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HUNDRED SCHOOLS OF THOUGHTSSima Qian named Li, Yue, Shi, Shu, Yi and Chun-qiu as the six arts, not the six classics, which Liu Xin continued in his bibliography book Qi Lüe and Ban Gu in the Yi-wen Zhi section of Han Shu, with Ban Gu calling the six classics by 'yi4' and the writings of the hundred schools of thoughts by 'wen2'. Sima Qian followed father Sima Tan's methodology in the classification of the hundreds of schools. Sima Tan, as the imperial 'tai shi' or the court astrologer, was in charge of astrology and calendar, and wrote a book entitled Lun Liu-jia Yao-zhi or A Discourse on the Main Essence of the Six Schools. This would include the Confucianists, the Daoists, the 'yin [female] and yang [male]' or the Naturalist school of thought, the Legalists, the School of Forms and Names (i.e., the Logicians), and the Mohists. (The four other schools, i.e., the 'zong [vertical] and heng [horizontal' diplomats, the 'za [miscellany]' schools of thought or the Syncretists, the Agriculturalists, and the School of Minor-talks or the fictionists, would be separately listed by Ban Gu in Han Shu. 20th century historian Lü Simian included the astrologists/mathematicians, the alchemists/medicinists and the military strategists to call the totals by twelve schools. A few schools, such as Yang-zi's Yangism, a school of ethical egosim, was not listed among the catalog or bibliography books of the early Han dynasty time period.) In the late Han dynasty, Liu Xiang and son Liu Xin made a systematic catalogue of books, including books like Bie Lüe and Qi Lüe (13269 volumes), which laid the foundation of China's bibliography. What Liu Xiang did was to make a headline and summary of each book's contents, called Xu Lüe [recited/summarized excerpts/records], which were compiled by Liu Xin into twenty volumes of Bie Lüe [alternative records/excerpts] in the same order as Qi Lüe. Qi Lüe[seven abridgment/catalog] was what Liu Xin did with an extra Ji Lüe [abridged catalog] on top of his father's cataloguing of six categories of books, namely, classics and their interpretation, founding-scholars of the hundred schools of thoughts, poetry and prose, military books, astronomy and math, and alchemy and medicine. (Ban Gu of the Latter Han dynasty, in the section Yi-wen Zhi of Han Shu, inherited Liu Xin's bibliographical list without the abridged catalog Ji Lüe. From Yi-wen Zhi, historians deduced that the 'Chen'-nature implied prophecy and 'Wei'-suffixed forgery books, which were rampant in the Latter Han dynasty, were not in shape yet as of the late Former Han Dynasty time period.) Among Liu Xin's six categories of bibliography, the first category would be the six arts (i.e., 'liu yi', which was what Sima Qian had adopted for the category of books including Li, Yue, Shi, Shu, Yi and Chun-qiu --without the later tag or suffix of 'Jing' for classics or latitude in a literal sense. This would be Liu Xin's Liu-yi Lüe bibliography that touched on the classics (i.e., 'Jing') and their interpretation (i.e., 'Zhuan'). The second category would be about the founding-scholars of the hundred schools of thoughts, called Zhu-zi Lüe, with 'Zhu Zi' meaning all founding scholars. This would be expanded by Ban Gu to ten schools which included the Confucianists, the Daoists, the 'yin [female] and yang [male]' or the Naturalist school of thought, the Legalists, the School of Forms and Names (i.e., the Logicians), the Mohists, the 'zong [vertical] and heng [horizontal' diplomats, the 'za [miscellany] schools of thought, the Agriculturalists, and the School of Minor-talks or the fictionists. Confucianism vs Daoism During Early Han Dynasty Mr Lin Yutang proposed during early 20th century the notion that the 'ancient Chinese were Confucian superficially, a Daoist innerside, and a legalist in governance.' A careful perusal of the early Han Dynasty history will show the kind of interwining nature of the three schools of thought in governance and philosophy. Should China ever possess a legalist philosophy, it was very much overturned during the Han Emepror Wudi's reigh, when the Confucian ranking system in regards to the