Middle Langya Family Yan Academic And Cultural And Literary Studies

As a typical"Small Clan"at medieval times, Yan Clan in Langya played an insignificant role in politics and economy etc. However, it contributed a great deal to the academic and cultural fields, comparable with the first-rate families such as Wang Clan in Langya and Xie Clan in Chen County. What achievements did Yan Clan make in the academic and cultural fields? What features did they have? With these questions, this dissertation carries out a systematic and comprehensive examination of Yan Clan in Langya at medieval times.This dissertation consists of Introduction, Main Body and Appendix. Introduction presents the foundation and relevant research literature of the subject and the research objective of this dissertation.The main body of the dissertation consists of seven chapters. Chapter one is mainly about the relationship between Yan Clan in Langya at medieval times and its ancestors at primitive times, the genealogy of Yan Clan in Langya at medieval times and the changes in political and social status. At the crucial time of political and social changes at medieval times, especially at the turn of the Eastern Jin and Western Jin and in Jin and Song Dynasties, Yan Clan in Langya took more active part in politics due to the political circumstances, whose representatives were Yan Han at the turn of the Eastern Jin and Western Jin, Yan Yanzhi in Jin and Song Dynasties and Yan Jun and Yan Shibo at the middle of Song Dynasty. At the turn of the Eastern Jin and Western Jin, Yan Han joined the official Sima Yue, and then converted to Sima Rui's Group. What he did in politics helped his family smoothly moved to the lower reaches of Yangtze River and enhanced the status of his family in politics and society; Yan Yanzhi undertook the political activities at the end of Jin and the beginning of Song, which represented intense political appeal of the scholarly families when the powerful families'control of politics ended since the Eastern Jin and imperial politics returned; in contrast, the cousins of Yan Jun and Yan Shibo had to face the worsening tyranny of imperial power in the Southern Dynasties and their honor and disgrace and success and failure consisted in the wish of the emperors. The political activities and changes of living style of related members of Yan Clan in Langya reflected the alternation of power between the powerful scholarly families and the imperial emperors since the Southern Dynasties in the Eastern Jin. After Yan Jun and Yan Shibo were persecuted due to excessive participation in politics, other family members of Yan Clan in Langya active at the middle and end of the Southern Dynasties, the Northern Dynasties, Sui Dynasty and the beginning of Tang Dynasty attached more importance to culture although some of them distinguished in the political stage and finally formed the situation of"while academic study at the ebb, Yang Clan stands out"at the beginning of Tang Dynasty. Besides, on the basis of the comprehensive examination of political activities of related members of Yan Clan in Langya, it was seen that they formed the family features of loyalty, diligence and low-profile resignation.Chapter two focuses on the analysis of Confucian proprieties and family custom of Yan Clan in Langya at medieval times. It is found that Yan Clan had rigid proprieties and brotherliness forming a cultural cohesion which sustained the harmony, stability and development of the family and was also the vital cause to maintain the family status of Yan Clan and other insignificant families at medieval times. Since Jin Dynasty, in spite of the prevalent metaphysics, few members of Yan Clan probed into metaphysics due to restriction of deeply-seated tradition of Confucianism of Yan Clan. Until Jin and Song Dynasties, Yan Yanzhi as a single representative studied metaphysics, but he couldn't change the cultural preference of the family fundamentally. The representatives of Yan Clan Langya still held a critical attitude toward metaphysics at the end of the Southern and Northern Dynasties. Therefore, Yan Clan in Langya generally maintained its nature as a typical and plain family devoted to Confucian classics despite the impact of metaphysics.Chapter three concentrates on the studies of achievement and tradition of Confucian classics and historical science of Yan Clan in Langya at medieval times respectively. In terms of Confucian classics, Yan Clan had a tradition of"study of Confucianism". In Jin Dynasty, they still continued the tradition of study of Confucian classics although Confucianism went downhill under the circumstances of diversity of academic field. On the one hand, based on the traditional