- The Natural Philosophy of Chu Hsi 1130-1200
The Southern Song scholar-philosopher Zhu Xi (Chu Hsi ) has been an intriguing figure to philosophers East and West for the past century, in part because of his speculations about nature and his observations of natural phenomena. While Shao Yong and Cheng Yi in the Northern Song had introduced notions regarding observation (in terms of guanwu [observing things], fanguan [reflective perception], and gewu [investigating things], respectively), Zhu not only discussed the idea of observation but offered a multitude of actual observations of celestial and terrestrial phenomena. In addition, his penchant for hierarchy and systemization led many commentators in the twentieth century to draw comparisons with Plato, Aristotle, and even Thomas Aquinas (Thompson 1994). Then, around the middle of the century, Joseph Needham vividly presented Zhu's system in terms of process philosophy as bearing organismic patterns of conceptualization and distinct parallels with scientific thinking:
I am prepared to suggest, in view of the fact that the term Li always contained the notion of pattern, and that Chu Hsi himself consciously applied it so as to include the most living and vital patterns known to man, that something of the idea of 'organism' was what was really at the back of the minds of the Neo-Confucians, [End Page 165] and that Chu Hsi was therefore further advanced in insight into the nature of the universe than any of his interpreters and translators, whether Chinese or European, have yet given him credit for.
(Needham 1956, p. 474).
Soon afterwards, after undertaking a careful study of Zhu's dialogues (Zhuzi yulei), Hu Shih presented Zhu's method of inquiry, gewu zhizhi (investigate things to attain knowledge) as essentially a process of "hypothesis and verification by evidence" (Chan 1989, p. 566), consistent in spirit with a scientific approach to inquiry. By these bold strokes, Needham and Hu cast Zhu's thought and method in an entirely new light, as both more creative and practical than previously thought. Since then, considerable ink has been spent on discussing Zhu as a process thinker, but relatively little has been written on the extent to which his system could accommodate a scientific worldview, and the extent to which his method of inquiry was consistent with a scientific approach. This, on its face, is rather curious, for these questions are intriguing and important. Perhaps the problem to date has been that most scholars working in the field have been humanists, some with training in philosophy but precious few with backgrounds in science—the history and philosophy of science in particular. Professor Yung Sik Kim is the first sinologist specializing in the history and philosophy of science to undertake an extensive, in-depth study of Zhu's system and discussions on the natural world in order to ascertain the extent to which Zhu anticipated genuinely scientific methods of observation and conceptualization.
Kim's research has now appeared as The Natural Philosophy of Chu Hsi 1130-1200—a book that is systematic and comprehensive in scope and meticulous and sensitive on specifics that will stand as the standard reference in the field and a model for research for years to come. Kim begins by describing the role and content of natural knowledge in Zhu's works in the context of his society and its intellectual tradition, and then, by detailing the methodological limitations under which Zhu worked, offers a clear distillation of Zhu's thought and discussions relevant to his mission. Zhu from childhood displayed a genuine interest in natural phenomena and in raising speculative questions. Later he tended to rein in this interest, for example by relating features of observed natural phenomena to human analogues (for didactic purposes) and by refraining from pressing his speculations very far (as beyond the scope of verifiable knowledge and lacking in applicability). Zhu lived during a tumultuous period in Chinese history; economic prosperity and technical development were offset by the loss of the north to the Jurchens a few...