Yen Yuan (1635-1704) was a widely learned man who, like man Chinese philosophers throughout history, he ultimately called for a return to what he believed was authentic yet oft-neglected (Confucian) Way.
Yen Yuan felt that most Confucians both historically and in his day had misunderstood concepts such as learning (hsueh) and training/culture/refiniment (wen), and consequently misunderstood “practice” and the Way (tao). Their pursuit of scholarly activities and abstract theoretical philosophical discussions often caused them to neglect the actual practice of learning, and throughout much of history, they had for the most part produced unsatisfactory results by neglecting the authentic broad right Way of life, instead following narrow philosophies that overvalued minor matters.
He felt that the Confucianism of his day, having become dominated with misguided abstract Buddhist-influenced theories and practices, as well as excessive book study (especially minor activities such as meticulous commentaries on and interpretations of texts, and major attention to such minor aspects as punctuation), resulted in a gread deal of pointless activity that drew people towards a passive, inactive, and overly cerebral form of life, and away from true Confucian broad practice of Tao.
Yen Yuan also rejected the “quiet sitting” practice the Chinese adopted from the Buddhists, and felt that this so-called “ultimate and extreme mystery” was really just surface and illusory, and lacking reality and substance.
Yen Yuan believed that everything in the Confucian Way had a very direct, broad, clear, simple, and generally common sense aim at what a person is and does, but that later Confucians obscured the various common Confucian terms and concepts to refer to a much more limited cerebral type of system with limited results. The Confucians of his era overcomplicated the teachings, and neglected its true essentials, and strayed from the authentic Way of the ancients transmitted through Confucius.
To Yen Yuan, one’s self and one’s actions are what can constitute the Way and reaching Sage-hood, while one’s books are only about the Way, but must never be confused with the Way itself. An extensive knowledge and mastery of the theory is not the same as immediate experience, and yet most people consider the former to be progress, when it is not actual progress made.
Yen had an __ memory, and by age 17 he never forgot a book after reading it two or three times. As a youth he was interested in wrestling, military science, and philosophy.
Yen criticized metaphysical speculation and meditation, saying they impeded an active practical, dynamic, strong, healthy, and useful spirit. He felt mere book learning, book writing, empty talks, and meditation had weakened China and its people.
Confucius and Mencius emphasized activity and actual work, while the thinkers of his day merely played with words. He called himself “Hsi-chai,” “a man of practice.”
His ideal of activity had a major emphasis on physical exercise, mobility, and manual and body work.
He emphasized that Confucius and his disciples were balanced and active in a variety of fields, such as dancing, music, ?, military affairs, agriculture, business, politics, and ceremony.
Confucius’s disciples talked and discussed, but they also practiced what they learned. They would read the books on ceremony, and then practice the ceremonies; or they would read the books on music, and then practice the music. … For them, it would have been impossible to conceive that learning was merely a matter of reading and discussion.
In my view, when a person is active he will be a strong man; when a family is active, it will be a strong unit; when an entire country is active, it will be powerful; when the world is active, it will be strong and healthy.