poet whose writings and tragic life spanned the collapse of the Former
Han dynasty (202 BCE-9 CE) and the brief and catastrophic usurpation
of the throne by the Imperial Regent Wang Mang (9-23 CE). He is best
known for his assertion that human nature originally is neither good
(as argued by Mencius) nor depraved (as argued by Xunzi) but rather
comes into existence as a mixture of both. Yang Xiong's chief
philosophical writings – an abstruse book of divination known as the
Tai xuan (The Great Dark Mystery) and his Fa yan (Words to Live By), a
collection of aphorisms and dialogues on a variety of historical and
philosophical topics – are little known even among Chinese scholars.
These works combine a Daoist concern for cosmology, but may be best
described as a product of the intellectual and spiritual syncretism
characteristic of the Han dynasty (202 BCE-220 CE). As a social critic
and classical scholar, he is considered to be the chief representative
of the Old Text School (guxue) of Confucianism. Although some think he
was one of the most important writers of the late Former Han, he had
little influence during his own time and was vilified for his
association with the usurper Wang Mang. Consequently, his works have
largely been left out of the Confucian canon.
1. Life and Writings
Yang Xiong was born in 53 BCE in the western city of Chengdu in the
province of Shu. His biography in the Qian Han Shu (History of the
Former Han) remarks that Yang Xiong was fond of learning, was
unconcerned with wealth, office, and reputation, and suffered from a
speech impediment and consequently spoke little. As a youth he
probably was a student of Zhuang Zun, a reclusive marketplace fortune
teller who refused to take office, opting instead to use divination
and fortune-telling as a means to encourage virtue among the common
people. Before coming to the capital he gained renown for his poetic
writings, in particular for his fu, a poetic genre associated with an
earlier native of Shu, Sima Xiangru (179-117 BCE). Yang Xiong's
reputation as a poet eventually reached the capital of Chang'an, and
around 20 BCE he was summoned to the court of Emperor Cheng. Between
the years 14-10 BCE, Yang Xiong submitted several poetic pieces
commemorating imperial sacrifices and hunts, and finally in 10 BCE he
was appointed to the humble office of "Gentleman in Attendance" and
"Servitor at the Yellow Gate," where he would remain until his final
days. While not much is known of Yang Xiong's activities as a lowly
official at the Han court, it appears that, as far back as 9 BCE,
Emperor Cheng issued a decree excusing him from the direct official
service, while maintaining an official title, salary, and access to
the imperial library for him.
Shortly after his appointment, Yang Xiong became disillusioned with
the rectifying power of his poetry and stopped writing it for the
court. Yang Xiong's decision appears to have coincided with the death
of his son, a tragedy which left him despondent and financially
impoverished. Over the next two decades he produced his two works on
philology: Cang Jie xun zuan (Annotations to the Cang Jie), a
compilation of annotations to the Qin dynasty's official imperial
dictionary, and Fang yan (Dialects), a collection of regional
expressions. During this period, he also produced his Tai xuan (The
Great Dark Mystery), which he completed around 2 BCE, and Fa yan
(Words to Live By), which he completed in 9 CE – right about the time
that the Imperial Regent Wang Mang usurped the throne and established
the brief Xin dynasty (9-23 CE).
Yang Xiong's life and writings were overshadowed by the rise and fall
of the notorious Wang Mang (45 BCE-23 CE). A nephew of the wife of
Emperor Yuan (who reigned 48-32 BCE), Wang Mang rose to the rank of
Imperial Regent. In 9 CE, through a combination of court intrigue,
political machinations, manipulation of popular superstitions, and
opportunity, he seized the throne from the founding House of Liu and
declared himself the rightful possessor of the Mandate of Heaven. His
short-lived Xin dynasty marks the dividing line between the Former or
Western Han (202 BCE-9 CE) and the Later or Eastern Han (25-220 CE)
and, due to widespread rebellion and a series of natural catastrophes,
is widely considered one of the most calamitous periods in Chinese
history.
