The Ming ruled China through the examination orthodoxy Zhu Xi had defined, and inside that order Wang Yangming raised the tradition's last great challenge, teaching that principle is found in the heart itself and that knowledge and action are one. His school split the late Ming world between the Cheng-Zhu orthodoxy of the examiners and the intuition of the heart, a division the Qing inherited.
Tagged: Confucianism Imperial Confucianism Neo-Confucianism
The Event
- Date
- 1368-1644 (exact)
- Era
- Late Imperial; Standard periodization of Confucian history
- Location
- Nanjing and Beijing; today China
- Traditions
- Confucianism
- Streams
- Neo-Confucianism, Imperial Confucianism
- Key figures
- Wang Yangming, Zhu Yuanzhang
- Key texts
- Four Books
How the Tradition Tells It
The Ming record carries two Confucianisms. The examination orthodoxy taught Zhu Xi's commentaries as settled truth, while Wang Yangming's school held that the heart itself is principle and that the examiners' learning had gone dead. Both lines claimed Confucius, and the dynasty never settled the claim between them.
Primary Sources
- The Ming History (Mingshi).
Secondary Sources
- Yao, Xinzhong. An Introduction to Confucianism. Cambridge University Press, 2000.
- de Bary, Wm. Theodore, and Irene Bloom, eds. Sources of Chinese Tradition. 2nd ed., Columbia University Press, 1999.
Provenance: HIST-0711; confidence 0.95; accessed 2026-10-27.
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