元代における道學の興隆

Abstract

It is well known that Chu Hsi's 朱熹 teaching became a dominant force and virtual orthodoxy in China, Korea and Japan during later centuries. That orthodoxy, however, was not created by Chu Hsi himself but by others after him. In this study are examined some of the converging intellectual and political developments that led up to the adoption of Chu's teaching as the standard for the civil service examinations, which occurred first in the Yuan dynasty and was then confirmed by the Ming and Ch'ing. Two teachers made important contributions to that early development, Chen Te-hsiu 眞徳秀 (1178-1235) and Hsu Heng 許衡 (1209-81). They represent a strain of ethico-political thought expressed in the concepts of the "transmission of the Way" or orthodox tradition (tao-t'ung 道統) and the "learning of the emperors and kings" (ti-wang chih hsueh 帝王之學) or ti-hsueh 帝學 for short. Among the Four Books as commented on by Chu Hsi, they particularly stressed the Great Learning (Ta-hsueh 大學) and in the eight-step method of this work they particularly emphasized the rectification of the mind-and-heart (cheng-hsin 正心) as the way to clarify and manifest the moral nature, which was the key to the governance of the world. These doctrines underlay the policies of the Neo-Confucian reformers at Qubilai's court who became entrusted with the new system of universal education adopted by the latter. Although Neo-Confucians opposed the revival of the old-style Sung and Chin examinations, the spread of the new education led to the adoption in 1315 of reformed examinations based primarily on the Four Books and Chu's commentaries. The Ming later ratified the form and content of these examinations, making it a comprehensive system of education and recruitment, reinforced later by thought control measures, to create the full-fledged state orthodoxy of later times.