Xuanxue

Xuanxue (), sometimes called Neo-Daoism (Neo-Taoism), is a metaphysical post-classical Chinese philosophy from the Six Dynasties (222-589), bringing together Taoist and Confucian beliefs through revision and discussion. The movement found its scriptural support both in Taoist and drastically reinterpreted Confucian sources. Xuanxue, or "Mystic Learning", came to reign supreme in cultural circles, especially at Jiankang during the period of division. The concept represented the more abstract, unworldly, and idealistic tendency in early medieval Chinese thought. Xuanxue philosophers combined elements of Confucianism and Taoism to reinterpret the I Ching, Daodejing and Zhuangzi. The name first compounds xuan (玄) "black, dark; mysterious, profound, abstruse, arcane." It occurs in the first chapter of the Daodejing ("玄之又玄,眾妙之門"). The word xuan literally depicts a shade of deep, mystical, dark red. Daodejing speaks of the Dao as Xuan, more specifically underpinning the depth, utter impenetrability, and the profound mystery of the Dao. Xue (學) means "study, learn, learning"; thus, xuanxue is literally the "learning" or "study" of the "arcane", "mysterious", or "profound". Therefore, the meaning of xuanxue can be described as "study of the mysterious or profound". In Modern Standard Chinese usage, xuanxue can mean "Neo-Taoism", "esoteric", "metaphysics", "spiritualism" or "mysticism". The New Treatise on the Uniqueness of Consciousness by Xiong Shili defines Xuanxue as "dark/obscure/mysterious/profound learning". The concept can be described by such abstractions as "to initiate no action", "emptiness", "one and the many", "root and branches", "having and not having", and the "emotional responses" and "pattern". In modern Chinese, Xuanxue is also taken to refer to astrology, geomancy and other popular religious arts. Another translation of xuanxue could be "learning of the dark." Xuanxue arose after the Han dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE) in early Medieval China. It is mainly represented by a few scholars, namely Wang Bi (226-249), He Yan (d.