Changzhou School of Thought
Changzhou School of Thought 常州學派, the Changzhou-centered influential school of scholarship of the late Ming (1368-1644) and Qing dynasties (1644-1912). Scholars in this school are best known for their contribution to the New Text Confucianism.
Tang Shunzhi 唐順之 (1507-1560), the famous Ming mathematician and advocate of the ancient prose style, is considered the precursor of the school, since his work underlined importance of calendaric studies and mathematics in the Han scholarship. Tang's argument for the "concrete studies" (shixue), as well as concern about diluting influence of the Buddhist and Daoist teachings on Confucianism of Wang Yangming became an important feature of the Changzhou intellectual framework.
Tang Shunzhi was married to the grandmother of Zhuang Qiyuan (1559-1633), who compiled genealogies of Tangs and Zhuangs and claimed intellectual affinity to his predecessors. Qiyuan was influenced by Catholicism and Diego de Pantoja in particular, praising it as superior to Buddhism. Zhuang Qiyuan's sons kept the proclivity for practical knowledge: Zhuang Yinqi (jinshi 1643) reissued a Ming book on children diseases, expanded with his own commentaries; Zhuang Yinghui (jinshi 1628), with help of his brothers and sons, compiled a work on military history, extolling the "Confucian technical expertise".
By the beginning of Qing, "Changzhou shixue" was distinct from the Suzhou and Yangzhou traditions. However, its proponents were less interested in the Han learning, sticking to the Cheng-Zhu orthodoxy as a reliable way to examination success.
In the middle of Qing, however, Changzhou had a plethora of Han learning scholars: Sun Xingyan, Hong Liangji (1746–1809), Huang Jingyan, Zhao Huaiyu, Zhao Yi, Li Zhaole (1769-1849). The spread of Han learning was stimulated by Lu Wenchao, a Hangzhou native, who moved to the Changzhou Longcheng Academy after being the head of the Jiyang Academy 暨陽書院 in the nearby Jiangyin in 1790-96.
Zhuang Youke 莊有可, though largely unknown outside Changzhou, was recognized as a fine scholar dealing with the Old text/New text controversy. He was praised for mastery of the Shuowen dictionary and produced a number works on the Change classic and the Chunqiu. His support to Yan Ruoqu-Hui Dong's refutation of the Old Text Shangshu chapters stood in opposition to Zhuang Cunyu's politics-bound view: Cunyu held that the renxin-Daoxin 人心 道心 notion of the "Councils of Yu the Great" chapter was crucially important for the imperial ethics, while the Han xue proponents, including Youke, interpreted it as a heterodox Buddhist influence on the Confucian doctrine.
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