The Power of an Alleged Tradition - CHINA Buchservice

the fi elds of specialization of the fangshi. Even though there are diffi culties in grouping
Gongsun Qing with the fangshi – without doubt his position at court was much
higher than that normally held by fangshi – his ideas were certainly much closer
to those of the fangshi than to those of the ru. A similar situation seems to have
occurred with regard to the two Sima: their position as taishiling was also higher
than that occupied by the fangshi, though it was directly related to their activities.
Several of the offi ces subordinate to the taishiling were occupied by men who elsewhere
in the Shiji are called fangshi. 118 The question raised at the beginning of this
study, whether the position of the taishi was closer to the fangshi or to the ru may
thus be answered tentatively here: it seems that although Sima Tan and Sima Qian
belonged to neither of these two groups, they both were much more inclined toward
ideas propagated by fangshi than toward those represented by the ru. 119
Although the main focus of my analysis thus far has been the question of how
far Sima Tan and Sima Qian were professionally engaged in the Feng and Shan
matter, some of the passages that have been referred to convey the impression that
this engagement meant more to those involved in the matter than simply operating
within in a given ideological frame. A good example would be the famous passage
quoted at the beginning of this chapter where Sima Tan begs his son not to forget
what he hoped to expound and write about. 120 As I have already pointed out, the
two tasks Sima Qian was asked to continue after his father’s death were to examine
carefully the outcome of the solemn Feng and Shan sacrifi ces (as only a sage ruler
was allowed to perform them, it would now turn out whether Emperor Wu was such
a sage ruler) and to continue the work which Sima Tan had begun.
I have argued elsewhere that in that part of the Shiji which records the time
after Emperor Wu for the fi rst time had sacrifi ced at Mount Tai, Sima Qian displays
a rather critical attitude toward his own emperor. 121 In contrast to this, his father
Tan who did not live long enough to become an eye-witness of these events obviously
had a much different attitude toward Emperor Wu. It seems that he was full
of hope and expectation until his death and that the cosmological ideology should
be regarded as the solid foundation of his view of the world.
118 For the notion that the calendar specialists Tang Du and Luoxia Hong were reckoned among the fangshi, see the
passage rendered in translation on p. 265.
119 By contrast, Chen Tongsheng in a study on Sima Tan’s scholarly attitude has argued that Sima Tan should be
reckoned among the faction of the ru. See his “Lun Sima Tan you dao er ru de zhuanbian ���������
���”�Renwen zazhi 1995.5: 102–107. Chen maintains that whereas Sima Tan in earlier years, when he wrote
his famous Liujia zhi yaozhi lun�������, must still have been mainly inclined toward Daoist thought, in
the later years of his life changed and became a ru. I don’t think, however, that this interpretation does justice to
Sima Tan. I would argue instead that Sima Tan consistently tried to undertake steps toward a kind of synthetic
view of the world, but one perceived from the point of view of a scribe.
120 Cf. Shiji 130/3295. In the words of Sima Tan, reported by Sima Qian, the emperor “for the fi rst time established
the Feng sacrifi ces for the House of Han” (shi jian Hanhia zhi feng�������).
121 For Sima Qian’s critical attitude displayed toward Emperor Wu in the “Treatise on the Feng and Shan Sacrifi ces”
in the Shiji see my article “Der Herrscher und sein Richter: Zur Bedeutung von biao�� und li in Kap. 28 des�
Shiji.” Oriens Extremus 43 (2001/2002), 134–38.
270
DOROTHEE SCHAAB-HANKE
BMFEA 74 · 2002