PhilosophersZhu Xi

Zhu Xi

Study the principle (li) of things to perfect oneself.

Neo-Confucianism1130 – 1200 ChinaNeo-ConfucianCommentator on the classicsMetaphysicsEducator
人心之靈莫不有知，而天下之物莫不有理
The intelligent mind of man is certainly formed to know, and there is not a single thing in which its principles do not inhere.
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合天地萬物而言，只是一箇理；及在人，則又各自有一箇理
Taking heaven, earth and all things together, there is only one principle; in people, each one yet has one of his own. (He is here commenting on Cheng Yi's formula, "one principle, many allotments".)
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知、行常相須，如目無足不行，足無目不見
Knowing and acting always need each other: as the eye without feet cannot walk, and feet without eyes cannot see.
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人之所以有善有不善，只緣氣質之稟各有清濁
That some people are good and others not is only because the qi each received is, for each, clear or turbid.
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如何要一切知得！然知至只是到脫然貫通處
How could one need to know everything? Perfect knowledge only means reaching the point where everything connects.
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Misconceptions

False
Zhu Xi wrote the Classified Conversations (Yulei), his great philosophical book.

He did not write it. These are conversations recorded by his students, gathered in 1270, seventy years after his death. Each entry ends with the name of the student who took it down. The books he wrote and published himself are his commentaries on the Four Books.

False
The chapter of the Great Learning on "investigating things" is an ancient text.

The commentary on this passage was lost. Zhu Xi says himself that he supplied it, taking up Cheng Yi's thought. This founding chapter of Neo-Confucianism is therefore his. Wang Yangming, who rejected it, went back to the old version without this chapter.

Nuanced
The Jinsi lu expresses Zhu Xi's ideas.

He compiled it, with Lü Zuqian, but these sayings are by four masters of the previous century. Each item starts with the name of the speaker ("Master Lianxi said…", "Yichuan said…"). Choosing and ordering them shows what he kept, but they are not his words.