Page 145 - Gan's Family History

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descendant in the Yan clan, living
and spreading far and wide to
various parts of south China.
Another personality worth
mentioning was Yan Yanzhi (Yan
Yan Yuan), a well known poet during
the Song dynasty (AD 960 - 1279)
The founding ancestors of the Yan
clan at Tu Shan village, Yung Chun
Prefecture, Fuchien Province, was
Yan Yung Chun of the 117th lineage
from the ancient founder-patriarch of
this family in the old homestead in
Shantung Province and he started
this branch of the Yan clan at Tu
Shan on or about 1450 during the
Ming dynasty (AD 1368 -1644)
Then there was Yan Yuan in Qing
45
(Ching) dynasty (AD 1583 - 1912)
who revived the orthodox Confucian
thought from what he called the
"misdirection led by scholars in the
Ming dynasty." He started a school
on his own and advised his students
to read the original texts and not the
"misinterpretations of the Ming
scholars. He urged his students to
adopt a more flexible attitude in their
work and said that reading without
thinking as practiced by the Ming
scholars only made people more
45 Extracted fron the book “Your Chinese Roots – The
Overseas Chinese Story” by Thomas Tsu-wee Tan.
Published by Times Books International.
confused and more incapable of
understanding the real issues.
46
Yan Yuan (1635-1704), also known
as Yan Xizhai, advocated the
acquirement of practical knowledge
through practice and action rather
than through the mere reading of
books. He pointed out the contrast
between two worlds, the world of
"fancy" and the world of "matter" or
"reality".
In the former world, people speak
for the sake of speech, believe in
superstition and employ rigid dogma
to smother people's creativity. In the
latter world, farmers till the fields,
tailors make clothes, workers
construct roads, physicians take
care of patients, etc. --it is a world
full of life and work, as each of the
participants makes his own
contribution to society.
The author predicts that the
former world will fall and will in due
course be replaced by the latter
world. As for his thought on social
economy, he believes that a land
system will develop, in which "all
land in the world will be enjoyed by
all the people in the world".
Philosophically, he regards "vitality"
as the essence of all the objects in the
universe, and "reason" as the law
that exists a priori in all objects and
things. "Reason" cannot exist
independent of objects and things,
he says.
46 Extracted from the book “An Outline History of China”
Written by Yang Zhao, Fang Linggui, Gong Shuduo & Zhu
Zhongyu / Edited by Bai Shouyi / Published by the
Foreign Language Press, Beijing