Zhou Dunyi

Also known as Zi Maoshu · Hao Lianxi · Lianxi Xiansheng · Yuan

Zhou Dunyi, courtesy name Maoshu, came from Yingdao in Daozhou. Through his uncle Zheng Xiang he entered service as registrar of Fenning county, and he spent most of his career in local posts. In 1046, while legal officer at Nan'an, he was asked by the official Cheng Xiang to teach his two sons, Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi. In his last years he governed Nankang and built a house below Lotus Peak on Mount Lu beside a stream he named Lianxi after the one at his birthplace, so that scholars called him Master Lianxi. His writings include the Explanation of the Diagram of the Supreme Ultimate (Taiji tushuo), Penetrating the Book of Changes (Tongshu) and the short essay "On Loving the Lotus". He died in 1073 and was given the posthumous name Yuan under the Southern Song. Zhu Xi wrote commentaries on his two main works and placed him first in his record of the Cheng school's origins.