An outstanding representative of Ming dynasty qi philosophy, known as Master Zhengzhai. Against the dualistic split between Principle and qi caused by the Cheng-Zhu doctrine of "Principle preceding qi," he vigorously argued that "Principle is not separable from qi," holding that "Principle" is nothing but the inherent order and pattern manifested in the operation of qi itself, lacking any substantial existence independent of qi. His work Knowledge in Perplexity mounted a coolly rational dual critique of both Zhu Xi's school and Wang Yangming's Mind-Learning.
Luo Qinshun, courtesy name Yunsheng, sobriquet Zhengzhai, a native of Taihe in Jiangxi. He passed the jinshi examination in the sixth year of Hongzhi and was appointed Hanlin Academy compiler. He served successively as Director of Studies in the Nanjing National Academy, Deputy Chief Minister of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices in Nanjing, and Right Vice Minister of Personnel in Nanjing. He was quiet and studious by nature, unmoved by fame or profit, maintaining independent thinking in officialdom, repeatedly memorializing the throne to remonstrate on current affairs. At a time when Wang Yangming's philosophy of mind swept the realm and Zhu Xi's learning had ossified into examination-oriented dogma, Luo Qinshun stood apart from both prevailing currents with cool rationality, devoting himself to writing Knowledge in Distress (Kunzhi Ji), systematically reflecting on the core issues of Song-Ming Neo-Confucianism—principle-qi, mind-nature. His learning neither blindly followed authority nor chased the fashion of the times, insisting on examining the principle-qi relationship from the standpoint of actual experience. He displayed extremely rare independent critical spirit and scientific attitude. He retired to his hometown in his later years, devoting himself to writing behind closed doors for over twenty years, and died in the twenty-sixth year of Jiajing, aged eighty-three.
Luo Qinshun takes "qi monism" as the core of his cosmology: the cosmos has only qi filling and flowing; "principle" is not an independent substance outside of qi but the inherent pattern and regularity that qi's own movement and change present—"principle is only on qi." Epistemologically, he argues that the mind's cognition also cannot be separated from qi's function, opposing the mind-learning's "mind is principle" as subjective inflation and also opposing Zhu Xi's learning which elevates principle to an independent substance above qi. In cultivation theory, he advocates using "reverence" for nourishing and "investigating things" for exhausting principle, but his investigating things is not Zhu Xi's outward investigation but rather experiencing qi's inherent patterns within its operation. Luo Qinshun's qi-based stance laid the materialist foundation for the mid-Ming practical learning trend, profoundly influencing Wang Tingxiang and the early Qing scholars.
"Principle is not separate from qi; principle is only on qi. Qi monism generates all things. — Knowledge in Distress (Kunzhi Ji)"
How does Luo Qinshun's insistence that "Principle is inseparable from qi; Principle is the order of qi" thoroughly overturn the ontological crisis of the suspended, subject-object dualism in Zhu Xi's philosophy?
Luo Qinshun takes qi as the ground of all existence; Locke takes sensory experience as the source of all knowledge. Both proceed from empirical reality to oppose suspended a priori substances.
Can empiricism genuinely replace metaphysics as the foundation of knowledge? Do the empiricist philosophies of Luo Qinshun and Locke represent parallel discoveries of the same truth, or fundamentally different intellectual projects?
Luo Qinshun pulls Zhu Xi's suspended principle back to qi's inherent patterns, just as Aristotle pulled Plato's suspended Forms back into concrete substances—both are empiricist corrections of their teachers' teachings.
Is the empiricist correction of idealist metaphysics a genuine advance? Do the parallel corrections of Luo Qinshun and Aristotle represent the same philosophical move, or fundamentally different intellectual projects?
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