Dai Zhen (, January 19, 1724 – July 1, 1777),

courtesy name A courtesy name ( zh, s=字, p=zì, l=character), also known as a style name, is an additional name bestowed upon individuals at adulthood, complementing their given name. This tradition is prevalent in the East Asian cultural sphere, particula ...

Shenxiu(慎修),

art name An art name (pseudonym or pen name), also known by its native names ''hào'' (in Mandarin Chinese), ''gō'' (in Japanese), ' (in Korean), and ''tên hiệu'' (in Vietnamese), is a professional name used by artists, poets and writers in the Sinosp ...

Dongyuan(東原), was a Chinese philosopher of the

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

. Hailing from Xiuning, Anhui Dai was a versatile scholar who made great contributions to

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

geography Geography (from Ancient Greek ; combining 'Earth' and 'write', literally 'Earth writing') is the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding o ...

phonology Phonology (formerly also phonemics or phonematics: "phonemics ''n.'' 'obsolescent''1. Any procedure for identifying the phonemes of a language from a corpus of data. 2. (formerly also phonematics) A former synonym for phonology, often pre ...

and

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

. His philosophical and philological critiques of

Neo-Confucianism Neo-Confucianism (, often shortened to ''lǐxué'' 理學, literally "School of Principle") is a moral, ethical, and metaphysical Chinese philosophy influenced by Confucianism, which originated with Han Yu (768–824) and Li Ao (772–841) i ...

continue to be influential. In 1733, Dai was recruited by scholar

Ji Yun Ji Yun (; 1724–1805), also known as Ji Xiaolan () or Ji Chunfan () was a Chinese philosopher, politician, and writer. He was an influential scholar of Qing dynasty China and many anecdotes have been recorded about him. Ji Yun left behind a b ...

to be one of the editors of the official encyclopedia and collection of books,

Siku Quanshu The ''Siku Quanshu'', literally the ''Complete Library of the Four Treasuries'', is a Chinese encyclopedia commissioned during the Qing dynasty by the Qianlong Emperor. Commissioned in 1772 and completed in 1782, the ''Siku quanshu'' is the lar ...

. Dai's philosophical contributions included those to the Han Learning school of Evidential Learning (

Evidentialism Evidentialism is a thesis in epistemology which states that one is justified to believe something if and only if that person has evidence which supports said belief. Evidentialism is, therefore, a thesis about which beliefs are justified and whic ...

) which criticized the Song Learning school of Neo-Confucianism. In particular, two criticisms that Dai made were: First, Neo-Confucianism focused too much on introspective self-examination whereas truth was to be found in investigation of the external world. Second, he criticized the Neo-Confucian drive to eliminate human desire as an obstacle to rational investigation. Dai argued that human desire was a good and integral part of the human experience, and that eliminating human desire from philosophy had the bad effect of making it difficult to understand and control one's emotions as well as making it impossible to establish empathy with others.

Works

Dai Zhen's best-known works include: *Faxianglun (On images and patterns) *Du Yi Xici lun xing (Reading “Appended Words” in The Book of Changes on human nature) *Du Meng Zi lun xing (Reading Mencius about human nature) *Yuanshan (Tracing the origin of goodness) in three chapters *Meng Zi sishulu (Record of Mencius's private virtue) *Xuyan (Prefatory words) *Daxue buzhu (Additional annotations to the Daxue) *Zhongyong buzhu (Additional annotations to the Zhongyong) *Meng Zi ziyi shuzheng (Evidential Commentary on the Meaning of the Words of Mencius) *Yu mou shu (A letter to a certain person) *Yu Peng jinshi Yunchu shu *Dingchou zhengyue yu Duan Yucai shu (A letter to Duan Yucai dated in the first month of the year dingchou ebruary 1777

References

Sources

*Elman, Benjamin A. ''From Philosophy to Philology: Intellectual and Social Aspects of Change in Late Imperial China.'' Cambridge, MA: Council on

East Asian Studies East Asian studies is a distinct multidisciplinary field of scholarly enquiry and education that promotes a broad humanistic understanding of East Asia past and present. The field includes the study of the region's culture, written language, histo ...

, 1984. *Tiwald, Justin
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Dai ZhenEncyclopedia of Religion entry on Dai Zhen
* *

External links

* * __NOTOC__ {{DEFAULTSORT:Dai, Zhen 1724 births 1777 deaths 18th-century Chinese philosophers 18th-century Chinese mathematicians Qing dynasty classicists People from Huangshan Philosophers from Anhui Mathematicians from Anhui Chinese philologists