Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy——On the significance of the distinction between sound and music in pure conversation during the Wei-Jin Period

Distinction between meaning and language was the main approach of thinking in Neo-Taosim during the Wei and Jin periods. Wang Bi proposed a principle which emphasized the insufficiency to define being with being. It is the basic approach adopted by Neo-Taoism in challenging the orthodox Confucianism. In his essay, Sounds Carry no Sadness or Happiness , Ji Kang adopted the approach to analyze the process in which the Confucian music doctrine was established by the political rulers. He exposed the absurdity of the process, thus toppling the fundamental principles of the doctrine. That essay can be regarded as the proclamation of independence for literature and art criticism in an era of self-consciousness. However, this critical approach has been taken as a school of heterodoxy for many years in the Chinese literary history.