From “Li (理)–Mind/Nature (心/性)” to “Qi (气)–History (史)”: The Religious Dimension of Wang Fuzhi’s Qi (气)-Centered Confucianism

Abstract

Contemporary debates over whether Confucianism should be regarded as a religion are often constrained by the Western binary opposition between philosophy and religion. Rather than remaining within this classificatory framework, this article shifts attention to the question of how the religious dimension of Confucianism is concretely grounded and sustained. By comparing the “li (理)–mind/nature (心/性)” paradigm of Song-Ming Neo-Confucianism with Wang Fuzhi’s “qi (气)–history (史)” paradigm, the article argues that the former relies primarily on inward moral experience and the self-cultivation of mind and nature, a mode that can effectively uphold a meaningful order under relatively stable historical conditions. By contrast, in response to the rupture of the Ming-Qing transition, Wang Fuzhi relocates ultimate normativity within the dynamic process of qi (气) transformation and historical practice. Through four interrelated formulations—“li (理) resides in qi (气),” “nature (性) is the principle of life,” “principle is to be pursued in concrete affairs,” and “historical reflection as verification”—he provides moral and value judgments with a stronger grounding in lived reality and historical testing. In this way, Wang effects a significant transformation in the religious dimension of Confucianism, shifting it from a mode of inward justification to one of worldly verification. His thought thus offers a more historically resilient account of how Confucian meaning can endure amid times of profound upheaval.