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69-722: The Four Books ( 四書 ; Sìshū ) are Chinese classic texts illustrating the core value and belief systems in Confucianism . They were selected by intellectual Zhu Xi in the Song dynasty to serve as general introduction to Confucian thought, and they were, in the Ming and Qing dynasties, made the core of the official curriculum for the civil service examinations . More information of them are as follows: The Five Classics ( 五經 ; Wǔjīng ) are five pre- Qin Chinese books that form part of

138-649: A gradual realization of the Great Ultimate... Buddhists, and to some degree, Taoists as well, relied on meditation and insight to achieve supreme reason; the Neo-Confucianists chose to follow Reason. The importance of li in Neo-Confucianism gave the movement its Chinese name, literally "The study of Li ". In the view of Neo-Confucians, the true form of Confucianism had been lost after Mencius as "later" Confucians were more concerned with

207-488: A set collection, and to be called collectively the "Five Classics". Several of the texts were already prominent by the Warring States period , but the literature culture at the time did not lend itself to clear boundaries between works, so a high degree of variance between individual witnesses of the same title was common, as well as considerable intertextuality and cognate chapters between different titles. Mencius ,

276-456: A way to safeguard the cultural heritage of China. Neo-Confucianism could have been an attempt to create a more rationalist and secular form of Confucianism by rejecting mystical elements of Taoism and Buddhism that had influenced Confucianism during and after the Han dynasty. Although the neo-Confucianists were critical of Taoism and Buddhism, the two did have an influence on the philosophy, and

345-674: Is intuitive and not rational . These revolutionizing ideas of Wang Yangming would later inspire prominent Japanese thinkers like Motoori Norinaga , who argued that because of the Shinto deities, Japanese people alone had the intuitive ability to distinguish good and evil without complex rationalization. Wang Yangming's school of thought ( Ōyōmei-gaku in Japanese) also provided, in part, an ideological basis for some samurai who sought to pursue action based on intuition rather than scholasticism. As such, it also provided an intellectual foundation for

414-528: Is a moral , ethical , and metaphysical Chinese philosophy influenced by Confucianism , which originated with Han Yu (768–824) and Li Ao (772–841) in the Tang dynasty , and became prominent during the Song and Ming dynasties under the formulations of Zhu Xi (1130–1200). After the Mongol conquest of China in the thirteenth century, Chinese scholars and officials restored and preserved neo-Confucianism as

483-436: Is based on Buddhist systems of the time that divided things into principle (again, li), and function ( Chinese : 事 ; pinyin : shì ). In the neo-Confucian formulation, li in itself is pure and almost-perfect, but with the addition of qi , base emotions and conflicts arise. Human nature is originally good, the neo-Confucians argued (following Mencius ), but not pure unless action is taken to purify it. The imperative

552-556: Is generally categorized into two different schools of thought. The school that remained dominant throughout the medieval and early modern periods is called the Cheng–Zhu school for the esteem it places in Cheng Yi , Cheng Hao , and Zhu Xi . The less dominant, opposing school was the Lu–Wang school , based on its esteem for Lu Jiuyuan and Wang Yangming. In contrast to this two-branch model,

621-507: Is reputed that he wrote many essays attempting to explain how his ideas were not Buddhist or Taoist and included some heated denunciations of Buddhism and Taoism. After the Xining era  [ zh ] (1068–1077), Wang Yangming (1472–1529) is commonly regarded as the most important Neo-Confucian thinker. Wang's interpretation of Confucianism denied the rationalist dualism of Zhu's orthodox philosophy. There were many competing views within

690-414: Is then to purify one's li . However, in contrast to Buddhists and Taoists, neo-Confucians did not believe in an external world unconnected with the world of matter. In addition, neo-Confucians in general rejected the idea of reincarnation and the associated idea of karma . Different neo-Confucians had differing ideas for how to do so. Zhu Xi believed in gewu ( Chinese : 格物 ; pinyin : géwù ),

