Wang Fuzhi (literary name: Chuanshan) lived at the end of the Ming dynasty and was acutely aware that scholar-officials of his time were crazy on Zen Buddhism and sought a transcendence beyond ontology, neglecting the personal cultivation proper to Confucian morality. After the collapse of the Ming, Wang set himself to writing commentaries on the Confucian classics. He hoped thereby to refute the errors of Buddhism and Daoism and reestablish orthodox Confucianism in all its pristine purity. However, he did not only focus on Confucian texts, he also looked for the meaning in Buddhist and Daoist texts. Why is it that he could both refute the two schools on the one hand and study them on the other? The purpose of Wang's exegesis was to reconcile two ends into one thread so as to discover a new meta-text theory that would express the universal norms for human nature which could be implemented in daily life and reveal true moral values.Hence, this paper begins by looking at how Wang Fuzhi refuted Buddhism and Daoism and how he was able to combine their thought in the one thread of Confucianism, thus enriching the Confucian way. The study will show how Wang’s exegesis was not an idle eisegesis, since he took the Confucian norm of human nature as the standard for his hermeneutic and criticism, and reinforced it with textual support. He hoped that these norms for living could be put into practice in the world.
