Individual Autonomy and Responsibility in Late Imperial China By ...

way? If others have their qualities, then we do not have qualities to impose them, or moral truths to teach them.⁴³

Consequently, Confucius’s statement warning against any behavior that disregards rites (Lunyu, Yan Yuan) is interpreted as an exhortation to follow one’s own natural needs and expectations. This means a completely different understanding of concepts such as no-self, self-mastery, and the long-debated sentence, “self-mastery and restoration of propriety” (keji fuli 克己復禮).⁴⁴ For earlier scholars, this sentence meant “remove desires and preserve great principles” (qurenyu cundali 去人欲、存大理), but some followers of Wang Yangming proposed new interpretations.⁴⁵ Li Zhi went further, moving from the basic moral discourse of self-cultivation to social and liberal criticism, focusing on the free development of each person according to their character, talent, conditions, and interests. His main polemical targets were the principle of authority, the hypocrisy of moralists, and oppression by the imposition of truth and ethics on others.⁴⁶