Jinsi lu

Jinsi lu, influential anthology of neo-Confucian philosophical works compiled by the great Song dynasty thinker Zhu Xi (1130–1200) and his friend the philosopher Lu Ziqian (1137–81).

Zhu Xi developed a philosophical system that became the orthodox transmission of Confucian tradition from the Ming dynasty (1366–1644) to the end of the ancient civil service examination system in 1905. He claimed that the earlier Song thinkers Zhou Dunyi (1017–73), Zhang Zai (1020–77), and the brothers Cheng Hao (1032–85) and Cheng Yi (1033–1107) had restored the transmission of the Way of Confucius (551–476 bce), which had been lost after the death of the Warring States Confucian philosopher Mencius (371–289).

In 1175 Zhu and Lu compiled what they considered to be representative passages from the works of the four into an anthology that they called the Jinsi lu (“Reflections on Things at Hand”) in reference to a famous passage from the Lunyu (Analects) of Confucius. Zhu Xi accorded the Jinsi lu an important place in his philosophical and pedagogical systems. He referred to it as the “ladder” to the Confucian “Four Books” (Sishu), which were in turn the port of entry to the “Five Classics” (Wujing) and, thus, to knowledge.