759-579: The Biographies of the Immortals , a collection of Taoist hagiographies and hymns. Liu Xiang was also a poet, being credited with the " Nine Laments " that appears in the Chu Ci . The works edited and compiled by Liu Xiang include: This work was continued by his son, Liu Xin , who finally completed the task after his father's death. The transmitted corpus of these classical texts all derives from

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828-835: The Classic of Poetry and the Book of Documents , which meant that these texts would have been exempted, and that the Book of Rites and the Zuo Zhuan did not contain the glorification of defeated feudal states which the First Emperor gave as his reason for destroying them. Nylan further suggests that the story might be based on the fact that the Qin palace was razed in 207 BC and many books were undoubtedly lost at that time. Martin Kern adds that Qin and early Han writings frequently cite

897-720: The Goryeo dynasty . At the time that he introduced neo-Confucianism, the Goryeo dynasty was in the last century of its existence and influenced by the Mongol Yuan dynasty . Many Korean scholars visited China during the Yuan era and An was among them. In 1286, he read a book of Zhu Xi in Yanjing and was so moved by it that he transcribed the book in its entirety and came back to Korea with it. It greatly inspired Korean intellectuals at

966-558: The New Confucian Mou Zongsan argues that there existed a third branch of learning, the Hu-Liu school , based on the teachings of Hu Hong (Hu Wufeng, 1106–1161) and Liu Zongzhou (Liu Jishan, 1578–1645). The significance of this third branch, according to Mou, was that they represented the direct lineage of the pioneers of neo-Confucianism, Zhou Dunyi, Zhang Zai and Cheng Hao. Moreover, this third Hu-Liu school and

1035-549: The Song dynasty to serve as general introduction to Confucian thought, and they were, in the Ming and Qing dynasties, made the core of the official curriculum for the civil service examinations. They are: The official curriculum of the imperial examination system from the Song dynasty onward are the Thirteen Classics . In total, these works total to more than 600,000 characters that must be memorized in order to pass

1104-516: The Western learning to seek a way to modernize Chinese culture based on the traditional Confucianism. It centers on four topics: The modern transformation of Chinese culture; Humanistic spirit of Chinese culture; Religious connotation in Chinese culture; and Intuitive way of thinking, to go beyond the logic and to wipe out the concept of exclusion analysis. Adhering to the traditional Confucianism and

1173-610: The bureaucrats and Chinese gentry actually believed those interpretations, and point out that there were very active schools such as Han learning which offered competing interpretations of Confucianism. The competing school of Confucianism was called the Evidential School or Han Learning and argued that neo-Confucianism had caused the teachings of Confucianism to be hopelessly contaminated with Buddhist thinking. This school also criticized neo-Confucianism for being overly concerned with empty philosophical speculation that

1242-474: The 15th century, the esteemed philosopher Wang Yangming took sides with Lu and critiqued some of the foundations of the Tao school, albeit not rejecting the school entirely. Objections arose to Yangming's philosophy within his lifetime, and shortly after his death, Chen Jian (1497–1567) grouped Wang together with Lu as unorthodox writers, dividing neo-Confucianism into two schools. As a result, neo-Confucianism today

1311-652: The Classics, especially the Documents and the Classic of Poetry , which would not have been possible if they had been burned, as reported. The Five Classics ( 五經 ; Wǔjīng ) are five pre-Qin texts that became part of the state-sponsored curriculum during the Western Han dynasty , which adopted Confucianism as its official ideology. It was during this period that the texts first began to be considered together as

1380-556: The Confucian Classics and their secondary literature; history; philosophy; and poetry. There are sub-categories within each branch, but due to the small number of pre-Qin works in the Classics, History and Poetry branches, the sub-categories are only reproduced for the Philosophy branch. The philosophical typology of individual pre-imperial texts has in every case been applied retroactively, rather than consciously within

