On Zhu Xi's Evaluation For Historical Figures

As a Neo-Confucianist, Zhu Xi's evaluation for historical figures was closely tied up with his background of Neo-Confucian. Zhu Xi's Neo-Confucian embodied his views for universe, nature, society, value and so on. It was because of the effect of Neo-Confucian that Zhu Xi's evaluation for historical figures, which was affected by natural science, spirit and mind; benevolence, morality, ceremony, wisdom and the thought of rule the world, had own unique features.Zhu Xi's thought of Neo-Confucian had an important effect on his evaluation for his historical figures. The thought of natural science and spirit made him underline the YiLi of historical figures and reviewed the aptitude of historical figures; the thought of mind made him pursue intention when commenting the historical figures; the thought of rule the world made him pay attention to exploits when discussing historical figures. Therefore, there are four principal for Zhu Xi's evaluation for historical figures. They are the principal of praising aptitude highly, the principal of pursuing intention, the most important principal of underlining YiLi and the principal of attaching importance to exploits, in which Zhu Xi evaluated the historical figures totally by unique method.Zhu Xi's evaluation for historical figures possessed more distinct characteristics of Neo-Confucian, when comparing with other scholars. Si Maguang lived in the middle and later period of Northern Song Dynasty, when the development of Neo-Confucian didn't attach a sufficient extent. His evaluation for historical figures embodied the characteristics of Neo-Confucian and become a creative theory. The principal of Zhu Xi's evaluation for historical figures followed and developed the views of Chen Hao and Chen Yi. Chen Liang and Ye Shi are typical figures of Exploits School of Eastern Zhejiang. Although they lived in the same period with Zhu Xi, their views had a great difference. Si Maguang, Chen Liang and Ye Shi paid more attention to exploits than Zhu Xi when evaluating historical figures. While Zhu Xi was characterized by valuing aptitude, intention, YiLi and had a unique way. As a famous Neo-Confucianist, Zhu Xi had plenty of disciples. His evalution for historical figures affected his disciples, such as Liu Yue, Huang Gan, Chen Chun, Huang Zhen and so on.