Cheng Hao

1032 CE – 1085 CE

Huangpi, Hubei

Northern Song Neo-Confucian philosopher known as Mingdao whose teaching on ren, li, intuitive moral knowing, reverent self-cultivation, stabilizing nature, and forming one body with all things shaped Cheng-Zhu learning, Lu-Wang learning, and later Confucian moral metaphysics.

Feng Guifen

1809 CE – 1874 CE

Wuxian / Mudu, Suzhou, Jiangsu

Late Qing scholar-official from Suzhou whose statecraft reform program joined Confucian moral order with selective adoption of Western learning, manufacturing, military technology, public institutions, and practical science.

Gu Yanwu

1613 CE – 1682 CE

Kunshan, Jiangsu

Late Ming and early Qing Confucian scholar from Kunshan whose practical learning joined philology, historical geography, epigraphy, ethics, political responsibility, and evidence against empty speculation.

Huang Zongxi

1610 CE – 1695 CE

Yuyao, Zhejiang

Ming-Qing Confucian philosopher from Yuyao whose political critique, historical method, Yijing scholarship, philology, music theory, geography, and loyalist ethics joined evidence to public responsibility.

Huineng

638 CE – 713 CE

Xinzhou, Lingnan, probably modern Xinxing County, Guangdong

Tang Chinese Chan Buddhist patriarch associated with the Platform Sutra, sudden enlightenment, Buddha-nature, no-thought, nondual meditation and wisdom, and the Southern school narrative that shaped later Chan, Seon, and Zen traditions.

Kang Youwei

1858 CE – 1927 CE

Su Village, Danzao, Nanhai County, Guangdong, now Nanhai District, Foshan

Late Qing Confucian reformer whose New Text Confucianism, constitutional monarchism, Confucian religious reform, Datong utopianism, and calligraphy theory reshaped modern Chinese political and philosophical debate.

Laozi

600 BCE – 501 BCE

traditionally Ku County, state of Chu, near modern Luyi, Henan; historicity uncertain

Legendary early Daoist figure associated with the Daodejing, Dao, de, wuwei, ziran, simplicity, anti-coercive rule, and later religious Daoist veneration as Taishang Laojun.

Liang Qichao

1873 CE – 1929 CE

Xinhui, Guangdong

Cistercian monk, abbot of late Qing and early Republican reformism, and medieval Christian philosopher-theologian whose theology of love, humility, grace, free choice, mystical ascent, monastic ethics, scriptural exegesis, and ecclesial counsel shaped scholastic, monastic, and political theology.

Lu Jiuyuan

1139 CE – 1193 CE

Jinxi, Fuzhou, Jiangxi

Cistercian monk, abbot of Southern Song Neo-Confucianism, and medieval Christian philosopher-theologian whose theology of love, humility, grace, free choice, mystical ascent, monastic ethics, scriptural exegesis, and ecclesial counsel shaped scholastic, monastic, and political theology.

Wang Yangming

1472 CE – 1529 CE

Yuyao, Zhejiang, Ming China

Ming Chinese Neo-Confucian philosopher of the School of Mind whose teaching joins innate knowing, mind as principle, unity of knowledge and action, sagehood, and moral-political practice.

Wei Yuan

1794 CE – 1857 CE

Shaoyang, Hunan, Qing China

Late Qing Chinese statecraft thinker, historian, and geographer whose works joined Confucian practical learning, maritime defense, foreign geography, and reform-minded strategies for learning from foreign powers.

Zhiyi

538 CE – 597 CE

Huarong, Jingzhou; source surfaces vary Hunan/Hubei, exact site uncertain

Sui Tiantai Buddhist philosopher whose Lotus Sutra hermeneutics, three-truths metaphysics, panjiao classification, and calming-insight meditation system shaped East Asian Buddhist thought.

Zhou Dunyi

1017 CE – 1073 CE

Yingdao, Daozhou, now Dao County, Yongzhou, Hunan

Northern Song Neo-Confucian philosopher whose taiji-wuji cosmology, theory of sincerity, moral self-cultivation, and lotus symbolism helped form the metaphysical and ethical vocabulary later systematized by Zhu Xi.

Zhu Xi

1130 CE – 1200 CE

Youxi, Nanjian Prefecture, Fujian, Southern Song; ancestral Wuyuan/Huizhou noted in sources

Southern Song Neo-Confucian philosopher whose Cheng-Zhu synthesis made li-qi metaphysics, investigation of things, ritual self-cultivation, and the Four Books commentary tradition central to later East Asian Confucian learning.

Zongmi

780 CE – 841 CE

Xichong, Guozhou, Sichuan, Tang China

Tang Buddhist philosopher whose Huayan-Chan synthesis joined tathāgatagarbha, Perfect Enlightenment exegesis, sudden awakening with gradual cultivation, and doctrinal classification.