Cheng Yi (1033-1107), courtesy name Zhengshu, known as Mr. Yichuan, was originally from Henan Prefecture and was born in Huangpi County, Hubei Province. He and his brother Cheng Hao were also known as "Er Cheng".
Cheng Yi is one year younger than Cheng Hao, and is as talented as his elder brother. He has even had the awareness to refrain from indecent behavior since he was a child. When they were 14 years old, the two brothers studied with Zhou Dunyi and were greatly influenced by him. When Cheng Yi was 18 years old, he entered Taixue to study. The famous scholar Hu Ai took the exam for students on the topic of "What kind of theory does Yan Zi like?" Because Zhou Dunyi often taught people to find the joys of Confucius and Yan, Hu Ai's subject was exactly what Cheng Yi was good at, so he wrote "What is Yan Zi's Favorite Study" and pointed out that Yan Zi's study was "the way to learn to be a sage." After reading Cheng Yi's article, Hu Ai was greatly surprised and asked the newly admitted student to teach. After that, the classmates treated Cheng Yi as a teacher.
After teaching at Taixue for several years, Cheng Yi's reputation grew day by day, and many students came from all over to study with him. At the age of 24, Cheng Yi set up his own business and taught apprenticeships in Kaifeng, the capital. The strange thing is that he never passed the Jinshi examination. Later, he gave up his official career and devoted himself to learning. Cheng Yi had been recommended to be an official many times, but he declined them one by one. Hard work paid off, and together the two Cheng founded the far-reaching theory of "Tianli" and founded the Luo School.
Cheng Yi was very knowledgeable about the "Book of Changes". Zhang Zai, who once lectured on the "Book of Changes" at the Xiangguo Temple in Kaifeng, also lamented that he was so embarrassed that he stopped giving lectures the next day. He is the author of "The Book of Changes" (later known as "Yichuan Book of Changes"), which is an important work that connects the past and the future in the development of the Book of Changes. Cheng Yi used Confucian principles to explain the Yi studies, which separated the Yi studies from metaphysics and influenced Zhu Xi's Yi studies.
In the fifth year of Xining (1072), Emperor Shenzong of the Song Dynasty, Er Cheng gave lectures in Songyang. Although the two brothers are called Er Cheng together, they give people very different impressions. Cheng Hao is "spring breeze and gentle", Cheng Yi is "orderly and serious". The difference in Er Cheng's theory is not unrelated to their personalities. In "Er Cheng's Suicide Notes", which was compiled by later generations, "Cheng Zi" is uniformly used, but it is not clear whether it is Cheng Hao's theory or Cheng Yi's theory. However, since there are major differences between the two Cheng's theories, it is generally not difficult to distinguish them. In fact, the difference in the theories between the two Chengs in their early years was not obvious. Although Cheng Yi lived 21 years longer than his elder brother, his theories changed during his later independent research.
Cheng Hao likes to talk about integration and unity, and does not care about the distinction between substance and function and metaphysical and metaphysical. Cheng Yi talks about the dichotomy of substance and function. Cheng Hao advocates pursuing virtue internally and believes that the nature of the mind "cannot be sought externally". He also said, "Why study, and then learn?" Cheng Yi paid attention to the accumulation and comprehension of knowledge, and believed that "if there is a reason for a thing, it must be exhaustive." We should understand the inner mind in the process of seeking physics from the outside. Reason is the combination of internal and external. Cheng Hao's theory was developed by the Xinxue school, while Cheng Yi's theory was inherited and developed by Zhu Xi into "Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism".
There was a Jinshi named Yang Shi who resolutely gave up being an official because he looked up to Er Cheng's knowledge, and became his disciples successively, Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi. One day, Yang Shi and his friend You Ye went to visit Cheng Yi. It happened that Cheng Yi was sitting in meditation at home with his eyes closed. The two of them stood aside respectfully, waiting! Just as they started waiting, it started snowing outside. When Cheng Yi opened his eyes, the snow outside the door was already more than a foot thick. Later generations called this incident "Chengmen Lixue".
After Wang Anshi's reform failed, Cheng Yi was appointed as the emperor's teacher. However, it was difficult for the neat and serious Cheng Yi to be liked by Song Zhezong Zhao Xu, who was still young at the time. On the first day of class, the teacher immediately became serious when he saw that the students did not take the initiative to say hello. Another time, Zhezong casually broke a willow branch, and Cheng Yi scolded him: "Everything grows in spring, so don't break the willow branch casually, so as not to damage the harmony of heaven and earth." Later, some ministers also hoped to "put Cheng Yi back in the fields." , as a sign of punishment." Cheng Yi retired and returned to his hometown to continue teaching in Luoyang.
The new party headed by Wang Anshi came back to power in the third year of Shaosheng's reign (1096) in the Northern Song Dynasty. Cheng Yi was innocently demoted to Sichuan, and was pardoned four years later and returned to Luoyang. A few years later, due to being slandered and slandering the government, the great Confucian's lectures and writings were seriously affected, and he had to return to Chengcun from Luoyang to live there until his death due to illness in the first year of Daguan in the Northern Song Dynasty (1107).
