Zhao Zixian: Integrating Mind Thought: Reading the Six Classics of The Mind: Song Lian's Philosophy and Zhejiang Eastern Scholarship

The thinker Song Lian at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty was quite famous for his articles in later generations, but the richness of his ideas and the importance of confucianism in the development process were not properly highlighted. Song Lian is an important part of the development of Cheng Zhu Lixue's Xiangyang Mingxin. The book "Six Classics are All Mind Studies: Song Lian's Philosophy and Zhejiang Eastern Scholarship" systematically sorts out and analyzes Song Lian's study of the mind as the foundation, integrates literature and historiography, and absorbs the academic ideas of Buddhism and Taoism at the practical level with a masterful attitude, which is an important harvest in the study of the history of Confucian thought.

【Keywords】 Song Lian Xinxue Zhejiang Studies

Song Lian was an important thinker of the Yuan and Ming dynasties, and had a profound influence on future generations. During the Yuan Dynasty, he was already well-known, and after entering the Ming Dynasty, Song Lian was known as the first scholar of the early Ming Dynasty because he was responsible for compiling several major cultural matters such as the History of the Yuan. Song Lian constructed an ideological system with the mind as the ontology, and further developed the mind on the basis of inheriting the sages of Zhejiang Studies, which had an important impact on Yangming Mind Science. Scholars' attention to Song Mingxin studies mainly focuses on Lu Jiuyuan, Wang Yangming and Yang Minghou studies, and in recent years, people have begun to further explore the close relationship between Chen Baisha, Zhan Ganquan and Yang Ming Xinxue in the Ming Dynasty. Song Lian, as the key to the succession of Song Ming's mind, did not receive the attention it deserved. Zhejiang Studies began to attach importance to articles from Lü Zuqian, and developed to the middle of the Yuan Dynasty, and Huang Yu and others used literary names in the world. The Case of Song Yuanxue points out that Zhejiang Xueliu is a literary text, and at the same time regards Song Lian as a Buddha. These views have had a profound impact on future generations. In recent years, researchers have focused on analyzing Song Lian's literary achievements from multiple perspectives, but lacked in-depth discussion of his Confucian thought. Liu Yumin's "Six Classics are All Minds: Song Lian's Philosophy and Zhejiang Eastern Scholarship"[1] (hereinafter referred to as "Six Classics are All Hearts") systematically explores Song Lian's thinking based on the study of the heart, and on this basis determines its relationship with Zhejiang Studies. This study is a comprehensive analysis of Song Lian, a restoration of the real Song Lian in the history of thought, and of great significance for further exploring the development of Confucianism in the early Ming Dynasty.

Song Lian stated in his self-description: "If you write a good article, or call it a literati, you will be angry: 'My literati are huh?' The principle of heaven and earth is not exhausted. The way of the sages, want to condense it but do not succeed. What about my literati? [2] He did not approve of the identity of the literati, and knew that he had a heavy responsibility to revitalize Confucianism. Song Lian was knowledgeable and thoughtful, and had a profound influence on the Ming Dynasty and future generations. Gaozu Fang Xiaoru pointed out: "Sven Ye, what the public does, although it can be passed on to the world, it is not enough to do the public as a person. Later, some sages examined the origin of the kingdom and the dynasty, and pursued the prosperity of virtue, and sang the rule of Taiping in infinity, and the merits of Tai Shi Gong could be white in the future generations! [3] Fang worries that posterity will only notice Song Lian's achievements and ignore his important contributions to ideology and culture. This also illustrates the importance of the overall inquiry into Song Lian's thought. The book "The Study of the Six Classics and the Heart" explores Song Lian's Confucian view from a macroscopic perspective, and takes this as a foundation to further explore his view of history, literature, and three religions. On this basis, the author tries to elucidate the influence of Song Lian on Ming and Qing Zhejiang studies.

Yangming Xinxue is the most dazzling achievement in the history of Ming Dynasty thought. The academic community was deeply influenced by the view that the study of mind was regarded as an independent origin in the "Case of Song and Yuan Studies", and paid more attention to the influence of Lu Jiuyuan and Zhu Xi on Wang Yangming. The influence of Zhu and Lu was crucial, but the Ming Dynasty mind science was not born out of nowhere. The Cheng Zhu school in the early Ming Dynasty, under the influence of significant changes, also assumed that its changes had a designated direction, that is, to anticipate the rise of the school of mind, which was to Wang Yangming and create its extreme. [4] Mr. Chen Rongjie was very keen and saw the importance of Confucian thought in the early Ming Dynasty to yangming xinxue. The "Six Classics of The Study of the Mind" is not limited to the inherent point of view, and on the basis of combing through the original texts, it throws out the originality of Song Lian's thought. The author points out that Song Lian constructed a philosophical ontology with "mind" as the core and a complete system, and the biggest feature was the combination of mind and scripture. The mind is the essence, encompassing all the truths under the heavens, dominating the qi, and then reincarnating all things. The Six Classics are a record of the truth in the heart, and the study of the Six Classics is the right way to cure the mind. Furthermore, the author proposes that Song Lian's theory of kung fu is based on the core of holding respect and cultivating and studying the Six Classics.

