The Message of the Mind in Neo-Confucianism (NEO-CONFUCIAN STUDIES)

In recent years the scholarly discussion of Neo-Confucianism in both China and the West has divided it into two rival schools, the orthodox school of Principle (Ii-hsueh) identified with the Ch'eng brothers and Chu Hsi, and the reformist School of Mind (hsin-hsueh) matched with Lu Hsiang-shan and Wang Yang-ming. Building on Professor de Bary's earlier work, this book examines the development of Neo-Confucianism and how, in the absence of any school deriving from Lu Hsiang-shan, Wang later drew upon and modified the Ch'eng-Chu teaching concerning the mind to create a new form of learning in the 16th century, retroactively linked to Lu Hsiang-shan. This innovative work presents a new interpretation of Neo-Confucianism while also covering 650 years of Chinese history.

Wm. Theodore de Bary (1919–2017) was John Mitchell Mason Professor Emeritus and provost emeritus of Columbia University. His many books include Waiting for the Dawn, Message of the Mind, and Learning for One’s Self, as well as Sources of Japanese Tradition and Sources of Korean Tradition, all published by Columbia University Press.