Honoring Moral Nature And Following Path Of Knowledge: On The Scholarly Commitment Of Cheng Min-Zheng

Cheng Min-zheng(1445-1499), whose Dao Yi Bian is famous for being a precursor of Wang Yang-ming's Zhuzi wannian dinglun. Cheng Min-zheng was not expertise at philosophy, as he had little works in philosophy, and his ideas were no more than repetition of Zhu Xi. Dao Yi Bian is rather an outcome of his own scholarly commitment than an inquiry of the philosophy of Zhu Xi and Lu Jiu-yuan. It was one of his many compilations of texts with the aim of making good selections from complete works in order to maintain permanent and normative value. His compilations came from a belief that both simplicity and broad scholarship are important and however, Honoring Moral Nature takes lead and is supplemented with Following Path of Knowledge.At first sight Cheng Min-zheng's commitment of compilation of texts was a work of Following Path of Knowledge. However, throughout all these compilations there was an inherent spirit of Classic Study aiming at establishment of normative standard. In his effort of Following Path of Knowledge he approached simplicity from broad learning which built linkage to Honoring Moral Nature. In the traditional encyclopedic Historical Study he chose fields of his age, clan, and locality for commitment of compilation, which in addition to utility was supplementation and extension to Honoring Moral Nature.