Zhu Xi’s Philosophy of Religion

Many aspects of Zhu Xi’s thought could be considered “religious,” particularly if one defines “religion” loosely as the collection of beliefs and practices that inform one’s understanding of the cosmos and that give direction to one’s activities and sense of purpose within that cosmos. Very few of Zhu Xi’s most important “philosophical” concepts do not fall also within the purview of the modern Western discipline of religious studies. He wrote extensively, for example, about such cosmological matters as principle (li 理), qi 氣, (a term often understood as “vital energy”; hereafter treated as an English word), Heaven (tian 天), and the Great Ultimate or Supreme Polarity (tai ji 太極)—notions that have been the subject of many philosophical studies. Zhu also discussed ideas more commonly deemed “religious”: ritual (li 禮); ghosts and spirits (gui shen 鬼神); sacrificial offerings (ji si 祭祀); prayer; divination; geomancy; contemplative practices such as quiet sitting (jing zuo 靜坐); and many other self-cultivation practices. As other chapters in this volume deal in greater detail with cosmological issues, this chapter focuses on Zhu Xi’s views on the subjects more commonly deemed religious by the parameters of modern Western disciplinary boundaries. Zhu Xi is often considered a great synthesizer of many strands of thought, but his views on matters such as ghosts and spirits often appear unsystematic and are not entirely consistent. This conceptual inconsistency is entirely typical of conceptualizations of numinous phenomena across cultures, for by their very nature the spirit world defies definition and systematization. Some seeming inconsistency is also due to the fact that many of Zhu Xi’s ideas were recorded at various times by his students across his very long teaching career.