| Wang Gen's Confucianism thought,in this dissertation summarizes as individual Confucianism,is the expression of the theory of civil life in the middle and late Ming Dynasty.In retrospect,we can find that the East and the West have experienced a process from the theory of mind to the theory of body.But from the perspective of Life Confucianism,individualism is not to regard the body as a metaphysical existence,but a free activity of life.In this field,the theory of internal saints and men who "settle down and establish the foundation" and "love the people,and the theory of "external leadership" are derived,and the internal saint and the external leadership are connected as a whole.Wang Gen established a individual Confucianism system which takes body as its body,taking "settle down" as his practice and will.Thus,the body is liberated from the noumenon of reason,and becomes a modern individual with the integration of body and mind.Mr.Zhang Dainian saw the individual standard value contained in it:"Wang Gen's main idea,in the present words,is to emphasize the subjectivity of the individual,that is to say that the individual is fundamental." From the perspective of body consciousness and body aesthetics,the human body represented by "body" is a single person or special social self.It is basically shaped by social relations and accumulated habits,values and temperament,while the process of shaping is learning,experience,behavior and reflection.The introduction mainly describes the background of this dissertation.At present,the academic research on Wang Gen mainly focuses on two aspects:one is the historical significance of Wang Gen's Confucianism,such as the Yangming school and Taizhou-School,which is the overall perspective;the other is to elucidate a certain aspect of Wang Gen's Confucianism,"people's daily life as the basics","Huainan Philosophy",which is the local perspective.Generally speaking,there is still a lack of systematic system research.Therefore,the core issue of this dissertation is to construct the philosophical system of Wang Gen's Individual Confucianism and the modern individual thought embodied in it.Based on the analysis of previous studies,this dissertation uses the methods of Life Confucianism,social anthropology and comparative philosophy to elaborate the main content and ideological value of Wang Gen's Individual Confucianism from the three dimensions of Ontology,Inner Cultivation and Outer Leadership.The birth of Wang Gen's Individualism is an epoch-making event in the history of Confucianism.It should be interpreted from the Confucian individual concept,and also from the ideological background of different Chinese and Western cultures.Therefore,the study of individualism thought needs to clarify the Confucian individualism,the western individualism,and also from the perspective of life theory.Before the Western Zhou Dynasty,the body was covered with a layer of religious coat,and the moral significance of the individualism from the perspective of religion was not prominent;during the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period,China entered the axial age,and Confucian civilization advocated benevolence and propriety,and self-cultivation became everyone's bounden duty.The meaning of body mainly includes the body regulated by ceremony,the behavior of body and the individual(self)accomplished by virtue.However,after entering the imperial system,the normative meaning of rites gradually became the suppression of the body;the achievement meaning of morality gradually became the obedience to the mind or universal truth.Yangming's theory of mind opened the way to the individualization of Confucianism,but it was an individual in the sense of mind,and conscience still left traces of abstract natural principle.Wang Gen started from Yangming's "body and mind as a whole" and reversed the relationship between "mind dominating,body assisting" to establish the body based theory.It must be noted that the concept of "individual" in this dissertation can not be understood as a simple body,or limbs,but a body and mind integrated individual based on life.Only when it is opposite to the heart,the "individual" mainly refers to the body,while in other fields,the individual generally refers to the unity of body and mind.The course of the western view of body is similar to the Confucian traditional view of body,and it also has a process of restraining first and then promoting.The second chapter mainly expounds the background,origin and life experience of Wang Gen's Confucianism.In the Ming Dynasty,the government was highly centralized,the political ecology was extremely deteriorated,and the mentality of scholars was also very different.But at the same time,the centralization of power makes the bureaucracy huge,the government inefficient,the commodity can be maintained and gradually developed,silver becomes the dominant currency,which "promotes the connection between the tax and servitude system and the market economy,and drags all social strata into the commodity exchange relationship by a large margin",the personal dependence relaxes,and the citizens' luxury consumption consciousness rises.Yang Ming's idea that mind is reason is in fact that I am reason,which means that the right of value judgment is returned to myself.Although its self content is still composed of loyalty,courtesy and righteousness as the core,it greatly highlights the status of the subject,so