A Study On The Cognitive Evolution Of The Thoughts And Images Of Lao Zi And Zhuang Zi In Western Han Dynasty

There were many independent articles about Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi in the past,but there were few works talking about them closely.Scholars used to focus on the recordings of Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi in Shiji and Huainanzi,but they could only represent the views in Western Han dynasty and that's not enough.This thesis is to comb through the ancient books such as Xinyu,Xinshu,Hanshi Waizhuan,Yantianlun,Xinxu,Shuoyuan,Lienv Zhuan and Fayan and explore into the cognitive evolution of Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi in the three periods in Western Han dynasty.Reasons for the evolution are also discussed.This thesis is divided into five parts.The first part is the introduction to give the topic significance,research reviewed and research methods.The second and third parts analyze the recordings of Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi.The recordings are divided into three categories to talk about the influence of Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi on the thoughts in Western Han dynasty,the experience of Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi and people's evaluation of Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi.The fourth part is to talk about the evolution characteristics of the thoughts and images of Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi on based of the analysis in second and third parts.Besides,reasons for the different thoughts and images are also discussed fr-om the points of political backgrounds,academic development and authors'positions in this part.The worship of Huang-Lao in the early Western Han dynasty,mix of Confucianism and Taoism in the Mid Western Han dynasty and Confucianism being orthodox while Taoism being declining in the Late Western Han dynasty are also discussed to make up for the deficiency of predecessors.Compared with the pre-Qin period,there were many changes in people's understanding of the images and thoughts of Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi in the Western Han Dynasty.Scholars'cognition and positioning of Lao Zi's image and thought could be divided into two stages throughout the Western Han Dynasty:the stage of image diversification and ideological authority in the early Western Han Dynasty and the stage of image immobilization and ideological marginalization in the middle and late Western Han Dynasty.People's cognition of Lao Zi was greatly influenced by politics.Scholars of that time cited words and sentences from Lao Zi,making notes for Lao Zi and writing biography of Lao Zi.The population of health care and pursuit of being immortal were also connected with Lao Zi.There was little difference in the understanding on the image of Zhuang Zi in the Western Han Dynasty.However,the status of Zhuang Zi's changed a lot in different periods of Western Han Dynasty.Similar to Lao Zi,Zhuang Zi's understanding in the Western Han Dynasty was also reflected in politics,scholarship and health maintenance.Compared with Lao Zi,Zhuang Zi had less political connection with the Western Han Dynasty,but political factors also contributed to the decline of Zhuang Zi's study in the early Han Dynasty.Some scholars took Zhuang Zi as the source of the allusions and made use of it to produce the annotations of Zhuang Zi,which was the academic motivation of Zhuang Zi's cognitive evolution in the Western Han Dynasty.The combination of Zhuang Zi and health maintenance was closely related to Yan Junping's activities at the end of the Western Han Dynasty.The reasons for the image change and cognitive difference of Lao Zi and Zhuansg Zi in the Western Han Dynasty were complex and varied.These were three aspects:political background,academical development and authors'positions.These three aspects contributed to the complex understanding of Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi in the Western Han Dynasty.Iin the process of writing,this paper mainly adopts the research methods of statistical analysis,the combination of diachronic and synchronic,and the analysis of the causes of differences.