The Modern Succession And Unfolding Of Moral Ideals

The influence of Yangming’s Mind-heart Theory on Xiong Shili was multifaceted.Firstly,in terms of Xiong Shili’s life and general academic attitude toward Yangming’s Mind-heart Theory,Xiong Shili was deeply influenced by his family’s “Confucian-style” atmosphere during his Juvenile.At this time,he had dabbled in Mind-heart thought and had already identified with and been influenced by the latter.In his youth,he joined the revolution,and after the failure of the revolution,he rethought profoundly moral reasons,and developed the idea of reconstructing moral metaphysics,which was the goal of his lifelong academic exploration.In his middle age,he researched Buddhism,studied Western philosophy,returned to Confucianism,and held a critical inheriting attitude towards Yangming’s Mind-heart Theory.In his later years,he remained the same,without fundamental changes.Secondly,in terms of behavioral traits,there was a certain similarity between the freedom in Yangming’s thought and behavior and Xiong Shili’s dashing personality and behavior,which was closely related to the influence of Yangming’s Mind-heart Theory on modern society and modern people.Of course,Xiong Shili’s concern for Yangming’s Mind-heart Theory was a work of “Innovation in Backing to Originality” in the context of the ancient-modern and Chinese-western epoch.Therefore,he looked back on history and denounced the late Yangming School,in order to bring out the modern values of Yangming’s Mind-heart Theory.Again,in terms of the influence of Yangming’s Mind-heart Theory on Xiong Shili’s thoughts,Xiong inherited Yangming’s doctrine of the moral essence and further developed it.Based on his own view of Ti and Yong,Xiong Shili criticized and refuted the views of Ti and Yong of Buddhism,Taoism,and Western philosophy.In regard to Mind-heart Theory,he inherited Yangming’s view of Ti and Yong,criticized it,and developed some new ideas.His view of the universe as“Nonseparation of Ti and Yong” could trace back to Confucianism’s Yi-ology.In terms of epistemology,Xiong Shili,on the one hand,affirmed the thought purport of Lu Wang school in promoting the humanity conscience and emphasized the recognition of the value of the human individual.On the other hand,he took Yangming’s Mind-heart Theory as an example to reflect on the traditional Chinese epistemology,and absorbed the Western philosophical approach of rational thinking and logic,aiming to reconcile “thinking” and “moral cultivation”.He drew on Western philosophy,reflected on tradition,transformed tradition,and finally returned to the traditional path of thinking in the context of the times,which should be“understood in a sympathetic way”.Xiong Shili’s theory of “All-in one” was the spiritual ideal and ultimate destination of his entire philosophical system.It was in the reconstruction of Chinese cultural subjectivity,the reconstruction of the moral individual,and the creation of a moral metaphysical system that he continued the academic tradition of Yangming’s Mind-heart Theory.Finally,in terms of the continuing influence of Yangming’s Mind-heart Theory,three of Xiong Shili’s disciples,Tang Junyi,Mou Zongsan,and Xu Fuguan,followed the efforts of Xiong and further carried contemporary Neo Confucianism forward in different ways.In the Xiong school,Xiong,Tang,and Mou all intended to reconstruct moral metaphysics,while Xu’s position was to dissolve metaphysics and return philosophy and culture to the realities of real life.This foreshadowed the differentiation and continuous development of the contemporary Neo Confucianism thoughts under the influence of Yangming’s Mind-heart Theory.