Abstract
This essay is to discuss Thome H. Fang’s view point in his research toward Wang Yang-ming’stheory.He points out Wang Yang-ming’s theory is deeply influenced by Cheng Hao’sthoughts.Based on this, in the middle Ming Dynasty, besides Wang Yang-ming, this essay also discusses Hu Ju-ren, Zhan Ruo-shui and Luo Qin-shun, who stood by “the return to Cheng Ming-dao’stheory”.Among those, Wang Yang-ming and Hu Ju-ren claimed that Cheng Ming-dao is an important successor of Confucius and Yan Yuan.while Zhan Ruo-shui tried to change the academic trend by praising Cheng Ming-dao’s theory, Luo Qin-shun adopted Cheng Ming-dao’s arguments to prove his own philosophy.As mentioned above, in spite of different schools, those scholars respected Cheng Ming-dao’s arguments and stood by “the return to Cheng Ming-dao’stheory”.This phenomenon can be comprehended that Cheng Ming-dao’s theory is an important resource for conflicting or tweaking the main stream theory.