The Expansion of Conscience Studies -- Wang Longxi and Yangming Studies in the Mid-to-Late Ming Dynasty (Columbia. Harvard-Yenching Academic Series)

Author: Peng Guoxiang
Publisher:
Publishing Time: Not available
Features: Yangming Tianquan's enlightenment, transcending the dualities of sudden and gradual enlightenment. After his death, his major disciple Wang Longxi vigorously advocated the "Four Emptiness Teachings," which stood in opposition to Qian Dehong's "Four Presence Teachings." Whether Longxi's concepts of "establishing the root of the mind-body" and "creating from nothing" were revolutionary has sparked significant controversy. In the late Ming period's trend of the Three Teachings (Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism) converging, Longxi emerged as a key figure. Guoxiang's book draws upon extensive materials, demonstrating that Longxi drew inspiration from both Buddhism and Taoism in both theory and practice while still maintaining a fundamentally Confucian stance. His interpretations and analyses are profound and meticulous, making this book an essential read.
The author begins by taking Wang Longxi, a central figure in the mid-to-late Ming Yangming School, as a case study, comprehensively and thoroughly examining his philosophical thought. This then expands to the broader context of mid-to-late Ming Yangming thought, exploring its intellectual content and developmental threads. The book conducts both specialized, in-depth case studies and problem-centered analyses to grasp the evolution of philosophical thought history in stages, integrating the two approaches to support and complement each other. This allows the rich intellectual content of mid-to-late Ming Yangming thought to be presented with deep clarity.
The book is well-documented, with a particularly outstanding feature being the depth of its intellectual discussions and theoretical analyses that reveal insights previously unexplored. Within the scope of the topics it addresses, the book achieves remarkable depth and breadth, leaving a profound impression on the reader.