Su Shi believes that Wang Anshi uses new learning to learn from scholars, just like using templates to reproduce utensils

[Editor's note]

In the book "Jing Gong Xinxue Research", Liu Chengguo, professor of the Institute of Ancient Books of the Department of Chinese at East China Normal University, starts from Wang Anshi's life and academic history, and compares it with other schools of thought in the Northern Song Dynasty, showing the unique value of Jing Gong Xinxue - the study of merit with the construction of a system based on the classics as the core, deeply analyzing Wang Anshi's academic thought, and trying to provide us with the classical basis and underlying logic for understanding his reform and change. This article is excerpted from the book, and The Paper is authorized to publish by Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House.

In the seventh year of Shenzong Yuanfeng (1084), Su Shi went to Jiangning to visit Wang Anshi, who had long retired. After years of ups and downs in the sea and the vicissitudes of the world, the two revealed the true nature of the poet. They lingered in the mountains and rivers, wrote poems and wrote poems, and they enjoyed each other very much. Each other's article talent and personality charm made each other fall in love, and even met with neighbors, and ended up in Zhongshan. More than 20 years of personal grievances have been dissipated in a smile when they meet. In the first year of Zhezong Yuanyou (1086), Wang Anshi died of illness, and Su Shi wrote "Two Poems of the Old Poems of Wang Jinggong in the West Taiyi", one of which said:

In autumn, Kawahara is clean and beautiful, and the wind is clear after the rain. From now on, who will send me Chinan?

The poem expresses the resonance of homesickness in Wang's original poems in the form of secondary rhyme, and faintly reveals the identification and remembrance of Wang Anshi during the period of retreat to Jinling, showing a faint sadness and melancholy.

Of course, this does not mean that Su Shi agrees with Wang's academic thoughts. After serving in various local states and counties, Su Shi realized the rationality of some new laws in administrative practice, and reflected on the changes. As for Xinxue, he has always held a harsh criticism, believing that Xinxue aids the old and confuses the real Confucianism:

Ouyang Zi has not been more than ten years, and the scholar is a new learner, like a Buddha, chaotic Zhou Kong's truth, and those who know it are worried.

As we all know, Su Shi's thoughts are the most complex in and out of Shi, Lao, and Zongheng. Here, however, he seems to regard himself as Confucian orthodoxy, attacking Wang Anshi's academic incorrectness and mixing with the elderly. The so-called "resembling the Buddha and confusing the truth of Confucius" is generally believed to be a denunciation of Wang's invocation of the Buddha's doctrine and the encouragement of Confucianism's discourse. For example, in June of the second year of Xining (1069), Su Shi wrote to Shenzong, talking about the disadvantages of talking about life that is popular in the scientific field:

The theory of the husband's life is not heard of by Zigong, and today's scholars are ashamed of their lives, and this is credible! Today's scholars and doctors take the Buddha as a saint, and those who write books in the city do not sell the books of Lao Zhuang. Reading his writings, he is inexhaustible and unstoppable, and looking at his appearance, he is transcendent and indescribable. How can this really be true? Cover the nature of people, be content to let go and be happy to be born. So that the people of the world, such as Zhuang Zhouqi life and death, a ruined reputation, light wealth, poverty and cheapness, then the name of the lord of the people, so the world is dull, abolished, Your Majesty also use it?

"Today's scholars" does not specifically refer to Wang Anshi, but Wang Anshi is undoubtedly the representative of these scholars. He is responsible for leading the spread of sexuality and the spread of the teachings of Buddha and Zhuangzi. Su Shi objected to extravagant talk about life, and he reminded Shenzong: If scholars understand the principles of life, and can achieve life and death, ruin reputation, light wealth and wealth, and peace and poverty, what other means can the monarch use to control them?

In his later years, Su Shi regarded the rejection of new learning more and more as his noble mission:

Shen Han is self-sacred, and the ugliness is no longer true. The giant monarch indulges in his own desires and borrows scriptures as rock cliffs. So he ordered the young man, and everyone cherished the pearl. Digging teeth and frog ears, it is believed that the sky can be filled. ...... If I don't say anything, who understands the horns and bonds.

