Gu Yanwu: the First Pioneer Who Initiated the Trend of Thought of PUXUE, a School That Advocated a Simple Style of Writing in the Qing Dynasty

In the early Qing Dynasty, PUXUE replaced Neo-Confucianism and developed into the dominant trend in the sphere of learning. Gu Yanwu, the leading master who pioneered the trend of thought, advocated the integration of scholars' personality with their scholarship, which shows that he possessed the qualities of a scholar who was capable of leading the learned circle. Standing at the foremost front of the tide of the times, politically, he opposed domination by foreign races; ideologically, he upheld the banner of combating Neo - Confucianism, daring to do what had never been done; he led the study of Confucian classics out of the philosophized sphere and made great effort to start a simple style of scholarship; he laid the academic foundation for PUXUE, exerting extraordinary influence on the succeeding generations and lighting their paths to success. Therefore, he is acknowledged by the subsequent scholars as the first leading scholar of the Three Major Confucian Scholars in the early Qing Dynasty who brought about the trend of thought of PUXUE in the Qing Dynasty.