Cheng Duanli (, 1271–1345) was a
Neo-Confucian scholar of the
Yuan Dynasty in China, educator, poet, and philologist. He was also known by the
courtesy names Jìngshū (敬叔) and Jìnglǐ 敬禮, and the
art name Wèizhāi (畏齋).
Biography
He came from Qingyuan Prefecture (now
Yinzhou of
Ningbo City in
Zhejiang).
Cheng Duanli was very talented in the childhood, at the age of 15 he was able to recite the "
Six Classics
The Four Books and Five Classics () are the authoritative books of Confucianism, written in China before 300 BCE. The Four Books and the Five Classics are the most important classics of Chinese Confucianism.
Four Books
The Four Books () are C ...
" and had a good knowledge of the
Cheng-Zhu school. He studied under Shǐ Méngqīng (史蒙卿) and spent a lifetime teaching scores of students.
He became the director of Jiandong Academy. He also served in official educational positions. He wrote a book ''Chronological Syllabus for Study in the Cheng Family School'', which used
Zhu Xi's educational ideas to understand the canon.
He supported a focused reading method and a graded approach to learning, which had to begin with Elementary learning and continue to studying of history and prose.
Cheng Duanli's writings strove to enshrine
Confucian orthodoxy
The debate over whether the ancient Chinese masters can be counted as philosophers has been discussed since the introduction of this academic discipline into China about a hundred years ago. Cultural immersion in the West by figures such as Hu Sh ...
. His best-known work was ''The Graded Everyday Schedule of Study'' (程氏家塾讀書分年日程). Published in 1315, it corresponded with the re-opening of the system of
Imperial Examination (that had mostly been defunct during the Yuan Dynasty rule) and was adopted officially across China posthumously earning its author an entry in the
History of Yuan, the official history of the dynasty. The legacy of his book lasted further through
Ming and
Qing
The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speaki ...
, serving as the basis of school curricula.
Sources of East Asian Tradition: Premodern Asia,volume 1
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References
Yuan dynasty writers
Neo-Confucian scholars
Writers from Ningbo
1271 births
1345 deaths
Educators from Ningbo
14th-century educators
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