During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the transformation of the core values of Confucianism

Author: Wang Guoliang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-02-01
Features: The Confucian philosophical system, culminating in Zhu Xi, has profoundly and enduringly influenced the course of history and human hearts. Its legacy continued into the modern era. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, a new, heterogenous ideological system gradually emerged from within Confucianism, detached from the constraints of Neo-Confucianism. This manifested as a transformation and deconstruction of its core values. This book examines the process of transformation and deconstruction of the core values of Confucianism (Neo-Confucianism) during the Ming and Qing dynasties, paying attention to absorbing the lessons of its theoretical thinking. From this, it observes the developmental trends of Chinese culture, which undoubtedly holds great theoretical and practical significance for the creation of a new value system for Chinese culture.
Zhu Xi of the Southern Song Dynasty was the synthesizer and culmination of Neo-Confucianism. His theoretical system marked the establishment of the core value system of Neo-Confucianism. The primary core values of Neo-Confucianism are: the relationship between Heaven's Principle (Tianli) and human desires (Renyu), the distinction between the nature of Heaven and Earth (Tiandi zhi xing) and the nature of temperament (Qizhi zhi xing), the distinction between the Way-heart (Daoxin) and the human heart (Renxin), the concepts of public and private, righteousness and profit, and the distinction between the King's Way (Wangdao) and the Tyrant's Way (Baadao). Among these, Heaven's Principle, the nature of Heaven and Earth, the Way-heart, public, righteousness, and the King's Way possess inherent unity and belong to the metaphysical level, representing dominant, positive, correct, and meaningful values. Human desires, the nature of temperament, the human heart, private, profit, and the Tyrant's Way also possess inherent unity and belong to the empirical level, representing subordinate, negative, or values that should be eliminated—such as preserving Heaven's Principle and eliminating human desires, preserving righteousness and abandoning profit. In other words, metaphysical values always dominate and suppress empirical values.