The Research On Wang Tong's Thought

Wang Tong, style name ZhongYan, though was born in troubled times of Sui Dynasty, he devoted his whole life to promote Confucianism,and take the pursuit of teachings of the Duke of Zhou and Confucius as his responsibility. He gave lectures in he-fen areas, and fostered many disciples, he had won the reputation of"Wang Confucius"at that time, even more had the fame of"He Fen Orthodoxy". After he died,disciples privately called him"Wen zhongzi".In the case of the gradual decline of Confucianism, in order to save the moral crisis of that society and achieve revival of Confucianism, he had made important contributions. Wang Tong was a link person between past and future, he inherited Confucius en Mencius and inspired scholars of Song and Ming dynasties.In the history of Confucianism,he had an important academic position.Wang Tong was born in generations of courtiers, whose family history was very profound. After high school scholar, he once met with the Emperor and submitted a written statement about strategies of governing country. Afterwards, because his ideas was not adopted,he lived in seclusion to teach apprentices and give lectures. During this period, he worked hard to write, in the hope of carrying forward Confucian viewpoints and reviving the Confucius cause. In the course of lectures andwritings,he put forward a lot of valuable thoughts. When he was over thirty,he died unfortunately , but he left behind a lot of intelligent thoughts during a short career, the glory of these thoughts had brightened the way forward for later Confucian scholars.In philosophical thinking, Wangtong broke the traditional thought of the Relationship between heaven and human,he considered heaven, earth and human equally important, and they three could't be replaced and be separated. In addition, he gave more prominence to the"people"in the role. In political ideology, he argued that"kingly"and the carrying out of"benevolent."At that time,it was in a situation of tripartite confrontation formed by Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, he first stood in the Confucianist position and put forward the view of"three religions can be one". This opinion clearly stated that the country's governing strategied should be Confucian-based, supplemented by Buddhism and Taoism. In epistemology, he affirmed the cognition of human, he thought the purpose of understanding was to"Highlight kingly", and then incorporated the understanding into the morality of people. About the mencius' heart and nature theory, he divided the heart into"the sinister heart"and"the nature heart",and he saw the contrariety of"the sinister heart"and"the nature heart", and then proposed the cultivation method of"quest for truth to found the nature so as to fate"and"quietness". When"quest for truth to found the nature", as well as"correct inner","thinking over","push honesty","calm"This cultivation methods were admired by later neo-confucianism scholars of the Song and Ming dynasties, many of his thoughts broke new ground for neo-confucianism of the Song and Ming dynasties."moderation"is a more representative idea of Wangtong whose ideas were based on moderation. This paper focuses on"moderation",emphasizes on the application of"moderation"in politics, and in dealing with Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism relations, also in resolving ethnic issues between Yi and Xia. Through a comprehensive discussion to Wangtong's thoughts, this paper makes efforts to tease out the inner relevance of his thoughts and his pioneering for Neo-Confucianism.