the history of the song dynasty? The Biography of Daoism holds that Daoism was revived in the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty, and only in Zhou Dunyi's Tai Chi Tu Shuo and Shao Yong's View of Things did the basic system of Daoism be completely presented for the first time. Why is Zhou Dunyi the originator of Neo-Confucianism?

firstly, it is explained that "honesty" is the embryonic form of "reason"

Zhou Dunyi inherited the ideas of "Daxue" and "The Doctrine of the Mean" in General Book, and discussed the two meanings of "honesty". First, "Honesty is the foundation of saints." And he said, "Saint, honesty is all." Establishing "sincerity" is the essence of saints. Then, Zhou Dunyi used the method of interpreting Zhouyi to discuss the category of "sincerity", and thought that "sincerity" came from nature, as the saying goes, "everything starts with everything, and sincerity is also the source."

echoing the doctrine of the mean that "sincerity is the way of heaven", it highlights the third meaning of "sincerity"-although "sincerity" is the essential attribute of saints, it comes from heaven, so it is the highest category in the study of "sex". This thought is still vague and abstract in Zhou Dunyi's system, but as long as we understand Zhu Xi's system, we can find that Zhou Dunyi's thought is its embryonic form.

Secondly, it expounds the relationship between honesty and reason. "Honesty" is divided into two realms. The first one is the realm that can be reached by nature without practice, and it is called "sincere person". For this kind of state, the monk only needs to keep "sincerity", make it "silent and motionless", and be quiet and have no desire; This thought is called "the nature of destiny" in Cheng Zhu's system. Cheng Hao wrote "Understanding Benevolence" to give play to it;

In Cheng Zhu's Neo-Confucianism, "Li" has three remarkable characteristics: first, in nature, "Li" is the ontology of all things; Second, in terms of human nature, "reason" is the true face of human nature; Third, the extension of the previous point of view, "reason" is pure perfection.

"Li" is actually a further improvement of "sincerity", and Zhou Dunyi's "sincerity" is only the embryonic form of "Li", and his interpretation of this category is also different from that of Cheng Zhu. For example, Zhou Dunyi did not say that "sincerity" is the noumenon of all things, but that "sincerity" originated from heaven and was homologous with all things; Another example is that "sincerity" is the basis of the five permanent members, but it is not its true colors. As long as the five permanent members do not violate "sincerity", they will not be blocked by evil and nothing will happen.

It can be seen that Zhou Dunyi had a great influence on Cheng Zhu's Neo-Confucianism, so it is natural to regard Zhou Dunyi as the originator of Neo-Confucianism.