Wang Tong

A Chinese thinker from the Sui dynasty. His pen name was Zhongyan. He was born in Longmen, Jiangzhou (Hejin County, Shanxi Province). At the age of 20, he submitted a proposal for the Taiping Strategy to Emperor Wen of Sui (Yang Jian), but was not accepted. After that, he devoted himself to writing and teaching in his hometown. He had over 1,000 students, including famous ministers of the early Tang dynasty such as Li Jing, Fang Xuanling, and Wei Zheng. He died at the age of 32, and his students were given the posthumous name Wen Zhongzi. The early Tang poet Wang Bo was his grandson. He respected the Confucian idea of ​​governing the world and governing the people more than the doctrines of Shakyamuni (Buddhism and Taoism) which sought personal welfare and transcended the worldly world, and created his own "Six Classics" by adding to the Confucian classics (Book of Changes, Calligraphy, Poetry, Rites, Music, and Spring and Autumn Annals).Of these, the "Yuan Jing," which was modeled after the "Spring and Autumn Annals," is still known today.

The 10 volumes of the extant "Zhongshuo" were collected by Xue Shang (592-624) and Yao Yi from dialogues between disciples, with annotations by Ruan Yi of the Northern Song Dynasty, but contain misinterpretations and exaggerations that have led to suspicions of forgery. He rejected the scholasticism of the commentaries on scriptures of the time and sought common principles among the scriptures in the "Zhong", aspired to the revival of a unified national system with the Han Empire as its ideal, and advocated a historical treatise in the style of Liu Zhiji, as well as a literary treatise that valued simple language over ornamentation in the four-six style (a four-character or six-character phrase-based four-character phrase-based couplet style).

[Yoshiro Togawa January 19, 2016]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

中国、隋(ずい)の思想家。字(あざな)は仲淹(ちゅうえん)。絳州(こうしゅう)竜門(りゅうもん)（山西省河津(かしん)県）の出身。20歳のとき隋の文帝（楊堅）に「太平策」を上奏して採用されず、以後は郷里で著述と教授に専念した。その門下は1000人を超え、唐初の名臣李靖(りせい)、房玄齢(ぼうげんれい)、魏徴(ぎちょう)などが出た。32歳で死没し、門人は文中子(ぶんちゅうし)と諡(おくりな)した。初唐詩人の王勃(おうぼつ)はその孫。個人の福利追求や出世間を願う釈老（仏教・道教）の教理よりも儒教のもつ経世治民の思想を尊び、儒家経典（易・書・詩・礼・楽・春秋）を続増した自らの「六経(りくけい)」をつくりあげ、うち『春秋(しゅんじゅう)』に擬した『元経(げんけい)』が伝わる。

　現存の『中説』10巻は、門人との対話を薛収(せつしゅう)（592―624）・姚義(ようぎ)が集録したものに、北宋(ほくそう)の阮逸(げんいつ)が注を付したが、偽作の疑いをもたれた誤伝や誇張を含んでいる。当時の義疏(ぎしょ)（経典の解説書(コメンタール)）が陥った煩瑣(スコラ)性を排して経典の共通原理を「中」に求め、漢帝国を理想とする統一国家体制の復活を願望し、また劉知幾(りゅうちき)にも通ずる史論と、四六文(しろくぶん)（四字句、六字句を基本として対句を用いた四六駢儷(べんれい)体）の文飾よりも簡約な文辞を尊ぶ文論を唱えた。

［戸川芳郎　2016年1月19日］

出典　小学館　日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)について　情報 | 凡例