Zhu Xi: Wisdom Without Borders

Today, we’ll talk about Zhu Xi whose words once guided China’s emperors. Today, Zhu Xi’s Neo-Confucian ideas on knowledge and virtue are inspiring new perspectives worldwide on the moral order of life itself.

Transcript

Zhu Xi: Wisdom Without Borders

Today, we’ll talk about Zhu Xi whose words once guided China’s emperors. Today, Zhu Xi’s Neo-Confucian ideas on knowledge and virtue are inspiring new perspectives worldwide on the moral order of life itself.

Eight hundred years after his death, Zhu Xi still speaks to the world. The Neo-Confucianist’s ideas about virtue, knowledge and harmony helped shape the moral fabric of East Asia and continue to offer guidance in a changing global landscape.

From October 17 to 19, scholars from more than 20 countries gathered in Nanping, Fujian Province to revisit his philosophy at The Conference on Zhu Xi’s Philosophy and Dialogue of Global Civilization. Hosted by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the International Confucian Association, and the Fujian Provincial Government, the event explored the modern relevance of Zhu Neo-Confucianism and its role in fostering dialogue between civilizations.

Though not the first scholar of Neo-Confucianism, which blends the Confucian ethos with concepts from Buddhism and Daoism, Zhu is considered its most influential figure.

Zhu was born in 1130 in Youxi County, Fujian Province during the Southern Song Dynasty, lasting from 1127 to 1279, a time when the Song was rebuilding itself after the fall of its northern territories to the Jin army, which led to the Jin Dynasty, 1115-1234. Amid this environment of uncertainty and division, Zhu grew up to become one of the most influential thinkers in Chinese history, a man whose moral conviction and intellectual curiosity reshaped East Asian civilization.

From his early childhood, Zhu was steeped in the Confucian classics under the guidance of his father, Zhu Song, a local official and scholar. But when Zhu Xi was 13, his father died, leaving him under the care of three of his father’s scholarly friends. One of them, Liu Ziyu, treated the orphaned boy like his own son, providing both shelter and mentorship. This act of kindness deeply shaped Zhu’s view that moral virtue begins in human relationships.

Zhu’s brilliance was evident early on. At 17, he passed the provincial civil service exam. The next year, he earned the rank of jinshi, the most prestigious rank achievable through the imperial examination system. His first post was in Tong’an County, an important area that included Xiamen, Fujian’s scenic island city. 

In the government office there, he hung a plaque that read, “Care for the people as if they were wounded.” For him, good governance was not about power, but compassion. During his brief tenure, he reduced taxes, repaired schools, and helped villagers in need. At the time he left that post, people lined up along the roadside to bid him farewell.

Although his official career seemed promising, Zhu’s true calling lay elsewhere. He spent long periods away from government service, devoting himself to teaching, writing, and philosophical inquiry. In 1158, he became a disciple of Li Tong, a scholar who traced his lineage to the Neo-Confucian masters Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi of the Northern Song, lasting from 960 to 1127. Through Li, Zhu Xi inherited and later refined the Neo-Confucian tradition.

Zhu Xi’s life was far from easy. Despite his reputation, his official career was repeatedly derailed by political struggles. Yet his setbacks only strengthened his philosophical resolve.

At the heart of Zhu Xi thought lay the concept of “principle”, the underlying rational order of the universe. He believed that everything in existence shared this universal principle, though it manifested differently in each thing. This idea of “li yi fen shu”, which is translated as “one principle, many manifestations”, became the cornerstone of Neo-Confucian philosophy.

Equally central was his practice of self-cultivation. Zhu believed that personal moral development was the foundation for social harmony and good governance. His famous eight-step model – “investigate things, extend knowledge, make intentions sincere, rectify the mind, cultivate oneself, regulate the family, govern the state, and bring peace to the world” – captured the Confucian ideal of connecting inner virtue with outward action.

As an educator, Zhu Xi transformed the Chinese academic system. During his service in what is today’s Jiangxi Province, he revived the historic White Deer Grotto Academy, one of the four great academies of China, enriching its library, recruiting teachers and writing the academy’s educational rules. These guidelines, emphasizing discipline, humility and moral inquiry, became the model for private academies across China for the next seven centuries.

