Huan Tan

Huan Tan ( Chinese  桓譚  /  桓谭 , Pinyin Huán Tán , W.-G. Huan T'an ; born 20 BC (?); Died 56), zi : Junshan ( 君山 , Jūnshān , Chün-shan ), also known as Master Huan ( 桓子 , Huánzǐ ), was a Chinese philosopher and atheist of the Eastern Han Dynasty .

life and work

Huan came from Xiang ( 相 ) in Peiguo ( 沛国 , Pèiguó ; today Suixi County , Anhui Province ) and was known for his scholarship in the Confucian classics and other disciplines. Because of his strict rejection of the teachings of the divination and forecasting scriptures, he was banished from court and died on the way to Lu'an ( 六 安郡 ). In politics, he advocated a government based on the ' way of kings ' ( 王道 , wángdào ). He considered misfortunes and extraordinary things to be natural phenomena, and people should meet them by cultivating their virtues and being dutiful and careful in social life. According to him, the relationship between the soul and the body is just like that between the light and the candle. The light cannot exist without a candle. In epistemology, he affirmed and analyzed human performance, which had some influence on Wang Chong . His most important philosophical work is the Xinlun ( 新 論  /  新 论 , Hsin-lun  - "New Treatise").

His biography is contained in the Hou Hanshu ( History of the Later Han Dynasty ), which states:

“ 能 文章 ， 尤 好 古 學 ， 數 從 劉歆 、 楊 雄辯 析疑 異。 / dt. He was an accomplished author, especially the 'old erudition' ( guxue ). He often discussed and analyzed doubts and differences with Liu Xin and Yang Xiong . "

The Czech sinologist Timoteus Pokora did a great job researching his life and work and translated his main work and other writings into English.

See also

• Fan Zhen 范缜

References and footnotes

1. ↑ The dates of life are given quite differently, here after the Han-Ying Zhongguo zhexue cidian . - In Rafe de Crespigny (2007: 338), for example, the dates are around 43 BC. Chr. - 28 AD
2. ↑ The prognostic or oracle system is summarized in Chinese under the term chenwei ( 讖 緯  /  谶 纬 , chènwěi ).
3. ↑ Article: "Huan Tan", in: Han-Ying Zhongguo zhexue cidian. Kaifeng 2002, p. 527 f.
4. ↑ 桓 譚馮衍 列傳 ( Biographies of Huan Tan and Feng Yan in the History of the Later Han Dynasty )
5. ↑ cf. Feng Youlan / Derk Bodde , II.150 (in the section on Wang Chong )

literature

Wikisource: 桓 譚馮衍 列傳  - Biographies of Huan Tan and Feng Yan in the History of the Later Han Dynasty

Wikisource: 桓譚  - Sources and full texts

Works

• Xinlun 新 论 ( Wenjingtang congshu ) 问 经 堂 丛书; see. HYDZD Bibliography No. 59: Lu Wenchao卢 文 弨 ( Qing Dynasty ): Xinlun jiaozheng新 论 校正 ( Baojingtang congshu (抱 经 堂 丛书).)
  • Timoteus Pokora ( transl .): Hsin-lun (New Treatise) and Other Writings by Huan T'an (43 BC – 28 AD). Ann Arbor 1975.

Secondary literature

• 汉英 中国 哲学 辞典. 开封 2002
• Lutz Geldsetzer / Han-ding Hong: Chinese-German lexicon of the classics and schools of Chinese philosophy. Translated from Ci Hai . Aalen 1991 (article: "Huán Tán", p. 63 f.)
• Michael Loewe (Ed.): Early Chinese texts: a bibliographical guide. Berkeley, California: The Society for the Study of Early China & the Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley, 1993 (Early China Special Monograph Series; no. 2), ISBN 1-55729-043-1 (article by Timoteus Pokora, pp. 158–160)
• Rafe de Crespigny : A Biographical Dictionary of Later Han to the Three Kingdoms (23-220 AD). Leiden: Koninklijke Brill, 2007, ISBN 90-04-15605-4 , p.338

Web links

• Huan Tan 桓譚