The criteria for China to become a saint in ancient times must be moral, opinionated and meritorious. Some people opposed Zeng Guofan: "Lide made meritorious deeds, made a statement that the three immortals are immortal, and he was a perfect teacher." This is a summary of Wen's life.
Lide is relatively simple and establishes morality, which many civilians can do. All kinds of history books have similar definitions of Lide. Kong Ying Da, a descendant of Confucius, said: "Lide is to create a vertical law and give to the public. The previous generation of Lide, Hui Ze is infinite." Lide is to establish a moral cause and be admired by future generations! Since ancient times, there have been many practitioners of virtue, such as those classics of twenty-four filial piety; Do not eat Zhou Su's Boyi Shu Qi brothers; Le Yangzi's wife is honest and not eaten by others. ......
The speaking requirements are relatively high. "To make a statement means that it is important and reasonable, its body is gone, and its words are still there." Kong Ying Da's definition of speech is very accurate, and the speaker must have profound academic attainments and influence on later generations. Since ancient times, many people have made statements. ......
In ancient times, there were also many people who established achievements. Kong Ying Da said: "Meritorious service means saving the nation and saving it." There have been many feats of saving the people from fire and water since ancient times. Whether Liu Bang or Xiang Yu, whether Zhu Gekongming or Cao Aman, they have made unparalleled contributions. ......
However, there are really not many people who can achieve the "three immortals". There are many people who can make statements and make great contributions to the world. Perhaps it is not that they are incapable, but that they lack historical opportunities. Wang Yangming lived in the Ming Dynasty, which was a very chaotic dynasty. Ming Taizu's doting on his children and grandchildren is beyond the rationality of a country and lays the foundation for it. Pan kang? Hey? Pingyi proofreading? What can you do for me? Traces? Drag? Happy ankle, too? Can we talk? Wang Zhu Chen Hao Uprising gave Wang Yangming a historical opportunity to make contributions.
The Chinese nation, which once created brilliant farming civilization, fell behind for hundreds of years under the rule of backward nations. When Europeans started in the 17th century in the era of great navigation, the Qing Dynasty was busy with the sea ban and closed its doors to the outside world, adopting discriminatory policies against the Han people and constantly suppressing them, which led to the retrogression of civilization, the poverty of the country and the poverty of the people, and finally the largest peasant uprising broke out in history. It was not so much the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom that created Xiang Army and Zeng Guofan as the ignorant Manchu rulers who gave them the opportunity to start a career.
Therefore, Wang Yangming and Zeng Guofan, two historical perfectionists who made contributions, created their own immortal achievements, but the historical background behind them made us feel very depressed!
Wang Yangming, a master of psychology, is indeed a saint. However, although Zeng Guofan is known as "the first perfect man since ancient times", it is obviously a compliment of official entertainment, and later it has been repeatedly used as a platform for success by some successful contemporary scholars, and it is also a cultural trap.
Zeng Guofan's ideological achievements, needless to say, saints, together with the times may not be the peak.
However, the question raised by the subject is quite interesting. Why were there thinkers in the Ming Dynasty, but not in the Han, Tang, Song and Yuan Dynasties?
Thinking Deviation in Han Dynasty
The Han Dynasty was not without thinkers, but the thinkers at that time were delayed by metaphysics. For example, many scholars at that time, the madman of Jin Dynasty, all had merits in philosophical speculation. But today's mainstream thought is historical materialism, so we will feel that speculation in that era is worthless.
The Tang Dynasty was a pragmatic dynasty. Most people in the Tang Dynasty had their own boss empire mentality, and at the same time, they created an unprecedented peak in literature, and romanticism and realism coexisted. The Tang dynasty was an era of shining stars, not a lonely star era with sunny days. So there are no outstanding thinkers.
Song people began to brew a leap in thinking.
With the great economic development in the Song Dynasty, Confucianism began to separate Neo-Confucianism from Neo-Confucianism. The mainstream state of mind in this era has begun to reflect and discuss. From the "Goose Lake Meeting" between Lu Jiuyuan and Zhu, Chinese civilization is gestating an ideological leap!
Wang Yangming stood on the shoulders of his predecessors.
Wang Yangming was a master of psychology in Ming Dynasty, which was not only the subjective reason of Wang Yangming, but also the result of philosophical discussion since Song Dynasty.
