Baihu Tong
白虎通德論 (Comprehensive Discussions in the White Tiger Hall)
Where the transmitted classics disagree on ritual, cosmology, or institutions, an emperor-convened conference of scholars can issue an authoritative, binding resolution, and the correspondences of yin-yang and the five phases provide the underlying logic by which such disputes should be settled.
- imperially convened conference resolving classical disputes
- yin-yang and five-phase correlative cosmology as adjudicating logic
- resolution of New Text/Old Text textual disagreements
- state adjudication, not just sponsorship, of classical scholarship
An official record, compiled by the historian Ban Gu, of a conference convened by Emperor Zhang in AD 79 at the White Tiger Hall in Luoyang to resolve disputes among the rival textual traditions ('New Text' and 'Old Text') of the Confucian classics on questions of ritual, cosmology, and institutional design. Organized topically rather than as a transcript of debate, it presents settled, authoritative answers grounded in yin-yang and five-phase correlative cosmology in the tradition established by Dong Zhongshu's Chunqiu Fanlu, effectively using imperial authority to fix official interpretation where the classics themselves were ambiguous or contradictory. It stands as the clearest surviving example of the Han state actively adjudicating classical scholarship rather than merely sponsoring it.
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