Han learning

Han Learning (汉学 hànxué), or the Han school of classical philology, was an intellectual movement of the Qing dynasty in China.

During the Song dynasty (12th century), Confucian thinking, under the influence of Buddhism and Daoism, developed a cosmology which emphasised the moral nature of the cosmos. This Neo-Confucianism eventually became orthodoxy under the Yuan dynasty and formed the basis of the Imperial examination until nearly the end of the Qing dynasty.

In reaction to the intuitive moral reasoning of Neo-Confucianist thought, a trend of empirical "evidential scholarship" (考证 kǎozhèng) arose during the late Ming dynasty. Scholars turned back to the original classics, using philological techniques to authenticate Confucius’s real words. This trend was in opposition to the perceived decadence and individualism of "Song learning", which was held ultimately responsible for the fall of the Ming.

The evidential approach, which compared different texts in great detail, was known as “Han Learning” because it sought out Han dynasty commentaries as being closer to the original texts. It By the mid-eighteenth century, Han learning had proved that various parts of the sacred classics were in fact later forgeries of the Han dynasty.

While it may appear to be concerned with philologically minutiae, the debate between the Neo-Confucianists and the adherents of Han learning had considerable political repercussions in the closing years of the Qing dynasty.