king, the father and son etc was adopted. However, the Confucian and Daoist thoughts were never in conflict with each other for the Chinese intellectuals of the next two thousand years. Late Professor Mou Runsun, in Hai [Hongkong] Yi [leftover survivor {from the previous R.O.C. dynasty}] Za [miscellaneous] Zhu [writings], called Emperor Xuandi's rebuke of his son, saying that the Han dynasty had adopted the mixed king's way and hegemony [king]'s way to rule the country, by 'yang' [on the surface] 'ru' [Confucian] 'yin' [innerside] 'fa' [legalist]. Mou Runsun did give credit where it was, namely, the Han emperors' appointing the Confucians the court posts against the non-Confucians. Han Dynasty founder (Han Emperor Gaodi, Liu Bang) was never fond of the Confucians. When receiving a 60-year-old confucian by the name of Li Yiji, Gaodi deliberately had two maids wash his feet; when Li Yiji challenged Gaodi on the matter of not showing respect for the old confucian, Liu Bang called the name of 'shu ru' (i.e., damned confucian); Liu Bang did not show respect for Li Yiji till Li Yiji cited the success and failure stories in history as examples for Liu Bang to win the war against Qin Empire. Liu Bang employed Shu-sun Tong, a Qin-era 'bo-shi' (doctorate), for making the imperial rituals, and appointed him the post of "tai chang", i.e., imperial attache. Shu-sun Tong, to appease Liu Bang's despisement of Confucians, had changed to the Chu natives' clothes, i.e., short waist clothes, in lieu of the Confucian robe. Shu-sun Tong later served the Crown Prince as "tai fu", i.e., imperial tutor. (Later, Qing historian Hong Liangji commented that the Qin empire had its demise in the hands of Shu-sun Tong. Why so? Because, Shu-sun Tong, as Qin Emperor Hu-hai's doctorate official, had told Hu-hai not to worry about the Chen Sheng & Wu Guang rebellion while he himself fled the capital to join Xiang Liang's rebellion. Shu-sun Tong's reply to the 2nd Qin emperor was the noted sentence "ren chen [subordinate people and officials] wu [would not or would not be allowed to] jiang [rebel {against the emperor}]".) After the unification of China, per Han Shu, Emperor Gaodi (Liu Bang) ordered Xiao He to work on 'lv ling' [laws], Haan Xin to work on 'jun fa' [martial laws], Zhang Cang to work on 'zhang cheng' [regulations], Shu-sun Tong to work on 'li yi' [rituals and protocols], and Lu Jia to work on 'Xin Yu' [new statements]. Before that, at one time, Liu Bang claimed that he did not need the intellectuals to help administer the country with Shi[-jing] [poems] and [Shang-]shu [remotely-ancient history] as he rode the horse to have taken the country. Lu Jia countered him, saying that the country could not be administered from the horseback, citing the ancient saint of Lord Yu-shun who was said to have ruled the country with the playing of five-chord zither and the singing of the Nan Feng ('southerly winds') poem. The emperor then asked Lu Jia to write articles about why the Qin lost its rule and why he obtained it. Lu Jia wrote twelve articles which Liu Bang named as 'Xin-yu [new statements]', with one article, 'dao [way] ji [basis]' citing Xun Zi's statement that the heaven bore the tens of thousands of temporal things, which the earth was to raise and nurture, and the saint was to accomplish and perfect. Lu Jia named Confucius by 'hou [last] sheng [saint]', i.e., the last of the saints of the three epochs of the remote ancient world, the middle ages, and the then contemporary world. Lu Jia was said to have authored the book Chu-Han Chun-qiu, which was lost into oblivion in history, a book that Sima Qian used for writing his history annals Shi-ji. Qing Dynasty scholar Dai Yansheng succinctly analyzed Lu Jia's thoughts to point out that Lu Jia, who studied under Foqiu-bo (Fo-bo-qiu/Bao-qiu-zi, a desciple of Xun Qing/Xun-zi and a teacher to Shen-gong/Shen Peigong {219-135 B.C.}), could be the forerunner master of Guliang Chun-qiu Zhuan. Shen-gong/Shen Peigong {219-135 B.C.