Perhaps the most influential premodern Chinese thinker after Confucius, Zhu Xi synthesized the ideas of the Cheng brothers and other earlier Neo-Confucian thinkers into a comprehensive theory of the relationship between principle, qi, and human morality. He was also a prolific and original commentator on the Confucian classics and elevated the Analects, the Mencius, and the Liji chapters “Daxue” (Higher Learning) and “Zhongyong” (Equilibrium and Normality) as a new canon of authoritative texts on moral self-cultivation. Zhu regarded diligent, reflective, and repeated reading of these and similar texts as the key to penetrating through the barrier of one’s qi endowment and attaining the perfect understanding of principle that was characteristic of sagehood. Although one of Zhu’s political enemies proscribed his works in 1195, the ban was lifted in 1202 and his interpretation of Neo-Confucianism was subsequently officially recognized as orthodox, retaining that status and occupying a central place in the civil service examination curriculum for centuries afterwards. The passages below are from the Zhuzi yulei (Sayings of Master Zhu, Organized Topically), a compilation of oral teachings and conversations recorded by Zhu Xi’s disciples in the 1180s and 1190s.

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Q: The qi endowment of different living things differs in terms of murkiness and turbidity. Does the innate nature (xing) endowed by Heaven also vary in completeness then?

A: No, there is no variation in its completeness. We can analogize it to the light of the sun and moon: if one is on open ground, one can see all of it, but if one is under a thatched roof, then there is an obstruction and one can only see some of it. Those who are murky and turbid [in moral understanding] are murky and turbid in their qi, so they are obstructed as if under a thatched roof. However, there is a [cosmological] principle (li) in human beings that makes them able to penetrate their obstruction.

Animals also have this innate [moral] nature, but they are limited by their physical forms. They are born with extreme obstructions that are impenetrable. Tigers and wolves can display humaneness [to their own cubs], jackals and otters make ritual offerings [before eating], and bees and ants display selfless loyalty [to the hive].¹ But they can only penetrate their obstruction in these aspects, like light coming through a crack. Monkeys are similar to human beings in physical form, so they are the most intelligent of animals; it is just that they cannot speak.

When it comes to barbarians (Yi-Di), they are somewhere between human beings and animals, so it is always difficult for them to change [their behavior].

[Translator’s note: In this conversation, recorded in 1188, Zhu Xi (the answerer) argues that all living beings have the same innately moral nature, but in most beings this nature is clouded by qi. Only human beings, by virtue of their upright physical forms and capacity for speech, are capable of penetrating their qi obstruction, understanding principle, and fully realizing their moral nature. But the last sentence seemingly excludes barbarians from the category of human beings and implies that their level of qi obstruction is worse than that of even the most immoral Chinese person. Zhu Xi does not venture to propose a cosmological reason for the moral inferiority of barbarians, stating it simply as a fact.]

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Our innate nature is like water. When it flows into a clean channel, it stays clear, but when it flows into a dirty channel, it becomes murky. Some beings receive qi endowments that are clear and correctly balanced, and their [understanding of their nature] is thus complete. Those are human beings. Other beings receive qi endowments that are turbid and imbalanced, so their [understanding of their nature] is blocked. Those are animals. So, there is clear qi and turbid qi, but human beings receive the clear qi and animals receive the turbid qi. Human beings are mostly born with clear qi, so they are different from animals. But some humans are born with more turbid qi, which makes them not very different from animals.

[Translator’s note: This passage, recorded in 1193-1200, is a simpler summation of Zhu Xi’s qi cosmology. It does not consider the influence of physical form or the existence of barbarians, unless Zhu is including them among the “some humans” who are morally similar to animals because of their turbid qi endowment.]

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Human beings are born only through the combination of principle (li) and qi. Heaven-ordained principle is boundless and inexhaustible, but without qi, principle would have nothing to materialize in. Therefore, only when the two poles of qi (yin and yang) interact and congeal into a concentrated mass can principle have something to attach to. When human beings speak and move and think and plan, this is all due to qi, but principle exists within it. Thus, when one’s actions express filial devotion, respect for elder brothers, loyalty, good faith, humaneness, moral duty, ritual propriety, and wisdom, this is all due to principle.

However, the two poles of qi and the Five Phases interact in a myriad variations, so human beings and other living things are born with differences in the quality of their qi. Speaking in terms of qi, human beings and other living things are all born by receiving the same kind of qi. But in terms of quality, human beings receive qi that is correctly balanced and penetrable, while other living things receive qi that is imbalanced and impenetrable. Because only human beings receive correctly balanced qi, their principle is unimpeded. [Other] living things receive imbalanced qi, so their principle is blocked, resulting in ignorance.

