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Wang Fu-chih's Views on History and Historical Writing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

S. Y. Teng
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In the seventeenth century, at the end of the Ming and the beginning of the Ch'ing dynasties, China produced three outstanding scholars: Huang Tsung-hsi (1619–95), Ku Yen-wu (1613–82), and Wang Fu-chih (1619–92), all great thinkers, voluminous writers, and ardent patriots. The social and political chaos, economic deterioration, excess of Wang Yang-ming's intuitionism, and, above all, the conquest of China by the Manchus must have stimulated the best minds to develop their ideas in a more practical direction. They were contemporaries of René Descartes 1596–1650) and Blaise Pascal (1623–62) and only slightly earlier than Isaac Newton (1642–1727). Confined by their cultural tradition and living in a vast but largely isolated empire, these men naturally developed ideas different from those of their European contemporaries. But they had enough challenges of their own to meet. The originality in their ideas bespeaks the intellectual vigor of late imperial China.

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The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 28 , Issue 1 , November 1968 , pp. 111 - 123
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Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1968

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References

1 See T'ing-fu, Yang, Ming-mo san-ta ssu-hsiang chia [The three great thinkers at the end of Ming], (Shanghai: Su-lien ch'u-pan she, 1955), pp. 4–7, 111–58.Google Scholar

2 Wang Chih-ch'un, “Ch'uan-shan hsien-sheng nien-p'u” [A chronological biography of Ch'uan-shan] in Ch'uan-shan hsüeh-pao [Journal of Ch'uan-shan], Nos. 1–8 (1915–17), and Hsi-t'ang, Chang, Wang Ch'uan-shan hsüeh-p'u [Wang Ch'uan-shan's works and biographical notes], (Changsha: The Commercial Press, 1938), p. 3.Google Scholar

3 Hummel, Arthur W., ed., Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period, 2 vols. (Washington, D.C., 1943–44) II, 817.Google Scholar

4 Lü-shu, K'ang, “Wang Ch'uan-shan ti chia-hsüeh yüan-yüan” [Wang Fu-chih's heritage of knowledge from his learned family], Min-chu p'ing-lun [Democratic Review], (May, 1955), 6.10, 2–4.Google Scholar

5 In Wang's biographies Ch'ang-ning is written as Chin-ning. It is not a typographic error but is done for reasons of taboo, because Ch'ang-lo was the name of Ming Kuang-tsung (r. 1582–1620). Cf. Ch'en Yuan, Shih-hui chu-li [Examples of taboo characters in (Chinese) history] in Li-yiin shu-wu ts'ung-'o [Miscellaneous publications from the hardworking study], ch. 8, p. 108.

6 The biography written by his son in Ch'uan-shan ch'üan-chi [A complete collection of Ch'uanshan's works], (Taipei: Hua-lien ch'u-pan she, 1965), 16 vols., I.13. All quotations from Wang's writings, unless otherwise stated, are from the Ch'uan-shan ch'üan-chi, cited hereafter as CSCC.

7 Note that Ch'uan-shan was not in the same location as the Ch'uan-shan shu-yuan, which was in Tung-chou, the East Island, about two miles south of Heng-yang. See T'ang Ming-pang's investigation of Wang Ch'uan-shan's historical relics in Wang Ch'uan-shan hsüeh-shu t'ao-lun chi [A symposium on Wang Ch'uan-shan's academic accomplishments], compiled by Hu-nan sheng (Hu-pei sheng) Chehsüeh, She-hui k'o-hsüeh, hsüeh-hui lien-ho hui [A joint committee of the Association of Philosophy and that of Social Sciences of the provinces of Hunan and Hupeh], (Peking: Chung-hua shu-chü, 1965), 2 vols. Hereafter cited as T'ao-lun chi, II.574–76.

8 P'an Tsung-lo, “Ch'uan shan hsien-sheng chuan,” [A biography of Mr. Wang Ch'uan-shan] in Ch'uan-shan i-shu (Block-print edition issued by Governor-general Tseng's office, Nanking, 1865), I, 3b.

