De Xing Zhi Zhi

Neo-Confucianism,as the new development of Confucianism,reached its zenith at Song and Ming Dynasty and exerts profound influence over Chinese people through Imperial Examination System.It would be of great significance to research the cognitive thought of Neo-Confucianism,such as helping us to understand the mental and behavioral features of Chinese people.Annotation and transformation are two important processes to study ancient Chinese mental thoughts.Annotation is premise of transformation and is the foundation of study on ancient Chinese mental thought.In order to guarantee accuracy of annotation,this study conducted research mainly by means of methodological Hermeneutics based on the internal logic method.We think that studying on ancient Chinese mental thoughts should annotate ancient Chinese thoughts through psychological views.The relationship between ancient Chinese thoughts and ancient Chinese mental thoughts is unity and parts.Mental thoughts should give service to the thought of their parents.It means that annotating ancient Chinese mental thoughts should not break away from ancient Chinese thoughts.Up till now,more attentions have been paid to cognitive thoughts of Neo-Confucianism in the area of history of Chinese psychology.Some researchers thought that de xing zhi zhi(cognition of virtue) and jian wen zhi zhi(cognition of experience) are same as the concepts of thinking and perception in contemporary cognitive psychology.But,by researching Zhang Zai's philosophical thinking,it is not the case.In Zhang Zai's philosophical thinking,de xing zhi zhi(cognition of virtue) is a kind of experience and perceive of syncretism between heaven and man.Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi inherit de xing zhi zhi(cognition of virtue) from Zhang Zai,but they produce different views on the way to acquire de xing zhi zhi(cognition of virtue). Then,Lu Jiuyuan/Wang Yangming and Zhu Xi inherited and developed the methods to acquire de xing zhi zhi(cognition of virtue) introduced by Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi respectively,these are the well-known Cheng Zhu lixue and Lu Wang xinxue.Cheng Zhu lixue uses ge wu zhi zhi to acquire de xing zhi zhi(cognition of virtue),while Lu Wang xinxue uses meditation and so on to acquire it.By analyzing the methods of Cheng Zhu lixue and Lu Wang xinxue from psychological views,we thought that its internal mechanism is similar with the mechanism of religious beliefs.Cheng Zhu lixue and Lu Wang xinxue believe that through reinforcing the beliefs on Principle of Heaven,people can produce the sense of Nature and Man in One.This kind of de xing zhi zhi(cognition of virtue) has following characteristics.Firstly,it is not pure cognition,but a kind of cognition which gives service to Neo-Confucianism.Secondly,it needs two processes to acquire it including experience and perceive.Finally,it reflects the characteristics about integral cognition.Once de xing zhi zhi(cognition of virtue) is formed,people will express different cognition with others.This kind of cognition has features of moral judgments.In order to separate it from Zhang Zai's de xing zhi zhi(cognition of virtue),we called it Physical de xing zhi zhi(cognition of virtue).And Zhang Zai's de xing zhi zhi (cognition of virtue) was called metaphysical de xing zhi zhi(cognition of virtue). Physical de xing zhi zhi(cognition of virtue) have three characteristics:Cognitive ranking,moral judgment and Cognition and emotion in one.Finally,by comparing the cognitive thoughts of Neo-Confucianism with the contemporary cognitive psychology,we reflect on the negative impact of the over-developed cognitive thought of Neo-Confucianism of Song and Ming Dynasty.