The Theory Of Human Nature And Practice In Tang Wenzhi’s Great Meaning Of The Four Books

This paper focuses on Tang Wenzhi’s study of human nature and practice through his compilation the Great Meaning of the Four Books.Against the background of the drastic changes in modern society,the strong invasion of Western civilization,and the fact that both Confucian classics studies and Neo-confucianism have become old schools,Tang stands for the preservation of the old school while actively responding to the problem of the Confucian classics studies and the world of Song Neo-confucianism arguing that work is the essence,that is,Confucian classics studies and the world is the nature,and that the two are actually one,and reconnecting the relationship between the work theory and the utility of the Confucian classics studies and the world in this context.From the standpoint of Zhuzi scholarship,the shift in discourse mode makes the relevant discussion of righteousness more meaningful in practice,and its discussion of the sincere body of the form and the prudent work is relatively more practical.Specifically,Tang argues that the essence of the Divine Principle is the“Principle of Life”,which is the inner prescriptive nature of the Principle and gives life its sincere nature.However,from the level of development and use,only people can experience the Way through the increasingly encrypted cultivation work,so that the Reason of Life gradually opens up to people in this process,and then through teaching people to think that the Way of People,and push to the people of the world to get it together.The role of moral practice of the subject is strengthened,so that the nature of the Divine Order is based on prudence and is reflected in the work of filial piety and ritual.As the direct manifestation of sincerity in human life,“filial piety”requires education throughout the body,family and country;“ritual” as the external manifestation of “nature” requires the reconstruction of human morality through ritual rule.As an external manifestation of “human nature”,“ritual” calls for the reestablishment of human morality through ritual rule.However,his theory also had some obvious problems and lacked the possibility of spreading the practice at that time: his theory relied too much on the virtuous sage king;the essence of his ritual rule still expected the restoration of rituals;it relied too much on the realistic way of implementing education and lacked the emphasis on the self-consciousness of subjectivity.At the same time,in his theoretical construction,he was unable to make the traditional culture truly renewed because he embraced the old school,believing that the old school itself could be the new culture,and failed to make it produce dialogue and exchange with the outside culture.