The Study Of Cheng Tingzuo's New Neo-confucianism Thought

Cheng Tingzuo was a famous Neo-Confucianist and Confucian scholar during the period from Kangxi to Qianlong in Qing dynasty.He was originally from Huizhou an d settled in Jinling,In the era when Cheng Tingzuo lived,although Cheng Zhu's Neo-Confuc ianism was still respected by the government,it was gradually ossified in theory and seldom i nnovated.On the contrary,in the early Qing dynasty,the study of classics and world affairs fel l into a decline,and the textual research of sinology was flourishing day by day.Under suc h a background,Cheng Tingzuo adhered to the way of governing the classics of the Han and S ong dynasties,and took the aim of applying the classics to practical use.He absorbed the prac tical thoughts of Yan and Li,integrated the Neo-Confucianism into the study of Confucian cla ssics,and reinvented the Neo-Confucianism through the study of Confucian classics,tried t o construct a new Neo-Confucianism system with distinctive characteristics of the times.Cheng Tingzuo's the commentary of Analects(?????),was a book that could r epresents his ideas very well.In addition,Yuan dao,Yuan xin,Yuan ren,and other elucidation s of his philosophical essays had also improved the framework of his Neo-Confucianism const ruction to varying degrees.The annotation of the scriptures and the elucidations of the princip les of the article,on behalf of his various attempts to explore the principles.Cheng Tingzuo's Neo-Confucianism system mainly consists of three parts:Firstly,the cosmological structur e with ethical color.While persisting in the thought of"Qi monism",Cheng Tingzuo added et hical feelings to the traditional material"Qi",which greatly expanded the internal tension an d laid a solid foundation for the construction of Neo-Confucianism.Secondly,the theory of m ind leading to the practice of actual morality.It not only eliminates the defect of emptiness,bu t also emphasizes to give play to people's subjective initiative,so as to achieve the unity of int ernal and external motivation.Thirdly,the theory of combining knowledge with practice wit h the aim of"establishing humanity".Through the analysis of"consistency"in the analects o f Confucius,Cheng Tingzuo integrated knowledge and practice,and made clear the specific w ay of"establishing humanity".Finally,through the overall analysis and grasp of Cheng Tingz uo's thought,the relationship between him and Yan and Li will emerge.We affirm Cheng Tingzuo learned from YanLi's thought,but also can't ignore his innovation in the Neo-Confucian ism.To break away from the identity of"YanLi's later studies"is more conducive to make a m ore objective and fair evaluation of his studies.Cheng Tingzuo lives in the dark Neo-Confucianism era,but he tried to construct a new frame of Neo-Confucianism by annotating the classics and writing the articles of righteousness.This not only reflected the thoughts of Cheng Tingzuo,but also show ed the diversified styles of learning in the middle of Qing dynasty,which promoted t he transformation of Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming dynasties to Neo-Confuciani sm in Qing dynasty.