Cheng Hao

Cheng Hao

Cheng Hao (February 28, 1032 - July 9, 1085), whose name was Bochun, was named Mingdao, and was known as "Mr. Mingdao" in the world. He was born in Luoyang, Henan Province. In the Northern Song Dynasty, Neo Confucianist, educator, founder of Neo Confucianism, and representative of "Luoxue".

In the second year of emperor Renzong's Jiayou reign of Song Dynasty (1057), he was a Jinshi. He held the posts of Li Guan, such as Zhubo of Mian County, Zhubo of Shangyuan County, Jincheng decree of Zezhou, zhongyun of Prince, censor of supervision, Ruzhou liquor tax of supervision, and judge of Zhenning army.

Politically, he opposed Wang Anshi's new deal. Academically, Cheng Hao put forward the propositions of "the heaven is the reason" and "only the heart is the heaven, and the nature can be known when it is exhausted". He believed that "benevolent people are the same as things, righteousness, propriety, knowledge and faith are all benevolent." to understand this theory, we must "respect it with sincerity" (ditto). Advocate the theory of "heart transmission". It is acknowledged that "there is no one but right in the principle of heaven and earth.".

In 1085, song zhezong ascended the throne and called him Zong Zhengcheng. He died of illness before he did. He was 54 years old.

Cheng Hao and his younger brother Cheng Yi, known as "Er Cheng" in the world, were both the founders of Neo Confucianism in the Northern Song Dynasty. Their theories occupied an important position in the development history of Neo Confucianism. Later, they were inherited and developed by Zhu Xi, known as "Cheng Zhu school" in the world. His personal works include the book of determination and the chapter of knowledge and benevolence, and his posterity's works, such as the book of posthumous remains and the collection of essays, are included in the complete works of Ercheng.

Life of the characters

Cheng Hao's ancestors are officials of all ages, and his ancestral home is Huangdun, Huizhou (now Huangdun village, Tunxi District, Huangshan City). Cheng Yu, their great ancestor, was a general of Zhao Kuangyin. When Emperor Taizong of the Song Dynasty Zhao Guangyi was king of Jin, he was also one of the aides. He was also a teacher of emperor Zhenzong of the Song Dynasty. He was an official to serve as a minister of the Ministry of war. After his death, he was granted the title of Shaoqing. Cheng Xizhen, great grandfather, was a member of the Yu tribe of Shangshu. His grandfather Cheng Kou presented Kaifeng Fu Yi and the Minister of the Ministry of officials. Cheng Xiang, Cheng Cheng's father, became a "suburban community zhailang" as usual under the protection of his family. He got a promotion opportunity and started his career. He worked as a central and local official for decades. He worked as a Taizhong doctor. In his later years, he retired because of illness.

His father Cheng Yu moved from Bianjing (now Kaifeng in Henan Province) to Henan Province (now Luoyang in Henan Province) and presented Kaifu Yi and the Minister of the three divisions. Cheng Xiang, the father of Cheng Hao, was granted the title of county captain of Huangpi. He learned about Gong, Feng, CI and Han States, and later became a senior official of Taizhong.

Cheng Hao was born in caomiaoxiang, Huangpi County, Huangzhou (now QianChuan street, Huangpi District, Wuhan) on the 15th of the first month of the first year of Mingdao (1032).

Cheng Hao and his younger brother Cheng Yi were deeply influenced by family education since childhood. They were especially influenced by their father Cheng Xiang in political thought and were famous for opposing Wang Anshi's new law.

Cheng Hao is highly qualified, well-trained, and full of spirit. His disciples and friends have never seen him be fierce for decades.

In the second year of Jiayou's reign (1057), Cheng Hao was promoted to be a Jinshi. He successively held the posts of the governor of Guanyao County, the governor of Shangyuan County, the governor of Zezhou Jincheng, the crown prince zhongyun, the censor of supervision, the wine tax of Ruzhou, and the judge of Zhenning army.

