Confucian Cosmogony

LIFE OF ZHU XI original: Choo-foo-tsze; the preeminent Neo-Confucian scholar of the Song Dynasty (1130–1200)

...his whole manner and bearing were impressive. From youth to old age, in summer and in winter, and in all the vicissitudes The changes of circumstances or fortune, typically those that are unwelcome or unpleasant of time and place, he never for a moment departed from this manner of life. In the third month of the year 1201, Zhu Xi original: Choo-tsze fell sick; and on the day on which he died, having ordered his attendants to place his bed in the central hall The formal reception area of a Chinese home, used here to show his adherence to ritual propriety even in death, he rose about noon and sat erect; and then, adjusting his hat and dress, he quietly lay down and died.

A list of the philosopher's works is given by his biographer Gao Yu original: Kaou-yu; see the Chinese Repository An influential 19th-century English-language periodical published in Canton/Macau documenting Chinese history and culture, vol. xviii, p. 206, from which the above sketch of his life is abridged.