A Study On The Ideological Trend Of Doubting Mencius In Northern Song Dynasty

Song Dynasty is the famous ancient period in the academic history of our country,and the thought of doubting Mencius in the Northern Song Dynasty is a branch of it.In the middle and late period of Tang Dynasty,Mencius' promotion movement raised Mencius' status and gradually aroused the attention of the scholar-bureaucrats of the Northern Song Dynasty.Mencius and his books were also doubted,dissatisfied and even denigrated while being respected.The analysis of the study of Mencius and his books by the skeptics of the Northern Song Dynasty is of great value for discussing the development history of Mencius in the Northern Song Dynasty and the development history of Mencius in the Song dynasties and beyond.There are many reasons for the suspicious Mencius formed the trend of thought in the Northern Song Dynasty.Before Song Dynasty,the foundation of the thought of suspicious Mencius,the influence of the whole thought of doubtful scriptures in the early Song Dynasty,the political struggle caused by Wang Anshi's reform and the difference of academic thought,Mencius and his books were hindered in the rise of their status.The historical development of suspicious Mencius in the Northern Song Dynasty can be divided into three stages: early Song Dynasty,Qingli period,Xifeng period and beyond.Suspicion and Mencius formed the trend of thought mainly concentrated after Xi Feng.In order to deepen the research of the thought of doubting Mencius in the Northern Song Dynasty,this paper classifies the skeptics into three categories according to the different attitudes and degree of suspicion of Mencius.The first category is "respect primarily,respect in doubt",the main representative characters are Ou Yangxiu,Zhang Zai,Cheng Hao,Cheng Yi,Wang Anshi.They revered Mencius' thought and only supplemented and perfected his theory of good nature.The second category is "doubt-oriented,suspicion with respect",mainly represented by Su Shi,Su Zhe.They doubted Mencius' theory of sexual goodness and questioned some of the contents of the book on the basis of non-Mencius Confucius and other classics.The third category is "doubt without respect,completely negation",the main characters are Li Gou,Si Maguang,Chao shuozhi and so on.They were dissatisfiedwith Mencius' theory of sexual goodness,the theory of relativity between monarchs and courtiers,and the theory of heterogeny of king and bully.The trend of thought of suspicious Mencius in the Northern Song Dynasty caused the rebuttal of those who respected Mencius in the Southern Song Dynasty,mainly represented by Zhang Jiucheng,Hu Hong,Yu Yunwen and Zhu Xi.With the help of the connection between Confucian classics and Mencius' thought,they claim that Mencius has a positive origin and can continue his Taoism,explain and perfect Mencius' theory of sexual goodness from the perspective of cosmology and ontology,and emphasize the use of Mencius' flexible thinking to understand his concept.Wang Ba's thoughts and so on.The thought of suspicious Mencius in the Northern Song Dynasty was an important part in the history of the development of Mencius.The depth and scope of Mencius' thought in the process of skepticism were far beyond the past,which made Mencius' thought get more attention at that time.This not only stimulated the scholars' consciousness of studying Mencius and other Confucian classics,but also played an important role in the transformation of Confucian classics from the "five Classics" system to the "four Books" system,which played an important role in the formation of Neo-Confucianism development paradigm.