During the reign of emperor Shenzong of Song Dynasty (1068-1085), Cheng Hao served as the censor. Because of his disagreement with Wang Anshi, he was not valued, so he devoted himself to learning. According to the biography of the history of the Song Dynasty, "I have the ambition to seek Tao.". After several decades of being in and out of the schools of thought, he went back to the "Six Classics" and got them. He and his younger brother Cheng Yi created the "Luoxue", which laid the foundation of Neo Confucianism. He successively set up schools in Songyang, Fugou and other places, and devoted himself to education research. His works are quite huge, forming a set of educational ideological system.

Cheng Hao pointed out that the purpose of education is to cultivate saints. "The learning of a gentleman must come from the sage and then from the sage.". Those who are not saints but themselves abandon them. The author thinks that the highest purpose of education is to make the educated follow the principle of heaven, be benevolent to the people and love things, and abide by feudal ethics. It also emphasizes that education must take Confucian classics as teaching materials and Confucian ethics as the basic content of education.

Cheng Hao also pointed out that reading in order to "explain the truth", focusing on reading methods, "reading will be poor reason, will be used", can not "stagnate at the end of the chapter", for this is "the great trouble of scholars". Like his Neo Confucianism, Cheng Hao's educational thought has a far-reaching influence on later generations. Later generations established ancestral temples or academies to commemorate his academic tradition.

In the first year of emperor Renzong's Jiayou reign (1056), Cheng Hao set up an Ercheng temple at the place where he told the book of changes in the capital (now to the left of Fanta in Kaifeng, Henan).

In 1085, song zhezong ascended the throne and called him Zong Zhengcheng. Before he left, Cheng Hao died on June 15 at the age of 54.

In 1220, Emperor ningzong of Song Dynasty granted Cheng Hao the title of "chungong" and Cheng Yi the title of "Zhenggong".

In 1241, the first year of emperor LiZong's Chunyou reign, Cheng Hao was granted the title of "Henan Bo" and Cheng Yi was granted the title of "Yiyang Bo".

In 1330, Emperor Zhishun of yuan and Ming Dynasties, Cheng Hao was granted the title of "Duke of Yu" and Cheng Yi was granted the title of "Duke of Luo".

In 1455, the sixth year of emperor zongjingtai in Ming Dynasty, the two Cheng ancestral hall was ordered to be built with Yanzi (i.e. Yanyuan) as an example. There were more than 60 rooms, such as the front and back halls, the Wei Zhai rooms, and so on. The sacrificial inscriptions praised the two Cheng's "expounding the orthodox learning, rising the refined writing, basing on the sages, and enlightening my descendants".

In 1489, Li Yan, governor of Henan Province, built Daliang academy to worship Ercheng in the lecture hall. Songyang Academy was also established in memory of Cheng er. According to the preface to Songyang academy annals, Songyang academy is the collection place of Sutras in Song Dynasty, and the place where Master Cheng and his disciples gave lectures.

In 1686, the Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty, Er Cheng became a Confucian sage, ranking above Confucius and other Confucians in the Han and Tang Dynasties. The next year, Emperor Kangxi granted a plaque of "learning to reach the nature of heaven" to Er Cheng temple.

Representative works

Cheng Hao wrote many works in his life, and lectured for a long time. Later generations compiled his theory into a Book following the Analects of Confucius. Cheng Yi's works include Henan Cheng's posthumous letters, Henan Cheng's foreign books, Mr. Mingdao's anthology, Mr. Yichuan's anthology, Er Cheng's quintessence, Jing Shuo, etc. Cheng Yi's other works are Zhouyi Zhuan. Later, Cheng's theory was inherited and developed by Zhu Xi and other Neo Confucianists in the Southern Song Dynasty, and became "Cheng Zhu" school.

1. "The posthumous note" (Henan Cheng's posthumous note), 25 volumes, is the quotations of Ercheng recorded by the disciples of Ercheng, later compiled by Zhu Xi.

