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Xuanxue (simplified Chinese:玄学;traditional Chinese:玄學;pinyin:Xuánxué;Wade–Giles:Hsüan2-hsüeh2), sometimes calledNeo-Taoism orNeo-Daoism, is a metaphysicalpost-classicalChinese philosophy from theSix Dynasties (222-589), bringing togetherTaoist andConfucian beliefs through revision and discussion. The movement found its scriptural support both in Taoist and drastically reinterpreted Confucian sources.Xuanxue, or "Mystic Learning", came to reign supreme in cultural circles, especially atJiankang during the period of division. The concept represented the more abstract, unworldly, and idealistic tendency in early medieval Chinese thought.Xuanxue philosophers combined elements of Confucianism andTaoism to reinterpret theI Ching,Daodejing andZhuangzi.
The name first compoundsxuan (玄) "black, dark; mysterious, profound, abstruse, arcane." It occurs in the first chapter of theDaodejing ("玄之又玄，眾妙之門"). The wordxuan literally depicts a shade of deep, mystical, dark red.Daodejing speaks of theDao asXuan, more specifically underpinning the depth, utter impenetrability, and the profound mystery of theDao.[1]
Xue (學) means "study, learn, learning"; thus,xuanxue is literally the "learning" or "study" of the "arcane", "mysterious", or "profound". Therefore, the meaning ofxuanxue can be described as "study of the mysterious or profound".
InModern Standard Chinese usage,xuanxue can mean "Neo-Taoism", "esoteric", "metaphysics", "spiritualism", or "mysticism".The New Treatise on the Uniqueness of Consciousness byXiong Shili definesXuanxue as "dark/obscure/mysterious/profound learning". The concept can be described by such abstractions as "to initiate no action", "emptiness", "one and the many", "root and branches", "having and not having", and the "emotional responses" and "pattern".[2]
In modern Chinese,Xuanxue is also taken to refer toastrology,geomancy and other popularreligious arts.[1] Another translation ofxuanxue could be "learning of the dark."[3]
Xuanxue arose after theHan dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE) in earlyMedieval China. It is mainly represented by a few scholars, namelyWang Bi (226-249),He Yan (d. 249),Xiang Xiu (223?-300),Guo Xiang (d. 312) andPei Wei (267-300).[1] In general, these scholars sought to reinterpret the social and moral understanding of Confucianism in ways to make it more compatible with Taoist philosophy.[1]Xuanxue philosophers of theHan dynasty were concerned with restoring unity and harmony to the land, not by condemning the teachings of thesages, but by interpreting them in new ways.Xuanxue thinkers thereby developed their theories by reinterpreting the relationship between Taoist and Confucian texts through an appreciation of their common themes.[1] Through thissyncretic movement, the "Way of Mysterious Learning" (Xuanxue) emerged. These post-Han Confucians saw Han Confucianism as restrictive and out of touch with ordinary society, and sought to incorporate Taoist ideas of natural human behaviour. However, such scholars did not agree on how this incorporation was to be accomplished: some argued that morality came from nature and should be aligned with nature; others argued that it was natural to bypass morality and follow nature directly; another group argued that morality itself was nature and simply needed to be purified from the hypocritical use of Confucianism to restrict individuality.[4]Xuanxue constitutes a major stage in the development of Confucianism as some of their commentaries became standard interpretations of Confucianism during the Tang period.[4]
Two influentialXuanxue scholars were Wang Bi and Guo Xiang, editors and leading commentators on theDaodejing andZhuangzi, respectively.[1] For instance, theDaodejing exists in two received versions named after the commentaries. While the "Heshang Gong version" explains textual references to Daoist meditation, the "Wang Bi version" does not.Richard Wilhelm said the Wang Bi commentary changed theDaodejing "from a compendiary of magical meditation to a collection of free philosophicalaperçus."
One of the major defining features of Zhengshi Xuanxue is the "Pure Conversation" (清談) gatherings that took place among political and intellectual elites from the 3rd century onward, through which intellectuals questioned tradition and shared their ideas during theWei-Jin andSix Dynasties periods.[5] These sessions were transformed versions of the more politically charged "Pure Criticism" (清議) protests of the later Han, which were, in turn, continuations of political remonstration practices.[5] Much of Xuanxue had become divorced from the realities of life and afforded an escape from it.
During the 5th-century CE,Xuanxue formed a part of the official curriculum at theGuozijian, together with Rú (Confucian learning),Literature, andHistory.[1] AlthoughXuanxue does not represent one monolithic school of thought, it does encompass a broad range of philosophical positions.
The goal ofXuanxue is to bring to light the nature and function ofDao, which appears dark and impenetrable. It started from the assumption that all temporally and spatially limited phenomena (anything "nameable"; all movement, change, and diversity; in short, all "being") is produced and sustained by one impersonal principle, which is unlimited, unnameable, unmoving, unchanging, and undiversified.[6] Rather than a school of set doctrines,Xuanxue is a broad, dynamic intellectual front. ManyXuanxue scholars argued that "words cannot fully express meaning," as meaning transcends the limiting confines of language.Xuanxue seeks to bring together Confucian and Daoist ideologies with fresh annotation and discourse, working with the classical definitions, doctrines, and rules set by previous philosophers.[1]
The concept ofWú is central toXuanxue. It is translated as "nothing", "nothingness", "non-being", and "negativity".[7] The Tao can literally only be described as nameless and formless, not having any characteristics of things. That the Tao is the "mother of all life" is also central toXuanxue ideology. Because of the Tao being the beginning of all things, while simultaneously being indescribable and non-being, the Tao is said to be "dark" or "mysterious" (xuan).[7]
Xuanxue should not be misinterpreted as interchangeable with theDao. Rather,Xuanxue is the study of the mystery and darkness of the intangible.Dao representsxuan, the mystical that is central to the philosophy. TheDao supplies the subject matter/basis for the "Mystic Learning" that underpins the thinkings and teachings ofXuanxue.[8]
Xuanxue aims at unlocking the mystery of theDao, but should not be confused with a revival of preceding schools of Taoism.[1]Xuanxue is committed to analytic rigor and clarity in explicating the meaning ofDao, employing the new, contemporary language of the time. However, critics sometimes condemn it as "dark" because they judge it as obfuscating and detrimental to the flourishing ofDao.[9] They use phrases like "dark words" (xuanyan) or "dark discourse" (xuanlun) in a pejorative sense, indicating that to themXuanxue was nothing but convoluted empty talk. In these contexts,xuan may be translated as "abstruse", "obscure", or words to that effect.[9]
To classifyXuanxue as merely "Neo-Taoism" misleadingly reinforces suggestions that Wei-Jin thinkers were only "reinterpreting Confucianism through the lens of Taoism" (Chan 2010: 5). Chan points out that sincexuan (玄) is already something "obscure" and "insubstantial" in Chinese,xuanxue can be left "untranslated, though not unexplained" (Chan 2010: 6).Xuanxue is also often classified as "Profound Learning". Although "profound" is more appropriate than "dark", ambiguity is still an issue with this classification.[9]
Xuanxue is not a kind of scholasticism that pitches one school against another. Instead of seeing them as attempting to reconcile Confucianism with Taoism, it may be suggested that they were primarily concerned with the substantive issue of the relationship betweenmingjiao andziran.[9]