Mid-qing Confucianism Into The Context Of Ritual Thinking

The research about the thought of Li-Yue is an important project which belongs to ancient Chinese aesthetics of music research , and its development is closely related to the changes of Confucianism. Therefore, putting the thought of Li-Yue on the certainly historical and Confucian background has become an idea of research.In Qing Dynasty, the academic atmosphere of Confucianism has change a lot. The"Neo-Confucianism"lay stress on metaphysical form in the Song and Ming dynasty, and in Qing Dynasty the Factualistic Scholarship become Confucianism`s manifestation, and it stress on practical form. The Factualistic Scholarship scholars advocated the reorganization of ancient Confusian classical tested by a textual way, and on this foundation to make comprehensive introspection to the"Neo-Confucianism". They intended to the return to the Confucian classics of early time to release the thought which is imprisoned by the"Neo-Confucianism"for a long time. Therefore, it should be said that the"Neo-Confucianism"is one of appearances of Confucianism, but not completely equal to it. So, when someone mentioned the thought of Li-Yue, people always thought about"saves the natural justice ,extinguishes the human desire", it also was an one-sided understanding to the Confucianism.Ling Tingkan, who live in the middle period in Qing Dynasty, could be called a ritual studying expert with outstanding academic achievement in musicology. Therefore, it's valuable for us to focus on Ling Tingkan, and research on his thought of Li-Yue. On that social and academic background, Ling Tingkan firmly proposed to the idea of"change the Li(rationale) into Li(ritual)".This position was against to Neo-Confucianismre, and it also was a return to the early Confucianist classical thought. Ling Tingkan affirmed the existence of humanity emotion and desire was reasonable, with this conditions he formed his own requests which was uphold the ritual, and it prepared the return of the thought of Li-Yue. At the same time, this thought of Li-Yue was more suitable with the spirit in early Confucian's thought of Li-Yue.It can be said, the intrinsic development of the Confucianist thought of Li-Yue`s has experienced a long process which has three periods of"Li( ritual)– Li(principle)– Li(ritual)", and the Confucianist thought of Li-Yue was not unchanging or inelastic. So researchers should be more objective to treat the development and change of the thought of Li-Yue.