ABSTRACT

From the time of China’s modern intellectual revolution in the 1920s, Gu Yanwu (Tinglin, 1613-1682) has been best known to most educated Chinese through Liang Qichao’s description of him. Liang presents Gu as the founding genius of the dominant intellectual trend since the mid-seventeenth century, commonly known as “evidential learning” (kaozhengxue). In this regard, Liang’s view of Gu continues the tradition of commentators of the Qing period such as Jiang Fan (1761-1830). But Liang also reflects the spirit of his own age by imputing to Gu’s distinctive mode of learning the essential character of modern scientific method, by which Liang means the use of induction to derive conclusions based on objective evidence. For this reason, Liang, who had previously favored preserving a reformed monarchy, speaks of the Qing period as a “renaissance” of Chinese thought following the presumably benighted Song and Ming eras, which were dominated by neo-Confucian metaphysical abstractions.