Li Guangdi And The Study Of Confucian Classics In Early Dynasty

Li Guangdi, a famous scholar living in late Ming and early Qing dynasty, made a great achievement in the study of Confucian classics and neo-Confucianism. He was also a politician, successively holding the post of Reader of the Academy and Sub-Chancellor of the Grand Secretariat. He contributed to pacifying the Revolt of the Three Feudatories and the unification of Taiwan. The previous researches about Li Guangdi mainly focus on neo-Confucianism. By contrast, his idea of Confucian classics draws little academic attention, let alone the thorough study on it. This thesis explores Li Guangdi’s attainments on Confucian classics from the perspective of academic history and history of classical studies, and analyzes his influence on the Confucian classic of early Qing dynasty, hoping to sketch the contours of Li Guangdi’s study thoroughly and accurately. Furthermore, the role he played in Confucian revival during the early Qing dynasty is analyzed.Li Guangdi’s great achievement in the study of Confucian Classics contributed greatly to the development of Confucian classics study of early Qing dynasty. He pointed out that Confucius had deleted Book of Odes. He also summarized the principle and the purpose of Confucius’s deleting. He generalized Song Confucians’ study on poems and especially had a thorough understanding of Ju Xi’s and Lv Zuqian’s theory on poem. He contradicted the statement formed in Han and Tang dynasty that the etiquette culture proposed in the book Shi had died out. He corrected it by saying that it was not Shi but the Feng and Ya parts that lost their influence on the society. He attested that the Ancient Book of History was not a pseudograph. In his thought, Yao-Dian and Sun-Dian are two articles and Gaoyao-Mo and Dayu-Mo should be one. As to Huang Zhongxi and Yan Requ’s doubt about "YuTing16-character", he countered it from the angle of neo-Confucianism. He analyzed Luo Shu with figures and thought "hung fan nine domains" in the book Hong Fan refers to Luo Shu. In the book Zhou Yi-Trigram Analyzing this idea is interpreted as follows, the odd numbers stand for the heaven and the even numbers stand for the earth. Different from "Yin-Yang five elements" explained by Confucians of Han dynasty, he thought the five elements are the five kinds of material related to people’s daily life. He defined the relation between Confucius and Spring and Autumn Annals in a new way, thinking Confucius wrote Spring and Autumn Annals only by copying and deleting the history of Lu. He thought Spring and Autumn Annals is a work on history, which contains many methods of recording history. He summarized the "Shufa-Yili" part, and analyzed it from angles of Philosophical Connotations and Ritual System.He advocated breaking the superstition of Song Confucians and reviewing classics of Song Dynasty. His theory always stands on the opposite side of Zhu Xi’s. He criticized his work, the Book of Odes Commentary, sharply. First, he attacked Zhu’s points about "Bi" and "Xing " by quoting Zhen Xuan’s views. Second, he revealed that some views in the book was borrowed from "Mao-Zheng" and found faults in the new points created by Zhu Xi. Third, he also criticized the words and sentences explained by Zhu Xi in the book. As for Zhu Xi’s the Four Books Commentary, Li Guangdi pointed out the "Great Learning" is "Imperial University","knowing ourselves" is "Investigation of things" and there is no need completing Great Learning with "Jing", also no need adding "the Commentary of the Investigation of things and the Extension of Knowledge". The center of Great Learning should be the "sincerity" chapter. Li Guangdi also criticized Cai Shen’s the Book of Shu Ji Zhuan, saying it paid too much attention to commentary. As to Lu Wang’s theory, he thought it helped Cheng-Zhu school. So he advocated adopting ideas from both Zhu and Lu. His book Ancient Version of Da Xu consulted theory of Wang Yangming. He stuck to Lu Wang’s theory even in his later years.Li Guangdi thought that there is "Li" in the Six Classics."Li" is "Natur e". Only in the Six Classics can we get "Li " and "Nature", The aim of gett ing "Li" is for understanding "Dao". In this way he constructed a new way of academic researching——acquiring "Li" from the Six Classics. Li Guang di proposed a reform plan for the imperial examination. There are three parts in this plan:improving the position of the Five Classics, increasing the prop ortion of the Statecraft learning in the examination and changing the writing style of the eight-legged essays. This advanced the development of Confucian Classics in the early Qing Dynasty.The features of Li Guangdi’s study on Confucian classics are as follows. First, presenting the new points bravely, not rigidly adhering to old rules an d not totally believing the previous researches’views. Second, confirming the Confucian Classics with the Four Books. Third, integrating other researches’ good views into his study, especially the achievement of Han and Song dyna sty. Fourth, regarding the school of Chen Zhu and the school of Lu Wang as one group. Li Guangdi’s study of Confucian classics also exists some of def ects and limits.