Reactivating Traditional Scholarship & Internalizing New Knowledge: A Re-Exploration of Zhu Xi’s Philosophical Thought

Traditionally, Zhu Xi has been regarded as the most important figure in Song-Ming Neo-Confucianism. In contemporary research Mou Zongsan, however, developed a negative image of Zhu Xi’s philosophy. With the help of Hegelian distinction between moral and ethics, this volume shows the possibility of a positive understanding of Zhu Xi’s Neo-Confucianism. Moreover, in distinction to Mou Zongsan’s denial of the decisive influences of Buddhism upon the rise of Song-Ming Neo-Confucianism, it also uncovers the way how Zhu Xi’s reception of Huayan Buddhism plays a significant role in forming his own Neo-Confucianism. Finally, from an inter-cultural perspective, in addition to a phenomenological interpretation of Zhu Xi’s philosophical methodology and doctrines, it argues for a co-operative synthesis of Zhu Xi’s and Habermas’s ethical approach, so that it can give rise to a new direction of development in modern ethics. As a whole, the major contribution of this volume is shown in developing a new hermeneutic of Zhu Xi’s Confucian thought. Specifically, it not only re-appropriates Zhu Xi’s Mencius-interpretation, but also helps to uncover the phenomenological character of his epistemology as well as doctrine of ethical feelings.