Lu Jiuyuan Quotes
Lu Jiuyuan, also known as Lu Xiangshan, was a Chinese Neo-Confucian philosopher of the Southern Song dynasty and the principal rival of Zhu Xi, whose more rationalist program he challenged from the standpoint of an explicit philosophy of mind. The recorded dialogues of his Goose Lake meetings with Zhu Xi in 1175 dramatized the great Song-dynasty controversy between the school of principle and the school of mind, in which Lu argued that the moral principles of the universe are originally inscribed in the human heart-mind and that the long study of texts is therefore not the road to sagehood. The quotes below are attributed to Lu Jiuyuan, organized by topic.
Lu Jiuyuan on God
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“Even if the Heaven and Earth were destroyed, the Universal Reason would still be there.”
As quoted in Lin Yutang 's From Pagan to Christian (1959), p. 107, and in George E. G. Catlin 's Rabindranath Tagore (1964), p. 17
Lu Jiuyuan on Knowledge
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“As quoted in Lin Yutang 's From Pagan to Christian (1959), p. 107, and in George E. G. Catlin 's Rabindranath Tagore (1964), p. 17”
Even if the Heaven and Earth were destroyed, the Universal Reason would still be there.
Lu Jiuyuan on Mind
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Attributed to Lu Jiuyuan:
“The universe is my mind; my mind is the universe.”
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Attributed to Lu Jiuyuan:
“Principle is not external to the heart-mind; it is the heart-mind itself rightly seen.”
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Attributed to Lu Jiuyuan:
“What is in the classics is in our own minds, before we ever read a word.”
Lu Jiuyuan on Virtue
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Attributed to Lu Jiuyuan:
“Sagehood does not require a thousand books; it requires the awakening of the original heart.”
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Attributed to Lu Jiuyuan:
“If the foundation is right, the rest will follow of itself.”