China & East Asia · 11th c. – early 20th c.
Neo-Confucianism (Cheng–Zhu school)
All things share one principle (li) expressed through material force (qi); by investigating things and cultivating the mind, a person recovers original goodness and can become a sage.
How can Confucian ethics rest on a full account of cosmos and mind?
For centuries Buddhism and Daoism had offered sophisticated metaphysics and meditation, while Confucianism looked like mere social ethics. Song scholars such as Zhou Dunyi, Zhang Zai and the Cheng brothers built a Confucian metaphysics of their own; Zhu Xi synthesised it, and from 1313 his commentaries on the Four Books were the standard for the civil-service examinations.
Everything has a principle that makes it what it is, and all principles are ultimately one. Human nature is that principle, so it is originally good; evil comes from turbid qi and selfish desires. By “investigating things” (gewu) and holding reverent seriousness (jing), one clarifies one’s qi and realises one’s nature.
- Principle (li) and material force (qi) together make all things.
- Human nature is principle, and therefore good.
- Investigate things to extend knowledge.
It was the orthodoxy of late imperial China, Joseon Korea and, in part, Tokugawa Japan for some six centuries; Korean scholars refined it in debates such as the Four–Seven debate.
Thinkers
1017–1073Zhou DunyiSong scholar honoured as the pioneer of Neo-Confucianism1020–1077Zhang ZaiNeo-Confucian who saw all things as condensations of qi1032–1085Cheng HaoElder Cheng brother, teacher of humaneness as oneness1033–1107Cheng YiYounger Cheng brother who made “principle” central1130–1200Zhu XiGreat synthesiser of Song Neo-Confucianism1501–1570Yi Hwang (Toegye)Leading Neo-Confucian scholar of Joseon Korea1536–1584Yi I (Yulgok)Korean statesman-scholar and Toegye’s younger rivalKey texts
Where it came from
Grew out ofConfucianismThe Song masters returned to Mencius and the Great Learning, grouping them with the Analects and the Doctrine of the Mean as the Four Books.Borrowed from
Chan / Zen BuddhismWhile rejecting Buddhism, Neo-Confucians adopted quiet sitting, the search for one’s original nature and the idea of a single principle in all things.Borrowed from
DaoismZhou Dunyi’s Diagram of the Supreme Ultimate is traditionally traced to Daoist cosmological diagrams.
What it led to
Opposed bySchool of Mind (Lu–Wang school)Lu Jiuyuan and Wang Yangming rejected Zhu Xi’s search for principle in external things and located it in the mind itself.Carried on by
New ConfucianismFeng Youlan rebuilt Cheng–Zhu principle learning with modern logic in his “new principle learning”.