Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c7.s7.t7: Neo Confucianism of the Song and Ming Dynasties
Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c7.s7.t7
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Contents
- v1.c7.s7.t7.10 — 4 parts
Neo Confucianism of the Song and Ming Dynasties
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The philosophic thinking of Confucianism in Song and Ming dynasties was called “Lixue”, “Xinglixue” or “Daoxue”, each of those means Neo-Confucianism. The word “Neo-Confucianism” first appeared in Lou Guanfu’s memorial to the emperor that he used to asked a posthumous title for Zhou Dunyi. According to his statement, Lixue had already been reflected into people’s daily life, and later it begun to form a system by Confucius and then popularised by Zisi, and Mencius. During 1000 years from Han Dynasty to Tang Dynasties, different Confucians had different theories. However, the Confucianism restored its original appearance until Song and Ming Dynasties. Broadly speaking, “Lixue” includes “Xinxue”, which means the Neo-Confucian School of Mind and it is not contrary to “Lixue”. When the Confucians in Song Dynasty explained and interpreted Confucianism classics, they were against the ancient chapters kept exegetical study style from Han Dynasty to Tang Dynasty. On the contrary, they adhered to the principles of pursuing the Confucian classics argumentation, exploring the famous theories and even life, and their theories were called “Yilizhixue”, “Lixue” in short. Zhang Zai said “Yilizhixue needs to be further studied; otherwise, you won’t understand it completely by a superficial reading”; this statement has disclosed the complexity of Neo-Confucianism. “Lixue” takes the Confucianism as the core and
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Zheng Meng, block- printed edition, Qing Dynasty
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absorbs Buddhism and Taoism thinking patterns or their partial theories to act as its own supplement and development, so “Lixue” scholars were called “Neo- Confucians” by the missionaries. Compared with ancient Chinese local philosophy, the contents [Figure: The Three Religions Painting (San Jiao Tu), Ding Yunpeng, Qing Period]
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of "Lixue" was more profound, the theory was more complete and the thinking pattern was more complicated because it integrated Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism together.
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In the middle and later periods of Tang Dynasty, Han Yu, Li Ao and other scholars tried to change the study style since Han and Tang Dynasty. Han Yu wrote the book *Yuandao*, Li Ao wrote *Fuxingshu* (*Complexity of Human Nature*, Xing refers to Human Nature); they started to begin the transformation of Confucianism. Earlier, during the Song Dynasty, the famous Confucians such as Sun Fu, Hu Yuan and Shi Jie advocated "Taking humaneness and righteousness and music as learning contents" and took Confucian Orthodoxy as their own responsibility. They started the Neo-Confucianism in Song Dynasty and they were called "Three elites in the earlier of Song Dynasty" by later generations. Though "Yilizhixue" started by the three elites was not perfect. They gave priority to practicing personally, so they established the foundation of Neo-Confucianism. What's more, the study style advocated by them got rid of the ancient chapters kept exegetical study style, so they were called the forerunners of "Lixue". But the actual inaugurator of Neo-Confucianism was Zhou Dunyi. He wrote the book - *Interpretation of Tai-chi Diagram* in which he pointed out many elementary statements, such as the generation and development of the Universe, the prevalence of the Principle of Heaven and life of human beings, and the new development direction of Neo-Confucianism. Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi, two brothers in Henan, were students of Zhou Dunyi, and they insisted to regard the "Li (Principle)" as the foundation of study. Later, they preached in the capital of their country, and had many followers. At the same time, Zhang Zai and Shao Yong also pursued the doctrine and strived to practice personally; they preached and taught apprentices, and "Lixue" was prevalent for a long period. Zhang Zai wrote *Zhengmeng*, *Tongshu*, *Ximing*, *Dongming* those books, paid more attention to the learning of sages, and obeyed the principle of practicing personally strictly, while Shao Yong was famous for his *Huang Ji Jing Shi Book*, *Guan Wu WaiPian* Book and *Yin ChuanJi Rang Ji Book*. Though his knowledge was the same with the spirit of humaneness and righteousness, courtesy and music, his opinions about the change of the Universe were unique. Shao paid more attention to the research of divination; he once precast that Wang Anshi would be the Prime Minister (in feudal China) of Song Dynasty and many other things as well. In Southern Song Dynasty, Chu Hsi learned the philosophy of Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi mainly, as well as other Confucians and then he appointed Neo-Confucianism as the main philosophy in the society and finally became an agglomeration of different thoughts; he preached Confucian classics argumentation and wrote books. After that, Daoism became prevalent. People in
