SOURCE: An introduction to Reflections on Things at Hand: The Neo-Confucian Anthology, compiled by Chu Hsi and Lu Tsu-Ch’ien, translated by Wing-tsit Chan, Columbia University Press, 1967, pp. xvii-xli.

In the essay that follows, Chan examines the way in which Chu Hsi's anthology, Reflections on Things at Hand, treats three major doctrines of Neo-Confucianism. Chan also maintains that Chu Hsi was objective in selecting and editing the sayings of the Confucian masters included in the text.

Reflections on Things at Hand is the classic statement of Neo-Confucian philosophy by its leading exponent, Chu Hsi. It brings together the views of the Sung dynasty philosophers who met the challenge of Buddhism and formulated a new Confucian metaphysics. Stimulated by the Hua-yen philosophy of Perfect Harmony and by the psychology of Ch’an (Zen) Buddhism,¹ the Neo-Confucianists went on, under the leadership of Chou Tun-i (1017-73), Ch’eng Hao (1032-...