What about the Yuan Dynasty and other places in the Qing Dynasty? Both the Yuan Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty were nomadic invasions of farming civilization. If, in the words of European historians, it was a barbarian invasion, it was a devastating impact on Chinese civilization and caused the ideological retrogression of the whole era. Therefore, it is difficult for the giants of thought to reappear in a bad environment, and there will be no saints!
There is a simple reason. The emergence of the imperial examination ruled out a large number of people who could achieve the Three Immortals, and the stability and strengthening of imperial power made civil servants less worried about realizing the Three Immortals.
It is not particularly difficult for a dynasty of more than 200 years to have such a big man.
Strictly speaking, Confucius said there was no problem, and his contribution was too reluctant. Sun Wu and Guan Zhong in the Spring and Autumn Period, Shang Yang and Lv Buwei in the Warring States Period were all great men with great achievements and works, but they were not Confucianism.
After respecting Confucianism in Han dynasty, Confucian intellectuals began to have the opportunity to make contributions. Sang Hongyang in the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty laid the foundation of economic policy in 2000. Laying the foundation for the northern attack on Huns can't be said to be futile, can it? As for Lide, it depends on how the Confucian scholars evaluate it.
At the end of the Han Dynasty, Cao Cao made great contributions to pacify the war in the north, rewritten the Art of War of Sun Tzu and wrote poems. Without clan, there is no virtue.
There were also many famous soldiers in the Tang Dynasty. Li Jing made outstanding achievements in military affairs and wrote that Li Wen was right. You became the king of Tota Li Tian, but you couldn't become an immortal? I can't help it, and neither can the clan. They must be proficient in Confucian classics, and writing Sun Tzu's Art of War does not meet Confucian expectations of intellectuals.
In Song Dynasty, the imperial examination system was perfect and the generals with outstanding martial arts were arty. Yue Fei has many meritorious military service and good articles, and has become a warrior! But I can't. I'm not from the Imperial Examination, and I'm not familiar with the Six Arts Classics. I still can't.
Qi Jiguang, a latecomer of Wang Yangming, has made great achievements in the art of war, but he was not born in the imperial examination and can't do it so far.
Zeng Guofan's friends Zuo Tang Zong and Li Hongzhang have made great contributions, and their articles are also very learned, but unfortunately they are not stereotyped writing.
To put it bluntly, the phenomenon of "three immortals" will only occur if talents are selected in strict accordance with Confucian standards, but talents are scarce and wasteful. Better not have three immortals than bury talents.
The East talks about three immortals, while the West talks about the king of philosophy. There seems to be only one king of philosophy in the West, Mark Li Sailiu, the author of Meditations. But it's no use.
It can be seen that the so-called "three immortals" are as difficult to read as Wang, Sanyuan and this book in philosophy, but they are all useless.
This question is asked after reading all kinds of popular books on the market.
So how did Zhu Can Xi and Old Master Q live?
If there is a saint, it depends on the standard. According to the specifications of the Confucius Temple, Wang Yangming and Zeng Guofan were not among them, and even Kang Youwei, who claimed to be a saint, could not touch the threshold.
In Dacheng Hall of Confucius Temple, Confucian sages of past dynasties are enshrined. In the middle is Confucius, the great sage of Dacheng, who sits 3.35 meters high, wears twelve crowns, wears twelve robes and holds Zhengui in his hand, just like an ancient royal gift. Followed by the four combinations, that is, the four saints, they are Fusheng Yanzi, Zong Zengsheng Zi, Shu Zisi and Yasheng Mencius. Then there are twelve philosophers, namely Min Loss, Ran Geng, ran yong, Zai Yu, Duanmu Ci, Ran Qiu, Zhong You, Zhuan Xu, You Re and Zhu. You see, except Zhu was from the Song Dynasty, all the other distinguished guests were from the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.
How much did Zhu contribute to the development of Confucianism?
