An introductory yet trenchant exploration of select Chinese classic texts that cover the domains of classical literature, history, philosophy, and fine arts.
Part 2
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來自 The Chinese University of Hong Kong 的課程
Classics of Chinese Humanities: Guided Readings
24 個評分
與講師見面
Prof. Ou Fan Leo Lee 李歐梵Sin Wai Kin Professor of Chinese Culture
Faculty of Arts
So let's try to get into his essays a little bit.
You have to bear with me because if I read a couple of sentences in Chinese,
it'll be very hard to translate.
I'm not a good translator into proper classical English or Latin for
that matter, since I do not know Latin.
But you can imagine what the cadence of Han Yu's prose is like.
His most famous essay, Essentials of the Way.
Why is it so famous?
Most Chinese scholars basically pay attention to the moral substance.
The kind of Confucian tradition Han Yu established.
But I think this was a very exemplary piece of argumentational essay.
That is to say, the form is closely regulated.
The essay is a carefully organized piece of argument against Daoism and Buddhism.
If you really go into his form, you couldn't help being
amazed by the cleanliness, by the regularity of it.
He begins with a simple theme.
A simple tenant about the early Confucian notion of ren and yi.
And then he proceeds to other themes, counter themes, and elaborations.
Now to begin with these two simple Confucian notions was a trick
in order to bring out his enemy, if you like.
Now what are these two key terms?
Ren or universal love in one translation or love of mankind.
And yi, righteousness.
So here is how you begin this in translation.
Love of mankind is called humanity or Ren.
Practising it in appropriate ways is called righteousness.
To conduct oneself in accordance with these principles is called the Way or Dao.
To be sufficient in oneself
without reliance on anything external is called Virtue or De.
So when you hear the two characters Dao and De of course,
you immediately think about Lao Zi famous text Dao De Jing, the way of Dao and De.
So this is the kind of a straw man if you like,
that kind you set up in order to demolish Daoism, Buddhism,
and reestablish his way of his countries introduction.
And then of course he proceeds with a severe attack Buddhism,
Daoism, using all sorts of examples, in order to
bring out his second theme and that is the theme of the Confucian sage.
Here he becomes somewhat mythical.
That is to say that he constructs a sagely figure
as a kind of a primordial cultural hero.
He said, when people live in primordial times with animals and
snakes and monsters, suddenly there was a sagely
figure who arose to offer them ways of living,
to protect them, to teach them how to wear, how to eat,
to find them lodging, eventually to teach them how to behave.
This part of the Confucian sage in my view is necessary
because Han Yu wants to establish a line of descent,
a kind of ancestral origin as early as possible.
Of course, typically this paragraph was attacked later on by modern scholars.
And then from the sagely theme, he goes back to the present state.
The present state in the Tang Dynasty.
Namely that there are no more sagely figure.
Was the implied notion that, in fact the emperors should be sages.
Emperor in the Confucian notion was a sage King, and
yet you look at the town emperors, they are all Buddhists sort of addicts.
They are basically not sagely at all.
As a result these idealized order was disrupted and
that's why he wants to reestablish the Confucian way.
So the third theme of course, was his tracing of that line of descent.
A line that begins with Confucius and his disciplines.
No in fact, even earlier since he was a hark back in the Confucian
ideal to earlier times, to the so-called Sun Jian or
the Three Dynasties of prehistoric China.
[FOREIGN] and [FOREIGN] all these legendary emperors.
[FOREIGN] these names were all famous names in the Confucian text.
You don't need to bother, but they are so
to speak sign posts of a certain idealized era.
Namely the era before Confucius' time.
The Shang and the Zhou dynasties, especially the Zhou dynasty.
And then in Confucius own time,
Confucius himself kind of singled out nations as opposed to
the other Confucian disciples such as Shang Zhu or Yuan Xian.
Nature of course, is the men who basically argue that as everybody knows,
that human nature is essentially good.
And then, here comes Hai Yu's sort of a break.
He argues that after Mencius, that line was dead.
That line was totally disrupted.
For nearly a thousand years, if you think about that.
From Mencius time down to time.
Nearly a thousand years.
So time has come to reestablish that line.
Through teaching and writing and hopefully correct imperial behavior.
This is what he wanted to do.
So this explains the vehemence with which he attack Buddhism
because the empress was enamored with Buddhism.
He wanted to reestablish orthodoxy and that also has to be so
to speak laid down flat on the table, if you like.
And that got him into trouble, if not this essay,
but certainly his essay against the Buddhist form.
He was almost executed for offending the emperor.
But anyway here is his sort of a paragon of Confucian virtually.
In the face of adversity, he stands firm as a kind of an intellectual figure.
This is what the Confucianism mean by intellectual integrity.
Unlike the Socratic truth, truth is out there for you to sort of a search for
Confucian integrity means truth is right within you.
What you're saying, what you write.
You have to hold on to that truth.
Namely the moral truth.
So this is the [FOREIGN] the [FOREIGN] if you like, the Confucianist.
Yeah, but if you are not a Confucianist.
If you're a modern agnostic, you may find Han Yu boring, but
luckily for us there are other sides of Han Yu.
In fact, the other sides often overwhelm the serious side of Han Yu.
When I was in high school, my teacher would feed us some Han Yu's essays.
And I always felt this man was so
funny, because there was an essay about his teeth.
He was not even 40 and his teeth were falling out.
So that little essay, in fact that little poem always got us to laugh, yeah.
And then of course there was the sentimental Han Yu.
His very famous essay in memory of my nephew, nephew number 12.
There is a translation, there is a bilingual version of this essay,
in which he really waxes sentimental, almost verging on total self pity.
Bemoaning the passing of his nephew because the young man died early,
and Han Yu was not yet 40 and the young man not yet 20 died early.
So in a way he uses this example as a way to reflect on his own personal situation.
Almost lyrical, sentimental, and quite confessional in many ways.
He talks about his hair turning gray,
about his teeth falling out, about his loneliness above all.
Namely that he's separated from his close relatives.
By living in.
But deep down, you begin to feel that the source of his loneliness,
the source of his frustration lies in his inability
to find a way to fulfill his official Confucian duty.
In other words, the private and
the public were in some ways dialectically united in his own personality.
If you're asking,
what if there was some kind of a conflict between the two parts of his personality?
He would say no.
He would have said well no, I am sincere in all my sentiments.
Because after all, relationship was relative.
Especially father and sons.
The nephew is almost like a son here.
It's crucial, morality and sentiment were part of the same thing.
So if you go on and read other essays of Han Yu, if there are good translations,
you'll find that the more you read, the more many faceted Han Yu has become.
In fact, one modern Chinese scholar has compared Han Yu was Dr. Samuel Johnson.
I don't exactly agree because Samuel Johnson is certainly not
as funny and sentimental as Han Yu although
in many ways also consider themselves to be gentleman of that age.
