Wang Tong
Wang Tong
Wang Tong (584-617), also known as Wenzi, was born in Tonghua Town, Longmen County, Hedong County in Sui Dynasty. He was an educator and thinker in Sui Dynasty. Wang Tong was influenced by family studies and studied five classics. The famous enlightenment Book Three Character Classic listed him as one of the five sons of all schools of thought: "the five sons are Xun, Yang, Wen Zi, Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi." Wang Tong's six works, Xushu, Xushi, Yuanjing, Lijing, yuelun and Zanyi, were all lost in Tang Dynasty. Only his disciples Yao Yi and Xue Shou's wenzhongzi Shuo are left. Zhongshuo is a question and answer note of Wang Tong and his disciples. It imitates the Analects of Confucius and is perfunctorily written. It is defined by Wang's family as Wang Dao, Tiandi, Shijun, Zhougong, Wenyi, Liyue, Shushi, Weixiang, liming and guanlang. This book puts forward the idea of "three religions in one", which is valued by later generations. In philosophy, the book puts forward that Qi, form and consciousness are the characteristics of heaven, earth and man respectively, which contains certain elements of materialism. The popular editions are "Zishu Baijia" and "mingshidetang". In Song Dynasty, Ruan Yi wrote Wen Zi Zhong Shuo Zhu, including four part series and Xugu Yi series.
Life of the characters
It is said that Wang Tong began to engage in teaching activities when he was 15 years old. When he was 18 years old, he had "the ambition of four directions, traveling, visiting and studying hard." he who does not undress is six years old, so is his ambition. " Great progress has been made in learning. In 603, the third year of Renshou, Emperor Wen of Sui Dynasty, after passing the examination of a scholar, he traveled to Chang'an and saw Emperor Wen of Sui Dynasty. He played twelve strategies of peace and advocated "respecting the king's way, promoting hegemony, reviewing the past and verifying the present, and bringing the world into full play." He won the praise of Emperor Wen, but he was ignored and excluded from Tonghua County when he was discussing with the officials. So he wrote the song of the eastern expedition to express his feeling of missing talent. After that, although he was appointed as shuzuo of Shujun and Shidu of Shuwang, he soon resigned because he lost confidence in the imperial court and returned home. He only devoted his ambition to the cultural and educational cause of continuing the six classics and gathering disciples to give lectures. After returning to his hometown, Wang Tong first made a plan to continue the six classics, determined to follow the example of ancient hermit talents, "retreat and seek various fields", and to contribute to the promotion of Confucianism by writing and teaching. In this way, it took Wang Tong nine years to write Xu Liu Jing (also known as Wang Shi Liu Jing), including Xu Shi, Xu Shu, Li Lun, Le Jing, Yi Zan, Yuan Jing, etc., a total of 80 volumes.
Character thought
After Wang Tong's death, in order to commemorate him and promote his contribution to the development of Confucianism, his disciples imitated Confucius' disciples to write the Analects of Confucius and compiled the book zhongshuo (also known as wenzhongshuo, wenzhongzi, etc.), which preserved the main contents of Wang Tong's lectures in the form of lecture records, as well as the dialogue with his disciples, classmates and contemporaries. It was divided into 10 parts, which is the basis for later generations to study Wang Tongsi And the main basis and reference for the development of thought in Sui and Tang Dynasties, including Wang Dao, Tian Di, Shi Jun, Zhou Gong, Wen Yi, Li Yue, Shu Shi, Wei Xiang, Li Ming and Guan Lang.
Although zhongshuo imitates the Analects in form, it is innovative in content and has obvious characteristics of the times. First of all, Wang Tong's fundamental purpose of education is to develop the kingly way and revitalize Confucianism. In the first volume of Wang Dao Pian, it is recorded: "Wen Zhong Zi said: how different are the descriptions? The way of emperors is dark and unclear." in order to reverse this situation, we must pay attention to education and talents. He believes that the rise and fall of a country depends on all kinds of talents, and the cultivation of talents must go through the training of schools. Only with qualified talents, can the kingly way be advocated and Confucianism be revitalized.
Secondly, Wang Tong thinks that human nature is all good, with the five virtues of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and faith. This is embodied in human nature, and it is called natural law in the universe and the vast society. Only through education can we help people to develop a complete personality, reach the realm of "happy life, knowing fate, exhausting reasoning", and finally be cultivated as "gentleman" and "sage".
Thirdly, Wang Tong was in a period of ideological turbulence in which Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism competed and collided. The orthodox status of traditional Confucianism education was seriously threatened, and Confucianism itself was obsolete and rigid. In order to revitalize and develop Confucianism, Wang Tong thinks that it is not a good policy to blindly reject Buddhism and Taoism, but to explore a reasonable way to integrate the three religions. Therefore, he clearly put forward the idea of "three religions can be one", absorbing the advantages of Buddhism and Taoism with a positive attitude, and providing beneficial nourishment for the transformation and development of Confucianism. Wang Tong's thought is recorded in zhongshuo Wenyi: "one day, Wang Tong read hongfandangyi and said," three religions can be one. ". Cheng Yuan and Wei Zhengjin said, "what is also?" Confucius said, "make the people tireless." After reviewing the rise and fall of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism and the history of ancient academic development, he believes that the three religions can work towards the goal of "making the people tireless" on the basis of mutual absorption and learning from each other, and contribute to strengthening the ideological control of the people. Here, Wang Tong did not put forward the idea of helping Buddhism and Taoism into Confucianism, but sought common ground among the three to provide the rulers with a good way to govern the world. Of course, Wang Tong's foothold is to revitalize Confucianism. He thinks that some contents of Buddhism and Taoism should adapt to the tradition of Confucianism.
