During the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty (1587 ~ 1598), Zhou Zi, Li Kuan, Han Yu, Li Shizhen, Zhu, Zhang Qian, etc. all paid homage to the Seven Sages of Shigu Academy, which is known as the Seven Sages of Shigu in the World.
(According to Hengyang Dictionary of Hunan Cultural Celebrities, edited by Gan Jianhua and produced by Erya Culture)
He loved reading since he was a child and was quite famous in his hometown Daozhou Camp. People say that he is "ambitious, knowledgeable, practical and has the demeanor of the ancients."
Because of his extensive reading, Zhou Dunyi came into contact with many different kinds of ideas. He dabbled in Indian Buddhism from hundred schools of thought in the pre-Qin Dynasty to China in the Han Dynasty, which laid the foundation for him to study China's ancient wonderful book Yijing and establish his innate world view.
At the age of fifteen, he went to Beijing with his mother and went to his uncle Zheng Xiang. At that time, he was a university student of Hongrenzong Chaolongtuge. This uncle is very kind to Zhou Dunyi and his mother.
When Zhou Dunyi was twenty years old, his uncle asked the emperor to play things and got him a position of supervising the country.
Zhou Dunyi worked hard during his tenure and won the hearts of the people. In life, Zhou Dunyi began to study the Book of Changes, and finally wrote his important book "Tai Chi Hui Yi Shuo". It puts forward a system of the origin of the universe.
Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties occupies an extremely important position in the history of China's philosophical thought. Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties was mainly based on Confucianism of Confucius and Mencius, and absorbed the essence of Taoism and Buddhism in many ways, and gradually became the dominant philosophical thought in China feudal society.
Zhou Dunyi was the founder of Neo-Confucianism in the Northern Song Dynasty. Zhou Dunyi's position was discussed in both Song and An: "After Confucius and Mencius, Han Confucianism only learned to pass on the classics. Sex has been whispering for a long time. " When Yuan Gong rose, he inherited it from the second generation and then returned to Hengqu. Great Confucianists come forth in large numbers, and universities flourish. "
Yuan Gong here is Zhou Dunyi, and Yuan Gong was his posthumous title. This passage clearly affirmed Zhou Dunyi's position as the founder of Neo-Confucianism in the Northern Song Dynasty. He often travels with monks and Taoists, playing the piano and reciting poems.
His knowledge and tolerance also moved many people to follow him. Of course, the most famous ones are Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi.
Cheng Yi later recalled that when he was young, he was tired of the official career of the imperial examination because he listened to Zhou Dunyi's sermon. Determined to learn and explore the Confucian Saint Wang Zhidao.
After Zhou Dunyi's death, with the inheritance and development of Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi's philosophy, his reputation became bigger and bigger. In the Southern Song Dynasty, Zhou Dunyi's ancestral halls began to be established in many places, and people even held him to a position comparable to Confucius and Mencius, thinking that his "merits overshadowed Confucius and Mencius". Therefore, the emperors respected him as an ethics teacher.
And Zhou Dunyi did achieve the demeanor of a generation of scholars with practical actions before his death. His character and thoughts have been respected by people for thousands of years.
Masterpieces: Zhu Yuanzhang, Gong Ji, Taiji Illustration and Shu Tong.
Zhou Dunyi, a scholar in Song Dynasty, was the ancestor of Zhou Enlai, Zhou Shuren (Lu Xun) and Zhou Zuoren.