晚明的進步思想家李卓吾,與泰州健將耿定向,曾有長達十數年之論爭,然彼此論爭之本質、及其背後隱含之學術問題與意義為何,在既有研究中尚少有深入探討。若掃除刻板印象,還原耿、李論爭之本質,實乃本於「責善,朋友之道」所從事的「問學」之爭。曾有論者以「天臺重名教,卓吾識真機」分別二者,實則耿、李之學術,皆以「識真機」為本;然因「天臺重名教」,故憂心若外「名教」而言「真機」,不啻為「拆籬放犬」;而「卓吾識真機」,故強調若「名教」無法包容異端,則亦將自喪「真機」。耿、李之爭反映出「名教」與「真機」間,確實有其矛盾難解之困境,然兩人卻以「兩舍兩從」的胸襟氣度尋求調合之道,故其論爭之積極意義與價值值得彰揚。
Li Zhuo-wu was a celebrated heretical thinker in the Late-Ming Dynasty. All the way, he was considered an iconoclast and anti-traditionalism. Until the past twenty years, the scholars had gradually accepted an opinion that Li Zhuo-wu's theories originated form the Wang Yang-ming's doctrine of the mind. Keng Ting-hsiang was a scholar of Taichou School being an influence on the academia of the Late-Ming Dynasty. But in the later period, the scholars were ignored to study Keng's doctrines. For the Li's advocating staunchly of ”true Confucianism”, and the continuous debates among Li and Keng, the scholars generally regarded Keng as a pseudo-Confucian. However, Li criticized severely Keng on the one part, but still eulogized that Keng was a sage on the other part. Then we consider that the evaluation about Keng was prejudiced for a long time. Li's ”true Confucianism” was a distinctive Confucianism about life practice, and he believed that genuine friends should redress errors mutually. The intrinsic quality about the debates among Li and Keng was responding to the debate between friends. Both the learning of Li and Keng were the practical wisdom. Their debates were concerned with the contradiction between Confucian ethical codes and true mind. It could help us to explore the meaning of their theories in Confucian's development. We could think about the questions comprise the ideal and reality, the dilemma, and the future of Confucianism.