Researches On The Study Of Confucian Classics In The Middle And Late Tang Dynasty

During the long years of ancient China,the study of Confucian classics had always been regarded as the academic orthodox,which profoundly influenced the development of society.In the middle and late Tang Dynasty,the study of Confucian classics declined for a time in the face of the unprecedented challenge of the great changes in economic base,superstructure and ideology.However,despite its decline,a preparation before its revival rather than an end of its development,in a transitional period with great significance from the Han Dynasty School to the Song Dynasty School,its tradition was never suspended.The dissertation consists of three parts,excluding Introduction and Summary.Partâ… , Factors Influencing the Development of the Study of Confucian Classics in the Middle and Late Tang Dynasty,composed of four sections,discusses the track along which the study of Confucian classics had developed and its developing causes by means of research in general situation and public morals of the society in the period.Firstly,all rulers in the Tang Dynasty adopted a policy on the culture to respect Confucianism,but the strategies varied with changes of contemporary situation and different tastes of rulers,which undoubtedly influencing the development and status of the study of Confucian classics.Secondly,with the maladies in the imperial examimation by which the government selected candidates for civil posts gradually exposed,it were rulers and scholars' identical demands to revitalise the study of Confucian classics,to correct the maladies and to select and train competent personnel combining high ability with moral integrity.Thirdly,in terms of ideology,Buddhism and Taoism gained ground,while Confucianism sustained a defeat,as a result of the rivalry among them which ran through the Tang Dynasty.Lastly,it was an urgent requirement to expound and propagate Confucian thought afresh in order to curb the public moral and strengthen the feudal rule,after the An-Shi Rebellion and resultant political and economic chaos and problems. Partâ…¡,An Outline of the Study of Confucian Classics in the Middle and Late Tang Dynasty,in terms of literature,analyses the achievements of the study of Confucian classics that developed actually in the middle and late Tang Dynasty,and expound its developing causes,situation and influences from seven aspects,i.e.the study of The Spring and Autumn Annals,The Book of Changes,The Book of Songs,The Book of Rites, Analects,Mencius and The Book of Filial Piety,and bibliography of Confucian classics, in order to throw light on the significance of the study of Confucian classics in the middle and late Tang Dynasty as a transition from the Han Dynasty School to the Song Dynasty School.Partâ…¢,The Innovation in the Study of Confucian Classics in the Middle and Late Tang Dynasty,describes a predicament in which the study of Confucian classics landed at first.The war interfered with the study of Confucian classics and rulers held Buddhism and Taoism in high esteem,which rendered the study that used to flourish on the wane.However,in the middle and late Tang Dynasty,with the transplantation from Buddhism and Taoism to Confucism and the new analysis of the relationship between Heaven and humans,the system of the study tend to perfection and Confucian increasingly appreciated.The tendency for the study of Confucian classics to spring up were followed by three trends of thought.Liu Zhiji questioned some classics, representing the first trend,whose spirit was inherited by the Song Dynasty Scholars later starting the doubt about ancient classics.Dan Zhu,Zhao Kuang and Lu Chun initiated a new academic system of The Spring and Autumn Annals,representing the second trend,which invent a new method to explain classics regardless of commentaries or according to one's own understanding.Han Yu,Li Ao and Liu Zongyuan tried to found the theory of Confucian orthodoxy and the school of disposition,representing the third trend.Han Yu put forward a theory of Confucian orthodoxy,so as to maintain the culture standard of the study of Confucian classics on a pure and principal status,and ostracise the so called heterodoxies such as Buddhism and Taoism.Li Ao appreciated The Doctrine of the Mean,and he absorbed nutrition from Buddhism and Lao's thought to express the theory of disposition.With probing into the new orientation of the dvelopment of the study of Confucian classics positively,Liu Zongyuan substituted a general grasp of Confucius' idea for the traditional method of explaination for classics, and it was his new outlook on the study to transplant the jade contained from Buddhism into Confucism.The study of Confucian classics actually revived in the Song Dynasty, when it regained the reputation as the most distinguished study,and kept it until the end of the feudal society.It is the main problem the dissertation tries to solve that how the study of Confucian classics in the Tang Dynasty developed to link the preceding Han Dynasty School and the following Song Dynasty School.The dissertation tries to correct the malady of forebears whose researches in the study of Confucian classics of this period were not fastidious enough,and even regarded Buddhism and Taoism as the most principal subject in the Tang Dynasty,to describe and study the general situation of the development of the study of Confucian classics in the middle and late Tang Dynasty,in order to solve the problem of stressing historical records at the expense of researches in particular and special cases.Based upon fairly complete documents,by means of scientific researching methods,and under the guidance of materialism and dialectics, the dissertation researches in the study of Confucian classics in the middle and late Tang Dynasty,summarises results of preceding research to conclude laws,probes into the academic origin and foundations of the study of Confucian classics in the middle and late Tang Dynasty,discovers the relationship among Confucism,Buddhism and Taoism, and expounds its position and impact in the whole history of the study of Confucian classics systematically and completely,in order to show the ture value of the study of Confucian classics in the middle and late Tang Dynasty.