A Study Of Zhu Xi’s View Of The History Of TienLi In The Context Of The Relationship Between Classics And History

Zhu Xi occupies an important place in Chinese history,and the system of neo-confucianism he created influenced Chinese society for centuries afterwards.In terms of history,his view of the historical perspective of TienLi played a similar role.After his death,the Tien Li view of history as an academic ideology gradually became the ideology of later dynasties,and it has had a certain restraining effect on the development of later historiography.His historiography has also been evaluated in different ways by later generations.Zhu Xi’s view of the historical perspective of TienLi consists of two main levels,one is the view of history constructed from the theory of Li and Qi and "Ii-yi-fen-shu"as the logical starting point.The specific performance regards the three principles and the five constants as the ontology of history and the view of the cycle of history under the flourishing and declining movement of yin and yang.The second is the emphasis on the classics first,after the history,classics as the body,history as use and history with the righteousness as the core of the theory of history,in order to clarify the orthodoxy,promote education,through the heaven and people for the purpose of history of historical thought.The formation of Zhu Xi’s view of the historical perspective of TienLi marked the maturity of the development of the historiography of the righteousness of the two Song dynasties.Zhu Xi’s view of the historical perspective of TienLi was gradually refined in the interaction between scripture and history.In the course of his historical practice of compiling the Zizhi Tongjian Gangmu,Zhu Xi gradually realised the problems of the Spring and Autumn and gradually abandoned his search for ideology and instance on Spring and Autumn;and in the course of treating the Spring and Autumn as historiography,historiography also gradually changed its application of the praise and blame brush under the influence of the Spring and Autumn and gradually turned to"writing straightforwardly according to the facts".Zhu Xi built up a system of historiography in which righteousness was the core of historical evidence,narration and interpretation.In this system,the examination of historical events is the basis,but more importantly,the recognition of righteousness in historical events.Righteousness is an objective and impartial criterion,the starting point of historical understanding,and the ultimate orientation of historical governance.Zhu Xi’s historiography was never unidirectional,but rather a blend of influences from both scripture and science.The science of reason and scripture determine the direction of Zhu Xi’s historiography,while the emphasis on straightforward history provides support for the interpretation of Zhu Xi’s system of reason,making it more stable.From the perspective of historical development,the historical perspective of TienLi continues the core of ancient Chinese thought on the unity of heaven and man,and realises the "individual-society-TienLi" through the theory of mind and the theory of reason and energy.The emergence of the historical view of the TienLi reflected a breakthrough in the thinking of ancient Chinese thinkers and promoted the further development of a rational understanding of history.Chinese historical thinking gradually moved away from the previously far-fetched interpretations of the historical view of heaven’s destiny to a deeper level of discernment about the gains and losses of historical development.From the perspective of the relationship between classics and history,although Zhu Xi’s emphasis on the scripture as the basis for history did lead historiography down the narrow path of focusing only on morality.But Zhu Xi did not neglect history.In the interaction between classics and history,Zhu Xi focused on the interpretation of historiography,on the unity of factual and value judgements in historiography,and on the objectivity of historiography and the historical virtues of historians,which should be critically inherited by today’s historiography.