Legal Discourse and Explanations (Volume 1 and 2)

Author: Wang Rongbao
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1987-03-22
Features: Fayan is one of the representative philosophical works of Yang Xiong (53 BC–18 AD). The Biography of Yang Xiong in the Book of Han states in his preface that he saw how the various schools of thought pursued their knowledge in conflicting ways, mostly mocking and attacking the sages, resorting to strange and convoluted arguments and sophistries to disrupt the affairs of the world. Even minor debates ultimately broke the great principles and misled the masses, causing them to drown in their own knowledge without realizing their errors. As for Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian, which covers the six states, the Chu-Han period, and concludes with the Year of the Qilin, it often differed from the sages' judgments and was somewhat at odds with the classics. Therefore, when people asked Yang Xiong, he would often respond with Fayan, which he compiled into thirteen volumes, modeled after the Analects, and titled Fayan. This shows that the main purpose of this book was to defend and promote Confucianism. However, at the same time, he also criticized the religious superstitions of the time, such as the theory of divine-human interaction and the identification of ghosts and gods, to some extent based on materialist viewpoints. He was highly praised by the contemporary materialist thinker Huan Tan and had a significant influence on Wang Chong, an outstanding materialist philosopher of the Eastern Han Dynasty. It should be affirmed that Fayan holds a certain position in the history of the development of ancient Chinese materialism and is a crucial and indispensable book for those studying this topic.