How did neo-confucianism respond to the changes of late Ming society?

Ming society from the late sixteenth to the mid seventeenth century was a society in the grips of profound economic, social and political changes. It is always easy to look back on a period, view the big picture and label it as a period of upheaval. But records left show that even contemporaries recognised the ferment they were living through. With such all-encompassing and intense changes, it was perhaps inevitable that the tradition of morals, …

…of insecurity and disorientation as the people of the Ming must have felt. Today, psychology-babbling gurus have cashed in. In the 16th and 17th century, the neo-confucians cashed in. Seeing a people in need of guidance, they picked out those elements of their teachings which would be comprehensible and relevant and expanded them into a new ideology to suit the times. Neo-confucianism in the late Ming was less a faith than a secular counselling service.