 While Shao Yong and Cheng Yi in the Northern Song had introduced and sketched out the idea of observation in terms of guanwu (observing things), fanguan (reflective perception), and gewu (investigating things), Zhu Xi not only discussed the idea of observation but offered a multitude of actual observations of celestial and terrestrial phenomena. In addition, his penchant for hierarchy and systemization led modern commentators in the twentieth century to draw comparisons with Plato, Aristotle, and even Thomas Aquinas. Around the mid-twentieth century, Joseph Needham vividly presented Zhu’s system in terms of process philosophy as bearing organismic patterns of conceptualization and distinct parallels with scientific thinking: