Li Zhi's works
Burning Books is a book written by Li Zhi when he lived in Macheng Zhifu Hospital. It is said that he was 64 years old when he finished. This book has six volumes. Continued Burning Books was collected by disciples after Li Zhi's death, with a total of 5 volumes. Both of them are very similar in nature and subject matter. The latter is a supplement to the previous work and collects what Li Zhi said and wrote after the completion of the previous work.
Burning books is not a single collection of poems, novels, essays and other styles. Its contents include Li Zhi's letters, essays, historical comments and poems. This also shows his political, social and philosophical thoughts, covering a very comprehensive scope.
Although the content covers a wide range, their themes are the same. Throughout the book, Li Zhi criticized Confucianism, especially Neo-Confucianism, and many articles satirized and attacked those literati who were full of benevolence, righteousness and morality, and their roots were full of shelter evil people from evil practices. By criticizing hypocrites and hypocrites in the cloak of Confucianism, Li Zhi began to doubt Confucianism and deny its orthodoxy. In Burning Books, Li Zhi's sharp words, like a sword, directly poked at the soft spot of Confucianism, which ruled China Thought for thousands of years, and even dissected it to show the world.
The idea of burning the whole book was deviant and unacceptable at that time, so Li Zhi gave it a name, believing that it had only the fate of being burned. As he expected, after he was arrested and imprisoned, his works were burned together, including books. Later, the Ming and Qing Dynasties banned books and burned Li Zhi's works many times. Even so, these books have been repeatedly engraved and widely circulated.
Li Zhi's Heart of Childishness is one of Li Zhi's most famous essays, which was included in the third volume of Burning.
Li Zhi wax figure
The full text of Li Zhi's Childlike Heart is only 1000 words, but it greatly expresses his own thoughts, and the viewpoint of "childlike heart" put forward is quite insightful. Starting from a sentence in The West Chamber, Li Zhi directly put forward the view that childlike innocence is sincerity, defined childlike innocence as an absolute sincere heart that is not interfered by the outside world, and profoundly emphasized the importance of childlike innocence.
Then, Li Zhi explained that the world lost its childlike innocence because the acquired knowledge blocked the mind. An article that is not written from the child's heart must not be an excellent article. Li Zhi then began to attack the retro style of writing in the literary world at that time, arguing that the quality of articles could not be judged by the standards of the times. Finally, Li Zhi also belittled Confucian classics such as The Analects of Confucius, thinking that they were not truth, but just fooled by hypocrites.
Li Zhi wrote Childlike Heart not only to express his views, but also to criticize social reality. The Ming Dynasty was an era when China thought was severely imprisoned. At that time, Confucianism was rigid, stereotyped writing prevailed, and generations of education and imperial examinations produced Confucian scholars carved out of a mold. Their articles are all based on the four books and five classics, and the eight-part essay is the format template. Writing must draw lessons from prose in Qin and Han dynasties, but writing poetry can only draw lessons from Tang poetry. In fact, there is no so-called authority and model essay, because only childlike innocence is the source of articles, and anyone can write good articles at any time.
In essence, Li Zhi's "theory of childlike innocence" criticizes feudal bondage and advocates free individuality.
Li Zhi's Story Although Li Zhi was regarded as an eccentric by the imperial court, he was very popular among the people, so many stories about him also spread. For example, Li Zhiyuan's surname was Lin. Because his ancestors offended local bureaucrats, he changed his surname to Li to escape.
Portrait of Li Zhi
It is said that Li Zhi has only been back to his hometown of Quanzhou, Fujian twice in his life. Once, his father died, and when he came back, he happened to meet the Japanese who burned, killed and looted. So Li Zhi took his family to help the local people resist Japan.
Li Zhi had a son, but he died before him. It is said that his wife was still very young when his son died. Li Zhi advised her daughter-in-law not to be sentimental about her husband's death and let her remarry. Li Zhi also recommended himself as a fisherman's apprentice to her as an object, and the daughter-in-law was finally moved to listen to his advice, and the husband and wife were also very happy after remarriage.
