 Notably, from the Great Learning Zhu adapted and distilled the methodology of investigating things to extend knowledge while from the Mean he stressed attuning oneself to attain utmost propriety. Investigating things incorporated reading and classical studies but ensured one’s practical grasp of and personal resonance with the pulse of life: nature and phenomena as well as society and human relations and concerns (Gardner 1986, 1990). Attuning oneself involved reverent concentration and mindful reflection and practice. A century later, Yuan dynasty (1271–1368) officialdom adopted Zhu Xi’s edition of the Four Books as the basis for the Imperial Examination System, in effect canonizing it until the termination of the imperial examination system toward the end of the Qing dynasty (1644–1911) in 1908. The change from the Five Classics to the Four Books as the basis of the imperial examination system resulted in a reform and renewal of the Confucian tradition and outlook. It effected a restoration of Confucius’ original concern with personal ethical cultivation, realization, and practice from the more bureaucratic, careerist approach taken by many Confucians of the succeeding Han and Tang dynasties (206 BCE–905 CE) that had weakened the tradition spiritually. Zhu Xi’s spirit and thought were deeply rooted in the original teachings of Confucius and his early school, as well as in the seminal ideas of the Northern Song masters, and exerted a profound influence in China and around East Asia for centuries.