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영어

“The interconnection between the Way of Heaven and human nature and destiny” (tian dao xing ming xiang guan tong ) as Neo-Confucian innate logic originates the question, that is how to justify “the difference between the human and the animal.” Zhu Xi’s response to the question in The Exegesis of the Collections of Texts from the Four Books (Sishu Jizhu ) is full of controversies, and unexpectedly it started the “Ho-Rak debates” in the 18th-century Korean Confucianism. However, in 17th-century Chinese Confucian scholar Wang fu-zhi in his Reading on The Encyclopaedia the Four Books (Du sishu daquan shou ) had criticised Zhu Xi’s theory. This article clarifies Wang’s criticism on Zu Xi and make a preliminary investigation of Wang’s theory of material force (qi ).