Pragmatism: A Study of the Practices in YAN Yuan's Pragmatic Thought
Keywords:
Pragmatism, YAN Yuan, The Pragmatic Empirical School, Practices, ConfucianismAbstract
As a pragmatic thinker who had been affected by the upheaval of the transition from the Ming and to the Qing dynasty since childhood, Yan Yuan advocated that the practices were learning the six arts, governing the country and benefitting the people. He advocated the practices to oppose sitting in meditation, talking about books and solving the problem of the deteriorating social atmosphere, which the traditional Confucian scholars in the Song and Ming dynasties advocated. At the same time, Yan Yuan also made a great contribution to the development of Confucianism and the concept of sage based on his standard of practices for governing the country and benefitting the people. Thereupon, the thought of Yan Yuan’s pragmatic empirical school tends to Pragmatism. Although the practices in the thought of Yan Yuan’s pragmatic empirical school are simple and easy to understand, they are incompatible with the intrinsic and extrinsic factors. This limited his practices to the personal realm, and it made Yan Yuan’s the pragmatic empirical school was not as important as the School of Principle and the School of Mind in the history of Confucianism development.
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