Among all the stories of Li Zhi, the most famous one is the story of the strange old man circulating in Zhifo Temple in Macheng, Hubei. Legend has it that Li Zhi is not only well-read and knowledgeable, but also does farm work and grows vegetables on weekdays. Li Zhi's lecture was held in Diaoyutai nearby. There is no distinction between men and women in teaching. Students are required to read aloud, jump and do two somersaults. Li Zhi didn't teach his disciples the Four Books and Five Classics, nor did he teach them to write stereotyped writing, but only taught them something practical and interesting. At that time, he often played with children and gave them riddles about ordinary small things such as brooms and shoulder poles. It is said that Li Zhi also wrote a riddle that the children couldn't guess. The answer is that you have no monarch, minister, father, son and son. This series of behaviors has given Li Zhi another name of "strange old man" in the local area.
Brief introduction is a famous thinker and writer in Ming Dynasty, who is famous for his anti-Confucianism.
Portrait of Li Zhi
Li Zhi was born in 1527, a Hui nationality. His ancestors moved to Quanzhou, Fujian in the early Ming Dynasty. His original surname was Lin, and later he was renamed Li Zhi, with the word Hongfu and the name Zhuowu. Li Zhi has been very clever since he was a child. /kloc-started writing at the age of 0/2 and entered high school at the age of 26. He served as an official in North Korea for more than 20 years, from a county instructor to a magistrate, but resigned at the age of 55.
After his resignation, Li Zhi lived in Hubei, Beijing, Nanjing and other places, mostly at friends' houses or temples. During this period, Li Zhi studied classics on the one hand and wrote books and gave lectures on the other. Although his lectures are very popular in the local area, they are often opposed by conservative forces such as the government because of his "deviance". 1602, Li Zhi was arrested and imprisoned, and works considered as "heresy" were also burned. Soon after, Li Zhi committed suicide in prison, when he was seventy-six, and was buried by his friends after his death.
Li Zhi wrote many books in his life, including Collection of Books, Continuing Collection of Books, Burning Books, etc. In addition, he also highly praised The Water Margin and The West Chamber, and put forward his own views. In his works and speeches, he often criticizes current events and comments on history. He opposed Confucianism, especially Zhu Cheng's Neo-Confucianism, and criticized the oppression of people by feudal ethics. Expose and criticize the dark nature of feudal rule and denounce political corruption; Advocating utility and attaching importance to the status of businessmen; Advocate "childlike innocence" and think that articles should not be falsified but should express their true hearts.
After Li Zhi's death, later generations gave him different opinions, but although his works were repeatedly banned by the government, they spread more widely.
Li Zhi has a famous saying that Li Zhi is a great thinker, and his thoughts are basically contained in his works and articles. Those words have become his cautionary sayings, which make people think deeply.
Li zhi's famous saying
"Dressing and eating is the physics of interpersonal relationships; There is nothing but dressing and eating. " Li Zhi believes that the reason lies in the trivial matters of people's daily dressing and eating, which is the affirmation of human desire and the embodiment of his concept of "sincerity". He criticized Neo-Confucianism and hated Taoism, which was a challenge to Neo-Confucianism. Neo-Confucianism emphasizes the elimination of human desires, which is one of Zhu's most important viewpoints. He thought that to learn Neo-Confucianism, we should control or even eliminate our own desires, which later became the ideological source of feudal ethics to imprison freedom.
"Private people, people's hearts are also, people must have private and then see." Li Zhi acknowledged human's selfish desire and thought it was human relations and human heart. Therefore, he also recognized the essence of businessmen's pursuit of interests, attached importance to business rather than belittled it, and opposed China's policy of emphasizing agriculture and restraining business that lasted for thousands of years.
"Sages are not high, and people are not low." Li Zhi denied the sage status of Confucius and Mencius, and thought that Confucius and Mencius were not saints, just like ordinary people. There is no difference between them, so everyone can be a saint. He criticized the practice of blindly strengthening Taoism and holding high the status of saints in the Ming Dynasty, arguing that it could not be an immutable dogma.
"Strong men don't forget the ravine, and martyrs don't forget to lose money." It is said that this sentence was written by Li Zhi before he grabbed a razor in prison. He used this sentence of Mencius to show his mind. Li Zhi knew that his thoughts were not accepted by the world, so he had already predicted that he would die in prison, and he was willing to die for the truth he pursued.