study of the Rites of Zhou, they actively participated in the construction of national cultural mechanism in terms of rites and music; on the other hand, Yan Yanzi studied both Confucianism and metaphysics in Jin and Song Dynasties and advocated the new study of Confucian classics in Wei and Jin based on Zhouyi Note by Wang Bi, Yan Tuizhi kept a compromise way in the social proprieties and Yan Shigu contributed to the unity of the southern and northern studies of Confucian classics. All of them caught up with the development trend of academy then and contributed a lot to the continuation and development of Chinese traditional Confucian classics. At the end of Wei and Jin, with the break of monopoly of Confucianism, various academic disciplines began to be independent and the historical science separated from the study of Confucian classics and became one in parallel with the study of Confucian classics, necessary to be studied by the scholars. Yan Tuizhi and its sons as the representatives of Yan Clan in Langya concentrated on historical science and made considerable contribution to the construction of traditional historical science. Especially, Yan Shigu not only participated in the revision of Book of Sui at the beginning of Tang Dynasty, but also noted Book of Han in the way of explanation of"origin of Confucianism"and created an excellent work in notes concerning Chinese traditional historical science on the basis of inheriting family study. In nature, the historical science and the study of Confucian classics of Yan Clan in Langya are interlinked, and the innovative development based on the solid foundation of Confucianism.Chapter four is about the achievement and contribution of Yan Clan in Langya in terms of traditional philology which derived from the study of Confucian classics and was the foundation of studying classics. Considering"the family focusing on study of Confucianism traditionally", Yan Clan in Langya attached great importance to teaching its descendents philology. As early as Jin and Song Dynasties, Yan Yanzhi composed several works on philology, and Yan Tuizhi, while doing exegesis of meaning of words, the correction of pronunciations and examination of letters, never forget to clarify the relationship between word statement and taboo, appellation and name in scholarly proprieties. It was known that the family study was conducive to the formation of the scholarly traits among the members of Yan Clan and sustainability of the family tradition. Advocated by Yan Zhitui, Character, phonology and exegesis of meaning of words were passed on to generation after generation in Yan Clan in Langya and developed constantly. They also contributed a great deal in various fields of traditional philology such as phonology and proofreading of ancient books and character standard, which became the heated topic of Yan Clan in Tang Dynasty.Chapter five focuses on the relationship between Yan Clan in Langya at medieval times and Buddhism and Taoism prevailing then. Introduced into China in Han Dynasty, Buddhism received a widespread attention and was believed in by all walks of life, which formed a universal cultural phenomenon in ideological and cultural fields after Wei and Jin and the Southern and Northern Dynasties. Yan Yanzhi of Yan Clan studied metaphysics in Jin and Song Dynasties, who was proficient at solving the difficulties and aimed at differentiating and analyzing the doctrine of Buddhism; Yan Zhitui, living at the end of the Southern and Northern Dynasties, was so pragmatic that he embraced the aim of"serving the public"and concentrated on the guideline of religious discipline study and logic of cause and result. In contrast, Yan Yanzhi paid more attention to"form", while Yan Tuizhi did more about"practice". Both of them led to the same path, adapted to the development tendency of Buddhism then and made their due contribution. Although Yan Clan"converted to Buddhism"and many of its descendents took an active part in Buddhism, in essence, the culture of Yan Clan remained traditional Confucianism while Buddhism meant to them"an interlude in their lives". In addition, it was difficult to obtain the proved records concerning"Wu Dou Mi Taoism of family tradition"and"belief in Tianshi Taoism", but it could be deduced that Yan Clan was involved in Buddhism based on the relevant data such as Jun Wang, works, marriage, name giving, health care and belief in Buddhism of its sons. The fundamental reason why Yan Zhitui worshiped Buddhism instead of Taoism lay in the conflict of some of Taoist percepts and Confucian proprieties abode by the scholarly families. Whether the scholarly families at that time believed in Taoism or Buddhism was based on the concept