Abstract:

Despite its great doctrinal advance, Confucianism in the Song and Ming Dynasties committed some serious misjudgments, including the materialization of heavenly principle, sectarianism, and the stigmatization of human desire. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, these three major misjudgments were systematically reflected and criticized by WANG Fuzhi, LIU Zongzhou and DAI Zhen. However, this process was interrupted due to various factors, and the development of Confucianism in the third epoch failed to continue such reflection and criticism, with the result that these problems of Confucianism in the Song and Ming Dynasties, especially the materialism of heavenly principle and sectarianism, still linger in various forms. The future development of Confucianism should consciously go back and make up “missed lessons” by following the Ming and Qing Dynasties, rather than the Song and Ming Dynasties. If this issue is not dealt with properly, it will have a direct impact on the next step in the development of Confucianism. Therefore, this issue deserves a great deal of attention.

Key words: materialization of heavenly principle, sectarianism, stigmatization of human desire, making up missed lessons