While little is known of Yang Xiong's activities during his final
years, his biography notes that, shortly after Wang Mang's usurpation
Yang Xiong attempted suicide when he was named in a scandal involving
one of his former students. He survived the attempt. When Wang Mang
heard of it, he ordered all charges against Yang Xiong dropped,
proclaiming that the poet had never been involved in any political
affairs at court. His final work, Ju qin mei xin, appears to have been
a controversial memorial presented to Wang Mang around 14 CE; its
title is translated by Knechtges as Denigrating Qin and Praising Xin.
Yang Xiong died four years later at the age of 71.
2. Intellectual Context
a. Han Syncretism and Correlative Cosmology
The focus of Yang Xiong's writings during the middle years of his life
is commonly seen as reflecting the Han trend toward syncretism and
correlative cosmology. While the disunity of the Warring States period
(475-221 BCE) provided fertile soil for the flourishing of the "One
Hundred Schools of Thought" (baijia), the unification brought about by
the Qin (221-206 BCE) and the Former Han dynasties provided the
impetus for their coalescence. This combination of diverse views
during the Qin and the Han periods can be seen in works such as the
Lushi chunqiu (The Spring and Autumn Annals of Mr. Lu) and the
Huainanzi (The Master of Huainan), which blend various streams of
ancient Chinese thought, including Daoism, Confucianism, Legalism,
Huang-Lao thought, Militarism, Mohism, and yinyang and wuxing (Five
Phase) thought.
Though Confucianism became the dominant and official school of thought
in the Han, it borrowed heavily from earlier schools, particularly the
yinyang and wuxing schools. The former explains all entities and
events in terms of the interaction between two interdependent
properties, yin (associated with darkness, passivity, and femininity)
and yang (associated with light, activity, and masculinity). The
latter takes a similar approach to understanding natural phenomena but
includes the idea that "Five Phases" (each associated with metal,
wood, water, fire, and earth, respectively) succeed one another in a
never-ending cyclical process. The amalgamation of Confucianism,
yinyang, and wuxing theory is especially evident in the writings of
the scholar Dong Zhongshu (179-104 BCE), whose Chunqiu fanlu
(Luxuriant Dew of the Spring and Autumn Annals) illustrates a
synthesis between Confucian ethics and an amalgam of yinyang and
wuxing cosmology. Attempts to develop exhaustive systems of
classification (leishu) were also common during this period and can be
seen as part of the larger trend toward syncretization. These tables
often use a Five Phase cosmological framework in which things are
organized analogically on the basis of their relevant associations,
rather than on the basis of some discrete essence. As can be seen in
Yang Xiong's Tai xuan, the correlations which form the basis of these
classification systems can be bewildering – especially to anyone
unfamiliar with the sorts of complex associations found in early
Chinese culture.
b. The Old Text / New Text Controversy
Many historians of Chinese philosophy have identified Yang Xiong's
final and best-known work, the Fa yan (Words to Live By), as
representative of a more rational and sober-minded form of
Confucianism known as the Old Text School (guxue). In contrast to the
New Text School, which relied on versions of the classics written in
the simpler and officially recognized script of the Han dynasty known
as "new script" (jinwen), the Old Text School relied on versions
written in the archaic scripts (guwen) and characters of the Zhou
dynasty (c. 1100-221 BCE). Legend has it that these latter texts
survived the book burnings of the Qin dynasty by lying concealed in
the walls of the home of Confucius. Generally speaking, the Old Text
School was associated with the simpler, more pragmatic philosophy of
Confucius's native state of Lu, while the New Text school was
associated with the often fantastic writings of Zou Yan (305-240 BCE),
a native of Qi and founder of the yinyang and wuxing schools of
thought.
Through much of the late Former Han dynasty, Confucianism was under
the influence of the yinyang and wuxing theories promoted by New Text
adherents. During this period, New Text scholars increasingly became
interested in esoteric readings of the classics, cosmological
speculation, and calamity and portent interpretation. The chief
representatives of this period were classical scholars who commonly
employed wuxing and yinyang correlations, numerical calculations, and
various techniques of divination to fathom the harmony and continuity
of humanity, nature, and the ancestral spirits – and to forecast
disruptions.
