In addition to the good mountains, good water, good tea, and good people in Wuyi Mountain, we also have to talk about the profound culture here. When talking about the culture of Wuyi Mountain, we have to talk about Zhu Xi.
In addition to their beautiful natural scenery, many of our country's scenic spots and historic sites also have profound cultural heritage, and Wuyi Mountain is no exception.
Some scholars recited a poem: Confucius came out of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. There was Zhu Xi in the Southern Song Dynasty, ancient Chinese culture, Mount Tai and Wuyi.
Wuyi Mountain is the cradle of Zhu Xi’s Neo-Confucianism and a holy place for the world to study Zhu Xi’s Neo-Confucianism and even Eastern culture. Zhu Xi advocated "preserving the principles of nature and destroying human desires." How could he think of trying to resist our human desires in such a beautiful scenery as Wuyi Mountain? Wuyi Mountain, a fairyland where nature and man unite, can produce the essence of Zhu Xi's Neo-Confucianism of "preserving the principles of nature and destroying human desires". He emphasized morality and believed that people should give up "selfish desires" and comply with "natural principles", that is, the ethical order of the external world. Zhu Xi's Neo-Confucianism is rich in content and profound. From the perspective of the cultural connection between Zhu Xi and Wuyi Mountain, the main points are as follows:
1. Wuyi Mountain is the geomantic treasure land where Zhu Xi became famous
Wuyi Mountain is the most famous Rich cultural resources are Zhu Xi. As the saying goes, "When the Zhou Dynasty moved to the east, Fuzi came out, and during the Song Dynasty, when the Song Dynasty moved to the south, Wen Gong was born." He was compared with the sage Confucius, and later generations also called him "Master Zhu". Zhu Xi's ancestral home is in the beautiful Wuyuan, Jiangxi Province. His courtesy name is Yuanhui, Zhonghui, and his nickname is Hui'an. He was born in Youxi County, Fujian Province in 1130 AD, where his father Zhu Song was serving as a county captain. In the 13th year of Shaoxing in the Southern Song Dynasty, after his father died of illness, he followed his father's will and went to Chong'an, Fujian Province to study under his father's friend Liu Mianzhi and other famous scholars. Lived and grew up in the Wuyi Mountain area. Zhu Xi was diligent and ambitious. Liu Mianzhi liked him very much and betrothed his daughter to Zhu Xi as his wife. In the 18th year of Shaoxing (1148), he was a Jinshi. He successively served as Zuo Di Gonglang, deputy transfer envoy, Huanzhang Pavilion attendant, secretary editor, Baowen Pavilion attendant, etc. After his death, he was given the posthumous title of "Grand Master" and the title of "Xin" "Guo Gong", "Hui Guo Gong". He is known as Zhu Wengong. He wrote a lot of books in his life. According to the statistics of "Sikuquanshu", Zhu Zi has 25 kinds of existing works, more than 600 volumes, and a total of about 20 million words. Such as "Collected Commentary on Four Books", "Collected Poems", "Zhu Ziyu Lei", "Wen Gong Family Rites", "Zhu Hui'an Collection", etc.
Wuyi Mountain has an inseparable connection with Zhu Xi’s Neo-Confucianism. Zhu Xi went to Wuyi Mountain from the age of 14 until his death at the age of 71. He studied, wrote books, ran schools and taught apprentices in Wuyi Mountain for more than 50 years. Zhu Xi's Neo-Confucianism was conceived, formed, spread and developed here. Zhu Xi founded Wuyi Jingshe (Ziyang Academy) and Kaoting Academy in Wuyi Mountain, which became the most influential academies at that time. Many famous disciples and their descendants became famous Neo-Confucianists and passed them down from generation to generation, forming an influential school, making Wuyi Mountain a Famous place in Neo-Confucianism. Supported half of ancient Chinese culture! It pushed Wuyishan to the cultural pinnacle of being "the leader in academics in the country" at that time.
2. Wuyi Mountain is even better because of Zhu Xi
Zhu Xi is the greatest thinker, philosopher and educator in Chinese history after Confucius. He collected the culmination of academic thoughts after Confucius. Zhu Xi compiled "What Heared, Heared and Questioned" by Cheng Yi, Cheng Hao and their students. Together with the Neo-Confucianism created by Cheng Hao, Cheng Yi and others, it is known as "Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism" in the history of Neo-Confucianism. Zhu Xi's Neo-Confucianism, which formed an outstanding representative of Confucian thought and culture, is also known internationally as post-Confucianism. It was designated as the official orthodox philosophical thought and has been in power for more than 700 years from the Song Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty (13th to 20th century) in China. The ideological theory of status represents the traditional national spirit of universal significance and is an important stage of development in the history of Eastern thought, education, philosophy and literature after Confucius.
