Zhu Xi has a very lofty position in mainland Confucianism, he is another scholar after Confucius and Mencius who raised Confucianism to the height of national recognition, and even in the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, China's imperial examinations are based on Zhu Xi's thoughts, so he is also honored as Zhu Zi.
So what about Zhu Xi's specific thoughts? In what kind of evolutionary process did his ideas finally take shape and have an impact on later generations? What are the more Confucian schools related to his thoughts, and what kind of relationship does it have with him?
If you want to understand the Confucian thought of the mainland, Zhu Xi must be a person who cannot be bypassed, and he also has a crucial influence on the formation of Chinese thought in later generations. Therefore, for such a Confucian scholar, we need to study it systematically, and we need to explore his mental journey from the evolution of his thoughts, so as to complete a complete grasp of Zhuzi's thoughts.
Chen Lai, a senior professor at Tsinghua University and vice president of the International Confucianism Federation, has conducted in-depth research on classical Chinese Confucianism. His doctoral dissertation is an in-depth exploration of Zhu Xi's philosophical thoughts, which also presents us with such a work "Zhu Zi's Philosophical Research", and his dissertation is considered to be "a few elites in the paper", and he also has a great influence on Zhu Xi's research and enlightens those who come after.
In this doctoral dissertation, what kind of research does the author present to us about Zhu Xi? The author does not only focus on Zhu Xi's mature philosophical thought, although this is Zhu Xi's most far-reaching thought for later generations. The author presents us with the complete formation process of Zhu Xi's thoughts, including the ideological influence from others in the early days of his life, including the tone of his own thoughts established after his "Enlightenment of Bingxu" and "Enlightenment of Yichou", and the philosophical system that he created uniquely, and the "Zhu Lu Controversy" caused by the conflict of philosophical ideas after his meeting with Lu Jiuyuan and Goose Lake in his later years, and its influence on later generations.
Therefore, this book not only presents us with the whole picture of Zhu Xi's philosophical thoughts, but also unfolds his philosophical thoughts to us in a dynamic form, so that we can not only know what it is, but also know why it is true. This constitutes an extremely complex structural system of the book, which allows us to understand the evolution of Zhu Xi's thought formation in various periods, how his thought was influenced and how it was formed, and also provides us with a convenient understanding of Zhu Xi's later innovative ideas.
Of course, as a doctoral dissertation, the depth of thought in this book is certainly obvious to all, after all, he discusses the complete thought of Chinese Confucianism. However, this book is also friendly to us ordinary readers, and it is also relatively easy to read, after all, the framework of the whole book is extremely clear, and it is easy for us to understand what the author is talking about for us. Therefore, it is a model dissertation that can be used as a reference for doctoral Xi, and it is also the first choice for ordinary readers to understand Chinese culture and Chinese philosophical thought.
For example, in Zhu Xi's philosophy, reason and qi are the most frequently mentioned terms. However, such words are often extremely difficult for us to understand in later generations, which also causes us to not have a good sense of substitution for our own philosophical system.
However, in this book, the author clearly stated that "Zhu Xi takes Tai Chi as a courtesy, and Yin and Yang as Qi", "Reason is the ontology, the basis for the movement and existence of Yin and Yang, and the movement and stillness of Qi is the external process and manifestation of Reason." Reason is the essence of qi that is inseparable from qi, but not mixed with qi."
At least this kind of explanation allows us to better focus on the thinking of these concepts, and can turn the abstract into concrete, which can also make us understand what kind of existence Zhu Zi's Li and Qi are.
Of course, whether it is interpreted as a classic work of Confucianism in mainland China or as a doctoral dissertation, the content of this book is extremely large. It can be said that each part can bring us a different understanding. So if we want to be interested in Zhu Xi's philosophy, if we want to be interested in Chinese Sinology, if we want to be interested in Chinese philosophy, then this book is a work that we should read in depth, which can allow us to appreciate not only the model of our philosophical creation, but also the evolution process of Zhu Xi's philosophical thought that the author has studied from his own thinking, so that we can complete the systematic understanding of some Chinese philosophical thoughts#Zhu Xi##Traditional Culture##Confucianism#