SOAS Research Online

Abstract

Neo-Confucianism, the state sponsored orthodoxy of China's later empires, is now recognised as an important key to understanding China. This study looks at the roots of Neo-Confucianism in an age when Buddhism and Taoism had eclipsed the Confucian tradition in importance. Li Ao (c. 772-836 A.D.), though generally acknowledged as the forerunner of Neo-Confucianism, is still regarded as deeply influenced by Buddhism. The historical reasons for the creation of this image of Li Ao are examined, prior to a close investigation of the actual circumstances which shaped his Fu-hsing shu, 'Book of Returning to One's True Nature', the essay which had the deepest influence on the development of early Neo-Confucianism. Although common assumptions about Buddhist influence on Li Ao are questioned, the true importance of the essay emerges in the typically Chinese patterns of thought which it exhibits and which gave it an impact transcending the immediate circumstance that prompted its writing.