Abstract:
In The Essentials of The Doctrine of the Mean, Li Liwu, under the criterion of “The Book of Changes and The Doctrine of the Mean as the basis of mutual interpretation”, pointed out that the studies of The Doctrine of the Mean were carried on through three stages, namely the stage of Shun and Confucius, that of the Cheng Brothers and that of the Jianshan School by analyzing the definition and relation of the mean, and particularly offered the idea that “the outline of The Doctrine of the Mean was actually instructed by the Cheng Brothers and Guo Zhongxiao”. Following the hypothesis that understanding The Doctrine of the Mean depends upon a deep comprehension of The Book of Changes and the Cheng Brothers’ view of the different dating of the two works, he criticized Zhu Xi’s interpretation deviated from the Cheng’s tradition and determined “the studies of Jianshan” were the orthodox of the Cheng Studies. This showed in times of the Yuan Dynasty, regardless of the powerful integration of Zhu Xi, the Cheng school remained active. All this is inspiring to deeply understanding the history of interpretation of the Four Books, grasping the evolutionary division of the Cheng School and identifying the true features of academic history in times of the Song and Yuan Dynasties.
