Is Neo-Confucianism the same as Song Studies? What are the characteristics of Neo-Confucianism in Song Dynasty?

Neo-Confucianism is the mainstream of philosophy in Song Dynasty and a special form of Confucian philosophy, which can also be called Taoism. Neo-Confucianism is called Neo-Confucianism because the main content of Neo-Confucianism discussion is the study of righteousness and life. It is an ideological system that integrates Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism. Shijie, Hu Yuan and Sun Fu in the Northern Song Dynasty were called "Mr. Neo-Confucianism", but the actual founders were the five sons of the Northern Song Dynasty, namely Shao Yong, Zhou Dunyi, Zhang Zai, Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi. Zhou Dunyi was the founder of Neo-Confucianism in Song Dynasty. He combined the inaction of Taoism with the golden mean of Confucianism and expounded the basic concepts and ideological system of Neo-Confucianism. Shao Yong was the founder of the theory of congenital image number, and made it an important part of the ideological system of Neo-Confucianism. Zhang Zai developed the monism of Qi, and he was a master of China's ancient dialectics theory.

The Cheng brothers are important representatives of Neo-Confucianism, and they laid the foundation of Neo-Confucianism in the Northern Song Dynasty. Neo-Confucianism in the Song Dynasty took reason as the foundation of all things, also known as natural reason, and recognized the changes of things. However, it is believed that this is caused by mysterious rational forces, and it also expounds the relationship between man and nature, and insists on the proposition that man and nature live in harmony. In epistemology, it pays more attention to exquisite transcendental epistemology, takes the understanding of things as the basic proposition concept, and emphasizes poverty.

Scholars Zhu and Lu Jiuyuan in the Southern Song Dynasty were the developers of Neo-Confucianism. Zhu is also a master of Neo-Confucianism, and has made special contributions to the perfection and elucidation of the Neo-Confucianism system. He inherited Cheng Cheng's thought, and thought that reason was the foundation of existence, and material qi was secondary. "Reason comes first, qi comes later" (Zhu Lei), and the highest realm of reason is Taiji. But he also believes that reason cannot be separated from qi, and qi cannot be separated from reason. The two are closely related. Lu Jiuyuan is an important representative of subjective idealism and neo-Confucianism. Most of his thoughts were against Zhu He, and they had a heated argument. He opposed Zhu's idea of understanding reading and observing things with poor rationality, believing that these were fragmented undertakings, and put forward the proposition that "mind is reason". Taking "the universe is my heart and my heart is the universe" as the core, we should turn the proposition of understanding things into a simple and easy work, advocate the inventor's initial heart, and oppose writing and learning books. These two schools of Neo-Confucianism in Song Dynasty had a great influence on later generations. Wang Yangming is a representative of Neo-Confucianism in Ming Dynasty. He basically inherited Lu Jiuyuan's school and had a great influence on later generations.