《明儒学案·曹端学案》研读 A Close Reading of rhe Chapter on Cao Duan in the Mingru xue'an

Abstract

Huang Zongxi's 62-chapter long Mingru xue'an (Cases of Learning of Ming Confucians) is an indispensable sourcebook for Confucian learning in Ming China (1368-1644) and its intellectual history. Containing the biographics of more than 200 eminent Ming Confucians and assorted writings from most of them, this classic work has been viewed by modern scholars either as a full-fledged intellectual history of the Ming or as a form of philosophical work that conveys Huang Zongzi's ideas of how Confucian learning should be pursued. The present article is a close reading of the chapter on the early Ming Confucian Cao Duan to demonstrate how Huang Zongxi presents the characteristics of Cao Duan's learning which places great emphasis on one's reflective thinking and practice of what one has thought through. The article thus shows the gist of Cao Duan's learning while revealing Mingru xuean as a distinct piece of work on Neo-Confucianism as compared with works that are generally considered intellectual history.

Keywords: Cao Duan (1376-1434), Huang Zongxi (1610-1695), Liu Zongzhou (1578-1645), Mingru xue'an, Ming-dynasty Confucian learning