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The First Neo-Conlucianism: an Introduction to Yang Hsiung's 'Canon 01 Supreme Mystery' (T'ai hsuan ching, c.4 B.C.) 此，fichael Nylan and Nathan Sivin Confucius, Mencius, and Hsun-tzu were humanists, in the sense that they believed the conditions of the good life were to be met within human society. The relation of the individual to the gods or to the cosmos was not a comparably urgent problem. By 100 B.C. the first stable Chinese empire was supporting its claims to legitimacy with a Confucianism that, by a process not at all self-evident, had come to give the relation of man and Nature a place as conspicuous as that of man and man. The new syntheses of beliefs prevalent among leading thinkers can only be described as the first Neo-Confucianism. Their systems drew on every contemporary current of thought, and wove them together so ineχtricably that it makes no sense to speak of 'Taoists' or 'Legalists' as distinct groups after that time. In these attempts at orthodoxy a single underlying pattem governed order1y change in Nature, in the realm of social and political relationships, and in individual eχperience. Self-cultivation aimed to encompass all three of these spheres. Its means remained above all the guidance of the classics, and its goal was sagehood. Only the power of sagely example could overcome social disorder and create a stable field for individual relationships. The monarch, as holder of the mandate bestowed by the natural order, was entitled to the dignity of a sage. It was the task of his advisors to guide and maintain him in sagehood; such was the rationale of this state-centered Neo-Confucianism. A major influence on this integration of cosmic and humanistic Confucianism was the 'Great Commentary' to the Book of Changes (Chou yi, 'Hsi tz'u ta chuan' 周易繫辭大傳)， which probably predated the Han. It brought to bear on the problem of timely conscientious action not only emulation of the sag的 but numerology and yin-yang cycles. These themes were shaped by Tung Chung-shu 董仲舒 (c. 179 - c. 104 B.C.) into a 41 Michael Nylan and Nathan Sivin theory of monarchical order justified by its resonance with the order of Nature. This theory provided symbolic and ideological underpinnings for the book that completed the elaboration of yin-yang and Five Phases theory, the Inner Canon of the Yellow Lord (Huang ti nei ching 黃帝內經 F probably first century B.C.) The culmination of Han Neo-Confucianism may be seen in Yang Hsiung's 揚雄 (53 B.C. - A.D. 18) long-neglected 'Canon of Supreme Mystery' (T'ai hsuan ching 太玄經)， which embodied in sensuous language and tightly articulated structure an ideal scheme of cyclic change in the realms of heaven, earth, and man. This essay outlines the circumstances and motivations that created the Canon of Supreme Mystery. It describes the relations of the book's images and ideas, which until the thirteenth century were considered central to the orthodoχsearch for universal pattern, and thereafter largely forgotten. The genesis and original character of the Book of Changes (Chou yi 周易 or Yi ching 易經) remain enigmas despite more than two millennia of intense and unceasing study. By the first century B.C. it had become not only a Confucian canon but an infallible guide to foresight and selfdiscovery . Yang Hsiung's Canon of Supreme Mystery was neither the first nor the last book meant to remedy inconsistencies in its arrangement and incorporate current ideas about the cosmic order, the sagely life, and the beauty and precision that can be drawn from words. 1 The eclipse of Yang's reputation when historians associated it with that of the usurper Wang Mang 王莽 (r. 9-23) has left the Canon of Supreme Mystery in relative obscurity. The book is a remarkable contribution to the tradition of the Changes, both as philosophy and as literature. 42 For reference to literature on the Book of Changes see Hellmut \-句ilhelm， The Book of Changes in the Western Tradition. A Selective Bibliography Parerga, 2; Seattle, 1975). Later books in the Chou yi tradition are listed (intermixed with treaties on divination) in ch. 108-110 of Ssu k'u ch'üan shu tsung mu t'i yao 四庫全書 總目提要， and discussion with special reference to the T'ai hsuan ching in Suzuki Yoshijiro 持木由次郎 , Taigeneki no kenkyii 太玄易的研究 (Tokyo, 1964), pp. 26-41. Suzuki provides a complete Japanese translation of the Mystery, including Yang's commentaries. This translation is based on the views of...

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