The Recluse of Loyang: Shao Yung and the Moral Evolution of Early Sung Thought (review)

292 China Review International: Vol. 6, No. i, Spring 1999 Don J. Wyatt. The Recluse ofLoyang: Shao Yungand the Moral Evolution of Early Sung Thought. Honolulu: University ofHawai'i Press, 1996. xii, 340 pp. Hardcover $42.00, isbn 0-8248-1755-9. This is a study of the life and thought of Shao Yung, a Northern Sung thinker. Through this study, Don J. Wyatt attempts to broaden our understanding ofChinese thought in the Northern Sung by presenting Shao Yung's thought in particular as a form ofparallel "evolution" in moral thinking that was different from that ofwell-known figures like the Ch'eng brothers and Chang Tsai. Wyatt's book offers a wealth ofinformation on the personal interaction between Shao and many of the other renowned thinkers of the Sung. He is to be commended for his extensive use ofShao's poems in reconstructing Shao's emotional and intellectual life, underscoring the strong interest Shao had in writing poetry. The use ofpoems to reconstruct Shao's preoccupation with or fear of death in his last years is particularly impressive (pp. 210-218). Wyatt presents a revisionist thesis, arguing that Shao Yung's thought should not be understood in Western phÜosophical terms that posit a separation of metaphysics from morality. The current view is that Shao's thought lacks moral concern. Wyatt takes Anne Birdwhistell to task in particular for her characterization ofShao's thought as an "all-encompassing system ofexplanation" (pp. 5-6). Wyatt seeks not only to elucidate "die life ofa moral tiiinker" (p. 9) but also "to demonstrate that a preoccupation witii the moral was not merely among Shao's concerns but, in fact, at their very center" (p. 6). What Wyatt sets out to accomplish is the ambitious task ofchallenging a wide array of scholars of Chinese thought, including Fung Yu-lan, Carsun Chang, Michael Freeman, and Anne Birdwhistell. Let us consider the main argument ofWyatt's study—that Shao Yung was a moralist and that there is a substantial moral component to his thought. This thesis can be examined by asking two separate questions. First, is morality an important part ofShao Yung's philosophical endeavor? Second, is there evidence of an ethics articulated in concepts commonly used by leading thinkers in the Northern Sung like the Ch'eng brothers and Chang Tsai? Ifnot, we should look for the distinctive concepts Shao chose in order to convey his moral thought. In response to the first question, there is no discussion of any debate between the Ch'eng brothers and Shao over issues pertaining to such things as human© 1999 by University nature, innate goodness, the role ofthe mind-and-heart in moral cultivation ofHawai'i Press(hsiu-sheng), the problem ofhuman desire, or the methods for cultivating one's emotions and conduct. There is only one reference to the term hsiu-shengin Wyatt's index. But this does not mean the failure to compile a good index; it is, in Reviews 293 fact, an accurate indication ofhow little either Shao or Wyatt addresses the issue ofmoral cultivation, which was central to the moral thought ofthe Northern Sung. Shao makes only one passing reference to t'ien-li andjen-yu in die "Outer Chapter" ofthe Huang-chi ching-shih shu (Chung-kuo tzu-hsüeh ming-chu chich 'eng, vol. 93, p. 381). IfShao was not interested in die tao-hsüeh tiiinkers' approach to moral cultivation and its related issues like human nature and moral development, one would expect to find a discussion of the specific moral issues about which Shao had written. In answer to the second question, when Wyatt discusses Shao's view ofthe mind, diere is little reference to how the mind functions with regard to moral cultivation or to other issues related to etiiics. Even ifwe agree with Wyatt that Shao did not draw a line between the metaphysical and the moral, one would expect to know what moral issues Shao was interested in and how they were related to his metaphysics. Wyatt argues that it is the "omniperspectival vision" ofthe sage that distinguishes Shao from his contemporaries—but the moral perfection of sages is hardly seen in either Shao's writing...