Dai Zhen

he made great contributions to mathematics, geography, phonology and philosophy. His

philosophical and philological critiques of Neo-Confucianism continue to be influential.

Dai's philosophical contributions included those to the Han Learning school of Evidential
(kanıta ispata dayalı) Learning (kaozheng) which criticized the Song Learning school of Neo-
Confucianism.

In particular, two criticisms that Dai made was:

First criticisim,

 Neo-Confucianism focused too much on introspective self-examination whereas truth

was to be found in investigation of the external world.

Kaozheng 考證 ("search for evidence"[1]), also kaoju xue 考據學 ("evidential scholarship") –
a school and approach to study and research in China from about 1600 to 1850. It was most
prominent during the rule of Qianlong and Jiaqing Emperors of the Qing dynasty (hence the
alternate name zh:乾嘉學派). For ancient Chinese texts it corresponds to the methods of
modern textual criticism and this was sometimes associated with an empirical approach to
scientific topics too.

Some of the most important first generation of Qing thinkers were Ming loyalists, at least in
their hearts, including Gu Yanwu, Huang Zongxi, and Fang Yizhi. Partly in reaction to the
presumed laxity and excess of the late Ming, they turned to Kaozheng, or evidential learning,
which emphasized careful textual study and critical thinking.[2] [3]

Rather than regarding kaozheng as a local phenomenon of Jiangnan and Beijing areas, it has
been proposed to view it as a general trend in development of Chinese scholarship in light of
contribution of Cui Shu (1740–1816).[4]

Towards the end of the Qing and in the early 20th century, reform scholars such Liang
Qichao, Hu Shi and Gu Jiegang saw in kaozheng a step towards development of empirical
mode of scholarship and science in China. Conversely, Carsun Chang and Xu
Fuguan criticized kaozheng as intellectually sterile and politically dangerous.[5]
While Yu Ying-shih in the late 20th century has tried to demonstrate continuity
between kaozheng and neo-Confucianism in order to provide a non-revolutionary basis for
Chinese culture, Benjamin Elman has argued that kaozheng constituted "an empirical
revolution" that broke with the stance of neo-Confucian combination
of teleological considerations with scholarship

Second criticism

 he criticized the Neo-Confucian drive to eliminate human desire as an obstacle to

rational investigation.
 Dai argued that human desire was a good and integral part of the human experience, and
that eliminating human desire from philosophy had the bad effect of making it difficult
to understand and control one's emotions as well as making it impossible to establish
empathy with others.