Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties:
A Neo-Confucianism was first named in the Southern Song Dynasty. Zhu once said that Neo-Confucianism was the most difficult, and Lu Jiuyuan also said that this dynasty only respected Neo-Confucianism, far surpassing Han and Tang Dynasties. In the Ming Dynasty, Neo-Confucianism became a concept that specifically referred to the academic system formed since the Song Dynasty. Neo-Confucianism has broad sense and narrow sense.
1, generalized Neo-Confucianism refers to the dominant Confucian philosophy system formed since the Song and Ming Dynasties, including:
(1) Taoism, which dominated in the Song Dynasty, took "reason" as the highest category in the Southern Song Dynasty and reached the peak of Zhu Xi's ideological system. Later, he used to refer to his ideological system with "Neo-Confucianism".
② The ideological system with "mind" as the highest category came into being in the Song Dynasty and dominated in the middle and late Ming Dynasty. The Theory of Mind and Nature represented by Lu Jiuyuan and Wang Shouren.
2. The narrow sense of Neo-Confucianism refers to Zhu Cheng School.
(1) stands for:
Northern Song Dynasty: Zhou Dunyi, Zhang Zai, Cheng Hao, Cheng Yi and Shao Yong. That is, the five sons of the Northern Song Dynasty;
Southern Song Dynasty: Zhu and Lu Jiuyuan;
Ming Dynasty: Wang Yangming. As far as the dominant ideological trend is concerned, the representative of Neo-Confucianism can be summarized as "Zhu Cheng Lu Wang".
② Main factions:
According to the usual practice of modern academic circles, the neo-Confucianism system in Song and Ming Dynasties can be divided into four schools:
Qi (represented by Zhang Zai), number (represented by Shao Yong), "Neo-Confucianism" (represented by thought) and heart (represented by thought). The issues discussed by Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties are different due to different periods and schools. An important difference between Neo-Confucianism and Confucianism before the Tang Dynasty is that the four books have become the main classics of respecting faith. The value system and the kung fu system are all in the four books. Six classics are coarse grains, and four books are cooked rice. The main basis of Neo-Confucianism and the issues discussed are closely related to The Analects of Confucius, Mencius, Daxue and The Doctrine of the Mean.
(3) The main issues discussed by Neo-Confucianism are:
Adjust qi, mind, personality, knowledge, respect, clumsiness, self-restraint, knowing and doing, developed but underdeveloped, moral and human nature, natural and human nature, and destiny.
Characteristics of Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties:
1. First, Confucianism is further speculative. On the one hand, the Neo-Confucianists in Song and Ming Dynasties learned from the achievements of Buddhism and Taoism in philosophical ontology, on the other hand, they looked for the factors that can be used for reference in traditional Confucianism, and creatively put forward many unique Confucian concepts such as "Taiji", "Tian Li" and "Heart", thus making the moral creed quotations of traditional Confucianism a philosophical theoretical system.
2. Secondly, pay more attention to ethics as the ideological core. Neo-Confucianism especially emphasizes righteousness, in fact, it emphasizes Confucian ethics. Various ontologies on the philosophical level, as well as the theory of human nature, self-cultivation, epistemology, the theory of sanctification and the theory of equal role from cultivation as the moral basis, all take ethics as the core.
Thirdly, it absorbs more Buddhist and Taoist factors. Neo-Confucianism in the Song and Ming Dynasties, as a stage of the development of Confucianism, has obvious Buddhist characteristics, such as absorbing the core idea of Neo-Confucianism, asceticism, and putting forward the moral proposition of "preserving justice and eliminating human desires".
The emergence of neo-Confucianism:
1, historical conditions:
The authoritative view of academic circles is that in the History of Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties edited by Hou Wailu, Hansheng Qiu and Zhang Qizhi, they think: "In the late feudal society, with the evolution of landlord class power, civilian landlords replaced the dominant position of identity landlords;
New requirements of peasant war for average wealth;
The sharpness of ethnic contradictions;
These constitute the political conditions for the emergence of Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties. The decline of Confucian classic annotations; Infiltration of Buddhism and Taoism; The development of science and technology;
These constitute the academic and ideological conditions for the emergence of Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties. Neo-Confucianism in the Song and Ming Dynasties is the ruling thought that was conceived, produced and developed under these historical conditions in the late feudal society of China.
