ZHOU DUNYI (1017–1073), also known as Zhou Lianxi, was the first major neo-Confucian thinker generally credited with formulating a Confucian cosmology and metaphysics. Zhou Dunyi was a native of Daozhou in modern Hunan province in China. Zhou held a series of modest official positions throughout his career but because he refused to participate in the official civil service examinations, he was limited in the positions he could occupy and never achieved high level appointments with their accompanying status and recognition. He briefly served as tutor to both Cheng Hao (1032–1085) and Cheng Yi (1033–1107), the brothers who were to become major exponents of what later became known as the two principal schools of neo-Confucianism. Apart from his interactions with the Cheng brothers, he was generally not a well known figure until Zhu Xi (1130–1200) later raised his status to one of the founding figures of the neo-Confucian movement. It seems...