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LI YUNG (1627-1705): PROTESTOR FROM THE PROVINCES Aane L. Davison University of Pennsylvania The seventeenth century in China vas a period of vigorous and diverse Intellectual activity, much of which can he seen as protest. It is clear, however, that in the activities and thought of seventeenth-century intellectuals protest often cannot be conveniently distinguished from dissent and criticism. Whereas dissent refers to a difference in opinion or a withholding of aesent, and criticism to either a relatively neutral evaluation or a more partial emphasis on finding fault, protest generally involves some kind of declaration of disapproval or statement of objection. Thus, while this discussion is centrally concerned with early-Ch'ing intellectual protest, activities perhape better described as dissent and criticism are also included. Politically, intellectual protest was directed against the corrupt practices of all parte of the Chinese government in the latter years of th6 Ming Dynasty, and after l6kk, against the conquest of China by a non-Chineee group, the Manchus. In the intellectual and social spheres, the thought and activities of Buddhists, TsffiLst",, and Neo-Confucians received varying amounts of attack. Like those of his contemporaries, Li Yung's protests were heard in some areas and not in others. Moreover, although protest in thle period had its own characteristics, protest by the intellectual elite was not peculiar to the seventeenth century.·' Protest existed throughout Chinese history as a form of responsible, Confucian social behavior. It is within this perspective that aspects of the thought and behavior of Li Yung, a Neo-Confucian philosopher from Shensi Province, are 2 examined. Li Yung's protest behavior was in some respects similar to that of his contemporaries and in other respects different, and it was in part shaped by his own eccentricities, but above all it wae fundamentally Confucian, scholarly, and in the given circumstances honorable. Li Yung was a traditional Neo-Confucian philosopher and a highlyrespected intellectual in the early Ch'ing period. In his personal life, he had many harships to overcome. His family was extremely poor, he was orphaned at the age of fifteen, and he had no opportunity to go to school. Be was taught the fundamentals of reading by his mother according to one account and by his uncle according to another. In spite of the difficulties, he succeeded so well in educating himself that Ku Yen-vu, a famous contemporary and acquaintance of Li Yung, remarked: "Yung steadfastly endured hardships and studied with diligence. Ee had no teacher and yet he succeed d.¦A I do not measure up to Li Chung-fu. Contrary to the Confucian ethical value of service to the state, Li Yung did not go on to take the examinations or pursue an official career. In other areas of life, however, he did accept and fulfill the required social dutues. He was famous for his filial piety towards his mother, and he also had two sons to continue the family line. As a philosopher, he was neither original enough to be regarded as an innovator in the philosophical tradition, nor was he sufficiently trivial or repetitive to be disregarded completely. Along with Li Yin-tu and Li Pai, Li Yung was known as one of "the three Li from Kuan-chung. Ch'üan Tsu-wang, the famous eighteenth-century scholar and historian, stated that the three great Confucians of the time were Sun Ch'i-feng in the north, Huang Tsung-hsi t in the south, and Li Yung in the west. At a time when Neo-Confucian thought was under attack, Li Yung continued to regard it as orthodox Confucian thought. Moreover, he saw himself as a reformer within that tradition. That is, he wanted to wipe out the abuses and perversions that had developed in Neo-Confucianism during late-Ming times and still retain the fundamentals of Neo-Confucian thought and practice. Li differed here from some of his -10 more famous contemporaries, such as Yen Yuan or Ku Yen-wu, in that they wanted to eradicate, rather than reform, many of the Neo-Confucian accretions to the earlier, classical form of Confucianism. Li Yung's life also spanned the passage from Chinese, Ming rule to...

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