}) was said to have passed Guliang Chun-qiu Zhuan to student Xiaqiu-jiang-gong. Per Lu-lin Zhuan of Han Shu, at the very beginning of the Han dynasty, there was a revival of studies of Chun-qiu Zuo-shi Zhuan. Zhang Cang, Jia Yi, Zhang Chang, and Liu Gong-zi ("taizhong dafu" {imperial admonition minister, which was subordinate to 'lang-zhong-ling'}, with the name Liu Gong-zi literally meaning Prince Liu but not necessarily a Liu royal family prince who should be termed 'wang" or a king, instead) all liked to edit (i.e., compile and interpret) Chun-qiu Zuo-shi Zhuan. Though, the book was never given the imperial attention till the Xin dynasty time period. One version of Chun-qiu Zuo-shi Zhuan was said to be passed down from Zhang Cang (Marquis Beiping-hou), a former Qin-era "yu shi" (imperial censor), who was said to be a disciple of scholar Xun Qing. Zhang Cang was said to have passed Chun-qiu Zuo-shi Zhuan to Han Dynasty scholar Jia Yi ("tai fu" or tutor for the Liang state); Jia Yi passed to grandson Jia Jia; Jia Jia passed to Guan4 Gong ("bo shi" for King Hejian-xian-wang); Guan4 Gong passed to son Guan4 Changqing ("ling" or magistrate for Dangyin); Guan4 Changqing passed to Zhang Chang ("jing-zhao yin", magistrate of the capital) & Zhang Yu ("yu shi" or a censor); Zhang Yu passed to Xiao Wangzhi ("yu shi" or a censor; and "tai fu" or tutor for the crown prince) and Yin Gengshi; Yin Gengshi passed to son Yin Xian, Zhai Fangjin, and Hu Chang; Hu Chang passed to Jia Hu; and Jia Hu passed to Chen Qin whose son Chen Qin passed to Xin Dynasty usurper emperor Wang Mang. It was said that Liu Xiang and Liu Xin had studied Chun-qiu Zuo-shi Zhuan from Yin Xian and Zhai Fangjin. Also, the Zuo family lineage book claimed that the Zuo family descendants fled the urusper emperor Wang Mang's imperial recall by changing the surname and seeking anonymity in the related Qiu-surnamed hometown. With the actual author of either the Gongyang version or the Guliang version of Chun-qiu Zhuan [interpretation] being disputed, Ban Gu, in Han Shu, summarized the sequence of events like this: Dong Zhongshu was responsible for compiling the Gongyang version of Chun-qiu Zhuan during the reign years of Han Emperor Jingdi and Han Emperor Wudi; Liu Xiang was responsible for compiling the Guliang version of Chun-qiu Zhuan during the reign years of Han Emperor Xuandi and Han Emperor Yuandi; and Liu Xin deviated from Dong Zhongshu and Liu Xiang's interpretation of Confucius' Chun-qiu, namely, an inclination for Chun-qiu Zuo-shi Zhuan, an utterly historic annals that lacked the expounding of Confucius' righteousness discourse. (The Guliang version was possibly not matching the historic facts. Example: Regarding the Jinn Principality's 658 B.C. war against the Guo-guo state, the Guliang version of Chun-qiu claimed that the Yu2-guo troops, as the vanguard army, took action together with the Jinn army, with the joint army taking over Xiayang (Shaanxia, Henan) from the Guo-guo state, and eliminated the Guo-guo state. Zuo Zhuan, i.e., Zuoqiu Ming (or Zuo Qiuming)'s version of Chun-qiu, stated that the Jinn army campaigned against the Guo-guo state a second time three years later and eliminated Guo-guo. The Guliang version, which was different from Zuo Zhuan's statement about the Jinn state's borrowing the path a second time three years later, hinted that the Jinn lord eliminated the Guo-guo in the same year, i.e., 658 B.C., and then eliminated the Yu2-guo state five years later, i.e., 653 B.C.) At the time of Emperor Xiaohuidi and dowager-empress Lü Hou, a few scholars were appointed some nominal posts, such as Yuan Gusheng and Haan Ying in the area of Shi-jing, Zhang Sheng and Ou Yang in the area of Shang-shu, Hu Wusheng and Dong Zhongshu in the area of Chun-qiu. At the time of Emperor Jingdi (reign 156-141 B.C.), Confucians Hu Wusheng (a former Qi territory person) and Dong Zhongshu (a former Zhao territory person) were made into 'bo shi', i.e., doctorate officials, for the research into Confucius' book Chun-qiu (Springs & Autums). It was said that Hu Wusheng and Gongyang Shou (who was a descendant of Gongyang Gao, a student of Confucian student Zi-xia) who were responsible for putting the Gongyang school of interpretation of Chun-qiu into the book format. However, history said that Emperor Wendi liked 'xing ming' (the legal system) while Emperor Jingdi