ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the period of Chinese intellectual history that followed Song-Ming Neo-Confucianism. The quasi-religious Neo-Confucian approach to governance conflated religion and politics, with politics transformed into an explicitly moral enterprise that stressed inner cultivation. This pushed the bureaucratic system and Chinese society further toward hypocrisy and corruption, and led to the neglect of what was practically useful.
The chapter explores how, in response, intellectuals such as Chen Liang and Ye Shi emphasized practical outcomes. Similarly, scholars such as Huang Zongxi claimed that what mattered in governing was the system and not the (virtuous) person who governed, while Wang Fuzhi discovered a tension between history and ethics. All involved a departure from the accepted orthodoxy. The success of this critique at that time was limited. Still, arguably, this tradition of engagement in practical matters, and not the Song-Ming Neo-Confucians, enabled modern Chinese reformers to make use of traditional thought.
