Zhang Shi’s Philosophical Perspectives on Human Nature, Heart/Mind, Humaneness, and the Supreme Ultimate

Zhang Shi 張栻 (1133–1180; also known by his courtesy names Jingfu 敬夫 or Qinfu 欽夫, as well as his literary name Nanxuan or Nanxian 南軒) was an important Song thinker who continued the philosophical tradition of Cheng Hao and Hu Hong, and maintained significant intellectual exchanges with ZHu Xi for almost two decades. Moreover, Zhang was one of the few twelfth-century philosophers to be included with ZHu Xi in the official 1345 Song History(Song shi 宋史) special category of “learning of the way” (daoxue 道學) Confucians, which had already in 1241 attained special endorsement as orthodoxy by the Southern Song government. A longstanding summary judgment articulated by Quan Zuwang 全祖望 (1705–1775) about Zhang’s ideas still echoes among many China scholars: Zhang Shi was like Cheng Hao, and ZHu Xi was like Cheng Yi (Huang and Quan 1986: 50.1609).