Wang Fuzhi's Reconstruction of Confucianism: Crisis and Reflection

ISBN-13: 9783030802653 / Angielski / Miękka / 2022

Mingran Tan

Opis

Wang Fuzhi (1619-1692), a Ming loyalist, was forced to find solutions for both cultural and political crises of his time. In this book Mingran Tan provides a comprehensive review of Wang Fuzhi’s understanding of historical events and his interpretation of the Confucian classics. Tan explains what kind of Confucian system Wang Fuzhi was trying to construct according to his motto, “The Six Classics require me to create something new”. He sought a basis for Confucian values such as filial piety, humanity and ritual propriety from political, moral and cosmological perspectives, arguing that they could cultivate a noble personality, beatify political governance, and improve social and cosmological harmony. This inspired Wang Fuzhi’s attempt to establish a syncretic blend of the three branches of Neo-Confucianism, i.e., Zhu Xi’s (1130-1200) philosophy of principle , Wang Yangming’s (1472-1529)   philosophy of mind and Zhang Zai’s (1020-1077) philosophy of qi (material force). 

The most thorough work on Wang Fuzhi available in English, this study corrects some general misunderstanding of the nature of Wang Fuzhi’s philosophy and helps readers to understand Wang Fuzhi from an organic perspective. Building upon previous scholars’ research on Wang Fuzhi’s notion of moral cultivation, Tan gives a comprehensive understanding of how Wang Fuzhi improves social and cosmological harmony through compliance with Confucian rituals.

Spis treści

Chapter 1, Wang Fuzhi’s Life and Dream

1.1       Wang Fuzhi’s Dream of Restoration

1.2       Wang Fuzhi’s Dream of Cultural Preservation

1.3       Wang Fuzhi’s Struggle between Dreams and Reality

Chapter 2 Wang Fuzhi’s Reflection on the Ming’s Collapse and the Manchu Conquest

2.1 Wang’s Reflection on the Ming Institutions and Politics

2.2 Wang Fuzhi’s Reflection on Ming Culture and Scholarship

2.3 Wang Fuzhi’s Originality and His Times

Chapter 3 Political Reconstruction

3.1 The Three Universal Principles in the World

3.2 The Enlightened Monarchy

3.3 The Kingly Way

Chapter 4 Moral Reconstruction

4.1. Humanity

4.2 The Heart-mind/xin

4.3 Human Nature, Feeling and Habit

4.4 Desire and Principle

4.5 Ritual Propriety

4.6 Dao and De or the Way and Its Virtue

Chapter 5 Cosmological Reconstruction

5.1 Harmony and the Great Harmony

5.2 Heaven

5.3 The Necessity of Assisting Heaven

5.4 The Feasibility of Assisting Heaven

5.5 The Means of Assisting Heaven

Chapter 6 Wang Fuzhi’s Influence in Modern China

6.1 Wang Fuzhi’s Confucian System and Its Originality

6.2 Wang Fuzhi’s Inconsistencies

6.3 Wang Fuzhi’s Methodological Problems

6.4 An Overall Evaluation of Wang Fuzhi’s System

O autorze

Mingran Tan teaches at Nankai University, China. 

Blurb

Wang Fuzhi (1619-1692), a Ming loyalist, was forced to find solutions for both cultural and political crises of his time. In this book, Mingran Tan provides a comprehensive review of Wang Fuzhi’s understanding of historical events and his interpretation of the Confucian classics. Tan explains what kind of Confucian system Wang Fuzhi was trying to construct according to his motto, “The Six Classics require me to create something new.” He sought a basis for Confucian values such as filial piety, humanity and ritual propriety from political, moral and cosmological perspectives, arguing that they could cultivate a noble personality, beatify political governance, and improve social and cosmological harmony. This inspired Wang Fuzhi’s attempt to establish a syncretic blend of the three branches of Neo-Confucianism, i.e., Zhu Xi’s (1130-1200) philosophy of principle, Wang Yangming’s (1472-1529) philosophy of mind, and Zhang Zai’s (1020-1077) philosophy of qi (material force). 

The most thorough work on Wang Fuzhi available in English, this study corrects common misunderstandings of the nature of Wang Fuzhi’s philosophy, and helps readers to understand Wang Fuzhi from an organic perspective. Building upon previous scholars’ research on Wang Fuzhi’s notion of moral cultivation, Tan gives a comprehensive understanding of how Wang Fuzhi improves social and cosmological harmony through compliance with Confucian rituals.

Mingran Tan is Professor in Center for Zhouyi & Ancient Chinese Philosophy, and Department of Philosophy at Shandong  University, China.