Since the Yuan Dynasty, although the theologians have taken Zhu Zixue as their sect, they have integrated into Luxue and tried to reconcile Zhu Lu. With the establishment of Zhu Zixue's dominant position, it has shown signs of excessive emphasis on transmission and beginning to become rigid. The Six Classics of TheOry of The Mind points out that Song Lian's mind is the inheritance and development of the Zhejiang scholars Lü Zuqian and Zhang Jiucheng, and the reflections on the relationship between the Six Classics and the Heart have an important influence on Wang Yangming. Song Lian's view of "learning the six sutras is all mental" has a strong practical pertinence. Scholars have a tendency to regard rigaku as a tool for seeking fame and fortune, and their exposition of righteousness is at the literal level, and they are even more knowledgeable about picking up people's teeth and wisdom. In this situation, Song Lian emphasized that the purpose of people's reading is to gain something in the depths of their hearts, and the study of the Six Classics is the right way to cultivate the mind. This view had a strong influence at the time. Fang Xiaoru inherited Song Lian's views, proposed that the Six Classics need people to be dedicated, and further discussed the importance of the Six Classics from a historical dimension, viewing them as a record of the supreme wisdom of mankind. The study of the Six Classics cannot stop at cultivating the mind, but on the basis of the elevation of one's moral realm, the "Tao" should be presented in a wider scope and level. Fang Xiaoru stressed that the cultivation of the heart should ultimately be implemented at the level of practice. Song Lian's mind-study ideas had an important influence that could not be ignored at that time and in later generations.

Song Lian's mental thought has been consistent in his view of history and literature. The author points out that Song Lian has a conscious sense of historical mission, takes ethics and morality as the criterion to form a moral history philosophy, and puts forward the view that "the history of the economy is not different". The history books also contain the "heart of the saint", which needs to be carefully studied, and also attaches importance to the revision of family history, that is, the revision of the family tree, which can benefit the autonomy of the people. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, faced with the question of whether to recognize the legitimacy of the Yuan Dynasty, Yang Weizhen, Wang Yi, Hu Han and others all discussed orthodoxy. Fang Xiaoru further carried forward Song Lian's concept of moral history and put forward the theory of "changing reunification" with "Juzheng" as the core, thus strictly distinguishing it from orthodoxy. He tried to oppose the "transunciation" through the differences in etiquette in the historical records. Fang Xiaoru further concretized Song Lian's concept of moral history, which had an important impact on Later Generations Yang Shen, Zhang Huang and others. The rulers of the Yuan Dynasty were indifferent to civil rule, and Zhu Yuanzhang changed his rough management of the people and implemented strict laws to control the people. In this context, the revision of the family tree is conducive to social development. Fang Xiaoru constantly improved the clan ideology on the basis of Song Lian. He proposed the systematic clan idea with the revision of genealogy as an important content, and actively promoted it in real life through simplification and debugging. The revision of genealogy has become important for practical purposes.

The relationship between literature and Taoism is an important area of discussion in the history of Chinese literature. Song dynasty essayists and Taoists were hostile to each other, and the division of Wen dao was more serious, and the mainstream from the end of the Song Dynasty to the Yuan Dynasty was against the separation of Wen Dao. Yu Ji, Wang Yi and others all put forward the idea of "Wen and Daoyi". The "Six Classics are All Minds" proposes that Song Lian's literary creation truly realizes the unity of the literary and the Taoist, and he redefines the "Tao" as the sage and the Tao of the Six Classics, and the "Wen" as the text of the Six Classics, emphasizing that the Six Classics are the foundation of the text. In Zhejiang Xue's concept of writing, there is a tradition of attaching importance to the Six Classics. Song Lian's mentor Huang Lian proposed: "The method of composition takes the Qunjing as its root, and the history of migration and consolidation as waves. [5] On this basis, Tongmen Wang Yi further promoted the Six Classics, regarding them as the highest form of the text, which is a record of the eternal path. If one follows the example of the sage and takes the word as the purpose, one can write an article that is not too different from that of a saint. On the basis of inheriting Song Lian's "Six Classics" as the ultimate text, Fang Xiaoru further pointed out that the obscuration of the "Tao" was the root cause of the decay of the article. Later generations of scholars could only work at the linguistic level, which gradually weakened literature. The ancients' articles were based on the clarification of the benevolent way, and today's people blindly pursue the beauty of the literature and regard the articles as a tool for the promotion of officials and knights. Song Lian's view of literature and Taoism and literary creation were a powerful correction of the phenomenon of "wen Daoxu lost" at that time.

