Abstract:
Zhu Xi’s view of nature was an important part of his theory. However, the study of Zhu's view of nature of Chinese academic world tends to explain and interpret it in the mode of western objective thinking, which obviously deviates from traditional Chinese thinking inclination of man as an integrate part of nature. Instead of understanding nature from an epistemological angel, Neo-Confucianism represented by Zhu Xi in the Song and Ming Dynasties explained nature from an ontological and ideological perspective. According to Zhu, nature was a being internalized in man and thus was of internal value. He didn’t deny the substantial existence of nature, but emphasized the essential identification of nature and man, that is, the mutualism and mutual-existence between them.
