朱Zhū熹Xī · Zhu Xi

Zhu Xi (1130–1200) is the single most influential Confucian after Confucius and Mencius themselves — and arguably more influential than either on what 'Confucianism' meant for the second millennium of the common era. His great editorial act was to select four early texts — Da Xue, Zhong Yong, Lunyu, Mengzi — and assemble them as the 四书 (Four Books), the new core canon that displaced the older Five Classics as the entry point to Confucianism for the next 800 years. The Four Books section at the top of this library is, in a literal sense, Zhu Xi's editorial decision. Philosophically he founded 程朱理学 (the school of principle, 理), arguing that everything — particulars, morals, things — instantiates an underlying pattern (理) that the mind grasps through investigation (格物) and study. His recorded sayings are gathered in the Zhuzi Yulei (朱子语类), an enormous text in the recorded-dialogue style of the Lunyu. Reserved placeholder: the Chinese text exists on ctext.org but is not yet ingested.