As a philosophical stream during Song Dynasty, Confucianism was defined newly

and seen from different standpoints.Confucianism (rujiao ) has been a state

doctrine since the mid of Former Han Dynasty (Qianhan [Qian Han]) . But it has
not only been a fundament for a centralized and autocratic state, but also a basis for
wide discussions about the relation between Heaven, nature and man. Song time
philosophers tried to redefine man's position in the universe. The literary movement
to go back to the roots of Confucianism to heal the diseases of the state, called "Old
literature movement (guwen yundong )", was started by the Tang period
scholars Han Yu and Li Ao . The Song time historian Ouyang Xiu
stressed that cultural norms and education serve to practise a better policy. Zhou
Dunyi , Shao Yong and the brothers Cheng Yi and Cheng Hao
based their speculations about a better society on the Confucian classics, but it was
the great Southern Song philosopher Zhu Xi who founded a school with the
interest to newly interprete the old classical works. His school focused on the
explanation of human nature and universal order and was therefore called "School of
Nature and Order" (xinglixue or short Lixue ), in the West known as Neo-
Confucianism. Zhu Xi's philosophy saw the world determined by a dualism between
a rational natural and moral order (li ) and odem or non-organized stuff (qi ), or
shape and matter. Deeply interested in a comprehensive interpretation of the
Confucian classics, Zhu Xi wrote numerous comments to the old books. Some of his
discussions are collected in the book Zhuzi Yulei "Master Zhu's categorized
talks". Lu Jiuyuan , another philosopher, interpreted the world in a more
monistic sense, assuming that the universe is a spatial and temporal expression of
spirit. His school of thinking is called "School of the mind" (xinxue ).
Zhou Dunyi (1017-1073) was highly interested in the interpretation of
the Yijing "Classic of Changes". Basing on this divination classic that is deeply
influenced by Daoist thinking (daojiao ), Zhou Dunyi wrote his short
"Explanation of the Diagram of Highest Extreme" Taijitu shuo (Taiji tu shuo, Taiji
tushuo) and traced back all existing phenomena like seasons, the Five
Elements (wuxing ), the active and inactive principles yin and yang , and
even the highest extreme, to be born out of a deep silence and motionlessness
(wuji ). More important for Confucian thinking is his book "Comprehensive
(Explanations) of the Book of Changes" (Yitong , also called "Comprehensive
Book" Tongshu ). Motionlessness being the source of everything, it is also the
basis for acheiving sincerity (cheng ) which is the condition of becoming a perfect
man (junzi ) or a saint (shengren ). Sincerity, although being non-acting
(wuwei ), is determining good (shan ) or bad (e ). Virtue (de ) is
expressed as love or humanity (ai , ren ), properness or righteousness
(yi , yi ), order or ritus (li , li ), comprehending or knowing (tong , zhi ),
keeping or trusting (shou , xin ). With the luminant principle yang, Heaven
creates the ten thousand beings (wanwu ) and gives them a natural sense for
human relationship, by the dark principle yin, Heaven accomplishes all beings,
giving them righteousness. Heaven directly influences man, and the holy rulers as
representants educated their subjects by humanity and righteousness, by rites (li )
to bring order (li ) to people, and by music (yue ) to bring harmony (he ) to
the empire.
Zhang Zai (1020-1077) further developed the metaphysical background for the
Confucian revival. He concentrated on the Yijing "Classic of Changes" and
the Zhongyong "Doctrine of the Mean". In his book Zhengmeng "Correcting
the Ignorant", Zhang Zai postulated that the basic elementary component of the
universe and all beings is odem, breath or matter (qi ) which he called "Great
Emptiness" (taixu ; i.e. shapelessness or unoccupiedness) - that is in fact not
vain like the Buddhist emptiness (nyat; kong ), but is a substance to give
shape to all things, from lowest to highest density. All phenomena within the
universe are made from the Great Emptiness, only with different densities. The
Great Emptiness bears the potential for movement and for a good and virtuous
character, and every being possesses these potentials. Ximing "Western
Inscriptions" is another theoretical work of Zhang Zai, by that he stresses the unity
of Heaven (Tian ), Earth (Di ) and all beings. All people are brothers and sisters
because everybody is being born by Heaven. The ruler is the oldest son of Heaven,
and the sage man possesses the highest virtue produced by Heaven. The human
nature also finds its source in Heaven and is therefore equally good in every man.
