Ye Shi developed a new spectrum of Confucianism and became a significant representative of empirical tradition in Confucianism by challenging transcendentalism on decree and nature of Heaven held by Neo-Confucians in the Song Dynasty with his empirical theory of moral nature.He stressed that empirical knowledge derived from hearing and seeing had a decisive effect on the accumulation and cultivation of virtues.He had a strong sense of history,arguing that Confucius was a historical model of practising virtues rather than an embodiment of the decree and nature of Heaven.He explained virtues with utilitarian `rationality’by combining virtues with merits,and regarded utility as the basis of morality.Although there were some features of morality or justice in his theory,he was not a utilitarian in a strict sense.
