School of thought

Neo-Confucianism

Tradition

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Classification

Period
c. 1017-1644 CE
Regions
east asia
Domains
Ethics , Metaphysics

Overview

Neo-Confucianism revitalized Confucian thought by integrating metaphysical and cosmological dimensions influenced by Buddhism, alongside currents of Taoist thought. Zhu Xi's rationalist school emphasized the investigation of things to grasp principle (li), while Wang Yangming's idealist school taught that principle resides in the mind itself and that true knowledge is inseparable from action.

Key ideas

  • Li and Qi: Zhu Xi's framework: li (principle, pattern) gives things their nature and structure; qi (material force) gives them their physical existence. Together they constitute all reality.
  • Investigation of Things: Zhu Xi's method: by carefully studying the principles in things, events, and classics, one gradually extends knowledge and cultivates virtue.
  • Unity of Knowledge and Action: Wang Yangming argued that knowing the good and doing the good are one and the same — if you truly know something is right, you act on it. Inaction reveals incomplete knowledge.

Key figures

Zhu Xi · Wang Yangming · Zhou Dunyi · Cheng Yi · Cheng Hao

Influenced by

Later connections

References