Abstract

This is a study of Chou Tun-i's life and philosophy, the latter being commonly regarded as the intellectual foundation for the whole of Neo-Confucian thought. The metaphysical cosmology found in the Explanation of the Diagram of the Supreme Ultimate and Confucian moral philosophy explained in the Yi-t'ung are two major subject-matters of this dissertation. ;This study consists of six chapters. The first chapter is a discussion of the historical background of Sung Neo-Confucian thought. The subject of the second chapter is a discussion of Chou's life and works. Although traditionally Chou's life is described as that of a stern Confucian scholar, through discussing poems and writings written by his friends I offer a broader perspective on Chou's life to clarify the intellectual background of his thought. In this chapter I also deal with Chu Hsi's accounts about the origin of Chou's learning. The traditional belief that Chu Hsi opposed the theory that the ideas of the Taoist Ch'en T'uan were the origin of Chou's philosophy is criticized. In chapter three through a discussion of the traditional claims regarding the origin of the Diagram of the Supreme Ultimate, I have indicated how these claims contain serious defects. The fourth chapter is a discussion of the implications of the Supreme Ultimate and the Ultimateless and their relationship to each other. I demonstrate that these two ideas are simultaneously used by the three teachings. Through investigating the debate between Lu Hsiang-shan and Chu Hsi I point out that from the philological point of view the relationship between these two concepts cannot be clarified. My conclusion that Chou used these two as a way to refer to the same reality is based on an intellectual understanding of Chou's philosophy. ;The fifth chapter is a discussion of Chou's Yi-t'ung which explains his moral philosophy. From the discussion of such major philosophical ideas as ch'eng and chi one can see that Confucian ethics is at the heart of Chou's thought. Despite Taoist and Buddhist influences on his philosophy, Chou was truly a Confucian