Korea Journal of Buddhist Studies 불교학연구 ISSN:1598-0642(Print)

Dai Zhen was one of the major scholars of k’ao–cheng scholarship, a form of evidential research prevalent in the Qing dynasty. Most k’ao–cheng scholars were reluctant to take part in the philosophical discussions about the world’s universal order or human nature that were raised by the neo– Confucian scholars of the Sung and Ming dynasties. However, Dai Zhen involved himself in these discussions. He criticized the Sung–Ming neo–Confucian scholars for adopting Buddhist concepts to establish their central argument. Dai Zhen insisted that neo–Confucian scholars of the Sung and Ming dynasties saw Confucianism as an interiorized thought under the influence of Buddhism. He stated that this blocked the path to gradual self–fulfillment through knowledge and internal insight. As a k’ao–cheng scholar who worked toward studying Confucian scriptures thoroughly by using philological methods and expanding human intellect, he could not accept the methods that Sung–Ming neo–Confucian scholars proposed. He demonstrated that an academic research of Confucian scriptures and serious understanding of sages’ words is a way of self–culture. Dai Zhen tried hard to fulfill the fundamental Confucian goal of moral self–fulfillment within the field of philology. I call Dai Zhen’s attempt intellectualist ethics.