The Renaissance in the West borrowed from the culture and art of ancient Greece and Rome in Europe, and had little to do with China's Confucianism.
Almost at the same time as the European Renaissance, the Song Dynasty also tried to carry out the "Confucian Renaissance".
But most small farmers have kept the traditional character of China for a long time. This point was exposed in the controversy about Wang Anshi's new law, because even though he runs a small business, agricultural wages are limited to the lowest level. Again, due to frequent wars, a group of refugees were born, some of whom were inevitably enslaved, so the above situation could not be opened. That is, from the map of Zhang Zeduan, we can see that there are a lot of cheap labor. Therefore, Song people have the ability to solve technical problems, but they have no motivation to save manpower.
Therefore, the revival of Confucianism is not a renaissance.
In this case, their intelligence developed in another direction, and philosophical review became the greatest spiritual outlet for Song people. They formed a * * * and put Confucian ethics on the world outlook of Buddhism and Taoism, which is called "new Confucianism". Different from the artistic world outlook of the Han Dynasty, Song Confucianism believes that the composition of the universe contains countless causal relationships, and people's ability is good and conforms to the laws of nature (they call it justice). This statement creates a new social psychology: on the one hand, these philosophers talk about the nature and life of personal perception, on the other hand, they don't feel constrained in collective life. Of course, the state affairs of the Song Dynasty are related to this position. According to the records in Genealogy of Knowledge, Neo-Confucianism in Song Dynasty was influenced by a Taoist named Huashan, Chen Bo. Personally, I think everyone was involved in political disputes at that time. Cheng Hao, Cheng Yi and Zhou Dunyi in the Northern Song Dynasty either directly opposed Wang Anshi or indirectly approached those who opposed the new law; In the Southern Song Dynasty and Korea, Zhu Xian opposed making peace with Nuzhen, and later changed his position and opposed Han Tuo, the main battle. Lu Xiangshan was disintegrated because he boasted a book to the emperor. Therefore, without exception, it is exposed for the view of the current situation. The personal morality they advocate contains a kind of "opposition", but they express it in an implicit way and do not engage in activities openly.
The analysis and comparison of the above thinkers' theories belongs to the category of philosophy. Many scholars in China, Japan and the West have been engaged in this research, and their research results have also been included in various books and periodicals. Historians can't deny that Neo-Confucianism enhanced the integrity and resolute attitude of future Confucian scholars in China. However, even if the scope of their discussion is profound and their differences are various, today, their position is still too simple, and they still can't get rid of an arranged environment, that is, a huge and unreasonable bureaucratic organization rules a huge and unreasonable peasant group. On this premise, their attitude towards silence and respect is different from that of the figures in the Western Renaissance. The development of the latter's free thought coincides with the movement towards commercialization that day. Dante abandoned his declining aristocratic status and joined the rich political circle; Chaucer was employed by a customs supervisor in London; From Michelangelo to Rembrandt, their patrons were either popes or nobles. In contrast, the above five Song Zhe people and many of their current friends are all dressed in robes of China officials, who are teachers of bureaucrats.
However, China did not have a commercial revolution or a Renaissance because of geographical environment and technical factors, not ideology. The struggle of 365,438+09 in the Song Dynasty only proved that although the south of China was rich, it could not be integrated organizationally, so the enemy could not compete with the north, which was composed of simple carelessness.