperor
Hsüan came to the throne, he heard that his great-grandfather, Heir-apparent
Li, had loved the Ku-liang Commentary. He was told that
Ku-liang came from the state of Lu. Several of the Emperor's officials,
Wei Hsien, Hsia-hou Sheng, and Shih Kao, came from Lu, whereas the
Kung-yang scholarship came from the state of Ch'i. So Emperor Hsüan
revived the study of the Ku-liang Commentary, and selected ten of his
Gentlemen to study the book. "Beginning in the [year-period] Yüan-k'ang
[65-62 B.C.] to the first year of [the period] Kan-lu, [53 B.C., they
studied] consecutively for more than ten years, [until they] understood
and were familiar with it all. Then [Emperor Hsüan] summoned the
Confucian scholar famous in [all] the Five Classics, the Grand Tutor to
the Heir-apparent, Hsiao Wang-chih, and others, [to hold] a great discussion
in the [Palace] Hall, to criticize the discrepancies between the
Kung-yang and Ku-liang [Commentaries and to determine] the correctness
or erroneousness of each, according to the Classics."
Thus in 53 B.C. Emperor Hsüan had these two commentaries on the
Spring and Autumn discussed in the Palace Hall. Among his officials
there was already then an Erudit for the Kung-yang Commentary and a
Gentleman-consultant for the Ku-liang Commentary (88: 24a). The
discussions probably continued down to 51 B.C., during which time they
were transferred to the Shih-ch'ü Pavilion [OMITTED], which was north of
the Great Hall in Wei-yang Palace, according to the San-fu Chiu-shih
(prob. iii cent. and later; lost; quoted by Yen Shih-ku in a note to HS
36: 7a).
HHS, Mem. 38: 7a says, "[Emperor] Hsiao-hsüan had the six Classics
[perhaps the Books of Changes, of History, of Odes, of Rites, the Spring and
Autumn with the Kung-yang Commentary, and the Ku-liang Commentary,
but cf. the different list in 6: n. 39.3] discussed in the Shih-ch'ü [Pavilion]."
HS 36: 7a says, "It happened that for the first time the Ku-liang
[Commentary to] the Spring and Autumn was established [as authoritative],
and [Emperor Hsüan] summoned [Liu] Keng-sheng [i.e., Liu
Hsiang4a], to study the Ku-liang [Commentary] and [also] to expound and
discuss the Five Classics in the Shih-ch'ü [Pavilion]." HS 73: 8a also
says, "At this time . . . [Wei] Hsüan-ch'eng received an imperial edict to
discuss miscellaneously in the Shih-ch'ü Pavilion the discrepancies [in
the Classics] with the Grand Tutor to the Heir-apparent, Hsiao Wang-chih,
and the Confucian scholars of the Five Classics, and memorialize
their responses in detail." The "Annals" contains an even more impressive
summary (cf. 8: 23a), which indicates that the proceeding took
the form of summoning the outstanding scholars from all over the
empire and fixing authoritatively, with the imperial decision and by the
imperial authority, the correct interpretation of the various classics.
Thereupon an Erudit for the Ku-liang Commentary was established,
together with three other Erudits for special interpretations of certain
classics, to carry on this tradition.
