Political Friction and Personal Choice: Southern Song Literati’S Response to the Political Controversy over the Daoxu Movement

The ban on Daoxue in Qingyuan period (1195-1200) represents the conflict between academic movement and political authority, and its influence lasted for many decades. Traditional interpretations over this event emphasize the distinction between Daoxue group and their rivals. On the one side, historians composed a list including fifty nine figures who suffered punishment for supporting Doaxu. On the other side, thirty six officials were considered as forming an anti-Daoxu party. By this way, historians argued that the members of both sides share common opinions and claims, so the struggles between them lasted for a long time. However, my current research which analyzes the actions and lives of six Daoxue figures’ in Qingyuan period demonstrates a very different story. When they faced the political punishment, those six Daoxue persons made diverse responses according to their personal networks and personality. After the ban on Daoxue was over, they thus experienced different careers and treatments, and some of them even devalued as evil men. By this research, I realize that the fifty nine Daoxue figures failed to form a unanimous group, so the struggles between Daoxue persons and their rivals need a new approach to analyze. To deeply analyze the Daoxue people and their rivals, this project will choose two officials to represent those two groups. The first on is Yeshi (葉適) who belonged to the Daoxu group, and the second one is Nesi (倪思) who was considered as an anti-Daoxu bureaucrat by later historians. When the anti-Daoxue officials started to punish their rivals, the choices which Yeshi and Nesi made not only deeply influenced their later political careers, but also their posthumous reputation. Through comparing their choices and responses when officials and literati faced the ban on Doaxu, I will analyze the complicate circumstance where the ban on Daoxue emerged. The results of this research will improve our understanding about political culture of Southern Song China.

Project ID:PE10607-0508
External Project ID:MOST106-2410-H182-013