Chang Hsüeh-ch’eng (1738–1801), Chinese historian and philosopher who devised a dialectical theory of civilization in which beliefs, practices, institutions, and arts developed in response to natural necessities. This process reached its zenith several centuries before Confucius, who is unique in being the sage destined to record this moment. Chang’s teaching, ‘the Six Classics are all history,’ means the classics are not theoretical statements about the tao (Way) but traces of it in operation. In the ideal age, a unity of chih (government) and chiao (teaching) prevailed; there were no private disciplines or schools of learning and all writing was anonymous, being tied to some official function. Later history has meandered around this ideal, dominated by successive ages of philosophy, philology, and literature. P.J.I.