 | 4 Culture |  |
| |
| 4 Scenic Spots | |
| |
| | | | |
Dai Zhen
| | | One of the most important Qing philosophers is Dai Zhen (1724-1777), who again tried to liberate Confucian thinking from Taoist or Buddhist influences and went back to the sources of the Confucian Classics to correct the errors of Song and Ming philosophers. While Zhu Xi and late Ming philosophers like Liu Zongzhou (1578-1645) and Huang Daozhou (1585-1646) had assumed that man follows in his actings only the universal order (li ) and not his own will (yu ), Dai Zhen saw that both universal order and human will exist side by side. The human will is an expression of man's temperament and feelings (qing) and naturally depend on the universal order. Human will is nothing else than a subjective part of the universal order. Goodness (shan) of the human character is a completion of the virtues humanity (ren), righteousness (yi ) and social etiquette (li ), it naturally includes wisdom (zhi), courage (yong), loyalty (zhong), trust (xin) and benevolence (shu). All these things are basic elements of the Heavenly virtue (Tian de). | | | |
|
