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Zhu Xi (Chu Hsi, 1130-1200)

Zhu Xi (Chu Hsi, 1130-1200). The great synthesizer of Neo-Confucianism who combined the philosophies of earlier Song Neo-Confucian masters The organizer of the “School of Principle” (lixue) within the Neo-Confucian tradition.

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Zhu Xi (Chu Hsi, 1130-1200)

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  1. Zhu Xi (Chu Hsi, 1130-1200) • The great synthesizer of Neo-Confucianism who combined the philosophies of earlier Song Neo-Confucian masters • The organizer of the “School of Principle” (lixue) within the Neo-Confucian tradition

  2. The founder of Chinese intellectual tradition largely based on the education of the “Four Books” (1190). • The foremost of Confucian teachers who conducted his education, spread his teaching, and reaffirmed Confucian tradition of teaching through private academy (shuyuan) • Aside from Confucius, the most influential Chinese philosopher/educator, whose influence extended to Korea, Vietnam, and Japan for many generations, till the present time. “Chengnan changhe shi”(Singing Harmony in Southern Tan City), 37.5x275.5 mm, 64 lines, 462 characters, by Zhu Xi

  3. The Great Synthesizer • Zhu’s synthesis of the philosophies of earlier masters is best illustrated/represented in his book called Jin si lu, or Reflections on Things Near at Hand, compiled in 1175. Possible Zhu Xi’s calligraphy recently discovered, a thirty-page album, auction price $400,000

  4. The Jin si lu • is the first anthology of Neo-Confucianism • Its impacts outside of China: • 8 Korean annotations from the 16th to 19th century • 27 Japanese annotations from the 17th century to the present day • Yamazaki Ansai (1618-1682) and his followers lectured on it, resulting in more than a hundred explanatory and commentarial works. Partial stele inscription of Zhu Xi’s calligraphy

  5. The Reflections on Things at Hand • The goal of the book: redefined the Confucian “Transmission of the Way” (Daotong) • Its content and themes: • the substance of the Way • essentials of learning • investigations of things • preserving the mind and nourishing the nature • self-discipline • regulating the family • Serving or not serving in the government • Systems and institutions • Handling affairs • Correcting the human mind • Sifting the heterodox schools • Observing the disposition of sages and worthies

  6. Refined the concept of li (principle), by clarifying its relationship with qi (material force, vital energy) • Further developed the concept of Taiji (the Great Ultimate), by bringing the doctrine of humaneness (humanity, ren) to culmination • On the importance of li (principle): • “As there is a thing, there is principle.” • “Before heaven and earth existed, there was principle.” Organizer of the “School of Principle • On the importance of qi (material force): • “In the universe, there has never been any material force without principle or principle without material force”

  7. Zhu Xi on Li and Qi • What are principle and material force? • “What are called principle and material force are certainly two entities,” but “they are merged on with the other and cannot be separated with each in a different place.”

  8. “Throughout the universe there are principle and material force. Principle refers to the Way, which is above the realm of corporeality and is the source from which all things are produced. Material force refers to material objects, which are within the realm of corporeality: it is the instrument by which things are produced.”

  9. “There is principle before there can be material force. But it is only when there is material force that principle finds a place to settle.” “Bird-and-flow” paintings flourished in the Southern Song

  10. The Functions of Principle • Principle causes the mysterious union of yin and yang. It also causes the production and reproduction of myriad things and their unending transformation. • “Because there are principles of activity and tranquility, material force becomes active or tranquil; it is because of these principles that there is activity which produced the material force of yang and there is tranquility which produced the material force of yin.” “Mandarin Duck” by Zhang Mao, Southern Song, National Palace Museum, Beijing

  11. The “Four Books” and the Chinese Intellectual Tradition • Before Zhu Xi, there were “Five Classics” • The Classics of Poetry, History, Changes, Rites, and the Spring and Autumn Annals. • The Four Books (Sishu): • The Great Learning (Daxue) • The Mean (The Doctrine of the Mean (Zhongyong) • The Analects (Lunyu) • The Mencius (Mengzi) “Nu Xiaojing tu” (Women’s Classic of Filial Piety Zhu Xi devoted forty years to the Four Books, writing commentaries on them until three days before he died. His commentaries superseded other commentaries because of its new and innovative interpretations of Confucian ideas.

