The Textual Research Of GeHong And Baopuziwaipian

This paper can be divided into three parts. Part 1 is made up of two chapters, focusing on Gehong's life and works. Part 2 consists of three chapters, mainly dealing with the writing process, the writing motivation, the ideological inclination, the literary thought and literary features of Bao-Pu-Zi-Wai-Pian. Part 3 has three chapters, concentrating on Gehong's thought, life pursuit and academic achievement.As to the life of Gehong, this paper bases its detailed study of his family's social standing and his life itself on the introduction of his contemporary historical setting and document discrimination, among which the controversial matters concerning Gehong's journey to Fu-Nan, his being granted the noble title of marquis by Geng-Yin-zhao-shu and the year of his death are the key points. The paper holds that the last volume of Tai-Qing-Jin-Ye-Shen-Dan-Jing in Dao-Zang was really written by Gehong, and his journey to Fu-Nan, which is documented in this book, was convincing and probably was between 306 A.D. and 310 A.D. Geng-Yin-Zhao-Shu, by which Gehong was granted the noble title of "Guan-Zhong-Hou", also was recorded in others historical books, the time of the issuing of it was March 8,317A.D., i.e. the first year of Jian-Wu of Jin-Yuan-Di. In terms of the viewpoints about Gehong's age and the year of his death, the most convincing one was put forward by Yuanhong, an historian in the midst of Dong-Jin. He argued that Gehong died in 343 A.D., i.e. the first year of Jian-Yuan of Jin-Kang-Di, when he was 61.Gehong was a very prolific writer. The works of him recorded in successive historical books is of large quantities and jumbled contents, the authorship of most of which is hardly to be proved. Through textual research, it has been proved that the five pieces of poems of Gehong compiled in the twenty-first volume of Jin-Shi in Xian-Qin-Han-Wei-Jin-Nan-Bei-Chao-Shi were not written by Gehong, so did Xi-Jing-Za-Ji and Han-Wu-Gu-Shi, etc.. In addition, the last part of Tai-Qing-Jin-Ye-Shen-Dan-Jing should be added to Gehong's lists of works.Bao-Pu-Zi-Wai-Pian, a monumental work by which Gehong would want to be well known in the future, was Gehong's early representative. Gehong began to write Wai-Pian in the first year of Tai-An of Jin-Hui-Di(302 A.D.). He kept on writing for more than ten years, and completed it in the first year of Jian-Wu of Jin-Yuan-Di (317A.D.). His chief purpose for writing Wai-Pian was to let himself be eternal, to help teaching and government. For all of its all-embracing thoughts of various ideological schools, the ideology of Wai-Pian belongs to the Confucian school.As far as Bao-Pu-Zi-Wai-Pian is concerned, the literary thought of Gehong is lack of systematic theoretical contribution. But in consideration of some aspects, Gehong was brave enough to break through the conventional ideas and put forward his own original views. His literary thought can be summed up from the following five aspects: the literature is as important as ethics, the present works are better than the past, paying attention on form, paying attention on content, the literary works should have a large variety of styles, etc.. Besides, he also made a thorough and comprehensive study about the social value and development of literature, the standard of literary creation, the guidelines of literary criticism, etc.. All of these gave prominence to Gehong's role in the transform of literary theory from Han and Wei dynasties to Liu-chao dynasties.Being a book of Zhu-Zi, Bao-Pu-Zi-Wai-Pian not only showed the characteristic of thoroughly arguing as the conventional Zhu-Zi, but also applied Lian-Zhu-Ti extensively to its reasoning, and made use of Pian-wen and Fu-ti creatively to dispute, so it indicated the trend to the primary Pian-hua. Its style extended the vogue of over-elaborated formalities of the woks of Xi-jin, and didn't show the style of wateriness of the works of Dong-Jin.Gehong was bom in the times of disorder and was bereaved of his father when he was still very young. As a result, he withdrew into himself with his introversive disposition being clear of the influence of the changing times. In the thought of his families, masters and friends, there existed the mutual influence of both the Confucian school and the Taoist school, which distinguished himself from his contemporary metaphysical masters and highlighted his simple and frank personality. Taking a sweeping view, the thought of Gehong displayed the trend of compromising the thought of Confucian school and the Taoist school, and the trend of incorporating the thought of various schools at that time. In addition, the thought of him also witnessed the change from the one in which the thought of the Confucian school is dominating to the one in which the thought of the Taoist school is primary. In accordance with this, his criticism to the world, the preference for the present and the flexibility, together with his superstitious ideas about the immortal also turned out to be main features of his thought.The life career of Gehong began with preserving his health and managing state affairs, and ended with the pursuit of immortality instead of that of secular affairs. His outlook on life was the direct result of the mutual influence of Confucianism and Taoism in the thought of his families and masters. It was of being an official and being a hermit meanwhile, gaining both fame and wealth, pursued by the official scholars and the families of power and influence then and reflected Gehong's contradiction between choosing secular life and attaining the Way so as to become an immortal. Always being an authoritative person whether one is an official or a hermit was not only the ideal of Gehong, but also common ideal of Chinese ancient scholars.Due to various reasons, Gehong put great stress on preserving and exercising and pursued immortality. Such kind of pursuit of him was an heir to the unaccomplished task of Gexuan and Zhengyin and the like, and displayed the intense attention of the times to individual lives. Though ended in failure, the original intention of Gehong was not to deceive the people but to make an attempt in a certain positive and somewhat scientific way.The life span of Gehong covered the changing time from Xi-jin to Dong-jin, at the time of which the metaphysics was prevailing. However, the place Gehong lived in, his family traditions of learning and the inherited traditions of his masters were of Confucianism inclination of Han dynasty. Therefore, his obvious inclination toward the thought of Han dynasty made the relationship between his thought and metaphysics even more complicated. On the one hand, he severely criticized the willful and absurd public morals caused by metaphysics then and censured the thought of Taoist. On the other hand, he favored the pure assessment and argument of characters, which was prevailing at the end of Han dynasties. While constructing the Taoism, he also drew on the theoretical essence of metaphysics, such as the fundamental and the incidental, the existence and absence, the conservation and so on.As a well-known and unmatched scholar in Dong-jin dynasty, Gehong was a success in many academic fields. He accomplished great achievement in Taoism, chemistry and medicine in ancient China and was one of the prominent writer and literary theorists at the time of Xi-Jin and Dong-Jin. What's more, his achievements also covered the fields of history, historical documents, astronomy and geography. Gehong established himself as a very important figure in Chinese academic history with many contributions, such as his conclusion of the reasons for the downfall of Sun-Wu and Xi-Jin, his collation and compilation of Xi-Jing-Za-Ji and Zhou-Hou-Jiu-Cu-Fang, his compilation of the classics of Taoism before Xi-Jin, his inheritance and development of Hun-Tian-Lun, his documentation of positions and specialties of Fu-Nan and other Southwest countries, etc. In one word, the influence of Gehong is far-reaching.