Yang Xiong (author)
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| Yang Xiong | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Traditional Chinese | 揚雄 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 扬雄 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Yang Xiong (Chinese: 揚雄; 53 BCE – 18 CE), courtesy name Ziyun (子雲), was a Chinese philosopher, poet, linguist and politician of the Western Han dynasty known for his philosophical writings and fu poetry compositions.
Together with Sima Xiangru, Yang was one of the most famous and illustrious figures of the entire Han dynasty. The Book of Han devotes a full two-part chapter to both Yang and Sima, an honor surpassing that of even the most famous generals and ministers.[1]
Yang's most famous work is the Fayan, a philosophical work modeled on the Analects, in which Yang criticizes fu writers for focusing on ornate, esoteric language while ignoring more important issues of morality. Yang's other works include the Taixuanjing, a divination text based on the I Ching, "Justification Against Ridicule" (解嘲; Jiě cháo), one of the best known examples of the "fu of frustration" subgenre, and the Fangyan, a dictionary documenting regional vocabulary from throughout China at the time.[2]
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Hanshu contents
Knechtges divided the Hanshu's Yang Xiong biography as consisting of two elements, being lengthy "autobiographical" excerpts, and added commentaries by Ban Gu, the Hanshu's author, including introductory commentary on his personality and character and an appraisal of him at the end.[3] It follows the format of other dynastic history biographies, with Knechtges considering the included autobiographical content "potentially more reliable".[4]
The larger part of the biography includes and discusses poetry and rhapsody, including seven of Yang Xiong's fu and essays, critique of the fu genre, and introductions to poems, including their dating, purpose and circumstances of composition. The biography otherwise includes an introductory genealogy, a personal outline of his cosmological Taixuanjing work, and personal chapter summaries of his famous philosophical work the Fayan.[5]
Seven of Yang Xiong's fu poems or rhapsodies and essays make up the largest portion of the biography. Of the seven, three essays not named as rhapsodies are still composed much like rhapsodies. Knechtges translates the seven as Refuting Sorrow, Sweet Springs Palace Rhapsody, Hedong Rhapsody, Barricade Hunt Rhapsody, Tall Poplars Palace Rhapsody, Justification Against Ridicule, and Justification Against Objection.[6]
Philosophy
Yang did not believe human nature was inherently good as Mencius (fl. 4th century BCE) had written, nor inherently bad as Xunzi (c. 300–230 BCE) had written, but came into existence as a mixture of both. He was a close associate of the official and philosopher Huan Tan (d. 28 CE), an Old Texts realist who may have heavily influenced the works of Wang Chong (27–c. 100 CE). He was hailed by Huan Tan as the "Confucius from the western parts".
Yang is also known for his protest against the verbosity of fu poetry. Although fu "stimululated writing as a craft", the Confucian propriety of fu's form was earlier questioned by Emperor Xuan of Han.[7]