By the reigns of the last Former Han Emperors, the use of yinyang and
wuxing theory in interpreting the classics and the progress of history
closely paralleled methods found in apocryphal oracle books and
commentaries that treated the classics as fortune-telling handbooks
and used reports of unusual phenomena not to boldly admonish the
Emperor – as did Zou Yan and Dong Zhongshu – but to curry favor with
those in power. This trend reached its climax with Wang Mang, whose
rise to power and eventual usurpation was associated with, and to a
large extent legitimated by, hundreds of favorable omens and the
generous rewarding of those who reported them.
While scholars are divided on whether the Old Text School originated
from Xunzi's branch of Confucianism, most characterize this movement
as a rational response to the excesses of the New Text school, whose
influence had left the Han court and its scholars heavily dependent
upon yinyang and wuxing thinking. More broadly, the Old Text school
can be seen as a response to the often irrational and superstitious
world of the late Former Han – a world that interpreted the classics
as containing secret magical formulas and prognostications, was
fascinated by talk of immortals, saw itself near the bottom in the
historical cycle of rise and decline, and interpreted the passing of
each childless Emperor and reports of calamities as portents to be
dreaded.
3. Tai xuan (The Great Dark Mystery)
a. Date and Significance
Completed around 2 BCE, the Tai xuan is Yang Xiong's longest and most
difficult work. Few scholars have taken time to study it, and those
who have often disagree about its import. Some scholars view the main
focus of the text to be wuxing theory, others view its main focus to
be the Five Constant Virtues (wuchang) of Confucianism, and still
others view the Tai xuan as political satire of Wang Mang and other
historical figures of the late Former Han. (See Michael Nylan's
translation and commentary of the Tai Xuan (1993)). While the Tai xuan
is more a manual of divination than a philosophical treatise, it
embodies a number of assumptions about the nature of the world, its
cycles of transformation, and the central importance of timeliness in
making one's way in the world. Just as in his earlier poetry, in the
Tai xuan Yang Xiong reiterates the view that success and failure do
not all come down to individual effort but have much to do with the
times and circumstances in which one lives, and that if one does not
meet one's proper time for acting, then one should retire or withdraw
and wait for more advantageous times.
b. The Influence of the Laozi and the Yijing
The term xuan in the title is typically used in Chinese literature as
a modifier to describe that which is dark, black, mysterious,
profound, abstruse or hidden. Yang Xiong, however, uses the term xuan
much like the term dao in the Laozi to refer to the hidden
fountainhead or initial state out of which things emerge and the
mysterious process through which they unfold. While Yang Xiong's
conception of xuan seems to be derived from the Laozi, the text of the
Tai xuan is modeled on the Yijing (Book of Changes), certainly the
most enigmatic philosophical document in early Chinese literature.
Like the Yijing, the Tai xuan is a book of divination based on an
evolving sequence of figures that, when taken together, map out the
cycles of transformation underlying all things. In both texts, each
figure-image-circumstance is articulated through an evolving series of
statements that describes and appraises the unfolding of the situation
and the meaning of the image. Appended to both the Yijing and the Tai
xuan is a set of commentaries that elaborates on the inner meanings of
their respective texts.
In some ways, the Tai xuan is even more complex than its model. While
the Yijing is made up of 64 hexagrams, the Tai xuan is made up of 81
tetragrams. In the Yijing, each hexagram line can be solid or broken
(representing the polarities of yin and yang). In the Tai xuan, each
tetragram line can be solid, broken once, or broken twice
(representing the triad of heaven, earth, and man), and each of the 81
tetragrams is correlated with, among other things, yin or yang, one of
the "Five Phases," a hexagram from the Yijing, a constellation, days
of the calendar, and a musical note.
c. Correlative Cosmology in the Tai xuan
In the Tai xuan, each tetragram is articulated though an evolving
series of nine appraisals or judgments (whereas in the Yijing, each
hexagram is articulated through a series of six line statements).
These line appraisals unfold in a cyclical pattern corresponding to
periods of time, the transformations of yin and yang, and a continuous
cycle of commencement, maturity and decline. The appraisals can also
be divided into those that address the commoner, the noble, and the
Emperor.
