 It is important to note that the coherent patterns and modes identified with Qing philosophy are my own narrative and interpretive constructions for the purpose of limning the lineaments of the intellectual landscape of a time. They are analytical categories that result from my hermeneutic intervention within the intellectual history of late imperial China, the coherent features of which might not have been evident to contemporary scholars in the Qing. In short, Qing philosophy is a constructed period concept that denotes a distinct worldview with a specific temporal location.