The Jian-Bo Literatures——The Five Elements And Zist-Mencius School

Due to the inadequacy of ancient literatures, people could not obtain an accurate and integrated knowledge of the Zisi-Mencius school's "five elements" theory and its relevant issues mentioned in the article "Censuring the twelve kinds of people" written by Xun Zi. Fortunately, those recently unearthed subterranean literatures, especially the literatures "The Five Elements" copied on silks and Chu's bamboo slips which have been excavated one after another, have provided us more possibilities to do systematic research of the "five elements" theory and the academic inheritance between Zi Si and Mencius, etc..This paper tries to combine the archaeological discoveries and the ancient literatures together in the process of analysis and demonstration, in an attempt to do further analysis and exploration on the basis of the previous researches. In terms of its content and exposition, the paper can be roughly composed of two parts, eight chapters in all.The first part includes four chapters, entitled with "The Jian-Bo Literatures(?)'The Five Elements'and The "Five Elements" Theory of Zisi-Mencius school".Chapter 1:"The Discovery and Textual Analysis of the Jian-Bo Literatures'The Five Elements'". Firstly, the chaper introduces the discovery of the Jian-Bo Literatures "The Five Elements" and some related research achievements. In our opinions, the Chu's bamboo slips and the silk literatures can be regarded as the articles of Zi Si and his disciples and successors respectively. Secondly, the differences between the two texts and the ideological variations originated from them have been analyzed, from which we can figure out the track of the Zisi-Mencius school's thoughts transformation from Zi Si to Mencius, that is, praising more and more highly of "benevolence and righteousness". The "Jing" and the "Shuo", which are two different types of writing of classic Chinese in the Chu's bamboo slips and the silk literatures, are products of the Zisi-Mencius school members'rethinking and redefining to this theory in different periods. Therefore, it's not easy to judge which is better textually. Chapter 2:"The Jian-Bo Literatures'The Five Elements':The Origination and Development of the'Five Elements'". The chapter briefly introduces the originations of the five virtues, that is, "benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, faith", and their new ideological connotations contributed by Zi Si. From "The Analects of Confucious" to "The Jian-Bo Literatures'The Five Elements'", then to "The Mencius", the position of the virtue "sage", presents a gradually descending developing line:from nobody's achieving to reach it to everyone's owning the ability to be a sage.Chapter3:"Jian-Bo Literatures'The Five Elements'and'The Grand Norm'in the 'The Book of History'". The chapter introduces that Zi Si added the Confucius moral contents to the original framework of the "five elements", and then put forward this theory. But in the Jian-Bo Literatures "The Five Elements", people cannot find the attachment and coordination relationships between the five virtues "benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, faith" and the five elements "metal, wood, water, fire, earth". In the Han Dynasty, the five elements of moral developed into the five constant virtues, and then fixed in a stable attachment relationship with the five elements "metal, wood, water, fire, earth". Therefore, whether the five virtues can be attached to or cooperated with the five elements or not cannot be a criterion for judging the authors of the Jian-Bo Literatures "The Five Elements" and its related issues.Chapter 4:"The Jian-Bo Literatures'The Five Elements'and'Wen Zi','Zhuang Zi','Xun Zi'". Zi Si concluded and reorganized the Confucius moral subjects in the frame of the five elements when he set up the "five elements" theory. He also mirrored other philosophers'theories in this process, "Wen Zi", for example. That is possibly why Xun Zi criticized Zisi-Mencius school's "five elements" theory as "plagiarizing the old theories to put forward one's own", "imitating the former kings'thoughts without knowing what they really are", "adopting the theories of the philosophers in other schools without discrimination", and so on. We can get a knowledge of in what extent Zisi-Mencius school's "five elements" theory had influenced the society at that time by referring not only to the judgment of "benevolence" and "righteousness" in the "Zhuang Zi", but also the mirroring of "Xun Zi" of this theory.The second part also includes four chapters, entitled with "The Jian-Bo Literatures'The Five Elements'and the Zisi-Mencius school"Chapter 1:"The Jian-Bo Literatures'The Five