The Study Of Hao Jing's "Mencius"

Hao Jing is a very influential and prolific ideologist and scholar who studied classical books in Huguang Region in the late Ming dynasty and early Qing Dynasty.He had dabbled in Buddhism and Lixue(Neo-Confucianism)and had been an officer for 15 years which contributes to his unique method to interpret classics.During the Regress Original Classic Movement,Hao Jing had been widely praised.Huang Zongxi had highly praised him as the master of classics in Ming dynasty.However,he himself and his learning had been gradually faded since the middle of Qing dynasty.This thesis is divided into five parts.Part one is about Hao Jing's lifetime and his overview about Mencius theory.It gives a brief introduction about Hao Jing's education experience,his experience of being an officer,his personal writings and his representive one Mencius Shuo Jie.Part two is about Hao Jing's study on thought of Mencius theory.This part is compossed of two chapters which are Kingcraft Benevolent Policy and Nature of Mind.Benevolent Policy include four aspects which are people-oriented,square-fields system,tax system,Wangba debate.Nature of Mind include two aspects which are theory of original goodness of human nature and understanding of language.Hao Jing's academic ideas can be seen through reading Mencius'basic thought.Part three is about Hao Jing's understanding about Mencius'saying about Poems.The view of Mencius'saying about Poems not only reflects Mencius'way of understanding literature,but also reflects Mencius'definition of the nature of Poems.Hence in this chapter,we can observe Hao Jing's view about literary criticism and definition for Poems'gist.Part four is about Hao Jing's analyze with examples for the annotations about words and phrases,figures,historical events,geography,ancient laws and regulations of Mencius Shuo Jie,to understand the general overview of exegesis.Part five is the analyze of the chanracteristics for annotations of Mencius Shuo Jie.Hao Jing's marjor work of Mencius theory is Mencius Shuo Jie,thus analyzing its characteristics of annotation is analyzing the overall characteristics of Hao Jing's Mencius theory.Through the investigating of the above five parts,the following conclusions can be drawn:1.Influenced by his own experience,Hao Jing focuses particularly on the officers'functions on the running of state apparatus during his analyzing of Mencius'view of benevolent government which has a considerable sense of politics and pays close attention to the detail problems of benevolent policies.In the meantime,it also shows limitations of his thought which keeps silence about the source of officialdom evils.2.Hao Jing regards human's nature is good,their badness is influenced by different custom.And badness is a local phenomenon,it can't influnce the nature of goodness.Hao Jing succeeded Zhang Zai's theory of Qi(spirit),he thinks spirit,mind and nature are all inseparable.Nourishing mind is nourishing Qi,nourishing spirit starts with daily life.You can't concentrate on the stuff,you can't forget it,you can't be too fast.This is what Han Jing has emphasized that learning must learn human feelings and principles as well as law of nature.On this account,he objects to Fo Lao's inanity and Cheng Zhu's theory of study the nature of things.Meanwhile,he showed his dissatisfaction about Lu Wang's philosophy of mind.Hao Jing expressed his appeal to returning to the original scripture to explore the ultimate truth.While his theory got no recognition because there are contradictions.The specific method of what is call learning human feelings and principles as well as law of nature is merely on the surface but has not formed a systematic and scientific theory.3.Hao Jing thinks that the way of talking about Poems is about seeking for the aspiration.Only understanding fully of the poets' aspiration can their words be comprehended.He objects to Zhu Xi's way of catering for poets' aspiration by his personal understanding,and emphasizes on Gu Xu as the purpose,focusing on feeling the emotion of the poets instead of limiting to the meaning of diction.4.Hao Jing succeeded and developed the predecessors'viewpoits but not limited to thier sayings,there is always novel explanations.But his quotations are not specific and he always bring into his own intention,thus occurring some controversial places.5.The characteristics of the basic annotations of Hao Jing's Mencius Shuo Jie is proving the classics by history,excluding Buddhism,advocating Confucianism and refuting Zhu Xi.These characteristics reflected Hao Jing and his theories'adjustment to the ultimate truth of classics during the Regress Original Classic Movement in the late Ming dynasty and early Qing dynasty.In conclusion,Hao Jing's Mencius theory is a academic masterpiece which has distinct characteristics of the times,carrying on Lixue(Neo-Confucianism)in Song and Ming dynasties and inspiring Pu theory in Qing dynasty.It is not supposed to be buried in history.Although it has a lot of ommissions,there should be one place for Hao Jing's Mencius theory in Mencius history of China.