Lingnan Confucianism (

Cantonese Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding ar ...

Jyutping Jyutping is a romanisation system for Cantonese developed by the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong (LSHK), an academic group, in 1993. Its formal name is the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong Cantonese Romanization Scheme. The LSHK advocates fo ...

: Ling5 naam4 jyu4 hok6;

Traditional Chinese A tradition is a belief or behavior (folk custom) passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examples include holidays ...

: 嶺南儒學) refers to the

Confucian Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China. Variously described as tradition, a philosophy, a religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, a way of governing, or ...

schools of thoughts in Lingnan - the

Southern Chinese South China () is a geographical and cultural region that covers the southernmost part of China. Its precise meaning varies with context. A notable feature of South China in comparison to the rest of China is that most of its citizens are not ...

provinces of

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

and Guangxi. These schools are primarily formed by Cantonese people, who have traditionally been the dominant demographic in the region.

Schools of thoughts

Guk-bo school

Guk-bo school (Jyutping: Guk1 bo1 hok6 paai3; Traditional Chinese: 菊坡學派) is the first Confucian school in the history of Lingnan. It originated in 12th century, founded by the

Zengcheng Zengcheng District ( alternately romanized as Tsengshing) is one of 11 urban districts of the prefecture-level city of Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong Province, China. History was established under the Qin following their conquest ...

-born philosopher (). He discussed his views on varied matters, including

politics Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that stud ...

and

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

, establishing the foundation for Lingnan philosophy.

Lingnan scholarly school

Lingnan scholarly school (Jyutping: Ling5 naam4 hok6 paai3; Traditional Chinese: 嶺南學派) is the most prominent of schools of

Neo-Confucian Neo-Confucianism (, often shortened to ''lǐxué'' 理學, literally "School of Principle") is a moral, ethical, and metaphysical Chinese philosophy influenced by Confucianism, and originated with Han Yu (768–824) and Li Ao (772–841) in t ...

thoughts in Lingnan. It was started by a group of Cantonese Confucian scholars in 15th century, led by Chan Bak-sa. Chan's writings have now been compiled in a document titled "Chan Bak-sa's Collection" (Jyutping: Can⁴ hin³ zoeng¹ zaap⁶; Traditional Chinese: 陳獻章集). In this series of writings, Chan expressed his opinions of

Confucius Confucius ( ; zh, s=, p=Kǒng Fūzǐ, "Master Kǒng"; or commonly zh, s=, p=Kǒngzǐ, labels=no; – ) was a Chinese philosopher and politician of the Spring and Autumn period who is traditionally considered the paragon of Chinese sages. C ...

's thoughts and reinterpreted them through the lens of Mahayana Buddhism and

Taoism Taoism (, ) or Daoism () refers to either a school of philosophical thought (道家; ''daojia'') or to a religion (道教; ''daojiao''), both of which share ideas and concepts of Chinese origin and emphasize living in harmony with the '' Ta ...

. His main ideas include: (1) the belief that, for all of the world's non-human beings, their values depend primarily on the subjectivity of humans; He argued that values are given solely by humans, and without humans' subjective thoughts, all of the world's non-human entities would be meaningless; (2) the belief that doubt is the source of enlightenment; Chan once said that "學貴知疑，小疑則小進，大疑則大進，疑者覺悟之機也。" (Classical Chinese: "The most valuable thing about learning is to know doubt. With small doubt comes small progress. With great doubt comes great progress. Doubt is the opportunity of enlightenment."); (3) the advocate for use of certain Buddhist and Taoist rituals as a way of self-training; For instance, he suggested that Buddhist

meditation Meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness, or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm ...

is a good way to train the mind, though some of Chan's disciples were not very fond of this particular idea. As a whole, this style of thoughts has a strong theme of humanism and individualism. It also appeared to have been influenced by

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

style of thoughts in its belief in more rational ways of thinking than older Confucian thoughts.

Gum-cyun school

Gum-cyun school (Jyutping: Gam1 cyun4 hok6 paai3; Traditional Chinese: 甘泉學派) was founded by Zam Yoek-sui, a Cantonese philosophy from 15th century and disciple of Chan Bak-sa.Chen, G. (2011). 宗派傳承與地域影響——重思《明儒學案》對甘泉學派學術傳承之處置及其影響. Zam sought to link together the thoughts of Confucius, Mencius, and several other Confucian schools of thoughts. He advocated that

morality Morality () is the differentiation of intentions, decisions and actions between those that are distinguished as proper (right) and those that are improper (wrong). Morality can be a body of standards or principles derived from a code of co ...

and conscience lie in the "heart", and that moral development should rely on "self-restraint" ().

References

{{Guangdong topics

Schools of thoughts

Guk-bo school

Lingnan scholarly school

Gum-cyun school

See also

References