As a philosophical stream during Song Dynasty, Confucianism was defined newly and seen from different standpoints.Confucianism(rujiao) has been a state doctrine since the mid of FormerHan Dynasty(Qianhan[Qian Han]) . But it has not only been a fundament for a centralized and autocratic state, but also a basis for wide discussions about the relation between Heaven, nature and man. Song time philosophers tried to redefine man's position in the universe. The literary movement to go back to the roots of Confucianism to heal the diseases of the state, called "Old literature movement (guwen yundong)", was started by theTang period scholars Han Yu and Li Ao . The Song time historian Ouyang Xiu stressed that cultural norms and education serve to practise a better policy. Zhou Dunyi , Shao Yong and the brothers Cheng Yi and Cheng Hao based their speculations about a better society on the Confucian classics, but it was the great Southern Song philosopher Zhu Xi who founded a school with the interest to newly interprete the old classical works. His school focused on the explanation of human nature and universal order and was therefore called "School of Nature and Order" (xinglixue or shortLixue), in the West known as Neo-Confucianism. Zhu Xi's philosophy saw the world determined by a dualism between a rational natural and moral order (li) and odem or non-organized stuff (qi), or shape and matter. Deeply interested in a comprehensive interpretation of the Confucian classics, Zhu Xi wrote numerous comments to the old books. Some of his discussions are collected in the bookZhuzi Yulei "Master Zhu's categorized talks".Lu Jiuyuan, another philosopher, interpreted the world in a more monistic sense, assuming that the universe is a spatial and temporal expression of spirit. His school of thinking is called "School of the mind" (xinxue).Zhou Dunyi (1017-1073) was highly interested in the interpretation of theYijing "Classic of Changes". Basing on this divination classic that is deeply influenced byDaoist thinking(daojiao), Zhou Dunyi wrote his short "Explanation of the Diagram of Highest Extreme"Taijitu shuo(Taiji tu shuo,Taiji tushuo) and traced back all existing phenomena like seasons, theFive Elements(wuxing), the active and inactive principlesyin andyang, and even the highest extreme, to be born out of a deep silence and motionlessness (wuji). More important for Confucian thinking is his book "Comprehensive (Explanations) of the Book of Changes" (Yitong, also called "Comprehensive Book"Tongshu). Motionlessness being the source of everything, it is also the basis for acheiving sincerity (cheng) which is the condition of becoming a perfect man (junzi) or a saint (shengren). Sincerity, although being non-acting (wuwei), is determining good (shan) or bad (e). Virtue (de) is expressed as love or humanity (ai,ren), properness or righteousness (yi,yi), order or ritus (li,li), comprehending or knowing (tong,zhi), keeping or trusting (shou,xin). With the luminant principleyang, Heaven creates the ten thousand beings (wanwu) and gives them a natural sense for human relationship, by the dark principleyin, Heaven accomplishes all beings, giving them righteousness. Heaven directly influences man, and the holy rulers as representants educated their subjects by humanity and righteousness, by rites (li) to bring order (li) to people, and by music (yue) to bring harmony (he) to the empire.Zhang Zai (1020-1077) further developed the metaphysical background for the Confucian revival. He concentrated on theYijing "Classic of Changes" and theZhongyong "Doctrine of the Mean". In his bookZhengmeng "Correcting the Ignorant", Zhang Zai postulated that the basic elementary component of the universe and all beings is odem, breath or matter (qi) which he called "Great Emptiness" (taixu; i.e. shapelessness or unoccupiedness) - that is in fact not vain like theBuddhistemptiness (nyat;kong), but is a substance to give shape to all things, from lowest to highest density. All phenomena within the universe are made from the Great Emptiness, only with different densities. The Great Emptiness bears the potential for movement and for a good and virtuous character, and every being possesses these potentials.Ximing "Western Inscriptions" is another theoretical work of Zhang Zai, by that he stresses the unity of Heaven (Tian), Earth (Di) and all beings. All people are brothers and sisters because everybody is being born by Heaven. The ruler is the oldest son of Heaven, and the sage man possesses the highest virtue produced by Heaven. The human nature also finds its source in Heaven and is therefore equally good in every man. The different character of people is expressed by the "quality of his/her substantiation" (qizhi), and even a bad substantiation can be lead back to its good origin by proper education and self-control.The mathematicianShao Yong (1011-1077) tried to explain the universal metaphysics with Daoist number speculations, basing on theYijing "Classic of Changes". All different beings in the universe, he states in his bookHuangji Jingshi "Generic Canon of the Imperial Extreme", find their source in the "Highest Extreme" (taiji), which is nothing else than Heaven. He discriminates between the Primary Heaven (Xiantian), consisting of sun, moon, stars and the elements on earth, and the Secondary Heaven (Houtian) that is responsible for the universal coherence according to the Five Phases. If the moving character and the silent character of the elements is mixed up in a right way, the universal way is properly founded. The beings are created by a division of one into two, two into four and four into eight, a relation reflected in the Eight Hexagrams in the Book of Changes. Everything is born by the Highest Extreme, the center, heart or mind (xin) of the universe. The nature of every man and every being is therefore the same, it originating in the Primary Heaven and is given to man and the ten thousand beings with their birth. Concerning the life cycle of history and dynasties, Shao Yong speculates that there exist four different stages, like there are four different qualities in the kind of rule and exertion the Heavenly mandate. Unfortunately, he does not create a scenario for the future.The brothersCheng Hao (1032-1085) andCheng Yi (1033-1107; also called Master Yichuan ) further developed these Proto-Neo-Confucian thoughts by getting rid of theDaoistinfluence in the cosmological theories. They concentrated on explaining and commenting important Confucian Classics like theMengzi (Mencius), theLunyu "Confucian Analects", theDaxue "The Great Learning" and theZhongyong "The Doctrine of the Mean". The never changing base of the