The main hall of the Memorial Temple of Zhang Zai at Hengqu Village in Baoji City, Shaanxi Province (LU HANG/CSST)

 

Guan means “pass” in Chinese. The concept Guanzhong, literally “among the passes,” refers to the area of central Shaanxi Province, including cities like Xi’an and Xianyang. Surrounded by the Tong Pass (east), San Pass (west), Wu Pass (south) and Xiao Pass (north), Guanzhong has had strategic significance throughout history.

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On the northern side of the main road at Hengqu Village, Shaanxi Province, is the Hengqu Academy, which also serves as a temple commemorating Zhang Zai (1020-77). Zhang is also known as Zhang Hengqu because he gave lectures in this village and is considered the founder of the Guan School of neo-Confucianism.

Zhang’s sculpture is located in the very middle of the main hall of the memorial temple. On the walls on both side are wall-paintings telling his life story—pursuing knowledge, establishing philosophical systems, serving his mother and educating his younger brother, learning military strategy, and returning to his hometown and giving lectures.

Zhao Fujie, a professor of philosophy from Northwest University of Political Science and Law, said that Zhang Zai paid significant attention to practical issues, including border warfare, when he was young. Zhang never separated the philosophy of principles from real politics, Zhao said. Zhang believed that academic studies and lectures aimed to serve society by fostering qualified people who could address practical issues, Zhao said.

In his masterpiece Ximing, he proposed the idea of “universal love” and said “The people are all my brothers and all the things are my kind.” Zhang Qizhi, a historian and the honorary president of Northwest University said that Zhang proposed the idea that “Human nature is an integral part of the Way of the Heaven” on the basis of his academic understanding that the knowledge system of the world had been stunted for over 1,500 years.

Established in the Northern Song dynasty, revived in the Ming Dynasty, inherited and transformed in the Qing Dynasty, the Guan School of Confucianism influenced China for more than 800 years, he said.

Zhang Zai was a representative thinker of the Guan School. Chen Lai, president of the Academy of Chinese Learning at Tsinghua University, said the term “Guan School” is usually used in reference to the development of Confucianism in the Guanzhong area from the Song Dynasty to Ming Dynasty. Huang Zongxi in the Qing Dynasty summarized the characteristics of this school as “practicing the Confucian code of conduct as its basis.”

Chen Lai said the understanding and assessment of mainstream Confucianism in the Song Dynasty—Daoxue (the philosophy of principle)—is vital to understanding both Zhang Zai and the Guan School. The Cheng brothers—Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi—who founded the Luo School of neo-Confucianism, considered Ximing to be the most important writing of Daoxue during the Northern Song Dynasty because it represented the supreme spiritual pursuit of Daoxue.

Zhang Zai is also famous for his Four-sentence Doctrine that lays out the four ontological goals for intellectuals. The Cheng brothers said this doctrine demonstrates the universal concerns of Confucians.

Ximing is a philosophical and ethical treatise that manifests the cosmic consciousness of Daoxue, while the Four-sentence Doctrine is more a social and value-laden one that demonstrates the value pursuits of Daoxue, Chen said. Zhang Zai’s system of thought unified heaven and earth, as well as humanity and nature, he said. Zhang’s Ximing and Four-sentence Doctrine were the major contributions of the Guan School to mainstream Confucianism in the Song and Ming dynasties, Chen said.

Zhang Zai dedicated all his life to the mission of “developing the past sages’ endangered scholarship” as he proposed in the Four-sentence Doctrine. Wang Fuzhi, a prominent thinker in the Qing Dynasty, praised his work by saying “No one else can compete with Master Zhang in developing the endangered scholarship of past sages.”

Although the endangered scholarship which Zhang developed at that time referred to only traditional Confucianism, Zhang’s sense of mission in inheriting and developing traditional culture is perpetually enlightening and inspiring, Zhao said.

 

 

For more details of the Four-sentence Doctrine, please see CHINESE PROVERBS> Guan School,  http://www.csstoday.com/Item/5214.aspx