- Lived:
- 1130–1200 · Fujian province, Southern Song China
- Tradition:
- Neo-Confucianism — its grand architect and synthesizer
- The Big Idea:
- Everything that exists is a partnership of li (pattern, principle) and qi (vital stuff-energy) — and because that pattern lives in you as your true nature, a disciplined life of study and attention can polish you into a sage.
- In their words:
- "The moon in the sky is one, yet it is scattered upon ten thousand rivers, and in each it is whole."
- If you remember one thing:
- He died a banned heretic — and within little more than a century, his interpretation of Confucius became the official examination answer for the largest civil service on earth, and stayed that way for six hundred years.
- A note on legends:
- Zhu Xi's life is richly documented, but it was written up by devoted disciples and hostile courtiers in turn. Where a story smells of hagiography, this chapter says so.