The Radiant Mind

This chapter identifies and highlights aspects of Buddhist thought that Zhu Xi appropriated and adapted to bolster and develop his philosophy of mind. The author argues that even though Zhu Xi repudiated the Buddhism he had been trained in as a youth, he continued to mirror many Buddhist doctrines as he responded to agendas already well-established in Buddhist circles. The chapter’s focus is Zhu Xi’s choice of the term “lucid radiance” (xuming) to describe the nature of the mind. The author argues that Zhu was indebted to the term’s use in seventh and eighth centuries’ Northern Chan Buddhist circles to describe the tathāgatagarbha (the womb of a Buddha) or buddha-nature that exists within all sentient beings. He concludes that Zhu Xi formulated what was in effect a kind of Confucian “Northern Chan.” as evidenced by the common belief in an empty, radiant mind, obscured by habituation and qi.