A Research On The Philosophy Of Hu Hung's "Zhiyan"

Hu Hung was born in the end of the Northern Sung (960-1127) and lived in the Southern Sung (1127-1279). In the period, although culturally outstanding in Sung dynasty, the Southern Sung dynasty was under constant threat from outside tribes around the north border. Followed with the two Ch'eng Masters'School, Neo-Confucianism has become divided in two branches:the Tao Downward South School leaded by Yang Shi and the Hunan School created by Hu Anguo. Hu Hung developed the Hunan School followed by his farther Hu Anguo. Hu Hung's philosophy focued on two central ideas:firstly, Hu Hung considered his philosophy of one part of the orthodox line of transmission of the Tao or Truth followed by Mencius. He traced firstly the origin of Neo-Confucianism, and lined as followed:Chou Tun-yi, Shao Yung, Chang Tsai and the two Ch'eng Masters. Hu Hung's ideas recorded in Zhiyan, which was his major works on philosophy. Hu Hung devoted himself into reestablishing a new philosophical system that combined the New-Confucianism's theories and his father's ideas. Secondly, New-Confucianism showed its shortcomings on its development. Some Confucians indulged in thinking the abstract philosophical theory and ignored the instruction of practice of jen. And this practice leaded to the carrying out of one's responsibilities and duties in the society. Hu Hung thought these behaviors just went against Confucius's teachings, and he felt worried about the current situation. Thereby, Hu Hung focused on establishing the idea on nature and mind to resist the Buddhism and Taoism.Hu Hung wrote Zhiyan to express his new ideas. Zhiyan embodied Hu Hung's cosmology and theory of human nature. Hu Hung regarded "nature" as the entity the cosmos, and "nature" was also the inherent and unchanging entity of human moraltiy. Hu Hung said that nature was the intrinsic basis of Ch'i, and when Ch'i condensed and dispersed, it always behaves according its inherent reason. Nature works on Ch's and it can't exist without Ch'i. Human being is the unique living on the earth, because it possesses the pure and whole nature entity. According to Zhiyan, Hu Hung thought the nature of cosmos was identical and unified to the mind of mankind. He claimed that Confucians should realize and achieve the real nature of human. Hu Hung emphasized that we could carryout the nature through the practice of jen. We also could realize our nature by carefully observation on our mind and motives. Hu Hung suggested that Confucians could realize the nature by investigation of things. To realize and achieve the nature of ourselves, we could step on to a road which is much closer to "man of jen". "Man of jen" has the ability to dominate the Cosmo and things; he could also dominate his feelings and desires according to li and yi.Hu Hung inherited his father's ideas and traced Confucius and Mencius's spirit, and he united Yi Ching and Chung Yung theory of Cosmology, to establish his philosophy system to criticize the heresy of the Buddhism and Taoism. Hu Hung set up a new theory which is combined with nature. Compared with Ch'eng-Chu school (Scholl of laws and principles), Zhiyan reflected the characteristic that was closer to life of human and mind of us. Zhiyan was the name of Hu Hung's book and it also could embody the nature and point of his philosophy, thus I named it as Hu Hung's philosophy about nature and mind in this dissertation.