published_or_final_version / Chinese / Master / Master of Philosophy

The intellectual world of the late Ming literati was without question one of great richness and complexity. The focus of the present study, however, is limited to an examination of Wang Ken, the man, his key philosophical beliefs, and his role in the founding of the T'ai-chou School of thought. In exploring the genesis of Wang Ken and his school of thought, certain aspects of the social milieu are examined in order to reach a better understanding of how the larger environment and this radical intellectual movement became intertwined. In other words, I have attempted to discern and define the interplay of the most important creative minds of the time, and particularly those of the elite class with this group. As a teacher and thinker Wang Ken exercised a considerable influence on his times, contributing in the process to the new permissiveness so characteristic of the latter half of the Ming dynasty. In this regard, the present study also represents an attempt to discover the basic patterns underlying Wang Ken's thought, as well as the T'ai-chou School's responsiveness to dramatic changes in society. In doing so, we perceive an implication of intellectual autonomy in the form of social and political protest against imperial autocracy. Also, the spread of his faith in an attainable and intelligible sagehood among the lower classes, gradually blurred the dividing line between elite and commoner. Finally, the assertions of Wang Ken and the T'ai-chou School indeed stimulated a new sense of self-awareness and self-worth. Nevertheless, it is because of its radical rejection of the established social, political, and intellectual order that the T'ai-chou School has been branded as heterodox. As a result, the frustration of its aspiration for a more genuine humanity was inevitable, as this intellectual movement fell victim to the forces of orthodoxy and conformity.

漢字的「觀」指的不僅是一種身體的知覺能力，其為視覺活動背後包涵了豐富的心靈活動，讓事物呈現更深邃的面向。「觀物」在北宋以前一直潛伏於儒家的語脈當中，尚未成為一個突出的概念，直到邵康節始點化出來作顯題處理， 直指一種窮理體道的活動。與邵康節並世的周濂溪、張橫渠和二程兄弟都分別有觀窗前草、觀驢鳴、觀雞雛、觀魚游等的雅事為人所樂道。觀物不僅是理學家的休閒活動，更和他們的道德修養息息相關，悠然帶著成德工夫的意味。有見及此，一、我們可以探討北宋理學中的觀物在什麼意義下是一種修道的工夫；二、以觀物工夫切入北宋五子，可以提供一個新的角度審視理學的發展 。 / The Chinese character Gun (Cantonese) or Guan (Mandarin) entails not only our physical sensibility, the visual activity itself also unfolds a rich exercising of the mind, revealing a dimension lying in the depth of objects. Before Northern Song, the concept of Guan Wu (Deep Viewing of Things) has been latent in the Confucius linguistic context. It has not been a significant concept until highlighted by Master Shao Yong, who argued that this is an activity of articulating and embodying the truth. Other four contemporaries of Master Shao Yong, namely Zhou Dunyi, Zhang Zai, Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi, were acclaimed for the engagements in the deep viewing of different entities: the deep viewing of the grass before window, the deep viewing of a donkey braying, the deep viewing of the chicks and the deep viewing of the swimming fish. Guan Wu is not only a pastime to the Neo-Confucianists, it is also closely related to their own self-cultivation with a hint of manifesting Dao aplomb. In view of this, this thesis aims to, firstly, examine to what understanding is Guan Wu (Deep Viewing of Things) a way of self-cultivation in Northern Song Neo-Confucianism. Secondly, it shall argue that understanding the five masters of Northern Song through the self-cultivation of Guan Wu can provide a new perspective in examining the development of Neo-Confucianism. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / 鄧康宏. / Thesis (M.Phil.) Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2014. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 162-163). / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / Deng Kanghong.

The Confucian thoughts in the transition period from Ming to Qing Dynasty indicate the trend to pull down the transcendent world to the real world. This means the "immanent monism tendency", which is to internalize the transcendent li within the experiential qi. The "immanent monism tendency" is the most obvious feature in the Jishan School. This thesis focuses on Huang Zongxi's thoughts and takes the "immanent monism tendency" as the clue to expose the inner logic in the Ming-Qing academic transformation. The thoughts of "immanent monism tendency" emerge in Mid-Ming period. There are two reasons behind it: one is anti-Buddhism and the other comes from the pursuit of the most fundamental moral self-cultivation in the School of Mind. The two converge upon Liu Zongzhou's thoughts, which are inherited by Huang Zongxi, who then develops the "immanent monism tendency" to an extreme form. Huang Zongxi emphasizes qi as the first order concept and completely internalizes the transcendent li within qi. Both his xin-xing and moral self-cultivation are based upon the li-qi theory. Through the Principle with Many Manifestation, Huang Zongxi combines traditional mind-reason thought with his ultimate concern on administration and practical usage. In conclusion, Huang Zongxi's philosophical thoughts are the transition form In the phase of the Ming-Qing academic transformation, in which the "immanent monism tendency" plays a key role. / 秦峰. / Submitted: 2010年11月. / Submitted: 2010 nian 11 yue. / Adviser: Cheng Chungxi. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 73-04, Section: A, page: . / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 269-279). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / Qin Feng.

