Abstract

Late-Ming early-Qing thought stands astride the intersection of tradition and modernity. Therefore, the discussion of the nature of late-Ming early-Qing thought is a major topic in the investigation of how China's intellectual culture made the strides from tradition to modern times. The intention of this essay is to take a snapshot of one angle of late-Ming early-Qing thought—i.e., the genesis, formation, and death in infancy of the "arriving at principles from numbers" method of thinking—and use it to analyze specifically the nature of thought in the late-Ming early-Qing period