Chu His's Concept of Human Nature from the Perspective of Li-chi Duality

This paper will first trace the historical sources and analyze the philosophical categories as found in Chu Hsi’s metaphysics in order to find some connection and logical structure between his cosmology and his theory on human nature. It will be made clear that Chu Hsi’s cosmology is based on the logic of the “nuity of substance and function”(t’I yung i ju), and his ontology on that while “principle is one, its manifestations are many” (li I fen shu). However, the main interest of Chu Hsi’s philosophical thought lies in moral self-cultivation which is centered on “seriousness and extension of principle” (chu-ching ch’iung-li). So it will be able to deal with the practical problem inherent in human nature－a problem or a kind of paradox that while human mind and universal mind stand in opposite, universal mind must be realized in human mind. From this point of view, Chu Hsi’s theory on substance and function has great advantage in that it does neither avoid nor distort the contradictory opposite. It has also resolved many difficulties, proved the perfectibility of human nature, and provided a new way to sagehood. This is the main point this paper tries to explicate so as to demonstrate the profundity of Chu Hsi’s philosophical thought