Neo-Confucianism
Zhu Xi rebuilds Confucian thought with a metaphysics borrowed from its rivals.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 70 years
- Known to
- ± 10 years
- Era
- Post-Classical, Holocene
Responding to the intellectual success of Buddhism and Daoism, Zhu Xi and others construct a Confucianism with a full account of cosmology, human nature and self-cultivation, centred on principle and material force. Zhu Xi's selection of the Four Books becomes the basis of the imperial examinations from 1313 to 1905, which makes his commentary the definitive interpretation for six hundred years across China, Korea, Japan and Vietnam.