The Study Of Li Zhi's Enlightenment Thoughts

As a pioneer of enlightenment thinker between the Ming and Qing dynasties,the formation of Li Zhi's enlightenment thoughts were closely related to the unique historical background,academic background and family background.Li Zhi's enlightenment thoughts had Confucianism origin,as well as Taoism origin and Buddhism origin.To Confucianism,it mainly absorbed Pre-Qin Confucianism and Wang Yangming's theory of the mind.Li Zhi's enlightenment thoughts included many aspects.First,the “primordial true heart” contained individual freedom,emancipating minds,which lying in “childlike innocence being true heat” like self-awareness,self-freedom and self-independence.Second,the inborn equality thought of “no one in the world not knowing” extended to “sage and the ordinary being the same” as equality between sage and the ordinary,“the common being not contemptible,lord being not superior” as equality between people and lord,“truth being great regardless men and women” as equality between men and women.Third,the utilitarianism theory of “people must be self-seeking” included “self-seeking being from the bottom of human heart”,“dressing and eating being human physics”.Li Zhi's enlightenment thoughts had three characteristics: improving,it was the reform of open-minded landlord class thinker who maintained feudalism.Contradictory,it was not consistent,but it contained inherent contradictions.Scrappy,it was scattered,not comprehensive.Li Zhi's enlightenment thoughts,which were criticized “heresy” by the moralists at that time,demonstrated the brilliance of enlightenment spirit.These thoughts made significant influence on generations that followed.At that time people didn't read “the four books”,but everyone read the book “Fen Shu”,“Cang Shu” of Li Zhi.“The Three Yuan Brothers”?Tang Xianzu?Huang Zongxi? Gu Yanwu,?Wang Fuzhi?Dai Zhen?Zheng Banqiao?Gong Zizhen?Yan Fu?Liu Shipei and Wu Yu were more or less influenced by his thoughts.