Confucianism and the Literati in the Yuan Dynasty

The literature of the Yuan Dynasty is characterized by the combination of scholars and literati, and the harmony of Confucianism and literature. Wu Shidao, a representative of those scholarly literary men, has been neglected in the previous study of him. His book Remarks on Poetry of Wu Libu well represents the characteristics of the interaction of Neo-Confucianism and literature on the theory of poetry. Its main contents are as follows:(1) Emphasizing the orthodox tradition of Jurisprudence and supporting the standard style of poetry. This represented the main trend of Wu Shidao’s age. (2)Sponsoring national integrity, praising the heroes who were against the Jin Dynasty. This view was in accordance with Wu’s ideas and status as a Confucian scholar and it embodied what literary men of ″Wu Xue″ emphasized: The author’s personality should correspond to his writing style and Jurisprudence should be mingled with literature. (3)Summarizing the remarks on the poetry of the Tang and Song Dynasties, insisting on learning from the ancient people and their rich minds. Although the book Remarks on Poetry of Wu Libu highly praises the excellent poems and remarks on poetry written in the Tang, Song and other dynasties, Wu Shi-dao never showed obvious inclination in either ″Tang worship″ or ″Song worship″. There were lots of those who like Wu Shidao insisted on laying equal stress on both Confucianism and literature in his period. Xu Heng, Liu Yin, Wu Chengdu, three great Confucianists, were well-known for their literature in the early Yuan Dynasty, while Yu Ji, Yang Zai, Fan Heng and Jie Xisi, four great poets in Yuan Dynasty, were also famous Confucianists. They represented the historic trends of the academy, not separately but commonly concerned. The reasons for this were as follows: Firstly, for the governors’ political purpose. On one hand, literature policies in the Yuan Dynasty advocated pragmatism. The governors, though having received orthodox Confucianism, would rather have those flattering literati than those ambitious thinkers so that those scholastic Confucianists were not popular. On the other hand, the literary men then began to review the consequences of neglecting literary and artistic creation during the Song Dynasty. Secondly, Zhu Xi’s Confucianism, representing its top academy and inherited by most of the scholars in the Yuan Dynasty, could put up with literature. The popularity of Zhu Xi is led to the emphasis on both morality and literature, and on both ″scholar essence″ and ″flourishing literature″, and this also led to the intercross of Confucianism and literature. Thirdly, the comparatively free exchange of academy broke through the territorial barriers because of the unification of China. During the confrontation between the Song Dynasty and Jin Dynasty, different local accents blocked the exchange of teaching. Since the unification of the Yuan Dynast, territorial barriers were smashed so that lots of southern scholars went to study in the big cities in the north while numerous northern scholars were assigned to be officials in the south. The above reasons led to a reform of the academic climate through the intercross of miscellaneous schools and the adoption of various teachers, among whom were the outstanding representatives, such as Yu Ji, ″the greatest literature master″; Liu Guan, an important figure of ″Jinhua School″, and Song Lian, ″the leader of literature″ in late Yuan Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty.