Liu Xin (23 CE),
courtesy name
A courtesy name ( zh, s=字, p=zì, l=character), also known as a style name, is an additional name bestowed upon individuals at adulthood, complementing their given name. This tradition is prevalent in the East Asian cultural sphere, particula ...
Zijun, was a Chinese astronomer, classicist, imperial librarian, mathematician, and politician during the
Western Han
The Han dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China (202 BC9 AD, 25–220 AD) established by Liu Bang and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–206 BC) and a warring int ...
and
Xin dynasties. He later changed his name to Liu Xiu () due to the
naming taboo
A naming taboo is a cultural taboo against speaking or writing the given names of exalted persons, notably in China and within the Chinese cultural sphere. It was enforced by several laws throughout Imperial China, but its cultural and possibly ...
of
Emperor Ai of Han
Emperor Ai of Han, personal name Liu Xin (劉欣; 25 BC – 15 August 1 BC), was an emperor of China's Han dynasty. He ascended the throne when he was 20, having been made heir by his childless uncle Emperor Cheng, and he reigned from 7 to 1 BC ...
. He was the son of Imperial librarian
Liu Xiang and an associate of other eminent thinkers such as the philosopher
Huan Tan. Liu was a prominent supporter of the
Old Text classics.
Early life
Liu Xin was the son of Confucian scholar
Liu Xiang (77–6 BCE). Liu was a distant relative of
Liu Bang
Emperor Gaozu of Han (2561 June 195 BC), also known by his given name Liu Bang, was the founder and first emperor of the Han dynasty, reigning from 202 to 195 BC. He is considered by traditional Chinese historiography to be one o ...
, the founder of the Han dynasty, and was thus a member of the ruling dynastic clan (the
Liu family). Liu Xin's paternal grandfather ranked as a ''hou'' (, roughly '
marquess
A marquess (; ) is a nobleman of high hereditary rank in various European peerages and in those of some of their former colonies. The German-language equivalent is Markgraf (margrave). A woman with the rank of a marquess or the wife (or wid ...
'). As a young man, Liu helped his father in cataloguing the contents of the imperial library, and his friendship with the well-connected minister Wang Mang brought him power and rewards, rising under
Emperor Ai of Han
Emperor Ai of Han, personal name Liu Xin (劉欣; 25 BC – 15 August 1 BC), was an emperor of China's Han dynasty. He ascended the throne when he was 20, having been made heir by his childless uncle Emperor Cheng, and he reigned from 7 to 1 BC ...
to the rank of Palace Attendant and Chief Commandant of Imperial Equipages ().
Literary work
Librarian
As a curator of the imperial library he was the first to establish a
library classification
A library classification is a system used within a library to organize materials, including books, sound and video recordings, electronic materials, etc., both on shelves and in catalogs and indexes. Each item is typically assigned a call number ...
system and the first book notation system. At this time the
library catalog
A library catalog (or library catalogue in British English) is a register of all bibliography, bibliographic items found in a library or group of libraries, such as a network of libraries at several locations. A catalog for a group of libra ...
was written on scrolls of fine silk and stored in silk bags. Liu Xin's ''Qilüe'' (; "Seven Surveys") has not survived, but it formed the basis for the later bibliographic treatise ''Yiwenzhi'' (; "Treatise on Arts and Letters") in the ''
Book of Han
The ''Book of Han'' is a history of China finished in 111 CE, covering the Western, or Former Han dynasty from the first emperor in 206 BCE to the fall of Wang Mang in 23 CE. The work was composed by Ban Gu (32–92 CE), ...
'',
which acted as a model for later imperial bibliographies.
As the imperial librarian, Liu Xin both catalogued and annotated or edited ancient texts. These projects of his produced what became definitive texts of a number of orthodox canons of Chinese philosophy and history.
Liu Xin played an important role in the transmission of the ''Zuozhuan''. A scholar of the
Old Texts school, he was attracted to the ''Zuozhuan'' earlier graphical forms, whose inaccessibility deterred the compound exegesis found in the rival ''
Chunqiu'' commentarial traditions. In editing the ''Zuozhuan'' with the assistance of Yin Xian (), Liu rearranged the material into chronological order to map more neatly onto the ''Chunqiu'' chronicle as the ''
Gongyang'' and ''
Guliang'' commentaries did. He aimed to have an imperial academician assigned to the work, a crucial bureaucratic step towards canonization in the official orthodoxy.
