Neo-Confucianism
Metaphysics, Mind, and Morality

Solidly grounded in Chinese primary sources, Neo Confucianism: Metaphysics, Mind, and Morality engages the latest global scholarship to provide an innovative, rigorous, and clear articulation of neo-Confucianism and its application to Western philosophy.

• Contextualizes neo-Confucianism for contemporary analytic philosophy by engaging with today?s philosophical questions and debates
• Based on the most recent and influential scholarship on neo-Confucianism, and supported by primary texts in Chinese and cross-cultural secondary literature
• Presents a cohesive analysis of neo-Confucianism by investigating the metaphysical foundations of neo-Confucian perspectives on the relationship between human nature, human mind, and morality
• Offers innovative interpretations of neo-Confucian terminology and examines the ideas of eight major philosophers, from Zhou Dunyi and Cheng-Zhu to Zhang Zai and Wang Fuzhi
• Approaches neo-Confucian concepts in an penetrating yet accessible way

Preface ix

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction 1

Part I Neo]Confucian Metaphysics: From Cosmology to Ontology 29

1 From Nothingness to Infinity: The Origin of Zhou Dunyi's Cosmology 31

2 The Basic Constituent of Things: Zhang Zai's Monist Theory of Qi 61

3 Cheng–Zhu School's Normative Realism: The Principle of the Universe 85

4 Wang Fuzhi's Theory of Principle Inherent in Qi 103

Part II Human Nature, Human Mind, and the Foundation of Human Morality 123

5 Zhu Xi's Internal Moral Realism: Human Nature Is Principle 125

6 Lu Xiangshan and Wang Yangming's Doctrine of Mind Is Principle 139

7 Wang Fuzhi's Theory of Daily Renewal of Human Nature and His Moral Psychology 157

Part III The Cultivation of Virtue, Moral Personality, and the Construction of a Moral World 181

8 Zhang Zai on Cultivating Moral Personality 183

9 The Cheng Brothers' Globaist Virtue Ethics and Virtue Epistemology 205

10 Zhu Xi's Methodology for Cultivating Sagehood: Moral Cognitivism and Ethical Rationalism 227

11 Wang Yangming';s Intuitionist Model of Innate Moral Sense and Moral Reflexivism 245

12 Constructing a Moral World: Wang Fuzhi's Social Sentimentalism 265

References 285

Index 301

JeeLoo Liu is Professor of Philosophy at California State University, Fullerton. She is the author of An Introduction to Chinese Philosophy: From Ancient Philosophy to Chinese Buddhism (Wiley-Blackwell 2006), co-editor of Consciousness and the Self (2012), and co-editor of Nothingness in Asian Philosophy (2014). She is currently the Executive Director of the International Society for Chinese Philosophy.