Chiao Hung And The Late Ming Council Thought,

In order to grasp the characteristic of the intellectual world of Late Ming dynasty, this dissertation introduces the concept of the "Huitong branch of Wangxue", which is used to call those people who, as members of Wangxue, openly call for the mixture of Confucian, Daoism and Buddhism. Their thought has three characteristics: First they long for a spiritual goal that goes beyond death. Second they work to break the boundary between going into the society and standing aloof from worldly affairs. Third they advocate the theory of Wu Shan Wu E.Meanwhile the word "Huitong" not only indicates one theoretical form of Wangxue but also means an attitude and way of thinking toward how to deal with different thought resources. In this aspect there are also two characteristics: One is heading for the truth, which means to break all the man-made limitations and thus to treat all different thought resources equally so far as it offers a way to the truth. The other is self-determination, which denies the rationality of those already accepted disciplines, calls for breaking the monopoly of the truth by few authority and judges by oneself. This attitude and way of thinking may go beyond its original motive and overstep its theoretical extension. According to these two characteristics the author defines "the trend of Huitong Thought" as following: In this dissertation the trend of Huitong Thought is a general name to call a thought trend which is formed by members from different thought and academic fields of Late Ming dynasty who were influenced by the Huitong branch of Wangxue consciously or unconsciously, accepted their attitude and way of thought towards theory and academic research and thus did theoretical and academic creation and innovation in their fields.Jiao Hong was an active member of the Huitong branch of Wangxue, a scholar who had remarkable achievements in different fields and an influential man of letters. From him people can see the influence of the trend of Huitong Thought on all different thought and academic fields of Late Ming dynasty. Moreover he had a wide relationship and great influence through his life and was given the honor of the greatest man of Confucian in south-east China.This dissertation follows Jiao Hong's life to show the developing and declining process of the Huitong branch of Wangxue. It intends to discuss the influence of the trend of Huitong Thought on the thought and academic research of Late Ming dynasty by focusing on Jiao Hong, a representative man of this trend. It also intends to discuss the meaning and revelation of the trend of Huitong Thought towards Chinese thought...