Liu's advocacy for the ''Zuozhuan'' was controversial in his own day, partly due to its lineage and prior reputation, and partly due to his own approach towards the situation. This scholarly dispute is sometimes taken as evidence for a larger dispute about classic texts written using variant scripts.
Old Text proponent
During Liu Xin's career, there may have been some debate about certain texts called ''guwen'' (, "
Ancient Script Texts
In Chinese philology, the Ancient Script Classics (), commonly known as the Old Texts, refer to some versions of the Five Classics discovered during the Han dynasty, written in a script that predated the one in use during the Han dynasty, and pr ...
"). One set of manuscripts discovered by
Kong Anguo in the
Western Han
The Han dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China (202 BC9 AD, 25–220 AD) established by Liu Bang and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–206 BC) and a warring int ...
was consistently labeled as ''guwen'' owing to the graphical forms it preserved, a script which had diverged during the
Eastern Zhou
The Eastern Zhou (256 BCE) is a period in Chinese history comprising the latter two-thirds of the Zhou dynasty. The period follows the Western Zhou era and is named due to the Zhou royal court relocating the capital eastward from Fenghao ...
from the more conservative script of the state of
Qin which became the official and only standard following their unification in 221 BCE. As a consequence of the variant graphical forms, parts of the text were already difficult to decipher for Han scholars.
It is not clear to what extent the content of ''guwen'' works differed from the transmitted versions of the same titles, nor what criteria allowed for labeling a document ''guwen''. It may have been the case that even a handful of words would suffice to impart this characteristic upon the text that contained them.
Liu Xin was attracted to ''guwen'' texts, and his position in the imperial library meant he was well placed to ensure that these versions would officially be considered the authoritative ones.
Integrity of transmitted literature
From the 19th through early 20th centuries, antiquarians and historians, beginning with
Kang Youwei
Kang Youwei (; Cantonese: ''Hōng Yáuh-wàih''; 19March 185831March 1927) was a political thinker and reformer in China of the late Qing dynasty. His increasing closeness to and influence over the young Guangxu Emperor sparked confli ...
, accused Liu of excessive editing, to the point of falsifying historical texts. These criticisms were systematically analysed by the
Doubting Antiquity School
The Doubting Antiquity School or Yigupai (Endymion Wilkinson, Wilkinson, Endymion (2000). ''Chinese History: A Manual''. Harvard Univ Asia Center. . Page 345, see/ref>Loewe, Michael and Edward L. Shaughnessy (1999). ''The Cambridge History of Anci ...
of historians. According to their theory, first articulated by
Qian Mu
Ch'ien Mu or Qian Mu (; 30 July 1895 – 30 August 1990) was a Chinese historian, philosopher and writer. He is considered to be one of the greatest historians and philosophers of 20th-century China. Ch'ien, together with Lü Simian, Chen Yin ...
in 1930, Liu edited ancient texts for political purposes, particularly the ''
Rites of Zhou
The ''Rites of Zhou'' (), originally known as "Officers of Zhou" (), is a Chinese work on bureaucracy and organizational theory. It was renamed by Liu Xin to differentiate it from a chapter in the '' Book of History'' by the same name. To rep ...
'', the ''
Zuozhuan
The ''Zuo Zhuan'' ( zh, t=左傳, w=Tso Chuan; ), often translated as ''The Zuo Tradition'' or as ''The Commentary of Zuo'', is an ancient Chinese narrative history traditionally regarded as a commentary on the ancient Chinese chronicle the '' ...
'',
and the Mao commentary to the ''
Shijing
The ''Classic of Poetry'', also ''Shijing'' or ''Shih-ching'', translated variously as the ''Book of Songs'', ''Book of Odes'', or simply known as the ''Odes'' or ''Poetry'' (; ''Shī''), is the oldest existing collection of Chinese poetry, co ...
''. This accusation of forgery had legitimate precedent: in the late 17th century
Yan Ruoqu
Yan Ruoqu (; November 11, 1636 – July 9, 1704) was an influential Chinese scholar of the early Qing dynasty. He was born to a scholarly family in Taiyuan, Shanxi. Yan Ruoqu is most famous for proving that the " Old Text" chapters of the Confuc ...
demonstrated that the transmitted ''
Classic of History
The ''Book of Documents'' ( zh, p=Shūjīng, c=書經, w=Shu King) or the ''Classic of History'', is one of the Five Classics of ancient Chinese literature. It is a collection of rhetorical prose attributed to figures of ancient China, an ...
