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| The Argumentation Dimension of History：Levels， Methods and Spread of Cheng Yi’s Historical Concepts |
| Wang Zhen |
| Department of Chinese Language and Literature， East China Normal University， Shanghai 200241 |
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Abstract In the ideological trend of the North Song Dynasty with justice and principles as the new change， Cheng Yi regarded history as an important component of his view of “Tianli”(天理)， and he took “Li”(理) as the primary criterion to judge historical events， examine historical trends and evaluate figures. Cheng Yi used moralism to carry out historical evaluation. In the upsurge of the studies of “Spring and Autumn Annals”(春秋) in the mid-North Song Dynasty， Cheng Yi learned from his own “ Spring and Autumn Annals ” and regarded history as an extension of the studies of Confucian classics. In this way， the historiography was rationalized and used as one of the sources to investigate and probe into the truth of things. His ultimate goal was to construct a Confucian ideal political order. After Cheng Yi， Yang Shi(杨时)， Zhu Xi(朱熹)， Xu Heng(许衡)， Hao Jing(郝经) and other philosophers continued to improve and strengthen Cheng Yi’s historiography tradition. With the officialization of Neo-Confucianism， it spread throughout the country， which profoundly affected the compilation and theory of history in the Song Dynasty and Yuan Dynastiy. From the perspective of the history of thought and political history of the North Song Dynasty， Cheng Yi’s historical concept is the product of the combination of individual perception and the context of the times. Cheng Yi has innovative significance at the level of historical theory. It is the result of his observation of the political order of the past dynasties， which constitutes and perfects his ideological system， and thus has a multi-level space for interpretation.
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Received: 18 March 2021
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2021, Vol. 60 
