A Study On Sun Qifeng’s Neo Confucianism

Sun Qifeng was a great neo-confucianist in late Ming and early Qing, whose thought was known for reconciling different ideas between Zhu Xi and Wang Yangming. Sun Qifeng lived in a period that both of the theory of Zhu Xi and Wang Yangming which influenced people most emerged lots of problems. And the scholars belonged to the two different schools argued intensely for which school was better. Besides, Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism’s relationship was not very clear. In order to solve these problems, Sun Qifeng tried to reconcile the two schools to promote the development of Confucianism. Specifically, Sun Qifeng reconciled the two schools from two main aspects. On the one hand, he re-explained the inside different ideas of the two school, such as the theory of Ge Wu, the relationship of knowledge and morality, the relationship of knowledge and action. On the other hand, Sun Qifeng presented new views outside of the two schools. He thought that the two schools all belonged to Confucianism that they had the same aim of improving morality. Their differences were just different methods that we should tolerant their differences and learn the advantages. Sun Qifeng also believed that the thought of Zhu Xi in his old age was similar to Wang Yangming. Last, Sun Qifeng considered that the most important thing of learning was to act what we learned. He opposed that scholars just talked the theory every day and advocated people to fulfill the moral principles in daily life. His thought had a great influence and promoted the development of Chinese philosophy.