Some scholars believe that the emergence of Neo-Confucianism has nothing to do with the above-mentioned political and academic thoughts or has little to do with it. The main reason should be that after the founding of the Northern Song Dynasty 80 years ago, the emperor was absolutely centralized or autocratic politically, mutinous peasants revolted frequently, the upper rulers were extremely dissolute, and the problem of "three redundancies" was serious. Ideologically, it strongly advocates cultural rule, academically, it advocates the integration of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism and ideological imprisonment.
2. Understand Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties:
The word "Neo-Confucianism" refers to the orthodox Confucianism which comes down in one continuous line with the pre-Qin Confucian spirit from an orthodox point of view. Cheng Hao's "self-concern" gave birth to the word "natural justice", which expressed the traditional Confucian thought of "harmony between man and nature" in the form of "harmony between man and nature". The ontological position of "nature" in ancient China philosophy was replaced by "justice", hence the name of Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties.
The so-called "righteousness" of Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties refers not only to the universal laws of nature, but also to the natural laws of human society. It applies to nature, society and all concrete things, and everything is just a kind of justice. Zhu regarded Tian Li as the Three Cardinal Principles and the Five Permanent Principles, and promoted it to the highest realm of human nature, and reached the conclusion that "Tian Li should exist, while human desires should be destroyed". Wang Yangming's theory of mind transforms the root of all legitimacy and rationality from external justice to internal conscience, and regards conscience as justice.
The Development of Neo-Confucianism in Song Dynasty;
Neo-Confucianism in Song Dynasty is a new Confucianism characterized by the integration of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism. It puts people's self-improvement in the most important position, emphasizes "preserving the principle of nature and extinguishing people's desires", makes in-depth research on the relationship between people, and puts forward a series of important moral norms and cultivation methods. The emergence of Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties adapted to the needs of rebuilding the feudal ruling order in Zhao and Song Dynasties. Neo-Confucianism has gone through three stages of development: founding, foundation and synthesis.
(1) Neo-Confucianism was founded in the early Northern Song Dynasty. At that time, Sun Fu, a famous Confucian, and others felt the destruction of the Five Dynasties' ethics, and vigorously advocated "the learning of benevolence, righteousness, propriety and music" and advocated Confucian orthodoxy. In the process of studying Confucian classics, we don't pay attention to the exegesis of chapters and sentences, but mainly explain the meaning, which has a great influence on the formation of Neo-Confucianism later. Zhou Dunyi, a Qing Dynasty man, began to use the concept of "reason" in Tai Chi Tu Shuo and Tong Shu, but it has never been expounded in the highest philosophical category. Zhou Dunyi discussed the formation of the universe and the metaplasia of everything in extremely concise and abstract language, and put forward the view that everything is based on "Tai Chi".
(2) Song Shenzong Xining is the foundation stage of Neo-Confucianism, and Zhang Zai and Cheng Er (Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi) are regarded as the founders. Zhang Zai takes "Qi" as the noumenon of all things, and Er Cheng takes "Reason" as the noumenon of all things, respectively discussing the two important categories of "Qi" and "Reason". Cheng regards "reason" as the noumenon of all things, and thinks that "there is only one reason in the world" and "everything is only one reason". The proposition put forward by Zhang Zai and Cheng Cheng became the proposition of Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties, thus raising Dong Zhongshu's theory of heaven and man to the height of ontology.
(3) The Southern Song Dynasty was the peak stage of Neo-Confucianism. Zhu established a broad and complex logical system with Confucian ethics as the core and combined with Buddhism and other schools of thought. At the same time with Zhu, the "mind study" represented by Lu Jiuyuan also appeared in Neo-Confucianism. Lu Jiuyuan put forward the proposition that "the universe is my heart", and he took "inventing the original heart" as his purpose, which laid the foundation of the school of "mind learning" in Song and Ming Neo-Confucianism.