Bryan W. VAN NORDEN
Zhu Xi’s writings on neo-Confucianism became the foundation of China’s civil service exams for nearly six hundred years, and thus were the focus of study for generations of hopeful scholar-officials.
Zhu Xi was perhaps the greatest neo-Confucian philosopher. His Collected Commentaries on the Four Books became the basis of the civil service examinations in 1315 until they were abolished in 1905; twenty-first-century Confucian scholars remain deeply influenced by Zhu’s interpretations.
Zhu Xi, born in Youzi
