一般认为,中国哲学史上有两个最繁荣的时代,一个是先秦哲学的时代,另一个是宋明哲学的时代。宋明时期是中国历史上哲学思想家出现最多、思想水平最高的时代。所以,研究宋明哲学对了解中国哲学的整体有特别重要的意义。宋元明时代的理学是儒家哲学,它是先秦时代儒家思想的新的发展,故在英文中,称其为新儒家(Neo-Confucianism)。不过也应指出,理学虽然明确声明自觉承继孔子到孟子的先秦儒家,实际上理学思想体系中也扬弃了 It is generally believed that there are two most prosperous times in the history of Chinese philosophy, one is the era of pre-Qin philosophy and the other is the era of Song and Ming philosophy. The Song and Ming Dynasties were the times when philosophers of philosophy appeared most frequently in Chinese history and had the highest ideological level. Therefore, the study of the Song and Ming philosophies is of particular importance to the understanding of the whole Chinese philosophy. Neo-Confucianism was the Neo-Confucianism in the Song, Yuan and Ming Dynasties. It was a new development of Confucianism in the pre-Qin era. However, it should also be pointed out that while Neo-Confucianism explicitly states that it should consciously inherit the Pre-Qin Confucianism from Confucius to Mencius, in fact the Neo-