Neo-Confucianism
Neo-Confucianism is a religious- philosophical doctrine that arose during the Chinese Song Dynasty and whose origins lie in Confucianism, but also has strong influences from Buddhism and Daoism. Neo-Confucianism was from the Song Dynasty, one of the dominant and culturally influential currents of thought in China.
In the Chinese language there is this term does not, there is this teaching eg Songxue (Chinese宋 学/宋 学, Pinyin sòngxué, song - teaching '), Lixue (理学/理学lǐxué, doctrine of the principle ') or Xinli Xue (心理学/心理学, xīnlǐxué, doctrine of principle and from the heart ') called. In Korean Neo-Confucianism Seongrihak ( 성리학 性 理学[ səŋrihak ] ) is called.
The concepts that play a role in the various Neo-Confucian philosophers, and are explained in the following, were present, although all been in the older Chinese philosophy, but learned in Neo-Confucianism, a new weighting and interpretation.
The early Neo-Confucianism
A unique characteristic of the early Neo-Confucianism is a particular cosmological interest, in which shows the proximity to the Taoism. The first representatives of this trend was the scholar Zhou Dunyi (1017-1073), which is sometimes regarded as the " founder " of Neo-Confucianism. Precursor of Neo-Confucianism, has been sustained to the back in the Song period, you can already find the earlier Han period, in which the so-called Neutext school had already represented the religious one with inclusive Confucianism. This hanzeitliche system of thought is mainly associated with Dong Zhongshu ( 179-104 ). A tangzeitlicher precursor of Neo-Confucianism was the famous scholar Han Yu.
The core of Zhou Dunyis doctrine formed a Daoist diagram he had been given by a priest. In an explanatory text to the chart, he emphasizes that the Limitless ( Wuji ) simultaneously is the highest limit ( Taiji ) and creating through movement and stillness yin and yang. The Holy choose the state of rest, a state without desire, and make it the highest principle, which he set the highest benchmark for humanity. In the concept of infinity and the appeal to non-existence and peace, the influence of Daoism and Buddhism can be recognized. The reason why the Neo-Confucian teachings are, despite their proximity to these religions associated with Confucianism, is that the representatives of this trend based their argument on classical Confucian writings, but here the Yijing and his comments are particularly noteworthy.
The second early Neo-Confucian philosopher Shao Yong (1011-1077), dealt with cosmological issues, particularly with numerological speculations about the structure of the cosmos, who later also played a major role in the Taoist art of divination. Here he changed the previous speculation significantly and gave them a larger cut.
The transition from a cosmologically -oriented to a ontologically oriented philosophy is Zhang Zai (1020-1077) dar. He came forward with a philosophical system, which can be categorized as " materialistic thinking." Its fundamental concept is the qi of as a kind of etheric matter has a universal significance. When Zhang Zai, the idea of non-being (see Shunyata, Nirvana ) disappears and he put the qi with all those terms in connection who had called until then the highest transcendent or immanent reality, namely, Dao, Taiji and Taixu ( " great void " ). For Zhang Zai presents the all represents an immutable, but existing in two states of aggregation being, the supreme void as formlessness and the resulting shaped world. With this assumption, Zhang Zai negated the non-existence, but put the people in a comprehensive context with the rest of the cosmos, to which it is connected according to this doctrine inseparable.
The later Neo-Confucianism and Zhu Xi
In the next generation of Neo-Confucians especially the brothers Cheng Hao (1032-1085) and Cheng Yi (1033-1108) stand out, which established the concept of Li ( " organizing principle ") as the main concept of this doctrine. Li was seen both as a cosmological and ontological, as well as a moral principle. It is the essential ground of being, but also the structural order of individual being. Another in relation to the neo-Confucian ethics important concept represents for Cheng Hao already highly valued by Confucius humanity (ren), but at Cheng the connotation of love gets all that exists and is a unifying quality. For Cheng Yi human nature within the meaning of Mengzi as a product of Li is extremely good, but has the " etheric matter " (Qi) an indifferent character and is so for imperfections, evil ' produce, responsible, because of him the "Material "or the" apparent ability " ( cai ), from which the individual man is. This differentiation also built in Cheng Hao still in reliance on the idea of connecting all love self-cultivation and education at Cheng Yi got a different accent. Cheng Yi sets his sights on Jing (literally " awe " ), the eight- giving or taking seriously the completely different in their nature, things and beings.
The mentioned at Cheng Yi term " exploration of things" comes from a chapter of the ritual classic Liji. Together with another chapter of the Liji now formed The Great Learning (大学/大学, Daxue ) and middle and measure ( Zhong Yong ) along with the book Mengzi and the " Analects of Confucius " ( Lun Yu ) the "four canonical books " (Si Shu ) of Confucianism.
Within the neo-Confucian flow occurred immediately for the differentiation of two directions, one of which is often referred to as a rationalist, and the other was classified as intuitionalistisch.
The most important representative of the rationalistic direction was Zhu Xi ( 1130-1200 ). Zhu Xi took the final separation of the regulatory principle (Li) from the etheric matter (Qi) and gave him a metaphysical sense, as he looked at the organizing principle as " above the design level " (cf. Plato's idea) and the highest, Taiji, as the all-encompassing Li considered. Zhu Xi's idea of the eternal and universal organizing principle is made in their influence partly responsible for a shift in emphasis in Chinese culture, which had a slowdown in the development of Chinese society result.
