Taoism And The Mentality Of Intellectuals And Their Literature In Han Dynasty

The issues on the relations of Taoism and intellectuals in the Han Dynasty have been no lack of studies in academia. But the study on the correlative issues have focused on the earlier Western Han Dynasty and the middle and late days of the Eastern Han Dynasty, or focused on several important persons and books. At the same time, it has been lack of the attentions to the thematic discussion that ran through the Han Dynasty, and to the status of Zhuangzi in Han Dynasty too. Based on this kind of understanding, this dissertation is named "Taoism and the mentality of intellectuals and their literature in Han Dynasty". It studies on the relations between Taoism and the Han Dynasty intellectuals, such as political conception, life attitude, life consciousness and literature. The main method that this dissertation adopts is social-historical criticism, and the discussion is carried out by narration and textual criticism. Except the introduction, the dissertation consists of two parts, "Taoism and the mentality of intellectuals in Han Dynasty" and "Taoism and the literature of intellectuals in Han Dynasty", and there are three chapters of each part.Introduction: It sketches the cultural background in Han Dynasty, and points out that Taoism was another main current of thought only inferior to the Confucianism in Han Dynasty. Then it classifies and introduces the fruit of the relevant research, and makes simple explanations about the writings of Taoism used in the dissertation and about some concepts such as Taoism, intellectual, mentality. Finally, it summarizes several main innovative viewpoints of the dissertation.The first chapter: Taoism political mentality of no-action(无为) of the intellectuals in the Han DynastyThere was political thought of no-action among Confucianism, Taoism and Legalism before Han Dynasty. However, Taoism regarded no-action as the core of its political thought. In Han Dynasty, Taoism made profound influence on the formation of intellectuals' political mentality of no-action. In the earlier stage of Western Han Dynasty, political mentality of intellectuals' no-action represented an outstanding current whether in the aspect of words or deeds. It showed a pattern which took Taoism as its dominant factors and Confucianism secondary. In the middle-later stage of Western Han Dynasty, the political mentality of intellectuals' no-action became weak and existed placidly. The connotation of its thought turned to be a pattern which was formed by the coexistence or fusion of Taoism and Confucianism. In the earlier stage of Eastern Han Dynasty, the political mentality of intellectuals' no-action continued the situation of the middle-later stage of Western Han Dynasty. At the same time, the mentality of no-action existed in political practice showed a connotation of Confucian benevolent politics. In the middle-later stage of Eastern Han Dynasty, the mentality of intellectuals' of no-action lasted without cessation, but was short of concentrated academic discussion which related to politics of no-action. Furthermore, it represented a pattern which was directed by Confucianism and invoked Taoism into Confucianism. The political deed of intellectuals' of no-action mostly appeared in local administration and mainly took Confucian benevolent politics as its connotation. On the whole, it showed a trend from strong to weak that Taoism impacted on the Han Dynasty intellectual. Because the political mentality of no-action was the inherent quality of Taoism, and it was also introduced to the intellectuals in the Han Dynasty mainly by Taoism, We can say that Taoism played a key function on the formation of the intellectuals' political mentality of no-action in Han Dynasty.The Second chapter: Taoism and the reclusive, cautious and afeard(谨慎戒惧) life attitude of the intellectuals in Han DynastyThere was reclusive thought in "Zhou Yi", Taoism and Confucianism, and the reclusive attitude of Taoism was most outstanding among the three. With the character of regarding Taoism as main part and often combining the reclusive of "Zhou Yi" and Confucianism, the reclusive thought existed before Qin Dynasty impacted on and formed the reclusive mentality of the intellectual in Han Dynasty. This showed the following three aspects. The first, reclusion was adopted to avoid disaster and safeguard themselves. The second, reclusion was adopted to enjoy themselves or maintain their mind and spirit(养性). The third, reclusion was adopted to pursue individual liberty of life and guard their moral personality. At the same time, there were some other factors that caused the formation of the reclusive attitude of intellectuals in Han Dynasty, such as the inclemency of social political circumstances, the praise of contemporaries on the reclusive conduct, the special attention to the reclusive intellectuals when governors