The first four lines of the poem ridicule Wang Anshi for being Shen (not harmful) Han (Fei) and the like, and pretending to use "Zhou Li" to Fu Hui the new law, just as Wang Mang reformed and disturbed the world. In the middle, he ridiculed Wang's interpretation of the scriptures, which is like a frog at the bottom of a well. The last two sentences are quite committed to the righteousness and dispelling evil. Ji Yun of the Qing Dynasty commented: "This poem is also a stab to Jiefu. "Labeling Wang Anshi as a legalist criminal name is not Su Shi's first creation, but he uses it most skillfully. For example, the "Treatise on Shang Marting" regards the Shang martingale transformation method as "jackal poison", quotes Sima Guang's words to refute "full use of wealth without endowment", and even curses and says, "The later gentleman has the sin of the Shang Jun, but has no merit of the Shang Jun, and the blessing of the Shang Jun, but does not suffer from the disaster of the Shang Jun, I am afraid of it." seems to be discussing Shang Ying's crimes, but in fact, he insinuated and attacked Wang Anshi, "This theory is also Jing Gongfa's name." In his later years, he devoted himself to writing "Dongpo Shuchuan", "Yi Chuan" and "Analects of Confucius", one of his motives was not to be angry with the "Three Classics and New Meanings" and "Character Sayings" with the help of the power of official learning, and wanted to turn the tide with his own strength. Wang Shipeng of the Southern Song Dynasty pointed out: ""Yi", "Shu" and "Analects" forget worries, and the world's "Three Classics" and "Words Say" are time. ”。

The most profound thing about Su Shi is that he strongly criticized Wang for learning from the same family as a person in the world. At the beginning of Yuan You's change, at the same time as the old party cleaned up the new law, Su Shi violently attacked the new school:

The decline of writing is not as good as it is today, and its origin is actually from Wang. Wang's text is not necessarily bad, but the trouble lies in making others feel the same as themselves. Since Confucius can't make people the same, Yan Yuan's benevolence and Zilu's courage can't be transferred by phase, and Wang wants to learn from the same world. The beauty of the earth is the same as living things, different from what is born. However, the barren land is full of yellow grass and white reeds, and this is the same as the Wang family.

In the Yuanfeng era, the status of Wang Anshi's generation of Wenzong had been firmly established. Su Shi affirmed that "Wang's text may not be bad", but Wang made Xinxue an official school, regarded personal scripture notes as the standard answer to the scriptures in the imperial examination, and forced all scholars to study and Xi, resulting in the same interpretation of the scriptures by the scholars and a lack of self-satisfaction. Shilin has become a barren land, and all that grows is yellow grass and white reeds. Wang's new learning is like making a template first, and then carving out the utensils one by one:

Scholars cannot be self-contained, and their trouble lies in secular learning. The trouble of vulgar learning, the material of the vain, the suffocating ears and eyes, the recitation of the words of his master, from the vulgar text, only tens of thousands of words, its business as a scholar is exhausted. ...... Wang's learning, just like the detachment, the case of its shape and model, do not need to be modified into the ear, seeking to be Huanbi Yi device, which can be?

"Reciting the words of his master to make words" refers to the scholar quoting Wang Anshi's "Words and Sayings" to analyze the words and interpret the scriptures. Wang's learning not only failed to achieve talents, but also hindered the scholars' "self-satisfaction" and "self-achievement", which was called "new learning", but was actually "vulgar learning".

The above two passages attribute the root cause of the decline of writing to Wang Anshi's authoritarian style of "making others the same as oneself", showing Su Shi's outstanding insight. "I want to learn from the world", that is, Wang's political ideal of "one morality, the same customs". This quote comes from "The Book of Rites·· Royalty:

Situ cultivates six rites to save the people's nature, Ming seven religions to promote the people's morality, Qi eight politics to prevent prostitution, one morality to the same custom, raising the elderly to achieve filial piety, compassion for loneliness to catch the insufficient, the virtuous to worship virtue, and simple and unscrupulous to be evil.

Situ is a local official, and he is in charge of the religion of the state. Kong Yingda said: "A morality is the same as the vulgar, and the way is followed, which is the way of the same family, and the customs of the same country." It means that through school education, the values of the state are unified and the customs and Xi of the state are harmonized. In the third year of Renzong Jiayou (1058), Wang was reappointed from Zhichang to Tidian Jiangnan East Road Prison. He broke with the conventions of officialdom and dealt with several illegal officials, causing slander. Friends Wang Hui and Ding Baochen wrote to inquire, and Wang quoted the famous saying "one morality is the same as customs" as a defense:

The ancients had a morality that was the same as the customs of the world, and the scholars were good in the world, and people had no different opinions. Now the family is different, people are very virtuous, and they pass it on with love, hatred, joy and anger, then my friends are not allowed to change the facts from people's different opinions, and then doubt my words?

