Starting with Confucius, the main tenets of self-cultivation continued to be developed by Neo-Confucian philosophers of the Ming and Song dynasties. Even though they held varying views regarding self-discipline and self-transcendence, Confucian scholars all emphasized the responsibility to cultivate oneself from within so as to bring about an ideal sociopolitical system and culture in the outer world.
這些儒家學者儘管對於人類自我修養及超越的設計可能不盡相同，卻都專注透過人類自身，由內而外不斷的修養，達致理想的社會政治體制與文化理想。