Wang Chuanshan’s Theory of Li and Qi

In the realm of Li(“理”，the Reason) studies in Song and Ming Dynasties,the triple conformation of studies on Qi(“气”，the Vitality),Li(Dao,“道”，the Way),Xin(“心”，the Mind) is a basic premise since 1930s.Zhang Zai,one of the founders of the Dao school in Song Dynasty,created the tradition of the Qi school,and Wang Chuanshan,aimed at reconstructing the tradition of the Dao school,enriched and promoted Qi theory.Wang's theory of the Li and the Qi,as its mode of thought represented,showed that he is a figure in the history of the Dao school in a broad sense,instead of a so-called pure “scholar of the Qi”.In the realm of ontology,Wang inherited Zhou Dunyi’s theory of the Taiji (“太极”，the great ultimate) and Zhu Xi’s methodology of ontological explanation,and explained Zhang Zai’s “Taihe” (“太和”，the great harmony) with the Taiji,and proved the Taiji as the ontology.Wang insisted on the position of LI-and-Qi-as-one with the premise of “the Li and the Qi of the heaven and the earth”,and,at the same time,recognized Zhu Xi school’s view that the Li and the Qi could not be confused,so that Wang school proposed that “the Qi does not decrease,and the Li does not mix”.It also recognized that,as compared with the Qi,the Li had the meaning of “order”,therefore,Zhang’s “dominate the Qi with the Li” also conformed to the Li school.Wang’s school insisted,on the one hand,on the position of the Qi as the ontology with that “the Li is the one of the Qi”,and even held that the Mind,the Nature,the Heaven and the Li must be all “explained by the Qi”,while,on the other hand,the concept of “sincerity” was introduced,and held that sincerity was innate in the Qi,as well as the true Li od the Heaven,and an “ultimate character” a highest concept which could not be “substituted and explained” by the other characters.Wang school’s a bit complicated viewpoints on the universe and the ontology shows that its theory of the Li and the Qi was still belonging to the morphology of the Qi study.All in all,Wang school inherited the other schools but with innovation.