did not make any Confucian appointments. More, dowager-empress Doutaihou (Dou-tai-hou) had a personal preference for the Yellow Elderly school of thought, namely, the Laoism, which was also interpretated to be longevity studies attributed to the Yellow Emperor and Lao-zi. At one time, Yuan Gusheng offended dowager-empress Doutaihou when commenting on the Lao-zi books as being shallow. Dowager-empress Doutaihou cursed the Confucian books as belonging to the "cheng-dan" people, a term referring to Qin Emperor Shihuangdi's decree to force whoever was in possession of Shi-jing, Shang-shu and the books related to the hundred schools of thoughts to work as the citywall builders. More, Dowager-empress Doutaihou ordered Yuan Gusheng (Yuan Gu) to fight the wild boars as punishment. Yuan Gusheng (Yuan Gu) was the progenitor of the [former] Qi [Principalicty] school of Shi Jing, on par with Shen Pei (Shen Peigong/Shen-gong)'s [former] Lu [Principalicty] school and Haan Ying's Haan [family] school. In 140 B.C., when Emperor Wudi got enthroned at the age of 16, he made a decree that local governors send in the learned persons to the capital. Over one hundred intelligentsia, include Dong Zhongshu of Guangchuan, Gongsun Hong of Zichuan, and Yan Zhu of Kuaiji, came to the capital. (Yan Zhu later recommended to the empror his native friend, Zhu Maichen, who happened to be ordered to the capital for an assignment as the county cart escort; the emperor, when King Dong-yue-wang disobeyed the central court, dispatched Zhu Maichen to the Kuaiji-jun Commandery as 'tai shou' to quell the rebellion.) Wudi disapproved of the old officialdom policy which was to have officials (worthy of a pay of 2000 units of grains) recommend their sons and nephews for various posts. The new decree, 'advocating thrift people and recomemending filial people', discounted the family origin. A good story about Wudi would be his assigning Yan Si (an old man who went through two prior emperors' rule without any promotion) for the post of du wei (governing captain {or brigadier general}) of the Kuaiji Commandery. Wudi was impressed by Dong Zhongshu's article which advocated Confucianism as the creed for ruling a nation. Wudi conferred Dong a post as prime minister for King of Jiangdu (Liu Fei). Dong Zhongshu was acredited with advocating for the 'san [three] gang [orders] wu [five] chang [norms]' school of thought. Dong Zhongshu, later in Chun-qiu Fan Lu, called for the oneness of rule under the heaven, which was about having the Han emperor taking the dictatorial and absolute control of all power. Prime Minister Wei Guan suggested to Wudi that only a few Confucian intelligentsia like Gongsun Hong and Yan Zhu should be retained while the rest non-Confucians could be sent back to their homes. After Wudi replaced Wei Guan with Dou Ying (nephew of Dowager Empress Doutaihou), Dou Ying and Tian Fen would locate two Confucians for Wudi: Zhao Guan and Wang Zang. Zhao Guan and Wang Zang were two of the thousand students of an eighty-year-old Shen-gong of the ex-Chu Principality. Shen-gong was renowned for his research into ancient Shi Jing [classics of poems]. Shen-gong was invited to the capital by Wudi, but Shen-gong somehow performed modestly for sake of avoiding the implication in the palace struggles. In Kun-xue [entrenched studies] Ji, Wang Yinglin of the Soong Dynasty, who cited Di Pu of the Latter Han Dynasty about Han Emperor Wendi first establishing the doctorate post in Shi Jing, stated that Han Emperor Jingdi made Yuan Gu[sheng] a doctor, i.e., the forerunner of the Qi-shi family of Shi Jing and that Han Emperor Wudi, in the spring of the 5th year of the Jianyuan Era, expanded on top of Emperor Jingdi's Shi Jing doctorate to include Shang[-shu], Li[-jing], Yi[-jing], and [gongyang] Chun-qiu. Wang Yinglin pointed out that while Han Emperor Wudi first set the academic posts of 'wu jing bo-shi' [doctorate of the five classics], the denotation of five classics, or six classics, or seven, ten, twelve etc, was from a different time, with the Tian-yun Pian [heaven's fate] of Zhuang Zi first making a claim that Confucius worked on the six classics. (This webmaster, taking Zhuang Zi