On Zhuxi's Li:Inspired By Leibniz's Discourse On The Natural Theology Of The Chinese

By following the steps that Leibniz criticized the missionaries Nichola Longobardi and Antoine de Sainte-Marie in his writing Discourse on the Natural Theology of the Chinese, it can be demonstrated that the Li in Zhu Xi's philosophy is not a substance of material but of spirit. And then, the discussion is expanded to the difference of metaphysical Li and physical Qi. According to Zhu, Li and Qi are in need of each other, though they are not equal as the first principle is Li rather than Qi.As a spiritual substance, is Li of life or will? Through certain interpretations of Zhu's sayings and writings, it appears that Li doesn't possess the personalization as the supreme Being in Christianity does, but it is nevertheless sacred in his Neo-Confucianism.With the help of the text in Zhou Dun-Yi's Tai Ji Tu Shuo, Zhu expressed his idea on Li's activity. It seems that he holds the Li without any movement, namely a definitely still substance. Furthermore, the concept of Wei-Fa (Not-Having-Arisen) that is usually used by Confucians to denote the still state of human soul is sometimes linked by Zhu to Li, which is the reason of the world. And when the two concepts are united, it suggests that something which creates the world is itself still. This idea can be proved by interpreting a variety of statements of Zhu.Having analyzed most of the key subjects in Zhu's theory of Li, it is concluded that Zhu's Li resembles the God in the West, while some differences between them should not been ignored. Particularly, we see through that the heavenly character of Li and the religious character of Zhu's philosophy.