Also, the often obscure correlative-poetic organization of the images
and their associated line appraisals can be seen in the Tai xuan
commentary "Numbers of the Dark Mystery," an example of the Han genre
of classificatory works known as leishu. For example, "Numbers of the
Mystery" correlates the number five with the earth, the color yellow,
fear, wind omens, tumuli, the naked animal (humankind), fur, bottles,
weaving, sleeping mats, complying, verticality, glue, sacks, hubs,
calves, coffins, bows and arrows, stupidity, and the center courtyard
rain well. The basis of these associations is analogical; A is to B as
C is to D. The organization scheme is fivefold. The five numerical
categories (three and eight, four and nine, two and seven, one and
six, and five) correspond to the five directions (east, west, south,
north, center), the five phases (wood, metal, fire, water, earth), the
seasons (spring, autumn, summer, winter, four seasons), the five
colors (green, white, red, black, yellow), the five trades (carpentry,
metal smithing, working with fire, waterworks, earth works), and the
like.
4. Fa yan (Words to Live By)
a. Date and Significance
Unlike Yang Xiong's other works, the dating of the Fa yan is fairly
certain. In the final passage of the text, there is a reference to
Wang Mang as the Duke of Han. The fact that Wang Mang held this title
from 1-9 CE implies that the Fa yan could not have been submitted
after 9 CE when he took the title of Emperor. In Fa yan 13:34 there is
a reference to the Han dynasty as having ruled for 210 years. If the
founding of the Han is taken to be 202 BCE, then the passage would
have been written no earlier than 8 CE. Whatever the date of
completion, there is little doubt that the Fa Yan was written during a
period when Wang Mang held in his hands the reigns of power and the
destiny of his sovereign. It remains his best-known work.
b. The Influence of the Lunyu
In his autobiography, Yang Xiong notes that, just as he modeled his
Tai xuan on the greatest of the classics, the Yijing, so he modeled
his Fa yan on the text he saw as the greatest of the commentaries –
the Confucian Lunyu (Analects). Like the Lunyu, the Fa yan consists of
a series of aphorisms and dialogues on a wide variety of historical
and philosophical topics. Also like the Lunyu, the language of the Fa
yan is archaic, its style terse, and its organization puzzling. While
the form, language, and style of the Fa yan all seem to be derived
from the Lunyu, the two works are most similar in their underlying
concerns.
Both the Lunyu and the Fa Yan focus on the perennial Confucian theme
of self-cultivation while emphasizing the importance of learning,
friendship, role models, rites and music, and the human virtues. Both
works look back to the ancient sage kings, the ways of the Zhou
dynasty, and the teachings of the classics as models for their own
troubled times. Each work has been read as a subtle attack on the
predominant political powers. Finally, both the Lunyu and Fa yan can
be characterized as works of frustration that lament the political
instability of their respective times, the tendency of princes and
officials to overstep their roles, and the failure of Confucius
(Kongzi) and Yang Xiong to gain recognition or to exercise political
influence.
c. Syncretism in the Fa yan
Among the disjointed sayings and dialogues of the Fa yan, one finds a
wide variety of topics and themes. As noted, the most central of these
are the perennial Confucian themes: self-cultivation, learning, the
natural tendencies, the human virtues, the value of the classics,
rites and music, the princely person, the sage, ruling, filial
responsibility, and so forth. One also finds in the Fa yan discussions
of concepts and themes usually associated with Daoism such as dao
(way), de (potency), ziran (spontaneity), wuwei (non-coercive action),
minimizing desire, and withdrawing from public life. These topics are
often explicated through discussions of an unusually broad assortment
of historical figures, including poets, philosophers, rhetoricians,
rulers, officials, generals, merchants, rebels, assassins, jesters,
recluses, and others. These topics are similarly interpreted through
discussions of historical events, such as the collapse of the Zhou
dynasty, the intrigues of the Warring States, the rise of the Qin
dynasty and its rapid fall, the struggle between Xiang Ji (233-202
BCE) and the Han dynastic founder Liu Bang (247-195 BCE), and the
founding of the Han dynasty.
