This volume contains translations, by a range of leading scholars, focusing on core themes in the philosophy of Zhu Xi (1130-1200), one of the most influential Chinese thinkers of the later Confucian tradition. It includes an Introduction, a chronology of important events, and a list of key terms.

• Preface


• Conventions


• Acknowledgments


• About the Translators


• Introduction


• Chronology of Important Events in Zhu Xi's Life


• Chapter One: Metaphysics, Epistemology, and Ethics by Philip J. Ivanhoe


• Chapter Two: Moral Psychology and Cultivating the Self by Curie Virág


• Chapter Three: Politics and Government by Justin Tiwald


• Chapter Four: Poetry, Literature, Textual Study, and Hermeneutics by On-cho Ng


• Chapter Five: Social Conditions of His Time by Beverly Bossler


• Chapter Six: Heaven, Ghosts and Spirits, and Ritual by Hoyt Tillman


• Chapter Seven: Criticisms of Buddhism, Daoism, and the Learning of the Heart-mind by Ellen Neskar and Ari Borrell


• Chapter Eight: Science and Natural Philosophy by Yung Sik Kim


• Chapter Nine: Zhu Xi's Commentarial Work: Abiding in the Mean and the Constant by Daniel Gardner


• Key Terms of Art


• Index

Philip J. Ivanhoe is Distinguished Chair Professor in the College of Confucian Studies and Eastern Philosophy at Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, Korea where he is Director of the Sungkyun Institute for Confucian Studies and East Asian Philosophy and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Confucian Philosophy and Culture. He specializes in East Asian philosophy and religion and their potential for contemporary ethics.