By reconstructing his lecture activities, I found and discussed the conflicts and debates Li had with other philosophical schools of his times. In so doing, I also discussed the interaction between Li's learning and the philosophical traditions of places where he taught, for example, his difference with the traditions of the Zhu Xi school in Fujian. What emerged is that Li was a strong and unyielding philosopher who was able to give theoretical coherence to his disciples but failed to spread his teachings into established schools of thought. / From the case of Li Cai, this dissertation finds that three elements were common and crucial to the founding of a new philosophical school in middle and late Ming times---a doctrine couched in some terse expressions, expressions deriving from the Great Learning as key terms of the doctrine, and organized lecture activities. The dissertation also argues that it was the fundamental notions of achieving learning by oneself (zide) and transmission of the orthodox Way (daotong) that drove the creation of original arguments and "discussion of learning" activities in the late Ming. Li Cai worked himself to distinction amid this practice of the time by formulating his own doctrine on ethics. His emphasis on "cultivation of the person" is a deliberate counteraction to the "extension of innate knowledge" of Wang Yangming, whose school by Li's time had much indulged in the liberation of the individual to the neglect of social norms. Engaging himself as a teacher, Li Cai also cast himself as a rival to Wang Yangming. He considered his endeavor as an act of transmitting the Way and his doctrine as providing true insights into the teaching of Confucianism. More precisely, he considered his zhixiu doctrine a loyal representation of the teachings of Confucius and his great disciple Zeng Shen. / Li talked about his zhi-xiu doctrine everywhere he went. He advanced this doctrine by means of establishing academies (shuyuan), publishing his own works, organizing discussions and debates, lecturing to large audiences, and engaging in philosophical exchanges through correspondence with his discussants. He engaged himself in activities like these when he was director of a bureau in the minister of War, an assistant surveillance commissioner in Guangdong, and an administrative vice commissioner in charge of military affairs in the southwestern border region of the Ming empire. He lost no enthusiasm in championing his doctrine even when he was an exile in Fujian province for more than ten years. / The study begins with an analysis of the Daxue (Great Learning) , the most important Neo-Confucian classic in late imperial times, which exists in a large number of versions since Northern Song times. I first analyze the most cited versions, identifying especially the differences between Zhu Xi's orthodox version and the so-called Old Text derived from the classic Record of Rites. The latter version gained ascendance from the late fifteenth century when Wang Yangming's school strongly advocated it. / This dissertation studies a well-known, but not yet well studied, statesman and philosopher of the sixteenth century, Li Cai, and his relationship to the building of philosophical schools in the world of Ming Confucianism. It hopes to throw lights on the study of Ming intellectual communities as well as on the general intellectual history of late imperial China. / To distinguish himself from both Zhu Xi and Wang Yangming, Li Cai provided a new version of the Great Learning by rearranging the texts of the Old Text and Zhu Xi's version as well as the text in the Shijing daxue (Stone Classics Great Learning), which is a forgery but acclaimed by many scholars of the time. Li Cai formulated his own philosophical doctrine from this new version and summed it up with the term zhixiu, which stands for the word zhi and the word xiu, respectively, which in turn are abbreviations of the phrases zhi yu zhishan (abiding by the supreme good) and xiushen (cultivation of the person), phrases that denote key notions in the Great Learning. He theorized that zhi refers to the substance and xiu refers to the practice of his doctrine. In actuality, he takes zhi to mean focusing on nourishing the mind and xiu to mean self-examination and watchfulness in the cultivation of the self. / 劉勇. / Adviser: Chu Hung-Lam. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-06, Section: A, page: 2187. / Thesis (doctoral)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 362-389). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / School code: 1307. / Liu Yong.