A Study Of Yang Zhu And His School Of Thinking

Among the scholars in the pre-Qin period, Yang Zhu seems to be a mysterious figure. Up to now, there are few studies on him. And in the studies, most of the scholars only lay particular stress on one aspect without conducting a comprehensive exposition, and the conclusions are different. This is not surprising because Yang Zhu doesn't hand down any monograph. And his thinking is mostly sporadic and scattered in the works of Zhuang Zi, Mencius, Xun zi, and Han Feizi. Although these ideas of Yang Zhu including the subjective intent of the author can only be regarded as second-hand material, right now these are indeed the most important material when we study Yang Zhu. Of these, the works of"Lie Zi"is a book with many records on Yang Zhu and even a special"Yang Zhu Chapter". But according to the paper, the book is fabricated by a person of Jin Dynasty called Zhang Zhan, which has already been proved to be true. So we can't believe the contents totally. But according to the paper,"Lie Zi"is not invented totally without any foundation. Actually part of the book is plagiarized from the Pre-Qin books and then rebuilt by the forger. So the author's attitude towards the material concerned with Yang Zhu in the book"Lie Zi"is just to cite selectively.As for the previous study on Yang Zhu, there are a lot of questions and controversies. Some reserchers don't probe deeply into the thinking of Yang Zhu. Without studying Yang Zhu from the historical facts they just analyze subjectively only according to one-sided material. Thus they distort the thinking of Yang Zhu with the conclusion that the ideas of"for oneself"and"valuing oneself"are representation of selfishness. In addition, the understanding of some scholars is one-sided and they refer to only one aspect of the school without grasping the idea comprehensively. This is just what the paper endeavors to avoid in the process of study. Nevertheless, the previous scholars have already made a valuable exploration which helps us widen our horizon in furthering the study of Yang Zhu. Although presently there are still many arguments such as the life time of Yang Zhu, which school the thinking of Yang Zhu belongs to, and the selection of authentic material in the study of Yang Zhu, and so on. Towards the questions mentioned above that come into being in previous study, the paper tries to study Yang Zhu, his thinking and school from a more comprehensive perspective, to revert a true Yang Zhu in history and also to put forward the author's own views on the doubts in previous study. The paper is divided into four parts. The prologue, the first, the second and the third part of the paper mainly discuss the person of Yang Zhu, the social background of his thinking, his basic ideas, the relationship between the thinking of Yang Zhu and Confucian, Taoist and Monist and also the analysis of the reason for the demise of his thinking. The conclusion part is a simple summarization of the previous parts and also a necessary introduction to what the paper doesn't refer to previously.