Zhu Zi's academic spirit has been applauded by many generations who have come after him. He once instructed his student Guo Youren in the proper way to approach study: "If a person could just cut back on idle chatter by a few sentences a day, and drop in on one or two less people a day, this would save a lot of time and effort.
朱熹的讀書精神為後世稱道，他曾教門人郭友仁讀書之道，「人若於日間閑言語省得一兩句，閑人客省見得一兩人，也濟事。