Zou Yan

Date of birth and death unknown. A Chinese thinker during the Warring States period. The founder of the Yin-Yang and Five Elements school. Also written as Suen. A native of Linzi (Shandong Province) in Qi, he lived slightly later than Mencius and around the same time as Gongsun Long. According to the "Biography of Mencius Xunqing" in the "Records of the Grand Historian," after gaining fame in his native Qi, he went to Liang and Yan, where he was treated well, and is said to have written "The Great Sage's Chapter: Ten Thousand Words" and "Zhuyun." The "Arts and Literature Journal" in the "Book of Han" records 49 chapters of "Zouzi" and 56 chapters of "Zouzi's End," but they are no longer available. He believed that the history of the rise and fall from the Yellow Emperor to the present day unfolded according to the principle of the five elements of earth, wood, metal, fire, and water (the five elements are mutually victorious (mutually defeated (sokoku), or the five virtues are the beginning and end), and attempted to predict the future. He also advocated the Great Kyushu theory, which states that China at that time was a small state called Chixian Shenzhou, which was only 1/81 of the entire world.

[Shohachi Nakamura December 14, 2015]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

生没年不詳。中国、戦国期の思想家。陰陽(いんよう)五行家の祖。騶衍(すうえん)とも書く。斉(せい)の臨淄(りんし)（山東省）の人で、孟子(もうし)よりややあと、公孫竜(こうそんりゅう)と同じころの人。『史記』の「孟子荀卿(もうしじゅんけい)列伝」によると、故国の斉で名声を得たのち梁(りょう)、燕(えん)に行き好遇され、「終始大聖の篇(へん)十余万言」や『主運』を著したとされる。『漢書(かんじょ)』の「芸文志(げいもんし)」には『鄒子(すうし)』49篇、『鄒子終始』56篇が著録されているが、いまは伝わらない。彼は、最古の黄帝(こうてい)から当代に至るまでの興亡の歴史が土、木、金、火、水という五行相勝(そうしょう)（相剋(そうこく)、または五徳終始）の原理によって展開したと考え、未来を予見しようとした。また、当時の中国は赤県神州という小さな州であり、全世界の81分の1にすぎないとする大九州説を唱えた。

［中村璋八　2015年12月14日］

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