'' was mostly a forgery dating to the 4th century. This text had been based on the Ancient Script version, and only the parts that were present in the separately transmitted New Script version could be considered authentically early.
Liu Xin was a political ally of the powerful and divisive minister
Wang Mang
Wang Mang (45 BCE6 October 23 CE), courtesy name Jujun, officially known as the Shijianguo Emperor (), was the founder and the only emperor of the short-lived Chinese Xin dynasty. He was originally an official and consort kin of the ...
, who would go on to usurp the Han dynasty around the turn of the millennium for a brief period known as the
Xin dynasty
The Xin dynasty (; ), also known as Xin Mang () in Chinese historiography, was a short-lived Dynasties in Chinese history, Chinese imperial dynasty which lasted from 9 to 23 AD, established by the Han dynasty consort kin Wang Mang, who usurped th ...
. As the imperial librarian, Liu had the power to establish the definitive redactions of ancient texts and expunge variant versions. According to his accusers, the librarian falsified accounts of ancient historical events, and inserted into the legendary lineage of ancient rulers figures or relationships that were either invented, or borrowed from separate legends. In this way, he created a narrative of ancient rulers and successive dynasties which satisfied the "
five phases
( zh, c=五行, p=wǔxíng), usually translated as Five Phases or Five Agents, is a fivefold conceptual scheme used in many traditional Chinese fields of study to explain a wide array of phenomena, including terrestrial and celestial rela ...
" theory, wherein each ruler and/or dynasty represented one of the five traditional Chinese elements (
''wuxing'') , between which the
Mandate of Heaven
The Mandate of Heaven ( zh, t=天命, p=Tiānmìng, w=, l=Heaven's command) is a Chinese ideology#Political ideologies, political ideology that was used in History of China#Ancient China, Ancient China and Chinese Empire, Imperial China to legit ...
rotated. An account thus falsified would satisfactorily explain the rule of the Han and Xin dynasties in terms of the phases they were said to represent, and according to the forgery theory, Liu Xin's edited account conveniently showed a series of successions between various claimed ancestors of the Han and Xin houses.
The possibility of Liu Xin's forgeries became a crucial question for the Doubting Antiquity School in their search for a
rationalist past for China.
They drew evidence from discrepancies between the texts edited by Liu and earlier or contemporaneous texts. For example, figures or events appearing in Liu's edited versions did not appear in earlier or contemporaneous texts. The forgery theory has been largely discredited.
Scientific work
Calculation of pi ()
For centuries before the usurpation of
Wang Mang
Wang Mang (45 BCE6 October 23 CE), courtesy name Jujun, officially known as the Shijianguo Emperor (), was the founder and the only emperor of the short-lived Chinese Xin dynasty. He was originally an official and consort kin of the ...
( 9–23), the Chinese had used the value of 3 for their calculation of
pi,
[.] the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. Some time between the years 1 and 5, Liu Xin was the first Chinese researcher to give a geometrical figure which implies the improved approximation π ≈ 3.1547, although the exact method he used to reach this figure is unknown.
[.] The original ''
jialiang
Jialiang () is an ancient Chinese device for measuring several volume standards.
The term jialiang is mentioned in the ''Rites of Zhou''. The passage describes the construction of one that includes three measures, ''fu'' (釜), ''dou'' (豆), a ...
hu''
standard Standard may refer to:
Symbols
* Colours, standards and guidons, kinds of military signs
* Standard (emblem), a type of a large symbol or emblem used for identification
Norms, conventions or requirements
* Standard (metrology), an object ...
Liu Xin designed and used in his measurements is still extant.
Sinologist
Sinology, also referred to as China studies, is a subfield of area studies or East Asian studies involved in social sciences and humanities research on China. It is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of the Chinese civilizatio ...
Joseph Needham
Noel Joseph Terence Montgomery Needham (; 9 December 1900 – 24 March 1995) was a British biochemist, historian of science and sinologist known for his scientific research and writing on the history of Chinese science and technology, initia ...
inspected it in Beijing, describing it as follows:
The standardised ''chia liang hu'' (has) a square with each side 1 ''chhih'' (foot) long, and outside it a circle. The distance from each corner of the square to the circle (''thiao phang'') is 9 ''li'' 5 ''hao''. The area of the circle (''mu'') is 162 (square) ''tshun'' (inches), the depth 1 ''chhih'' (foot), and the volume (of the whole) 1620 (cubic) ''tshun'' (inches).
