I. Zheng Xuan (127 – 200 CE)

Zheng Xuan (127–200 CE), courtesy name Kangcheng, was a native of Gaomi in Beihai Commandery (present-day Gaomi City, Shandong). He was a master of Confucian classical studies in the late Eastern Han dynasty, dedicating his life to annotating and interpreting Confucian texts. He produced over a million words of commentary, systematizing the classics, and became known as the founder of “Zheng Xue” (the Zheng School). His work unified Confucian scholarship and was considered a pinnacle of Han-era exegesis. In the Tang dynasty, Zheng Xuan was honored as one of the 22 eminent masters in the Confucian temple.

Born 109 years after the death of Yang Xiong, Zheng Xuan represented the Han dynasty’s continuing Confucian tradition. His family had previously held official posts, but by the time of his grandfather and father, they had retired to farming, leaving the household poor. Zheng Xuan was extraordinarily intelligent from a young age. By eight or nine he excelled in arithmetic, and by twelve or thirteen, he could read, recite, and explain the Five Classics (Shi, Shu, Yi, Li Ji, Chunqiu). He also studied astronomy, using observations of celestial phenomena and meteorology for divination. By sixteen, he had mastered Confucian classics and written elegantly, earning the reputation of a “child prodigy.” Due to poverty, he became a minor local official at eighteen, but persisted in intense study. By twenty-one, he had extensively read books and built a deep foundation in classical scholarship.

Zheng Xuan’s talent was recognized by the famous scholar Du Mi, who promoted him to Beihai Commandery as a clerk. Zheng Xuan soon resigned, enrolling in the Imperial Academy for further study, and then traveled to You, Bing, Yan, and Yu provinces, seeking learned masters, reading thousands of books, and traveling thousands of miles to pursue the Way. By age thirty, he was the leading Confucian scholar in Shandong, but still sought further learning, traveling west to Guanzhong (Shaanxi). There he studied under Ma Rong, the foremost classicist in Guanzhong, with over a thousand disciples. When Ma Rong and his students struggled with calculations in astronomy, Zheng Xuan solved them on the spot, astonishing Ma Rong, who respected him greatly. Zheng Xuan remained humble, studying under Ma Rong for seven years before returning home to care for his aging parents. Ma Rong remarked: “Now that Zheng Xuan leaves, my Way goes east!” Later he added: “The Shi, Shu, and ritual and music studies have all moved eastward.” Zheng Xuan carried forward Ma Rong’s scholarship, spreading it throughout the eastern Han region, and eventually surpassed his teacher in influence.

In his forties, Zheng Xuan returned home, farming to sustain himself while teaching disciples. By then, he had mastered all schools of thought and both the old and new script versions of the classics, educating over a thousand students. In 168 CE, during Emperor Ling’s investigation of factions, Zheng Xuan, formerly a clerk under Du Mi, was detained for fourteen years until age fifty-eight. During this period, he wrote over a million words of commentary, establishing “Zheng Xue,” which became the authoritative annotation adopted nationwide. Earlier competing commentaries gradually fell out of use, ushering in an era of unified classical scholarship under Zheng Xuan.

Despite repeated summons by the court, Zheng Xuan consistently declined official positions. In 185 CE, General-in-Chief He Jin attempted to recruit him, and Zheng Xuan, compelled, traveled to the capital, refusing to wear court attire, presenting himself only in Confucian scholar’s robes, and fled the next day before receiving office. He again declined appointments citing filial mourning, remaining dedicated to study and teaching in seclusion.

During the Yellow Turban Rebellion of 191 CE, Zheng Xuan fled to Xuzhou for five years, continuing his work. The local official Kong Rong, a 20th-generation descendant of Confucius, held Zheng Xuan in high regard, repairing his home and inviting him back to Gaomi. On his journey home, even large groups of Yellow Turbans showed him respect, allowing his safe passage. Returning home at age seventy, Zheng Xuan continued his scholarship despite the death of his only son. His son, Zheng Yien, attempted to rescue Kong Rong with family forces but was killed by rebels at age twenty-seven. Zheng Xuan had a posthumous grandson, Zheng Xiaotong, whose hand patterns resembled his own. Zheng Xiaotong later collaborated with Zheng Xuan’s disciples to compile the eight-volume Zheng Zhi, preserving the scholar’s teachings.

In 197 CE, Yuan Shao invited Zheng Xuan to serve as Left Middle Gentleman, which he declined. In 198 CE, Emperor Xian appointed him Grand Minister of Agriculture (Dasi Nong), giving him high honors, but Zheng Xuan feigned illness and returned home without assuming the post, though he was known by the title.

Zheng Xuan died in 200 CE at age seventy-three. At the time, he was still annotating the Book of Changes while caught in a war-torn China. His burial was modest due to wartime conditions, but over a thousand people attended, initially interred in Judong (Qingzhou), later reburied in his hometown of Gaomi.

Zheng Xuan devoted his life to studying and critically annotating the classics, synthesizing the various schools of thought, analyzing sources, and creating unified, authoritative commentaries. His teaching emphasized respect for teachers, integrity, and diligence. His disciples, numbering over ten thousand nationwide, became prominent scholars and officials. He was revered as the “Sage of the Classics.”

Zheng Xuan was rigorous, meticulous, and cautious. He advised his students: “In worldly matters, rely on precedent; believing everything is neither right nor wrong, disbelieving everything is neither right nor wrong.” He avoided drawing hasty conclusions. In annotating the Book of Songs, he distinguished between “sorrow” (ai) and “heartfelt sorrow” (zhong), reflecting a nuanced understanding of Confucian moral cultivation.

