Names
Chinese:	朱熹
Pinyin:	Zhū Xī
Wade-Giles:	Chu Hsi

Zhu Xi or Chu Hsi (1130–1200) was a Song Dynasty (960-1279) Confucian scholar who became one of the most significant Neo-Confucians in China. He rebuilt and taught at the famous White Deer Grotto Academy for some time. Zhu Xi was also influential in Japan, where his followers were called the Shushigaku (朱子学) school.

During the Song Dynasty, Zhu Xi's teachings were considered to be unorthodox. Zhu Xi and his fellow scholars codified what is now considered the Confucian canon of classics: the Four Books, consisting of the Analects of Confucius, the Mencius, the Great Learning, and the Doctrine of the Mean; and the Five Classics: the Classic of Poetry, the Classic of History, the Book of Changes (I Ching), the Classic of Rites and the Spring and Autumn Annals. Zhu Xi also wrote extensive commentaries for all of these classics. The writings were not widely recognised in Zhu Xi's time; however, they later became accepted as standard commentaries on the Confucian classics.

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NPR Topics: Politics & Society

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