1449-581: The Four Books and wrote commentaries whose new interpretations became accepted as being those of Confucius himself. Under the reign of Emperor Wu of Han , the Five Classics and Four Books became the basis of the Imperial examination system. Chinese classic texts The Chinese classics or canonical texts are the works of Chinese literature authored prior to the establishment of

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1518-522: The Han dynasty which supposedly survived the Qin dynasty burning of the books but many of them held that these works had not been edited by Confucius but survived directly from the Zhou dynasty . For quite different reasons, mainly having to do with modern textual scholarship , a greater number of twentieth century scholars both in China and in other countries hold that Confucius had nothing to do with editing

1587-470: The Investigation of Things, essentially an academic form of observational science, based on the idea that li lies within the world. Wang Yangming (Wang Shouren), probably the second most influential neo-Confucian, came to another conclusion: namely, that if li is in all things, and li is in one's heart-mind, there is no better place to seek than within oneself. His preferred method of doing so

1656-584: The Zhou and Han dynasties. Although the neo-Confucianists denounced Buddhist metaphysics, Neo-Confucianism did borrow Taoist and Buddhist terminology and concepts. One of the most important exponents of neo-Confucianism was Zhu Xi (1130–1200), his teachings were so influential that they were integrated into civil-service examination from approximately 1314 until 1905. He was a rather prolific writer, maintaining and defending his Confucian beliefs of social harmony and proper personal conduct. One of his most remembered

1725-486: The alleged Qin objective of strengthening Legalism, the traditional account is anachronistic in that Legalism was not yet a defined category of thought during the Qin period, and the "schools of thought" model is no longer considered to be an accurate portrayal of the intellectual history of pre-imperial China. Michael Nylan observes that despite its mythic significance, the " burning of books and burying of scholars " legend does not bear close scrutiny. Nylan suggests that

1794-419: The ancient virtuous rulers. Li Si believed that if the people were to read these works they were likely to invoke the past and become dissatisfied with the present. The reason for opposing various schools of philosophy was that they advocated political ideas often incompatible with the totalitarian regime. Modern historians doubt the details of the story, which first appeared more than a century later. Regarding

1863-468: The belief that the universe could be understood through human reason, and that it was up to humanity to create a harmonious relationship between the universe and the individual. The rationalism of neo-Confucianism is in contrast to the mysticism of the previously dominant Chan Buddhism . Unlike the Buddhists, the neo-Confucians believed that reality existed, and could be understood by humankind, even if

1932-462: The classics, much less writing them. Yao Xinzhong reports that still other scholars hold the "pragmatic" view that the history of the Classics is a long one and that Confucius and his followers, although they did not intend to create a system of classics, "contributed to their formation." In any case, it is undisputed that for most of the last 2,000 years, Confucius was believed to have either written or edited these classics. The most important events in

2001-460: The command of the emperor, Liu Xiang (77–6 BC ) compiled the first catalogue of the imperial library, the Abstracts ( 別錄 ; 别录 ; Bielu ), and is the first known editor of the Classic of Mountains and Seas , which was finished by his son. Liu also edited collections of stories and biographies, the Biographies of Exemplary Women . He has long erroneously been credited with compiling

2070-406: The cultivation of jing , 'essence' in Chinese medicine. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Four Books and Five Classics were the subjects of mandatory study by those Confucian scholars who wished to take the imperial examination and needed to pass them in order to become scholar-officials . Any political discussion was full of references to this background, and one could not become part of

2139-698: The development of Japanese neo-Confucianism. In 1070, emperor Lý Thánh Tông opened first Confucius university in Hanoi named Văn Miếu . The Lý, Trần court expanded the Confucianism influences in Vietnamese Mandarin through year examinations, continued the model of Tang dynasty until being annexed by the Ming invaders in 1407. In 1460, emperor Lê Thánh Tông of Lê dynasty adopted Neo-Confucianism as Đại Việt's basic values. Neo-Confucianism became

