victory which lay within their reach. The pattern of opposition was repeated
three times. Typically opposition starts off when a partisan political struggle
becomes entwined with an intellectual issue. The first round of creativity
crystallized against the Wang An-shih economic reforms and their aftermath.
The resolution of the political conflict eventually de-energized the intellectual
creativity. The ban on the Ch’eng brothers’ writings, imposed intermittently
early in the 1100s, was lifted in 1155 as the Southern Sung government
abandoned efforts at structural reform.
The second wave of Neo-Confucian creativity was connected to a new
partisan issue, military policy toward the Jürchen state in the north. Chu Hsi
and his father (an important government official) were in a faction that
favored military reconquest of the north against dominant government policy
that was pacifist out of fear of losing civilian control. Chu Hsi several times
rose to high position, including vice minister of the army, but was repeatedly
demoted and dismissed for his attacks on other officials. Chu Hsi’s teachings
were banned in 1196 because of his political subversiveness. By 1237 the issue
of northern reconquest was moot, for the Mongols had taken the north and
were pressing the attack on the south. Neo-Confucianism was adopted as
official state doctrine; henceforth examinations were based on Chu Hsi’s edi-
tions of and commentaries on the classics. The downfall of the Southern Sung
to the Mongols in 1279 temporarily eliminated this privileged position; but
when the examination system was reinstituted in 1313, Neo-Confucianism of
the Ch’eng-Chu school again became official. The Ch’eng brothers, Chou
Tun-I, Chang Tsai, and other Sung Neo-Confucians were awarded state sac-
rifices in Confucian temples (Chan, 1970: 43); the religious radicalism bor-
rowed from the Buddhists had been absorbed back into the official cult.
Thereafter the Neo-Confucians remained ritually and intellectually dominant
for almost 20 generations, down to the abolition of the Confucian examina-
tions in 1905. After Chu Hsi’s death, there were no notable philosophers for
300 years.
The third wave of creativity again follows the pattern: political factionalism
connected with a movement of intellectuals dissatisfied with the pressures of
the examination system; the philosophical doctrine taking the form of a relig-
ious syncretism put forward as a new cultural standard for choosing officials.
The last great philosopher, Wang Yang-ming (Wang Shou-jen, 1472–1529),
represents a split in what had now become the Neo-Confucian orthodoxy of
the Ch’eng-Chu school (see Figure 6.5). Politically, Wang Yang-ming was
involved in factional disputes, taking the rather typical stance of a Confucian
official against the power of court eunuchs, and also advocating decentraliza-
tion of military commands, thereby raising fears at court over losing civilian
control (Tu, 1976). His career fluctuated between political and military tri-314 • (^) Intellectual Communities: Asian Paths