Ching and chuan: Towards defining the Confucian scriptures in Han China (206 BCE--220 CE).

摘要

The Wu ching (Five Scriptures) are the most sacred books believed to be composed by former sages and transmitted by Confucius. Ancient Chinese viewed them as embodying the tao, the ultimate truth. To obtain it, one had to grasp these texts as an inseparable whole. This classical ideal, however, encountered a great challenge when Confucian scriptural learning became a national enthusiasm in the Han Dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE).; Thanks to the promotion of Confucianism by Emperor Wu (r. 141-87 BCE), Han Confucians devoted themselves to the study of the Wu ching and thereby hoped to enter the desirable officialdom. This "way of emolument and gain" was further encouraged by the Confucian self-understanding that the ultimate goal of scriptural learning was to realize the tao in the sociopolitical arena. Since the Wu ching were too recondite to learn and acquaintance with only one of them was sufficient to be recognized by the government, the phenomena of scriptural departmentalization and elaborate commentaries on each of the ching texts occurred. The intellectual focus now shifted not only from the integrated five ching to only one of them, but also from the primary ching text to its commentaries, chuan.; The pragmatic and reductionist orientation found another example in the Han treatment of the Lun-yu and Hsiao ching. People of Han China believed that Confucius, "the later sage," authored these two chuan texts. What he says and demonstrates in them, sacred and authoritative, were commentaries on the Wu ching. Because of textual simplicity, it became fashionable for one simply to study them in their own right. Further promulgated by Han rulers for practical purposes, the degree of their popularity eventually exceeded that of the profound Wu ching.; Practicality and functionality are the keys that one has to take seriously in one's discussion of the Confucian scriptures. As "scripture" is an important expression of human religiosity, the scriptural developments in Han China thus exhibit significant implications for our understanding of Confucian religiosity.