  12. Zhu Xi’s Educational Philosophy • It is in his commentary on the Great Learning, Zhu Xi laid out his creative interpretation of Confucian political, moral, and educational philosophies: • Three guidelines: the mainstays of the Great Learning • Manifest luminous virtue (ming ming de) • Renew the people (xin min) • Rest in the utmost good (Zhi yu zhi shan) • Eight steps: consists of successive steps in self-cultivation and in dealing with society “Monkey,” by Mao Song (early Southern Song) Album leaf, Tokyo National Museum

  13. Eight Steps Leading to Peaceful World • Eight steps involve a range of cognitive and moral operation directed toward the goal of ordering the state and bring peace to the world • Eight steps: • “The ancients, wishing clearly to manifest luminous virtue to all-under-Heaven, first put in order their states. Wishing to govern their states, they first regulated their families. Wishing to …,they first cultivated their own persons. Wishing to…,they first rectified their minds-and-hearts. Wishing to …,they first made their intentions sincere. Wishing to…, they first extended their knowledge. This extension of knowing lies in investigating things and affairs.”

  14. Zhu’s Commentary on the Eight Steps • “Clearly to manifest luminous virtue to all-under-heaven” is to provide all persons the wherewithal for clearly manifesting their luminous virtue. The mind-and-heart is the master of one’s person. “To make sincere” is to make real, to substantiate. “One’s intention” is what emerges from the mind-an-heart. “To substantiate” what emerges from the mind-and-heart is to try to integrate with the good, free of any self-deception. “Extend” means to project to the limit [the ultimate]. “Knowing” is like recognizing, to project our knowing to the limit, hoping that our knowing [capacity] will be fully employed. “To investigate” is to reach. “Thing” is like “affair.” Fathoming the principles of things and affairs, one hopes always to reach the ultimate point.”

  15. Ordering the World Begins from Personal Cultivation • The Great Learning says: • “Things being investigated, knowing can be extended; knowing being extended, the intentions can be made sincere; the intentions being made, the mind can be rectified; the mind rectified, the person can be cultivated [self disciplined]; with the self disciplined, the family can be regulated; the family regulated, the state can be governed; the state governed, all-under-Heaven can be at peace.”

  16. Zhu Xi’s Commentary • “Things being investigated” means unfailingly to reach the ultimate point in the principles of things-and-affairs. “Knowing being extended” means that the knowing of our minds-and-heart is fully utilized. Knowing have been fully utilized, one’s intention can be substantiated. One’s intentions substantiated, the mind-and-heart can be rectified…..All the items receding the “cultivating of the person” [disciplining of the self] have to do with “manifesting luminous virtue” [manifesting the moral nature]. All that follows “the regulating of the family” has to do with “renewing the people.….”

  17. The Foremost Confucian Educator • Zhu Xi and the private academies • Zhu Xi’s White Deer Grotto Academy (right) not only became an important media for the propagation of his teachings, but also served as a model for all private academies in the Southern Song

  18. White Deer Grotto Academy • Articles of the White Deer Grotto Academy • Are a set of stated precepts, posted for all to see as the basis for the conduct of instruction in the academy. • Most of them are quotations from the classics, by which Zhu attempted to strike the balance between personal cultivations and social relations, and between moral and intellectual development The Gate

  19. Family and Society • Zhu Xi stressed the importance of studying ancient rites and of putting them into practice White Deer Grottoes is in the south of this “Wulao Feng” (Five Elders’ Peaks) Main Hall

  20. He gave family ritual priority over the royal and state rituals • He promoted family rituals such as capping (coming of age) [“pinning ritual” for girls], weddings, funerals, and ancestral rites. • He promoted a social welfare system called“community granaries,” and encouraged local elites to join government officials to deal with chronic problems in society. The “community granaries” were later known as “righteous [charitable] granaries”. Zhu Xi’s statue is found in many places where he built academies

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