Metaphysics, Epistemology, and Ethics

This chapter provides an overview of Zhu Xi’s metaphysics epistemology, and ethics, with the aim of providing the basic foundations of his philosophical system. It explains how he developed, shaped, and codified earlier Confucian views about issues such as the relationship between pattern-principle and qi, the character of human nature, and proper course of learning into a new and powerful system of philosophy that could claim to continue the earlier Confucian tradition, address a range of pressing contemporary practical social and political problems, and offer an attractive and appealing alternative to Daoism and Buddhism.