Zhou Dun Yi

 

Zhou Dun Yi (周敦颐)(1017-73 A.D) was an important Northern Song philosopher. He expounded a philosophical theory on the link between Chinese natural philosophy (Daoism) and ethics (Confucianism) in his article Taijitu Shuo (太极图说).   It laid the foundation for the great philosopher Zhu Xi's Neo-Confucianism, the ethical and metaphysical system that became the officially sponsored mode of thought in China for almost 1,000 years. For more information, please read this.

Zhou Dun Yi He was known as a warm, humane man who felt a deep kinship with the natural world, a man with penetrating insight into the Way of Heaven, the natural-moral order. To later Confucians he personified the full realization of the innate goodness and wisdom of human nature.

He is often depicted on Chinese ceramics as a scholar admiring the lotus.  It is termed Zhou Dun yi ai lian in Chinese  (周敦颐爱莲.In his essay Ai Lian Shuo (on my admiration of the Lotus [爱莲说]), he wrote 'I especially admire the lotus for it emerges unstained from mire'.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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