Besides, human beings have round heads, in the shape of heaven, and square feet, in the shape of earth. They stand upright in a dignified posture because they have received correctly balanced qi from heaven and earth. Hence, they can reason and acquire knowledge. Other living things have received imbalanced qi from heaven and earth, so animals crawl horizontally and plants live upside down with their heads underground and their tails facing up. Those living things with some sentience have only one unimpeded road: for example, crows only understand filial devotion², otters only make ritual offerings, dogs only know how to guard their masters, and cattle only know how to plough. As for human beings, they can understand anything and do anything. Human beings are different from other living things thanks to this advantage alone.

But when it comes to human beings, their qi endowments also differ in murkiness and clarity, purity and turbidity. Therefore, some are born with superior understanding because their qi is pure, clear, and of the highest quality, without even the slightest amount of murkiness or turbidity. They are born with perfect understanding and can put it into practice without having to learn. Such were [the sage-kings] Yao and Shun. One step below those born with perfect understanding are those who must gain understanding through learning and put it into practice before achieving perfection. One step further down are those whose endowment is imbalanced and obstructed and thus must expend additional effort, “giving a hundred where others give one, and a thousand where others give ten,” before they can catch up with those who are one step below those born with perfect understanding. If they catch up and continue advancing without stopping, then they can achieve the same success. As Mencius said, “Only a small [moral] difference sets human beings apart from animals.³ Human beings are different from other living things only in this advantage, nothing more. If they can’t even preserve it, then they really are no different from animals.

[Translator’s note: This passage, recorded in 1198-1200, is an exceptionally sophisticated and detailed summation of Zhu Xi’s qi-based moral philosophy. Again, Zhu does not mention barbarians here, but perhaps he would place them at the lowest end of “those whose endowment is imbalanced and obstructed and thus must expend additional effort” on his scale of human qi endowment. In his eyes, they would be “no different from animals” because of what he believed to be their inability to preserve even a minimal understanding of morality.]

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Among the writing systems of the foreign lands in the south seas, some are very beautiful to look at; the strokes have a vigor like that of inscriptions on ancient bells and tripods. Every country is different, but when winds and qi first began circulating, such things [as writing] began to emerge everywhere. It did not only happen in the Central Lands.

[Translator’s note: This passage, also recorded in 1198-1200, shows that Zhu Xi was able to credit foreign peoples with having distinctive and aesthetically pleasing writing systems, even if he couldn’t recognize them as having the capacity for moral behavior, and that he linked the diversity of writing systems to differences in qi. The foreign writing that Zhu Xi admired may have been the Arabic script or the Indian Brahmic scripts used in Southeast Asia.]

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Q: “The Lord of High confers blessings on the people.”⁴ “Heaven is about to entrust a great responsibility to this man.”⁵ “Heaven protects the people and thus establishes a ruler for them.”⁶ “Heaven gives life to creatures and is generous to them in accordance with their capacities.”⁷ “To those who do good, [Heaven] sends down a hundred blessings; to those who do evil, [Heaven] sends down a hundred calamities.”⁸ “When Heaven is about to send down extraordinary disaster upon the world, it will surely produce a similarly extraordinary man in advance to reverse it.”⁹ In sayings like these, is it really that there is a being up in the blue sky who governs the world in such a manner? Or is it that Heaven has no mind, and that the speakers are just inferring that the principle (li) is such?

A: These three [or more] passages all mean the same thing. This, too, is simply what principle (li) is like. The movement of qi has always gone from flourishing to decline, then from decline to flourishing. It just keeps going in a cycle like that, so there is never [permanent] decline without [subsequent] flourishing. That is why when [Heaven] has visited extraordinary disaster on the world, it will surely produce an extraordinary man [to reverse it].…^. A well-ordered age is always followed by an age of disorder, and an age of disorder is always followed by a well-ordered age. The barbarians (Yi-Di) are only barbarians; they will have to return the Central Plains to us.

[Translator’s note: This conversation was recorded in 1190 or 1199 and shows Zhu Xi applying the concepts of principle and qi to a cyclical theory of history. By the 1190s, Zhu believed that the notion of revenge had lost its power to motivate Southern Song subjects to wage war against the Jurchen Jin. But he persisted in espousing irredentist ideals, arguing that cosmological cycles made the eventual Chinese reconquest of the north inevitable.]

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1. The Chinese believed that jackals and otters made ritual prayers before eating their prey. ↩︎
2. The Chinese believed that crows were unique among birds in feeding their aged parents. ↩︎
3. Quoting Mencius 4B.19 (see source 1.4). ↩︎
4. This quotes the forged “Ancient Script” version of the Documents (Shangshu) chapter “Tanggao” (Announcement of Tang). ↩︎
5. This quotes Mencius 6B.15. ↩︎
6. This is a quote from a lost chapter of the Documents, preserved in Mencius 1B.3. It was later inserted into the forged “Ancient Script” Documents chapter “Taishi” (Great Declaration). ↩︎
7. This quotes the Liji document “Zhongyong” (Equilibrium and Normality). ↩︎
8. This quotes the forged “Ancient Script” Documents chapter “Yixun” (Yi Yin’s Injunction). ↩︎
9. The provenance of this saying is unknown. ↩︎