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Zhu Xi’s Appropriation of Mencius’s Thought: From a Hermeneutic to a Developmental Approach

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Dao Companion to the Philosophy of Mencius

Part of the book series: Dao Companions to Chinese Philosophy ((DCCP,volume 18))

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Abstract

Traditionally, Zhu Xi’s Mencius-interpretation had enjoyed for a long time an authoritarian status. However, it is challenged by Mou Zongsan in modern scholarship. Mou revolutionarily identifies Lu Xiangshan instead as the authentic follower of Mencius. Given the significance of the famous debate between Zhu and Lu in Song-Ming Neo-Confucianism in history of Chinese philosophy, it is especially of interest to explore the essential difference between these two Confucians’ Mencius-interpretations. In sum, this paper aims to show that in contrast to Lu’s subjectivistic approach, Zhu opts for a communitarian and anti-idealistic understanding of Mencius’ philosophy. Whereas Lu’s image of Mencius is volitionistic, Zhu’s picture of Mencius is rationalistic. Methodologically, Zhu’s bottom-up orientation is more concrete. In term of a reconstruction of Zhu’s epistemology, it will develop a new defence of Zhu’s Mencius-interpretation against Mou’s misunderstanding.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Sishu Jizhu 四書集註 (Collected Annotations to the Four Books) (Beijing Zhonghua shuju, 1983), 197–377; [hereafter: Jizhu]; Sishu Huowen 四書或問 (Questions Concerning the Four Books) (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 2001), 415–511; [hereafter: Huowen]; Li Jingde 黎靖德 comp. Zhuzi Yulei 朱子語類 (Topics Arranged Conversations of Master Zhu) (Beijing: Zhonhua shuju, 1986), 1218–1478; [hereafter: Zhuzi Yulei].

  2. 2.

    Cf. Einstein 1954: 228. Here I mainly follow Matthew Stanley’s formulations in his book Einstein’s War (Stanley 2019: 43–44).

  3. 3.

    Zhu Wen Gong Wen Ji 朱文公文集 (Collected Writings of Zhu Xi) (Taipei: Taiwan Shangwu yinshuguan, 1980, 764; [hereafter Wenji]).

  4. 4.

    Qian 1980, Vol. 3: 397. Qian also says here that Lu Xiangshan held the opposite view, namely that Liu “only believed that mind is Li, but did not say that the whole cosmos is nothing but of one Li” (象山只主心既理，不言通宇宙是一理) (ibid.). I shall come back to Lu Xiangshan later in Section IV.

  5. 5.

    Qian writes: “Then all of them indicate that in addressing this chapter of the Mencius, Zhu failed to thematically explore Mencius’s original intention” (則朱子於孟子此章，始終未能直探孟子本意立言也) (Qian 1980, Vol. 2: 267; see also: 263; 265–266) Although the term “仁心” (the mind of benevolence) does not appear in 6A11 (it only appears once in the Mencius in 4A1), Mencius said that “Benevolence, this is human mind” (仁， 人心也) in 6A11 before he went on to talk about “seeking one’s lost mind” (求其放心).

  6. 6.

    Mou Zongsan, however, does not consider this as a “genuine” identity, for in the mature Zhu the mind of Dao 道心 is an activity, whereas Li remains ontologically inactive (see Mou 1968, Vol. 2: 464–478; Vol. 1: 588). In our view, this is certainly not “identity” in Lu Xiangshan’s sense. But it is also clear that what Zhu mainly opposed is rather the reduction of “identity” to an “immediate identity” (more on this in Sect. IV). This point is missed by Mou. Furthermore, Mou fails to see that the Li as Taiji in Zhu, cosmologically, its active. 

  7. 7.

    Historically, Zhu’s interpretation induced both positive and negative responses. (For a comprehensive coverage of them, see Huang 1997). Among criticisms, the most representative ones came from WANG Yangming 王陽明 (1472–1529)(representing the School of Mind 心學) and HUANG Zongxi 黃宗羲 (1610–1695) (representing the School of Force 氣學). Since these critiques are mainly developed out of the frameworks of different schools, they are “transcendent” in nature. Given the limited length of this paper, a critical re-examination of them must be reserved for another occasion.

  8. 8.

    These fragments are now mainly included in Lu Jiuyuan, Lu Jiuyuan Ji (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1980); [hereafter: Lu Jiuyuan ji]. Among them, the most significant are “Yu Zheng Zhaiji” 與曾宅之 (A Letter to ZENG Zhaizhi), 3–7; “Yu Li Zai er” 與李宰二 (Second Letter to Chief Official LI), 149–150; “Mengzi Shuo” 孟子說 (Mencius’s Doctrine), 265–266.

  9. 9.

    For a general exposition of different types of geometry and relativity theory, see Stanley 2019: 67ff.

  10. 10.

    Zhu Xi, Shijichuan 詩集傳 (Collected Annotations to the Book of Odes). Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1958), 100.

  11. 11.

    Cf.: Chan 2004.

  12. 12.

    All quotations in English from The Mencius mainly follow either Lau 1970 or Norden and Bryan 2009. But sometimes I might use my own translations.

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  1. Philosophy, Brock University, St. Catharines, ON, Canada

    Wing-cheuk Chan

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  1. Philosophy Department, Kenyon College, Gambier, OH, USA

    Yang Xiao

  2. Professor Emeritus, Division of Humanities, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, China

    Kim-chong Chong

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Chan, Wc. (2023). Zhu Xi’s Appropriation of Mencius’s Thought: From a Hermeneutic to a Developmental Approach. In: Xiao, Y., Chong, Kc. (eds) Dao Companion to the Philosophy of Mencius. Dao Companions to Chinese Philosophy, vol 18. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-27620-0_9

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