Neo-Confucianism represents a reworking of the Confucian tradition. It upholds the values and ethics of classical Confucianism but reorients that Confucianism in two important ways: (1) it grounds the values and ethics of classical Confucianism in an elaborate system of metaphysics (that is, an explanation of the nature of being and knowing) generated over the eleventh and twelfth centuries; and (2) on the basis of this system of metaphysics, it creates a structured program of self-cultivation, a step-by-step template for “becoming a sage.”
