Study On Wang Tingxiang's Theory Of Human Nature

Wang Tingxiang took Qi theory as his own core faction,inheriting and developing Zhang Zai's philosophy.He implemented the thoughts of Qi Ben and Qi Hua into the field of theory of human nature and formed his own thought of theory of human nature.On the issue of the origin of Xing,he insisted that Xing should be judged on the basis of Qi and Xing existed only when there was Qi.Although he absorbed plenty of thoughts from Zhang Zai,yet he wasn't sympathetic to Zhang Zai's division between so-called"Xing of heaven and earth" and "Xing of disposition".Instead,he deemed that humans only possessed "Xing of disposition".On the issue of good and evil of Xing,he carried through monism of Qi to the end,for Qi had the distinction of purity and complexity.Hence,Xing,of which existence was dependent on Qi,was also not purely good,but a mixture of good and evil.Good was Xing,evil was also Xing,which was against Mencius and the popular "virtuous humanity thought" at that time.In his view,human beings only had natural disposition.Even if the sages' Xing was contributed by "disposition",no division between so-called "philosophical connotations" and "natural disposition".Sages took the good part of human nature to set up factions and feudal ethical codes,such as the Confucian ethical code of kindness,ritual and music.If Xing can be in harmony with Confucianism,it is good.If not,it is evil.Namely,he defined the good and evil of human nature by Confucian moral rules instead of by natural and inherent qualities.He underlined the evil of nature and advocated regulating human behaviors by external moral education rather than self-discipline,which is similar to Xunzi and Zhu Xi's theory.He inherited Zhang Zai's theory of becoming of human nature,underscored the remoulding of human nature by nurture and opposed theory of complexity of human nature.The way of remoulding is to practise Confucian etiquette.In the aspect of "Gong Fu theory"of moral cultivation,he advocated following teachings of saints,not only cultivating our virtues but also putting it into practice,and closely combining moral cognition and moral practice.He hoped that through this kind of self-cultivation,scholars could eventually obtain ideal personalities of sages and the gentlemen.Though he criticized Zhu Xi's thoughts a lot,he still learned a lot from Zhu Xi in terms of theory of moral cultivation.