"Long live the name for thousands of years, but the lonely things behind you." In the 13th year of Jiading in the Southern Song Dynasty (1220), the imperial court conferred the posthumous title "Chun Gong" on Cheng Hao and "Zheng Gong" on Cheng Yi. In the first year of Emperor Chunyou's reign (1241), Cheng Hao was posthumously named "Henan Bo" and Cheng Yi was "Yichuan Bo", and they were "consecrated to Confucius in the temple". During the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, the imperial court praised Er Cheng. In the sixth year of Ming Zong Jingtai (1455), the imperial court even praised Er Cheng for "illustrating orthodox learning, promoting elegance, learning from other sages, and being kind to our descendants." Of course, this Er Cheng is well-deserved. In the twenty-fifth year of Kangxi's reign in the Qing Dynasty (1686), the imperial court regarded Er Cheng as a virtuous scholar, ranking him above Confucius, his disciples, and other Confucian scholars of the Han and Tang Dynasties.
Cheng Hao did not write any works in his life, while Cheng Yi wrote "Book of Changes", "Suicide Notes", "Collected Works", "Jingshuo", etc. Later generations compiled Cheng Yi's works and Er Cheng's quotations into "Er Cheng Complete Books", including "Er Cheng's Suicide Notes", "Er Cheng Wai Shu", "Collected Works of Mr. Ming Dao", "Collected Works of Mr. Yi Chuan", and "Yichuan Yi Zhuan" , "Cheng's Classics", "Er Cheng Cuiyan", etc.
"Yin and Yang are Qi. Qi is the physical thing, and Tao is the metaphysical thing." Cheng Yi believes that Tao cannot be seen without Yin and Yang, but Tao is not Yin and Yang, Tao is "so Yin and Yang". Principle is the yin and yang, the reason why everything in heaven and earth is what it is.
"There is no reason but no right" is Cheng Yi's famous saying. This is the driving force and basic law of all things in the universe. Those who understand this law are "knowers". "Gewu" means "exhausting principles" - "things are principles" (every thing has a special principle as its reason), so investigating things is to understand principles. There are various methods and approaches to investigating things, both from the inside and outside. When the accumulation of investigating things reaches a certain stage, a qualitative leap will occur and the understanding of heavenly principles will be achieved. Cheng Yi's Theory of Things was later developed by Zhu Xi and became one of the most influential theories in Neo-Confucianism during the Song and Ming dynasties.
When "Xi Ming" was different from Mozi, Cheng Yi inadvertently put forward one of the most common propositions in Neo-Confucianism of the Song and Ming Dynasties: "Li Yifenshu". He said: ""Xi Ming" clearly understands that the principles are one but differentiated, while Mo's two principles are not differentiated." "The principles are divided into different parts" was later elucidated by Zhu Xi.
"Both body and function come from one source, microscopically and seamlessly" is a famous proposition put forward by Cheng Yi and widely cited by later Neo-Confucianists. In his "Preface to the Book of Changes" explaining the "Book of Changes", he pointed out: "Principles are intangible, so they can be understood through images." Although principles are invisible, they can be displayed through images. Therefore, the principle is the body, the image is the use, the principle is in the image, and the image shows the principle, so the body and use are inseparable, and the principle and image are unified. Cheng Yi extended this proposition to all things in the universe, believing that things have two aspects: reason and matter. Reason is the reason why things are, things are the surface traces, principles are the body or subtle, things are used or manifested, and the two are consistent and inseparable. For people, the "unsent" of "the heart" being "quiet and motionless" refers to the body, and the "already" of "feeling and succeeding" refers to the use. After reading Cheng Yi's "Preface to the Book of Changes", scholar Yin Hejing was very surprised by the sentence "The smallest is the principle, the smallest is the image of the author, the body and use are from the same source, and the microscopic is seamless", thinking that this is a "too revealing" statement.
Cheng Yi advocated that education should be based on morality, saying: "Scholars must first understand benevolence. A benevolent person is of the same substance as things, and righteousness, wisdom, and faith are all benevolence." Xing (the nature of destiny) is inherently good because Reason, therefore "nature is reason". "Xing is reason" refers to the manifestation of heavenly principles in humans. This proposition provides the ontological basis for Confucian ethical principles. Cultivation lies in "holding respect", which means being "neat and solemn" externally (dressing neatly, having a solemn expression, speaking and behaving in a manner consistent with "etiquette"), and internally "not being comfortable" (concentrating on one place, and when using your heart, Don't move around). "History of the Song Dynasty" commented on him: "Learning is based on sincerity, using "Great Learning", "The Analects of Confucius", "Mencius" and "The Doctrine of the Mean" as guides, and then reaches the "Six Classics".
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