to be a fable from a latter day compilation, would interpret Sima Qian's Shi-jiword for word, namely, Sima Qian's naming Li, Yue, Shi, Shu, Yi and Chun-qiu as the six arts, not the six classics, which Liu Xin continued in his bibliography book QI Lü and Ban Gu in the Yi-wen Zhi section of Han Shu, with Ban GU calling the six classics by 'yi4' and the writings of the hundred schools of thoughts by 'wen2'. Dong Zhongshu, in his article Xian-liang Dui Ce, expanded it to the five universal elements of 'benevolence', 'righteousness', 'rituals', 'wisdom' and 'integrity/credibility/trustworthiness'. It would be in Bai Hu Tong[-yi], i.e., white tiger auditorium's compendium or consensus interpretation, that Ban Gu first jotted down the sentence that the ways of 'wu chang [five constant human mindsets]' were named the five classics, with Yue[-jing] about benevolence, Shu[jing] about righteousness, Li[-jing] about the rituals, Yi[-jing] about the wisdom, and Shi[-jing] about integrity.) Though, Confucianism did not get developed until much later. Dowager-empress Dou-tai-hou still vehemently opposed the non-Daoist thoughts. In 139 B.C., when minister Zhao Guan suggested to Emperor Wudi that he did not have to consult with the dowager-empress about the practice of new policies, Dou-tai-hou pressued the emperor into having Zhao Guan ('yushi dafu') and Wang Zang ('langzhong ling') arrested. Dowager Empress Doutaihou, who previously intended to kill 'bo shi' Yuan Gu[sheng] who served under Emperor Jingdi, would force Wudi into having Zhao Guan and Wang Zang arrested for propagation of Confucianism. Dowager Empress made an analogy of the Confucian proponents to foretune-teller Xin Yuanping who was executed by the predecessor emperor for fabricating the supernatural phenomenon and objects. Dowager Empress Doutaihou was fond of Daoism and hated Yuan Gu[sheng], Zhao Guan and Wang Zang for advocating Confucianism. Zhao Guan and Wang Zang, who offended Doutaihou for advising Wudi on prevention of the empress intervention in politics, committed suicide inside the prison. Under the pressure of Doutaihou, Wudi deprived Dou Ying and Tian Fen of their posts. Dou Ying ('chengxiang' or prime minister) and Tian Fen ('tai wei') were deprived of their posts. Xu Chang (Marquis Bozhi-hou) and Zhuang Qingdi (Marquis Wuqiang-hou) took over the prime minister and 'yushi dafu' posts, respectively. Zhao Guan ('yushi dafu') and Wang Zang ('langzhong ling') died in prison, and teacher Shen-gong, i.e., Shen Pei/Shen Pei-gong, claimed illness and went home. The new deal polices were revoked. Nothing was achived till after Dou-tai-hou died in 135 B.C. After the death of Dowager Empress Doutaihou, Tian Fen was assigned the post as prime minister. Dong Zhongshu, who was conferred a post as prime minister for the King of Jiangdu (Liu Fei), was impeached by an official called Zhufu Yan in 135 BC. Han General Guan Fu tried to mediate over the relationship of Tian Fen and Dou Ying, but he offended Tian Feng in a marriage banquet in 131 B.C. With the help of Dowager Empress Wangtaihou, Tian Feng made Wudi order that both Guan Fu and Dou Ying be executed. Guan Fu's whole family were exterminated. Wudi's brother, King of Lu, discovered some surviving books hidden by the 8th generation grandson of Confucius (Kong Zixiang) inside of the walls of Confucius' house. Zhang Tang, a censor or inspector under Wudi and a cruel criminal law official, would order 'bo shi' scholars to research into Shang Shu and Shi Jing. (Zhang Tang was notorious for his childhood article 'Interrrogating Mice' on which occasion he caught and interrogated mice after digging through the mice's underground caves to catch the mice for mice's stealing his family's grains.) In 130 B.C., at the age of 80, Gongsun Hong, who claimed illness after returning from the Huns as an emissary, was recommended to the court again. Yuan Gu[sheng] was over the age of 90 by that time. Gongsun Hong was conferred the post as yushi dafu, i.e., censor-in-chief. In 127 B.C., Zhufu Yan, using Jia Yi's ideas in Zhi-an[peaceful administration] Ce [tactics], proposed to Wudi to have the various Liu kings divide their domain into smaller