The different character of people is expressed by the "quality of his/her
substantiation" (qizhi ), and even a bad substantiation can be lead back to its
good origin by proper education and self-control.
The mathematician Shao Yong (1011-1077) tried to explain the universal
metaphysics with Daoist number speculations, basing on the Yijing "Classic of
Changes". All different beings in the universe, he states in his bookHuangji Jingshi
"Generic Canon of the Imperial Extreme", find their source in the "Highest
Extreme" (taiji ), which is nothing else than Heaven. He discriminates between
the Primary Heaven (Xiantian ), consisting of sun, moon, stars and the elements
on earth, and the Secondary Heaven (Houtian ) that is responsible for the
universal coherence according to the Five Phases. If the moving character and the
silent character of the elements is mixed up in a right way, the universal way is
properly founded. The beings are created by a division of one into two, two into four
and four into eight, a relation reflected in the Eight Hexagrams in the Book of
Changes. Everything is born by the Highest Extreme, the center, heart or mind
(xin ) of the universe. The nature of every man and every being is therefore the
same, it originating in the Primary Heaven and is given to man and the ten thousand
beings with their birth. Concerning the life cycle of history and dynasties, Shao Yong
speculates that there exist four different stages, like there are four different qualities
in the kind of rule and exertion the Heavenly mandate. Unfortunately, he does not
create a scenario for the future.
The brothers Cheng Hao (1032-1085) and Cheng Yi (1033-1107; also
called Master Yichuan ) further developed these Proto-Neo-Confucian
thoughts by getting rid of the Daoist influence in the cosmological theories. They
concentrated on explaining and commenting important Confucian Classics like
the Mengzi (Mencius), the Lunyu "Confucian Analects", the Daxue "The
Great Learning" and the Zhongyong "The Doctrine of the Mean". The never
changing base of the universe is the universal order (li ). It is this order that
causes everything to come into being by providing it with breath or matter (qi )
that is ranging somewhere between a positive (yang ) and a negative side (yin ).
Everything can be traced back to the universal order and can not be without it. Each
person depends on it, each social relation and every personal character is
determined by the universal order. Human nature (xing ) should be good because
it is given by the universal order. But the transformation into a being with the help
of breath (qi ) can make a man either good or bad. But even bad character is an
expression of the human ability (cai ). To become a good person, one has to keep
away from extremes and to follow a middle path. The good man has to observe the
Heavenly path of universal order. Together with Zhu Xi the teachings of Cheng Yi are
later called the "teachings of Cheng and Zhu" (Cheng-Zhu zhi xue ).
The greatest person of Song period Neo-Confucianism is Zhu Xi (1130-1200),
also called "Master Zhu" (Zhuzi ). Because Neo-Confucian philosophers laid
stress on an existing single-source of all universal phenomena, the universal order
(li ), Neo-Confucianism is called in Chinese the "Teachings of the Order" (lixue
). Zhu Xi's teachings are the essence of the former philosophers and became
orthodox under the Yuan dynasty. Zhu Xi explained that the unique source of the
whole universe is the Heavenly Order (tianli ), also called the Highest Extreme
(taiji ). This order and the universal breath (qi ) of dense or scattered matter
are able to give shape to every beings. There does not exist order without the
shaping breath or matter, and no breath without the order. Every being has the
same amount and character of order, but every being is characterized by a different
amount and character of breath, thus making different elements, different beings,
appearances and distinguishable people with different character, good or bad.
Therefore, everybody seems to have a different order or character, what is in fact
only the same order: One basis, different shapes (li yi fen shu ), or with Zhu
Xi's words, "taking water out of a river with a bowl or a bucket, you obtain different
measures of water", but it is still water, only in different amounts and in a different
environment. The human nature is determined by the environment, like "a pearl
lying in water or in mud". But while the human nature is good in every man, the
passions can be good or bad. Human nature is the universal order in the heart of
man, that can be influenced by the environment.
