Study On Huang Zongxi's Mengzi Shishuo

Huang Zongxi was born in Yuyao of Zhengjiang province in late Ming dynasty.According to the inscription,Liu Zongzhou,Huang's teacher had finished comprehensive monographs about Daxue,Lunyu and Zhongyong before he died,so Huang Zongxi wrote Mengzi Shishuo to complete Liu's study on the Four Books of Confucianism.On the basis of the previous research,this thesis is to make further research on Mengzi Shishuo,The first part is the introduction,including dissertations reason,research methods and research situation.The second part is the body paragraphs,including three chapters.The first chapter is to make an exploration of the writing process and different editions of Mengzi Shishuo.The possibility that this book was written in the seventh or eighth year of Kangxi's era is further discussed in this thesis by analyzing the texts.Followed is the research on various editions of Mengzi Shishuo,concluding each edition's origin and development,discussing on the one-volume,two-volume,four-volume and seven-volume editions of this book according to the ancient writings.The second chapter is to talk about the relationship between the thought of Scholars in previous dynasties and Mengzi Shishuo.Zhang Zai's theory that human nature comprises both born nature and temperament is criticized by Mengzi Shishuo,and Zhou Dunyi's viewpoint of advocating tranquilization is inherited.Furthermore,Huang Zongxi takes in lots of ideas from Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi in Mengzi Shishuo,but fiercely criticizes the negative aspects of Zhu Xi's theory.Huang is the defender of“Mind Learning”and tries to establish the thought of Lu Jiuyuan and Wang Yangming as the important parts of Confucianism.In Mengzi Shishuo,he strongly supports their core beliefs.The third chapter is to discuss on the textual research of Mengzi Shishuo.This chapter is divided into two parts.The first part is to summarize the achievements of Huang Zongxi's textual research in Mengzi Shishuo,and the second part is to analyze the three characteristics of his textual research:worshiping Mencius,being critical and practical.The last part is epilogue to summarize the whole thesis.