Elements'and'The Great Learning','The Doctrine of the Mean'". It is not difficult to find out the common points in contents and thoughts between the Jian-Bo Literatures "The Five Elements" and those Confucius classical literatures including "The Great Learning", "The Doctrine of the Mean" and "The Mencius" and the linear logical relationship exists in them if we corroborate these literatures, thus it is obvious that the "self-restraining in privacy" theory in those literatures comes down in one continuous line.Chapter 2:"The'Shuo'Article in the Silks'The Five Elements'and'The Mencius'". We discuss various opinions in the educational circles which concern the accurate time of the accomplishment of the "Shuo" article in the silks "The Five Elements". We also perform some systematic dialectics of the idea interactions between the "Shuo" articles and "The Mencius". We think that the silk "The Five Elements" was written by Shi Zi or his disciples, the same as the "Jing" articles in the Jian-Bo Literatures "The Five Elements", all are the precursor of Mencius'theories. We can never treat Shi Zi and his so-called "the theories of Shi Zi" in isolation considering the role of the connecting link between Zi Si and Mencius the "Shuo" articles in the silk "The Five Elements" have played. That Xun Zi criticized "Mencius followed the theories of Shi Zi" doesn't mean that Mencius and his disciples wrote the "Shuo" articles; he meant that Mencius inherited and mirrored the "Jing" articles and the "Shuo" articles in the Jian-Bo Literatures "The Five Elements".Chapter 3:"Critique of Xun Zi to the Zisi-Mencius school". The divergence of Xun Zi and Mencius'opinions and some different views on this issue of various aspects are briefly explained. We can easily conclude that the critique of Xun Zi to the Zisi-Mencius school was by no means from an isolated aspect by regarding that Xun Zi had criticized the Zisi-Mencius school "imitating the former kings'thoughts without knowing what they really are", "full of wisdom and ambitions without being able to organize them", "plagiarizing the old theories to put forward one's own", "adopting the theories of the philosophers of other schools without discrimination", "no position" "having little explanations", etc. written in his "Censuring the Twelve Kinds of People". To find the most important reason amongst various arguments, we may have to clarify the elements by connecting the divergence between the theories of Xun Zi and Mencius, the ideological contents of the Jian-Bo Literatures "the five elements" and context of Xun Zi's "Censuring the Twelve Kinds of People". In his article, Xun Zi criticized the "five elements" theory as unrealistic, it cannot meet the demands of the developing society at that time and take no effort in what he called "rectifying oneself and satisfying the nations"Chapter 4:"A Summary of the Zisi-Mencius school". It is unreliable to regard Zi Si as one of Confucius'or his disciples'students on the basis of Zi Si's age when Confucius died. It is no doubt that though Zi Si's academic ideas were influenced by many other scholars, Confucius and Zeng Zi played a leading role in his thoughts' development. Early Confucian schools had not only polarizations but also communications and fusions, which promoted the development of Confucian schools, as is the same case in Zi Si school, though it has a complicated constitution. Shi Zi himself was also one of the Zi Si school members.From the above-mentioned arguments, we think that from the advocacy of "sage" and "wisdom" in the Chu's bamboo slips "The Five Elements" to the admiration of the two virtues in the "Jing" articles and "Shuo" articles in the silk book then to the eloquent discourse on this subject in "the Mencius", the ideological content of the Jian-Bo literatures "The Five Elements" is just the intermediate link between the academic thoughts of Zi Si and Mencius in the early Confucian period. We can also corroborate the common points of ideological contents between the Jian-Bo literatures and those ancient literatures to get this point.The archaeological discoveries make it possible for us to research and get a comprehensive knowledge of the academic inheritance and evolution between Zi Si and Mencius. Both Zi Si and Mencius had epitomized early Confucian academic thoughts. They criticized and absorbed the former scholars'ideas and melted their active elements into their own theories, which appeared to have the most distinctive individualities of their own and the then era. The formation of the so-called Zisi-Mencius school is a developing process together with the changes of that time. The existence of the Zisi-Mencius school which was proclaimed by Xun Zi is objective and historically provable.