Also included among the numerous topics discussed in the Fa yan are
more immediate concerns of the late Former Han. These include the
assimilation of heterodox teachings and popular superstitions into
commentaries and interpretations of the classics, the decline of the
ruling house of Han, the popularity of portents and the rise of Wang
Mang, and government reforms in taxation, punishment, division of
land, and relations with barbarian tribes. Finally, there are sayings
and dialogues which address the concerns of scholar officials living
not only in the troubled late Former Han, but throughout much of
China's long history – the practicality and viability of the Confucian
way of life, the vanity of the desires for wealth, office and renown,
and the challenges of surviving and maintaining one's integrity in a
time of disorder.
d. Old Text Themes in the Fa yan
Throughout the Fa yan, Yang Xiong sets the tone for subsequent
representatives of the Old Text School by repeatedly poking fun at
questions on magic, immortals, spirits, omens and portents, and
esoteric interpretations of the classics. Instead he redirects
attention toward concerns directly affecting the living: wealth and
poverty, gain and loss, glory and disgrace, success and failure,
friendship, joy, integrity, the dangers of public office, ruling the
Empire, fate and circumstance, fleeing the world, and death. While the
Tai xuan might be described as a synthesis of the various schools of
early Chinese thought, the Fa yan elevates the Confucian school above
all the others. In aphorism after aphorism, the Fa yan praises
Confucius and the classics as the standards, stresses the importance
of learning, rites and music, the five virtues, the five relations,
and filial responsibility, while at the same time offering sardonic
remarks on Daoist, Legalist, and yinyang and wuxing thinkers and their
doctrines.
e. Political Philosophy in the Fa yan
On governing, the Fa yan can be seen as advancing a Reformist
position. While the literary world of the late Former Han is often
explicated in terms of the New and the Old Text schools, the political
world of this period is similarly explicated in terms of two opposing
camps: Modernists who, like earlier Legalists, advocated policies that
sought to enrich the wealth and power of the state through conquering
border tribes, opening trade routes, and establishing government
monopolies, and Reformists who accused Modernists of ignoring the
welfare of the people and advocated instead for a more frugal form of
government that emphasized retrenchment in foreign policy, abolition
of government monopolies, and land reform. In the Fa yan, Yang Xiong
aligns himself with the Reformists by speaking out against government
monopolies and expensive military campaigns and voices support for an
easing of heavy burdens on the populace and the reinstitution of Zhou
dynasty practices and policies.
The Reformist tone of the Fa yan gives credence to the association of
Yang Xiong with "the Usurper," Wang Mang, which has become standard
throughout generations of Chinese scholarship. While Wang Mang's rise
to power met with opposition and spurred a number of insurrections, he
seems to have found support in the ranks of court scholars for his
display of Confucian virtue and his attempts to reorganize the social
institutions of the Han along the lines of the Zhou dynasty – the
system of rites and institutions highly prized by Confucian scholars
since the Warring States period. Some have even seen Wang Mang as
genuine in his espousal of Confucian ideals and as a sincere believer
that reviving the institutions and rites of the Zhou dynasty would
lead to a period of great peace and harmony. The more typical view,
dating back to the account of Ban Gu (32-92 CE) in the Qian Han Shu
(History of the Former Han), portrays Wang Mang as an ambitious,
duplicitous, and murderous charlatan who rebelled against his
sovereign and left the Empire in ruins.
Little is known of Yang Xiong's actual political leanings in the face
of Wang Mang's rise to power. Those who portray Yang Xiong as a Wang
Mang partisan point to the fact that, when Wang Mang declared himself
Emperor, Yang Xiong did not commit suicide or leave court to become a
recluse as did many other Han officials. His supporters, however,
point out that, in his earlier poetic works and in the Fa yan, Yang
Xiong has a great deal to say – most of it critical – about men who,
in the name of principle, committed suicide or fled to the mountains.