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[Figure: 'Question and Answers about the Catalogue of Books (Shu mu da wen)', Saoye Shanfang Stone Printed Edition, 1925]
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later generations regarded the schools represented by Zhou Dunyi, Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi, Zhang Zai, Shao Yong, and Chu Hsi as Lian, Luo, Guan and Min School. Together with Chu Hsi, Lu Jiuyuan, Lv Zuqian, Chen Liang, Ye Shi and other scholars were also famous across the country. Lu Jiuyuan started "Xinxue", took "enlightening the mind" as the principle; he thought that "Mind is Principle", put forward "the Universe is my mind and my mind is the Universe', which was excellent and outstanding and had a trend to surpass the philosophies of Cheng Hao, Cheng Yi and Chu Hsi. Lv Zuqian combined the theories of different scholars and was famous for his various learning; while the theories of Chen Liang and Ye Shi reflected their minds of obtaining justice and benefit, which was thought to be the utilitarianism. Between Jin and Yuan Dynasties, the trend of study was weakened and there was no distinguished scholar; until the middle of Ming Dynasty, Yu Yao and Wang Yangming who were not successful of being officials started researching Xinxun, the Neo-Confucian School of Mind. They followed Lu Jiuyuan's philosophy, and put forward the thoughts "Nothing outside the Mind" and "No principle outside the Mind", regarded "Conscience" as the root and emphasised "The Unity of Knowing and Doing". Chen Xianzhang, at the same time with Wang Yangming, came up with "to know the truth with peaceful and clarified mind". It also inherited the trend of Lu Jiuyuan. The Confucians in Qing Dynasty just inherited the theories of former Confucians and didn't put forward any other excellent theories, and they even criticised that Xinxue in Song and Ming Dynasty was empty, and then restored the chapters kept exegetical study style in Han and Tang Dynasty. However, the Neo-Confucianism didn't vanish, it only existed weakly. Listed in Zhang Zhidong's book, *Questions and Answers about the Catalogue of Books*, there still were 22 Confucians. During the period of Republican of China, there were many scholars who were famous for their Neo-Confucianism theories, such as Ma Yifu, in Kuaiji, etc. The main schools of Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasty can be summarised with eight words, and they are "Lian, Luo, Guan, Min and Cheng, Chu, Lu, Wang Schools".
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From left: Meng Zi, Han Yu, Zhou Dunyi, Li Ao and Zhang Zai
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Zhou Dunyi pointed out the theories of Tai Chi, Yin and Yang, and the run of five phases in his book *Interpretation of Tai Chi Diagram*. He used the concept of "Tai Chi" first in this book, and established the elementary theme of Neo-Confucianism. Shao Yong once said "the nature of Tai Chi is unchanged permanently, however, everything in the world changes all the time", which also regarded Daoism as Tai Chi, and regarded "mind" as Tai Chi. But Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi didn't talk about Tai Chi, they put forward "the Principle of Heaven", they thought that "Everything only has one Principle of Heaven", "the Principle comes out first and then there comes Xiang, after that, the Shu comes out"; though Zhang Zai put forward "Nothingness is the root of the world" and thought that everything was "Qi", he also put forward "though the principle is one thing. It can be reflected differently in different forms" which meant the Principle existed in Qi. Chu Hsi said "before the generation of the planet, there only existing the Principle", "the Principle is the root of everything; Qi is the image or form of everything". They all regarded the principle as the root of the Universe and the reason why everything came into being.
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As for what is the principle, Cheng Hao, Cheng Yi, Chu Hsi, Lu Jiuyuan and Wang Yangming all had different opinions. Cheng Yi pointed out that "Human Nature is the Principle". He said "Human Nature is the Principle and the Principle is Human Nature as well'. He also said that "the Principle belongs to the Heaven, if it is gifted to human, it shall be called human nature; if it is spoken by human beings then it shall be called human mind". Yang Shi explicated "Xing is 'Human Nature'; action along the human nature is principle. Human nature, life and principle belong to one part but with different name, originally there is no difference. Speaking of life is the heaven; speaking of the human nature is the world; speaking of the principle is the action." He thought the principle and human nature are the same and the only difference between them was that the objects that they adhered to were different. Chu Hsi spoke highly of Cheng Yi's opinion — the Principle is Human Nature, he said "since Confucius, this statement of Cheng Yi is the most accurate", "everything in the world has their nature and human beings are born with the temperament of humanness, righteousness and benevolence", which combined the Principle and Qi together to the object of a man. At the same time, he also pointed out that "Human Nature" is different when it adheres to different objects and there exists differences between Nature of the Heaven and Nature of Temperament.
