Yan Juan, the representative of Taizhou School, and Yan Yuan, the founder of Taizhou School, both made outstanding contributions to Yan's descendants. Their "popular philosophy" and "practical learning" embody the popular philosophical thought. Yan Jun, a thinker in Ming Dynasty, is an important successor of Taizhou School. He claimed to have studied Wang Yangming's "conscience" and Wang Gen's "university" and evolved into his own "big middle school". The so-called "big middle school" is what Yan Jun himself called "the golden mean in universities". In Yan Jun's view, the doctrine of the mean in the university embodies the spiritual lifeline of Confucianism, so he called it "benevolence and righteousness" (preface to The Doctrine of the Mean in the University, Volume III of Mr. Yan's Legacy Collection), and called the word "the doctrine of the mean in the university" his "lifelong achievement" (The Doctrine of the Mean in the University, Volume VI of Mr. Yan's Legacy Collection). Yan Jun expounded the basic spirit of Confucianism from The Great Learning and The Doctrine of the Mean, but he did not surpass his predecessors. He took the word "the doctrine of the mean" in The University as an independent philosophical category and made intricate changes to them, which was his theoretical innovation. He thinks that the most precious thing between heaven and earth is man, and the heart of man is the most precious. Therefore, the old man is the "heart of heaven and earth", and the heart is the "master of man", and this "heart" is all-encompassing, all-encompassing and unpredictable (see the First Aid Heart Fire Table in Mr. Yan's Legacy). Starting from your theory of mind, he emphasized people's subjective spirit and its dynamic role, so he used "self" to interpret "the doctrine of the mean in universities": "People who have a wide range of self are called great"; "Those who are conscious are called learning"; "A self-centered and independent person is called Zhong"; "He who is complacent is brave". This so-called "self" is "heart", that is, knowing the subject. Based on this, Yan Jun defined the categories of "greatness", "learning", "mediocrity" and "mediocrity", making them all subordinate to "self", thus showing that "heart" is ever-changing and endless from the largest to the widest, from the garden to the god, from the highest to the middle. However, this "heart" is not helpless, but "everyone has it." He also said: "My mind is only one piece", "I only want to melt my life in this piece", "So it is said that a piece is unpredictable, intelligent and refined, life has no self-nature, it is not easy to decide, it is straightforward and moral, and it is a smooth detour." He integrated spirit, life and morality into the golden mean of university, which endowed his philosophy and ethics of "great middle school" with dual meanings, so that "university" and "golden mean" gave full play to their "self-ability" and had multiple functions. In his view, among the four words of "The Doctrine of the Mean in University", "Great thought is learning, but mediocrity", "Great" and "The Doctrine of the Mean" are the dominant ones, and "Learning" and "Mediocrity" are the auxiliary wings (for the above, please refer to the Doctrine of the Mean in University in Volume 6 of Mr. Yan's collection of posthumous works). It can be seen that the "big middle school" in Yan Jun is useful and self-contained. At the same time, he believes that "mind", as a philosophical category, can be divided into two parts: one is temperament and the other is spirit. The so-called "God is Mo" is a compound word of "spirit and Mo can". He said: "the spirit of the mind is sacred, and it is impossible to carry the big, nor can it carry the small as the golden mean." It is nothing more than self-cultivation, everyone is benevolent, and knowing that it can't be done is always in the spirit of time, life, culture and circulation. " In this way, Yan Jun combined the spiritual ink with the golden mean in the university, giving him the spiritual strength and mysticism of "big middle school". On this basis, instead of teaching people how to be an official, he taught people how to be a man, how to save the world, and publicized the moral salvation thought of "saving people's hearts" and even the religious salvation spirit. He hoped that people would let go of fame and fortune, and especially advised young scholars not to be riddled with holes, to pursue fame and fortune, and to have the courage to get rid of the shackles of traditional thinking. He has deep sympathy for the suffering people. He boldly exposed the exploitation and oppression of the people by the ruling class in "Questions and Answers to the Tiller's Need for Wood", and believed that the livelihood of the people was destroyed and destroyed by the monarch and his subjects. To this end, a "first aid" plan full of passion and fantasy was put forward, asking the court to save the people from fire and water and avoid oppression and pain.

Yan Yuan was an outstanding philosopher and anti-Neo-Confucianism thinker in China in the17th century. He advocated practical application and practice, emphasizing "practice" and direct experience, and opposed the theories of Neo-Confucianism, such as "reason lies in advance" and "unreasonable outside the heart", and thought that "reason lies outside the qi" He experienced the process from respecting Neo-Confucianism to criticizing Neo-Confucianism. From the standpoint of "teaching things", he thinks that all irrelevant knowledge, such as Han Confucian exegesis, Jin people's speech, Buddhism and Taoism nothingness, Song and Ming Neo-Confucianism, is empty learning and should be excluded. Starting from the standpoint of "practical learning", he strongly criticized Song Confucianism's "doing nothing by doing things", and Neo-Confucianism advocated emptiness and quietness. While criticizing Zhu Cheng's Neo-Confucianism, he also criticized Wang Lu's Neo-Confucianism. He showed considerable respect for Lu Wang's achievements, but thought that both Zhu Cheng and Wang Lu were "illusory" and belonged to the theory of homicide. While criticizing virtual learning, he advocates revitalizing "practical learning", emphasizing the application of "knowledge" and verifying knowledge through practice. He inherited Chen Liang's view that "justice and benefit are all good, and Wang Ba uses them both", and put forward the famous conclusion that "justice and benefit are for its benefit, and Tao is for knowing its merits" (Volume I of Four Books on Right and Wrong). He also wrote Song Bian and Comment on Song History, which clearly expressed his admiration for Wang Anshi's knowledge and thought that "virtue" and "behavior" should be embodied through "skill". They take it as their responsibility to "apply writing, practice, practicality, and achieve heaven and earth, while people are safe and things are rich" (Book of Mr. Lu Ya in Shangtaicang, Legacy of West House, Volume 3), and they strongly refuse to talk, creating and revitalizing practical learning. He attaches great importance to the cultivation of practical talents. He believes that the purpose of education is to cultivate practical talents, undertake the responsibility of the Holy Way and change the atmosphere. When he was in charge of Zhang Nan Academy, he reformed the academy education, focused on educating people with practical knowledge, and offered subjects such as literature, military equipment, classics and history, and artistic ability. Together with his students, he "discussed soldiers and peasants, distinguished merchants from ancient and modern times", "learned rites and music, sang poems, learned calligraphy, lifted stones, and crossed fists" (Volume 2 of Remains of West House in Zhang Nan Academy), and gave students a comprehensive education in morality, intelligence and physique. His practical thought has a great influence on later generations and occupies an important position in the history of practical thought in China.