Forty years of hidden writing
After the Ming fell, Wang refused to serve the Qing and wrote in seclusion below Stone Boat Mountain for forty years; only later were his works rediscovered, and late-Qing reformers held him up as a forerunner.
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Wang Fuzhi
Ming-Qing enlightenment thinker; monism of qi
Remembered for a Single Line · Small Roles, Famous Names
Philosophy of qiNaïve materialismKnowledge and action
Who they are
Wang Fuzhi (1619–1692), styled Chuanshan, a great thinker of the Ming-Qing transition, held that "principle lies within qi" and "all under heaven is but concrete things." His monism of qi criticized the empty mind-talk of Neo-Confucianism and stressed that action precedes knowledge — a peak of premodern Chinese materialism and enlightenment thought.
Primary sourcesWang Fuzhi, On Reading the Comprehensive Mirror, Commentary on Zhang Zai’s Correcting Ignorance
Key stories
Relationships
Nemesis
Echoes today
Below are how modern works borrow or reinterpret this name or story — not the original material. The two differ, so keep them apart.
Chuanshan studiesRediscovered in the late Qing, his works were held up by reformers and revolutionaries as a forerunner.