The ancients had the same morality as the customs, so the scholars had the same behavior as the ancients to keep themselves, and people had no different opinions. Today's family is different, people are very virtuous, and those who want to keep themselves are involved, and they are involved in the trend of the end of the world, and everything is not as ancient as in the past, then the different opinions of people can be understood?

Wang believes that, unlike in ancient times, the present world lacks common values and moral standards. Once a scholar has made a difference, he will inevitably be plagued by rumors and slanders that have confused the facts according to their joys, angers, loves, and hatreds. Even the imperial court wanted to rise up to change the law and reform the maladministration, but was hindered by these floating theories:

In the second year of Shenzong Xining, he discussed the tribute method, dismissed the poems, the Ming scriptures, and the subjects, and tried the scholars with the scriptures, theories, and strategies. ...... Su Shi of the Zhishi Museum was discussed...... Shang Yu Shi Shu said: "I am suspicious of this, but now I have to discuss it and be relieved." On another day, he asked Wang Anshi, and Anshi said: "Otherwise, there is a lack of talent today, and its scholarship is different, one person has one righteousness, ten people have ten righteousness, the court wants to do something, and there are different opinions, and Mo is willing to listen." This cover court can not be moral. Therefore, if one is moral, then the school should be repaired, and if the school is to be cultivated, the tribute law cannot be changed. Zhao Luan is preface, An Shi said: "If it is said that this subject has won many people, there is no other way to enter from the fate, and there is no room for no virtuous in the meantime; Today, when he is young and strong, he is paying attention to the righteousness of the world, and he is learning to compose poetry behind closed doors. and its entry into the official, the world is not Xi, this is the science and law corrupt talents, so that it is not as good as the ancient. So he died like An Shiyi.

After the Qingli, Confucian scholars of various schools no longer adhered to the commentaries of the Han and Tang dynasties, and interpreted the scriptures with new ideas, and there was a situation of "academic inconsistency, one person with one righteousness, and ten people with ten meanings". As an individual, a scholar can only choose the good and follow it, insist on self-control, and not be swayed by floating discussions. From the standpoint of the monarch and the imperial court, it is necessary to pass institutional reform, "one morality and one custom". It not only removes obstacles to dissent for the smooth implementation of the reform, but also cultivates qualified bureaucrats with unified values for promising policies. The reform of Xining Gongju and the compilation of the "Three Classics and New Meanings" complement each other, including Wang Anshi's efforts to revise the "Character Theory" in his later years, all of which are based on the same concept:

Stealing books has been used for a long time. The first king set up a school to teach, set up officials to achieve it, put it as a metaphor, and forbade the name of the person, how can it be that everything is the same morality, and one person is just a lawkeeper.

The first king thought that it could not be ignored, but the world and the future generations lost their law, so they were three years old together. The same is the same as morality.

However, after the first draft of "Words Say" came out, Su Shi immediately grasped the fallacy of its interpretation of words and sneered. This is similar to his opposition to the reform of the imperial examination and his attack on the Three Classics and New Righteousness, reflecting his confrontation with Wang's unitary political model. Volume 79 of "The Story of the Eastern Capital" "The Biography of Wang Anshi" says:

At the beginning, An Shi raised the revision of the scriptures, expounded the "poems", "books" and "Zhou officials", which was completed, and the scholars were awarded, and the world called "Xinyi". In his later years, he wrote twenty-four volumes of "Zishuo", and scholars vied to Xi it. The day is tried in Yousi, and it must be said that there is no difference. The Confucian teachings were abolished, and the scholars had no self-resuming learning, so the speaker at that time said that the trouble of the Wang family was to make others feel the same as themselves.

The "speaker at that time" was Su Shi. "Scholars have no self-satisfied learning" and "Wang's troubles are good at making others the same as themselves", in the loud criticism of Xinxue, only this sharp evaluation was written into the history by Wang Cheng as the definitive conclusion of the disadvantages of Xinxue.