Later, he founded the Wuyi Jingshe Academy along the Jiuqu River in the Wuyi Mountains of northern Fujian. In his own poetic description, the academy was built “in harmony with nature, beside mountain and spring,” a space where learning and contemplation merged with the beauty of the landscape.

Zhu’s approach to education foreshadowed modern holistic learning. He believed that natural surroundings shaped moral character, and of course this was centuries before educational reformers like American philosopher and psychologist John Dewey would make similar observations.

Zhu also dedicated decades to writing and editing. His greatest intellectual achievement, Collected Commentaries on the Four Books, provided detailed annotations of Neo-Confucianism’s central canon: The Great Learning, The Doctrine of the Mean, The Analects, and Mencius. Drawing on more than 3,000 earlier commentaries, he synthesized them into a clear and coherent system that ordinary readers could understand.

From the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) onward, Zhu’s Commentaries became the core texts of the imperial civil service examinations until their abolition in 1905, shaping Chinese thought, education, and values for centuries. In China, his work came to hold the same canonical status that the Bible did in Europe or the Quran in the Islamic world.

Deng Xiujun, a professor and associate dean at the School of International Journalism and Communication, Beijing Foreign Studies University, has long researched the global dissemination of Chinese culture. In his opinion, the internationally recognized term “East Asians” specifically refers to a group of people characterized by black hair, dark eyes, outstanding diligence, and a globally acknowledged sense of teamwork. 

According to Deng, the reason they are uniformly labeled as “Chinese” by “the other” is that the cultural core they share is Zhu’s Neo-Confucianist views, which emphasize a strong aptitude for learning, respect for law and order, teamwork, and a high degree of obedience. He told The Context that “The appeal of traditional Chinese culture, particularly Confucian culture, has shaped this cultural community.” 

Zhou Yuanxia, an associate professor at the Fujian Academy of Social Sciences, said that East Asian Confucianism, represented primarily by Zhu’s philosophy, is a vital element of Eastern civilization. She added that it stands in sharp contrast to Western civilization and embodies the principle of “unity in diversity.”

She told The Context that “Viewed globally, East Asian Confucianism represents a distinctive branch of world civilization, while together with Christian and Islamic civilizations, it constitutes the shared essence of human civilization.” 

Zhu’s views, however, also brought him trouble. In 1194, after Emperor Ningzong ascended the throne, Zhu was appointed imperial tutor. He used the opportunity to lecture on The Great Learning, urging the emperor to cultivate moral virtue before exercising power. His emphasis on ethical restraint offended the court’s powerful ministers, and after just 46 days, he was dismissed for being (quote) “impractically idealistic.”

Two years later, the “Qingyuan Party Purge” swept the court. Zhu and his followers were accused of spreading “false learning.” Some of his disciples were imprisoned or exiled. Zhu, stripped of office and reputation, retired to his home in Fujian, where he continued to teach until his health failed.

In the spring of 1200, nearly blind and gravely ill, he dictated revisions to his unfinished works, determined to complete his philosophical legacy. He died that year at the age of 70, and despite official prohibitions, nearly 1,000 students and admirers attended his funeral.

Though his body may have succumbed to the passage of time, Zhu’s ideas did not fade. Up through the Qing Dynasty, lasting from 1644 to 1911, Zhu Neo-Confucianism remained the dominant ideology of the Chinese state. But its influence reached far beyond China’s borders.

In 1195, Japanese monk Myōan Eisai, founder of the Rinzai Zen school, brought Zhu’s works back to Japan. By the 13th century, Korean scholars had begun incorporating Zhu’s teachings into their own Confucian institutions. In 1224, Zhu’s great-grandson Zhu Qian migrated with his family to Goryeo (modern-day Korea), planting the seeds of Neo-Confucianism there.