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2208-473: The early 16th century, Jo attempted to transform Joseon into an ideal neo-Confucian society with a series of radical reforms until he was executed in 1520. Despite this, neo-Confucianism soon assumed an even greater role in the Joseon dynasty. Soon neo-Confucian scholars, no longer content to only read and remember the Chinese original precepts, began to develop new neo-Confucian theories. Yi Hwang and Yi I were

2277-430: The equals of officials, capable of bottom-up collective action, constrained the authority of the local officials. Neo-Confucianism was a heterogeneous philosophical tradition, and is generally categorized into two different schools. In medieval China, the mainstream of neo-Confucian thought, dubbed the "Tao school", had long categorized a thinker named Lu Jiuyuan among the unorthodox, non-Confucian writers. However, in

2346-413: The examination. Moreover, these works are accompanied by extensive commentary and annotation, containing approximately 300 million characters by some estimates. It is often difficult or impossible to precisely date pre-Qin works beyond their being "pre-Qin", a period of 1000 years. Information in ancient China was often by oral tradition and passed down from generations before so was rarely written down, so

2415-760: The first emperor of China , unified China in 221 BC, his chancellor Li Si suggested suppressing intellectual discourse to unify thought and political opinion. This was alleged to have destroyed philosophical treatises of the Hundred Schools of Thought , with the goal of strengthening the official Qin governing philosophy of Legalism . According to the Shiji , three categories of books were viewed by Li Si to be most dangerous politically. These were poetry, history (especially historical records of other states than Qin), and philosophy. The ancient collection of poetry and historical records contained many stories concerning

2484-544: The imperial Qin dynasty in 221 BC. Prominent examples include the Four Books and Five Classics in the Neo-Confucian tradition, themselves an abridgment of the Thirteen Classics . The Chinese classics used a form of written Chinese consciously imitated by later authors, now known as Classical Chinese . A common Chinese word for "classic" ( 經 ; 经 ; jīng ) literally means ' warp thread ', in reference to

2553-409: The imperial court and instead argued for more local autonomy and the creation of lateral, community-centred institutions for social improvement. These voluntary local literati organizations focused on local education and local relief instead of aligning with the requirements of government service or government officials. The growing numbers of literati who did not serve in government but saw themselves as

2622-571: The interpretation of Confucianism whose mastery was necessary to pass the bureaucratic examinations by the Ming , and continued in this way through the Qing dynasty until the end of the Imperial examination system in 1905. However, many scholars such as Benjamin Elman have questioned the degree to which their role as the orthodox interpretation in state examinations reflects the degree to which both

2691-423: The interpretations of reality were slightly different depending on the school of neo-Confucianism. But the spirit of Neo-Confucian rationalism is diametrically opposed to that of Buddhist mysticism. Whereas Buddhism insisted on the unreality of things, Neo-Confucianism stressed their reality. Buddhism and Taoism asserted that existence came out of, and returned to, non-existence; Neo-Confucianism regarded reality as

2760-600: The leading Confucian scholar of the time, regarded the Spring and Autumn Annals as being equally important as the semi-legendary chronicles of earlier periods. Up to the Western Han, authors would typically list the Classics in the order Poems-Documents-Rituals-Changes-Spring and Autumn. However, from the Eastern Han the default order instead became Changes-Documents-Poems-Rituals-Spring and Autumn. In 26 BCE, at

2829-625: The literati—or even a military officer in some periods—without having memorized them. Generally, children first memorized the Chinese characters of the Three Character Classic and Hundred Family Surnames and they then went on to memorize the other classics. The literate elite therefore shared a common culture and set of values. According to Sima Qian 's Records of the Grand Historian , after Qin Shi Huang ,

