Philosophy Of Confucian Perspective Tseng Kuo-fan Research

Zeng Guofan is a famous military strategist and statesman in late Qing Dynasty, but also a thinker. He had a high accomplishments in Confucianism and was known as "The Second Confucius and Mencius" by later generations. Zeng had a pivotal position in the history of the development of Confucianism. He tried their life to achieve the ambitious goals "Virtue, Merit, Morality" and played a very far-reaching impact on succession to traditional Confucianism and future development of Confucianism.This thesis is mainly to learn Zeng's philosophy idea from the perspective of his Confucianism, respectively to elaborate from several aspects on the philosophical origins, the main content, and the characteristics of the times. The thesis includes the introduction, body, and conclusion, of which the body consists of the following.The first chapter is the philosophical origins of Zeng's Confucianism. It mainly analyzed from two periods of Pre-Qin Dynasty Confucianism and Neo-Confucianism which had a great impact on Zeng's Confucianism.The second chapter is the ontology of Zeng's Confucianism. It explains what is primary in Zeng's Confucianism.The third chapter is the epistemology of Zeng's Confucianism. It liked so-called, "Material determines consciousness", the ontology decided Zeng's consciousness and understanding to things in the world and their relationship. This chapter expatiates on the epistemology from two aspects, the relations between knowledge and action and inquiring knowledge from things. The fourth chapter is Zeng's Life Confucianism. The virtuous world, struggle, and self-cultivation, which is the most important content in Zeng's whole life, and also self-cultivation is most important. Therefore, this chapter focuses on two aspects on the content and features of the cultivation to analysis.The fifth chapter is the times properties and practical significance.