Define Song Study and Identify New Trend: The Academic Purport of Qian Mu’s History of Chinese Academic Research in the Recent Three Hundred Years

Abstract: “Define Song Study to understand modern times” is the logic of Qian Mu’s History of Chinese Academic Research in the Recent Three Hundred Years, which fundamentally differences from Liang Qichao’s works. Meanwhile, Liang’s “Cheng-Zhu neo-Confucianism Counteraction” secretly conformed to the times by examining Song Study with Science. To define and clarify the essence of Song Study, the primary issue was to refute the argument that Zhou Dunyi is the originator of Song Study. In the next place, to break Orthodoxy, Qian Mu recognized Wang Yangming’s “Learning of Conscience” as the self-evolution result of Song Study. In this context, the final conclusion of Huang Zongxi, which corresponded to Wang Yangming’s Theory of Clearing up Source and Restoring Purity, embodied the lofty realm that “Be internal saints and external kings. Balance ontological structure of thought and practical application. And use this one principle to cover all politics, education, moral and talents.” Qian Mu used these to break the shackles of Song Study and created a new situation.