Abstract
The relationships between dao 道 and wen 文 (or the Way and literary form) was one of the key issues during the development history of Tang and Song's classical prose. Zhu Xi 朱熹 corrected the theoretical flaws of Northern Song's Confucian moralists with the idea that ”literariness originates from the Way.” He thus established a writing theory comparable to those proposed by literary giants of the past. Yet, how is this theory realized in his own writing? This is the main concern of this article. Ji 記 is one of the most popular Song prose genres. Most classical prose writers in Northern Song tried their best to create and invent new writing ideas for ji, making this genre of prose one of the richest of those practiced in the Song dynasty. However, in terms of quantity, Zhu Xi wrote the most ji in the Song dynasty. This is interesting when the literary inclination of the ji genre is taken into consideration. Discussion is presented based on five categories of ji. Through the comparison of content differences between Zhu Xi's and those written during Northern Song, this article attempts to define the characteristics of Zhu Xi's ji and identify how he implemented his theory in practical writing.