Yet Mencius was not wholly wrong, for the Chin Dynasty, which was established after the unification of 221 B.C., lasted only about fifteen years. Soon after the death of the First Emperor his empire disintegrated in a series of rebellions against the harsh Chin rule, and was succeeded by the Han Dynasty (206 B.C. -A.D.220). The Han inherited the concept of political unity of the Chin, and continued its unfinished work, that is, the building up of a new political and social order.

Tung Chung-shu (c.179- c.104B.C.) was the great theorizer in such an attempt. A native of the southern part of the present Hopei Province , he was largely instrumental in making Confucianism the orthodox belief of the Han Dynasty, at the expense of the other schools of thought. He was also prominent in the creation of the institutional basis for this Confucian orthodoxy: the famed Chinese examination system, which began to take form during his time. Under this system, entry into the ranks of the government officials who ruled the country was not dependent upon noble birth or wealth, but rather upon success in a series of periodic examinations which were conducted by the government simultaneously throughout the country, and were open to all members of society with but trifling exceptions. These examinations, to be sure, were still embryonic in the Han Dynasty and did not become really universal until several centuries later. It is Tung Chung-shu's credit, however, that he was one of the first to propose them and it is also significant that in so doing he insisted upon the Confucian classics as the ideological basis for their operation.

It is said of Tung Chung-shu that he was so devoted to his literary studies that once for three years he did not even look out into his garden. As a result, he wrote a lengthy work known as the Chun-chiu Fan-lu , or Luxuriant Dew from the Spring and Autumn Annals . It is also said that he used to expound his teachings from behind a curtain, and that these were transmitted by his disciples, one to another, to a remote distance, so that there were some who never had the privilege of seeing his countenance. (See his biography in the History of the Former Han Dynasty , Ch. 56)

What Tung Chung-shu tried to do was to give a sort of theoretical justification to the new political and social order of his time. According to him, since man is a part of Heaven, the justification of the behaviour of the former must be found in the behaviour of the latter. He thought with the Yin-Yang school that a close interconnection exists between Heaven and man. Starting with his premise, he combined a metaphysical justification, which derives chiefly from the Yin-Yang school, with a polical and social philosophy which is chiefly Confucianist.

The word Heaven is a translation of Chinese word Tien , which is sometimes rendered as "Heaven" and sometimes as "nature." Neither translation is quite adequate, however, especially in Tung Chung-shu's philosophy. My colleague Professor Y. L .Chin has said: "Perhaps if we mean by Tien both nature and the divinity which presides over nature, with emphasis sometimes on the one and sometimes on the other, we have something approaching the Chinese term." (Unpublished manuscript) This statement is not true in certain cases, for instance, in those of Lao Tzu and Chuang Tze, but it is certainly so in the case of Tung Chung-shu. In this chapter, when the word Heaven occurs, I ask the readers to recall this statement of Professor Chin as the definition of the word Tien in Tung Chung-shu's philosophy.

In Chapter Ⅻ it was pointed out that there were two distinct lines of thought in ancient China, those of the Yin and Yang and of the Five Elements, each of which provided a positive interpretation for the structure and origin of the universe. Later, however, these two lines became amalgamated, and in Tung Chung-shu this amalgamation is particularly conspicuous. Thus in his philosophy we find both the theory of the Yin and Yang and that of the Five Elements.

Cosmological Theory

According to Tung Chung-shu, the universe has ten constituents: Heaven, Earth, the Yin and Yang , the Five Elements of Wood, Fire, Soil, Metal and Water, and finally man. His idea of the Yin and Yang is very concrete. He says:

With the universe there exist the ethers of the Yin and Yang . Men are constantly immersed in them, just as fish are constantly immersed in water. The difference between the Yin and Yang ethers and water is that water is visible, whereas the ethers are invisible.

The order of the Five Elements given by Tung Chung-shu differs from that given by the “Grand Norm.”(See Ch. Ⅻ of this book.) According to him, the first is Wood, the second, Fire, the third Soil, the fourth Metal, and the fifth Water. These five Elements “each in turn produces the next and is overcome by the next but one in turn.” Thus Wood produces Water, and Water produces Soil, Soil produces Metal, Metal produces Water, and Water produces Wood. This is the process of their mutual production. But Wood overcomes Soil, Soil overcomes Water, Water overcomes Fire, Fire overcomes Metal, and Metal overcomes Wood. This is the process of their mutual overcoming.

For Tung Chung-shu, as for the Yin-Yang school, Wood, Fire, Metal, and Water each presides over one of the four seasons as well as one of the four directions of the compass. Wood presides over the east and spring, Fire over the south and summer, Metal over the west and autumn, and Water over the north and winter. Soil presides over the centre and gives assistance to all the other elements. The alternation of the four seasons is explained by the operations of the Yin and Yang .

The Yin and Yang wax and wane and follow fixed circuits which take them through all the four directions. When the Yang first waxes, it moves to assist Wood in the east, and then there comes spring. As it grows in strength, it moves to the south where is assists Fire, and then there comes summer. But according to the universal law of “reversal” as maintained by the Lao-tzu and the Yi “Appendices,” growth must be followed by decay. Hence the Yang , having reached its extreme height, begins to wane, while at the same time the Yin begins to wax in turn. The Yin , as it does this, moves east to assist Metal, and then there comes autumn. As it gains more strength, it moves north to assist Water, and then there comes winter. But having there reached its climax, it begins to wane, while at the same time the Yang starts a new cycle of growth.

Thus the changes of the four seasons result form the waxing and waning movements of the Yin and Yang , and their succession and waning movements of the Yin and Yang , and their succession is really a succession of the Yin and Yang . Tung Chung-shu says:

The constant principle of the universe is the succession of the Yin and Yang . The Yang is Heaven's beneficent force, while the Yin is its chastising force….In the course of Heaven, there are three seasons [spring, summer, and autumn] of formation and growth, and one season [winter] of mourning and death.

This shows, according to Tung, that “Heaven has trust in the Yang but not in the Yin ; it likes beneficence but not chastisement.” It also shows that “Heaven has its own feelings of joy and anger, and a mind which experiences sadness and pleasure, analogous to those of man. Thus if a grouping is made according to kind, Heaven and man are one.”

Man, therefore, both in his physiological and mental aspects, is a replica or duplicate of Heaven. As such, he is far superior to all other things of the world. Man, Heaven, and Earth are “the origins of all things.” Heaven gives them birth, Earth gives them nourishment, and man gives them perfection.” As to how man accomplishes this perfection, Tung says that it is done through Li (ritual) and Yueh (music), that is to say, through civilization and culture. If there were no civilization and culture, the world would be like an unfinished work, and the universe itself would suffer imperfection. Thus of Heaven, Earth, and man, he says: “These there are related to each other like the hands and feet; united they give the finished physical form, so that no one of them may be dispensed with.”

(Fung Yu-lan. 1991. Selected Philosophical Writings of Fung Yu-lan . Beijing : Foreign Language Press.

①Mencius , Ia , 6.

②Chun-chiu Fan-lu , Ch. 81.

③Id . , Ch. 81.

④Id . , Ch. 42.

⑤Id . , Ch. 42.

⑥ Not west, though west is the direction for autumn. The season for this is, according to Tung, that “Heaven has trust in the Yang , but not in the Yin .”

⑦Chun-chiu Fan-lu , Ch. 49.

⑧Id . , Ch. 47.

⑨Id . , Ch. 49.

⑩Id . , Ch. 41.

⑾Id . , Ch. 19.

⑿Ibid .