Over the next three centuries, Zhu Xi’s philosophy became the intellectual backbone of East Asia. In Korea, it evolved into Jujahak, or “the school of Master Zhu,” and became the official ideology of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1897). In Japan, it shaped the ethical foundations of the Tokugawa shogunate (1603-1868), influencing education, governance and even the moral code of the samurai. In 11th century Dai Viet (today’s Vietnam), it helped structure the Confucian examination system and administrative reforms.

During the Ming and Qing dynasties from 1368 to 1911, Chinese emigrants took Zhu’s teachings to places such as Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, where his ideas merged with local traditions, influencing community ethics and education.

By the 16th century, Zhu’s writings began their journey to the West. Christian missionaries, seeking to understand Chinese civilization, translated parts of his commentaries into Latin. These translations reached Europe’s intellectual circles, where Enlightenment thinkers such as Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Leibniz admired the moral rationality of Chinese thought.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, as Sinology grew in Europe, Zhu Neo-Confucianism was translated into French and English. By the 19th century, direct translations from Chinese allowed Western philosophers and theologians to engage more deeply with his ideas on moral self-cultivation and rational order.

Koyasu Nobukuni, a renowned historian and professor emeritus at Osaka University, noted in his monograph East Asian Confucianism: Critique and Method that in modern Eastern philosophy, the only philosophical system comparable to that of the West in both structure and scope is Zhu’s system of thought.

Joseph Needham, the British biochemist and historian who lived from 1900 to 1995, described Zhu as (quote) “the greatest thinker in China” and credited his theories with influencing medieval European philosophy.

Today, Zhu’s influence continues to expand in new directions. His teachings on harmony between humanity and nature have gained renewed attention amid global discussions on sustainable development. His emphasis on “ge wu zhi zhi”, which translates into “investigating things to extend knowledge”, inspires modern science and philosophy. And his vision of a “universal principle with particular manifestations” offers a framework for understanding diversity within unity, a valuable idea in an age of globalization and intercultural exchange.

At The Conference on Zhu Xi’s Philosophy and Dialogue of Global Civilization in Fujian, scholars described Zhu’s philosophy as “a bridge across time and culture.” Indeed, Zhu’s life exemplifies the enduring power of ideas grounded in moral integrity and intellectual curiosity.

He was a man who lived through political upheaval yet remained steadfast in his belief that knowledge must serve virtue, and virtue must serve humanity. From the quiet mountains of Wuyi to the academies of Seoul and Kyoto, and even to the lecture halls of Europe and North America, Zhu’s thought has transcended geography and centuries.

His story shows that true wisdom knows no borders. B. R. Deepak, a professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University in India, said Zhu’s philosophy is not merely a monument of Chinese intellectual history, but a living resource for humanity’s collective search for wisdom in an age of uncertainty.  During his address at the conference, he said that “Zhu’s vision of principle and investigation, his stress on self-cultivation and moral governance, his sense of harmony with nature, and his practice of integrating diverse traditions – all resonate deeply with the challenges and aspirations of global civilization today.” 

William Brown, an American professor at Xiamen University, has long been dedicated to studying and promoting Zhu’s culture. He argues that for foreigners to truly understand Asia, they must first appreciate their historical and cultural roots. 

Brown observes that many Chinese assume Zhu’s philosophy can easily be accepted abroad because of its clarity and influence, but in reality, it remains largely unfamiliar to Western audiences. To bridge this gap, he suggests “connecting Chinese philosophy to what foreign audiences value – success, profit, and practical outcomes.”

He told The Context that “China’s long history of peaceful and sustained development stems from its philosophical foundations, which offer lessons for the world,” adding that “Westerners should recognize that true power and success need not come from force but from cultural and moral strength. Promoting Chinese culture should highlight its role in achieving social, cultural, economic and political success – while avoiding overly simplistic or self-congratulatory narratives.”

Well, that’s the end of our podcast. Our theme music is by the famous film score composer Roc Chen. We want to thank our writer Du Guodong, translator Wang Yuyan, and copy editor Pu Ren. And thank you for listening. We hope you enjoyed it, and if you did, please tell a friend so they, too, can understand The Context.