The Sociology of Philosophies

(Wang) #1
lost their opposing anchors—the court religions—when the Han fell; now their
scholarship was turned loose in free space. It soon developed its internal
oppositions.
The “Pure Conversation school” turned toward an elitist, aesthetic hedon-
ism, specializing in witty repartee, paradoxical sayings, wine drinking, sexual

FIGURE 4.4. LATER HAN DYNASTY DISINTEGRATION AND THE
DARK LEARNING, 100–300 C.E.

170 •^ Intellectual Communities: Asian Paths

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