英文摘要
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Zhang Zai's "mind" launched and concluded Neo-Confucianism, having great impact on the scholars from the North-Sung Dynasty to the end of the Ming Dynasty. However, the steps he took in his investigation of mind-nature are opposite to those taken by Mencius. Mencius's approach from exhausting the mental constitutions, knowing nature to knowing heaven was obviously moving from the bottom to the top, addressing the way of man before the way of heaven. However, addressing the way of heaven before the way of man, Zhang Zai said, "that which extends throughout the universe I regard as my body, and that which directs the universe I consider as my nature." The difference between Zhang Zai and Mencius's statements, along with their respective ideas of "mind" and corresponding metaphysical foundations, originated from their respective doctrines of chi and doctrines of mind-nature. Here we would reflect on how Zhang Zai returned to the doctrine of mind-nature from the doctrine of chi through the ideas of correspondence and arousal being the marvelous quality of nature and discuss how he constructed a new metaphysic theory based on traditional Confucian theories of mind-nature.
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