2. Waishu, 12 volumes, is the supplement or sequel of Yishu compiled by Zhu Xi, which is mostly anecdotal miscellany.

3. Wenji, a collection of 12 volumes, is a collection of poems and essays of Ercheng, compiled successively by Zhang Xi and Zhu Xi in the Southern Song Dynasty.

4. Jing Shuo, 8 volumes, is Cheng Yi's works of explaining Confucian classics with righteousness and reason, including 8 kinds of works, such as Yi, Shi, Shu, Chun Qiu, the Analects of Confucius, Mencius, Da Xue and the doctrine of the mean. Among them, "Yi", "Mencius" and "the doctrine of the mean" are not necessarily written by Cheng Yi; the two volumes of "Cui Yan" are written by Yang Shi according to the quotations of Er Cheng, and then re edited by Zhang.

5. Yi Zhuan, also known as Cheng's Yi Zhuan and Yichuan's Yi Zhuan, is Cheng Yi's annotation of Zhou Yi. In Song Dynasty, the above four books were published separately, and some were published together, which were called Cheng's four books.

At the end of Ming Dynasty, Xu Bida collected six kinds of works of Ercheng and published them in the name of Ercheng Quanshu. During the reign of Emperor Kangxi in the Qing Dynasty, Lu liuliang collated and reprinted it. Later, Tu Zongying reprinted it. This is the basis of the present edition of Er Cheng Ji. The old edition of Er Cheng Quan Shu contains four major editions printed by Shanghai Zhonghua Book Company in 1920.

Er Cheng Ji is an important work of Neo Confucianism. It takes "Li" as the noumenon of the universe for the first time. It expounds the generation of all things in the world and the life of body and mind, and establishes the idealist philosophy system with "Li" as the center. Among them, many important philosophical concepts and propositions, such as Cheng Hao's cognition of benevolence and determination of nature, Cheng Yi's nature as reason, respect, and unity of body and function, were first put forward in the history of Chinese philosophy, which were followed by many later philosophers and had a significant impact on the philosophy of song and Ming Dynasties.

Main achievements

Cheng Hao's main achievement is his Neo Confucianism. Cheng Hao and his younger brother Cheng Yi were both the main founders of Neo Confucianism in Song Dynasty, and they were known as "Er Cheng" in the world. Cheng's theory is different in some aspects, but the basic content is the same. They all take "reason" or "Tao" as the basis of all theories. They think that "reason" is the "natural reason" prior to all things, "all things are just a natural reason", "everything comes from reason", "if there is reason, there is Qi". The current social order is set by the natural law. It is in accordance with the natural law to follow it, otherwise it is against the natural law. Put forward the simple dialectic thought that things are "right". It emphasizes that human nature is essentially good, and "human nature is also reason". Due to the difference of Qi, human nature has good and evil. Therefore, both turbid qi and malignity are human desires. If a man's desire blinds his heart, it will damage the natural law. "If there is no desire, it is natural.". Therefore, it is necessary to teach people to "preserve natural principles and eliminate human desires".

If we want to "preserve natural justice", we must first "manage tomorrow". If we want "tomorrow's reason", we need to understand the reason of things day by day. If we accumulate more, we can understand it all at once. It advocates the cultivation method of "respect for self-cultivation and knowledge for learning". Cheng advocated feudal ethics and advocated forming the relationship between monarchs and ministers in the family. Its connotation is as follows

1、 "Reason" is the ultimate origin of the universe and the only existence that dominates the world. There is only one principle in all things.

2、 "Natural principle" is also the general term of feudal moral principles and feudal hierarchy. "The difference between the superior and the inferior, the righteousness of the superior and the inferior, the justice of reason and the foundation of propriety.". "Kings and ministers, father and son, the law of the world, no escape between heaven and earth.".

3、 "Tianli" also has the significance of natural characteristics and the law of development and change. "Everything in the world can be taken care of. If there is something, there must be one reason for one thing.".

Brother Cheng

Chinese PinYin : Cheng Hao