Abstract

The Goose Lake Monastery Debate was an important event in the history of Chinese thought, chiefly because it marked the differences between two of the greatest representatives of the movement of thought known in the West as Neo-Confucianism. In this article, it is my aim to offer a historical reconstruction of the events that took place, to give an exegetical analysis of the problems discussed, and to conclude with an interpretation that places these problems in a wider perspective. I hope to show how this event which occurred in China 800 years ago was not a hair-splitting affair with little consequence for men today, but that it concerned a problem that is both universal and contemporary: the conflict between learning and wisdom.