academic sectarianism; partisan bias
Meanings
1 sense · 3 examplesidiom
to hold sectarian views in scholarship; to treat one's own school as master and others as slaves; academic bias
literaryOriginating from Han Yu's Tang Dynasty essay "Yuan Dao" (On the Origin of the Way), this idiom originally described the tendency in religious or philosophical discourse to favor one school of thought while denigrating others—treating one's own beliefs as the "master" (主) and opposing views as "slaves" (奴). In modern usage, it primarily criticizes sectarian bias, partisanship, or closed-mindedness in academic or scholarly contexts.
One should not be sectarian in scholarship, but should widely adopt the strengths of various schools.
This scholar criticized the serious phenomenon of academic sectarianism present in current scholarly circles.
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His sectarian attitude made him unable to accept new academic viewpoints.