fiefs among their brothers and sons so that the various Liu kings would not be strong enough to pose a threat to the central government. This was the so-called 'tui [push] en [grace {to the second and third sons] ling [imperial order]', namely, preventing the elder son from taking the fief altogether, a tactic that was adopted by the imperial houses for the next two thousand years. The inheritors, as marquis ('lie hou'), were subject to the commandery on the same par as counties. Zhufu Yan also proposed the pacifying policies with the Huns; but, after General Wei Qing and General Li Xi defeated the Hunnic kings in Loufan and Baiyang and took over the Hetao land south of the Yellow River in 127 B.C., Zhufu Yan changed his mind and proposed to Wudi to have a castle built on the north bank of the North Yellow River Bend in the same way as Qin Emperor Shihuangdi did. Gongsun Hong advised against Zhufu Yan's proposal by citing the futile attempts of Qin Shihuangdi in mobilizing 300,000 people for building the castle. Wudi concurred with Zhufu Yan in relocating over 100,000 people to the north bank. Zhufu Yan impeached King of Yan for his lasciviousness, namely, adultery with sisters and daughters. King Yan was ordered by Emperor Wudi to commit suicide. The Qi king, who was son of King Qi-yi-wang, was controlled by his mother-empress Ji-tai-hou who cursed Xu Jia, an eunuch who was sent by the dowager-emperess to the Qi state on a match-making mission on behalf of daughter Xiu-cheng-jun. Angry that his daughter could not be with princess Xiu-cheng-jun as King Qi-li-wang was not allowed to marry the princess, Zhufu Yan volunteered for the job to be dispatched to King of Qi as prime minister for an investigation. Zhufu Yan impeached King Qi for King Qi's affairs with a sister. King Qi committed suicide. King Zhao-wang impeached Zhufu Yan over his personal agony towards the dead Qi king. Gongsun Hong impeached Zhufu Yan for King Qi's death. Emperor Wudi ordered Zhufu Yan and his family be executed. Wudi deprived Xue Ze of the prime minister post; Gongsun Hong was conferred the post of prime minister (the post that belonged to three so-called 'san gong' or three duke-equivalents) and the title of Marquis Pingjin in 124 B.C. Gongsun Hong, following the practice of eminent princes of the Warring States time period, set up several guest houses for attracting talents and counsellors. Gongsun Hong appeared thrifty and pious, but were jealous of talents and extravagent inside. Dong Zhongshu had criticism of Gongsun Hong. Gongsun Hong somehow inhibited Wudi's attempt to recall Dong Zhongshu. With Gongsun Hong as prime minister, Emperor Wudi instituted the position of wu jing bo shi, i.e., the Five Classics Doctorals and ordered that prefectures and the various Liu kingdoms dispatch learned youths to the capital as doctoral students. Confucius' ninth generation grandson, Kong An'guo, was among the doctorals teaching the students. Kong An'guo studied Shi Jing under Shen-gong and studied Shang-shu under Fu-sheng (Fu Sheng4), a Qin-era doctorate. Gongsun Hong recommended Ji An for the post of rightside nei shi and recommended Dong Zhongshu for the post of prime minister for the King of Jiaoxi (Liu Rui), in the attempt of ridding the two political enemies by means of a 'borrowed knife'. Dong Zhongshu resigned his post for retirement shortly thereafter and then finished a 100,000 character book entitled Chunqiu Fanlu (miscellaneous dews from Spring & Autumn era). Dong Zhongshu, who was called Dong-zi, was described by Wang Chong and Huan Tan to be someone keen on studying Chun-qiu at age 60 without casting a glimpse of the garden. The Lu-lin Zhuan section of Han Shu claimed that Dong-zi was versed in the five classics. In retirement, Dong-zi extensively lectured to students in his private school. Hu Wusheng [and his disciple Gongsun Hong] and Dong Zhongshu had been responsible for making Chun-qiu Gongyang Zhuan a state teaching textbook. Among the two compendium-nature annotation books for Chun-qiu, namely, Gong-yang-gao's 11-volume Chun-qiu Gongyang Zhuan [a Han dynasty book covering 242 years of the Lu state], and Gu-liang-chi's 11-volume Chun-qiu