Southern Song thinker who made the Four Books (四书) the core of Confucian learning; his commentaries on them were set texts of the imperial exams from 1313 to 1905. The school of 程朱理学 bears his name.
Zhū Xī zhùjiě de 《 Sìshū 》 shì hòushì kējǔ de biāozhǔn.
Zhu Xi's commentaries on the Four Books became the standard for later imperial exams.
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culture
His poem 《观书有感》 ends 问渠那得清如许，为有源头活水来: 'how can the channel stay so clear? because living water flows in from the source'. It gave Chinese the idiom 源头活水, for the fresh input that keeps ideas alive.
culture
His central pair of ideas, 理 'principle', the pattern behind every thing, and 气 'material force', the stuff things are made of, remain core vocabulary in Chinese philosophy.
