Which Confucian school became influential in the Song dynasty through Zhu Xi?

The Confucian school that became influential in the Song dynasty through Zhu Xi is Neo-Confucianism.

Neo-Confucian thinkers reworked classical Confucian ethics while responding to Buddhist and Taoist ideas. Zhu Xi, a major Song philosopher, organized influential commentaries on the Four Books and presented them as a coherent curriculum for moral and intellectual cultivation. His interpretation later became central to the civil-service examination system.

Neo-Confucianism was not a single doctrine shared identically by every thinker. Zhu Xi’s “Cheng-Zhu” school emphasized concepts such as li, principle, and qi, the material or vital force through which things take shape. Other thinkers, including Wang Yangming, developed different approaches to mind, knowledge, and moral action.

The term “Neo-Confucianism” is a modern scholarly label. Historically, these philosophers understood themselves as reviving and deepening Confucian learning rather than founding an entirely separate religion.