Guliang Zhuan [another Han dynasty book covering 242 years of the Lu state], the latter appeared to be of the nature of rebuttal against the former. Both books, which were postulated to have been passed on from the disciples of Confucian student Zi-xia, were in the format of questions and answers, apparently a compilation of the classroom teachings. (Zuo-qiu Ming's 35-volume Chun-qiu Zuo-shi Zhuan was not given the proper status during the Former Han Dynasty time period. During the Han dynasty, two other Chun-qiu versions of ZOU-SHI and JIA-SHI at one time existed before they were lost into oblivion.) Zhang Tang, who was 'yushi dafu' serving under Zhu Maichen at one time, was conferred the post of ting wei (justice minister). Zhang Tang and Gongsun Hong colluded with each other, but Ji An refused to show respect for the two. Ji An even questioned Emperor Wudi as to his non-Confucian inner desires and the superficial efforts in hiring the Confucians for parcticing the the rule of ancient saints Tang-yao and Yu-shun. Zhang Tang had under his service a learned doctoral student called Ni Kuan; Ni Kuan was known to Wudi for his article that Zhang Tang submitted to Wudi. In 124 B.C., Wei Qing was conferred the post of Da Jiangjun (Grand General or Generalissimo) for defeating the Hunnic 'rightside virtuous king' and capturing 150,000 Huns; Wei's three babies and his generals were conferred the marquisdom titles; Wei Qing married with a 40 year old widow, Princess Pingyang. Though, Ji An still showed no respect for Wei Qing. The next year, Wei Qing led 6 columns against the Huns. General Zhao Xin surrendered to the Huns. General Huo Qubing, however, had a small victory. Wudi, to enrich the depleted royal savings spent on the campaigns against the Huns, decreed that officialdom could be bought with money. The King of Huainan, Liu An (179-122 B.C.), hired eight elderly intelligentsia: Su Fei, Li Shang, Zuo Wu, Chen You, Wu Bei, Mao Zhou, Lei Bei and Jin Chang, and completed the alchemy and legends book, Huai Nan Zi, a.k.a. Hong (swan) Lie4 (ardent). The eight elderly intelligentsia, called by 'ba [eight] gong [grandpa]', had their name set for the Bagong-shan Mountain on the northern bank of the Fei-shui River. The alchemy work accidentally led to the invention of tofu, for which Liu An was accredited with being the founding master of the tofu industry. Ben Cao Gang-mu confirmed this invention. Coming to the nation's capital, Liu An submitted the book to the emperor. Among the series of books written by Liu An's hanger-on guests, there was a CHU CI style poem which called for the return of the king's grandson from the wilderness: Wangsun (king's grandson or a royal) you (going into the wilderness) xi [modal word] bu (no) gui (return), chuncao (spring grass) sheng (growing) xi [modal word] qiqi (luxuriant). Liu An, a grandson of the founding emepror Liu Bang, assumed from his father in 64 B.C. one of the three subdivided fiefs of the original Huainan-guo territory which was assigned to Ying Bu in 203 and taken back from Ying Bu in 196 B.C. For his raising a few thousand hanger-on guests, Liu An was susceptible to being accused of rebellion. King Huainan later committed suicide when he was accused by Lei Bei, one of the eight renowned scholars, and one of his own grandsons, of attempting to rebel against Wudi. Zhang Tang, who was related to Han strategician Zhang Liang, accused Yan Zu and King Huainan-wang (Liu An) of conspiracy to rebel against the emperor. Zhang Tang tried the accomplices and exterminated the families of the people involved, including Liu An's wife and two daughters. The Huainan fief was downgraded to the Jiujiang Commandery. The King of Hengshan, Liu Ci, followed the suit of Liu An. The Hengshan fief was reduced to a commandery. The emperor's seven year old prince was made a crown prince. Marquis Bowang-hou (Zhang Qian) was dispatched to the west again. With Yan Zu ordered to be executed, Zhu Maichen et als., hated Zhang Tang. Zhu Maichen was 'chengxiang zhangshi', i.e., an assistant minister to Zhuang Qingdi, i.e., the prime minister. Over the theft of the sacrifician coins and money in late Emperor Wendi's tomb, Zhang