A famous story about "being cautious in independence" includes the story of Liu Zongzhou, a Confucian master in the Ming Dynasty.

“Be cautious and sincere” is the tenet of Liu Zongzhou, the Confucian master of the Ming Dynasty. Liu Zongzhou was a famous Neo-Confucian scholar in the late Ming Dynasty. Jishan Academy was the main activity center of the Jishan School advocated by Liu Zongzhou in the late Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty. The Jishan School was also praised by later generations as "Qianqiu Zhengxue".

He said: Being cautious and independent is the first meaning of learning. Yan Shen is alone, and his body, heart, mind, knowledge, home, toilet, and the world are all present. The "Beware of Independence" he proposed was mainly aimed at the scholarly ethos at that time, hoping to use introspection to calm people's hearts, make everyone do good, and enter the realm of morality, so as to save the "scourge of the world".

The ideological concept of "being cautious in independence" was first elaborated by Zhuangzi, and was later developed by Confucianism into a self-cultivation method with Chinese quintessence. "Shen" means to be cautious, and "solitude" means to be alone, which means to consciously control one's desires and not rely on the supervision of others. "Be cautious about independence" pays attention to the cultivation of personal moral standards and values ??the integrity of personal conduct. Being cautious is the only way to achieve sincerity.

Liu Zongzhou said: "The heart is the heart because of the meaning. If you stop talking about the heart, the heart is just an empty body and ears. Only when you put the word "meaning" can you see that the needle has been set, and there is Ziwu. It means. The heart is dominated by the mind, and intention is the root of the heart. It is not called the root because the mind is the heart, but it is the heart in the body, and the heart is the root of the body."

Extended information

Liu Zongzhou was a famous thinker, philosophical historian and ethicist in the Ming Dynasty. His important contribution in ethics is to emphasize the unique role of "being cautious" in moral cultivation and moral education, which has an important influence on the future development of ethical thought, especially on the ways of people's moral cultivation and the improvement of moral quality. .

"Be cautious about independence" is an important category of Confucianism. Since the category of "Be cautious about independence" was proposed in "The Great Learning" and "The Doctrine of the Mean", all later Confucian scholars and thinkers have regarded "being cautious about independence" as an important category. Conduct multi-faceted discussions on the principles of self-cultivation and the basic requirements of "ordering the family, governing the country, and bringing peace to the world". Among all the Confucian thinkers who discussed and developed "cautious independence", Liu Zongzhou can be said to be the most sagacious and unprecedented scholar who best understands the "truth" of "cautious independence".

Liu Zongzhou's theory of Shendu is a theory of moral cultivation that integrates all the ideas of Xinxing. He hopes to save the "scourge of the world" through introspection. Therefore, we advocate the unity of noumenon and gongfu, and put gongfu first. Shendu Gongfu requires that everything should be done without going too far, which is the golden mean.

"Besides independence, there is no essence; apart from being cautious, there is no effort. This is the golden mean." ("Zaishan Learning Case. Laixue Q&A") emphasizes that the subject is in Autonomy and agency in moral practice, but against subjective assumptions. Another important content of Shendu's theory is the distinction between natural principles and human desires. Although he affirmed the rationality of human desires, he did not get rid of the ideological shackles of the proposition of "preserving natural principles and destroying human desires".

Baidu Encyclopedia-Liu Zongzhou