Study On The Studies Of Mencius In The Song Dynasty

The studies of Mencius in the Song Dynasty which was an important part of the academic-ideology in the Song Dynasty was not studied in depth by people. Until this day, there are not any academic books published about the studies of Mencius in the Song Dynasty, and special thesis on it could be counted on fingers. In view of this condition, in this article the author decided to make a systemic and all-round study on the studies of Mencius in the Song Dynasty. In this article, the author has some new viewpoints as follows:First, there were four kind forces that played important role in the movement of Mencius status raised. The scholars in the early period of the Song Dynasty, such as Liu kai and san xian sheng in the early period of the Song Dynasty .affirmed that Mencius was the foremost exponent of Confucian orthodoxy, Wang Anshi and the scholarsOf Xin Xue promoted The Mencius to Confucian classics, The Mencius became the textbook of imperial examination. The scholars of Li Xue, such as Cheng yi and Zhu xi, merged The Mencius into The Four Books, the thought of Mencius was universalized in the intellectuals. The he movement of Mencius status raised enjoyed strong support form the emperors in the Song Dynasty.Second, there were varied reasons for the movement of Mencius status raised, the basic reason was that the thought of Mencius was much-needed thought resource for the Song Dynasty. The thought of Mencius, such as the theory of human nature, the protope of Confucian orthodoxy, criticizing heresies, provided thought resources and theory weapon for the Confucian scholars to vitalize Confucianism, get rid of Buddhism and Taoism. The viewpoint of that believe everything in books is worse than to have no books at all, and the viewpoint of Yi Yi Ni Zhi supported the scholar in the Song Dynasty reformed the old study of Confucian classics. The diplomatic principle of Yi Xiao Shi Da co-soled the monarch and his subjects who maintained to exchange money for peace. With the exception of these, the studies on The Doctrine of the Mean gave impetus to the development of the studies on Mencius in the Song Dynasty.Third, the trend of thought against Mencius in the Song Dynasty was an adverse current.Li gou. Si maguang and Ye shi delegates to the trend of thought against Mencius. They had similar argument to against Mencius, but their intenion of againsting was different.In the processes of the sholars annotating the thought of Mencius,they carried on, maintained and developed Mencius' viewpoints of the theory of human nature, Jin Tian, Yang Qi, Min Ben, and so on. They studied the theory of human nature of Mencius in ontology, and imported the category of Qi, absorbed the thought of Buddhism and Taoism, improved the thought of Mencius; besides, they crippled the radical the thought of Mencius. alienated the viewpoint of Gua Yu of Mencius, pay attention to the viewpoint of Nei Sheng generally.The scholars who studied Mencius completed the Confucian orthodoxy, ended the era of the Five Classics, started the era of the Four Books. The studies on Mencius in Song Dynasty exerted a tremendous influence on the development of confunism in Yan Dynasty,Min Dynasty and Qin Dynasty.