that the scholar's personality can be independent from the external authority.Wang Gen changed from the conscience subject of "heart is reason" to the body subject of "body is Tao",highlighting the value of perceptual individual.In short,Yang Ming takes his own conscience as the evaluation standard,while Wang Gen takes making living as the evaluation standard.In a word,Wang Gen's "body" is the embodiment of conscience.Wang Gen's individualism theory or body respecting thought is not only related to the life philosophy of the previous classics,but also related to the individual value of Taoists.It is also a reflection of the life of the times.The third chapter mainly expounds the ontology of Wang Gen's individual Confucianism.If the basis of Yangming's theory of mind is conscience,the basis of Wang Gen's Confucianism is body.Ontology here is not the origin of the cosmological world,rather is the value ontology of the meaningful world.As Yangming said,"the heaven without conscience of man can not be heaven and earth".Wang Gen raised the"body" to the position of individual and juxtaposed it with Tao."Body and Tao respect each other" and "body and Tao are one thing." To quote Wang Chuanshan's words,it is"the integration of spiritual cultivation and physical growth".Wang Gen uses the category of "essence and end" to explain that "things have essence and end" and "body and the state of the world are as a whole".Only one thing can have essence and end,"body" is "essence" and the state of the world is"end".Because knowing how to protect oneself,one would love his own body.If one loves his won body,he would certainly love others.Then one can "govern the family","govern the country" and "protect the world".Therefore,individual living is the foundation."If you don't know how to settle down and then go to work for the country,it's called "losing the foundation'." "Body"also has the meaning of self."My body is a ruler,and the country in the world is a square measured." It means to take the individual value as the standard to measure things,and to start from oneself and compare the country in the world with whether it is right or not,is to "seek all oneself by a gentleman." Wang Gen also believes that all things are as a whole,and the basis of all natural things is the opportunity of "lively splashing"."Body" is the appearance of love in life,which is human conscience.Wang Gen said:"if you can love your body,you would naturally love others.I love human,and human love me in return.If people love me,myself is safeguarded." This is the benevolence of all things.The metaphysical "body"(TAO)and the original emotion(love oneself and love others)are embodied in "childlike innocence" and "childlike purity".In other words,compared with conscience,childlike innocence is the embodiment of conscience.Therefore,Wang Gen's philosophy of self preservation is not to save life in a narrow sense,and benevolence is actually "mutual love",breaking through the traditional one-way love.In a sense,Neo Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties is Gongfu(Cultivation)theory,which can be divided into Inner Spiritual Cultivation and Outer Leadership Cultivation.The fourth chapter mainly expounds the content and characteristics of the theory of inner Spiritual Cultivation.Cultivation theory is the logical result of ontology.What kind of ontological logic requires corresponding cultivation.However,both the study of science and mind are the theory of work within the framework of noumenon-cultivation while Wang Gen pays attention to the cultivation of work embodied in people's daily life from the perspective of conscience.Wang Gen attached great importance to cultivation.He thought that the key to noumenon lies in the way of cultivation:"body and function are different,but cultivation works." Obviously,Yangming's theory of mind contains a profound principle of individual evaluation,which was implemented and expounded in Wang Gen's individual cultivation.Wang Gen's cultivation theory is based on the individual theory,"body and Tao are as a whole".Therefore,the main purpose of his Cultivation theory is to build the body."Body" is the manifestation of life,and life is the natural way of endless and lively life.Therefore,cultivation does not need to be checked.It can be used immediately and easily,and takes "happy learning" as the methodology.As mentioned before,the settling down of the "body" is a person who integrates body and mind,so settling down is actually "settling down the body and settling down the heart"."Settling down" naturally includes protecting the right to life,but "protecting one's life" is also "loving one's life".Therefore,"wise self-protection" is actually the love of life and the way of life.Starting from self love,loving others and the worldly objects is the true love.The difference of love starts from self love,which is the foundation of loving others and things.Because Wang Gen insisted on the intuitive conscience,that is,affirming the priority and reality of the individual principle,individual rights and laws measure whether the country is right or not."The square is askew,because the ruler deviates.Therefore we should correct the ruler instead of rectify the askew squre.If the ruler is correct,the square would be regular.The square and the form constitute the world.And that is what we call‘Gewu',namely the study of the world." This is Wang Gen's Cultivation(Gongfu)theory of "study the world from one's own body".The fifth chapter mainly discusses the practical dimension of Wang Gen's individual Confucianism,that is,the theory of external leadership practice,or the development of reality.It refers more than the subject's conscience body.The practical character is the inherent requirement of Wang Gen's individual Confucianism."Settling down" does not mean obeying orders and being content with the status quo."Settling down" originally includes the meaning of bowing down to practice.Wang Gen transformed the individual thought contained in conscience into the autonomy of"although my life is made by heaven,it is changed by me",and endowed this autonomy to the common people,so as to promote the secularization of Confucianism.Taizhou School was so spontaneous that it was in line with the needs of the people at the bottom of the society that it deviated from the social etiquette system at that time.The practical activities of individual Confucianism mainly include lecture activities,Village Association activities,participation in governance and political appeals.The teaching activity is beyond the general sense of education.It can be said that it is the missionary activity of Confucianism(preaching is called teaching).Its purpose is to enlighten the public,not the party and society activities in the late Ming Dynasty.Qian Mu said:"the Taizhou Xinzhai lecture hall is really close to the lecture,because it gradually deviated from the nature of academies and was close to social preach." The reason why it is called "lecture preach" is that it has the organizational form of "gathering".It is no doubt that the "lecture preach" is close to the Village Association.In fact,the patriarchal Association reflected a kind of self-help self-governing organization of the loose modern family in the harsh environment.Although there are differences between the old and the young during the lecture preach,the idea of equality is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people under the influence of the idea that "saints are everywhere in streets".The representative point of view is He Xinyin's assertion that "the world is governed by friends".From the perspective of individual theory,the essence of this equality is political equality,which lays a theoretical foundation for political participation.The political thought of Confucianism is "benevolent government",which is generally called virtue politics or ethics politics in later generations.The implementation of benevolent government in scholars is "inner cultivation and outer leadership' As far as its ideal state is concerned,it is "the rule of three generations",which is the ideal social order that the Confucians yearn for,and indirectly reflects the Confucians' dissatisfaction with the realistic political ecology.Once in the real politics,the way of politics is separated from the way of governance,and the authority of the monarch is overwhelming,which has become the restricting factor of the modem transformation of Confucianism.After encountering the hard wall of system,Confucianism can only continue to dig deeply in the field of inner sage.Wang Gen adopted the practical strategy of "cultivating one's morality in the world",and the structure of"inner cultivation and outer leadership" appeared cracks in Wang Gen,which transformed into the self dominated learning of "going out to advance and retreat":going out to seek rank and retreat has its own way,"going out will seek to be the master of the emperor,and settling down will seek to be the master of the common people".Wang Gen's independent spirit developed into the wild,chivalrous personality of Yan Jun,He Xinyin and Luo rufang,which is also the inevitable result of Confucianism under the autocratic system.The last part is the extension of Wang Gen's individual theory,that is,the transformation from body based Confucianism to individual Confucianism."Body"has the meaning of"I" and "me".According to Wang Gen's interpretation,body has the same status as Tao.In the modern discourse of rights,body right is a basic right of personality.That is to say,from two aspects of moral discourse and right discourse,"body" refers to or equals to individual.The basic unit of modern society is the individual,which is no longer the family of traditional patriarchal clan.In addition,the traditional Confucianism,as a form of system,has disintegrated,and the revival of Confucianism must be implemented in the modern individual.From the national level,individuals are citizens;from the economic field,they are economic people;from the moral field,they are moral people;from the civil society,they are citizens.Therefore,some scholars put forward "modern civic Confucianism" to distinguish "traditional patriarchal Confucianism".Since modern society is an individual society,which is the way of life in modern society,the metaphysical expression of Confucianism is individual Confucianism.In other words,individual Confucianism is in the modern way of life,based on and beneficial to individual rights and virtues,to achieve the value of"becoming one's self and own achievements".Of course,this set of value appeal has to resort to the modern system to realize itself.Confucianism does not have to pay attention to the road of "inner cultivation and outer leadership" based on the theory of nature,but presents a diverse and inclusive individual. |
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