Here is a little story. When Wuyi Mountain was declared a world "double heritage", "Is Zhu Xi Zhu Zi?" On December 1, 1999, the 23rd General Assembly of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee unanimously approved Wuyi Mountain. It is listed in the World Heritage List as a dual natural and cultural heritage, becoming one of the 22 dual heritage sites in the world.
Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism has become the standard of right and wrong for people's daily words and deeds and the main content of their theoretical practice. It has played a positive role in promoting people's theoretical thinking, educating people in knowledge, cultivating people's sentiments, maintaining social stability, and promoting historical progress.
3. The international influence of Zhu Xi and Wuyi Mountain
Zhu Xi’s theory not only had a profound impact on China for more than 700 years since the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, but its influence penetrated into all aspects of Chinese social life , and traveled across the ocean to East Asia, Southeast Asia, Europe and the United States, becoming the embodiment of East Asian civilization. It still attracts experts and scholars from 50 countries and regions in the world to devote themselves to the study of Zhu Xi's Neo-Confucian thought. It has had a great impact on Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia and even some countries around the world. The "Millennium Character Election" co-organized by Radio Television Hong Kong and "Ming Pao" was announced in July 1999. That election only elected 50 of the most influential figures in the past 1,000 years. As a result, the top 10 figures come from different countries and eras, with Sun Yat-sen and Mao Zedong ranking 4th and 8th respectively. Wen Gong Zhu Xi ranked 42nd, ahead of Churchill, Cao Xueqin, Keynes, Dante, and Goethe.
The research on Zhu Xi’s theory has been valued by scholars at home and abroad. In July 1990, an international academic conference was held in Fuzhou and Wuyishan, China, to commemorate the 860th anniversary of the birth of Zhu Xi.
More than 260 scholars and experts from both sides of the Taiwan Strait of China and France, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and other countries and regions gathered together. Through new perspectives and new methods, they conducted heated debates and mutual discussions on issues such as the historical status, world influence and current value of Zhu Xi studies and academic thoughts, and conducted new evaluations, writing a new chapter for international Zhu Xi studies. In 1991, the Guangdong Zhu Xi Thought Research Association was established. In the early summer of 1993, the International Research Conference on Zhu Xi’s Academic Thoughts was held at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangdong. 119 people attended the conference, including scholars from the United States, Malaysia, South Korea, various provinces, cities, and Hong Kong, as well as representatives of Zhu Xi’s descendants. In April 1994, the Chinese Zhu Xi Research Society was established, which further promoted the study of Zhu Xi's thoughts at home and abroad. At present, Japan, South Korea, etc. have established Zhu Xixue research institutions. The Japanese government also allocated special funds for this purpose and organized famous Zhu Xi scholars across the country to compile the 10-volume "Encyclopedia of Zhu Xi Studies", and at the same time carried out comprehensive research on Zhu Xi Studies. In addition to Japan, countries such as the United States, Britain, Germany, France, the CIS, and Southeast Asia have also attached great importance to the study of Zhu Xixue in recent years. In 1984, the United States held the first international conference on Zhu Xi's studies in Hawaii. This special conference discussing the thoughts of a scholar is rare in the world.
Zhu Xi succeeded as a young man, but because his political stance and ideological concepts were contrary to those in power, his official career was quite bumpy. In his later years, he was personally frustrated and the country was collapsing. In the midst of loneliness and pain, he wrote angrily and wrote books on the one hand, and on the other hand, he expressed his love for the mountains and rivers to relieve his sorrow. Therefore, Zhu Xi also left many poems praising Wuyi's landscape in Wuyi Mountain. For example, he wrote "Nine Songs of Songs" when he visited Jiuqu River: There are immortals on Wuyi Mountain, and the cold current below the mountain is clear. If you want to know the strange and unique place, just listen to two or three songs. Next, he gave a detailed description of each song of Jiuqu River, and finally ended with "The fisherman is looking for the road to Taoyuan, except for the world." He expressed his love for Wuyi's mountains and rivers and expressed his own feelings.
Zhu Xi belongs to Wuyi Mountain. I think to understand the culture of Wuyi Mountain, celebrities such as Gu Yewang, Li Shangyin, Fan Zhongyan, Xin Qiji, Lu You, Xu Xiake, Xiong He... all traveled to Wuyi Mountain and were active here. The literati of the past dynasties left behind more than 450 cliff stone carvings and more than 1,400 ancient poems, which can be regarded as the treasure house of Chinese calligraphy art, leaving extremely precious cultural relics in Wuyi Mountain. These cultural relics are combined with the beautiful natural landscape, compared with historical records and China's current situation, and their value is very precious for studying the rise and fall of Zhu Xi's Neo-Confucianism and Confucianism as well as the history of Chinese philosophical thought. They are treasures of traditional Chinese culture. .