Zhu Xi's Neo-Confucian Program
A scholar and official from a very young age, and deeply impressed by the loss of the northern Chinese territories which happened not so long before his birth, Zhu Xi was motivated by a patriotism to preserve China through the revival of Confucian learning. Inspired by Chan (Meditation) Buddhism at a very young age, Zhu was determined to purge the influences of Buddhism and Daoism from Confucian learning. On the other hand, like his contemporaries, he synthesized Daoist and Buddhist elements into his writings. His most famous scholarship was his edited Four Books and his exhaustive interpretations of every sentence in the four books (called annotations). The Four Books then became the standard source for examiners to draw upon for imperial examination topics, and the annotations became standard interpretations of the Four Books. If Dong Zhongshu in the Han Dynasty started the first wave of canonizing the Confucian classics, Zhu Xi in the Song Dynasty started the second wave, whose influence is still felt this day. Deeply concerned with battling against Buddhism's "vacuity," since Buddhism regarded human perception of the whole world as an illusion, Zhu Xi tried to avoid vagueness in his own discussion of Confucian learning, hence his emphasis on Confucian readings, and his definition of humaneness as a function of impartiality, manifesting in empathy and love. It was his way to make humaneness both a universal principle and avoid making it a vague, hence empty, one. On the other hand, like other Song Confucians, he did not emphasize a word by word following of Confucius. His focus on interpretation, the discerning of meaning for present day use enabled him to "scramble" the Confucian texts, rearranging the sequence of the sentences in the texts to highlight his points. (de Bary, 721) Here, we are focused on two of the four books: the Great Learning, and the Mean. 1. Establishing Confucian orthodoxy
In the annotations to the Great Learning and the Golden Mean, Zhu Xi tried to establish the legitimacy of his interpretations through seeing them in line with a long tradition of Confucian writings. In the ancient times Xia, Shang and Zhou, schools were established to teach various things. Then the schools declined after the Zhou Dynasty. Education deteriorated, so did customs. Then Confucius tried to change the situation through passing down the ancient rituals, e.g. Great Learning. (723-724) Confucius's grandson Zisi and Mencius then continued the task and finally, the Cheng brothers in the Song Dynasty. (733-734) This establishment of Confucian orthodoxy was both to clarify what was Confucian learning and to steer it from erroneous texts and interpretations. 2. Ambivalence between practice and intentions
Although Zhu Xi's goal was to preserve "true" Confucian learning and prevent it from contamination by foreign cultures, he differed from Confucians prior to the Song Dynasty in prioritizing intentions over practice. One example is his reinterpretation of the Confucian dictum that self-cultivation would ultimately lead to the pacification of the state. Reinterpreting the Confucian belief that one should cultivate oneself, hence cultivate one's family, and ultimately cultivate the state (Analects), Zhu Xi used a passage from the Great Learning that emphasized the sincerity of intention and the extension of knowledge in this process. Extension of knowledge was the basis of sincere (true) intentions. To Zhu Xi, investigation of things was the basis of true knowledge, which underlay sincere intentions of self-cultivation, which again was the basis for self-rectification (cultivation) that would ultimately lead to the regulation of the family and the state.(727)
The reason why he singled out this passage to illustrate the meaning of the Confucian continuum between individual cultivation and state peace was because Zhu did not want self-cultivation to become an empty slogan, something just said and not done. His "investigation of things," of course, meant investigation of moral knowledge through the reading of Confucian writings. More than Confucians before them, Neo-Confucians were big on their emphasis on intentions, in contrast, e.g. to Mencius's focus on the cultivation of qi (energy) in talking about self-cultivation. Especially so in Zhu's interpretations where he added "rectifying the mind" to precede cultivating the person. (728)
3. Influence of Buddhism
Despite Zhu Xi's attempt to write off Buddhism, traces of Buddhism showed up in his reinterpretation of Confucian learning, which would eventually create great controversy over his writings in later dynasties. 1. Emphasis on being one with nature and everything in it.
In Zhu's definition of "investigation of things," and "knowing," Zhu continued the Neo-Confucian equation between universe and moral universe. Thus the ultimate stage of knowledge was the erasure of all opposition between things, self and others, which strongly reminds one of Chan Buddhism and its emphasis on the ultimate breakdown of the artificial barriers separating humans and things in nature. The emphasis on a sudden breakthrough to integral comprehension also reminds one of Chan Buddhist enlightenment.
After exerting himself for a long time, he will one day experience a breakthrough to integral comprehension. Then the qualities of all things, whether internal or external, refined or coarse, will all be apprehended and the mind, in its whole substance and great functioning, will all be clearly manifested. This is "things [having been] investigated." This is the ultimate of knowing. (729)
2. Emphasis on the subjective:
According to de Bary, the importance of "sincerity of intentions" was to make the cultivated nature identify with the natural, affective nature (human nature that experiences the outside world) (730) Again, it shows the importance of sincere intentions to the neo-Confucians, suggesting the priority they give to conscience. In comparison, although Confucius also talked about intentions, he also emphasized conduct and observance of rituals. Mencius talked about both intentions and the cultivation of the physical qi.
For the Neo-Confucians, the world is how you perceive it, thus intention is everything. Perhaps because of the influence of Buddhism which differentiated between reality and human subjectivity, the Neo-Confucians paid special attention to human subjectivity and affirmed its validity as repository of truth.It is this same focus on the subjective that called for self-examination in the Mean (or Golden Mean). In his annotations to the Mean, reputedly written by Zisi, Confucius's grandson, Zhu Xi, like the Chan Buddhists, differentiated between a pure mind rooted in one's innate nature and moral imperative, and a mind contaminated by one's individual physical form, thus leading to what later became very controversial arguments: the human mind and the mind of the Way. (732-733) It was important, Zhu argued, to differentiate between the two.
3. Human nature as heavenly principles
Similar to the controversial argument above, Zhu Xi argued that human nature was constituted with heavenly principles (735); and self-cultivation was adapting these principles to the individual psycho-physical beings. These principles manifested in the mind and the heart and in the balanced expressions of human emotions. Therefore the noble person would not let himself get into an excessive expression of one emotion. (735-736)
Here, on the surface, there is a resemblance between Zhu's argument for balanced emotional expressions and Mencius's cultivation of the qi. While both aimed at some kind of emotional and psychological balance, Mencius focused more on how to properly utilize one's physical energy while Zhu was more concerned with one's psychological equilibrium. (for example, regarding physical energy, I could devise a plan to do most mentally exhausting work in the morning while leaving browsing the internet till after 11am, when my ability to concentrate starts to wane. Regarding psychological equilibrium, on the other hand, I could caution myself to check upon my reactions if something very unpleasant happens. The latter may have something to do with physical energy--if I am extremely weak physically I will not have the energy to burst into great anger, on the other hand, balancing one's emotional expressions is more a psychological thing than requiring physical exertion.)