Ecological Research On The Practice Of The Rural Governance Of Taizhou School

In the 16 th century,under the influence of the lineage of the Yaojiang River(Yangming),the traditional Chinese Confucianism gradually walked out of the "studios" and moved to a brand-new period characterized by "practicality" and "folk transformation".Among them,the practices of the Taizhou School founded by Wang Gen,a disciple of Yangming,to go deep into the folk and develop the clansman in the villages is a model example.Liang Ruyuan,a member of the Taizhou School,learnt from Yan Jun,a disciple of one of Wang Gen’s disciples.Liang utilized his own family wealth to establish “the Juhe Hall”in his hometown,the present Liangfang Village,Yongfeng County,Ji’an Prefecture,Jiangxi.It is a folk organization with the most complete functions covering the politics,economy,education and welfare in the rural construction history by the Taizhou School.In the middle and late Ming Dynasty featuring political declines,rampant conflicts,economic changes and social unrest,he,with a perspective of “saving the world” completely different from those of the upper-level Confucians and intellectuals,was devoted to constructing an ideal society which “comforts the old and cares the young” and exploring his philosophical thoughts on the Heaven-Human relationship and the social ecology with his practices.He Xinyin was therefore regarded as someone "not only using his brain,but also his heart and physical force for philosophical thinking",and an anti-feudal fighter "with boldness,courage,and an ideal mind."Although the Juhe Hall in Yongfeng only existed for seven years,it is still a typical case of the transition of the Neo-Confucianism represented by the Taizhou School in the middle and late Ming Dynasty to "carry out their views in the folk society".Compared with the rural governance practices of Wang Gen,Wang Bi,Yan Jun and others,the practices of the Juhe Hall presents in the overall framework some social ecological characteristics and experiments which the predecessors did not possess.Therefore,this paper,by studying four aspects,including the research on the inheritance and evolution of the Taizhou School’s thoughts on rural governance,the Liang Ruyuan’s Yongfeng Experiment as a rural governance sample of the Taizhou School,the ecological criticism of the Yongfeng Experiment,and the significance of the Yongfeng Experiment.For the first time,from the angle of the social ecology,this paper analyzes and criticizes the ecological soil,the ecological characteristics of construction and the ecological significance of inheritance of the Yongfeng Experiment.With this,it hopes to promote the re-understanding of Liang Ruyuan and the Yongfeng Experiment,the social and ecological significance of the practices of rural governance by the Taizhou School,the impact on the rural construction movement in the middle and late Ming Dynasty,and the turn of the Confucianism in the Middle and Late Ming Dynasty.