Wang Chuanshan’s Thought Of Shen And Hua

The first part discusses Shen and Hua in Zhang Zai’s Meng.Zhang Zai regards Shen as the heavenly virtue and Hua as the heavenly way in Cheng Meng.Shen is the driving factor of Qi and Hua is the law of Qi.Shen has more ontological significance than Taixu.To focus on the righteousness and enter Shen is the thoughtful state that has a thorough knowledge of truth and focusing on the righteousness is the premise of entering God."Have a Thorough Knowledge of Shen and Understand Hua" is the grand morality and the unification of heaven and man that is the natural perfection without the diligence.Preserving God is a state of flowing with the heaven and earth by the intuition without the intelligence and righteousness.Having a thorough knowledge of Shen is the fusion of reason and intuition,and entering Shen and preserving Shen are its two stages.Zhang Zai’s "Entering Shen","Preserving Shen" and "Having a thorough knowledge of Shen" are of great significance to the interpretation of thought of nature and heaven in Zhou Yi and provide the ideological resource to Wang Chuanshan’s Shen and Hua in Annotation of Zhang Zi’s Cheng Meng.The second part discusses the relationship of Shen and righteousness in Wang Chuanshan’s "Focus on the Righteousness to Preserving Shen"."Focus on the Righteousness"is to research Confucian principle,eliminate the muddy Qi to preserve the best Qi,remove the evil to foster the sincerity and maintain the nature to get the goodness.Its purpose is to"Return to the law of Universe" that is to abide by the original principle.So it is the creation of a moral life.Meanwhile,"Enter Shen" is that the gentleman can know the good or evil starting point and preserve Shen of the heart to melt into Shen of Tai Xu and people can connect the life and death to settle down and get on with the pursuit between heaven and earth.So it is the connection of Shen and Hua.In the process of creation and connection,people can understand the fundamental of life and reach to the realm of Shen of Taixu.The third part discusses Wang Chuanshan’s "Preserve Shen to Develop the Nature Fully".The thought of "preserving Shen" is involved in both Yi Zhuan and Mencius,and Wang Chuanshan developed it into the theory of cultivation of "preserving Shen and fully develop the nature to return to the universe" in Annotation of Cheng Meng.The human nature completely presents in Shen of Qi.And Shen is the driving force of movement and development of heaven and earth,which condenses into human nature.Meanwhile,people understand Shen by fully developing the most authentic human nature.Two paths of preserving Shen are "Cheng Xin She Qi" and "Han Yong Yi Li",which aim into the unity of heaven and human to establish the humanistic world by practicing the benevolence and righteousness.And the purpose of preserving Shen to develop the nature fully is to surmount the limitations of life and death,break through the shackles of the body and return to Taixu.Preserving Shen presents the best Qi of body and Taixu is the ultimate destination.The fourth part discusses Wang Chuanshan’s "Have a Thorough Knowledge of Shen and Understand Hua"and "Unifying of Shen and Li".Shen contains the principle of seclusion and brightness.Human can go to the seclusion of Ghost and God from the brightness of rites and music under the encouragement of Shen and Hua.The way of "Have a Thorough Knowledge of Shen and Understand Hua" is to create the moral life in the phenomenon world and have a real understanding of Shen in Qi.The gentleman expands Shen of his heart to affect all things to improve himself,society and nature through the mutual promotion of wisdom and righteousness.People can condense Shen of heart to hold the reason of Qi,return to the vigorous and submissive principle of heaven,realize "Unifying of Shen and Li".The practice of filial piety is the starting point of "Have a Thorough Knowledge of Shen and Understand Hua".We use the attitude of loving the parents to love the universe,which not only makes the individual fully realize the realm of heaven and earth,but also understands the true meaning of filial piety with the widest vision.It means that they let down parents and universe when people are deceived by selfish desires.Under this vision,people can be autonomic and cautious with the vision.The fifth part discusses Wang Chuanshan’s thought of Ghost and God."All Things—Ghost and God—Yin and Yang" present the process of change of life in the universe.All things are produced by Qi according to the law of flexion and extension,which reflects the magic and sensibility of Shen and Hua.Ghost,God,rite and music are different forms of Qi.Rites and music are the brightness of Qi in the morality and Ghost and God are the seclusion of Qi in the nature.So the seclusion and brightness is not divided and Ghost and God run through them.Respecting Ghost and God with the sincerity is the higher-order implementation of rites and righteousness,Thus,the consistency between people and Ghost and God can be said to be the ultimate value of Chuanshan’s thought of Ghost and God.The fifth part discusses Wang Chuanshan’s relationship of Honesty and Shen.Shen is constantly active and actual field of life and Honesty is the inevitability and regularity of Shen and Hua.To confirm Honesty is to establish the reality of the universe and morality.Preserving Shen is the preservation of the actual universe,which is to preserve Honesty.People fully understand the actual characteristic of Shen in specific things,which is the process of having a thorough knowledge of Honesty.Shen and Hua are in the phenomenon.And the best honesty also shows in specific things.People and things show their original to return to the perfect authenticity that is the best honesty and preserving Honesty is to fully reveal the good nature to connect to the reality of universe.The reality and regularity of Qi communicate the moral world and real world,and people’s moral practice becomes a bridge to return to the real world.It not only makes the universe become the basis of moral and ethical life,but also shows that human can make the reality of all things be fully revealed through the creation of moral life.