The Development and Characteristics of Neo-Confucianism in Song Dynasty

Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties is Confucianism from Song to Ming Dynasty. Although it is Confucianism, it draws lessons from Taoism, metaphysics and even Taoism and Buddhism.

During the reign of Jiayou Zhiping in the Northern Song Dynasty (1056- 1067), Confucianism developed into Wang Anshi School, Sima Guang Wengong School and Su Shi's Shu School.

Later, Zhou Lian Xi's Lianxue, Zhang Zai's Guan Xue and Cheng Cheng (Cheng Hao, Cheng Yi)' s Luo Xue were famous for their dual nature theory. Later, Luo Xue was carried forward by Zhu and founded in Fujian, becoming an orthodox Neo-Confucianism. Lian, Luo, Guan and Min are called the four schools of Neo-Confucianism. The actual founders of Neo-Confucianism were Zhou Dunyi, Shao Yong, Zhang Zai and two Cheng brothers (Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi), all of whom came together by Zhu in the Southern Song Dynasty. Established a relatively complete system of objective idealism. Putting forward that "reason" exists before heaven and earth will take a general position. He advocates "that is, poverty" as a learning. Contrary to Zhu, Lu Jiuyuan's subjective idealism put forward the proposition that "the universe is my heart". In the Ming Dynasty, Wang Shouren further developed Lu Jiuyuan's theory, holding that there is nothing outside the heart and that it is unreasonable outside the heart, and asserted that the clarity of the heart is the foundation of all things in the universe. For top student, "clearing body and mind" and "leading to conscience". In addition, the theory of Qi monism put forward by Zhang Zai in the Northern Song Dynasty is completely different from that of Cheng Er. Wang Tingxiang in Ming Dynasty, Wang Fuzhi and Yan Yuan in early Qing Dynasty all opposed Zhu Cheng and Lu Wang. A Brief Introduction to Zoey by Dai Zhen concluded that "reason lies in desire" and pointed out that "the post-Confucianism killed people with reason", which strongly criticized Neo-Confucianism.

Neo-Confucianism was first named in the Southern Song Dynasty. Zhu once said that "Neo-Confucianism is the most difficult", and Lu Jiuyuan also said that "Neo-Confucianism in this dynasty is far better than Han and Tang Dynasties". In the Ming Dynasty, Neo-Confucianism became a concept that specifically referred to the academic system formed since the Song Dynasty.

Neo-Confucianism has broad sense and narrow sense. Neo-Confucianism in a broad sense refers to the dominant Confucian philosophical system formed since the Song and Ming Dynasties, including: (1) Taoism dominated by Luo studies in the Song Dynasty, and the ideological system with "Li" as the highest category, which reached its peak in the Southern Song Dynasty and was later used to referring to his ideological system with "Li". (2) The ideological system with "mind" as the highest category came into being in the Song Dynasty and dominated in the middle and late Ming Dynasty. The Theory of Mind and Nature represented by Lu Jiuyuan and Wang Shouren. Neo-Confucianism in a narrow sense refers to the Zhu Cheng School.

Representative figures: Northern Song Dynasty: Zhou Dunyi, Zhang Zai, Cheng Hao, Cheng Yi and Shao Yong. That is, the five sons of the Northern Song Dynasty; Southern Song Dynasty: Zhu and Lu Jiuyuan; Ming Dynasty: Wang Yangming. As far as the dominant ideological trend is concerned, the official representative of Neo-Confucianism can be summarized as "Zhu Cheng Lu Wang". The influence is Zhang Shao.

Main schools: According to the usual practice of modern academic circles, the Neo-Confucianism system in Song and Ming Dynasties can be divided into four schools: Qi (represented by Zhang Zai), Mathematics (represented by Shao Yong), Neo-Confucianism (represented by thought) and Mind (represented by thought).

