Dai Zhen (, January 19, 1724 – July 1, 1777) was a Chinese philosopher of the

Qing dynasty 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-speak ...

. Hailing from Xiuning, Anhui Dai was a versatile scholar who made great contributions to

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

geography Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, an ...

phonology Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...

and

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. ...

. His philosophical and philological critiques of

Neo-Confucianism Neo-Confucianism (, often shortened to ''lǐxué'' 理學, literally "School of Principle") is a moral, ethical, and metaphysical Chinese philosophy influenced by Confucianism, and originated with Han Yu (768–824) and Li Ao (772–841) ...

continue to be influential. In 1733, Dai was recruited by scholar

Ji Yun Ji Yun (; 1724–1805), also known as Ji Xiaolan () or Ji Chunfan () was a Chinese philosopher, politician, and writer. He was an influential scholar of Qing dynasty China and many anecdotes have been recorded about him. Ji Yun left behind a b ...

to be one of the editors of the official encyclopedia and collection of books, Siku Quanshu. Dai's philosophical contributions included those to the Han Learning school of Evidential Learning ( Evidentialism) which criticized the Song Learning school of Neo-Confucianism. In particular, two criticisms that Dai made were: First, Neo-Confucianism focused too much on introspective self-examination whereas truth was to be found in investigation of the external world. Second, he criticized the Neo-Confucian drive to eliminate human desire as an obstacle to rational investigation. Dai argued that human desire was a good and integral part of the human experience, and that eliminating human desire from philosophy had the bad effect of making it difficult to understand and control one's emotions as well as making it impossible to establish empathy with others.

Famous works

*Faxianglun (On images and patterns) *Yuanshan (Tracing the origin of goodness) in three paragraphs *Du Yi Xici lun xing (Reading “Appended Words” in The Book of Changes on human nature) *Du Meng Zi lun xing (Reading Mencius about human nature) *Yuanshan (Tracing the origin of goodness) in three chapters *Meng Zi sishulu (Record of Mencius's private virtue) *Xuyan (Prefatory words) *Daxue buzhu (Additional annotations to the Daxue) *Zhongyong buzhu (Additional annotations to the Zhongyong) *Meng Zi ziyi shuzheng (Evidential Commentary on the Meaning of the Words of Mencius) *Yu mou shu (A letter to a certain person) *Yu Peng jinshi Yunchu shu *Dingchou zhengyue yu Duan Yucai shu (A letter to Duan Yucai dated in the first month of the year dingchou ebruary 1777

References

Sources

*Elman, Benjamin A. ''From Philosophy to Philology: Intellectual and Social Aspects of Change in

Late Imperial China The earliest known written records of the history of China date from as early as 1250 BC, from the Shang dynasty (c. 1600–1046 BC), during the reign of king Wu Ding. Ancient historical texts such as the ''Book of Documents'' (early chapter ...

.'' Cambridge, MA: Council on

East Asian Studies East Asian studies is a distinct multidisciplinary field of scholarly enquiry and education that promotes a broad humanistic understanding of East Asia past and present. The field includes the study of the region's culture, written language, histo ...

, 1984. *Tiwald, Justin
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Dai ZhenEncyclopedia of Religion entry on Dai Zhen
* *

External links

* * __NOTOC__ 1724 births 1777 deaths 18th-century Chinese philosophers Qing dynasty classicists People from Huangshan Philosophers from Anhui Chinese mathematicians {{Confucianism-stub