9 This was at least the view of Ho Lin, former professor of philosophy at the National Peking University. See his “Wang Ch'uan-shan ti li-shih che-hsüeh” [Wang Ch'uan-shan's philosophy of history], Che-hsüeh p'ing-lun [Philosophical Review], X.10, 23–29 (Oct., 1935).

10 “Wang Ch'uan-shan ti tao-te chin-hua lun” [Wang Fu-chih's theory concerning the evolution of morality], Che-hsüeh Tsa-chih [Journal of Philosophy], No. 5, p. 563 (April, 1922).

11 History of Chinese Philosophy (Shanghai: The Commercial Press, 1934)Google ScholarPubMed, See Derk Bodde's translation (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1953), 641–51; Mu, Ch'ien, Chung-kuo chin sanpai-nien hsüeh-shu shih [History of Chinese academic thought in the last three hundred years], (Taipei; The Commercial Press, 1957), pp. 95–120Google Scholar; de Bary, Wm. Theodore et al (comp.), Sources of Chinese Tradition (Columbia University Press, New York, 1960), pp. 597–606Google Scholar; and Chan, Wing-tsit, A Source of Chinese Philosophy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1963), pp. 692–702.Google Scholar

12 See Liang Ch'i-ch'ao, Chung-kuo li-shih yen-chiu fa [Method of studying Chinese history], Chung-kuo shih-hsüeh shih [History of Chinese histories], a common tide used by the different authors, and Torajirö, Naitö, Chügoku shigaku shi [A history of Chinese histories], (Tokyo: Köbundö, 1949), pp. 391–97.Google Scholar

13 Needham, Joseph, Science and Civilisation in China (Cambridge University Press, 1956), II.511Google Scholar. Feng Yu-lan, Jen Chi-yü, Wing-tsit Chan and many others also consider Wang Fu-chih a materialist. (See T'ao-lun chi, 152–57, 174–85, 230–43 and passim.) See also Chang Tai-nien, “Ch'uan-shan ti wei-wu ssu-hsiang” [Ch'uan-shan's materialistic view], Kuang-ming jih-pao, Oct. 6, 1954. But Ts'ao Po-yen thinks that Wang Fu-chih was an idealist, not a materialist. “Wang Ch'uan-shan li-shih kuan yen-chiu” [A study of Wang's historiography], Li-shih yen-chiu [Historical Research], 5 (1965), 80. It goes without saying that a Chinese materialist may not be identical with a Western materialist, just as the Chinese feng-chien system is not exactly the same as Western feudalism.

14 See Wang's Chou-i pai-su [An unorthodox commentary on the Book, of Changes], and O-meng[The Nightmare] in CSCC, I and XIII, and Wang Ch'uan-shan hsüeh-an [Academic and biographical sources of Wang Fu-chih], (Taipei, Chung-yang wen-hua kung-yin she, 1954), pp. 26–28.

15 For an illustration of “the conservation of matter,” Wang Fu-chih says: “A fire can burn a car-load of fuel entirely, making flame, smoke and ashes: the wood still returns to wood ashes, water runs to soil, and soil remains as soil. Because the matter is so minute, human eyes cannot see it. In a boiler for cooking rice, the hot moist steam gushes about and must turn somewhere. If the boiler cover is sealed and tight, the steam is condensed and not evaporated. When mercury meets fire it flies away and no one knows where it goes, but in reality it returns to earth.” Chang Tzu Cheng-meng chu [Commentary on Chang Tsai's Cheng-meng, Correct (ideas) for beginning (students)], in CSCC, 1.4b. Wang maintains that things are not absolutely extinguished but return to the origin of the Generative Force of Nature. “Life is not creation from nothing, death is not complete dispersion and destruction,” says Wang. The Book, of Changes speaks of “coming” and “going,” not of “birth” and “destruction.” Chou-i nei-chuan [Intrinsic commentaries on the Book, of Changes], 5.9, in CSCC, 1. The above theory of the Generative Force of Nature is derived from the ancient conception of aggregation and dispersion of philosophical Taoists in the fourth century B.C.; Wang Fu-chih, however, gave it such precision and conviction as to raise it to the level of a law of conservation of matter. Needham, II, 40ff, 371ff, and 512.

