Plucking Hairs and Shaving Heads: Li Zhi’s Repudiation of Yang Zhu

Li Zhi 李贄 (1527-1602), a notorious iconoclast and individualist, might be expected to share some common ground with Yang Zhu 楊朱 (4th c BCE), and the ‘egoism’ with which Yang is commonly associated. Li resigned from office to pursue the pleasures of intellectual self-cultivation. Symbolically dodging any claims his family might try to make on him, he even shaved his head and adopted some aspects of Buddhist monastic life-—but only those aspects which suited him. He explicitly stated that he was (or wanted to be) loved “for himself” rather than for any of the social roles he would naturally be expected to fill. And he accused all his eminent contemporaries of hypocrisy by pointing out that self-interest played just as strong a motivating role in their lives as it did in the lives of common people. Despite this superficial similarity, all of Li Zhi’s references to Yang Zhu are negative and disapproving. Did Li Zhi truly draw a principled distinction between his own beliefs and those he ascribed to Yang Zhu? The following investigation will analyse Li Zhi’s references to Yang Zhu within the broader context of his life and work, concluding that, while Li Zhi’s contemporaries saw him as a Yang Zhu type figure, Li Zhi himself vehemently denied the comparison and the criticism behind it; from his perspective, his own motivations and overall project were entirely distinct from the ideas and attitudes he associated with Yang Zhu. Far from hesitating to pluck out a single hair for the sake of the world, he considered himself to be one who would shave his entire head. Despite his refusal to conform to contemporary norms of harmonious and pro-social behaviour, he did see himself as “doing for the realm” (or indeed for all living beings) and not merely for himself.