Zhu went in and out of Buddhism and Taoism in his early years. At the age of 3 1, Dong Li, a disciple of Cheng Yi's three biographies, officially started his career and joined Confucianism, becoming an important figure in Confucianism after Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi. In the second year (1 175), Zhu, Lu Jiuyuan met at the Ehu Temple in Qianshan, Shangrao, Jiangxi Province. This was a famous meeting of the Ehu Lake, and the differences between Zhu and Lu were more obvious. On the basis of Bailuyuan Sinology, Zhu Jian established Bailudong Academy, formulated "learning rules", lectured and taught. The main purpose of restoring Yuelu Academy in Tanzhou (now Changsha, Hunan) is to gain knowledge from poor management, oppose worship and practice, and respect. He inherited Cheng Zhu and developed independently, forming his own system, which was later called Zhu Cheng Neo-Confucianism. During his tenure as a local official, Zhu advocated resisting gold, caring for people's livelihood, saving labor, limiting land merger and high-interest exploitation, and implemented some reform measures, and also participated in activities to suppress peasant uprisings. During his education, Zhu dabbled in or wrote about Confucian classics, history, literature, Buddhism, Taoism and natural science, and his works were extensive and rich.
Zhu Yisheng bootstrapped the scholar to death. In every fifty years, he experienced four dynasties: Gaozong, Filial Piety, Guangzong and Ning. He served as an official outside for nine years, and he taught "University" for Ningzong for forty days. The other forty years lived a life of lecturing and writing books. His works include The Original Meaning of Zhouyi, Enlightenment, Textual Research on Eight Diagrams, Biography of Poems, The Doctrine of the Mean in Universities, Notes on Analects of Confucius, Notes on Mencius, Illustration of Taiji, Interpretation of Books, Interpretation of Mingxi, Collection of Chuci, etc. In addition, there are collections of 100, sequels of 1 1, anthologies of 10, and various sub-languages of 140 are compiled by admirers. His thought of Yi-ology is mainly concentrated in the original meaning of Zhouyi, Enlightenment of Yi-ology, Zhuzi School and other works. According to the chronology of Zhu, The Original Meaning of Zhouyi was written in four years (A.D. 1 177) and Enlightenment in thirteen years (A.D. 1 186).
In Yuan Dynasty, Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty, it has always been the official philosophy of the feudal ruling class, which indicates that the ideology of feudal society is more complete. In the second year of Yuan and Qing Dynasties (13 13), the imperial examination was resumed, and it was ordered that Zhu's Notes on Four Books and Sentences should prevail, and Zhu Weike cited the procedure. In the second year of Zhu Yuanzhang's Hongwu reign (1369), Zhu et al. took "Chuan as the Sect" in the imperial examination. Zhu Xue became the spiritual pillar to consolidate the ruling order of feudal society. It strengthened the "three cardinal guides and five permanents" and hindered the later changes in feudal society. Zhu's theory also had a far-reaching influence on Wang Yangming's psychology in Ming Dynasty. Wang Yangming's thought of unity of knowledge and action is a breakthrough on the basis of Zhu's philosophy. Zhu's academic thought also has an important influence in the history of world culture.
Two and a half saints are just a family statement. Anyone who knows history knows that the development of Confucianism has gone through four main stages. The first stage is the primitive Confucianism, represented by Confucius, who is the most sacred teacher. Mencius also has the title of Zisheng. Therefore, there are two saints in this first stage alone.
In the second stage, it was the era when Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty deposed a hundred schools of Confucianism, and Dong Zhongshu added fuel to the flames and put Confucianism and Confucius and Mencius on the altar. It can be said that it initiated the politicization of Confucianism, and its historical position cannot be ignored.
The third stage is the rise of Neo-Confucianism in Song Dynasty. Confucianism, which combines Buddhism and Taoism, is inclusive and magnificent and has influenced future generations for thousands of years. This period can be described as a gathering of humanities, with sages everywhere, including Zhou Dunyi and Cheng Cheng before, Lu Xiangshan, Zhu, and especially Zhu. It can be described as a generation of masters, and Zhu is a veritable saint.
The fourth stage is Wang Yangming's theory of mind in Ming Dynasty, which can also be classified as a branch of Neo-Confucianism, but it is still talked about by people because of its uniqueness, creativity and far-reaching influence on later generations.
As for Zeng Guofan, it was not because he founded Neo-Confucianism, but because he adhered to the rigorous attitude and practice of Confucianism, which was the last swan song of Confucianism at that time and was also advertised by later generations.