Hu Hong’s Philosophy

Abstract

The philosopher Hu Hong 胡宏 (1105–1161; style Renzhong 仁仲, hao Wufeng 五峰), played a major role in the process of the transmission of the teachings of the Cheng brothers, Cheng Yi 程頤 (1033–1107) and Cheng Hao 程顥 (1032–1085), to a group of eminent thinkers living at the end of the twelfth century, namely Zhu Xi 朱熹 (1130–1200), Lü Zuqian 呂祖謙 (1137–1181), and Zhang Shi 張杙 (1133–1180) who substantially influenced the path which Confucianism took in the second millennium A.D. Hu Hong was born into a family which at the turn of the twelfth century had emigrated from Northern Fujian to the region of Jingmen 荊門 in today’s Hubei. When Hu Hong had just passed the age of twenty the Jurchen inflicted a humiliating defeat on the Song army and conquered the northern part of China. In the aftermath of this event, Jingmen became an inhospitable strip of borderland.1 The Hu family had to leave their home because of the war and founded a new basis at Mount Heng in Hunan. Although they seem to have lost everything they had Hu Hong’s father, Hu Anguo 胡安國 (1074–1138), was able to reestablish the family’s fortunes by completing his famous commentary to the Spring and Autumn Annals in 1137. A year later, Hu Anguo died. According to the account of his life compiled by his adopted son Hu Yin 胡寅 (1098–1156), it was the hardships he underwent when working on the Annals that killed him (Hu 1993: 6.149; 25.555, 559).