Song Lian was well versed in the teachings of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, and had written a large number of articles on Buddhism and Taoism. The late Ming monks compiled their works on hermeneutics and compiled them into the Protector of the Dharma to revitalize Buddhism. The Six Sutras and the Study of the Mind point out that Song Lian promotes buddhism in literary terms, emphasizes the same origin of teaching and Zen, and tries to communicate with various factions to reduce internal strife. On the basis of respecting the differences in the three doctrines, he advocated the commonality of the three religions from the dimension of application and enlightenment. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang adopted the strategy of taking Confucianism as the leader, actively supporting the use of Buddhism and Taoism, and strictly controlling it. Tantra in the Tang Dynasty and the science of the Song Dynasty made Confucianism and Buddhism have a relatively complete and profound system at the level of righteousness. In this situation, Song Lian was able to face the original texts of the Three Religions and face the Three Religions with a more accessible attitude. The Case of Ming Confucianism regards Fang Xiaoru as the founder of The Ming Dynasty, and because Song Lian attached great importance to Buddhism, he highlighted fang's influence on family studies, thus stripping away the connection between the Song and Fang scholars. Huang Zongxi's design has its own painstaking and lonely intentions, but it does not match the facts. Fang Xiaoru's Confucianism, literature, historiography, and political thought were all inherited and developed from Song Lian's thought.

The Six Classics of The Study of the Heart outlines the Zhejiang School of Mind, which was built by Zhang Jiucheng and developed by Yang Jian, Qian Shi, and Song Lian, to the Zhejiang School of Mind, which was composed by Wang Yangming, Liu Zongzhou, and others, who distinguished them from Lu Jiuyuan's school of mind because of their emphasis on expounding the thought of mind from Confucian classics and the integration of scriptures, history, and literature. The author presents the importance of Song Lian's thought in the academic context through its elaboration. In the special situation of the Yi Dynasty, Song Lian mainly promoted Buddhism from the dimensions of historical records, integration of Confucianism into Buddhism, and popularization of Buddhism. He still regarded the unity of the family, the rule of the country, and the peace of the world as the ultimate demand, and could not ignore the importance of Song Lian's Confucian thought because of the importance of Buddhism. Cheng Zhu takes reason as the ontology and the mind as the object, emphasizing that reason is divided and things are known; later learning has the disadvantages of dividing psychology and paying attention to fragmentation. Lu Jiuyuan takes the heart as the essence and pays attention to moral practice; later learning has the disadvantages of shallowness and empty talk about epiphany. Song Lian attached great importance to the Six Classics and stressed the need to gain something from the heart in order to correct the ills of Zhu Luhou's study. He regarded literature and historiography as an important way to promote benevolence, and through writing a large number of beautiful articles and historical materials, he incorporated Confucian thought into it. The Study of the Six Classics of the Mind explores Song Lian's thought in depth and systematically, and is of great value for comprehensively observing Song Lian and thus clarifying the development of Confucianism in the early Ming Dynasty.

exegesis:

LIU Yumin. The Study of the Six Classics: Song Lian's Philosophy and Zhejiang East Scholarship[M].Hangzhou: Zhejiang University Press, 2021.This book is the author's national social science fund funding achievement.

(2] (Ming) Song Lian. The Complete Works of Song Lian[M].Huang Linggeng Editing Point. Beijing:People's Literature Publishing House,2014:294.]

[3] (Ming) Fang Xiaoru. The Complete Works of Fang Xiaoru[M].Xu GuangdaDian. Hangzhou:Zhejiang Ancient Books Publishing House,2013:454.]

Chen Rongjie. Zhu Xue's Treatise[M].Shanghai:East China Normal University Press,2007:215.]

(5] (Yuan) Huang Yu. Huang Shuji[M].Wang Yongdian School. Hangzhou:Zhejiang Ancient Books Publishing House,2013:367.]

Originally published in China Book Review, No. 11, 2021. For academic sharing only, if there is infringement, the contact will be deleted, very grateful.