Zhuang Cunyu (莊存與, 1719–1788) was a Chinese intellectual, and a representative of the
Changzhou School of Thought, an important proponent of the
New Text Confucianism
New Text Confucianism () is a school of thought in Confucianism that was based on Confucian classics recompiled in the early Han dynasty by Confucians who survived the burning of books and burying of scholars during the Qin dynasty. The survivors ...
. ''Jinshi'' degree holder (1745), secretary to the
Qianlong Emperor.
Background
Zhuang lineage traced itself from the N.Song refugees who had moved south being pressed by the
Jurchen invasion. During the Ming dynasty, Zhuangs grew up tp become an influential local elite sympathizing with the
Donglin movement (however not recorded as its direct participants). Though some members retired from public life during the Ming-Qing transition, the lineage continued to prosper and produced an outstanding amount of the ''jinshi'' degree holders: 29 during the whole timespan of the Qing (after producing 6 during the Ming). Father (Zhuang Zhu) and uncle (Zhuang Kai) of Cunyu were
Hanlin academicians. As reported by Dai Wang in "Yanshi xueji", Cunyu's father was influenced by the practical teaching of
Yan Yuan 颜元 (1635-1704).
In the 1750s the lineage was well established politically: Zhuang Yugong was the governor of Suzhou, while Cunyu became a member of the
Grand Secretariat
The Grand Secretariat (; Manchu: ''dorgi yamun'') was nominally a coordinating agency but ''de facto'' the highest institution in the imperial government of the Chinese Ming dynasty. It first took shape after the Hongwu Emperor abolished the o ...
in the capital. Such educational success was bound to the private lineage school of Zhuangs, the Dongpo Academy (named after
Su Shi
Su Shi (; 8 January 1037 – 24 August 1101), courtesy name Zizhan (), art name Dongpo (), was a Chinese calligrapher, essayist, gastronomer, pharmacologist, poet, politician, and travel writer during the Song dynasty. A major personality of ...
).
For generations, Zhuangs stood in the intermarriage with another powerful lineage of the region, the Lius.
Activity and main concepts
Zhuang Cunyu became the major voice in the practical scholarship of the Zhuang lineage. Cunyu continued the tradition of Zhuangs by studying astronomy, medicine, geography, water conservation, water control, legal statutes, and mathematical calculation methods. Unlike proponents of the
Han learning
Han learning (), or the Han school of classical philology, was an intellectual movement that reached its height in the middle of the Qing dynasty (1644–1912) in China. The focus of the movement was to reject neo-Confucianism in order to return ...
, Cunyu was never interested in philology per se. For him, it was always only a means for the political goal.
Cunyu supported use of the Old Text ''Shujing'' despite some of its chapters being held as philologically suspicious: in his view, they were essential for social and political order.
He also advocated reform against cheating at the imperial examinations, not only among the Chinese, but also inside the bannermen section. Despite censorial criticism, his position was supported by Qianlong himself.
Over the clash with rising power of
Heshen
Heshen (; ; 1 July 1750 – 22 February 1799) of the Manchu Niohuru clan, was an official of the Qing dynasty favored by the Qianlong Emperor and called the most corrupt official in Chinese history. After the death of Qianlong, the Jiaqing ...
(1746-1799), Cunyu left the court (1786) and committed himself to textual studies that would not be known until the 1820s.
In the ''Chunqiu zhengci'' (Correcting terms in the Spring and Autumn Annals), Zhuang used interpretation of ''
Gongyang zhuan
The ''Gongyang Zhuan'' (), also known as the ''Gongyang Commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals'' or the ''Commentary of Gongyang'', is a commentary on the ''Spring and Autumn Annals'', and is thus one of the Chinese classics. Along with the '' ...
'' for the veiled attack on state-protected profiteering: "Yes! Yes! The position of ruler is what licentious men use to gain the upper hand. Therefore, the ''Annals'', with regard to a time when secret dealings determine life and death, tried mightily to prevent such
surpations of power"
In the ''Xu gua zhuan lun'', a treatise on the
Yijing
The ''I Ching'' or ''Yi Jing'' (, ), usually translated ''Book of Changes'' or ''Classic of Changes'', is an ancient Chinese divination text that is among the oldest of the Chinese classics. Originally a divination manual in the Western Zho ...
, Cunyu makes his stance against Buddho-Taoist negative categories (in polemics with
Zhu Xi
Zhu Xi (; ; October 18, 1130 – April 23, 1200), formerly romanized Chu Hsi, was a Chinese calligrapher, historian, philosopher, poet, and politician during the Song dynasty. Zhu was influential in the development of Neo-Confucianism. He con ...
's distinction of "before Heaven"/a priori and "after Heaven"/a posteriori): "First there was Heaven and earth. Then the myriad things were born within. The sage speaks of being. He does not mention non-being."
Students
* Zhuang Shuzu (cousin, son of Zhuang Peiyin), philologist, "one of the leading voices in the ''
kaozheng Kaozheng (; "search for evidence"), alternatively called ''kaoju xue'' (; "evidential scholarship") and Qian–Jia School (), was a school and approach to study and research in the Qing dynasty of China from about 1600 to 1850. It was most prominent ...
'' research".
* Kong Guangsen, a descendant of Confucius (better known during Zhuang Cunyu's lifetime than Cunyu himself)
Offspring
* Zhuang Taikong, daughter: mother of
**
Liu Fenglu
/ ( or ) is an East Asian surname. pinyin: in Mandarin Chinese, in Cantonese. It is the family name of the Han dynasty emperors. The character originally meant 'kill', but is now used only as a surname. It is listed 252nd in the classic text ...
, Zhuang Cunyu's disciple, the most powerful proponent of the Qing New Text movement, she was also the mother of Che Fook, who would marry the granddaughter of Prince
Yuntao
Aisin Gioro Yuntao (; 18 January 1686 - 1 September 1763) was a Qing dynasty imperial prince and the 12th son of the Kangxi Emperor. Yuntao was rather a crony of the Yongzheng Emperor and his adoptive brother, which helped him persist in the succ ...
via Mianling of the
Fuca clan.
* Zhuang Panchu, second daughter: the best known female poet of the 18 c. Jiangnan.
[Elman, 57] Her mother is non other than Feng Wanyi the poet, who had an affair with Zhaung.
His Fook descendants became merchants and gardeners and moved to Australia in the late 19th century to avoid persecution for their beliefs. They changed their name to Ying which would later be changed again to Yeing.
Che Fook was his grandson and was a notable of his time, having descended from the greatest Chinese Emperor Xianji, he also had descent from many ancient scholars and warriors and became the first Chinese merchant to settle south australia
References
Literature
* Elman, Benjamin A. ''Classicism, politics, and kingship: the Chang-chou school of New Text Confucianism in late imperial China''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990
*
{{Authority control
1719 births
1788 deaths
Chinese Confucianists
Qing dynasty classicists
Writers from Changzhou
Philosophers from Jiangsu
Qing dynasty politicians from Jiangsu
Politicians from Changzhou
18th-century Chinese philosophers