On Lv Nan's Philosophy Thought

Lv Nan(1479-1542), named Zhong-mu, was a famous neo-confucianism scholar in Guanzhong region in Ming Dynasty. He learned from Xue Jing-zhi and received the thought of Hedong School, inheriting the style of practice of Hedong School. He practised ritual law and advocated studying what is near at hand and understanding tianli in daily experience.Gongfu Lun is the most significant part of Lv Nan's thought. He analysed the relationship between "study" and "Keju "and concluded that study was compatible with Keju , then he connected Tianli and human actions and testified the integrity of study and people' actions, so human can practise and perceive tianli through Gongfu of studying in books and in human actions. He criticized Song Neo-Confucianism in theories of Xin-Xing (mind and nature) and cultivation Gongfu, furthermore, he interpreted Gezhichengzheng Gongfu in Great Learning and Shendu Zhiqu Gongfu in Zhong-Yong, and put the metaphysical tianli into daily ethnic experience, perceiving tianli and nourishing one's mind in realistic moral practice through Gezhichengzheng Gongfu and Shendu Zhiqu Gongfu. About the theory of knowledge and practice, he criticized Song-Confucianism's theories about external knowledge and moral knowledge and claimed that the latter could not separated from the former which could lead to moral knowledge.He stuck to Cheng-Zhu Neo-confucianism and criticized Wang Yang-ming's theory of "unity of knowledge and practice" and "attaining intuitive knowledge ". He proposed that knowledge prefered to practice and led practice, but in the end, the most essential thing was to practise in ethnic activities.At the time of prosperity of Xinxue, the Gongfu Lun theory that Lv Nan stuck to was not eminent, but the reflection and correction of Cheng-Zhu Neo-confucianism and the critique of Yang-ming Xinxue acted a significant role in Ming Dynasty, which corresponded to the thought of criticism and self-correction of Xinxue in later Ming Dynasty and the style of Donglin School's correction and scholars' revolution to Song-Ming Neo-confucianism totally between Ming and Qing Dynasty.