1130-1200.

His literary output was enormous and his official career successful; but his chief title to fame rests upon his merits as a commentator on the Confucian Canon.

As has been already stated, he introduced interpretations either wholly or partly at variance with those which had been put forth by the scholars of the Han dynasty, and hitherto received as infallible, thus modifying to a certain extent the prevailing standard of political and social morality.
His guiding principle was merely one of consistency.

He refused to interpret words in a given passage in one sense, and the same words occurring elsewhere in another sense.

The effect of this apparently obvious method was magical; and from that date the teachings of Confucius have been universally understood in the way in which Chu Hsi said they ought to be understood.
To his influence also must be traced the spirit of materialism which is so widely spread among educated Chinese.