Zheng Xuan believed in the existence of heavenly deities as creators and supreme rulers of the cosmos. In his annotations to the Book of Documents (Shangshu Wuxing), he wrote:

“Heaven produces five materials, all of which are used by humans. If the gods are angered, materials lose their natural function and cannot be used. When the gods are angry, anomalies in the sun, moon, planets, wood, metal, water, fire, and earth occur. People’s grievances and calamities result, so the five elements first show signs of change to warn humans.”

He accepted the concept of the Mandate of Heaven, using it to check excessive monarchic power, integrating the principle of following Heaven into all his commentaries. He emphasized that ministers and feudal lords should serve their sovereigns loyally and righteously, opposing regionalism and rebellion. His teachings on governance and moral cultivation closely aligned with the orthodox Confucian thought of Confucius.

Zheng Xuan also made outstanding contributions to philology, textual criticism, phonology, and lexicography. Later scholars praised him highly:

Gu Yanwu (Qing dynasty): “Great indeed is Zheng Kangcheng. Mastery of the Six Arts and integration of the Hundred Schools; even today the Three Rites survive thanks to him. His scholarship was no small contribution.”

Wang Fuzhi: “Zheng Xuan’s work on the classics inspired the sages above and scholars below. The foundation of the sages, Heaven governs humans through him.”

John King Fairbank (U.S. Sinologist): “We can see the trend of independent private study and classical scholarship outside the imperial academy; Zheng Xuan is the most outstanding. He reconciled annotations of different schools and made extensive use of divinatory and prophetic texts.”

II Wang Tong (584 – 617 CE)

After the Han dynasty, China entered the turbulent era of the Three Hundred Years of disunity—the Wei, Jin, and Northern and Southern dynasties—during which the state and society fractured, friends and family dispersed, and many sought refuge in rural areas. In such chaos, the Confucian teachings on family governance and statecraft no longer provided spiritual comfort. Many aristocratic families abandoned strict Confucian rituals and ethics, turning instead to “Xuan” (mystical) thought; Buddhism also gained prominence. Classical Confucian texts that dealt with life and death, such as the Zhou Yi and the Three Rites, were increasingly interpreted through metaphysical or mystical lenses. For several centuries, the social environment offered little ground for orthodox Confucianism, leaving no major Confucian scholars to emerge during this period of disunion.

It was not until the late Northern and Southern Dynasties, during the 6th century, that the great Confucian scholar Wang Tong, styled Wenzhongzi (“Literature Within”), appeared in the Sui dynasty.

Wang Tong (584–617), courtesy name Wenzhongzi, was born in Shanxi and became a prominent thinker and educator of the Sui dynasty. The Three Character Classic of the Song dynasty lists him among the “Five Confucian Worthies” alongside Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, and Yang Xiong.

From childhood, Wang Tong was diligent in study, often reading late into the night. By fifteen, he began teaching, and by eighteen, he had aspirations to travel and learn from all regions. After passing the imperial exam as a xiucai, he traveled west to Chang’an, where he met Emperor Wen of Sui and presented the Twelve Strategies of Great Peace, advocating “honor the Way of the king, promote strategic governance, verify the past to guide the present, and manage the world with precision.” The emperor praised him, but court politics marginalized him. Though briefly appointed tutor to the Prince of Shu, he resigned and returned home, focusing on teaching and annotating the Confucian classics. Over nine years, he completed works including Xu Shi (Continued Book), Xu Shi (Continued Poetry), Li Jing (Rites), Yue Lun (Music Treatise), Zan Yi (Praise of the Changes), and Yuan Jing (Original Canon), totaling eighty volumes.

Wang Tong revived Confucian scholarship, attracting thousands of students to his “He-Fen School.” He cultivated networks with scholars and officials, earning the title “Wang Confucius” and establishing the “He-Fen Dao” lineage. He transformed the mystical-leaning Confucianism of the Northern and Southern Dynasties toward rational metaphysics, proposing that “Qi, form, and consciousness” correspond to “Heaven, Earth, and Man,” a conceptual framework that foreshadowed Song dynasty Neo-Confucian thought. During a period of religious pluralism and competition among Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism, Wang Tong advocated the “Three Teachings Unified” principle, integrating insights from Buddhism and Daoism into Confucianism for practical governance, emphasizing balance, efficiency, and civic compliance.

Wang Tong thus stands as the major Confucian scholar 500 years after Yang Xiong (184 CE), inheriting the orthodox Confucian tradition, and reinforcing the intellectual lineage of Confucius.

Wang Tong died young at the age of thirty-three. His six major works—Xu Shi, Xu Shi, Yuan Jing, Li Jing, Yue Lun, and Zan Yi—were all lost by the Tang dynasty. What survives is the Wenzhongzi Shuo, a compilation of dialogues between Wang Tong and his disciples, modeled after Confucius’ Analects, organized into ten chapters: “Royal Way,” “Heaven and Earth,” “Serving the Sovereign,” “Duke of Zhou,” “Questions on the Yi,” “Rites and Music,” “History,” “Wei Ministers,” “Establishing Destiny,” and “Guan Lang.”

Wang Tong’s work represents the revival of Confucian thought after centuries of disunity, blending classical scholarship, metaphysics, and practical governance, and laying the foundations for later Confucian revival in the Sui and Tang dynasties.