Lecture 10 The End of of Neo-Confucianism and The Beginning of the Intellectualism of the Evidential Research

  • The Rule of the Manchu (1664-1911)
    • “Discussing heart-and mind and human nature when the world is in peace, [the Neo-Confucians] pay their deaths to the ruler when the nation is in danger."
    • The control system: Manchu positions and Han positions
    • The memorial system
    • The perfect ruler: Qianlong
  • Political Ideology Subscribed by the Court
    • Fixed principles and fix hierarchy
    • Criticizing Wang learning as the main factor for the decline of the Ming Dynasty
    • Daily life practice and governance
  • Restore the Sage's Teaching through Another Channel
    • The switch to book knowledge: library and all kinds of textual criticism
    • The evidential research
    • Return to the Five Classics
    • The textual tradition as a whole
  • The End of Civil Service Examination (1905): The End of Confucianism?
    • the invasion of the western tide
    • "The warships are strong and the canons are powerful."
    • "The western learning as utility and the Chinese learning as substance.”
    • the disposition of the political and social structure which supported the existence of Confucianism