The Sociology of Philosophies

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