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2898-469: The most prominent of these new theorists. Yi Hwang's most prominent disciples were Kim Seong-il (金誠一, 1538–1593), Yu Seong-ryong (柳成龍 1542–1607) and Jeong Gu (한강 정구, 寒岡 鄭逑, 1543–1620), known as the "three heroes". They were followed by a second generation of scholars who included Jang Hyungwang (張顯光, 1554–1637) and Jang Heung-Hyo (敬堂 張興孝, 1564–1633), and by a third generation (including Heo Mok , Yun Hyu , Yun Seon-do and Song Si-yeol ) who brought

2967-488: The neo-Confucian community, but overall, a system emerged that resembled both Buddhist and Taoist (Daoist) thought of the time and some of the ideas expressed in the I Ching (Book of Changes) as well as other yin yang theories associated with the Taiji symbol ( Taijitu ). A well known neo-Confucian motif is paintings of Confucius , Buddha , and Lao Tzu all drinking out of the same vinegar jar, paintings associated with

3036-539: The neo-Confucianists borrowed terms and concepts. However, unlike the Buddhists and Taoists, who saw metaphysics as a catalyst for spiritual development, religious enlightenment, and immortality, the neo-Confucianists used metaphysics as a guide for developing a rationalist ethical philosophy. Neo-Confucianism has its origins in the Tang dynasty; the Confucianist scholars Han Yu and Li Ao are seen as forebears of

3105-448: The neo-Confucianists of the Song dynasty. The Song dynasty philosopher Zhou Dunyi (1017–1073) is seen as the first true "pioneer" of neo-Confucianism, using Taoist metaphysics as a framework for his ethical philosophy. Neo-Confucianism was both a revival of classical Confucianism, updated to align with the social values of the Song dynasty, and a reaction to the challenges of Buddhism and Taoism philosophy and religion which emerged during

3174-456: The newly emerging ruling class called Sarim (사림, 士林) also split into political factions according to their diversity of neo-Confucian views on politics. There were two large factions and many subfactions. During the Japanese invasions of Korea (1592–1598) , many Korean neo-Confucian books and scholars were taken to Japan and influenced Japanese scholars such as Fujiwara Seika and affected

3243-661: The older the composition of the texts may not be in a chronological order as that which was arranged and presented by their attributed "authors". The below list is therefore organized in the order which is found in the Siku Quanshu ( Complete Library of the Four Treasuries ), the encyclopedic collation of the works found in the imperial library of the Qing dynasty under the Qianlong Emperor . The Siku Quanshu classifies all works into 4 top-level branches:

3312-617: The radical political actions of low ranking samurai in the decades prior to the Meiji Restoration (1868), in which the Tokugawa shogunate (1600–1868) was overthrown. Defunct In Joseon Korea, neo-Confucianism was established as the state ideology. The Yuan occupation of the Korean Peninsula introduced Zhu Xi 's school of neo-Confucianism to Korea. Neo-Confucianism was introduced to Korea by An Hyang during

3381-483: The reason Han dynasty scholars charged the Qin with destroying the Confucian Five Classics was partly to "slander" the state they defeated and partly because Han scholars misunderstood the nature of the texts, for it was only after the founding of the Han that Sima Qian labeled the Five Classics as Confucian. Nylan also points out that the Qin court appointed classical scholars who were specialists on

3450-599: The school into the 18th century But neo-Confucianism became so dogmatic in a relatively rapid time that it prevented much needed socioeconomic development and change, and led to internal divisions and criticism of many new theories regardless of their popular appeal. For instance, Wang Yangming 's theories, which were popular in the Chinese Ming dynasty , were considered heresy and severely condemned by Korean neo-Confucianists. Furthermore, any annotations on Confucian canon different from Zhu Xi were excluded. Under Joseon,

3519-741: The second Lu–Wang school , combined, form the true mainstream of neo-Confucianism instead of the Cheng–Zhu school. The mainstream represented a return to the teachings of Confucius , Mengzi , the Doctrine of the Mean and the Commentaries of the Book of Changes . The Cheng–Zhu school was therefore only a minority branch based on the Great Learning and mistakenly emphasized intellectual studies over

