Zhu Xi's And Lu Jiuyuan's Gongfu Theory And The Similarities And Differences Between Them

Zhu Xi and Lu Jiuyuan are representative LIXUE and XINXUE philosophers of Neo-Confucianism in Song dynasty. Identifying their thoughts is the key to understand numbers of Confucian issues.This paper explores the details, structures and systems of Zhu Xi's and Lu Jiuyuan's thoughts. In terms of Zhu Xi's Gongfu, it can be classified as"Gongfu of Mind","Gongfu of Study"and"Gongfu of self-discipline"."Gongfu of Mind"is related to"respect","Gongfu of Study"can be derived from the"Eight Procedures"in the Great Learning while"Gongfu of self-discipline"is the essential and powerful Gongfu most favored by Zhu Xi himself. These three Gongfu, independent but interrelated, set the path for scholar to wisdom then to saint in the way from outside to inside and the body as a whole. Zhu Xi's sound philosophic system is well reflected in it. In terms of Lu Jiuyuan's Gongfu, the author thinks it takes"discovering original natural mind"as its route, i.e. ontology is Gongfu, all way to the mind. It is obvious that other specific Gongfu serve as assistant to this center and there is no necessary inheriting relation within them.Through the study and analysis of Zhu's and Lu's Gongfu Theory, it can be drawn that two schools of theories share similarities in base point and final goal—attaining the unit of mind and principle and become saint through the way of recovering native and principle of nature. However, Zhu's Gongfu is taken as a line while Lu's Gongfu takes the form of a point, which can be attributed to their academic origin (the approval of Confucianism and the understanding of Confucian classics), and their differential ideas on"REN"and"CHENG". All in all, the differences between their Gongfu Theory come from their disagreement on the essence of Confucianism, that is mind and principle are separated or united.