Analysis of Zhu Xi's Inheritance and Development of Confucianism and Its Transformation and Innovation

Abstract

Confucius founded Confucianism in the late Spring and Autumn periods, and Mencius and Xunzi emerged during the Warring States period to develop Confucianism from their perspectives. However, Confucianism in this period had not yet achieved a stable social status, and even tended to decline after the war, and was once strongly threatened by the rising Buddhism and Taoism. It was not until the emergence of Zhu Xi, a Southern Song scholar who made a new interpretation of Confucianism and Mencius, that he built a new Confucianism with the core of science. It was then that Confucianism established its unshakeable dominance in the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties for nearly seven hundred years. In this paper, we study the inheritance and innovation of Song Confucianism to pre-Qin Confucianism, and we study Zhu Xi's philosophy, which not only developed the ideas of his predecessors but also transformed Confucian values into his true spiritual pillars. We find that Zhu Xi truly achieved the greatness of science and created the new Confucianism, namely Zhu Xi's philosophy. In Zhu Xi's view, "the preservation of heavenly reason, and the extinction of human desire" is the essence of Confucianism. Zhu Xi also established the mind-only theory of "reason and qi dualism". He believes that "reason" is the basis and root of the material world, which is also the law of natural operation, while "qi" is the element of all things He believes that "reason" is the basis and root of the material world, and is also the law of natural operation; while "qi" is the element of all things, "reason" and "qi" are not separate, but "reason first, qi second. In addition to this, Zhu Xi also attaches great importance to education. Zhu Xi believes that if there is no education, even if personal achievements can exceed those of their predecessors, the impact is too small to have much value. He pointed out that if Confucianism could be invested in education, then the spirit of Confucianism could be extended to the whole country, and the achievement of doing so would be incomparable. We see that Confucius' transmission of the Six Classics has become a cultural paradigm. And Zhu Zi's teaching of the Four Books has also achieved uninterrupted success. The teachings of Confucius and Zhu Zi were successively reflected, the former in the pre-Qin Dynasty, the latter in the Southern Song Dynasty, even though a hundred years apart, but Zhu Xi has well taken up the spirit of Confucianism and transformed it into the creation of Neo-Confucianism, which is Zhu Xi's philosophy.