Zhu Xi

Zhu Xi was born in 1130 CE in Fujian province during the Southern Song dynasty, a period when China had lost its northern territories to Jurchen invaders and Confucian scholars were rethinking their tradition's foundations. His father was a minor official who ensured Zhu Xi received a classical education, and the young scholar passed the civil service examinations at eighteen. But rather than pursue an administrative career, Zhu Xi devoted most of his life to scholarship, teaching, and the synthesis of what would become Neo-Confucianism (Lixue, 'Learning of Principle'). Building on the work of the Cheng brothers and Zhou Dunyi, he developed a comprehensive metaphysical and ethical system centered on li (principle) and qi (material force). Li is the rational pattern inherent in all things; qi is the material stuff that gives things their particular forms.