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3588-546: The slogan "The three teachings are one!" While neo-Confucianism incorporated Buddhist and Taoist ideas, many neo-Confucianists strongly opposed Buddhism and Taoism. Indeed, they rejected the Buddhist and Taoist religions. One of Han Yu 's most famous essays decries the worship of Buddhist relics . Nonetheless, neo-Confucian writings adapted Buddhist thoughts and beliefs to the Confucian interest. In China , neo-Confucianism

3657-512: The study of sagehood. Zhu Xi's formulation of the neo-Confucian world view is as follows. He believed that the Tao ( Chinese : 道 ; pinyin : dào ; lit. 'way') of Tian ( Chinese : 天 ; pinyin : tiān ; lit. 'heaven') is expressed in principle or li ( Chinese : 理 ; pinyin : lǐ ), but that it is sheathed in matter or qi ( Chinese : 氣 ; pinyin : qì ). In this, his system

3726-443: The techniques by which works of this period were bound into volumes. Texts may include shi ( 史 , ' histories ') zi ( 子 'master texts'), philosophical treatises usually associated with an individual and later systematized into schools of thought but also including works on agriculture, medicine , mathematics, astronomy , divination, art criticism, and other miscellaneous writings) and ji ( 集 'literary works') as well as

3795-425: The terms "Book" and "Classic" and applied them ironically to compendia focused on patently low-brow subject matter. Examples include the Classic of Whoring ( Piaojing 嫖經) and Zhang Yingyu's A New Book for Foiling Swindles ( Dupian Xinshu 杜騙新書, ca. 1617), which is known colloquially as The Book of Swindles or The Classic of Swindles . Traditionally, it was thought that Confucius himself had compiled or edited

3864-444: The text itself. The categorization of works of these genera has been highly contentious, especially in modern times. Many modern scholars reject the continued usefulness of this model as a heuristic for understanding the shape of the intellectual landscape of the time. Neo-Confucianism Neo-Confucianism ( Chinese : 宋明理學 ; pinyin : Sòng-Míng lǐxué , often shortened to lǐxué 理學, literally "School of Principle")

3933-424: The texts of the Five Classics. The scholar Yao Xinzhong allows that there are good reasons to believe that Confucian classics took shape in the hands of Confucius, but that "nothing can be taken for granted in the matter of the early versions of the classics." From the time of the Western Han dynasty, Yao continues, most Confucian scholars believed that Confucius re-collected and edited the prior works, thereby "fixing"

4002-448: The textual career of these classics were the adoption of Confucianism as state orthodoxy in the Han dynasty , which led to their preservation, and the "renaissance" of Confucianism in the Song dynasty , which led to their being made the basis of Confucian orthodoxy in the imperial examination system in the following dynasties. The Neo-Confucian sage Zhu Xi (1130–1200) fixed the texts of

4071-446: The time and many, predominantly from the middle class and disillusioned with the excesses of organized religion (namely Buddhism) and the old nobility, embraced neo-Confucianism. The newly rising neo-Confucian intellectuals were leading groups aimed at the overthrow of the old (and increasingly foreign-influenced) Goryeo dynasty. After the fall of Goryeo and the establishment of the Joseon dynasty by Yi Song-gye in 1392, neo-Confucianism

4140-431: The traditional Confucian canon. Several of the texts were already prominent by the Warring States period . Mencius , the leading Confucian scholar of the time, regarded the Spring and Autumn Annals as being equally important as the semi-legendary chronicles of earlier periods. During the Western Han dynasty , which adopted Confucianism as its official ideology, these texts became part of the state-sponsored curriculum. It

