 Zhang Xuecheng shared the kaozheng scholars’ enthusiasm for concrete and critical study of the classics (which he regarded as histories) and their aversion toward esoteric moral speculation. He stated, “The ancients never did talk about principle removed from things and affairs”, and “those who talk about nature and heaven’s mandate must study history” (quoted in Yü Ying-shih 1976: 46). Like Huang Zongxi, he redefined, in intellectualist terms, what Wang Yangming’s notion of zhi liangzhi (extending spontaneous moral knowing to the utmost) meant. Wang’s liangzhi was innate, spontaneous, ineffable, and intuitive, realizable through internal introspection. By contrast, Zhang’s version referred to “what a learner considered to be closest to his talents (cai) [and]… affective and emotive predispositions (xingqing)”, both of which were natural predispositions “to learn” (xue). On the other hand, Zhang explained the notion of “extending” zhi as “the learner’s effort to search for knowledge” (xuezhe qiuzhi zhi gong) (quoted in Yü Ying-shih 1976: 79–80).