As noted above, it appears that Yang Xiong preferred instead to follow
his teacher Zhuang Zun – though not as a recluse among men, but as a
recluse at court. Although the Fa yan was written during Wang Mang's
rise in power and apparently finished shortly before his usurpation,
he is mentioned only once in it. Nonetheless, some read the text as an
apology for Wang Mang's usurpation and the Confucian reforms he
attempted to institute. Others read the Fa yan as consisting of a
number of cleverly veiled attacks on Wang Mang's penchant for
superstition, his insatiable ambition, and his pretense to being a
humble Confucian.
Some passages of the Fa yan have been read as offering neither
flattery nor ridicule but bold admonitions, counseling Wang Mang to
remember his filial duties and to return the reigns of power to the
rightful ruler. For example, in Fa yan 8:21, there is a terse passage
that reads, "The Red and Black Bows and Arrows do not amount to having
it." Centuries earlier the Imperial house of the Zhou dynasty awarded
princes a set of bows and arrows as symbol of investiture to punish
all within their jurisdiction. In an attempt to follow this ancient
tradition, a set of red and black bows and arrows was awarded to Wang
Mang in 5 CE as part of the "Conferment of the Nine Distinctions"
bestowed on him by ministers, officials, and scholars of the Han
court. While commentators uniformly read the phrase "red and black
bows and arrows" in Fa yan 8:21 as a reference to this award, they are
divided over its meaning. While some see 8:21 as flattering praise,
others see it as reminding Wang Mang that having been bestowed the
honor of the "Red and Black Bows and Arrows" does not amount to the
possession of the mandate.
The passage most frequently cited as evidence of Yang Xiong's
political leanings is found in Fa yan 13:34, where Wang Mang is
compared to two of the greatest ministers in Chinese history: Zhou
Gong (the Duke of Zhou, c. 12th century BCE) and Yi Yin (c. 18th
century BCE). Given the location of this passage at the very end of
the text, some have considered it to be a forgery. Others have seen it
as a flattering endorsement of Wang Mang. The great Neo-Confucian
philosopher Zhu Xi (1130-1200 CE), for example, reads this passage as
lavish praise of Wang Mang's achievements and, on the basis of it,
dismisses Yang Xiong as "Wang Mang's Grandee." Still others have seen
it as admonishing Wang Mang to be like Yi Yin and Zhou Gong before him
and to return the reigns of power to his rightful sovereign. It is
important to point out that, like Wang Mang, both Yi Yin and Zhou Gong
served as Imperial Regents. Like Yi Yin, Wang Mang stood in the wings
through a series of short-lived reigns. As in the case of Yi Yin, it
fell on Wang Mang to name a successor to the throne. Both Yi Yin and
Wang Mang served as regents while their hand-picked successors lacked
maturity. But while Yi Yin and Zhou Gong are remembered for handing
back the reigns of power, Wang Mang is popularly remembered in the
chengyu (proverb) as one who "usurped the Han and named himself
Emperor."
f. View of Human Nature
As Wing-tsit Chan and others have pointed out, the view for which Yang
Xiong has become most famous – that human nature is a mixture of good
and evil – is articulated only in a single passage of the Fa yan (3:2)
and is not elaborated any further:
Human nature is a muddle [hun] of good and evil tendencies.
Cultivating the good tendencies makes a person good. Cultivating the
evil ones makes a person depraved. This force [qi] - is it not like a
horse that drives one towards good or evil?
This hardly amounts to the kind of sustained development of a view of
human nature found, for example, in the work of Mencius or Xunzi, who
represent opposite poles on the continuum of ancient Chinese views of
human nature. Nonetheless, Yang Xiong's view here, although undefended
in philosophical terms, contradicts Mencius' view that human nature
originally is good and can only be warped (but never entirely
destroyed) through neglect or negative influences. After Mencius' view
became the orthodox one among Confucians, especially during the
Neo-Confucian movement of medieval and early modern China, Yang
Xiong's work came in for a great deal of criticism from Confucians.
Thus, rather like Xunzi, Yang Xiong may be seen as something of a
black sheep among early Confucians because of his deviation from what
became Confucian orthodoxy in a later age.
