RUAN Yuan's Rationalistic Confucian Philosophy:To Take as the Departure His Interpretation of Ren and Xing-Ming

RUAN Yuan is representative of Sinology in the middle of Qing Dynasty;but he has brilliant achievements in Rationalistic Confucian Philosophy as well.He sticks to the principle of seeking reasons by appealing to exegesis,that is,the principle of analyzing senses from the true meanings of texts by exegesis,and makes a series of incisive explication of the kernel categories in the Rationalistic Confucian Philosophy.He interprets Ren(i.e.benevolence) as persons in two,which is concerned with behavioral practices of benevolence to one other,and criticizes the meditation way of Ren practice by sitting behind one's closed door.As for his interpretation of XingMing(Xing: psychological inclination towards tastes,colors,sounds,smells,and ease;Ming: the inclination towards benevolence,justice,propriety,knowledge and sageness),he believes that desires arise from Qing(emotions),which are within the domain of Xing,and that there is no things that are separated from Xing;Xing should not be eradicated,but onlyrestricted.The purpose of regulation lies in dealing with disorders.He criticized severely the Back to Theory proposed by LI Ao in the Tang Dynasty.He points out that LI's problem results from his opposition between Xing and Qing.He thinks that to recover the essence of Xing by demolishing Qing is a wrong view ever since the transition from Zhuangzi to the Zen Buddhism,and that should not be followed for developing the Confucian philosophy.RUAN's understanding of the Rationalistic Confucianism has its peculiarity, even though some conclusions remain defects.But generally speaking,he explored a new area of the philosophy,which is a precious legacy in the development history of the Chinese Rationalistic Philosophy.