The Study On Formation Process Of Feng Congwu’s Neo-Confucianism Ideology

Feng Congwu,styled zhonghao,was also known by his literary name shaoxu.Feng was born in Chang’an County,Xi’an Prefecture,Shaanxi Province in 1557,and died in 1627.Lecturing for nearly thirty years in his life,Feng was an important Neo-Confucianist in Wanli and Tianqi years,and the leader of Guanzhong Neo-Confucianism in the late Ming Dynasty.In the ideological transformation gradually carried out in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties with the criticism and revision of Yangmingism,Feng Congwu actively responded to the problem of the style of study in the times,organically integrated various ideological sources,and formed his own unique Neo-Confucianism thought in lectures and speculation.Feng Congwu had a difficult career in his life.He was full of the ideal of Emperor Yao and Shun to become an official,but he was constrained by the turbulent political situation,so he returned to give lectures for 26 years until his 60s.The conversion of official and hermit status divided his life into three stages.His writings and quotations in the three stages clearly reflect the process of the development and maturity of Neo-Confucianism.On the basis of analyzing the environment and ideological trends of the times,as well as the ideological origin accepted by Feng Congwu,this paper examines the formation process of his Neo-Confucianism through the phased study of his life and thought.The first stage of Feng Congwu’s life began in his early years of study,with the 26 th year of Wanli(1598)as the lower limit.He entered the official career as a traditional Confucian scholar.After the disillusionment of the external king ideal of "dejun xingdao"(realising the Dao by getting support from the emperor),he turned to lecture as the external expression of Confucian ideal personality.Through the reinterpretation of Four Books,he effectively hit back at the new interpretations of Four Books on the confluence of Confucianism and Buddhism in the late Ming Dynasty.The lower limit of the second stage is the return of Feng Congwu to Beijing in the first year of Tianqi(1621).The unity of Feng Congwu’s noumenon and work became more and more mature at this stage,and the momentum of lectures became more powerful,and began to radiate outside Xi ’an.During this period,he constructed a unique ontology with the principle as core,and captured the identity of the mind,the human nature,the emotion and the principle.At the same time,through the preparation of Records of Guanzhong Neo-Confucianism,he clarified the orthodoxy of Guanzhong Neo-Confucianism,and applied the idealized orthodoxy to the realistic moral education.Feng Congwu strengthened the practice of realising the Dao by lectures,and made efforts to deal with the practical problems caused by "unprosperous learning" with these two aspects of thought.In the third stage of Feng Congwu’s life,he once again got the opportunity to enter Beijing to save the country.This experience focused on the conflict between his thought and reality.After the previous lecture practice,in the face of the critical situation,he still firmly replaced the route of "dejun xingdao" with the route of"juemin xingdao"(realizing the Dao by enlightening and mobilizing people).He hoped to realize the ambition of giving lectures to help the country by virtue of the great influence of lectures in Beijing.However,this vision was soon destroyed with the ban on the lectures of Shoushan Academy.This conflict was not only the inevitable result of collective unconscious behavior under the atmosphere of party struggle at that time,but also reflected the difficulty of bridging Feng Congwu ’s thought and historical reality.In the surging wave of the ideological circle in the late Ming Dynasty,Feng Congwu was a firm practitioner of subject morality.Under his idea of consistency of the mind,the human nature and the principle dominated by the principle,he carried forward the morality of the subject through practice.This kind of moral practice provides a new way to save the abuses of post Yangmingism,which has a value that cannot be ignored.