Study On Thoughts Of The Famous Officals Of Cheng Zhu Neo-confucianism And Their Political Activities And Contributions In Kangxi Era Of Qing Dynasty

It was an era of violent social upheavals in the late Ming Dynasty and early QingDynasty. Manchu’s occupation of the Cental Plain was not a simple event of the changeof dynasties, but a great shock to people of all ranks. For the rulers of Qing Dynasty,they faced the Han nationality which had a larger population and more advancedcivilization. As a result, they had to face the big problem of how to rule the nationeffectively, that is, to maintain their own domestic discipline, or to be assimilated by themore advanced civilization, just like other uncultured minority nationalities that hadconquered the Central Plain in the history of China. Eventually, after thorough thinking,they choosed Cheng Zhu Neo-Confucianism. For the scholar-bureaucrats in that era, thedomination of other minority nationality was definitely unacceptable. However, thefailures of military adventures one after another had demonstrated that the attempt torebel Qing Dynasty and restore Ming Dynasty was failed. Therefore, thosescholar-bureaucrats tried to stir up a practical wave in order to influence the commonpractice of society and the polictics in that time. However, some of them refused tocooperate with the Qing rulers with various reasons. Although they had a commonpurpose with those rulers to recover social ethical order and develop the productiveforces, they lacked an effective communication between both sides. In this situation,those famous officals of Cheng Zhu Neo-Confucianism just acted as the important role,who winned respect and favor of the Qing rulers with their outstanding Confucianismthoughts and morals. Eventually, they made full use of their own influence to achievethe feudalization of Qing regime step by step, which bridged the gap between Manchuand the Han nationality and promoted the integration of Chinese nations. They madegreat contributions to the development of the society, which was in accordance with thetide of history.This thesis is divided into two parts. The former part focuses on the thoughts ofthose famous officals of Cheng Zhu Neo-Confucianism, which includes the Zhujing, the theory of human nature, Neo-Confucianism, and practical thoughts. The later partcenters on their political activities and contributions, with an attempt to give a realisticevaluation of these special group of people.