A Study Of "Mind" In Chen Chun’s Theory

Chen Chun is one of Zhu Xi’s most important students and he is a believer in Zhuzism. In some people’s impression, Chen has a strong color of sectarianism for his rejecting to "Mind Thought" in the sunset of his life. To Chen, the "Mind Thought" is a school of heresy, but a tendency of this "heresy" could also be found in some parts of his words. This paper will focus on the tendency of the "Mind Thought" in Chen’s philosophy and try to analyze the cause of this phenomenon.Specifically, there are three parts in this thesis:The first part will make an brief introduction to Chen Chun’s all life. From this introduction, it could be found that Chen Chun has a character of tranquil, he lives in a rural life with most of which was spent on childhood education:his two visiting for learning from Zhu Xi influences him very much; his philosophy totally experiences three changes but he never changes his belief in Zhuzism from the beginning to the end. His sectarianism, rejecting to the "Mind Thought", was only found in the latter part of his life and just a portion of his philosophy.The second part will make an analysis about Chen Chun’s understanding on Mind-and-Heart. With a summary on the relationship between Li and Mind-and-Heart, on the cognitive ability of Mind-and-Heart, on Mind-and-Heart’s effects in practice, on the relationship between Mind-and-Heart and people’s temperament and on the practicing way of Mind-and-Heart, we can make a conclusion that Chen Chun follows Zhu Xi’s understanding on the topic of Mind-and-Heart, but there are also some differences among their theories, for example, Chen Chun’s comparing Mind-and-Heart to Object, his theory that Qi and Li form the effect of Mind-and-Heart together, a theory that people’s original motivation determines his ideological level an ordinary one or a sage. In this process, with analysis of some of Chen Chun’s propositions and a discussion about sages’ ideas, I will try to find out those parts written in a Mind-and-Heart style-a tendency to practice at one’s inner world, such as the problem about Mind-and-Heart’s initiative and the problem about the way to know the truth.In the third part, I will analyze the tendency of "Mind Thought" in Chen Chun’s philosophy. With analysis, it was found that Chen’s tendency is not a sudden appearance, this tendency has a close relationship with:his Zhuzism-based philosophy which contains "Mind Thought" elements, the theoretical background where Zhu Xi has had complete the ideas of the Neo-Confucianism and correct the real spirit of Confucianism and also Chen Chun’s learning in his early years.