Fou Xuan Ping Zhuan -- Chinese Thinkers' Biographies Series

Author: Wei Ming'an, Zhao Yiwu
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1996-03-01
Features: This book conducts an in-depth and meticulous examination of the family background, life, and works of Fu Xuan, a thinker and litterateur during the Wei-Jin period. It provides a serious analysis of his ideological perspectives and literary achievements, arriving at novel conclusions about understanding people and their times. As a thinker, Fu Xuan was a political commentator and ethicist, not a philosopher. His representative work, Fu Zi: Inner Chapters, discusses the "techniques of governing the people" and serves the political reality of Sima Shi's establishment of the Jin dynasty in place of Wei, belonging to the category of "miscellaneous works." As a litterateur, Fu Xuan's main achievements were achieved during the Wei period, and he was not among the writers of the Western Jin Taikang era. The opinions on Xuanxue (Neo-Daoism) and other academic insights in Fu Zi are also worth attention. The book also provides a specific analysis and explanation of the phenomenon where a large amount of Fu Zi text is mixed into Yang Quan's Wuli Lun, and distinguishes and identifies them. Yang Quan was an astronomer and philosopher, with thoughts different from Fu Xuan. Based on the existing scattered materials, the book reconstructs Yang Quan's life and argues for his ideology, offering novel insights.