Heresy、enlightenment And Reversion

Taizhou School is a unique one in modern Chinese philosophical history, holding a historic position. Most people of this school came from underclass, they inherited Wang Yangming’s Xin Xue, but their theories are different from the orthodox theories. In academia, there are many disputes over the ascription, disciples and ideological orientation of Taizhou School. Using "The way ordinary people live is the truth" as its core idea, Taizhou School, with many characteristics such as natural, pragmatic, chivalrous etc., is the most civilian one among the great many inheritors of Wang Yangming’s theories.Taizhou School, for its radical theories of "against to tradition","no Saint and no rules"and uninhibited behaviors, had greatly impacted on the traditional Confucianism and Feudalism, for which it had been criticized as a heresy. What it advocates are "natural humanity","treating divine and ordinary as the same","not taking what Kongzi said as the truth" which are exactly not tolerated by the mainstream ideas that is Chen and Zhu’s Neo-Confucianism. While this heresy embodying liberalism, liberation of humanities, people-orientation, etc., stands exactly against the defects of Chen and Zhu’s Neo-Confucianism, criticizing the constraints of humanities of Chen and Zhu’s Neo-Confucianism. This criticism gives a new explanation of Confucianism and development of the concealed thoughts of Yangmingism.To some extent, it is a kind of reversion to Kong Qiu. Heresy, enlightenment and reversion, the three intrinsic attributes which are relatively independent and influential to each other composes the ideological elasticity of Taizhou School.Wang Gen, the initiator of Taizhou School, and Li Zhi, who is a typical character in the later stage, are the symbols of Taizhou School. As their theories are very representative, this essay, taking two typical figures of Taizhou School, Wang Gen and Li Zhi, explores the connotation and embodiment of heresy, enlightenment and reversion of Taizhou School, trying to make a simple research of the ideological elasticity of Taizhou School, expecting to have a general understanding of Taizhou School theories.