Tang tried to implicate the prime minister. Zhu Maichen, Wang Chao and Bian Tong, three assistant ministers, sowed dissension to have Zhuang Qingdi torture a merchant (Tian Xin) into confession against Zhang Tang. Jian Xuan, who was responsible for prosecuting the Zhufu Yan and King Huainan-wang cases, also accused Zhang Tang of being responsible for the death of Li Wen ('yushi zhongchen'). The emperor ordered Zhao Yu, a successor to Li Wen, to try the case of Zhang Tang. Zhang Tang committed suicide at prison. Only 500 grams of 'jin' (copper) money were confiscated from Zhang Tang's residency. Once the emperor read Zhang Tang's note that was written before Zhang Tang's suicide, the emperor regretted about it. Hearing that Zhang Tang's mother buried his son with a simple coffin, the emperor felt moved and then ordered to have the three guys killed. Zhang Tang had several sons, including Zhang Heh and Zhang Anshi. Zhuang Qingdi committed suicide at prison thereafter. (Han Shu claimed that Yan Zu and Zhu Maichen were responsible for propagating the CHU CI literature.) Also notable during this period would be a figure called Dongfang Shuo who, per research of some scholar, had been speculated to have travelled to the Arctic area more than 2000 years ago. The basis of this claim would be Dongfang Shuo's writings in the preface to Hai-nei [around the seas] Shi Zhou [ten prefectures] JI [records] in regards to travelling to Zhu-ling [red hill], Fu-sang and Shen-hai [mirage sea] to have experienced the 'extreme darkness' at 'ming-ye [dead night] zhi [of] qiu [hill]' and the 'extreme daylight' at chun-yang [pure sun] zhi [of] ling [hill]' for six months, respectively. Furthermore, in the section Bei-huang Jing [northern wilderness] of Shen Yi Jing [supernatural], Dongfang Shuo talked about a kind of frozen 'xi shu' mice] inside of the [arctic] ice that was as thick as one hundred 'zhang' [ten feet]. Dongfang Shuo, however, was noted for infatuating Han Emperor Wudi in saying the emperor had exceeded the three sovereigns and five overlords. Dongfang Shuo, a humorous person from Yanci of the Pingyuan-jun Commandery, was hired by the emperor after he sent in a resume claiming to have the courage of Meng-ben, the agility of Qing-ji, the no-bribe-taking quality of Bao-shu, and the trustworthiness of Wei-sheng (a fictional Zhuang Zi fable figure who was drowned by the rising water under a bridge for the promise to wait for a woman). For his highest post as 'tai-zhong da-fu', his writings were collected under various books, including Dongfang Tai-zhong Ji. Emperor Guangwu-di was one of the few Chinese founding emperors who had good terms with his generals throughout the life. Later, son-emperor Liu Zhuang (Han Emperor Ming-di), in 60 A.D., ordered to make a drawing of Guangwu-di's twenty-eight generals at the Yuntai-ge Palace Building. Fan Ye, in Hou Han Shu, made biographies for all twenty-eight Yuntai [cloud terrace] generals. Emperor Guangwu-di, himself an intellectual who went to the nation's capital for studies while a kid, also had special fondness for the Confucian teachings. Grandson-emperor Liu Da (Han Emperor Zhang-di), a calligrapher, further hosted a "Bai-hu [white tiger] Guan [palace auditorium]" conference", during which the emperor and the Confucians officially reached a compromise of ruling the nation under the Confucian doctrines, a feat comparable to the Magna Carta Libertatum of Britain. That is, an ideological contract or consensus that the Confucians uphold the sanctity of the imperial sovereignty while the emperor obey the moral guidelines and the mandate of heaven. After the conference, the 'chen' (argot) and 'wei' (longitude, namely, the interpretation books for the five classics) books were officially listed as the state-sanctioned textbooks.
Written by Ah Xiang |
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![Though, Anna Wang [Anneliese Martens], in her memoirs, expressed jealousy over Gong Peng by stating that the Anglo-American reporters had flattered the Chinese communists and the communist movement as a result of being entranced with the goldfish-eye'ed personal assistant of Zhou Enlai](GongPeng.jpg)
