A Study Of He Tang’s Philosophical Thought

He tang was a neo-confucianist who was close to Wang yangming in the middle of the Ming Dynasty.His works are rare in the world,mainly concentrated in a collection of He tang ji,and the main idea is the theory of "Yin and Yang","Confucianism" and "gewu".His main idea is that the theory of "Yin Xing Yang Shen" and the way of learning based on "gewu",especially the " Yin Xing Yang Shen " theory,which is the basis of many of its philosophical thoughts.At present the study of he tang’s philosophical thoughts in academic circles focuses on the theory of Yin and Yang and the concept of ghosts and gods.This paper introduces he tang’s life experience and academic contacts with other scholars,analyzes his philosophical thoughts and makes an attempt to make a more comprehensive and objective understanding of his philosophical thoughts.It is divided into three chapters.The first chapter mainly describes he tang’s life and academic contacts.The most important thing is that he and Zhan Ruoshui’s contacts on the order of “gewu” and “cunxin”,and the academic debate on yin and yang with Wang tingxiang.The second chapter mainly discusses the cosmology and the psychology,which are characterized by " Yin Xing Yang Shen ".He believes that there are two kinds of existence in the universe: Yin is tangible and ignorant,while Yang is intangible and knowledge,the former is "Xing" and the latter is "god".He tang’s cosmogenesis borrows the cosmology of Yi Zhuan,and to incorporate the idea of "Yin Xing Yang Shen".For he tang’s ontology,it is believed that ontology is not Xing Shen but a tai chi.He believes that god makes people’s mind nature.It can be seen that the psychology is based on "Yin Xing Yang Shen".The third chapter discusses he tang’s doctrine of heaven and the concept of ghosts and gods.He tang believed that heaven was a Yang god with knowledge.Therefore,he naturally recognized heaven’s ability to bless good and punish evil,but on the other hand,he also emphasizes the role of manpower.On the view of ghosts and gods,since it is admitted that there are two kinds of existence in nature,namely visible ignorance and invisible knowledge,ghosts and gods are the part of existence with invisible knowledge.