A History of Qingtan in the Wei and Jin Dynasties

The Wei-Jin Pure Conversation was an important intellectual movement in the history of medieval Chinese thought and philosophy, and was closely connected to Wei-Jin metaphysics. In the thirty years since Tang Yiming's book Wei-Jin Pure Conversation was published, no more comprehensive and in-depth study has appeared. This manuscript treats Wei-Jin Pure Conversation as a historical process spanning more than two hundred years, examining and commenting on its origins, its various stages of development, the prominent families and figures associated with it, and its major topics. The book offers a new definition of the meaning of Pure Conversation and presents a number of arguments that differ from those of earlier scholars. For example, it argues that the essence of Pure Conversation was the exploration of principles and meaning; that the prominent families of the medieval period were creators and leaders of culture; that the evaluation of people in the late Han dynasty was an important source of Wei-Jin Pure Conversation; and that, alongside Wei-Jin metaphysical conversation, Buddhist Pure Conversation was another major branch of Wei-Jin Pure Conversation.