Zhou Dunyi
Source: Wikipedia: Zhou Dunyi
Philosophy & Thought • Historical Archive • 🇨🇳 Song Dynasty • 4 views

Zhou Dunyi 🇨🇳

周敦頤
["Neo-Confucian Philosopher", "Cosmologist", "Author of Taijitu Shuo"]
Born Jan 01, 1017 🇨🇳 Daozhou (Hunan), Song Dynasty
Passed Away Jul 24, 1073 Mount Lu (Jiangxi), Song Dynasty
Lifespan 56 years old
4 views
Notice / Correction
"The Supreme Ultimate through movement generates Yang; when its movement reaches its limit, it becomes still. The lotus emerges from mud yet remains unblemished."

Archival Overview

Northern Song dynasty thinker regarded as the 'First Pioneer of Neo-Confucianism', author of the 'Explanation of the Diagram of the Supreme Ultimate' (Taijitu Shuo) and the celebrated ode to moral purity, 'On the Love of the Lotus'.

Biographical Record

Zhou Dunyi (1017–1073) synthesized Daoist cosmology and the I Ching with classical Confucian ethics, formulating how the Non-Polar (Wuji) gives rise to the Supreme Ultimate (Taiji), which through movement and rest generates Yin and Yang, the Five Elements, and all ten thousand things.

Zhou taught that human beings receive the finest cosmic elements, and that the sage attains harmony through 'quietude' (Jing) and sincerity (Cheng). His exquisite prose essay 'On the Love of the Lotus' praised the lotus flower for rising unsoiled from murky mud, becoming an immortal symbol of upright scholarly virtue.

Key Life Milestones

1062

Publication of Taijitu Shuo

Formulated the cosmological diagram and treatise of the Supreme Ultimate that launched Neo-Confucian metaphysics.

1063

Composition of 'On the Love of the Lotus'

Wrote 'Ai Lian Shuo', the most beloved essay on moral integrity in Chinese classical literature.

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Final Resting Place

Perpetual Memorial
Zhou Dunyi Tomb at Mount Lu
Jiujiang (Jiangxi), China
GPS: 29.5667, 115.9833
View on Memory Atlas
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