Rise of Neo-Confucianism

Neo-Confucianism was a revival of Confucian philosophy in China that took shape in the Tang dynasty and reached full development under the Song, in response to the influence of Buddhism and Daoism. Thinkers such as Zhou Dunyi, the Cheng brothers and especially Zhu Xi built a systematic philosophy that combined ethics with a view of the cosmos, in which principle and material force explain the world. Zhu Xi chose the Four Books as the core texts for education. Later his commentaries became the basis for the civil service examinations, which made the doctrine the state ideology for centuries. The school spread to Korea, Japan and Vietnam, and it greatly influenced East Asian government, family life and education.

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