The essence of the rise of Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties is to arouse the rational spirit within the system. However, the scholar-officials in the traditional imperial autocratic era in China have already felt the ideological dilemma bound by Confucianism for a long time, and the process of ideological breakthrough is also a process of trying to revive the spirit again and again. Confucianism of Confucius and Mencius "ousted a hundred schools of thought and respected Confucianism alone" during the Liu Che period of Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty. Dong Zhongshu interpreted it as a system of religious theology, thus establishing the position of Confucianism as a political ethics to safeguard the unified and autocratic imperial power. After Confucianism became Confucianism, Confucius and Mencius became "saints", thoughts became doctrines, and classics became "bibles". Therefore, in order to win the right to speak, it is very important for the literati class to interpret the Bible. However, Qin Shihuang's "burning books to bury Confucianism". The Jin Wen Jing recorded by Dr. Qin Yi can no longer meet the needs of the "orthodox school", so the search for ancient books left over from the pre-Qin period came into being. This is the reason for the upsurge of "the study of China's ancient classics", the reason for the deconstruction of classics, and the reason for the emergence of exegetics, which also makes the later Confucian books become cumbersome and vast because of the tedious annotation of classics. They failed to solve the problem of reviving Confucianism. The rise of Neo-Confucianism in the Song Dynasty was indeed a revival process after Confucianism became Confucianism. It rose in the Song Dynasty and has its special political, economic, historical and cultural background. First of all, the political and ideological environment is relatively relaxed, the economy has developed for a long time, and the society is in a state of long-term relative peace. Literature, art, academic and other aspects have developed greatly, and there has been a bright situation of stars. It is a nomadic people in the northwest, and countries such as Liao, Xixia, Jin and Mongolia have risen one after another. Faced with the threat of powerful foreign invasion, the emperor and officialdom can't blindly indulge in extravagance and extravagance. The scholar-bureaucrat class had to sweep away the flashy style of study since Wei and Jin dynasties and pursue a kind of knowledge that can be applied to the world. The rationality of the emperor, the supreme ruler, is the most important prerequisite for the development of Neo-Confucianism in Song Dynasty. Song Taizu and Zhao Kuangyin once said to courtiers, "I want my military officials to learn and know how to govern." Most people in Emperor Taizong, Zhenzong, Renzong, Yingzong and Zongshen also basically inherited this atmosphere of encouraging reading and learning knowledge. Therefore, the official and private schools in the Song Dynasty were very developed. The establishment of state and county schools and the great development of academies are unprecedented in the history of China. This spirit of pursuing rationality has echoed from the supreme ruler, the emperor, to officials and to folk scholars. This is the basis of the development of Neo-Confucianism in Song Dynasty. The development of Neo-Confucianism in the Song Dynasty, from Fan Zhongyan, Ouyang Xiu, Wang Anshi, Sima Guang, Su Shi and Su Zhe, to Zhou Dunyi, the founder of Neo-Confucianism, to Zhang Zai, Cheng Yi, Cheng Hao and Shao Yong, to the huge theoretical system formed by Zhu in the Southern Song Dynasty, to the Huxiang School formed by others, and then to Lu Jiuyuan's psychological system, has many contributions. I won't go into details here. The achievements and position of Neo-Confucianism in the history of Confucianism in Song Dynasty can be summarized as: 1. Completed the response to the exegesis of Confucian classics in Han and Tang dynasties, and founded the theory of being clear and practical; 2. "Going in and out of Buddhism and Laozi, but also seeking the six classics", I gained new ideological resources in Buddhism and Laozi's thoughts; I reevaluated the Confucian classics and brought them up. As a result, the Confucian ideological system has been completely transformed. Neo-Confucianism has further developed the Confucian way of "being sage inside and being king outside" in the direction of combining the universe ontology with personal cultivation methods, thus integrating the universe ontology, the theory of mind cultivation and the methodology of learning. Created a complete theoretical form, thus forming a political and ethical thought of "self-cultivation, keeping the family in order, governing the country and leveling the world", in which the main body is always concerned about the practical use of the country and the people. China's supreme power, imperial power, is the most absolute power in the world. There have been