作为朱子理学对立学术体系的心学,至明中叶经王阳明力主是说,而逐渐取得了堪比官方理学的强势地位。这种学术格局变动的同时,也伴随着思想界的震动和学术群体内部的撕裂,并在客观上促成了明至清初儒学学统建构与再建构问题的产生。在与朱子理学的学术竞争过程中,王阳明以集学术与事功于一体的独特气象支撑着心学体系。倾向心学的知识群体们从朱陆异同、心禅界限、治学主旨、史籍书写等方面的论辩中宗其原而应其变,力图展现出心学理路之价值与谱系之“正宗”,从而在儒学学统体系的建构过程中占得一席之地。从明代社会的整体发展脉络来看,心学与朱子理学就儒学学统中的位置之争,不仅仅是两种学问绍续薪传过程中的学术命运问题,亦且演递为关涉彼时道统与政统的重大社会问题。

As the opposite academic of Zhu Zi's Neo-Confucianism, the Xin-xue theory, advocated by Wang Yangming in the mid-Ming Dynasty, gradually gained strong position comparable to official Neo-Confucianism. The vibration and split of academic pattern, was objectively contributed to Confucian system from the Ming Dynasty to the early Qing Dynasty. In the competition with Neo-Confucianism, Wang Yangming supported his theory with great academic success, while his intellectuals, with an attempt to show the Orthodoxy and value of theory, and entered Confucian system, focused on the similarities and differences between Zhu Zi and Lu Jiuyuan, the boundary between Mind and Zen, the tenet of learning, and the historical records. From the perspective of the overall Ming Dynasty, the contention between Wang Yangming's and Zhu Zi's theories for the position of Confucianism was not only the issue of the academic inheritance, but also a major social issue related to tradition and system.