Zhu Xi is the most important person of Confucianism after Confucius and Mengzi. He
has not only been an important commentator of the classical and canonical texts,
but his interpretations are undertaken as an explanation of the whole corpus of
classical texts. His interpretations have been the orthodox exegesis of Confucian
texts until the end of the Chinese empire. Secondly, Zhu Xi has accumulated the
whole new cosmological and metaphysical interpretations of the Song Dynasty and
has incorporated them into a new school, later known to us as Neo-Confucianism.
Zhu Xi's disciples further developed the theories of the universal order. The most
important are the Song scholar Zhang Shi (1133-1180), and the Qing
scholars Gu Yanwu (1613-1682) and Wang Fuzhi (1619-1692).
The most famous collection of Zhu Xi's philosophy is the Zhuzi yulei
"Discourses of Master Zhu, arranged thematically". But "Master Zhu" has written a
large treasury of interpretations and exegeses of many different philosophical
matters (e.g. the interpretation of the Yijing Hexagrams in Yixue qimeng
"Enlighenment in the Teachings of the Changes"). And, like most Chinese scholars,
Zhu Xi also engaged in calligraphy and poetry.
Zhang Shi (1133-1180, studio name: Nanxuan ) was founder of the Hu-
Xiang school (also called Hunan school ) of Neo-Confucianism.
Although he declares himself a disciple of Hu Hong he only met him once - but
nonetheless has inherited the philosophy of Hu's teacher Cheng Hao. For Zhang
Shi,the nature of the natural order (li ) is the Heavenly mandate, in humans the
natural order is expressed by individual character (xing ), and as controlling force
of the of the character, it is expressed in the mind (xin ). In each individual the
"amount" of natural order might be different, but the substance is the same: the
natural order penetrates each individual and every single object. If the Highest
Extreme, source of the natural order, moves, the two odems (er qi
: yin and yang) take shape, and then produce the ten thousand beings (wanwu
). The mind controls character and behaviour and is therefore a linkage between a
single individual and the natural order. This thought clearly shows tendences to the
"school of the mind" by Lu Jiuyuan (see below). Virtuous behaviour is only an
expression of the natural goodness (shan ) that is given by nature, and not man-
made (wu suo wei, er ran ). Human desires and the wish to gain profits
(li ) are not natural, but man-made. Zhang Shi was also one of the first Neo-
Confucian scholars to discuss Hu Hong's thoughts that were collected in the
writing Zhiyan .
Lu Jiuyuan (1139-1191) hat a somewhat different approach to the
metaphysical theories of Zhu Xi and his forerunners. Still equally to these people, Lu
and his brothers saw the cosm as bound by one single constant, the universal order
(li or dao "way"). This order reached down to the social division between upper
and lower, as granted by nature. People following this order are rewarded,
disobedient people are chastised by Heaven. The old rulers and sage emperors
recognized the patterns of this order in all natural phenomena. Or, as Lu Jiuyuan
said, they enlighened their heart or mind (xin ). The heart of man is therefore
equal to the universal order, it is a reflection of the natural patterns. The heart of
the sage man is naturally equal to the heart of a mean man. In this point, Lu
contradicts Zhu Xi who taught that the will and temperament of man (qing , yu )
destroys this natural order in the human nature (xing ). If Heaven is order and
man only wishes, they cannot be equal, is the argument of Lu Jiuyuan. While Zhu Xi
stresses that spirit or mind is an objective reality, a composition of universal order
and breath or matter, Lu Jiuyuan sees the spirit as dependent of sensual perception.
Lu's philosophical school was therefore called "Philosophy of the Mind" (xinxue ).
There came up severe struggles between the disciples of Zhu Xi and that of Lu
Jiuyuan, but Zhu Xi's school had lost its strength and was overtopped by the great
Ming philosopher Wang Shouren (Wang Yangming ), a representant of
the Philosophy of the Mind.