Su Shi relied on to counter Wang's pluralistic stance, and his ideological resources came in part from the Taoist rule of inaction. Inaction is not inaction, but not forcibly interfering, not forcing the same, and allowing all things to develop freely according to their natural nature. "The beauty of the earth is the same as the living thing, different from the birth. This expression is slightly similar to the description of Tian Lai in the Zhuangzi: "Dare to ask Tian Lai? Zi Qi said: 'The husband blows all kinds of differences, and makes himself salty, and who is evil when he is angry?'" "Different from what is born", in other words, "make oneself" and "take oneself", which means respect for individuality. Of course, the most important thing is Su Shi's understanding of "Tao", which is very different from Wang Anshi. He noted:

The most trustworthy person in the world is only water. The size of the river and the depth of the sea can be speculated, but it is not self-forming, and because the thing is given shape, it is ever-changing, and there is an inevitable reason.

The principles of the world are not inconsistent, but they cannot be grasped. Knowing that it is not inconsistent and insistent, it is a few.

Su Shi admits that behind everything there is a principle of inevitability and consistency, that is, the ultimate way. This is the same as Wang Anshi. The difference is that Wang claimed to have inherited the Tao that had been obliterated since Mencius, and restored the "Great Encyclopedia of the Dao" from fragmentation. Then, through the reform of the imperial examination, official education, and the compilation of scripture teaching materials such as the "Three Classics and New Meanings", the scholars were forced to learn and Xi, the same as the ultimate way, with one morality and the same customs. Su Shi insisted that the Tao cannot be finally grasped, and it is more difficult to become a fixed and standard dogma, as Kenjiro Tsuchida analyzed:

The Tao exists, but the Tao itself cannot be grasped. Although the manifestation of the Tao is sometimes manifested in the concrete differences, it is also through the form of concrete things.

Like water, the Tao is shaped by things, embodied in different concrete images and situations. It is not an immutable law and dogma, but a unity of commonality and individuality, which combines different individuals to present different forms. Taking the Tao tree as a dogma and forcing scholars to learn Xi master it is tantamount to letting those who look at it know the sun:

Those who are born do not know the sun, and those who ask them have eyes may tell them: "The shape of the sun is like a bronze tower." "Buckle and get it. He hears the bell every day, and thinks that the day is also. Or he said, "The light of the sun is like a candle." "Draw the candle and get its shape. He thinks that the day is also. The sun and the bell and the basket are also far away, and those who look at it do not know the difference, and those who seek it without tasting it are also. The way is more difficult to see than the sun, and the unattainable of man is no different from the eye. The master told him that although there is a clever and good guide, it is not too much to be too good and candle. The words of the world, or the name of what they see, or the meaning of what they see, are all seeking the fault of the Tao.

After Xinxue became an official school, the imperial court forced scholars to learn Xi, thinking that in this way they could understand the way of Confucianism and master the principles and methods of governing the country and leveling the world. Su Shi believes that this practice is like letting the viewer know the sun. The squintler will never know the truth of the sun just by the sound of the copper plate and the shape of the basket. Scholars only rely on some of the dogmas in the "Three Classics and New Meanings", of course, they cannot comprehend the true meaning of the Tao. Only by combining the special situation of the individual and through specific practice can they form unique experiences:

There are many people in the south, and the sun and water dwell, and they can wade at the age of seven, float at the age of ten, and float at the age of fifteen. Those who have no husband will have the way of water, and those who live in the sun and water will have their way in fifteen. If you don't know the water, you are strong, but you are afraid of the boat. Therefore, the brave man of the north asks no one, but asks why he does not, and he tries the river with his words, and there is no one who does not drown.

You can't learn to swim just by word of mouth, and only through accumulated practice can you have a real experience and perception of the "way of water". Mastering the way of Confucianism is more important than being coerced by textbooks.

After the celebration of Renzong, the retro trend of Confucianism rose, and many scholars regarded the first king of the law and the return of the three generations as a noble political pursuit. As an important part of the ideal political order, morality and customs have been universally recognized by scholars. In addition to Wang Anshi, Lu Gong, Cheng Hao, Zeng Gong, etc. have all elaborated. The tribute and official school reforms during the Xining period were driven by this ideal. Only Su Shi dared to go against the tide, acted alone, and showed keen vigilance and profound criticism of the unified Confucian political and religious model. His Taoist theories of "Mo Zhizhi" and "Non-grasping" have strongly dissipated the arbitrary theories of those who are conceited to inherit the Tao of Confucius and Mencius, not only Xinxue.

Jing Gong Xinxue Research (Revised Edition), by Liu Chengguo, Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, October 2023.