The Religious Dimension of Neo-Confucianism

宋明新儒家為對抗佛老思想，維護儒家正統地位，乃回溯論語、孟子、大學、中庸、易傳，配合時代需要，建構新的體系。 這種體系志在充分說明人的本質，包括人與天地萬物之關係，人類自我提昇之可能與途徑。因此，自然觸及人與超越界之間的分際問題。本文因此入手，分別探討： (一)超越界對於新儒家學者有何意義？ (二)超越界或「理」，與人有何關係？ (三)一個人為何應該，又如何可能成為聖人？ 在此一探討過程中，可以明白新儒家諸子各自的理論，有何特色，有何內在困難，又有何終極關懷。Neo-Confucianism, generally speaking, occupies a long period and represents the third culmination in Chinese intellectual history. The term "Neo-Confucianism" indicates more a trend of thought which revives the doctrine of early Confucians than a unified theory which bears the marks of the same school. This trend of thought can be dated from Han Y? (781-824 A. D.) to Tseng Kuo-fan (1811-1872 A. D.) and is regarded as another high point in Chinese philosophy following the pre-Ch'in's "One Hundred Schools" and Sui's and Tang's Mahayana Buddhism. It is specifically from the protracted influence of the latter than Neo-Confucianism declares an independence and strives for a renaissance of Confucianism. Certainly it is one thing to ask to what extent Neo-Confucians get rid of the impact of Buddhism and quite another to inquire to what extent they retain the real doctrine of early Confucianism. These two questions, however different in their perspectives, can be understood in a combined way. That is to say, the texts on which Neo-Confucians base their doctrines still lie within the confines of early Confucianism, the Doctrine of the Mean, and the a more plausible way than ever before. To conclude the whole discussion, we find that Neo-Confucians, however different their approaches are, all direct towards the same goals: to justify the perfectibility of man, to validate the obligation for man to be a sage, and to show the way to the sagehood. Their descriptions of the final state of a sage are all similar to a great extent. Nevertheless, the religious dimension of Neo-Confucianism in general can be found not only in their similar views on sagehood but also, in a more striking way, in their different approaches to sagehood as we have discussed above