The Self-Cultivation Of Ta-hsueh Yen-i

Why I write this thesis? Firstly,Ta-hsueh yen-i is one of important works of Chen Te-hsiu who is a famous menber in Chu Hsi school that is studied not as deep as Yang Ming school.Secondly,Ta-hsueh yen-i is very representative in using the atecraft of confucianism,and though it belongs to neo-Confucianism,it has the pulse of learning of the mind-and-heart,which is pointed out by Gangtian Wuyan in A Review on the Evolution of Sung and Ming Confucianism:Chen Te-hsiu emphasizes the culture of Chu Hsi neo-Confucianism and forms the trend of accepting the learning of Lu Chiu-yuan,the learning of Hsi-shan may be the headstream of the difference between Chu Hsi and Lu Chiu-yuan at the turning of Yuan and Ming Dynasty.Meng Peiyuan thinks Chen Te-hsiu's philosophy has a tendency of learning of the mind-and-heart in Encyclopedia of China.Thirdly,after Nan-Sung Ta-hsueh yen-i is regarded by many dynasts who draw governing theory,and scholars get cultural resources from it,consequently,it guides political and academic pulse. Fourthly,today many scholars study Ta-hsueh yen-i with hermeneutics,but they rarely care about its idea.To sum up,to study Ta-hsueh yen-i has a significance on research the relation between neo-confucianism and the school of mind and traditional Chinese political philosophy.This thesis regards ideaistic source and Chen Te-hsiu's political circumstances as the reason of writing Ta-hsueh yen-i and find the question which Ta-hsueh yen-i faces and trys to solve,namely,making use of Ta-hsueh as its frame of reference, Ta-hsueh yen-i explains the possibility of the interaction between virtues and power in Chinese tradition,and it also gives the answer of the question.Starting off thinking with the comprehension of the ancient Chinese cosmology,we can find the nature of human is the being that can give out the kind of cosmos by himself.Yao and Shun are legendary sage-rulers,because they can perceive that and use kingly government. We can see from the sage-king's kingly government that all of the sage-kings know his nature and practice the kingly way.The reason why they can be a sage-king is sageliness within.The key way to achieve this is to practice Self-Cultivation that contents Xiao,rites,music,and it can wipe out the desire and blind ness in our mind and enrich our mind with human-heartedness and righteousness.And that is to say,a human who meet Li from intrinsic moral word to experience is a real being.They are the contents and needs of learning which is the content of self-cultivation;and the teaching which can let the ruler awake the development of learning.The course of self-cultivation is from Jen(human-heartedness) to perfection.This is self-discipline for governing others.So,self-cultivation is the nucleus of three "main cords" and eight "minor wires" of The Great Learning.