Ye Shi

Who was Ye Shi?

Ye Shi, courtesy name Zhengze, pseudonym Mr. Shuixin, was a Chinese neo-Confucian of the Song dynasty.

A native of Wenzhou, Zhejiang, he was the most famous figure of the Yongjia School, a neo-Confucianism School composed mostly of philosophers from Wenzhou Prefecture in Zhejiang province. In contrast to other neo-Confucianists in the same period like Zhu Xi and Lu Jiuyuan, he stressed practical learning and applying Confucian doctrine to real world problems. This school had important influence on later thinkers from Zhejiang province, including Wang Shouren and Huang Zongxi, who were the most important philosophers in the Ming and Qing periods.