The Study Of Yangming School’s Confucian Orthodoxy

Although Yangming studies and Confucian orthodoxy are hotspots in academic circles respectively,the study of Confucian orthodoxy of Yangming school is weak.Indeed,on the one hand,Yangming scholars does not talk much about the word "Daotong";On the other hand,they have a very strong consciousness of orthodoxy,and expositions of orthodoxy are also very rich.Based on the text of Yangming scholars,this paper focuses on the core concept of Confucian orthodoxy and discusses the whole Confucian orthodoxy of Yangming school in a typological way,in order to achieve a more comprehensive understanding.The first chapter discusses the origin,manifestation,and development track of Wang Yangming school’s Confucian orthodoxy.Zhuzi’s learning understood Tao by highlighting the spiritual and cultural implications,and Wang Yangming school inherited this position.However,in terms of concrete expression,Yangming scholars usually use the concepts of Zong and Mai to express their own concerns.Among them,Zong tends to the essential dimension and pulse to the historical dimension.According to the different purposes of thought,Yangming scholars can be divided into four types of orthodoxy with the concepts of innate knowledge,humanity,selfbody and nature as the center.Among them,the two main types of orthodoxy are to extend the innate knowledge and to seek humanity.In addition to the understanding orthodoxy with Confucian learning,based on the emphasis on the actual order of governance,Yangming scholars in the late Ming Dynasty appeared a new situation of Confucian orthodoxy,which divided governance and learning,and govern learning by governance.The second chapter mainly discusses Yangming scholars’understanding of the "sixteen-character mind-to-mind instruction"which is the core of Zhu Xi’s Confucian orthodoxy.Wang Yangming and most of his posterity insist on the opposite interpretation of the natural principle and human desire,while a few of his posterity regard Daoxin and renxin as a relationship of body and function.Although there are different opinions,Yangming scholars can regard Daoxin as original substance and the source of inner value,which is separated from Zhuzi’s understanding.Yangming scholars also regard zhong as the tenet of sacred learning.Generally speaking,"sixteen-character mind-to-mind instruction" is in an important and independent position in Confucian orthodoxy of Wang Yangming learning,which cannot be used to determine the specific meaning of scholars’Confucian orthodoxy.The third chapter discusses Confucianism orthodoxy centered on innate knowledge of Yangming school.When Wang Yangming felt that innate knowledge theory matured,he preached the theory spreadly,and used innate knowledge as the center of sacred learning.The prominent feature of the Wang yangming’s Confucian pedigree is the emphasis on Yanzi,Zhou Dunyi and Cheng Hao.Most of Wang yangming’s first generation disciple continued,and established their own Confucian orthodoxy with innate knowledge as the core.Jiangyou school focuses on Gongfu,Zhezhong school focuses on revealing the body in the middle,and the Guiji school focuses on the concepts of returning to emptiness.The status of learning of innate knowledge reached its peak when Wang Yangming came to official worship.However,after the secong generation disciple of Wang Yangming,with the decline of the authority,the Confucian orthodoxy with learning of innate knowledge inevitably went into decomposed.The fourth chapter discusses Confucianism orthodoxy centered on humanity of Yangming school.In addition to innate knowledge,Yangming also paid special attention to the humanity of unity and strongly advocated it in his later years,but never fully raised it to the level of Confucian orthodoxy discourse.Jiang Xin’s belief in the unity of all things is unique among Yangming’s disciples.Under their influence,the Confucianism orthodoxy of humanity was publicized among the disciples after the second generation.Jiangyou school attaches equal importance to humanity and mind,Zhezhong school emphasizes the universal significance of humanity,Qianzhong school pays attention to the essence of the combination of humanity and inner and outer solitude contained in the mind,the scholars of Tiantai fraction set up the orthodox history of humanity of the unity of all things,the scholars of Shannong fraction directly studied humanity in the orthodoxy.The difference between these scholars’ orthodoxy and those who insist in innate knowledge is that they want to take humanity combining the internal and external as the purpose to define the heart body,and return to Confucius and Mencius with the humanity as the center in the pedigree.In addition,the Confucian orthodoxy with the purpose of self-cultivation regards the body as the basis of moral practice,and the Confucian orthodoxy centered on nature takes the nature as the leading idea.Both of them can also be regarded as the homology of the Confucian orthodoxy of humanity.The fifth chapter focuses on the new situation of Confucianism orthodoxy of Yangming scholars in the late Ming Dynasty.Some Yangming ’s posterity advocate the orthodoxy of integration of the three teachings with a view of equalizing the three teachings,and more third generation disciples clearly distinguish between governance and learning in orthodoxy.Zou yuanbiao and Guo Zizhang,the descendants of Huzhi in Jiangyou school,have two pedigrees of governance and learning.Tao Wangling’s Confucian orthodoxy of Zhezhong school also has two clues of the unity of Tao and affairs and the Separation of Tao and affairs.Luo rufang’s Confucian orthodoxy of Taizhou school is the earliest representative who respected the emperor Taizu of Ming Dynasty and assisted "the orthodoxy of Tang and Yu" with "the learnig of Confucius and Mencius".In addition,the theory of orthodoxy represented by Yang Qiyuan and Guan ZhiTao governing learning by governance and interpenetrating three teachings reveals the meaning of"Taotong" more clearly and reflects the new trend of the development of Confucian orthodoxy.In this way,the first emperor of Ming Dynasty has obtained a transcendent Orthodoxy status,and the content of actual order governance in orthodoxy has been independent to a certain extent.But it also brings up the risk of the integration of the Confucian orthodoxy and the govern orthodoxy.The sixth chapter observes the ideas and practices of inheritance of Tao of Yangming scholars.Yangming scholars usually have a clear sense of commitment to Tao.Yangming scholars’ idea of inheritance of Tao has rich and diverse connotations,which is deeply influenced by the ideas of Zen’ s transmission of the lamp and lineage spread,and contains the irreconcilable contradiction of the universal existence and arbitrary commitment of Taoism.Yangming’s posterity has different opinions on which is the authentic heirs of Yangming,mainly including Jiangyou,Zhezhong and Taizhou,which shows that Yangming’s posterity is constantly going towards differentiation.Different from the general view,the practice of inheritance of Tao of Yangming School is not very common in general,only in some figures in central Zhezhong and Taizhou school.Finally,the conclusion discusses the enlightenment of the analysis on the understanding of the historical development logic of Yangming school and the construction of contemporary orthodoxy theory.The interpretation of the history of Confucian orthodoxy can reveal some trends and characteristics of the development of Wang Yangming learning and Confucianism in late Ming Dynasty,and the inherent structural characteristics of traditional Confucianism itself,which requires the unity of learning and governance,is also worth thinking deeply by contemporary orthodoxy constructionists.