ABSTRACT
Neo-Confucianism is a renewal of Confucian thought in response to philosophical challenges from Buddhism, Neo-Daoism, the School of Names, and the Yin-Yang tradition. Neo-Confucianism began with an attempt to find a metaphysical explanation of the universe that was as comprehensive as the Buddhist explanation and more practical than the Daoist. It was Zhou Dunyi who was directly responsible for laying the foundations of Neo-Confucianism. The notions of yin and yang, as negative and positive concepts of reality, were familiar to Zhou Dunyi from his study of the Yijing. Neo-Confucianism was given its enduring foundation by Cheng Hao and Cheng I, who made principle (li) its basis. Zhu Xi is considered to be the third most important Confucian thinker, outranked only by Confucius and Mengzi. In constructing a complete systematic philosophy, Zhu Xi was also able to reconcile the presence of evil with the basic goodness of human nature.
