Zheng Xuan (127–200 CE) was a preeminent Confucian classicist of the Eastern Han dynasty. His courtesy name was Kangcheng, and he was a native of Gaomi, Beihai Commandery (in present-day Gaomi, Shandong).
Because he lived after the earlier Han scholar Zheng Zhong, he was often referred to as “Later Zheng” to distinguish him.
Gifted from youth and deeply devoted to study, Zheng Xuan could already recite the Five Classics by age thirteen. Recognized for his talent by Du Mi, the Administrator of Beihai, he was sent to the Imperial Academy (Taixue) in Luoyang, where he studied under multiple masters. He later traveled westward to Guanxi (the region west of Hangu Pass) to become a disciple of Ma Rong, the most celebrated Confucian scholar of the time – though Ma initially kept him at a distance, allowing him access only through secondary instruction.
After returning to his hometown around age forty, Zheng Xuan gathered thousands of disciples and established himself as a leading teacher of the classics. However, during the Partisan Prohibitions (Danggu), a series of political purges targeting scholar-officials and intellectuals (notably in 166–167 and 169–184 CE), he was placed under house arrest. During this period of forced seclusion, he devoted himself to composing comprehensive commentaries on the Confucian canon.
Following the lifting of the prohibitions, Zheng Xuan steadfastly refused all official appointments, repeatedly declining summons from powerful figures in the imperial court – including He Jin, Dong Zhuo, and Yuan Shao – choosing instead a life of scholarly integrity and textual exegesis. His reputation as the foremost classical authority of his age grew steadily.
In 200 CE (the 5th year of the Jian’an era), during the buildup to the decisive Battle of Guandu between Yuan Shao and Cao Cao, Yuan sought to bolster his legitimacy among literati by enlisting Zheng Xuan’s symbolic support. Yuan’s son Yuan Tan pressured the elderly scholar to accompany the army. Already ill, Zheng reluctantly traveled to Yuancheng (east of modern Daming County, Hebei), where his condition worsened, and he died in the sixth lunar month of 200 CE.
Zheng Xuan dedicated his life to classical scholarship. His commentaries were noted for their clarity, concision, and synthetic breadth: while grounded in the Ancient Script tradition, he judiciously incorporated insights from the Current Script school, thereby transcending the rigid sectarian divide that had long fragmented Han Confucianism. His work is widely regarded as the culmination of Han dynasty classical learning.
Of his approximately sixty known writings, the most influential surviving works include: Annotations to the Rites of Zhou (Zhouli Zhu), Annotations to the Ceremonial Rites (Yili Zhu), Annotations to the Record of Rites (Liji Zhu), and Mao Shi Gu Xun Zhuan Jian (Exegetical Notes on the Mao Tradition of the Classic of Poetry).
Collectively, these texts formed the foundation of later ritual and literary studies and were officially adopted in Tang and Song dynastic education.
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