16 Ssu-wen lu [Records of Thoughts and Inquiries], nei-p'ien [inner chapters], p. 7b, in CSCC, XIII.

17 Shang-shu yin-i [Extended ideas from the Book, of History], 3.3, 9b–10, in CSCC, II.

18 Wing-tsit Chan translates ch'i as concrete things. See his Source Book., pp. 694 and 784.

19 Chou-i wai-chuan [Supplementary commentary on the Book of Changes], in CSCC, II.

20 Ssu-wen lu wai-p'ien [Records of thoughts and questions, outside chapter], p. 25, in CSCC, XIII.

21 Tu T'ung-chien-lun [Comments on Reading the Mirror of History], 15.22, CSCC, X-XI.

22 Ibid., 14.23–25; 20.19 and 30.4–5.

23 Ibid., 20.19b.

24 Shih kuang-chuan [A broad interpretation of the Odes], Ch. 3 in CSCC, III, p. 1899; and Tu T'ung-chien lun, 14.23—25 and the last chapter, hsü-lun, 4–5.

25 Ssu-wen-lu, wai-p'ien, p. Ib; and Huang-shu [The Yellow book], p. 22.

26 Tu Tung-chien lu, 16.7–8 and [31] 1–2. The three sequences (san-t'ung) form a tripartite cycle of the three ancient dynasties. The san-t'ung also encompassed the different shapes of utensils, designs of costumes, ceremonies and the beginning of the year for each dynasty. For details see Lo, Jungpang, K'ang Yu-wei: A Biography and a Symposium (Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 1967), p. 147Google Scholar and passim; Derk Bodde's translation of Feng's History of Chinese Philosophy, I.27, 160–61.

27 Chou-i wai-chuan, 6.1–3; and Tu T'ung-chien lun, 24.24b–25.

28 Shang-shu yin-i, 4.5; Sung-lun, 7.1; and Tu T'ung chien lun, 19.16.

29 Ch'un-ch'iu shih-lun [Comments on the Spring and Autumn Period], 5.12, in CSCC, V; and Chang-tzu Cheng-meng chu, 2.4.

30 Tu T'ung-chien lun, 2.6b.

31 Ch'i-chieh [Wait for explanation], p. 7, in CSCC, XIII.

32 Tu Ssu-shu ta-ch'üan shuo [Discourses on reading the Four Books], 4.30, in CSCC, IX; and Chou-i wai-chuan, 2.16b. See also Ts'ao Po-yeh, “Wang Ch'uan-shan li-shih kuan yen-chiu,” op. cit., 70–72.

33 Shih kuang-chuan, 4, 8.

34 Hsü Ping-ch'ang, op. cit., 582.

35 O-meng, p. 10b.

36 Tu T¨ung-chien lun, the last chapter hsü-lun, 1–2; and Naitō Torajirō, op. cit., 393–94.

37 Ibid., 28.1.

38 Wang Fu-chih divided Chinese history into the following periods:

From Shang-Chou to 403 B.C., the Warring States

From 403 B.C. to 220 A.D., the end of Han

From 220 to 618, beginning of Tang

From 618 to 755, the An Lu-shan Rebellion

From 755 to 976, the beginning of Sung

From 976 to 1126, the Ch'ing-k'ang incident

From 1126 to 1368, the beginning of Ming

See Tu T'ung-chien lun, 11.8b.

39 Tu Tung-chien lun, 16.7b.

40 Ibid., 4.2.

41 Tu T'ung-chien lun, 6.9.

42 See the last chapter of Tu T'ung-chien lun, 1–5.

43 Ibid., 13.9b–10b and 15.12.

44 Tao-lun chi, II.374.

45 See Beaseley, W. G., et al., ed., Historians of China and Japan (Oxford University Press, 1961), p. 193Google Scholar; Tu Tung-chien lun, 15.21b–22, 25, 16.1; 26.1; T'ao-lun chi, 401–10.

