The Role of Taoism in the Formation and Evolution of Neo-Confucianism in the Song and Ming Dynasties

Taoism played a promoting role in the formation and evolution of the Neo-Confucianism in the Song and Ming Dynasties. In the Northern Song Dynasty, Confucians introduced the Taoist ontological thinking into traditional Confucianism and founded the Rationalistic School of Confucianism, which was developed to full maturity by Zhu Xi in the Southern Song Dynasty. Then with the help of Taoist ideas the Confucians in the early Ming Dynasty reformed the already rigid Rationalistic School and developed it into the Mind School, which reached its zenith in the Mid-Ming Dynasty in the hands of Wang Yangming, who integrated Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism. In the later Ming Dynasty, the successors of Wang Yangming tried to reform the Mind School with the ideas of Taoism and Zen Buddhism, resulting in the change of Yang-ming' doctrine and therefore the degeneration of the Mind School.