Zhu Xi and Meister Eckhart: Two Intellectual Profiles

This book attempts a comparative study between Zhu Xi (1130-1200), a

Neo-Confucian master of the Song dynasty in China, and Meister Eckhart

(1260-1328), a scholastic and mystic in the medieval West. With a focus

on the theme of human intellect as presented in the works of the two

thinkers, this study also explores the massive hermeneutical framework

in which that concept is unfolded in Zhu Xi and in Eckhart. Thus, the

complexity of each thinker’s understanding of the human intellect is

demonstrated in its own context, and the common themes between them are

discussed in their own terms. Based on a systematic study of the

original texts, the comparison between Zhu Xi and Meister Eckhart goes

much deeper than a general dialogue between East and West. The

comparative model of this book, based strictly on textual study, aims to

develop an in-depth communication between a scholastic Confucian mind

and his equally sophisticated counterpart in Christendom, in the hope

that the intellectual brilliance and spiritual splendour of one thinker

will be illuminated by the light of the other. Probably only when one

encounters a like-minded counterpart brought up in a totally different

tradition will such a mutual illumination become meaningful.