Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.7, 2014

 

On Relations between the Confucian Classics and Non-Confucian Schools of Thought

(Abstract)

 

Wu Genyou and Huang Yanqiang

 

The connotation and extension of the concepts of Confucian classics (经 jing) and non-Confucian schools of thought (子 zi) had always been changing. Both the Six Classics collated and compiled by Confucius and the study of pre-Qin non-Confucian philosophies all originated from “pre-Confucius classics,” viz., literature of historical material nature since the Three Dynasties. The Six Classics canonized by Confucius were both the textual foundation of the pre-Qin Confucian disciples’ study of Confucian Classics and the study of old texts (古文, guwen) and new texts (今文, jinwen) of Confucian Classics in the Han dynasty, and the origin of the Confucian thoughts of later generations; In addition, the Confucian classics were made cultural paragons since the Han Dynasty: All this give people a false impression as if all other schools of thought had originated from the Six Classics. If we make a distinction between the texts of Confucian classics and study of them, we can see that the system of the classics was never static but rather dynamically changed and extended in line with the requirements of times and social environments. Among them, the most obvious is the promotion of Confucian zishu (Confucian works written by Confucian disciples) to Confucian classics. This indicates that the term classics is relative to zhuan (传, literally biography), while the studies of Confucian classics and non-Confucian schools of thought were similar in nature, both of them inherited and expounded the “pre-Confucian classics.” In this sense, biographies, the study of Confucian classics and that of other schools of thought are the same in terms of origin and nature, all belonging to the study of schools of thought in the broad sense. From the analysis of relationship between the study of Confucian classics and that of non-Confucian thoughts, we can see, from one aspect, the complex interactions and the internal mechanism of self-renewal of traditional Chinese culture; besides, it is also an remedy for the shortcoming in the history of Chinese academics that discussed mostly the relationship between Confucian classics and history while touching little on the relationship between Confucian classics and other schools of thought.