Commentary On Chen Baisha's Study Of Soul State

Chen Baisha, a prestigious neo-Confucian philosopher in the earlier and middle ages of Ming Dynasty, who established a new branch of Study of mind—Baisha Xinxue which became the forerunner of the trend of the study of mind at that time, is an important figure that carried forward traditions and ushered new pages in the neo-Confucian history. A diversity of scholars, from various aspects, have voiced their differentiated comments and evaluations about his theory. To have a brief survey, those studies have given full credit to his achievement in carrying forward the academic traditions, however, neglected his creativity and innate value. Moreover, his most emphasized theory— the Study of Ideological Level which is very important and imbued with characteristics in his theoretic system, fails to win the attention from scholars. And through this he enriched the Study of Ideological Level in neo-Confucianism. This paper, however, attempts to unfold the uniqueness and creativity of the thought of Baisha Xinxue, from the perspective of the Study of Ideological Level, mainly in there parts. In the first part, a survey is conducted to disentangle the underlying reasons and the origin of his thought, based on the analysis of factors combined the social, cultural and spiritual background of the intellectuals at his time with his personal life experience. Besides, through the analysis of his "integration with the object", this paper expounds Chen Baisha's perfect state of mind "flying with Taoism". Based on "insight of Taosim", Baisha Study of Mind indicates not only a lively and carefree aesthetic world, but also a spirit highlighting the self-satisfied subject, with "happiness" as its perfection. At the meantime, through a comparison with other schools of the Study of States, its strengths become more prominent .In the last part, this paper intends to illustrate its independent value.The paper, on the whole, tries to unfold the essence of Baisha Xinxue and reevaluate the importance of its role in the neo-Confucianism history, through a brief review and analysis of his study of the Ideological Level.