Confucian learning, politics, and the way in seventeenth-century China : Sun Qifeng (1585-1675) and The transmission of the lineage of the learning of principle

This thesis presents a reappraisal of the intellectual development of the prominent seventeenth-century Chinese scholar Sun Qifeng 孫奇逢 (1585-1675). Born in North China during the waning years of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), Sun was one of the most influential Neo-Confucian thinkers of the Ming-Qing transition. Most historians typically assert that Sun’s influence in Chinese intellectual history was derived from his attempt to alleviate sectarian debates within Confucianism in his seminal work, Transmission of the Lineage of the Learning of Principle (Lixue zong chuan 理學宗傳), but this thesis proposes to contextualize Sun’s legacy in an alternative way. Using Transmission of the Lineage of the Learning of Principle as a focal point, this project reexamines Sun’s vision of the Way (dao 道) through the lens of the interaction between learning and politics during the Ming-Qing transition and offers a fresh interpretation of the collaboration between northern and southern scholarly communities in seventeenth-century China.Arts, Faculty ofAsian Studies, Department ofGraduat