The purpose of this study is to find out the understanding of Chen-Wei of ZhengXuan who lived in the end of East-Han dynasty and its socio-political mplications. My initial problem was that ZhengXuan, a great Confucian scholar who synthesized Han dyna...
The purpose of this study is to find out the understanding of Chen-Wei of ZhengXuan who lived in the end of East-Han dynasty and its socio-political mplications. My initial problem was that ZhengXuan, a great Confucian scholar who synthesized Han dynasty's New-Text and Old-Text Scholarships, why did he comment on scriptures with Chan-Wei-Shuo and the Chan-Wei-Books?“ This is because ZhengXuan's Chen-Wei comments and the understanding of Chen-Wei use seemed to be a factor in fading the Confucian of ZhengXuan.
However, as a result of the study, it was discovered that ZhengXuan had a socio-political reason for annotating the scriptures with Chen-Wei and annotating the Chen-Wei books. First of all, ZhengXuan lived in a Confucian country where scriptures were used to determine national significance since the West-Han dynasty. However, it was because the contents of the scriptures alone could not actively respond to the diversifying social and political demands. And since WangMang, who founded the Xin dynasty as Chen-Wei, and GuangWuDi, who founded the East-Han dynasty, highly respected Chen-Wei, many people in the East-Han dynasty era, from the royal princes to the common people, have turned to Chen-Wei. Because it took precedence over the scriptures. This is because Chen-Wei-Shuo was more useful in persuading the people because the people respected Chen-Wei as Nei-Xue. In addition, as the young emperor repeatedly ascended the East-Handy era, relatives on their maternal side and eunuchs prevailed, and the people's livelihood was devastated by their tyranny. In ZhengXuan's view, Chan-Wei-Shuo was the most useful means to defend the absolute right of the emperor from the tyranny of the relatives on their maternal side and the eunuchs and to guarantee the legitimacy of Liu-Han dynasty's regime in this situation.
This is the reason why ZhengXuan was interested in Gan-Sheng-Di-Shuo, Wu-Xing-Xiang-Shuo, and the cosmologies of Dao-Qi-Er-Yuan-Lun, which I dealt with in this text. In the Chen-Wei books, there are many unusual birth stories about the Shou-Ming monarch, the saint, and the teachers of the Shou-Ming monarch, and these are the birth stories of King FuXi, HuangDi, Yao, and Tang. Of course, the Chen-Wei books emphasized the unique birth story of these Shou-Ming monarchs to indirectly guarantee the legitimacy of Han-Gao-Zu Liu Bang's founding of Han dynasty and the legitimacy of the Liu-Han regime's people's rule. The reason the birth of KongZi was mythized is because he saw that he devised the system for the Han dynasty. ZhengXuan used this Gan-Sheng-Di-Shuo from the Chen-Wei books as it was for his commentary on the scriptures. A representative example of this is the section of Mao-Shi「Shang-Song·Xuan-Niao」. While commenting on 「Shang-Song·Xuan-Niao」, ZhengXuan accepted the story of the birth of Xia(契), the progenitor of King Tang, based on Chan-Wei-Shuo, unlike Mao-Shuan. And, like Chan-Wei-Shuo, he recognized King Tang as a Shou-Ming monarch born in response to Hei-Di. This was because it became the logic to defend Wu-Xing-Xiang-Shuo, which was desperately requested by the government at the end of the East Han dynasty.
Meanwhile, ZhengXuan also accepted Dao-Qi-Er-Yuan of Yi-Wei-Gan-Zao-Du through Yi-Wei-Gan-Zao-Du Shang and Xia. Yi-Wei-Gan-Zao-Du fuses the cosmology of Taoism and Zhou-Yi to distinguish Tao-Yi from metaphysics and Tai-Chu(Qi), Tai-Shi(Xing), and Tai-Su(Zhi) from metaphysics. At that time, the Dao-Qi-Er-Yuan-Lun’s theory of cosmogenesis was used to mystify ‘Dao’, the first place of cosmic generation, to secure the absolute authority of the emperor corresponding to that position socially and politically. Yi-Wei-Gan-Zao-Du applies this principle as it is, and by separating the seat of 'Tai-Yi' from the rest, it defends the absolute right of the emperor. This is the reason why ZhengXuan accepted Dao-Qi-Er-Yuan-Lun as originally intended in commenting on Yi-Wei-Gan-Zao-Du. However, ZhengXuan did not stop there and reconstructed the logical process of universe creation much more precisely than Yi-Wei-Gan-Zao-Du. Whereas Yi-Wei-Gan-Zao-Du mentions only the numbers one, seven, and nine, which are Yang's numbers, ZhengXuan goes one step further, two(二), six(六) and eight (八) which are Yin’s numbers, are inferred. And by revealing that Qi(氣) is always operating in the undercurrent not only in the Tai-Chu state, but also in the stages of Tai-Shi(Xing) and Tai-Su(Zhi), all beings are created by the two Qi of Yin and Yang. Because it was discovered that they exist. In this way, Zhengxuan's Yi-Wei-Gan-Zao-Du’s commentary can be evaluated as achieving both political and philosophical objectives.