Shao Yong
Shao Yong (1011-1077 C.E.; Chinese 邵雍; Wade-Giles: Shao Yung; courtesy name (zi) Yaofu), named Shào Kāngjié (邵康节) or Shao Kangjie after death, was a Song Dynasty Chinese philosopher, cosmologist, poet and historian whom greatly influenced the development of Neo-Confucianism in China. Shao is considered one of the most scholarly men of his time. Yet, unlike men of such stature in his society, Shao Yong avoided assuming governmental positions his entire life. Despite this, his influence was no less substantial. Shao's influential treatise on cosmogony is the Huang-chi ching-shi shuh (or, Book of supreme world ordering principles).
Origins
Shao Yong was born in 1011 in an area known as Heng-chang, China in the evening to Shao Gu (986-1064) and Shao Li (?-1032 or 1033)[1]. Shao Yong's mother, Li, was an extremely devout practitioner of Buddhism. This primal link with Buddhism proved a major influence in Shao Yong's overall thought down the line.
Shao Gu, his father, was literally his first teacher. This was common practice in the familial environment of China at the time. Shao Gu was somewhat of a scholar in philology, which can be discerned in Yong's literary works. His father taught him intensively the Six Confucian classics at a young age.
While Shao Gu was extremely influental regarding Yong's early education, Yong sought out the scholarship of some private schools. These were predominantly schools which were in one way or another teaching under the guise of Buddhism, many of the places run by monks.
Around 1020 the Shao family moved to Kung-ch'eng county in Wei Prefecture. Shortly after Yung's mothers death in 1022 or 1023 Yung is to meet his most important teacher, Li Chih-ts'ai (1001-1045). Li was a former pupil of ancient prose specialist Mu Hsiu (979-1032). Through Mu Hsiu, Li was taught the I Ching extensively.
Career and later life
Shao Yung was a "member" of a group of intellectual thinkers whom had gathered in Luoyang toward the last 3 decades of the 11th century. This group had two primary objectives. One of these was to draw parallels between their own streams of thought and that of Confucianism as understood by Mencius. Secondly, the men set out to undermine any links, real or otherwise, between 4th century Confucianism and what they viewed as inferior philosophical schools of thinking. Namely, those philosophical schools of Buddhism and Taoism. Other loosely connected members of this so-called network of thinkers include: Cheng Yi (1033-1107), Zhang Zai (1020-1077), Cheng Hao (1032-1085) and Zhou Dunyi (1017-1073). Central to each of these men was the ancient text I Ching, of which each had studied heavily. The way in which Shao Yung studied this ancient text, however, differed from the other members.
By this time in I Ching studies during the Song Dynasty, there were basically two approaches one could study the classic with. The majority of scholars would take the i-li hsueh approach, which is 'meaning-principle study'. The minority, of which Shao Yong most belonged, took the hsiang-shu hsueh approach, which means 'image-number study'. The meaning-principle approach is based mostly on both a literalistic and moralistic concept of study. The image-number approach is based much more so on the iconographic and cosmological concept of study. Each man excluding Shao Yong viewed the I Ching through the meaning-principle study approach, leaving Shao as the sole proponent of image-number study among them.
Poetry
Shao Yong is also famous for his poetry and for his interest in the game of Go (AKA Weiqi, and for having written the longest Chinese poem in existence: "Great ode to watching Weiqi" (觀棋大吟) , as well as his "Long ode to watching Weiqi" (觀棋長吟).
The "Great ode to watching Weiqi" is available in Chinese at http://www.flygo.net/history/ch_gqdy_sy.htm
The shorter "Long Ode" is available in the original Chinese at http://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E8%A7%80%E6%A3%8B%E9%95%B7%E5%90%9F
A translation of 觀棋長吟 follows:
Long Ode to Watching Weiqi Shao Yong (Trans: Galen Kountz)
In a quiet courtyard in the spring, with evening's light filtering through the leaves,
guests relax on the veranda and watch as two compete at weiqi.
Each calls into themselves the divine and the infernal,
sculpting mountains and rivers into their world.
Across the board, dragons and serpents array for battle,
geese scatter as collapsing fortresses are sacked;
masses die, pushed into pits by Qin's soldiers,
and the drama's audience is left in awe of its General Jin.
To sit at the board is to raise halberd and taste combat,
to endure the freezing and brave the flames in the constant changes;
life and death each will come to both masters,
but victory and defeat must each go to one.
On this road, one strips away the other's disguises,
in life, one must erect one's own facade;
dreadful is a wound to the exposed belly or heart,
merely painful is an injury to the face, which can be cured;
Effective is a blow that strikes home in an opponent's back,
successful are schemes that use repeated feints and deceit.
Look at the activity on the streets of our capital,
if you were to go elsewhere, wouldn't it be the same?
See also
- History of the Song Dynasty
Notes
- ↑ Wyatt; 12,13,16
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Wyatt, Don J. The Recluse of Loyang: Shao Yung and the Moral Evolution of Early Sung Thought. Honolulu, Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press, 1996. ISBN 0-8248-1755-9.
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