 Advances continue to be made in Zhu Xi studies in the present century. On the one hand, intellectual historians, such as Yingshi Yu, examine Zhu Xi’s historical, political, and cultural backgrounds, as well as his intellectual milieu. Other intellectual historians, such as Hoyt Tilman and Hans van Ess study Zhu Xi’s intellectual collaborators and rivals.  Still others, such as Chun-chieh Huang and his colleagues examine the differing receptions and adaptations of Zhu Xi’s thought by Confucian scholars around East Asia. On the other hand, philosophical interpreter Brook Ziporyn has developed a “coherence” reading of li (pattern). Drawing on the parallel model of li and shi in Huayan Buddhism, he views Zhu Xi’s li as the organizing, cohering element in qi phenomena, writ large and small. Given the intimate connection between li and truth in Zhu Xi’s thought, the coherence account of li recalls the coherence theory of truth in 20th century Western philosophy. While “coherence” is an apt and suggestive account of the organizing and cohering function of li, it cannot serve as a direct translation of the term li. Ethicists, such as Stephen Angle, Yong Huang, and Justin Tiwald examine Confucian ethics in general and Zhu Xi’s ethics in particular as species of virtue ethics, as conceived in recent Anglo-American ethical thought. They have identified overlaps and similarities between these ethical approaches. Other scholars, such as Ming-huei Lee and the present author have identified Kantian elements in Zhu Xi’s efforts to justify Confucian ethics and cultivation. Finally, Shui Chuen Lee and others find support in Zhu Xi’s system of thought for a viable Confucian approach to environmental ethics.