46 Sung-shih [History of the Sung dynasty], 456, 3b–4 (Ssu-pu-pei-yao ed.) and Sung-lun, 2.7b–9. Note that Ch'en Ching's family had lived together for thirteen generations according to the Sung-shih; Wang probably took a famous person as a starting point in the family in order to compare with Chang Kung-i's nine-generation family in the T'ang dynasty.

47 Tzu-chih t'ung-chien [The Mirror of History for Administration], Vol. II, 1453 (the punctuated edition, Peking, 1953). The text is only four characters, “Su-hu san-shih.” Wang Fu-chih's comment in Tu T'ung-chien lun, 7.3b–4, is much longer. The ch'ien, or copper cash, was the smallest unit of currency, and 10,000 ch'ien were equal to one small unit of gold. Cf. Nancy Lee Swann, Food and Economy in Ancient China (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1950), 14m and 259n.

48 Sung-lun, 7, 5b–7.

49 Ch'uan-shan wei-k'an kao [Unpublished manuscripts of Ch'uan-shan], now published in Hu-nan li-shih tzu-liao [Historical sources of Hunan], 1959, pp. 156–62, and Tu T'ung-chien lun, 2.20 and 19.2.

50 For sale of official titles, see Tu T'ung-chien lun, 8, 7b–8; for the Fu-ping system, see Ibid., 17.21–22b, 20, 22–23; for the examination system, see Ibid., 3.3b–5, 14; 4.14; 5, 2–3; 23, 12–13; 26.2–3 and Sung-lun, 4.15b–17b; for sorcery, spirits, temples and superstitions, see Tu T'ung-chien lun, 15.24–25; 16.4–5; 17.16b–18; 20.25–26; 30–31; 27.16–17 and Ch'uan-shan ch'iian-chi, I.15–16.

51 See these persons according to chronological order in Tu T'ung-chien lun and Sung-lun. For example, Han Kuang-wu in the first work, chüan 6, and Sung T'ai-tsu in Sung-lun, chüan 1; Niu and Li in Tu T'ung-chien lun, 25.6b–7 and 26.8b–9.

52 Tu T'ung-chien lun, 14.14b and 31.4b.

53 See Wang Fu-chih's preface to Ming-chi yeh-huo [Ming history by an unofficial compiler], Chou Shih-i. This preface is not included in the Ch'üan-shan i-shu and Ch'uan-shan ch'üan-chi, but in Heng-yang hsien-chih [Gazetteer of Heng-yang], (1820 ed.), chüan 38, reprinted in Wang Ch'uan-shan shih-wen-chi [Collection of Wang Ch'uan-shan's poems and essays], (Peking: Chung-hua shu-chü,1962) II.658–59.

54 Wang Fu-chih, et al., Ch'ing shih-hua [Critical reviews of Ch'ing poems], (Shanghai: Chung-hua shu-chü, 1963), I, 4 and 17.

55 Ch'i-ch'ao, Liang, Chung-kuo chin san-pai-nien hsüeh-shu shih [A Chinese intellectual history of the last three hundred years], (Taipei: Chung-hua shu-chü, 1958), pp. 75, 81.Google Scholar

56 Wang recognized the mutual benefits of international trade, more perhaps than most Chinese statesmen even in the nineteenth century. He pointed out, too, that government control of prices would encourage private hoarding. See Yung Li [pseud.], “Wang Ch'uan-shan hsüeh-shu to-yü Smith an-ho shuo” [Wang Ch'uan-shan's ideas mostly and unintentionally agree with those of (Adam) Smith], Tung-fang tsa-chih [The Eastern Miscellany], No. 10, pp. 196–201 (September 1906).

57 T'an Ssu-t'ung ch'üan-chi [A complete collection of T'an Ssu-t'ung's writings], (Peking: San-lien, 1954), pp. 9, 16, 29, 286–87, 390 and passim.

58 Wang Ch'uan-shan hsüeh-an, op. cit., 3.

59 Hsü Ping-ch'ang, op. cit., 561.

60 T'ao-lun chi, II. 589.

61 Chung-kuo chin san-pai-nien hsüeh-shu shih, pp. 116–17.

62 Huang-shu, p. 2b.

63 Tu T'ung-chien lun, 19.14b–15.