Fourth, Wang Tong pays great attention to the reform and development of teaching materials and methods. He wrote a lot of works in his life. Besides living in seclusion as a professor, he continued Kong's "Six Classics" for nearly a hundred categories (Wang Ji's "Ode to youbeishan"), and provided a large number of auxiliary classics for students. As for why he wrote Xuliujing, in zhongshuo, he said: "I continued Shu to preserve the reality of Han and Jin Dynasties, continued Shi to distinguish the customs of the Six Dynasties, revised Yuanjing to break the doubts between the north and the south, praised Yi Dao to apply for the purpose of the first master, and corrected Li and le to honor the loss of the queen, that's all." According to the historical clue of the development of Confucianism, this paper expounds the traditional Confucian thought mainly in combination with the specific situation of the society, customs, Academy, thought and the gain and loss of the rule of the past dynasties after the Han Dynasty.
Although the scope of Confucius' thought is not clear in the general framework, there are many new ideas in the ideological content, especially paying attention to the changes brought about by historical changes in all aspects of society. After reading it, we can broaden our thinking and deeply study the problems from various angles. For example, Wang Tong thinks that the continuation of the poem is to show the "principle of changing the customs" and its basic spirit is consistent with the theme of traditional Confucianism. He said: "if I want to continue the poem and study all the collections, I can't get the theory of time change.". On the basis of absorbing the thoughts of the predecessors on time change, he saw that the literary works of Jin, song, Northern Wei, Western Wei, Northern Zhou and Sui dynasties were no longer as simple and beautiful as the book of songs, and had become "vulgar goods" with unknown royal way and improper customs. Therefore, he changed the structure and arrangement of style, elegance and ode in the book of songs, and subdivided them into four parts: Hua, Zheng, song and tan, so as to embody the five emotional consciousness of beauty, encouragement, injury, evil and admonition, and highlight the political tendency and preaching characteristics of the poem.
Improving teaching methods
The improvement of teaching methods can be seen from the specific teaching records of zhongshuo, which is roughly the same as the embodiment of Confucius' educational thought in the Analects. First of all, Wang Tong believes that teaching and research must change with the changes of the times and environment, and can constantly enrich and improve the content of teaching materials. Otherwise, if we don't take a comprehensive view of history and reality, and confine ourselves to the opinions of one school and one school, we will run into obstacles everywhere when we study and teach. It is the so-called "there is no evil law in the world through its transformation, and there is no good education in the world through its implementation." In order to adapt to his idea of "three religions can be one", he paid attention to absorb the ideas of Buddhism, Taoism and other sects and schools. Although he criticizes Taoism, he also affirms Taoism's "the most virtuous world" and the rule of self-sufficiency and inaction: "in ancient times, the holy king is superior. The distance between the fields, the sound of chickens and dogs to hear each other, people to old age and death do not exchange, cover self-sufficiency If you cover it with inaction, you will be self-sufficient He is to enrich and enrich Confucianism with some referential contents of Buddhism and Taoism, and adjust the monotonous situation that Confucianism has been unified for a long time in the ideological circle.
teach students in accordance with their aptitude
In teaching, Wang Tong pays attention to teaching students in accordance with their aptitude. For different students, at different times and places, his speech and argument will change. For example, when discussing the problem of heaven, he once talked with Xue Shou about the relationship between heaven and sages, believing that the function of heaven lies in creating things; when discussing heaven with Du Ruhui, Dong Chang and Jia Qiong, he interpreted heaven as nature; when Yu Wenhua asked about the way of heaven and human affairs, he also said "following Yin and Yang, benevolence and righteousness"; and on other occasions, he interpreted heaven as "Qi", "ghost" and so on. In this way, is it true that Wang Tongyan has no definite conclusion and no definite basis. The purpose of Wang Tong's comparison of the above-mentioned things is to say that tomorrow has its own law and should conform to him. If a definite concept is used to explain or limit it, it can not reach the level of cognitive development at that time. In this case, Wang Tong based on his understanding of students and scholars. It is very effective to explain it in different places according to people. On the other hand, Wang Tong also paid attention to learning and consulting from all sides. He once said that "I will retreat and ask for all fields." We should focus on the scholars, hermits, Buddhists and Taoists who are in opposition, absorb nutrition from their words, enrich our thoughts and enrich our teaching. Through this kind of eclecticism, we can adapt to the challenges of all kinds of students and friends, and stand in an invincible position in the teaching of Taoism.
Cultivation methods
He put forward a thorough moral cultivation method. Wang Tong paid great attention to the construction of morality and ethics while striving for the revitalization of Confucianism all his life
Chinese PinYin : Wang Tong
Wang Tong
