Zhu Xi’s Four Books: The Locus Classicus of a New Confucian Philosophy

In this chapter, I discuss how Zhu Xi deployed the Four Books—the Great Learning, the Analects, the Mencius, and the Doctrine of the Mean—to explain the Confucian moral metaphysics. To fully gauge the significance of Zhu Xi’s philosophy, I will proceed in two steps. First, I will find out why Zhu Xi felt the need to compile and annotate the Four Books. Second, I will examine Zhu Xi’s two methods of connecting the four texts: (1) Adding prefaces to highlight the common themes among the texts; and (2) aggressively modifying the tenor and texture of the four texts by either dividing them into “verses and sections” or providing “collected annotations.” Through these two methods, I argue, Zhu Xi created a cohesive textual body to train readers to see the transformative potentials in the humdrum of everyday life.