Luo Zenan "YaoJiangXueBian" By The New Exploration For LiXue Thought

Luo Zenan is one of representative figures for the late Qing dynasty’s lixue, andthe book YaoJiangXueBian was the masterpiece about his Neo-confucianism.According to the thought of mainstream of academic community, Luo Zenan basedhimself in the base camp of Cheng-Zhu lixue’s orthodox standpoint, attackingseriously against Wang Yangming’s xinxue and the other heresies. Through hisaccademic activities, Cheng-Zhu lixue’s social status was consolidated in the socialunrest and ideological changes in late Qing dynasty, which was helpful to promote therevival of neo-confucianism. The book of YaoJiangXueBian made a comprehensiveand systematic analysis on the difference between Cheng-Zhu lixue and Lu-Wangxinxue, and it had a huge important academic value in the field of the study of thehistory of neo-confucialism.After the reading of the present research achievements, this paper differs fromother articles’ statement and will give some new arguments on the following threeaspects:1.Research for the criticisms on Wang Yangming. From the five aspects of WangYangming’s ideologies such as heart and nature theory, the theory of realizing intuitiveknowledge, the theory of investigation of things, the theory of the inseparability ofknowledge and practice, and the theory of realm, this paper focuses onYaoJiangXueBian’s criticism on Wang Yangming and has a much more deeper andmeticulous analysis. And the analysis has some new academic findings, including that"no good and no evil" disobeys the theory of ti-yong consistency,"heart as truth" doesnot have limited explanation,"Qi as nature" does not point out that there are kinds ofevil Qi, and so on.On the other hands, from the four aspects of Wang Yangming’s ideologies such asthe heart and nature theory, the theory of sincerity, the theory of the effort and thetheory of realm, this paper also argues on the bias of YaoJiangXueBian’s criticism onWang Yangming, and this point is seldom discussed by the academic community. Forinstance, Luo Zenan did not get the key point of Wang Yangming’s theory of "realm asobject" which refers to the existence against people, sincerity is relative to the"fragment" in natural studies,"weifa" and "yifa" are inseparable and the key point lieson "weifa" and the foundation of confucial tradition, meditation means the constringency of spirit and does not go forward to nothingness, happy is not thehuman body’s emotion and it is the realm of conscience.2. Research in the criticism on Buddhism,Taoism, GuanZi and ShangYang. Thispaper summarizes the basic standpoint about the criticism on Buddhism, Taoism,GuanZi and ShangYang and the definition of Wang Yangming’s ideology as Zen spiritwhich were contained in the book of YaoJiangXueBian. For example, Luo Zenan’scriticism on the Buddhism and Taoism could be generalized into five aspects,includingcosmology, the heart and nature theory, the theory of the effort,epistemology and thedamage to the fedual ethics;and his criticism on GuanZi and ShangYang could besummarized as the durance of conscience,the corruption of the custom and thebehavior by technique;and the definition of Wang Yangming’s ideology as Zen spiritcould be generalized into the deny of the confucial nature of Wang Yangming’sideology and the relationship between Wang Yangming’s ideology and the religion ofBuddhism and Taoism.3.The comparison of the academic discussion thought between Luo Zenan, ZhuXi and Luo Qinshun. This comparison is the feature of this paper and it is seldomdiscussed by the academic community. Through the careful comparison of the threefigure’s different thought, especially the difference of the criticism on xinxue andBuddhism and Taoism, this paper reveals the changes which happened in the field ofthe lixue’s criticism on xinxue and Buddhism and Taoism from the South Song dynastyand the middle of Ming dynasty to the late Qing dynasty, such as theattitude,purpose,depth and emphasisof the criticism on xinxue, and the constructionand change of the theory of "xinxue as Zen", and the disagreement of the academicfact "put Buddhism into Confucianism".