Abstract:
Wei Liaoweng was a great scholar of Shu in the middle of the Southern Song Dynasty, and he has long been considered as a famous Neo-Confucianist.However, what he learned in his youth and what he taught in Heshan Academy was actually the study of memorizing words and chapters; especially the empirical method used in his later years when he wrote
The Essentials of the Nine Classics was completely different from the speculative method of Neo-Confucianists to explore righteousness and reason.When Neo-Confucianism became an academic trend of thought in the times, he interacted with and was influenced by Neo-Confucianists, but he was not only different from the orthodox Cheng-Zhu School in basic concepts of Neo-Confucianism, but also held a critical attitude.For the founder of Neo-Confucianism, he asked the imperial court for approval and succeeded.This is only a political activity without academic significance.The article explains in detail the Neo-Confucianists who Wei Liaoweng communicated with and the development of his Neo-Confucianism in the process of communication, proving that Wei Liaoweng's thoughts cannot be summarized in Neo-Confucianism and he is not a typical Neo-Confucianist.