wanted to invite or employ some ones. The reclusive mentality of intellectuals showed especially outstanding at the stage from the last years of Western Han Dynasty to the initial years of Eastern Han Dynasty, and at the late stage of Eastern Han Dynasty too. Taoism had profound consciousness on reclusive mentality and regarded it as fundamental attitude of life. It also paid great attention to the life of individual. So, the reclusive thought of Taoism made actively stimulative action on the formation of intellectual s' personal space in Han Dynasty.The serious awareness of crisis of the people in Zhou Dynasty and the awe-conception following it represented their cautious and afeard attitude when they faced the world in which they lived. This showed some extent in "Zhou Yi". The cautious and afeard thought also existed in Taoism and Confucianism. Moreover, it was the central content and main character of Taoist way of life. Mainly accepting the influence of Taoism, and accepting the thought of "Zhou Yi" and Confucianism also, the intellectuals took dialectic understanding on the change of good or bad luck, of misfortune or fortune, furthermore, they kept great watchfulness on disaster which existed ubiquitously, and then showed cautious and afeard life attitude generally. This attitude was shown mainly two types: The first, they feared prosperous and full, then kept modest virtue. The second, they were content with themselves and were very wise to keep themselves safe. The effect of Confucianism leaned to the aspect of cautious and appeared comparatively mild. However, the effect of Taoism leaned to the other aspect of afeard and appeared heavier and more vehement. Under Taoist effect, the intellectuals in Han Dynasty strongly realized the suffering and eldritch of real life, accordingly, their ways of life showed to be heavier and more anxiously afeard.The third chapter: Taoism and the natural and free life consciousness of the intellectuals in Han Dynasty"Nature" was the central conception and thought of Taoism. Affected by Taoism, the intellectuals formed natural life consciousness which was comprised of natural conception on life and death, natural conception on preserving one's health. Through the event of simple burying happened in the vogue of luxuriant funeral, we could see that, in Han Dynasty in which non-rational life consciousness was popular, the Taoist natural conception of life and death affected the intellectuals continually, besides playing a critical and alert role to extravagant ethos of society. Affected by Taoism, some intellectuals realized the natural character of the life process, and woke up to the close relationship among the vigor(精),spirit(气),body and the corporality of life hiding in it was also realized. Thus, they developed a natural conception on preserving their health which was quiet and easy. There were many definite evidences on the spread of Zhuang Zi in Han Dynasty. Moreover, the spread showed some changes in different stages. In brief, the spread of Zhung Zi was active in the earlier stage of Western Han Dynasty, and became relatively faint since the Huai Nan group of Liu An had collapsed, until the last stage of Western Han Dynasty, it rose again and handed down obviously throughout the whole Eastern Han Dynasty. Especially in the later of Eastern Han Dynasty, Zhuang Zi already penetrated into intellectuals' temperament and its spread represented prominent current gradually. With the spread of Zhuang Zi, his free thought stimulated and enlightened the intellectuals in Han Dynasty to pursue the freedom of individual, at the same time, it promoted the intellectuals to reflect on and break through the ethics and orders. Thus, they set up a value space which paid great attention to individual ego.The fourth chapter: Coexistence of Confucianism and Taoism and individual consciousness in literature of the intellectuals in Han DynastyThe thought situation of intellectuals' literature showed a pattern which took the coexistence of Confucianism and Taoism as its mainstream, and also represented change on different stages in Han Dynasty. In the earlier stage of Western Han Dynasty, literature of intellectuals represented a view which gave the first place to the coexistence of Confucianism and Taoism among various thoughts. In the period, Confucianism and Taoism were coexistent by relative independence and the trend of their fusion appeared preliminarily. From the middle-later stage of Western Han Dynasty to the earlier stage of Eastern Han Dynasty, the coexistence of Confucianism and Taoism in literature of intellectuals represented a pattern which gave priority to Confucianism. Simultaneously, Confucianism and Taoism got further harmonious. In the middle-later stage of Eastern Han Dynasty, the leading status of Confucianism in literature of intellectuals was weakened. At the same time, the effect of Taoism was strengthened