 Throughout his career, Zhu Xi focused on the twin problems of 1) determining the conditions of moral agency, and 2) setting forth a viable program of moral self-cultivation on that basis. Zhu saw moral agency as the expression of a moral will, which he understood to be the achievement of an inner self-mastery (zhuzai) that forms the core of a person’s moral character, perceptivity, cognizance, and responsiveness. On this view, self-cultivation that is aimed at nurturing self-mastery must include forming a concentrated, reverential mind-set (jing) and a discerning sense of appropriateness. Early on, Zhu had emphasized the need to attain a working knowledge of the constitutive patterning (li) of reality and society in the light of which the norms and ritual action (li) prescribed for proper interpersonal relationships and intercourse are devised. He later found that establishing the determination (lizhi) to seek self-realization and conduct oneself appropriately counted for as much as the long-term cultivation process itself, during which one can lose sight of one’s purpose and be side-tracked (see Qian Mu 1986: 123–127). Moreover, while still maintaining the importance of the norms and ritual action for character-building and the social order, Zhu began to emphasize the need to build up a sympathetic but realistic grasp of the warp and woof of real daily human life viewed in the perspective of such broad Confucian ethical ideals as humaneness (ren) and fairness (gong). He understood that, although the norms and ritual action are broadly applicable and reliable, many situations call for specifically tailored  responses.[4]