autocratic kings in European countries, but that kind of autocratic king has been divided and powerful by many laws and territories. Far from reaching the degree of autocratic imperial power in China, the scholar-officials and Neo-Confucianists in the Song Dynasty shared some relatively rational emperors, and it was really their luck that the emperor in the Song Dynasty publicly declared that "I am guilty and don't slaughter". Scholar-officials who still worshipped Neo-Confucianism in Ming Dynasty had no luck as Neo-Confucianism in Song Dynasty. The emperors of the Ming Dynasty were either tyrannical, suspicious and murderous, or fatuous, cowardly and dissolute. It's either miserable or miserable By the end of Qing Dynasty, the autocratic imperial power was on the verge of collapse. During the Song and Ming Dynasties, Zeng Zuopenghu and Li Hongzhang, who worshipped Neo-Confucianism, were once arrogant and in charge of the state power. In the end, I can only bow to a decadent and fatuous old woman, Cixi, and make some efforts to "integrate knowledge with practice". This is the autocratic imperial power in China for more than two thousand years. However, the rational spirit of Neo-Confucianism is precious under any circumstances. It is because of their unremitting efforts that they have repeatedly aroused the rationality and conscience of many people under the traditional autocratic system in China. It is the light of reason in the dark period of history. It is conceivable that without the revival of Neo-Confucianism in the Song Dynasty, the history of nearly a thousand years would be miserable!
Rational spirit is always the most important spiritual force for the progress of human society. The process of modern world history can also prove this point. The most outstanding performance is the rational spirit of the English nation, the glorious revolution of Britain, the success of India's non-violent revolution in the American War of Independence and the wave of colonial independence after World War II, and the successive independence of former colonies of the Commonwealth, all of which are related to the rational spirit of Britain. This rationality is to accept failure frankly and avoid large-scale
The rationality of human society comes from constraints, from the checks and balances of various forces and depends on the benign interaction of various social forces. It contains many spirits of forgiveness, tolerance, patience, compromise and sympathy. Rational spirit is rationality in the final analysis, and the basis of rationality is knowledge structure and concept system. The basis of sex is humanity and conscience. The spiritual essence of Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties is also based on these basic points. Rationality of the mainstream social power class.
In the face of great changes in social history, the rational spirit within the system is so important and precious. This is what we should pay most attention to when studying Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties!
In addition to the above ideological background, the reasons for the rise of agency science are actually influenced by some objective factors. The main points are as follows:
(1) Advocacy of the Monarch in the Song Dynasty: Since the late Tang Dynasty, the Five Dynasties and the Ten Kingdoms, the social atmosphere and the morality of scholars have been completely corrupted, and courtiers in the Qin Dynasty are not uncommon. For example, after four dynasties, Feng Dao, the prime minister, brazenly called himself "an old man enjoying happiness" and tasted self-help, so the scholar's wind degenerated to this point; Moreover, the political atmosphere is corrupt, and the power is in power, which seriously affects the operation of the government. Therefore, after the reunification of the Song Dynasty, in order to change this decadent social and political style, the monarch advocated the policy of emphasizing integrity and literature over martial arts, so the idea of self-cultivation in Neo-Confucianism is in line with the times.
(2) The popularity of private education: In the Song Dynasty, the popularity of private education was extremely strong. Due to the social turmoil since the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, the Confucian Classics family suffered a blow. In order to escape the war, some scholars fled to the mountains to start schools. These private schools pay more attention to the study of "self-cultivation" than to the study of managing the world, and attach importance to carrying forward. And this kind of accomplishment also meets the requirements of science scholars. (3) The development of printing: books before the Tang and Song Dynasties were all written by hand, so they did not spread widely. In the Tang Dynasty, block printing had developed, and in the Song Dynasty, Bi Sheng invented letterpress printing, which made books more popular, spread Neo-Confucianism more easily and widely, and promoted the development of Neo-Confucianism. . . . . . . . .