Wang Fuzhi

Dzieła

• 1685Komentarz do „Korygowania nieoświeconych” Zhang Zai

  Wang Fuzhi broni filozofii qi Zhang Zai przeciw buddyjskiej pustce i przeciw neokonfucjańskiemu rozdziałowi zasady i qi.

Stanowisko

Wang Fuzhi developed Zhang Zai’s philosophy of vital force (qi) into a thoroughgoing monism. All that exists is qi; principle (li) is only the order of qi and has no existence apart from it – against Zhu Xi’s priority of principle, Buddhist emptiness and Wang Yangming’s inward turn alike. Likewise the Way exists only in concrete things and institutions. Human nature grows day by day, and desires rightly ordered are not the enemy of principle. History follows the force of circumstances (shi): institutions must change, and ancient models cannot simply be restored. His sharp distinction between Chinese and “barbarians” made him a hero of anti-Manchu nationalists around 1900.

Życie i kontekst

Wang Fuzhi was born in 1619 in Hengyang (Hunan) and passed the provincial examination in 1642. After the fall of the Ming he raised troops against the Qing and served the Southern Ming court, but withdrew, disillusioned by its factional quarrels. He then lived for decades in poverty and seclusion, latterly below Stone Boat Mountain (Chuanshan). He died in 1692; most of his works appeared only in the 19th century.

Dalsze główne dzieła

• Outer Commentary on the Book of Changes (Zhouyi waizhuan, 1655)
• The Yellow Book (Huangshu, 1656)
• Commentary on Zhang Zai’s Correcting the Unenlightened (Zhangzi Zhengmeng zhu, 1685)
• On Reading the Comprehensive Mirror (Du Tongjian lun, 1691)