 According to Wen Haiming (2011: 271), the general line of development in solipsistic epistemology could be drawn as follows: the epistemology of Chan Buddhism and Li Ao’s (772–841) study of “recovering human nature” (fu xing 復性) provided the foundations for Neo-Confucian epis­te­mol­o­gy; Zhou Dunyi’s (1017–1073) concept of creativity (cheng 誠) and his epistemological structure linking the Great Ultimate (taiji 太極) with the Great Ultimate of Humans (renji 人極), as well as Shao Yong’s teaching of observing things (guan wu 觀物) comprehensively raised the basic questions of this new discourse; Zhang Zai’s (1020–1077) paradigm of expanding one’s heart-mind to be continuous with things (da xin ti wu 大心體物) and Cheng Hao’s (1032–1085) elaborations on stilling the nature (ding xin 定性) served as the basic frameworks and major discourses for Neo-Confucian epistemology; Cheng Yi’s 程頤 (1033–1107) study of Heavenly patterns (tian li 天理) and Zhu Xi’s (1130–1200) Exploration of things (gewu) reached their first peak in this new epistemology of the Song and Ming periods; after them, another peak was reached in Lu Jiuyuan’s (1139–1192) and Wang Yangming’s agreement that nothing is outside one’s mind (wu xinwaizhi wu 無心外之物). The final stage of Neo-Confucian breakthroughs in the epistemology field can be found in Wang Ji’s (1498–1583) concept of intentional propensity (ji 幾) and Liu Zongzhou’s (1578–1645) teaching on intention as the root (yigen 意根) of the heart-mind.