5. Poetical Works
Before being summoned to court, Yang Xiong wrote a number of poetic
pieces of which only one – Fan sao (Refuting Sorrow) – survives. As
Yang Xiong explains in his autobiography, Fan Sao was written in
response to Li sao (Encountering Sorrow), a poem by the legendary
Warring States poet Qu Yuan (340-278 BCE). According to the Shiji
(Historical Records) account, Qu Yuan served as a trusted official to
King Huai of Chu, but, after he was slandered by a jealous minister,
he fell from favor and was exiled. Qu Yuan desperately wished to
return to the service of King Huai, but in the end he gave up hope and
after composing Li sao, he drowned himself.
While Yang Xiong's Fan sao is similar in style to Qu Yuan's Li sao,
its outlook is very different. Qu Yuan saw suicide as the only option
left to persons of character living in a corrupt age. Yang Xiong, on
the other hand, compares Qu Yuan's response to failure in the
political sphere with the response of Confucius. Unlike Qu Yuan,
Confucius's disappointments in searching for rulers who would employ
him in "making good government" did not stop him from living a full
life of travel, teaching, and writing. Here and in his later
philosophical works, we find Yang Xiong maintaining that success and
failure do not come down to individual effort but have much to do with
the times and circumstances in which one lives. If one does not meet
one's proper time for acting, then one should retire or withdraw and
like a snake or dragon lie submerged or like a phoenix remain
concealed and wait for more advantageous times.
While at court, Yang Xiong composed a number of primarily
autobiographical poetic pieces where he reflects on his poverty, lowly
position, lack of recognition, and the ridicule and difficulties these
frustrations have engendered. In Jie chao (Dissolving Ridicule), for
example, Yang Xiong portrays himself as ridiculed for his low position
and his failure to influence the court. In responding, Yang Xiong
reiterates a familiar theme in his writings, arguing that in an age
beset with chaos, it is better to remain silent and unknown since, as
David R. Knechtges translates it, "those who grab for power die, and
those who remain silent survive; those who reach the highest positions
endanger their family, while those who maintain themselves intact
survive." In Zhu bin (Expelling Poverty), Yang Xiong expels an
unwelcome guest named "Poverty" whose lingering presence in the poet's
life has labored his body and afflicted his health, cut him off from
friends, and slowed his promotion in office. After listening to Yang
Xiong vent, Poverty humbly agrees to leave, but first reminds Yang
Xiong of the virtue of the impoverished sage Shun, warns him of the
greed of the tyrants Jie and Zhi, and offers the consolation that it
is only because of his privation that the poet is able to bear heat
and cold, and to live freely with equanimity. Enlightened, Yang Xiong
apologizes to Poverty and welcomes him as an honored guest.
Yang Xiong wrote several pieces in a genre known as fu, a term
translated by Knechtges as "rhapsody." Marked by its florid imagery
and ecstatic tone, this genre was commonly employed by Han court
officials as a means of offering indirect criticism and admonition to
the Emperor. As Knechtges points out, most of the well known early
writers of rhapsodies, such as Lu Jia (228-140 BCE) and Jia Yi
(200-168 BCE), were not only poets but also scholar-officials who saw
it as their duty to offer advice and remonstrance (jian) to rulers and
did so through their poetic works. In the rhapsodies of later Former
Han writers like Sima Xiangru, however, verbal decoration and
entertainment took precedence over instruction and admonition.
In his early years at the court of Emperor Cheng, Yang Xiong submitted
a number of rhapsodies. At first glance, these works appear to be
little more than ornate, fanciful, and flattering descriptions of
Imperial spectacles. In Fa yan (Words to Live By) and in the
autobiographical section of his biography, however, Yang Xiong
stresses that, like earlier poets, he envisioned the primary purpose
of these works to be remonstrance – a dangerous political task widely
recognized as one of the most central duties of the Confucian scholar.
