Qian Dehong () was a notable Chinese philosopher, writer, and educator during the mid-late

Ming Dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...

Biography

Qian was born in

Yuyao Yuyao () is a county-level city in the northeast of Zhejiang province, China. It is under the jurisdiction of the sub-provincial city of Ningbo. It is located west of central Ningbo, east of Hangzhou, bordering Hangzhou Bay in the north. Yuyao ...

, Shaoxing Fu (紹興府/绍兴府; current

Ningbo Ningbo (; Ningbonese: ''gnin² poq⁷'' , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), formerly romanized as Ningpo, is a major sub-provincial city in northeast Zhejiang province, People's Republic of China. It comprises 6 urban districts, 2 sate ...

Zhejiang Province Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by Jiangs ...

. His original name was Kuan (宽), and

courtesy name A courtesy name (), also known as a style name, is a name bestowed upon one at adulthood in addition to one's given name. This practice is a tradition in the East Asian cultural sphere, including China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.Ulrich Theobald ...

was Hongfu (洪甫). Because his recent ancestry also had the same name, to avoid the

taboo A taboo or tabu is a social group's ban, prohibition, or avoidance of something (usually an utterance or behavior) based on the group's sense that it is excessively repulsive, sacred, or allowed only for certain persons.''Encyclopædia Britannica ...

, his name was changed from ''Kuan'' to ''Dehong''. When Qian was young, he settled in Lingxu Hill (霛緒山/灵绪山; aka ''Lingxushan'') and systematically studied the

I Ching The ''I Ching'' or ''Yi Jing'' (, ), usually translated ''Book of Changes'' or ''Classic of Changes'', is an ancient Chinese divination text that is among the oldest of the Chinese classics. Originally a divination manual in the Western Zho ...

, so people also call him Mr. Xushan (緒山先生/绪山先生). In the 11th Year of Jiajing Era ( 嘉靖十一年; 1532), Qian joined the

imperial examination The imperial examination (; lit. "subject recommendation") refers to a civil-service examination system in Imperial China, administered for the purpose of selecting candidates for the state bureaucracy. The concept of choosing bureaucrats by ...

together with Wang Ji, who was his classmate and also an important

Confucian Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China. Variously described as tradition, a philosophy, a Religious Confucianism, religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, ...

philosopher during his time. Qian was qualified and ranked as ''Jinshi'' ( 進士/进士). He was later matriculated as a local governmental official. Qian spent most of his life as a secretary for

Wang Yangming Wang Shouren (, 26 October 1472 – 9 January 1529), courtesy name Bo'an (), art name Yangmingzi (), usually referred to as Wang Yangming (), was a Chinese calligrapher, general, philosopher, politician, and writer during the Ming dynasty ...

, and a lecturer in several schools.

Philosophy

Qian was an early student (or disciple) of the philosopher

, together with his classmate Wang Ji. Qian spent most of his life studying Confucian classics and developing the philosophy of the ''Yangming School of Mind'' ( 陽明心學/阳明心学; Japanese: 陽明学; Japanese

romanization Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and ...

: ''Ōyōmei-gaku'', ''Ō'' stands for the surname "Wang", ''yōmei'' stands for "Yangming", ''gaku'' means "school of learning"). Qian collected and emended Wang's philosophical works. When Wang died, he also edited Wang's full biography. Qian demonstrated and further developed Wang Yangming's philosophy, especially the explanation of Wang Yangming's influential ''Four-Sentence Doctrine'' ( 四句教), however his interpretation was quite different from his classmate and colleague Wang Ji's. Qian wrote the

preface __NOTOC__ A preface () or proem () is an introduction to a book or other literary work written by the work's author. An introductory essay written by a different person is a '' foreword'' and precedes an author's preface. The preface often closes ...

and

postscript PostScript (PS) is a page description language in the electronic publishing and desktop publishing realm. It is a dynamically typed, concatenative programming language. It was created at Adobe Systems by John Warnock, Charles Geschke, Doug Br ...

for Wang Yangming's most important philosophical work – ''The Record of Teaching and Practising'' (《傳習錄》/《传习录》)

Other works

* Contributed to ''The Record of Teaching and Practising'' (《傳習錄》/《传习录》) * Contributed to the ''Questioning to

the Great Learning The ''Great Learning'' or ''Daxue'' was one of the "Four Books" in Confucianism attributed to one of Confucius' disciples, Zengzi. The ''Great Learning'' had come from a chapter in the ''Book of Rites'' which formed one of the Five Classics. I ...

'' (《大學問》/《大学问》) * Edited the ''A History of Horse and Posthouse Policies'' (《歷代馬政志》/《历代马政志》), 1 Volume

Main references

Historic records & books: * ''The Record of Teaching and Practising'' (《傳習錄》/《传习录》), Ming Dynasty * ''The Collection of Xu Ai, Qian Dehong, and

Dong Yuan Dong Yuan (, Gan: dung3 ngion4; c. 934 – c. 962) was a Chinese painter. He was born in Zhongling (钟陵; present-day Jinxian County, Jiangxi Province).Cihai: Page 599. Dong Yuan was active in the Southern Tang Kingdom of the Five Dynasties a ...

'' (《徐愛錢德洪董澐集》/《徐爱钱德洪董沄集》), Ming Dynasty (Full collections of these three philosophers' works, plus their biographies) * '' The History of Ming'' (《明史》): Biography of Qian Dehong Modern materials: * ''Ethics in the Confucian Tradition: The Thought of Mengzi and Wang Yangming'', by P. J. Ivanhoe, 2002
Questions on the Great Learning Introduction by Qian Dehong
{{DEFAULTSORT:Q, Dehong Ming dynasty philosophers Chinese Confucianists Educators from Ningbo Writers from Ningbo Ming dynasty scholars Ming dynasty essayists Philosophers from Zhejiang 16th-century Chinese philosophers