Research On Yan Yuan’s Theory Of Human Nature

The question of human nature is the subject of Chinese philosophy.Zhang Zai first advocated the division between the nature of heaven and earth and the nature of temperament,and Zhu Xi put forward the Proposition of "Keep the Celestial Law Existence,Extinguish the Human’s Desire",which developed the idea of human nature to a new stage.In the middle and late Ming Dynasty,scholars began to question this.As one of the most important scholars of the late Ming and early Qing dynasties,Yan Yuan,who had no academic background,studied human nature in a more profound way.He exposes the phenomenon of empty talk about the nature of the mind,arguing that the root cause is the useless learning of "Of sincerity"that the Song and Ming Neo-Confucianism have always advocated verbally,and that Song and Ming Neo-Confucianism is more or less influenced by Buddhism and Taoism and is not in line with the Way of Confucius.On the basis of the "unification of the Li and Qi",Yan Yuan criticized Song Confucianism for splitting the "nature of heaven" and the "nature of temperament" into two.In response to Zhu Xi’s dualistic system of Li and Qi based on Li,Yan Yuan insisted on the dualism of the "nature of temperament" and proposed that Qi is the original source of all things.He also insisted on the "nature of temperament" theory of non-evil,and opposed the Song and Ming Neo-Confucianism that the "nature of heaven" is good and the "nature of temperament" is evil.He believed that it was this distinction that divided human nature and led people to pursue an illusory nature of heavenly destiny,while belittling people’s basic physical desires and needs in life,resulting in a culture of hypocrisy and incompetence and contempt for merit.Yan Yuan proposed the theory of "Qi" as the basis,and then advocated human nature monism,breaking the Song and Ming Neo-Confucianism of human nature dichotomy error,making human nature return to the right starting point.At the same time,he also put forward the view that "the nature of the temperament is good,but the evil is induced by the influence of the habit",On the one hand,he affirmed that human nature is free of evil and gave people a reasonable status of desire,which became the theoretical basis for "practicing the fullness of human’s nature" and"abandoning the Entity and Imagination";on the other hand,he pointed out the source of evil and provided a theoretical possibility for the theory of cultivation of"Li in the midst of things"and "practice and practicing".Like other scholars of the Ming and Qing dynasties,Yan Yuan also found that the Song Ming theory of human nature was so over-emphasized on the "nature of heaven" that the "nature of temperament" was depreciated,creating deep cracks and conflicts within human nature.Yan Yuan’s propositions of "practicing the fullness of human’s nature""rational human desire" and "abandoning the Entity and Imagination" correctly examine the relationship between human rational morality and human sensual life,thus liberating the vitality and emotional desires of human individuals.Throughout Yan Yuan’s thought on human nature,he shifted from the dualism of reason and qi to the monism of qi,from Song and Ming Neo-Confucianism to Confucianism and Mencius,and from human nature to the theory of work.Although Yan Yuan clearly pointed out the shortcomings of the Song and Ming Neo-Confucianism of human nature,he still did not look for a theoretical basis from an ontological point of view,so he lacked an exploration of the social attributes of human nature and did not answer the question of human nature scientifically;if he reduced human nature to the abstraction inherent in a single person and ignored the social attributes of human beings,his theory of human nature would inevitably be incomplete and could not reflect true human nature.Although Yan Yuan’s philosophical system is incomplete and unsystematic,it can clearly analyze the ultimate purpose of his philosophical thesis and find the ultimate point of his humanistic thesis-abandoning the bibliographic and moral rhetoric,restoring the pure and unpretentious style of Confucianism and Confucianism,and re-establishing moral practice as the starting point and center of his learning efforts.