Qingtan translated as "pure conversation," was a movement related to Taoism

Taoism

Taoism refers to a philosophical or religious tradition in which the basic concept is to establish harmony with the Tao , which is the mechanism of everything that exists...

 that developed during the Wei

Cao Wei

Cao Wei was one of the states that competed for control of China during the Three Kingdoms period. With the capital at Luoyang, the state was established by Cao Pi in 220, based upon the foundations that his father Cao Cao laid...

-Jin (魏晉) period and continued on through the Southern and Northern dynasties

Southern and Northern Dynasties

The Southern and Northern Dynasties was a period in the history of China that lasted from 420 to 589 AD. Though an age of civil war and political chaos, it was also a time of flourishing arts and culture, advancement in technology, and the spreading of Mahayana Buddhism and Daoism...

. Qingtan involved witty conversation or debates about metaphysics and philosophy. It was especially popular in the south during the Southern and Northern dynasties among the educated elite. The most prominent practitioners of qingtan were the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove

Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove

The Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove were a group of Chinese Taoist Qingtan scholars, writers, and musicians who came together in the 3rd century CE. Although the individual members all existed, their interconnection is not entirely certain...

. Pure conversation has often been compared to the Zen

Zen

Zen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism founded by the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma. The word Zen is from the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word Chán , which in turn is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyāna, which can be approximately translated as "meditation" or "meditative state."Zen...

 practice of koan.

See also

• Xuanxue
  Xuanxue
  Xuanxue , Neo-Taoism, or Neo-Daoism is the focal school of thought in Chinese philosophy from the third to sixth century CE. Xuanxue philosophers combined elements of Confucianism and Taoism to reinterpret the Yijing, Daodejing, and Zhuangzi.The name compounds xuan 玄 "black, dark; mysterious,...
  
  
• :fr:Liu Yiqing (劉義慶); Anecdotes contemporaines et nouveaux propos 世說新語 (Shi shuo xin yu)

External links

• The voices of Wei-Jin scholars: A study of 'qingtan'
• Qingtan, or ch’ing-t’an, or pure conversation, (Chinese philosophy in Encyclopædia Britannica).
• Vom traditionellen China zum modernen Taiwan (German)
• Ch'ing-t’an (German)