What is practical?

Practical application means that learning must be beneficial to national affairs.

The word pragmatic was put forward by thinkers Wang Fuzhi, Huang Zongxi and Gu in Ming and Qing Dynasties. They believe that learning and quoting ancient articles and actions should focus on managing affairs and saving the world, and oppose the unrealistic and empty learning of pseudo-Neo-Confucianism at that time, which has a great influence on future generations.

The history of practical thought can be traced back at least to Confucius, a pre-Qin thinker. Confucianism founded by Confucius is the essence of Chinese civilization. A careful analysis of Confucianism shows that traditional Confucianism itself is a kind of "philosophy of joining the WTO".

Confucius spared no effort to publicize his thoughts, with the aim of changing the situation of social unrest, ritual collapse and bad music at the end of the Spring and Autumn Period and restoring his ideal social order. In addition, as an ideological system, an important feature of Confucianism is that it is not speculative.

Extended data:

The ideological trend of practical application in Ming Dynasty and its characteristics

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, due to the prevalence of Wang Yangming's post-learning, the style of study of scholars was "binding without reading, wandering without roots" (Huang Zongxi's language), which was extremely sparse. Some people play tricks on the front, do code words, and are almost crazy Zen. In view of the lack of study style in the late Ming Dynasty, some scholars advocated "practical learning" in the early Qing Dynasty.

The so-called "practical learning", in the words of Yan Xizhai at that time, is "practical learning, practical teaching, practice and practical learning", and a central idea that runs through this so-called "practical learning" is the spirit of practical application.

The so-called practical application is to oppose the separation of academic research from the current social reality and emphasize the connection between academic research and real politics. By reading ancient records, we can give full play to our academic and political opinions and use them to transform society.