蘇門の閑居における氣

Abstract

Zhang Lei 張耒, one of the Four Scholars of Su Family 蘇門四學士 in the Northern Song dynasty, set two kinds of qi 氣 in his “Account of Cutting down Trees” 伐木記. One was comprehended in the objects of the outside world, and the other one was comprehended in the inside of the human mind. He thought when the latter surpassed the former, man could feel comfort. In his another proses on the secluded life, Zhang Lei sometimes mentioned qi 氣 which was comprehended in the inside of the mind. This is a different conception from Su Shi's 蘇軾 on his secluded life. Trace back to the Mid Tang era, Liu Zongyuan 柳宗元 and Bai Juyi 白居易 already mentioned qi 氣 in their proses on their secluded life. Such kinds of mentions included two types of qi 氣: one was in the objects of the outside world, and another was in the inside of the human mind. They explained that qi 氣 had a great effect when the objects of the outside world worked upon the human mind. It is clear that Zhang Lei made his opinion out of these leading conceptions. In the Four scholars and Su family, Su Shi and Huang Tingjian 黃庭堅 also referred to qi 氣, especially Su Zhe 蘇轍 and Qin Guan 秦觀 were concerned with the manifestation of qi 氣 which is in the inside of the human mind. They were interested in “Haoran zhi qi” 浩然之氣 of Mencius 孟子 in particular. The word “Haoran” originally had an image of rushing water. Then when the men of letters were conscious of “Haoran zhi qi” in their secluded lives, they usually aimed at cultivating their character, and becoming perfect men who had softness and serenity as rushing water. But at the Song dynasty, Mencius gradually became a strict ethical standard, and the secluded lives of men of letters also gradually intensified a character of more strict cultivation of the mind.