Historical Studies (Chinese Edition)

No.4, 2017

 

A Study of Changes in the Designation of the Confucian “Second Sage”: A Study of the Interaction of Politics and Neo-Confucian Orthodoxy in the Song and Yuan Dynasties

(Abstract)

 

Zhao Yu

 

The Confucian title of “Second Sage” (yasheng) at first designated Yan Zi, but later referred to Mencius. The details of this change are more complex than is generally known. In middle antiquity, Yan Zi had long been known both at court and among the common people as the Confucian “Second Sage.” In the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty Xifeng reign period, new policies were launched, and it was at this time that Yan Zi and Mencius began to be mentioned alongside Confucius. However, because of the influence of the belief in “five sages,” Mencius was listed below Yan Zi, and generally known as “next to the Second Sage.” During the confrontation between the Song and Jin dynasties, two “Second Sages” coexisted in both the north and the south, showing that the juxtaposition of Yan Zi and Mencius had become common parlance and that orthodox Neo-Confucian teachings had been initially established. An edict issued in the sixth year of the Shaoxing reign period by Song Emperor Gaozong, together with Zhu Xi’s Four Books, built an orthodox discourse in which the status and influence of Mencius gradually superseded that of Yan Zi. When the Song Emperor Lizong brought together the orthodox teachings of the court and those of the common people in the officially published “Thirteen Eulogies of Orthodox Teachings” (Daotong shisan zan), Mencius was for the first time the sole Second Sage. As Neo-Confucianism spread to the north, Yuan Emperor Wenzong formally gave Mencius the title of Second Sage (yasheng gong), and changed Yan Hui’s title to Restored Sage (fusheng gong). The twists and turns in the shift of the Confucian designation of “Second Sage” from Yan Zi to Mencius illuminate the emergence of Neo-Confucian orthodoxy in the Song and Yuan dynasties and the consolidation of its interaction with the political system.