- The Canons refute positions of all the rival schools, including the Five Agents of
Tsou Yen, but do not mention doctrines of the Tao Te Ching or the Legalists
(Graham, 1978: 61). This implies a date before Han Fei Tzu popularized legalism,
but at least contemporary with Tsou Yen. - Empedocles had four elements (fire, water, earth, air) ordered by opposing princi-
ples of strife and love. It is generally agreed that wu hsing should be rendered not
as “five elements” but as “five processes” or “five agents”; hsing is “walk” or
“move” with the connotation “put into effect” (Knoblock, 1988: 216–217). Major
(1976) proposes “five phases.” But three of the five (wood, metal, earth) are
concrete substances, conceivable as processes only under interpretations imposed
later. - These comprised the Odes, Documents, Rites, Changes (Yi Ching), and Spring and
Autumn Annals. This culminated a struggle over precedence among a wide range
of earlier texts, each supported by their own specialists. - During the T’ang, relatives of the imperial house were executed or impeached for
consulting diviners (CHC, 1979: 334, 379–381; Fung, 1952–53: 16; Woo, 1932). - It is notable that the word yi (change), and the cosmological opposites yin and
yang appear for the first time in this Appendix rather than in the original divination
texts or the earlier Appendices commenting on the interpretation of particular
hexagrams (Legge, [1899] 1963: 38, 43). The argument is not very abstract; overall
the tone is more one of worldly advice than of cosmological system. The text of
the third Appendix “makes plain the nature of anxieties and calamities, and the
causes of them” (Legge, [1899] 1963: 399), extols the superior man, and sprinkles
references to ancient sage-kings who were allegedly inspired in their technological
inventions by the hexagrams. This is another indication that this Appendix dates
from the time of the burning of the books, when works on technology and other
practical lore remained in favor. - The Han dynasty produced considerable work in science and mathematics, al-
though generally in other branches of the official bureaucracy than the Confucians
(Needham, 1959: 19–30, 199–200, 216–219; Mikami, 1913; Sivin, 1969). - In 37 c.e. the descendants of Confucius were ennobled, and in 59 annual sacrifices
to Confucius were instituted at all schools. Wang Ch’ung wrote soon after. - Recall that in the comparative analysis of networks in Chapter 2, Wang Ch’ung is
one of the most unusual figures in all of the world history of philosophy: an
individual of at least secondary importance in the long-term attention space who
has no contemporary rivals of equal eminence, and who is not only a horizontal
but also a vertical isolate from chains of historically significant intellectuals. - We find a similar situation in Japan during the Sengoku period, the “country at
war” (1470–1580). Vociferous public debates took place among the rival branches
of Pure Land Buddhism, but these generations are devoid of intellectual innovation.
At this time the monasteries were major political powers, and their debates were
an immediate part of the struggle for public prestige and military alliance. - The Chuang Tzu (chap. 6) speaks rhapsodically about death as a natural and even
desirable process. - Members of the “Five Pecks of Grain” movement, a health cult for the peasantry,
960 •^ Notes to Pages 151–167