Abstract
Li Guangdi 李光地 (1642–1718), whose literary and style names were respectively Jinqing 晉卿 and Hou’an 厚庵, was a native of the Anxi 安溪 district of Fujian. He attained jinshi status in 1670 and worked as a bachelor in the Hanlin Academy, given the assignment to learn Manchu. The Kangxi Emperor, impressed by his plans for the pacification of Fujian, promoted him to the sub-chancellorship of the Grand Secretariat in 1680. He further enhanced his stature in the eyes of the emperor by offering sound advice for the conquest of Taiwan.
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Notes
- 1.
Note that others, such as Tu Wei-ming, have pointed to the distinctiveness of the Confucian self. For Tu, to the extent that the self is enlivened by moral propensities and awareness, it is the site of transcendence (Tu 1985: 19–28, 35–50). Zhang Dainian has provided a survey of views on human nature in Chinese philosophy (Zhang 1982: 183–232). P. J. Ivanhoe has usefully distinguished the classical Confucian from Neo-Confucian conceptions of human nature, notwithstanding the fact that they both appeal to the primacy and centrality of xing (Ivanhoe 1995: 81–89).
- 2.
Wing-tsit Chan has given a host of examples of the various meanings of zhong (Chan 1663: 95–99). It is also helpful to ponder Tu Wei-ming’s more idiosyncratic definition of the concept (Tu 1989: 16).
- 3.
Irene Bloom provides a useful counter-interpretation that accepts the given-ness of xing: “Hsing is complex in two senses: (1) it is in part given by Heaven and in part realized or enacted by us, that is, partly within and partly beyond our control; and (2) it is a complex of dispositions, moral as well as appetitive, that is, intelligible in both normative and descriptive terms” (Bloom 1994: 44).
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On-cho, N. (2010). Li Guangdi and the Philosophy of Human Nature. In: Makeham, J. (eds) Dao Companion to Neo-Confucian Philosophy. Dao Companions to Chinese Philosophy, vol 1. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2930-0_18
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