obviously. Confucianism and Taoism in literature of intellectuals got deep fusion in coexistence. In the process, the effect of Taoism in intellectual's literature experienced the change from external to internal. It promoted intellectual's literature to attach importance to private space and was deeply concerned individual spirit gradually. This brought the intellectual's literature in Han Dynasty some contents different from political affairs and moralization which was taken seriously by Confucianism, and promoted the self-knowledge of individual consciousness of intellectual's literature in Han Dynasty. So, we say that Taoism aroused the rise of lyric ode in Han Dynasty. Furthermore, it strengthened the lyric character of the literature in the Han Dynasty and the lyric tradition of Chinese classical literature.The fifth chapter: Taoism and the spirit of "You"(游) in the literature of intellectuals in Han DynastyBefore Han Dynasty, the spirit of "You" had existed among Confucianism, Taoism and the rhyme prose of Qu Yuan and Song Yu. Among them, the Taoist spirit of "You" was the most inherent quality. There were two kinds of "You" which were travel of landscape and wandering of spirit in Taoism, and multifarious "You" which were easy and free also could be found everywhere. "You" was one of the key spirits of Taoism and it fully showed a kind of spiritual realm which was degage and free. Then, it displayed the character of spiritual transcendence with highly consciousness, and aesthetic attitude of super-utilitarian with life.The spirits of "You" before Han Dynasty had affected the Han intellectuals and become important content of their literature which mainly showed three types: travel or hunting(游行), travel to fairyland(游仙), travel of spirit(游心). The spirit of "You" among "The Book of Songs", "The Analects" and the rhyme prose of Qu Yuan and Song Yu mainly showed travel or hunting, partly represented on travel to fairyland and travel of spirit. The spirit of "You" of Taoism mainly affected travel to fairyland and travel of spirit in the Han intellectual's literature, and the effect was more inherent and transcendent. Especially, the effect of Taoism was mostly exhibited in "Huai Nan Zi"(《淮南子》), letters and rhyme prose of the intellectuals in Han Dynasty. There was inevitable reason for the Taoist's effect on travel to fairyland and travel of spirit in the Han intellectual's literature. The reason was that the mentalities, such as free, reclusive and so on, of the Han intellectuals were mainly affected by Taoism, and they all contained with the transcendent spirit of "You". It meant that travel to fairyland and travel of spirit in the Han intellectual's literature were the representation of these mentalities to great extent. In Han Dynasty, the central thought was Confucianism which paid attention to ethical system, political affairs and moralization, accordingly, the conception and content of literature paid attention to pragmatism. Under such circumstances, Taoism brought a different realm to the Han literature. It promoted the intellectual to represent a world of "You" which was spiritual transcendence, easy and free, and also improved the aesthetic character of super-utilitarian in the Han literature, and prolonged or pushed forward the super-utilitarian aesthetic tradition of Chinese literature.The sixth chapter: Taoism, the rhetoric and style of the Han intellectuals' literature, its thinking and conception of creationAffected by "Zhuang Zi", the rhyme prose written by the Han intellectuals often fabricated some characters' dialogue which described and exaggerated the expressions and actions. And the latter also represented in rhyme prose. The rhetoric about fabrication and exaggeration of "Zhuang Zi" affected the Han intellectual's literature positively on some aspects , such as authors, literary texts and the relations between authors and readers. This improved the artistic quality and aesthetic characters of the Han literature powerfully. At the same time, there was strangely fantastic(奇谲) and grandly unrestrained(宏肆) style and the relevant thinking and conception in Taoist books. Taoism, "Zhan Guo Ce"(《战国策》) and the rhyme prose of Qu Yuan and Song Yu all together affected the writings of the Han intellectuals' , and urged the Han intellectuals' literature to form an artistic style which was strangely fantastic and grandly unrestrained. Furthermore, Taoism also influenced the Han intellectuals on their thinking and conception of literary creation, brought them the Qi Wu(齐物) and the mode of ratiocinative thinking, the free and infinite conception. Affected by Taoism on rhetoric, style, thinking and conception, the artistic quality and aesthetic character of the Han literature were improved. Taoism with "Zhan Guo Ce" and the rhyme prose of Qu Yuan and Song Yu participated in the building the characteristic of the Han literature which showed grand vigor and vast view.