 The “idealistic” or “intuitive” studies of knowledge of Neo-Confucian epistemology was derived primarily from the Doctrine of the Mean (Zhong yong 中庸) and sought to achieve recognition of reality based upon the practice of secluded meditation or concentration (shendu 慎獨). The main Neo-Confucian exponents of this epistemological current were Li Ao and Cheng Hao. According to them, the indeterminable cosmic force dao represented the only true base of comprehension. The main goal of the introspection in the sense of secluded meditation was thus to understand dao (Cheng and Cheng 1981: I, Yi Shu, 13, 221).