The Debate on Jen Between Chu Hsi and Hu-Hsiang Scholars

Ming-huei Lee
Academia Sinica

The philosophy of Chu Hsi underwent a fundamental reorientation, when he was around 40. By this time, he bad replaced the influence of his master Li T'ung with Ch'eng l's idea of "hsing as li" ???? to establish his own philosophical tripartite framework of hsin ? , hsing ? and ch'ing ?. According to this framework, hsin, hsing and ch'ing are distinguished from one another: Mencius' "four beginnings of hsin" are ch'ing, jen ?, i ?, li ?, chih ? are hsing; and hsin unites hsing and ch'ing in itself. On the basis of this new point of view, Chu Hsi wrote his "Essay on Jen" and debated with Hu-Hsiang scholars including Chang Shih, Hu Shih, Hu Ta-yuan and Wu I. These Htu-Hsiang scholars' interpretations of Jen can be traced to Yang Shih's idea of "the substance of hsin as the unity of the cosmos and I" and Hsieh Liang-tso's idea of "jen as the perceptiveness of hsin," both of which came from Ch'eng Hao. By explicating the debate over the "Essay on Jen," this paper aims to clarify the different approaches of Chu Hsi's and Hu-Hsiang scholars' interpretations jen and the theoretical implications involved.