Research On The Theory Of Temperament Human Nature In Late Ming And Early Qing

The period of late Ming and early Qing (LM & EQ) was an important epoch of the development of Chinese Intellectual History."Heaven's collapse and earth's decompose"in politics, germination of capitalism in economics, more progresses in commerce, changing of consumers'concept and growing of philosophy of mind and theory of Qi (Material Force) in Ming dynasty, all made thoughts of LM & EQ obviously different from prior times. Especially, on the theory of Temperament and Human Nature (TOTHN), ideologists of LM & EQ gradually formed unusual principles which presented particular characters by criticizing the theory of Heaven Nature and Physical Nature, i.e., dualism on Human Nature, which was popular in Sung and Yuan dynasties and early Ming.TOTHN of LM & EQ was not accepted only by few ideologists or schools, but generally accepted by almost all. Since the middle of Ming dynasty, ideologists of diverse schools had brought forward TOTHN almost at the same time, which became the chief theory about Human Nature during the period of LM & EQ. In this paper, by explaining the ontology of relationship between Li (principle) and Qi, and analyzing the different theories about Li and Qi of many ideologists of diverse schools, it had discovered the ontological foundation of this kind of theory of Human Nature, and dug out the main content of TOTHN.This paper was divided into five parts, and now, the primary content of each chapter was presented as follow:In first chapter, it introduced the original background of TOTHN of LM & EQ. In order to understand the rising process of TOTHN, on one hand, it found its social rootstocks by analyzing the developments of economy during the period of LM & EQ, of which, the commercial growing and the concept of merchandise consumption for instance; on another hand, it sought its academic foundations from the intellectual angle by explaining the developments of philosophy of Mind and theory of Qi during the middle period of Ming dynasty. The second chapter studied on one kind of TOTHN which made Qi as basis. It summarized the opinions of TOTHN based on Qi by analyzing ideas of Qi and main viewpoints about TOTHN of chief representations of Qi theory school, such as Luo Qin-shun, Wang Ting-xiang and Wang Fu-zhi, who lived in LM & EQ.Another kind of TOTHN which made Mind as basis was researched in the third chapter. It reviewed the main contents and displaced the chief meanings of TOTHN based on Philosophy of Mind by analyzing the changing thoughts about the theory of Li and Qi of post-Yang-Ming scholars and two representations of Mind theory school of the period of LM & EQ, that is to say, Liu Zong-zhou and Huang Zong-xi.The forth chapter investigated the arguments about TOTHN occurred among the school of Neo-Confucian Orthodoxy in early Qing. It revealed the common idea about TOTHN appeared in diverse intellectual schools by introducing different propositions on TOTHN of three ideologists, viz. Chen Que, Lu Shi-yi and Yan Yuan, who all lived in early Qing.The fifth chapter summarized the characters of TOTHN of LM & EQ and analyzed its status in the history of Chinese Human Nature on the base of the contents of above three chapters.In this paper, it attempted to manifest the concrete contents and particular characters of TOTHN of LM & EQ by presenting many kinds of intellectual phenomena in order to call on scholars'more attentions to TOTHN of LM & EQ which it deserves.