"Rising from mud unstained"
His short essay On the Love of the Lotus likens the gentleman to a lotus that "rises from the mud unstained," a timeless piece expressing the Neo-Confucian pursuit of sincerity and character.
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Zhou Dunyi
Founder of Neo-Confucianism; Diagram of the Supreme Ultimate
Remembered for a Single Line · Small Roles, Famous Names
Neo-ConfucianismSupreme UltimateSincerity
Who they are
Zhou Dunyi (1017–1073), the founding master of Neo-Confucianism, joined cosmic generation and moral cultivation in his Explanation of the Diagram of the Supreme Ultimate, proposing the sequence "the Ultimateless and yet the Supreme Ultimate" — the metaphysical groundwork for the systems of the Cheng brothers and Zhu Xi.
Primary sourcesZhou Dunyi, Explanation of the Diagram of the Supreme Ultimate, On the Love of the Lotus
Key stories
Relationships
Disciple
Echoes today
Below are how modern works borrow or reinterpret this name or story — not the original material. The two differ, so keep them apart.
"Rising from mud unstained"The line from On the Love of the Lotus is still a common image of upright character.