4209-614: The vehicles of knowledge such as Classics or literary writing rather than the "values that all should share," They claimed that "later" Confucians focused on correct governance (found in the canonical texts) to the exclusion of "correct learning," the necessary basis for moral order. Their ideal of moral order, which could be inculcated by scholars outside of government, stood in contrast with previous ideas of moral instruction by ruling authorities. Neo-Confucians could be distinguished by their stronger concern with personal ethics and morals. Politically, Neo-Confucians also opposed centralization in

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4278-468: The versions edited down by Liu Xiang and Liu Xin. Michael Nylan has characterised the scope of the Liu pair's editing as having been so vast that it affects our understanding of China's pre-imperial period to the same degree as the Qin unification does. The Four Books ( 四書 ; Sìshū ) are texts illustrating the core value and belief systems in Confucianism . They were selected by Zhu Xi (1130–1200) during

4347-683: The versions of the ancient writings which became the Classics. Confucian tradition believes that the Shijing collection was edited by Confucius from a collection of 3,000 pieces to its traditional form of 305 pieces. In the twentieth century, many Chinese scholars still held to this tradition. The New Confucian scholar, Xiong Shili (1885–1968), for instance, held that the Six Classics were the final versions "fixed up" by Confucius in his old age. Other scholars had and have different views. The Old Text School , for instance, relied on versions found in

4416-442: Was jingzuo ( Chinese : 靜坐 ; pinyin : jìngzuò ; lit. 'quiet sitting'), a practice that strongly resembles Chan (Zen) meditation , or zuochan ( Japanese : 座禅 ; Chinese : 坐禪 ; pinyin : zuòchán ; lit. 'seated meditation'). Wang Yangming developed the idea of innate knowing , arguing that every person knows from birth the difference between good and evil . Such knowledge

4485-465: Was an officially recognized creed from its development during the Song dynasty until the early twentieth century, and lands in the sphere of Song China ( Vietnam , Korea , and Japan ) were all deeply influenced by neo-Confucianism for more than half a millennium. Neo-Confucianism is a social and ethical philosophy using metaphysical ideas, some borrowed from Taoism, as its framework. The philosophy can be characterized as humanistic and rationalistic, with

4554-534: Was during this period that the texts first began to be considered together as a set collection, and to be called collectively the "Five Classics". The Classic of Music is sometimes considered the sixth classic but was lost. Up to the Western Han, authors would typically list the Classics in the order Poems-Documents-Rituals-Changes-Spring and Autumn. However, from the Eastern Han the default order instead became Changes-Documents-Poems-Rituals-Spring and Autumn. Authors and editors of later eras have also appropriated

4623-519: Was installed as the state ideology. Buddhism, and organized religion in general, was considered poisonous to the neo-Confucian order. Buddhism was accordingly restricted and occasionally persecuted by Joseon. As neo-Confucianism encouraged education, a number of neo-Confucian schools (서원 seowon and 향교 hyanggyo ) were founded throughout the country, producing many scholars including Jo Gwang-jo (조광조, 趙光祖; 1482–1520), Yi Hwang (이황, 李滉; pen name Toegye 퇴계, 退溪; 1501–1570) and Yi I (이이, 李珥; 1536–1584). In

4692-525: Was the book Family Rituals , where he provided detailed advice on how to conduct weddings, funerals, family ceremonies, and the veneration of ancestors. Buddhist thought soon attracted him, and he began to argue in Confucian style for the Buddhist observance of high moral standards. He also believed that it was important to practical affairs that one should engage in both academic and philosophical pursuits, although his writings are concentrated more on issues of theoretical (as opposed to practical) significance. It

4761-713: Was unconnected with reality. The Confucian canon as it exists today was essentially compiled by Zhu Xi . Zhu codified the canon of Four Books (the Great Learning , the Doctrine of the Mean , the Analects of Confucius, and the Mencius ) which in the subsequent Ming and Qing dynasties were made the core of the official curriculum for the civil service examination. In the 1920s, New Confucianism , also known as modern neo-Confucianism, started developing and absorbed

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