universe is the universal order (li). It is this order that causes everything to come into being by providing it with breath or matter (qi) that is ranging somewhere between a positive (yang) and a negative side (yin). Everything can be traced back to the universal order and can not be without it. Each person depends on it, each social relation and every personal character is determined by the universal order. Human nature (xing) should be good because it is given by the universal order. But the transformation into a being with the help of breath (qi) can make a man either good or bad. But even bad character is an expression of the human ability (cai). To become a good person, one has to keep away from extremes and to follow a middle path. The good man has to observe the Heavenly path of universal order. Together with Zhu Xi the teachings of Cheng Yi are later called the "teachings of Cheng and Zhu" (Cheng-Zhu zhi xue).The greatest person of Song period Neo-Confucianism isZhu Xi (1130-1200), also called "Master Zhu" (Zhuzi). Because Neo-Confucian philosophers laid stress on an existing single-source of all universal phenomena, the universal order (li), Neo-Confucianism is called in Chinese the "Teachings of the Order" (lixue). Zhu Xi's teachings are the essence of the former philosophers and became orthodox under the Yuan dynasty. Zhu Xi explained that the unique source of the whole universe is the Heavenly Order (tianli), also called the Highest Extreme (taiji). This order and the universal breath (qi) of dense or scattered matter are able to give shape to every beings. There does not exist order without the shaping breath or matter, and no breath without the order. Every being has the same amount and character of order, but every being is characterized by a different amount and character of breath, thus making different elements, different beings, appearances and distinguishable people with different character, good or bad. Therefore, everybody seems to have a different order or character, what is in fact only the same order: One basis, different shapes (li yi fen shu), or with Zhu Xi's words, "taking water out of a river with a bowl or a bucket, you obtain different measures of water", but it is still water, only in different amounts and in a different environment. The human nature is determined by the environment, like "a pearl lying in water or in mud". But while the human nature is good in every man, the passions can be good or bad. Human nature is the universal order in the heart of man, that can be influenced by the environment.Zhu Xi is the most important person of Confucianism after Confucius and Mengzi. He has not only been an important commentator of the classical and canonical texts, but his interpretations are undertaken as an explanation of the whole corpus of classical texts. His interpretations have been the orthodox exegesis of Confucian texts until the end of the Chinese empire. Secondly, Zhu Xi has accumulated the whole new cosmological and metaphysical interpretations of the Song Dynasty and has incorporated them into a new school, later known to us as Neo-Confucianism.Zhu Xi's disciples further developed the theories of the universal order. The most important are the Song scholar Zhang Shi (1133-1180), and the Qing scholarsGu Yanwu (1613-1682) andWang Fuzhi (1619-1692).The most famous collection of Zhu Xi's philosophy is theZhuzi yulei "Discourses of Master Zhu, arranged thematically". But "Master Zhu" has written a large treasury of interpretations and exegeses of many different philosophical matters (e.g. the interpretation of theYijingHexagrams inYixue qimeng "Enlighenment in the Teachings of the Changes"). And, like most Chinese scholars, ZhuXi also engaged in calligraphy and poetry.Zhang Shi (1133-1180, studio name: Nanxuan ) was founder of the Hu-Xiang school (also called Hunan school ) of Neo-Confucianism. Although he declares himself a disciple of Hu Hong he only met him once - but nonetheless has inherited the philosophy of Hu's teacher Cheng Hao. For Zhang Shi,the nature of the natural order (li) is the Heavenly mandate, in humans the natural order is expressed by individual character (xing), and as controlling force of the of the character, it is expressed in the mind (xin). In each individual the "amount" of natural order might be different, but the substance is the same: the natural order penetrates each individual and every single object. If the Highest Extreme, source of the natural order, moves, the two odems (er qi:yinandyang) take shape, and then produce the ten thousand beings (wanwu). The mind controls character and behaviour and is therefore a linkage between a single individual and the natural order. This thought clearly shows tendences to the "school of the mind" by Lu Jiuyuan (see below). Virtuous behaviour is only an expression of the natural goodness (shan) that is given by nature, and not man-made (wu suo wei, er ran). Human desires and the wish to gain profits (li) are not natural, but man-made. Zhang Shi was also one of the first Neo-Confucian scholars to discuss Hu Hong's thoughts that were collected in the writingZhiyan.Lu Jiuyuan (1139-1191) hat a somewhat different approach to the metaphysical theories of Zhu Xi and his forerunners. Still equally to these people, Lu and his brothers saw the cosm as bound by one single constant, the universal order (li ordao "way"). This order reached down to the social division between upper and lower, as granted by nature. People following this order are rewarded, disobedient people are chastised by Heaven. The old rulers and sage emperors recognized the patterns of this order in all natural phenomena. Or, as Lu Jiuyuan said, they enlighened their heart or mind (xin). The heart of man is therefore equal to the universal order, it is a reflection of the natural patterns. The heart of the sage man is naturally equal to the heart of a mean man. In this point, Lu contradicts Zhu Xi who taught that the will and temperament of man (qing,yu) destroys this natural order in the human nature (xing). If Heaven is order and man only wishes, they cannot be equal, is the argument of Lu Jiuyuan. While Zhu Xi stresses that spirit or mind is an objective reality, a composition of universal order and breath or matter, Lu Jiuyuan sees the spirit as dependent of sensual perception. Lu's philosophical school was therefore called "Philosophy of the Mind" (xinxue ). There came up severe struggles between the disciples of Zhu Xi and that of Lu Jiuyuan, but Zhu Xi's school had lost its strength and was overtopped by the great Ming philosopherWang Shouren (Wang Yangming ), a representant of the Philosophy of the Mind.