Dai Zhen Quotes on Knowledge
Dai Zhen (1724–1777), the leading philosopher and philologist of the eighteenth-century Chinese kaozheng (evidential learning) movement, gave Qing-period thought its most ambitious philosophical critique of the Song-Ming Neo-Confucian metaphysics that had dominated the preceding centuries. An Evidential Study of the Meanings of Terms in the Mencius (Mengzi ziyi shuzheng) argues, against the orthodox Cheng-Zhu position, that the Confucian classics demand patient philological study rather than speculative metaphysical reconstruction, and that the moral knowledge transmitted through the texts is inseparable from the human emotions (qing) and desires (yu) that the orthodox tradition had subordinated to abstract principle (li).
Quotes
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Attributed to Dai Zhen:
“The Cheng-Zhu doctrine has read into the Mencius what is not there; we must read what is there.”
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Attributed to Dai Zhen:
“Philology is not the rival of philosophy; it is the soil in which philosophy must root itself.”
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Attributed to Dai Zhen:
“The classics are not the tomb of the sages; they are the soil from which the present generation must again grow.”
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“This is a footnote to our gay-marriage discussion. A woman in India last week married a snake . And it was done at a traditional Hindu ceremony attended by 2,000 people. Now, I would like to ask the proponents of gay marriage, which after all violates traditions going back through all of human history, to now absolutely positively guarantee that the next movement is not going to be allowing people to marry their pet horse, dog or cat. And you know what? Given the anything-goes culture we live in, I don't think they can deliver that guarantee.”
Henninger, D. (Commentator). (2006, June 10). Journal Editorial Report . New York: Fox News Channel . -
“Henninger, D. (Commentator). (2006, June 10). Journal Editorial Report . New York: Fox News Channel .”
This is a footnote to our gay-marriage discussion. A woman in India last week married a snake . And it was done at a traditional Hindu ceremony attended by 2,000 people. Now, I would like to ask the proponents of gay marriage, which after all violates traditions going back through all of human history, to now absolutely positively guarantee that the next movement is not going to be allowing people -
“Wall Street Journal , December 22, 2006, p. A12, "Wonder Land" column.”
Atheists and the unchurched undervalue the extent to which they are getting a free ride on the social strength that religious-based virtue provides. -
“Which would you like sitting in the oval office dealing with it (a major crisis)? Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, John Edwards, Geraldine Ferraro, Jimmy Carter, … or Sarah Palin? Personally, I would pick Palin.”
Wall Street Journal , October 23, 2008, interview with Kelsey Hubbard. -
“Wall Street Journal , October 23, 2008, interview with Kelsey Hubbard.”
Which would you like sitting in the oval office dealing with it (a major crisis)? Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, John Edwards, Geraldine Ferraro, Jimmy Carter, … or Sarah Palin? Personally, I would pick Palin.