| Abstract |
Gao Ming research combined meaning and rhetoric argumentation, while his thought incorporated tradition as well as modern ideas. On one hand, he stretched Chen Que’s thinking path in the Discrimination of Great Learning (Daxue bian) and built a new historical thought through extending his research to the Doctrine of the Mean. On the other hand, going from the Philosophy of Classic (jingxue) into the Philosophy of mentors (zixue), he focused on Confucianism and reverted to Confucius’ teaching itself by explicating the Analects of Confucius. Gao not only summarized the scholars’ achievements in the Qing Dynasty, but also observed modern academic rules. Therefore, he culled out doubtful points about the Great Learning and Doctrine of the Mean and revealed the original system and doctrine of Confucianism. Moreover, he tried to comprehend all classics in order to clarify the main point of the Analects of Confucius and Mencius. Enhancing the spirit of Confucianism and spreading the culture to younger generation is his lifetime faith. Although the academics in the Song Dynasty is regarded as the “other” in the history of Chinese philosophy, Gao explicated the academic system of Four Books built up by Zhu Xi’s Philosophy of Principle (lixue) and Succession to the Way (daotong). As a result, there is a totally new face of Confucianism which is a feasible cultural model and worth looking into by the following scholars.
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