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Xuanxue (), sometimes called Neo-Taoism or Neo-Daoism, is a metaphysical post-classical Chinese philosophy from the Six Dynasties (222-589), bringing together Taoist and Confucianism beliefs through revision and discussion. The movement found its scriptural support both in Taoist and drastically reinterpreted Confucian sources. Xuanxue, or "Mystic Learning", came to reign supreme in cultural circles, especially at Jiankang during the period of division. The concept represented the more abstract, unworldly, and idealistic tendency in early medieval Chinese thought. Xuanxue philosophers combined elements of Confucianism and Taoism to reinterpret the I Ching, Daodejing and Zhuangzi.
Xue (學) means "study, learn, learning"; thus, xuanxue is literally the "learning" or "study" of the "arcane", "mysterious", or "profound". Therefore, the meaning of xuanxue can be described as "study of the mysterious or profound".
In Modern Standard Chinese usage, xuanxue can mean "Neo-Taoism", "esoteric", "metaphysics", "spiritualism", or "mysticism". The New Treatise on the Uniqueness of Consciousness by Xiong Shili defines Xuanxue as "dark/obscure/mysterious/profound learning". The concept can be described by such abstractions as "to initiate no action", "emptiness", "one and the many", "root and branches", "having and not having", and the "emotional responses" and "pattern".
In modern Chinese, Xuanxue is also taken to refer to astrology, geomancy and other popular . Another translation of xuanxue could be "learning of the dark."
Two influential Xuanxue scholars were Wang Bi and Guo Xiang, editors and leading commentators on the Daodejing and Zhuangzi, respectively. For instance, the Daodejing exists in two received versions named after the commentaries. While the "Heshang Gong version" explains textual references to Daoist meditation, the "Wang Bi version" does not. Richard Wilhelm said the Wang Bi commentary changed the Daodejing "from a compendiary of magical meditation to a collection of free philosophical ."
One of the major defining features of Zhengshi Xuanxue is the "Qingtan" (清談) gatherings that took place among political and intellectual elites from the 3rd century onward, through which intellectuals questioned tradition and shared their ideas during the Cao Wei-Jin and Six Dynasties periods. These sessions were transformed versions of the more politically charged "Pure Criticism" (清議) protests of the later Han, which were, in turn, continuations of political remonstration practices. Much of Xuanxue had become divorced from the realities of life and afforded an escape from it.
During the 5th-century CE, Xuanxue formed a part of the official curriculum at the Guozijian, together with Rú (Confucianism learning), Literature, and History. Although Xuanxue does not represent one monolithic school of thought, it does encompass a broad range of philosophical positions.
The concept of Wú is central to Xuanxue. It is translated as "nothing", "nothingness", "Not-being", and "negativity". The Tao can literally only be described as nameless and formless, not having any characteristics of things. That the Tao is the "mother of all life" is also central to Xuanxue ideology. Because of the Tao being the beginning of all things, while simultaneously being indescribable and non-being, the Tao is said to be "dark" or "mysterious" ( xuan).
Xuanxue aims at unlocking the mystery of the Dao, but should not be confused with a revival of preceding schools of Taoism. Xuanxue is committed to analytic rigor and clarity in explicating the meaning of Dao, employing the new, contemporary language of the time. However, critics sometimes condemn it as "dark" because they judge it as obfuscating and detrimental to the flourishing of Dao. They use phrases like "dark words" ( xuanyan) or "dark discourse" ( xuanlun) in a pejorative sense, indicating that to them Xuanxue was nothing but convoluted empty talk. In these contexts, xuan may be translated as "abstruse", "obscure", or words to that effect.
To classify Xuanxue as merely "Neo-Taoism" misleadingly reinforces suggestions that Wei-Jin thinkers were only "reinterpreting Confucianism through the lens of Taoism" (Chan 2010: 5). Chan points out that since xuan (玄) is already something "obscure" and "insubstantial" in Chinese, xuanxue can be left "untranslated, though not unexplained" (Chan 2010: 6). Xuanxue is also often classified as "Profound Learning". Although "profound" is more appropriate than "dark", ambiguity is still an issue with this classification.
Xuanxue is not a kind of scholasticism that pitches one school against another. Instead of seeing them as attempting to reconcile Confucianism with Taoism, it may be suggested that they were primarily concerned with the substantive issue of the relationship between mingjiao and ziran.
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