Biographical Account of Nie Bao and Luo Hongxian

Author: Wu Zhen
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2001-07-01
Features: The post-Yangming school is renowned for its numerous talented figures, with various doctrines, philosophical ideas, and conceptual terms intertwined in a complex and intricate manner. It is commonly believed that Nie Bao and Luo Hongxian are the main representatives of the "Return to Stillness" school within the post-Yangming tradition. Huang Zongxi, in his Biographies of Ming Confucian Scholars, classified them under the "Jiangyou Wangmen School" and held high regard for Luo Hongxian's thought. The doctrines proposed by Nie and Luo, such as "Return to Stillness," "Attaining Emptiness and Guarding Stillness," and "Concentrating and Preserving," elicited significant responses within the Wangmen school and the broader intellectual circles of the time. However, research on them has not been extensive. The author of this book attempts to place Nie Bao and Luo Hongxian within the broader context of Song-Ming Neo-Confucianism and the intellectual development of the Yangming school and its successors, examining the of their thought and their intellectual exchanges and debates with other figures in the Wangmen school. This approach aims to fully reveal their unique intellectual characteristics within the post-Yangming tradition and to reassess and redefine their positions in the history of the Yangming school. In the appendices and supplementary discussions of this book, the author also provides a more detailed exploration of Wang Shihuai, a later figure of the "Return to Stillness" school, who has been historically overlooked. Additionally, the book includes revisions and corrections to the "Chronological Biographies" and "Writings" of the two main subjects, which are also distinctive features of this work.