Later early Chinese mathematicians such as
Zhang Heng
Zhang Heng (; AD 78–139), formerly romanization of Chinese, romanized Chang Heng, was a Chinese polymathic scientist and statesman who lived during the Han dynasty#Eastern Han (25–220 AD), Eastern Han dynasty. Educated in the capital citi ...
(78–139) and
Liu Hui
Liu Hui () was a Chinese mathematician who published a commentary in 263 CE on ''Jiu Zhang Suan Shu ( The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art).'' He was a descendant of the Marquis of Zixiang of the Eastern Han dynasty and lived in the state ...
(fl. 3rd century) would improve Liu's calculation for pi,
[.] and were improved upon in turn by
Zu Chongzhi
Zu Chongzhi (; 429 – 500), courtesy name Wenyuan (), was a Chinese astronomer, inventor, mathematician, politician, and writer during the Liu Song and Southern Qi dynasties. He was most notable for calculating pi as between 3.1415926 and 3.1415 ...
(429–500).
Standards and measures
As Emperor of Xin, Wang Mang attempted to return to the lost ways of the ancient sage-kings, a legendary golden age of order and peace. Assisting him in some of the practicalities of this ambition was Liu Xin. Upon ascending the throne, Wang Mang named Liu Xin his ''Guoshi'' (, "Professor Laureate"), a newly created office which was one of the Four Viziers (, named after a legend about
a constellation), the most powerful and exalted ministers in the empire. As part of the rebranding schema implemented across the government, Liu Xin gained the noble title "Eminence of New Excellence" He assisted in standardising the measures of liquid volume and the harmonic frequencies of musical instruments. The ''jialiang hu'' used to calculate pi was designed as the
standard Standard may refer to:
Symbols
* Colours, standards and guidons, kinds of military signs
* Standard (emblem), a type of a large symbol or emblem used for identification
Norms, conventions or requirements
* Standard (metrology), an object ...
for the five measures of liquid volume stipulated by statute, and was constructed with a separate compartment for each of them.
In the course of his scientific work, Liu wrote a treatise which survives in the ''
Book of Han
The ''Book of Han'' is a history of China finished in 111 CE, covering the Western, or Former Han dynasty from the first emperor in 206 BCE to the fall of Wang Mang in 23 CE. The work was composed by Ban Gu (32–92 CE), ...
'': ''Lüli zhi'' (, "Treatise on Standards and Calendrics"). This text records detailed information about Han dynasty mathematics, measures of length and volume, harmonics, weights and balances, and the calendar via ''
wuxing'' theory.
Astronomy and natural philosophy
As a classicist, Liu Xin was able to support the legitimation of his patron Wang Mang as a restorer of an ancient mode of governance, and as a proponent and theorist of the "
generative cycle" of the popular "five phases" theory, Liu advised the new emperor on ritual matters to better accord with these fundamental essences. Liu additionally developed a new more accurate model of astronomy, the Triple Concordance calendar (; ''San tong li''), for predicting the motion of heavenly bodies. In the second half of the 20th century, a
crater
A crater is a landform consisting of a hole or depression (geology), depression on a planetary surface, usually caused either by an object hitting the surface, or by geological activity on the planet. A crater has classically been described ...
on
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...
was named in his honor.
Death
Although Liu Xin was originally a loyal partisan of Wang Mang, after Wang's troops suffered defeat on July 7, 23 at the
Battle of Kunyang, Liu Xin plotted with others to overthrow Wang Mang. The plot was discovered, and all the conspirators committed suicide or were executed.
References
Sources
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Further reading
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Liu, Xin
23 deaths
Year of birth uncertain
1st-century BC Chinese astronomers
1st-century BC Chinese historians
1st-century BC Confucianists
1st-century BC mathematicians
1st-century Chinese astronomers
1st-century Chinese writers
1st-century Chinese historians
1st-century mathematicians
Mathematicians from Imperial China
Chinese Confucianists
Chinese librarians
Han dynasty government officials
Suicides in the Han dynasty