Thinker · TH-0448
Zhang Zai
Zhang Zai was a Song-dynasty Chinese philosopher, one of the founders of Neo-Confucianism, who taught at Hengqu in Shaanxi. He made qi, vital energy…
張載
Also known as Zhang Hengqu, Chang Tsai
1020 – 1077 · Hengqu (Shaanxi); Kaifeng
Traditions: Chinese
Schools: Neo-Confucianism
Zhang Zai was a Song-dynasty Chinese philosopher, one of the founders of Neo-Confucianism, who taught at Hengqu in Shaanxi. He made qi, vital energy or material force, the ground of Neo-Confucian metaphysics: the Great Void is qi in its dispersed state, and all things arise as qi condenses and return to it as it disperses. This rejected Buddhist and Daoist views of emptiness and non-being. His Western Inscription, which calls Heaven father and Earth mother and all people siblings, became a classic of Confucian ethics. Wang Fuzhi later carried his thought forward.
Key ideas
- Everything is qi, which condenses into things and disperses back into the Great Void.
- The Great Void is not nothingness but qi in its formless state.
- Heaven is my father and Earth my mother; all people are my siblings.
- Moral knowledge differs from knowledge gained through the senses.
Major works
- Correcting the Ignorant (Zhengmeng 正蒙)
- Western Inscription (Ximing 西銘)
In the conversation
- Discussion I’ve stopped translating qi as “energy”, and Zhang Zai is the reason
- Question Where do Zhu Xi’s li and qi fall in the substance-versus-process divide?
- Debate Calling Wang Fuzhi a materialist hides more than it reveals
In the Coordinates
The questions of philosophy where Zhang Zai takes a place, from The Coordinates of Thought.
- 1.1.1 Substance Theory Is a river a thing, or an event?