However, the idealistic Xinxue direction of Neo-Confucianism criticized Zhu Xi dualism and was directed against the cleavage of the " soul consciousness" ( xin, literally heart). The most prominent representatives of this trend is Lu Jiuyuan ( 1139-1193 ). He expressed a belief in the integration of time and space in the individual heart or mind consciousness ( xin ), through which the individual on the whole, the cosmic unit participates.
Neo-Confucianism in the Ming Dynasty
During the Ming dynasty Neo-Confucianism was the dominant state ideology, which continued until the Qing period. At the time of the Ming idealistic direction gained the upper hand and as its principal representative at the time of the scholar and politician Wang Shouren applies (1472-1529, called Wang Yangming ). Wang identified both the "nature " ( xing ) and the "heart" ( xin ) with the ordering principle (Li) and took over the concept of " humanity" (ren) than all things and beings unifying love. Wang stressed that only give the recognition of the people of the outside world figure, and that the " innate knowledge" ( liang zhi, literally: good knowledge ) would necessarily lead to good actions. Wang Shouren had enjoyed a buddhist -influenced education and practiced in Chan meditation, so that his philosophy shows strong influences that direction.
In the follow Wang Shourens the most diverse schools of thought and schools were out, who traced their origin to all the philosophy Wangs. Can capture coarse to three directions, the first of the realist school is attributable, and tried to keep the balance in terms of self-cultivation and obligations the state and society against whose second was strongly inclined to Chan and came up almost at this end. The most important representatives of this second direction, the Longxi - school, Wang Ji, participated in the three teachings are one and the same. The third direction, the Taizhou school, had significant representatives in Wang Gen (1483-1540), its founder, and later, Li Zhi (1527-1602), who attacked the traditionalist Confucianism and preached an uninhibited naturalism, egalitarianism, subjectivism and spontaneity.
Manchu and decline of Confucianism
However, in the subsequent period, the Neo-Confucian philosophers turned increasingly to the roots of their philosophy and relativized the idealistic view. Representatives of this again reinforces materialistic tendencies were Zongxi Huang, Wang Fuzhi and Gu Yanwu ( 1613-1682 ). In the works of the latter can be explained by this shift to earlier flows discover a new phenomenon, namely the emergence of a scientific approach. Gu dealt with subjects such as epigraphy, phonetics, historical geography, but also with real-life issues such as the opening of mines and the development of private banks. It became apparent that he mustered as it were a new, inductive method, the most important term kaozheng, the evidence was. As a result, joined the textual criticism, an important new direction of Chinese scholarship in the 18th and 19th century in the place of hermeneutics. Through these textual criticism discovered again the Han Confucianism time and a new school that was Han school that competed for three centuries with the oriented Zhu Xi Song school.
At the turn of the 19th to the 20th century, then took place within a little more than a decade of envelope from Confucianism to a kind Antikonfuzianimus. One of the last representatives of traditional Chinese philosophy, which ended as it were with him, Kang Youwei was (1858-1927), who tried unsuccessfully to establish Confucianism as the state religion.
Neo-Confucianism outside China
In Korea, which had Confucianism imported very early, are particularly Yi Hwang ( 1501-70 ) and Yi highlight I ( 1536-84 ), who studied the teachings of the Chinese Neo-Confucianism and further developed. In the following years developed in Korea different schools who fought partly strong, which also had an impact on domestic developments.
In Japan played Confucianism since the Han Dynasty, a role, but it was only in the 17th century under the Tokugawa bakufu to scholarly education. Besides Kogaku (古 学), which was based more on the traditional Confucianism and the study of his texts, there are two dominant schools of Neo-Confucianism in Japan made out: the Shushigaku (朱子学, named after her idol Zhu Xi ) and the Yōmeigaku (阳明 学, named after her idol Wang Yangming ). Significant representatives of Neo-Confucianism in Japan were Fujiwara Seika (藤原 惺 窝; 1561-1619 ), Hayashi Razan (林罗 山; 1583-1657 ), Nakae Toju (中 江 藤 树; 1608-1648 ), Yamazaki Ansai (山崎 暗 斎; 1618-1682 ), Kumazawa Banzan (熊 沢 蕃 山; 1619-1691 ), Anzhen Kinoshita (木 下 顺 庵; 1621-1698 ), Kaibara corners (贝 原 益 轩; 1630-1714 ), Hakuseki Arai (新 井 白石; 1657-1725 ), Muro Kyuso (室 鸠 巣; 1658-1734 ), Miwa Shissai (三轮 执 斎; 1669-1744 ), bays Miura (三浦 梅园; 1723-1789 ), Oshio Chusai (大盐 中 斋; 1794-1837 ) and Isay Satō (佐藤 一 斎, 1772-1859 ). Born from the Japanese Neo-Confucianism from the 17th to the 19th century independent schools, some of whom had significant influence on the development of intellectual history in early modern Japan, including eg Kokugaku and Mitogaku. In addition, neo-Confucian scholars played a major role in the critique of religion in Japan, Buddhism often derogatory and indigenous, non-Buddhist traditions were often judged rewarding by ( cf. Shinbutsu Shugo ).
Neo-Confucianism also played a role in what is now Vietnam, including but there is still little scientific literature.