Neo-Confucian thought, emerging in Song and Ming China, elaborates relationality through the concepts of li (principle) and qi (vital force). The universe is construed as a network of interpenetrating principles, each giving rise to phenomena while being inseparable from broader cosmic and moral structures. Possibility is framed by the alignment of mind, ethical cultivation, and cosmic order.
Human potential is realised through disciplined reflection and engagement with these relational principles. Knowledge, virtue, and action are not isolated endeavours but co-constituted within the systemic network of li and qi, revealing the interdependence of individual and cosmic actualisation. By integrating metaphysics, ethics, and epistemology, Neo-Confucianism demonstrates how construal itself can be both a vehicle and a product of relational alignment.
This philosophical synthesis underscores the historical and systemic conditions of possibility: what can be realised is structured by principle, contingent upon attunement, and continuously negotiated within relational networks. Neo-Confucian thought thus contributes a model of constrained yet generative potential, where the horizons of possibility are both ethically guided and cosmically embedded.
Modulatory voices: Zhu Xi, Wang Yangming.
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