| Summary: | 碩士 === 明道大學 === 國學研究所 === 103 === This assay aims at studying JIAO Xun’s human nature theory, the centered thinking of JIAO Xun’s philosophy. While reviewing the history of Chinese philosophy, human nature has been a topic that arose many different opinions from different sects, among which Mencius’s doctrine of “Innate Goodness of Individual” has been deemed as one important thought. And JIAO Xun’s human nature theory was just used Mencius’s doctrine as the groundwork. In his “Interpretation and Clarification on Mencius doctrine”, JIAO almost included all the “Mencius” related research results presented at or before the era of Emperor Qianlong and Emperor Jiaqing in Qing Dynasty. We can see the characteristics and logics in his “Interpretation and Clarification on Mencius doctrine” also integrated with DAI Zhen’s theory and elaborated from the centered thinking of benevolence and forgiveness in the books of “The Book of Changes”, “Confucian Analects”, and “The Doctrine of the Mean”. JIAO once said, “When I read Tong-Yuan DAI Zhen’s books, I was the most convinced by his work [Exploration in words and meanings of the Mencius].” JIAO’s thought in Mencius doctrine just elaborated from DAI’s theory and continued DAI Zhen’s new principles of philosophy in the view of “understanding human feelings and following the desire” while all human desires exist in the principles of things. The reason why this essay focuses on the investigation of JIAO Xun’s human nature theory is JIAO Xun was good at “YI” theory (regarding to the Book of Changes). JIAO implied profound human nature theory in his thinking about the “YI” and utilized the principle of “YI” to explain Mencius’s doctrine. Therefore, from his studies on YI doctrine, the writer would like to bring out discussions on JIAO Xun’s human nature theory and investigate the correlations between JIAO’s thinking in his book, “Interpretation and Clarification on Mencius doctrine”, and the “YI” doctrine, and for a further step to use these as the main topic for discussions and analysis.
Due to the popularity of textual research trend in Qing Dynasty, knowledge development suddenly became the most important issue for Emperor Qianlong and Emperor Jiaqing. Intellectualism was further developed. Aiming at experiences, JIAO Xun’s human nature theory developed and connected principles of philosophy with real life situation and daily use experiences; this also embodied the spirit of “seeking truth from facts”. JIAO Xun’s work, “Taking Knowledge toward Goodness”, was one important theory after DAI Zhen to enhance intelligence. JIAO used it to highlight the importance of intelligence and stressed on the idea of “knowing” changes to gain benefits. Persisting in the standpoint of “developing from benefit”, he strode across the old thinking of “shaming to mention about benefit” and modified the meaning of “going for benefit”, and meanwhile he also looked after both “sympathy” and “principles” and developed from the spirits of empathy of “treating others just like treating ourselves” to stress on his final purpose of “ultimate goodness”. Between public benefits and personal benefits, JIAO proposed a segment that can include both personal loyalty and personal benefits with the principle of “not affecting public benefits”.
Besides stressing on “knowing changes”, JIAO also thought “having different reactions in different times” was one important key. JIAO once expressed his view as “any rule has abuses, but a flexible rule can just dismisses it from abuses.” He believed the highest principle for morality practices was “to react along the time”, i.e. not to holding resolute persistence in one thing and can be changed along with different time. As for the conclusion of JIAO Xun’s accomplishments in his human nature theory, speaking from objective aspects in experiences and reality, human nature should be illustrated based on all the things and objects after birth. If we discuss human nature from the aspects of food, sex, and desire, and view it with the view of “the differences between human and the beast”, we can clearly find Litang’s (alias of JIAO Xun) centered point of “being able to comprehend” and “being able to behave” was the key point. Besides, through education and learning, he thought human nature can also accomplish goodness; this we can see he concurrently carried forward Xunzi’s theory in the view of intelligence development and stressed his own view on the extension of knowledge and emphasis on intelligence. From the book of “Interpretation and Clarification on Mencius doctrine”, the writer noticed many wordings came from Xunzi. JIAO Xun integrated Mencius’s “human is born to have good characters” and Xunzi’s “human should develop with education and learning”; from here we can see JIAO Xun’s intention to conclude human nature with both ideas of “the goodness of benevolence and righteousness” and “growing with education and experiences”. JIAO Xun’s theory in human nature had a very unique style and embraced all the predecessors’ achievements. His human nature theory had its own theoretical meanings and academic value, and also solidified his special position in the thinking of human nature in Chinese history.
Key Words: JIAO Xun, Human Nature Theory, Interpretation and Clarification on Mencius doctrines, Taking Knowledge toward Goodness, Comprehend by Analogy, Ultimate Goodn
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