Chu Hsi’s comprehension and interpretation toward the philosophy of The Four Masters of Northern Sung

• Main Authors: TENG-TA YU, 游騰達
• Other Authors: none
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2006
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/9a89m9

碩士 === 國立中央大學 === 中國文學研究所 === 94 === This thesis treats about how Chu Hsi understands and interprets the philosophy of The Four Masters－Chou Tun-i, Chang Tsai, Ch’eng Hao and Ch’eng I. The discourse is also a quest for The Four’s theory, which is respected, followed and adopted by Chu Hsi and makes up the backbone of Chu’s own philosophy. I will focus on two crucial elements forming Chu’s ideas: “meditating on equilibrium and harmony” and “the treatise on humanity”, and study Chu’s interpretation of Chou Tun-i’s Tai-chi t’u shuo and Chang Tsai’s Hsi-ming. In the idea of “meditating on equilibrium and harmony”, Master Chu emphasizes on words from Ch’eng I, ”comprehending the mind from substantial or functional view”, for its correspondence with Chang Tsai’s “the mind commands man’s nature and feelings”. Chu elucidates Chang Tsai’s view further by giving additional meaning that the mind both embraces and commands man’s nature and feelings. Moreover, he comprehensively interprets Ch’eng I’s points of “the mind of an infant performs without going against equilibrium”, “after thought is aroused refers to the state after feelings are aroused” and “keeping something in mind in the state of tranquility” and than gives definition to the character “chung”(equilibrium). Thus, Master Chu’s new idea about “equilibrium and harmony” can be answered to Ch’eng I’s heritage. In another idea of “the treatise on humanity”, Chu succeeds Ch’eng I ‘s theory that “love is feeling while humanity is nature” and develops the “the principle of love” and “the character of the mind” to define “the nature of humanity” which was divided into” separately speaking” and “collectively speaking”. “The principle of love” comes from”comprehending the nature of humanity through the manifestation of love” and represents humanity alone in the four elements of humanity, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom. “The character of the mind” drives at “the mind of Heaven and Earth” thus can include the four virtues and can be the root of all virtues. However, to realize “The nature of humanity” must be through the physical form of “The vital force of spring permeates four seasons and the feeling of commiseration permeates four feelings”. Master Chu also quotes Ch’eng I’s “the comparison to seeds of grain” to state his points while taking Ch’eng Hao’s “understanding the nature of humanity” as being easily misunderstood. Chu thus advances the idea of “Mastering oneself” as a way in search of humanity and subsumes Ch’eng I ‘s statement about “impartiality” and Ch’eng Hao’s “all things form one body” to convey his belief that “mastering oneself” first leads to “impartiality” and “humanity” and than one can acquire the experience of “forming one body with all things without any differentiation”. Besides, Chu’s interpretation of Ch’eng Hao’s essay Reply to Master Heng-ch’ü’s Letter on Calming Human Nature can be likely to see that Chu’s explanation toward ancestors’ literature is on the basis of his own philosophy. After Chu’s philosophy becomes mature, he explicitly explains Chou Tun-i’s Tai-chi t’u shuo and Chang Tsai’s Hsi-ming. Chu explains “Tai-chi” with “Principle” to combine the Ch’eng brothers‘ “Principle” with Chou’s “Tai-chi” and explains “lack of physical form” with “wu-chi” to emphasize the transcendence of Principle. Chu also comprehends and interprets Hsi-ming on the basis of Ch’eng I’s idea,”the oneness of principle and the distinctiveness of particulars”. “The oneness of principle” stands for the whole creation comes from the same source and “the distinctiveness of particulars” means the implementation differs from diverse relationships. Chu observes the ideas in common between Chou’s and Chang’s with viewpoint of metaphysics. Tai-chi t’u shuo describes that Tai-chi（Principle）, Ying-Yang and五行 (material force) interact and come into mysterious union and give birth to all creation, which corresponds to Hsi-ming’s indication “that which fills the universe I regard as my body and that which directs the universe I consider as my nature.” Finally, Chu Hsi’s positive and thorough research into The Four Masters of Northern Sung makes his own philosophy completely formed. He devoted himself to digesting The Four’s ideas to assert the root of Taoism and the orthodox line of transmission of the Confucian School was firmly established.