”Propriety” obtains unprecedented importance in Ching Dynasty's academics. From the early Ching scholars Ku Yanwu (顧炎武), Zhang Erqi (張爾歧) and Wan Sitong (萬斯同) to the late Ching scholars such as Zeng Guofan (曾國藩), Sun Yirang (陳詒讓) and so on, they all regard propriety as the top issue at studies. At the mention of propriety the Ching scholars discuss in general, they mostly deliberate on propriety establishment from the side of national institutions during the Ming-Ching periods and afterward increasingly focus on social rituals and customs such as ceremonies of grown-up, marriage, death and funeral as well as the network of human relations in practice. Ling Tingkan (淩廷堪) is particularly expert in both of Huizhou Neo-Confucianism (Huizhou Li-Hsueh) and Qian-Jia Textology as the twofold background of Propriety Theory. He, master of propriety, not only incorporates the strong points of different propriety schools but also becomes the first one to advocate ”Propriety in substitution for Metaphysical Principles”, straightforwardly giving a challenge to Cheng-Zhu's Neo-Confucianism. Meanwhile, he establishes a thought system of propriety in substitution for Neo-Confucianism. His maintenance sets off a scholastic trend of discussion on propriety instead of metaphysical principles among the Qian-Jia academic circles, also promotes an array of propriety thought in the late-Ching.