On The Wang An-shi School's "Chuang Tzu" Theory

The academic thought of Wang An-shi school has affected for several hundreds years from the North Song Dynasty. This thesis combines philology with history of thought and uses the methodology of hermeneutics for reference, explores the abundant connotation of Wang An-shi school's "Chuang Tzu" theory and the time spirit, according to carrying out case study on Wang An-shi school's annotations on Chuang Tzu.This thesis includes five parts. In the exordium, I illustrate the meaning of the topic, and give a short description about the achievements of the topic got by the others before.Chapter One gives an analysis on the academic background and summarizes main features of Wang An-shi school's "Chuang Tzu" theory. During the North Song Dynasty, Confucianism got new development, and gradually introjected with Buddhism and Taoism, the "Xin-xing" theory became time subject, Lao Tse and Chuang Tzu attracted more attention from Confucians, and therefore became the carrier of the "Xin-xing" theory. Under this background, the Wang An-shi school's "Chuang Tzu" theory presents common features, for example, annotating Chuang Tzu with the mentalism, mediating Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, displaying obvious political trend, and so on.Chapter Two mainly dissertates the "Chuang Tzu" theory of Wang An-shi and Wang Pang. Chapter Three mainly dissertates the "Chuang Tzu" theory of Lv Hui-qing and Chen Xiang-dao. Wang An-shi, Wang Pang, Lv Hui-qing and Chen Xiang-dao emphasized that we should use a new learing method to graspe the "Chuang Tzu" theory. They annotated Chuang Tzu by invoking Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, in order to express the mentalism and their thought about political reform.Chapter Four reveals the academic contributions of Wang An-shi school's "Chuang Tzu" theory in several aspects, such as: the development of academy in the Song Dynasty;the development of "Chuang Tzu" theory;the practice of political reform activity, and so on. Wang An-shi school paid attention to the "Yi-li" theory. So they elucidated the mentalism by annotating Chuang Tzu, while absorbing the philosophy intelligence from Buddhism and Taoism at the same time, which has played an important role during the process of innovation in Confucianism and also promoted the development of the new Confucianism. Wang An-shi school turned the study visual angleto Confucianism and politics field, which made the "Chuang Tzu" theory full of vigor in new historical period on one hand, and offered the theoretical foundation for their political reform activity on the other hand.