A Study Of Liu Jishan School And The Academic Transformation Between Ming And Qing Dynasties

In the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, the society was greatly turbulent. In an age full of changes and tribulations, the scholars of Jishan School had nursed great moral and unsurpassed academic ideology.At that time, most scholars, who were committed to correcting the abuses of Wang Yangming’s thought, attached great importance to moral practice and pragmatism but didn’t favor the metaphysics. The academic field gradually turned to pragmatism. Meanwhile, Wang Yangming’s thought was overwhelmed by the Zhu Xi’s thought, which later was in turn overwhelmed by the Textology. According to Liu Zongzhou, the malady of Wang Yangming School lied in the negligence of moral practice and their contradictory explanation on the theories of Neo-Confucianism. In order to "correct" Wang Yangming School’s abuses, he proposed "the Confucian doctrine of Shendu", which means vigilance in solitude, to solve the contradictions in Wang Yangming’s and Zhu Xi’s theories. He also advocated to cultivate morality and proposed a set of rigorous and meticulous practice methods based on his book Human Schemata RenPu. Through books including Essentials of the Orthodox Learning of the Sages Shengxue Zongyao and Huangmingdao Orthodoxy, he combed Neo-Confucianism. He also brought the textual method in his articles on SiShu, ZhouYi and Three Li. The formation of Jishan School is related to three factors:the influence of the predecessors such as Xu Fuyuan, Zhou Dunyi, Zhu Xi and Wang Yangming; the communication with friends joining Donglin Party like Zhou Yingzhong, Liu Yongcheng and Gao Panlong who attempted to combat the moral laxity and intellectual weakness they felt was being undermined; his own teaching experiences and arguments about "Yi" with Tao Shiling and scholars of Yaojiang School founded by Wang Yangming. The biggest characteristic of Jishan School is integration. Liu Zongzhou used "Shendu" to unify other elements including "Respect","Statics" and "Sincerity". Another characteristic of Jishan School is to give importance to moral practice. RenPu marked the formation of Confucian thoughts of being a moral model. The contents of RenPu are closely related to the thoughts of Shendu. RenPu has a great impact on the Liu’s followers and the development of Confucianism. In addition, Liu Zongzhou had ever been dismissed from office for three times, Liu Zongzhou believed that there was a contradiction to be a moral model and national leader, deriving from his philosophy on a national leader that the prerequisite to be a leader was to be a moral model.After Liu Zongzhou died, his School turned into differentiation. His three disciples including Zhang Lvxiang, Chen Que and Huang Zongxi had different reflections on the fall of the Ming Dynasty and the rising of the Qing Dynasty, so they held different views on the theories of Jishan School and how to edit the Testament of Liu Zongzhou. Among them, Zhang Lvxiang and Chen Que developed the practice-oriented theory of Liu Zongzhou. Zhang Lvxiang developed moral practice based on the Neo-Confucianism and then became a pioneer in praising Zhu Xi’s thought and criticizing Wang Yangming’s thought in order to solve the weakness of Wang Yangming’s theory, which was a further development of Liu Zongzhou’s thought. Compared with Zhang, Chen Que made a more radical and comprehensive criticism on Neo-Confucianism. He began to suspect the authority of Great Learning which was regarded as a Bible by Neo-Confucianism, which reflected the fall of metaphysics in Qing Dynasty. Chen Que was also committed to cultivating moral sense and proposing to shoulder the responsibility based on the personal social position as the moral guidance for practice which originated from the Doctrine of the Mean. Huang Zongxi believed that moral practice and academic guidance remain essential the same despite all apparent changes and opposed to promoting parochial prejudices. Compared with Zhang Lvxiang and Chen Que, Huang Zongxi inherited Liu Zongzhou’s theory in a more comprehensive way. Firstly, he continued to comb the Neo-Confucianism and compiled Huang Zongxi’s Records of Ming Scholars Xue’an and Song-Yuan Xue’an Secondly, he also advocated the textology, and became the pioneer of Eastern Zhejiang School in Qing Dynasty. The three disciples and other followers of Jishan School communicated and debated with each other on Chen Que’s DaXueBian and XingJie, which reflected their different views on academic transformation.Quan Zuwang, as a representative of Jishan School, differed from Wan brothers, because he inherited and developed Liu Zongzhou’s theory and thought highly of Jishan School. Quan completed Song-Yuan Xue’an and finished combing Neo-Confucianism, following Liu Zongzhou and Huang Zongxi. He also wrote two books including Inscriptions along Huang Zongxi’s passage tomb and Liu Zongzhou Shrine Monument, which played an important role to help later generation better understand Jishan School.