Seminar on Intellectual History of Sung Dynasty
Sung Dynasty is an era with a tremendous academic blooming after the pre-Chin
era. The Neo-Confucianism was the main intellectual thought during the Sung
Dynasty. Because of its exquisite and deep achievement in the domain of morality
and rationality (Dao-De Hsin-Hsing), it brought on a huge influence on the
learning tradition of the Yuan and the Ming dynasties, thus, it was also named
‘Neo-Confucianism’ as an alternate. The intention to provide this particular
course is to guide the students to understand the reason and the process of
the intellectual development of the Sung Dynasty, and to be able to connect
the main ideas of the intellectual thoughts of the Sung Dynasty. Because the
content of the intellectual thought of Sung Dynasty is broad and abundant,
it is impossible to cover all of them comprehensively within such a limited
time. Thus, based on the principle of selecting the most important and the
finest, we will adopt form of seminar to present the approximate appearance
of the intellectual thoughts of the Sung Dynasty. We anticipate students will
be able to acquire a clear and get-to-the-point understanding on intellectual
thought of the Sung Dynasty through this course. In addition, with the training
mentioned above as the basis, we wish to further cultivate students’ interest
in the study of the intellectual thoughts of the Sung Dynasty.
Instructional approaches:
Lecturing and discussion will be equally emphasized in this course; students
should read the relevant material in advance for each session.
Course content:
一、 Introduction
二、 What does the ‘Sung Shueih’ (the philosophical theories of the scholars
of the Sung Dynasty) mean?
三、 The reason of the forming of ‘Sung Shueih’
四、 The characteristics of the tradition of Ching-Li school and its special
status in the intellectual development of the Sung Dynasty.
五、 The Chiang-Xi school of the North Sung Dynasty and the ‘Hsin-Shueih’ (New
Learning) of Wang An-Shi.
六、 The fathers-and-sons of Su (Su Shih Fu Tzi) and the school of Shu (Shu Shueih).
七、 The causes, the process and the influence of the revival movement of the
Meng-Tzu school (Meng Shueih) in the Sung Dynasty.
八、 The new appearance of Confucianism—the Neo-Confucianism of the Sung Dynasty.
（一） The reason for the emerging of Neo-Confucianism
（二） The pioneers of the Neo-Confucianism
（三） The representative characters of the Neo-Confucianism — Zhou Dun-Yi, Chang
Tzai and the two Chens.
（四） The struggle between the virtue-oriented (Tsung De Hsing) and knowledge-oriented
(Dao Wen Shueih) school of learning:
Chu Hsi and Lu Chio-Yuan
（五） A few academic arguments during the South Sung Dynasty era.
（六） The academic significance of the Ching-Yuan Partisan War (Ching Yuan Dang
An).
九、 The school of thought of the South Sung Dynasty which were outside the Neo-Confucianism
and the ‘Hsing Shueih’ (the virtue-centered school of thought).
（一） The School of thought of East Che-Jiang (Che Dung Shueih Pai).
1. Lu Tsu-Chiang and the school of thought of Chin-Hua.
2. Scholars of Yong-Jia period: Shuei Ji-Shuan, Chen Fu-Liang and Yeh Shih.
3. Chen Liang and the school of thought of Yong-Kang.
（二） Scholars of the school of thought of Hu-Hsian: Hu An-Kuo, Hu Hung and Chang
Shih.
十、The rearguards of ‘Sung Shueih’— Wang Ying-Lin and Huang Chen.
Main teaching material:
1. Handouts to be distributed in due time.
2. Reference books
The grading:
Written reports and examinations are equally important for the evaluation.
Students should submit a written report (no less than three thousand words
in Chinese) by the middle of the semester. The finals will be a written exam.
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