Only the great explosive power of lightning can make the land of China exude vitality, but the social and political situation is not angry, but a kind of sadness. I advise God to cheer up and not stick to certain norms to belittle more people.
-Gong Zizhen
brief introduction
Gong Zizhen (A.D. 1792 ~ 184 1) was born in Ding 'an. Zhejiang Renhe (now Hangzhou) people. Famous thinker and writer in late Qing Dynasty.
Character annotation
Gong Zizhen studied with her grandfather Duan Yucai when she was a child. Duan Yucai was a famous sinologist in Qing Dynasty. Under his education, Gong Zizhen deeply loved China's textual research and showed his creative talent in literature. But the dark and decadent social reality inspired Gong Zizhen's ambition to change society. He didn't follow the path of Gansu scholars' textual research on ancient books. Instead, we should vigorously advocate practical learning, devote ourselves bravely to the torrent of the times, and explore the way forward for China's future.
As a thinker, Gong Zizhen clearly saw that the rule of the Qing Dynasty had already turned from prosperity to decline, with corrupt officials, dark politics, poor equipment and sparse style of study. In this case, Gong Zizhen boldly denounced the shortcomings and advocated change with the attitude of "but not being a teacher".
Main idea
During the reign of Jia Dao, there was a serious crisis in the feudal rule of Qing Dynasty. In this regard, Gong Zizhen pointed out: On the surface, the society at this time seems to be a peaceful "prosperous time", but in fact it is in a chaotic "declining world", and the whole society presents a terrible scene of "the sun is setting and the prosperity is rising suddenly". He wrote a poem saying: "Kyushu is furious, and a swift horse is sad to study;" I suggest that god stand up again, let go of his talents and don't stick to a pattern. " He hopes to break this lifeless situation. In order to save the social crisis at that time, Gong Zizhen advised the rulers to take the initiative to carry out reforms, saying that "the law of one ancestor has no disadvantages, and the discussion of a thousand people is invincible." It is better to reform yourself than to give it to others. "It is suggested that land should be allocated according to the patriarchal clan system economically to solve the problem of excessive concentration of land in order to alleviate class contradictions; Politically, some shortcomings should be reformed to give full play to the enthusiasm of officials. Gong Zizhen also actively supported Lin Zexu in opposing opium aggression by foreign colonialists.
Gong Zizhen's philosophy is complex and full of contradictions. Although he criticized the mysterious theory of Yin and Yang, the theory of Five Elements, and the theory of the induction between heaven and man, he believed that all celestial phenomena had certain laws, but he also believed that heaven had a will and affirmed the existence of ghosts and gods. He emphasized the role of "man" and resolutely denied the argument that "saints" and natural laws created and dominated the world, but mistakenly believed that everything in the universe, including nature and human society, was created by "man" himself. In epistemology, he completely separated "knowledge" from "awareness", and thought that "knowledge" was a tangible understanding of objective concrete things, while "awareness" was transcendental knowledge and intangible. He criticized the transcendental goodness theory, arguing that there is no good and evil in human nature, and good and evil are caused by the acquired environment. In the end, this thought failed to be implemented, but it was confused with "Buddha nature". Gong Zizhen pays attention to the theory of "long-term maladjustment" in Zhouyi and the concept of "three generations" in Ram, and thinks that social history is not fixed, but constantly changing along the track of "rising the world according to the troubled times" or "governing the world-declining the world". But he regards the change of social history as only a gradual change, a simple cycle of "the first difference, the second difference and the last difference". His whole world outlook belongs to idealism and metaphysics, which contains some materialistic factors and dialectical ideological elements.