Major Figures and Ideas of Neo-Confucianism

and Quotes from Zhu Xi (Song Dyn.) & Wang Yang-ming (Ming Dyn.)

Song Dynasty Figures:

The "Five Masters" of the Northern Song

Zhou Dun-yi (1017-1073)
Shao Yong (1011-1077)
Zhang Zai (1020-1077)
Cheng Hao (1032-1085)
Cheng Yi (1033-1107)

The "Great Synthesizer" of the Southern Song

Zhu Xi (1130-1200)

Assembled Quotes from Zhu Xi's Writings

A. The "Facts" of the Universe

Mankind has been generated as the finest product of the cosmos, its ultimate end:

The Great Ultimate, through movement, generates the force of Yang. When its activity
reaches its limit, it becomes tranquil and thus generates the force of Yin. By the
transformation of Yang and its union with Yin, the Five Forces arise: Water, Fire, Wood,
Metal, and Earth. It is man alone who receives them in their highest excellence. The five
moral principles of his nature are aroused by, and react to, the external world, and engage
in activity. Good and bad are distinguished and human affairs take their place.

The universe is a dualism; it is composed of "material force" (close in meaning to "matter"),
and "heavenly principle" (the natural and proper contours of the cosmos and human
affairs).

In the universe there has never been any material force that has not been guided by
heavenly principle, nor has principle ever existed other than in material force. . . .
Fundamentally, principle and material force cannot be spoken of as prior or posterior. But
if we trace their origin, we are obliged to say that principle is prior.

Although material force in the universe integrates and disintegrates, attracts and repels in
a hundred ways, nevertheless the principle according to which it operates has unerring
order.

B. Linking the "Facts" of the Universe to Confucian Ethical Values

Human beings are a mix of heavenly principle (moral social nature) and impure material force
(selfish desires)

Human nature is nothing but heavenly principle. . . . Our nature consists of concrete
principle, complete with humanity (ren), righteousness, ritual, and wisdom.

One's nature comes from Heaven, whereas one's personal capacities come from material
force. When a person is endowed with clear material force, his capacities will be clear.
When a person possesses turbid material force, his capacities are impure.

The imperative for man is to perfect himself and return to his "heavenly nature"

The clarity of water is comparable to the goodness of human nature. As water may be
turbid to a greater or lesser extent, so one's material force may be pure or impure to
varying degrees. We cannot say that turbid water ceases to be water, and just so, although
a man may be darkened by material force and degenerate into evil, his nature does not
cease to be inherent in him. If one can overcome material force through learning, one can
know this harmonious and unified nature.

This requires complete concentration of mind on the world, to the point of forgetting the 'self'

The essential path is to concentrate on one thing. This means having no desires. Having
no desires, one is vacuous while tranquil and straightforward in action. Being vacuous
while tranquil, one becomes intelligent and penetrating; being straightforward in action,
one becomes impartial, and hence all-embracing.

The result is ren: the unity of self and other

The man of ren forms one body with all things without any differentiation. Righteousness,
ritual, wisdom, and faithfulness are all expressions of ren. As ren is nourished, self and
other are identified.

Ultimately, the heavenly principle of the mind enters into a single body with the heavenly
principle that "flows" through all things in the universe

The sage regards everything in the world as his own self. The mind that leaves something
outside itself is not capable of uniting with Heaven.

In the end, the practice of the Neo-Confucian sage is none other than the realm of human
interaction (the roles of the Five Relationships) and the Confucian classics and histories

There is no better way to penetrate principle to the utmost than to pay attention to
everything in our reading of books and handling of affairs. Although there may not seem
to be substantial progress, nevertheless after a long period of accumulation, without
realizing it, one will have become saturated with principle, and achieve harmony and
understanding.

Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) "School of the Mind" Neo-Confucianism

Wang Yang-ming (1472-1529)

Some Selections from Records of Wang Yang-ming's Thought

The key to understanding does not lie in the world outside the mind

People fail to realize that the highest good is in their minds and seek it outside. As they
believe that every thing or every event has some specific aspect of principle, they search for
the highest good in individual things. Consequently, the mind becomes fragmentary,
isolated, broken into pieces; mixed and confused, it has no definite direction.

The outside world has no existence at all, independent of man's mind

The innate knowledge of man is the same as that of plants and trees, tiles and stones. . . .
Even Heaven and earth cannot exist without the innate knowledge that is inherent in man,
for at bottom, Heaven, earth, the world of things, and man form one body.

A friend pointed to flowering trees on a cliff and said, "You say there is nothing under
heaven external to the mind. These flowering trees on the mountain blossom and drop
their blossoms of themselves; what have they to do with my mind?" The Teacher said,
"Before you look at these flowers, they and your mind are in a state of silent vacuity. As
you come to look at them, their colors at once appear clearly. From this you can know that
the flowers are not external to your mind."

People need to eliminate any belief that separates the idea of knowledge from engaged action

There have never been people who know but do not act. Those who are supposed to know
but do not act simply do not know. Therefore, the Great Learning points to true knowledge
and action for people to see, saying, "this is like loving a beautiful color or hating a bad
odor." Seeing beautiful colors pertains to knowledge; loving beautiful colors pertains to
action but as soon as one sees a beautiful color one loves it. You don't see it first and then
make up your mind to love it! . . . People today distinguish between knowledge and action
and pursue them separately, believing that one must "know" before he can act. . . .
Consequently, to the last day of life they will never act and also never know.

What we need to know (understand deeply) the world and act in it lies in our natural minds

What emanates from the mind is the will. The original substance of the will is knowledge,
and wherever the will is directed is a "thing" or "affair." When the will is directed towards
serving one's parents, then serving one's parents is the affair. When directed towards
serving a ruler, then serving one's ruler is the affair. . . . Therefore I say that there are
neither principles nor things outside the mind. . . . The effort to make one's bright virtue
shine, described in the Great Learning, means nothing more than to make the will sincere
and the work of making the will sincere is nothing other than "straightening out affairs."

True enlightenment must be sought not in passive thought or in books, but in real-world action

When I was young, my friend Qian and I discussed the idea that to become a sage or a
worthy man, one must investigate all the things of the world. . . . [To begin], I attempted to
investigate the principles in the bamboo in front of the pavilion. From morning till night,
I was unable to find the principles in the bamboo. On the seventh day I became sick. . . .
After I had lived among the barbarians for three years I understood what all this meant.
There is really nothing in the world of things to investigate. The effort is only to be carried
out with reference to one's body and mind.

Meditation may yield insight, but divorced from engaged action it is harmful

Formerly, seeing that students tended to become wrapped up in intellectual explanations
and debate, which did them no good, I taught them sitting in meditation. For a time, this
helped them see the true way and they achieved some results, but they gradually developed
the defect of fondness for tranquility and disgust with activity, and they degenerated into
lifelessness like dry wood.

The deepest insight into the nature of man and the universe is expressed in political action

Knowing Heaven is the same as knowing the affairs of a district or a county, which is what
the titles for prefect [literally: "knower-of-the-district"] and magistrate [literally: "knower-of-
the-county"] mean. It is a matter concerning one's role, and the phrase "knowing Heaven"
means that in moral character one has already become part of Heaven.