Ch'ien Ta-chao has determined from references in the HS the names of
the important scholars who participated in this historic discussion, which
thus constitutes a roster of the important exponents of the Classics in
the reign of Emperor Hsüan, "At this time those who participated in the
discussion at the Shih-ch'ü [Pavilion] were [the following]: authorities
on the Book of Changes: the Erudit Shih Ch'ou [OMITTED] from P'ei [Commandery]
and the Gentleman at the Yellow Gate, Liang-ch'iu Lin [OMITTED]
from Tung-lai [Commandery]; authorities on the Book of History: the
Erudit Ou-yang Ti-yü [OMITTED] from Ch'ien-ch'eng [Commandery], the
Erudit Lin Tsun [OMITTED] from Chi-nan [Commandery], the Chief of the
Erudit Chang Shan-fu [OMITTED] from [Yu]-fu-feng [Commandery], and the
Internuncio Chia Ts'ang [OMITTED] from Ch'en-liu [Commandery]; authorities
on the Book of Odes: the Palace Military Commander of [the kingdom of]
Huai-yang, Wei Hsüan-ch'eng [OMITTED] from [the kingdom of] Lu, the
Erudit Chang Ch'ang-an [OMITTED] from Shan-yang [Commandery], and
Hsieh Kuang-tê [OMITTED] from P'ei [Commandery]; authorities on the Book
of Rites: Tai Sheng [OMITTED] from [the kingdom of] Liang and the Member of
the Heir-apparent's Suite, Wen-jen T'ung-han [OMITTED] from P'ei [Commandery];
authorities on the Kung-yang [Commentary]: the Erudit
Chuang P'eng-tsu [OMITTED] and the Gentlemen-in-attendance Shen Wan
[OMITTED], Yi T'ui [OMITTED], Sung Hsien [OMITTED], and Hsü Kuang [OMITTED]; authorities
on the Ku-liang [Commentary]: the Gentleman-consultant Yin Keng-shih
[OMITTED] from Ju-nan [Commandery], the Expectant Appointees Liu
Hsiang [OMITTED], and Chou Ch'ing [OMITTED] and Ting Hsing [OMITTED] from [the
kingdom of] Liang, and the Gentleman-of-the Household, Wang Hai
[OMITTED]. Those of whom there is evidence [that they participated] numbered
altogether twenty-three persons. [He heads his list with the Grand
Tutor to the Heir-apparent, Hsiao Wang-chih]." (Cf. his HS Pien-yi
2: 8b, 9a; quoted in the HS Pu-chu 8: 23a) The foregoing list shows
that at that time scholarship was confined chiefly to the present
Shantung, Honan, and Shensi.
The results of these discussions were embodied in the form of memorials
and published; the "Treatise on Arts and Literature" lists five of them:
the Memorialized Discussions on the Book of History in 42 chapters (30:
7a), the Memorialized Discussions on the Book of Rites in 38 chapters
(30: 12b), the Memorialized Discussions on the Spring and Autumn in 39
chapters (30: 17a), the Memorialized Discussions on the Analects in 18
chapters (30: 20a), and the Miscellaneous Discussion on the Five Classics
in 18 chapters (30: 21b). There were probably also Memorialized
Discussions on the other two classics, the Book of Changes and the Book
of Odes; Ch'ien Ta-chao says that Pan Ku merely failed to record them.
In the development of Confucianism, the discussion in the Shi-ch'ü
Pavilion fills a place corresponding to that occupied in the occident by
the first General Council of the Christian Church at Nicaea (325 A.D.).
In the time of Emperor Hsüan the Tso-chuan had not yet become canonical;
the Chou-li was later also added to the canon; these official additions
and other changes (made by Wang Mang) necessitated another revision
of the Confucian tradition. This discussion was summoned by Emperor
Chang on December 23, 79 A.D., and met in the White Tiger Lodge
(Po-hu Kuan). Its procedure was modelled upon that in the Shih-ch'ü
disputed points. As a result there was composed the Universal Discussions
of Virtue at the White Tiger [Lodge] (Po-hu T'ung Tê-lun; cf. n. 9.3
to my translation of HHS, Mem. 30, in the "Introductory Volume" to
this series). It is highly probable that the permanently important
material in the Memorialized Discussions arising out of the decisions made
at the Shih-ch'ü Pavilion were taken up into the Po-hu T'ung, and that
the reason these Memorialized Discussions were allowed to perish is
merely that they had been superseded. We must thus look to the
Po-hu T'ung for the results of the Shih-ch'ü discussions.
| THE HISTORY OF THE FORMER HAN DYNASTY The history of the former Han dynasty | |