The Metaphysical Crisis of Seventeenth-Century China

Fan-sen Wang

Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica

    I argue that there was a "metaphysical crisis" in seventeenth-century China. After this event, the ways in which Chinese thinkers perceived of nature and society were diametrically different from their predecessors. Specifically, Chinese thinkers gave up on the transcendental thinking of Neo-Confucianism and propagated mundane worldly values. This change in thinking was understood as a kind of philosophical breakthrough. I also discuss how this intellectual tendency led to a transevaluation of the Neo-Confucian interpretation of Confucian classics. Several of the quasi-canon glossaries of these Confucian classics were strongly criticized. The criticisms of scholars such a Yen Jo-ch'u, Hu Wei, and others, were instrumental in reshaping the intellectual world of the seventeenth-century and significantly contributed to the Ch'ing evidential research movement.

Keywords: Ch’ing intellectual history, metaphysical crisis