While, on the surface, Yang Xiong's rhapsodies heap lavish praise on
the Emperor, they also contain stern reprimands and warning. For
example, within the fanciful descriptions of Imperial grandeur found
in the Ganquan fu (Sweet Springs Rhapsody), Yang Xiong indirectly
admonishes Emperor Cheng to be more solemn in conducting affairs,
suggesting through allusion that, like the lascivious tyrant kings Jie
and Xia, Emperor Cheng's wanton conduct would lead to his downfall. In
the Jiaolie fu (Barricade Hunt Rhapsody) and the Changyang fu
(Changyang Palace Rhapsody), both of which commemorate imperial hunts,
Yang Xiong indirectly criticizes the hunts as lavish, wasteful
spectacles that burden the peasants and destroy their farms and
farmlands. In his later writings, Yang Xiong claims that he eventually
came to see the ornate style of rhapsody as excessive, and realizing
that the moral admonitions he tried to provide had gone unheeded (if
not unnoticed), he renounced it. He never gave up writing poetry
altogether, however.
6. References and Further Reading
There are very few published studies of Yang Xiong in English. Of
these, Nylan's pioneering translation and commentary of the Tai Xuan
(1993) is the most complete account of Yang Xiong's philosophy, while
Knechtges's studies of Yang Xiong's fu poetry (1976, 1977) and his
Qian Han Shu biography (1982) offer superb translations and
interpretations of Yang Xiong's life and literary works. Colvin (2001)
provides a translation of the Fa yan and an examination of the
seemingly haphazard organization of its aphorisms and dialogues. For a
fuller understanding of Yang Xiong's thought, readers are encouraged
to explore the more general accounts of the literary, intellectual,
and political contexts of the Former Han dynasty in Bielenstein
(1984), Feng (1953), Loewe (1974, 1986), Thomsen (1988), Xiao (1979),
and Yu (1967).
* Bielenstein, Hans. "Han Portents and Prognostications." Museum
of Far Eastern Antiquities 56 (1984): 97-112.
* Chan, Wing-tsit. "Taoistic Confucianism: Yang Hsiung." In A
Source Book in Chinese Philosophy, ed. Wing-tsit Chan (Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1963), 289-291.
* Colvin, Andrew. Patterns of Coherence in Yang Xiong's Fa Yan.
Ph.D. dissertation, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2001.
* Doeringer, Franklin M. Yang Xiong and his Formulation of a
Classicism. Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, 1971.
* Feng, Yulan. A History of Chinese Philosophy, Vol. 2: The Period
of Classical Learning. Trans. Derke Bodde. Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1953.
* Knechtges, David R. The Han Rhapsody: A Study of the Fu of Yang
Xiong (53 B.C.- A.D.18). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976.
* Knechtges, David R. "Uncovering the Sauce Jar: A Literary
Interpretation of Yang Hsiung's Chu ch'in mei Hsin." In Ancient China:
Studies in Early Civilization, eds. David T. Roy et al (Hong Kong:
Chinese University Press, 1977), 229-252.
* Knechtges, David R. "The Liu Hsin /Yang Hsiung Correspondence on
the Fang Yen." Monumenta Serica 33 (1977): 309-325.
* Knechtges, David R. The Han Shu Biography of Yang Xiong (53 B.C.
to A.D. 18). Tempe: Arizona State University Press, 1982.
* Loewe, Michael. Crisis and Conflict in Han China 104 B.C. to
A.D. 9. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1974.
* Nylan, Michael. The Canon of Supreme Mystery by Yang Xiong: A
Translation with Commentary of the T'ai Hsüan Ching. Albany: State
University of New York Press, 1993.
* Nylan, Michael. "Han Classicists Writing in Dialogue about their
Own Tradition." Philosophy East & West 47/2 (1996): 133-188.
* Thomsen, Rudi. Ambition and Confucianism: A Biography of Wang
Mang. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 1988.
* Twichett, Denis, and Michael Loewe, eds. The Cambridge History
of China, Vol. 1: The Ch'in and Han Empires, 221 B.C. – A.D. 220.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
* Xiao, Gongjun. A History of Chinese Political Thought, Vol. 1:
From the Beginnings to the Sixth Century A.D. Trans. F.W. Mote.
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979.
* Yu, Yingshi. Trade and Expansion in Han China. Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1967.
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