Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.9, 2017

 

The Theory that “The Hundred Schools of Thought Originated with Court Officials”: Scholarly Discourse in the Han Dynasty

(Abstract)

 

Deng Junjie

 

The theory put forward by the Western Han scholar Liu Xin in Seven Strategies (七略), that “The hundred schools originated with court officials” is preserved in the Han Shu: Yiwenzhi. An analysis of the relationship between Liu’s observation and material on court officials in the Zhou Li (The Rites of Zhou), as well as a study of the content of the Seven Strategies, shows that this theory of Liu’s provides the main backing for the claim that “scholarship originated with court officials” in the Seven Strategies. This represents Liu’s linking of the system by which the pre-Qin classics had been transmitted through learned court officials with the ancient and modern scholarly legacy established in Western Han learning. The critical method of “seeing the masters the classics,” reflected in the idea that “the hundred schools originated with court officials,” and the theoretical intent of “incorporating the masters into the classics” represent a constructive interpretation of the historical trend by which Western Han study of the Confucian classics absorbed and merged with the works of the hundred schools of thought of the Zhou and Qin dynasties. Liu’s comment is a theoretical expression, from the standpoint of classical studies, of his commanding view of the hundred schools of thought; it aimed at strengthening the authority of Han official study of the five classics. This fully reflects Han scholarly discourse under the great unity of learning.