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This difference also originated from Cheng Yi. He said "a man's nature comes from the heaven and his talents come from his temperament. If he has good temperament, then he possesses good talents, vice versa”, thought that human beings were different from each other because of their temperament, though they received the same principle of heaven, there still existed many differences, or in other way, Human Nature presented by different people was different from the principle of heaven itself. Cheng Hao once said “Mind is Li and Li is Mind”; Xie Shangcai also said, “Mind is the principle of heaven”. Lu Jiuyuan and Wang Yangming further claimed “Mind is Li”, Lu Jiuyuan advocated that “Xinxue” was powerful and should be respected by people, he said “Mind is the only one. Principle is the only one as well. Both, Mind and Principle, are unique and the two of them won’t exist”. “Everyone has a Mind and Mind is Li. So mind is Li”. He thought that mind of human beings was the principle of heaven and due to the impediment of bad habits, the principle of heaven could not be spread, and the mind was stifled. Wang Yangming also said “mind is Li, and is there anything or any principle that exists beyond the mind?” he thought that principle existed within the mind, so he advocated the learning of “To Conscience”. Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi and Chu Hsi thought that Human Nature was principle, logically thought that human nature was not kind, but the principle of heaven was;
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Lu Jiuyuan and Wang Yangming thought that mind is principle, which meant human nature was kind, but it needed to return to the conscience to remove bad habits and obtain the original nature. As for the question of human mind and Taoist mind, Chu Hsiand Lu Jiuyuan had different opinions; their divergences reflected in the difference and uniform of “nature is principle” and “mind is principle”. “There are many uncertainties in the mind of human being, and human nature is delicate, so if you want to understand human nature, you need to constantly strive for perfection, concentrate on what you are doing, and adhere to the Doctrine of the Mean strictly”, this is a sentence in the book of *Shangshu*, and it is the thought of the Confucians of Song and Ming Dynasty and it is very important. Chu Hsi said “if the Mind can sense the Principle, then it is Path-Consciousness; but if it is controlled by greedy, it is just the human mind”. He thought “Path-Consciousness comes from the Principle and Human Mind comes from the human body, so even the sages cannot get rid of human mind”. However, Lu Jiuyuanput forward totally reversed opinion, he said “everyone has one mind, can anyone possesses two minds?” Wang Yangming also thought “Everyone only has one mind, and if his mind is not affected by bad things, then it can be called Path-Consciousness. However, if it is affected badly, it is only called popular feeling.
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If a man could keep his faith firmly, than he has the Path-Consciousness, but if he lost his Path-Consciousness, then he just possessed dominant feeling. This means that no one has two minds”.
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The prevalence of Buddhism has promoted the new development of Confucianism. On the one hand, the Confucians in Song and Ming Dynasty tried to establish their own philosophy to compete with Buddhism, and they formed their own theories; on the other hand, some Confucians were deeply inspired by Buddhism, and they deepened Confucianism theory. Zhang Zai pointed out “Taixu is mind” to repel Buddhism, because Buddhism had the saying of “Everything in the world is illusory”. Chu Hsi used sentences in Buddhism to interpret the features of mind and good quality, such as “People who are indifferent to fame or wealth can sense everything”, “Human’s nature is rational, so they can handle everything”, etc. This kind of action was mocked by Buddhists in Ming Dynasty, they mocked that Chu Hsi learned from Buddhism and looked down upon it at the same time. Chu Hsi used the metaphor “The Moon Reflected in All Rivers” of Buddhism to interpret “Li Yi Fen Shu”, which means that everything was included in Tai Chi completely. He said, “Tai Chi is only one single object, however, everything has its own nature and they are all reflected in Tai Chi. It is similar to the moon, which is the only one existed in the sky, however it can be reflected in all rivers and seen everywhere, but we cannot say that the moon is divided into different pieces”. Confucians in Song and Ming Dynasty advocated the “Idea of Respect”. Cheng Yi said, “improving self-control needs the idea of respect”, the so-called respect means that you need to concentrate on the
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From left: *Cheng Hao, Cheng Yi, Zhu Xi, Lv Zuqian and Lu Jiuyuan* thing that you are doing, and don’t be tempted by outside things, and advocated meditation, and used meditation to practice Confucianism theory and improve self-cultivation. The idea of respect is similar to the Meditation Kung fu of Buddhism. Meditation was rare used by the Confucians in Pre-Qin Period and Han and Tang Dynasty, but the Confucians in Song Dynasty regarded it as a way to improve self-cultivation. As the forerunner of Neo-Confucianism, Cheng Hao obtained his learning from researching the Six Classics, “research the Buddhism for decades with no achievements, however, obtain a lot after researching the Six Classics”. Thus, Buddhism has profound influence on the establishment of Neo-Confucianism.