Abstract:

In WANG Chuan-shan’s Review of the Complete Collection of Commentaries on the Four Books, RAO Shuang-feng has received more attention than other ZHU Xi’s disciples. For RAO’s explanations on The Great Learning and The Doctrine of Mean in The Complete Collection of Commentaries on the Four Books,WANG makes a critical review by focusing on the concepts related to the Dao. He uses the idea that “loyalty and faithfulness is the Dao” to refute RAO’s doctrine that “the Dao is beyond loyalty and faithfulness”; he criticizes RAO’s unity of the Dao and sincerity by emphasizing their distinction due to their respective connection with nature and mind-heart. WANG analyzes the relationships between knowledge and the Dao, the Dao of human and the Dao of Nature, sagely virtue and sagely Dao, spirits and the Dao. He also comments on RAO’s doctrine of the cultivation of the Dao such as keeping cautious and venerating. WANG’s critical analysis of RAO, which can be traced back to ZHU Xi and the studies of ZHU Xi in the Yuan Dynasty, reflects that WANG seriously treats and absorbs the doctrines of ZHU’s disciples, including RAO. It also shows that WANG’s philosophy is obvious influenced by ZHU Xi since it is also based on the layered interpretation of ZHU’s study of the Four Books. This research helps to understand WANG’s comments on the disciples of ZHU in his Review. It also helps to have a more comprehensive and in-depth understanding of WANG and the intellectual development of the studies of ZHU Xi as well.

Key words: WANG Chuan-shan, RAO Shuang-feng, Review of the Complete Collection of Commentaries on the Four Books, the Dao