 There were few contemporary areas of inquiry that Zhu Xi did not touch. He made more explicit than any predecesor a certain metaphysical dualism of qi (vital stuff) and li (Pattern), which he then used to explain everything from human nature to the natural inclinations of plants to the acquisition of moral knowledge. He thought carefully and wrote extensively about methods of cultivating virtue, defending distinctive views both on big-picture issues like the role of speculation and book learning and on finer-grained matters such the purpose of doing chores and the proper attitude to adopt when reading. He also wrote at length about politics, history, and the art of administration and government service (Zhu 2019).