Reconstructing the Confucian Dao: Zhu Xi's Appropriation of Zhou Dunyi

Discusses how Zhou Dunyi's thought became a cornerstone of neo-Confucianism.

Zhu Xi, the twelfth-century architect of the neo-Confucian canon, declared Zhou Dunyi to be the first true sage since Mencius. This was controversial, as many of Zhu Xi's contemporaries were critical of Zhou Dunyi's Daoist leanings, and other figures had clearly been more significant to the Song dynasty Confucian resurgence. Why was Zhou Dunyi accorded such importance? Joseph A. Adler finds that the earlier thinker ...