Zhu’s NeoConfucianism was an enormous theoretical system, the kernel of which was Zhu’s view of heavenly principles. According to Mou Zongsan, the Zhus ontologically determined based on Confucian classics that heavenly principles were the beings of everything in nature. These heavenly principles were “ontological basis”. However, the Zhus transformed the heavenly principles from “ontological basis” to the existence of “Yes”, that is, the “reason of existence” by backstepping his “ontological explanation” of “why being” from “being” and grasping “why being” by means of thorough investigation and analysis. According to Zhu’s theory, Mou’s analysis was reasonable.

Zhus; Mou Zongsan; reason of ontology; reason of existence