Thought underwent a tremendous upheaval during the Wei-Jin period, chiefly because the theories Confucian scholars had once believed in could no longer sustain society as it stood.
Society was in turmoil, and everything those scholars had upheld proved useless.
One after another, Confucian scholars began turning toward Xuanxue, using it to explain the social phenomena of their day.
This tore society apart and brought ritual law crashing down. Even when the situation throughout the realm eased, it still failed to reverse the rotten, dissolute currents of thought.
Historically, this was where Wang Su had directed his efforts.
He forcibly combined Xuanxue with Confucian Learning, easing the intellectual divisions to some extent and reassuring literati of different persuasions.
Many formidable figures actually lived in this era; they simply remained little known to later generations.
The reason Wang Su received a posthumous title several centuries later was his contribution to the classics.
But now, the situation throughout the realm had changed again. Cao Mao hoped to turn the literati's thinking around and reassure those Confucian scholars whose former beliefs had collapsed.
Just as he had in history, Wang Su had combined Xuanxue with the Confucian School.
He used it to reassure scholars in despair and find a basis for the imperial court's many policies.
His linking of the Three Ages of the Spring and Autumn Annals with the Nine Eulogies of the Supreme Mystery had its greatest effect not in saving the literati's face, but in restoring their shattered beliefs.
Those Han scholars who felt that benevolence, righteousness, and morality had failed to save the world need not despair. They had failed because the three ages had changed; their ideas were correct, merely unsuited to the present age.
Those Wei scholars who felt that quietude and nonaction could save the world need