On the Theoretical Implications of Pan Pingge's Philosophical Thought

As a key Confucian scholar in early Qing China, Pan Pingge's philosophical thought is important for us to explore the paradigm shift of Confucian philosophy during the Ming-Qing transitional period. But, how to understand the intellectual significance of Pan's Confucian thought is a controversial issue. Based on Pan's sharp critique of neo-Confucianism, some scholars maintain that Pan tries to reconstruct Confucian philosophy from a naturalistic approach, like many other contemporary Confucian scholars, such as Chen Que and so on. This observation is not accurate. Because Pan and Wang Yang-ming have no fundamental difference to understand the essence of moral mind and the way of selfcultivation. On the contrary, some other scholars urge that Pan's Confucian thought is just a copy of Wang Yangming's doctrine. But this is not the case too. There is a substantial divergence between Pan and Wang Yangming, on the issue of metaphysics. Pan definitely opposes the idea "the Way of Heaven and human nature and destiny are interrelated", which is essential to all Song-Ming Confucians' philosophy. So, in a sense, we can regard Pan's Confucian philosophy as a thin version of Wang Yangming's doctrine.