School · 1020 CE–1529 CE
Neo-Confucian traditions
Neo-Confucian thinkers renewed classical ethical and political learning through metaphysical accounts of pattern, material force, mind, cultivation, and the investigation of things.
Shared questions
- How are cosmic pattern, embodied disposition, learning, and ethical self-cultivation connected?
Internal disagreements
- Whether moral knowledge is approached chiefly by investigating things, clarifying the mind, or recovering innate awareness.
Key texts
- Reflections on Things at Hand · 1175 — Zhu Xi's anthology of the Northern Song masters fixed which of their writings the tradition would read.
- Western Inscription — Zhang Zai's short text on the continuity of self, family and cosmos became a touchstone for the whole movement.
- Instructions for Practical Living — Wang Yangming's recorded conversations, compiled by students rather than written by him.