The issues discussed by Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties are different due to different periods and schools. An important difference between Neo-Confucianism and Confucianism before the Tang Dynasty is that the four books have become the main classics of respecting faith. The value system and the kung fu system are all in the four books. Five classics are coarse grains, and four books are cooked rice. The main basis of Neo-Confucianism and the issues discussed are closely related to The Analects of Confucius, Mencius, Daxue and The Doctrine of the Mean. The main issues discussed in Neo-Confucianism are generally: regulating qi, mind, respecting things, knowing, respecting calmness, self-restraint, knowing and doing, developing without development, virtue and mind, and the nature of destiny.

The Song, Yuan and Ming Dynasties was another peak of China's cultural and philosophical development. Because the main representative form of China's philosophy in Song and Ming Dynasties was Neo-Confucianism, people used to refer to the philosophy of this period with the concept of Neo-Confucianism.

Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties is a historical statement of Confucianism. After the transformation of Confucianism metaphysics in Wei and Jin Dynasties, Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties was a powerful revival of Confucianism that had gradually declined since Sui and Tang Dynasties. This movement to revive Confucianism was initiated by Wang Tong in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, followed by Han Yu, Li Ao and Liu Zongyuan after the mid-Tang Dynasty, which became a grand spectacle in the Song Dynasty and formed a huge and far-reaching Confucian movement. In terms of time, this Confucian movement lasted until the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and its influence continued until the present age. In space, this Confucian movement is not limited to the hometown of Confucianism, but also involves East Asian countries influenced by Confucianism, so that in these countries, the so-called Confucianism is mainly Neo-Confucianism (or Neo-Confucianism); Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties was a positive response of ambitious and thoughtful academic groups in China at that time to real social problems and cultural challenges from foreign Buddhism and local Taoism. On the basis of digesting and absorbing the thoughts of Taoism and Buddhism, they launched a so-called cultural offensive against Buddhism and Taoism, which was similar to Mencius' "opening the sun at the end of the Han Dynasty", trying to solve the extremely serious crisis of faith and morality in China society since the end of the Han Dynasty.

Neo-Confucianism in the Song and Ming Dynasties reflected the philosophical wisdom of thoughtful and knowledgeable China people in the later period of China ancient society, and profoundly influenced the social development and civilization trend in the later period of China ancient society. Modern China people still have to face its social and cultural consequences. However, it is precisely this intellectual achievement that successfully responded to the Buddha's later years and brought Confucianism back to the orthodox position.

We study the philosophical wisdom of Neo-Confucianism not only to understand how it answered and solved the social and cultural problems at that time, but also to help us think about some philosophical problems that are still of great significance to the present age, such as "What is the spirit of the Chinese nation", "How to correctly deal with foreign cultures" and "How to correctly face and deal with the common crisis of faith and morality among members of society". Re-establishing the belief of China people is the significance of the wisdom of Neo-Confucianism.

main feature

Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties, as a new ideological system, undoubtedly has many contents. But in general, it has at least the following two main characteristics.

(A) speculative Confucianism

Different from Confucianism in pre-Qin, Han and Tang Dynasties, a prominent feature of Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties is speculative.

After Buddhism was introduced into China, it deeply attracted Confucian intellectuals because of its three generations of karma, and also stimulated the development of Buddhism and China's local religions-Taoism and Confucianism. But relatively speaking, the response of Confucianism generally lags behind. In the Tang Dynasty, people of insight among Confucian scholars such as Han Yu and Li Ao realized that Confucianism was facing serious cultural challenges from Buddhism and Taoism, especially from foreign Buddhism. However, their approach to this problem is relatively simple. Han Yu advocated that "man's book is a fire" and used the administrative intervention of the government to prohibit the spread and development of Buddhism. Li Ao thought deeply, and advocated aiding Taoism into Confucianism, embracing Buddhism with Confucianism to solve the impact of Buddhist culture.

