[Why] Since the Northern Song, Confucianism absorbing Buddhism and Daoism thought had formed a new theoretical form, urgently requiring a master who could systematically integrate the various views of all schools. Song-era scholar-officials had strong spiritual demand for Confucian revival. [What] Zhu Xi annotated the Four Books into the Collected Commentaries on the Four Books in Chapter and Verse and proposed the Neo-Confucian core proposition of preserve heavenly principle and eliminate human desire. At the Goose Lake meeting he debated mind and nature with Lu Jiuyuan and finally established the systematic Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism system. [Who] Zhu Xi was the great philosopher and educator who comprehensively gathered Song-Ming Neo-Confucianism. Lu Jiuyuan was the pioneer of Mind School; the two's Goose Lake debate laid the foundation pattern for Neo-Confucianism and Mind School to stand side by side and contend in brilliance. [How] Zhu Xi's Neo-Confucianism was set by the Yuan, Ming, and Qing three dynasties as official ideology and core examination content, deeply shaping seven hundred years of East Asian intellectual elite's spiritual world. It later transmitted to Korea, Japan, and Vietnam, becoming the spiritual bond of the East Asian cultural sphere.
Why
The historic event of Zhu Xi's Neo-Confucianism represents a key developmental peak of the Huaxia dynastic system. The official ideology that shaped East Asian intellectual elite's spiritual world for seven centuries. By establishing this moral or administrative benchmark, it continues to shape the structural and philosophical fabric of ancient Chinese statecraft.