of family status.Chapter six is about the study of the features and achievements of literature and art of Yan Clan in Langya at medieval times. In a strict sense, literature came into being at the end of Han Dynasty and in Wei and Jin. The members of Yan Clan once actively participated in various literary activities and formed unique family feature:"devoted to classics instead of vulgarity". With the collapse of Sima regime in Jin and Song, typical political pattern of powerful families disappeared and Liu Yu and his company born in a relatively humble scholarly family climbed to the throne. Consequently, the humble scholars of the Southern Dynasty rose. Naturally, the poor scholars and their vulgar literary works catered to the rulers, so their status was enhanced to some extent and prevalent on those days. In response to that, the scholars in favor of the elegant works fought for their preferences furiously and lastingly. Yan Clan took the most active in the fight due to their belief in Confucianism and religious custom. Yan Yanzhi was publicly selected to be the leader of the scholars in favor of elegant literary works; his son Yan Ce who continued his career"sustaining the family prestige to the most degree"became the backbone of the scholars in favor of elegant literary works; afterwards, Yan Xie and his son Zhitui were dissatisfied with the flowery literature prevalent at that time based on their stance of"Orthodox"of Confucianism. On the whole, the members of Yan Clan intensely squeezed out the flowery literature against Confucianism, which reflected the unique meaning of elegant literature based on Confucianism. In terms of Yuan jia three great masters, the conflict of Yan Yanzhi and Bao Zhao resulted from the difference in cultural customs among the scholarly families while the literary discrepancy of Yan Yanzhi and Xie Lingyun mainly originated from cultural traditions and preferences among the scholarly families. Aesthetically, Xie's poems were beautiful and Bao's poems were magnificent, while Yan Yanzhi's poetry was basically elegant. Yan's elegance resulted from more emphasis on classical allusion"the second form"than Xie and Bao. If criticizing Yan's poems, more importance should be attached to the model role of popularization of literary creation. After all, literary creation was easy to imitate due to the existing allusions and standards, convenient to be popularized and be as the obvious feature of flourishing in literature.Most of the scholarly families at medieval times attached great importance to artistic accomplishment and embodiment. The members of Yan Clan achieved the accomplishment and embodiment mostly in calligraphy. Most members of Yan Clan distinguished themselves in calligraphy following Yan Yanzhi and the outstanding calligrapher Yan Zhenqing associated his artistic accomplishment tightly with his family of calligraphic tradition. Yan Zhitui held a conservative attitude toward artistic skills including calligraphy, not in favor of specialization in them. The attitude was essentially the embodiment of value of traditional Confucianism focusing on accomplishments in virtue, deed and writing and the reflection of old-fashionable family custom based on traditional Confucian classics.Conclusion concentrates on the significance and value of literary study from the perspective of scholarly families, in particular, the presentation of the unique value of family literature based on the status of scholarly families at medieval times and the multiple relations of the family culture of Yan Clan in Langya scholarly and literature at medieval times.Appendix is composed of two papers of textual research. The former concludes that at the last pages of Book of Song.Yan Yanzhi Biography, Shen Yue's reckless criticism of Yan Jun's act as impiety results from his personal feelings. The criticism of Yan Jun in some way was the source of Shen Jun's fabrication of his father's being convicted for piety in Author's Preface. The latter reexamines the controversial academic issue that Yan Shigu was suspected to have"plagiarized"other person'notes when he noted"Book of Han". In fact, most of the researchers who criticized Yan Shigu's"copy"neglected the fact that changes occurred in Book of Han noted by Yan after it was passed down in the handwritten way in Tang Dynasty and revised and inscribed for many times. The present version of Book of Han collected some notes written by"Yan Shigu"with wrong revision, misinterpretation and wrong addition. On this basis, it can be deduced that some part of Book of Han noted by Yan which"was copied"resulted from the addition and rewriting by the descendents and Yan Shigu seemingly didn't take responsibility of"copy".