Neo-Confucianism in the Song Dynasty realized that one of the main reasons why Confucianism was challenged by Buddhism and Taoism was that Confucianism itself was seriously deficient in metaphysics. Most of the original Confucian classics have been lost, and a large number of bamboo slips have only been unearthed in modern times. Therefore, how to demonstrate the legitimacy and inevitability of Confucianism from the philosophical ontology has become an important topic of Confucianism. In the pre-Qin period, Mencius demonstrated the Confucian theory of good nature from the perspective of "four ends", Xunzi demonstrated the theory of evil nature from the perspective of sexual falsehood, and Dong Zhongshu grafted Confucian morality on the world outlook that paid attention to yin and yang disasters, and made a theological demonstration of Confucianism. In the view of Neo-Confucians in Song and Ming Dynasties, these previous arguments were either "unprepared" (inadequate, such as Mencius) or "unknown" (confused or wrong, such as Xunzi and Yang Xiong), while Dong Shi's theory of yin and yang was more superficial and actually went astray.

In order to establish the metaphysics of Confucianism, on the one hand, the neo-Confucianists learn from the achievements of Taoism, metaphysics and even Taoism and Buddhism in philosophical ontology, on the other hand, they look for factors that can be used to construct philosophical metaphysics in traditional Confucianism, such as the Taoist and instrumental views of Zhouyi, which is listed as the first of the six classics and has the most metaphysical nature, Confucius' benevolence and Mencius' The Mean. On the basis of absorbing and utilizing foreign and traditional civilization achievements, Neo-Confucianism creatively put forward many unique Confucian metaphysical ontological concepts, and gave systematic philosophical arguments, such as Zhou Dunyi, Shao Yong's Taiji, Zhang Zai's Taixu, Er Cheng and Zhu's, Wang Anshi's Tao, Lu Jiuyuan's ... "Heart", and so on. Traditional Confucianism was transformed by Neo-Confucianism, and the theoretical system of moral creed eventually became a philosophical theoretical system based on philosophical metaphysics. In this respect, it embodies the philosophical wisdom created by Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties.

(B) Confucianism with ethics as the core

From the development of Confucianism itself, Neo-Confucianism, as a philosophical trend of thought or a revival movement of Confucianism, emphasizes the theory of righteousness, which is a kind of reaction to Confucianism in Han and Tang Dynasties, showing the momentum that Han and Tang Dynasties abandoned the theory of exegetics, directly faced the classics and returned to the way of saints, which is quite a bit of a "renaissance". Neo-Confucianism flaunts its own theory as "practical learning" and "telling the truth", and criticizes Buddha's theory as "virtual learning" and "virtual theory", as well as the study of chapters and sentences in Han and Tang Dynasties and the study of poetry. The difference between truth and falsehood lies in whether to emphasize Confucian justice. The righteousness emphasized by Neo-Confucianism is essentially the Confucian ethical theory, including the rigid human relations advocated by Confucianism and the "why" and "why" contained in it.

As far as its content is concerned, compared with Confucianism in the East History of Han Dynasty, the justice emphasized by Neo-Confucianism is not in political philosophy, but in ethics. Compared with pre-Qin Confucianism, its discussion of ethics and morality focuses more on the expression of philosophy. Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties put forward a series of philosophical categories and theoretical structures with a very logical level to Confucian ethics and morality theory. Various ontologies of Neo-Confucianism, the theory of human nature as a moral basis, the theory of self-cultivation, the epistemology of "weight" or "center of gravity", the theory of the realm of saints' sanctification, and the functional theory of repairing peace are all centered on ethics and morality.

Looking at Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties, the theory of mind is not interested in anything other than ethics. Due to the theoretical guidance of "attaching importance to things but being poor in reason", the Neo-Confucianism seems to have a tendency to understand the reason of everything beyond the narrow scope of ethics. But its theoretical purpose is still to grasp the inevitability, universality and absoluteness of Confucian ethics. Therefore, both the cosmology, ontology and epistemology of Neo-Confucianism can be simply compared with western philosophy. The object of its thinking is not nature and everything, but ethics and morality. Its theoretical purport lies not in human rationality's grasp of natural objects and human rationality itself, but in human understanding of the legitimacy of social ethical values and norms and individual moral consciousness.