Hu Shi, a great exponent of questioning ideas and of seeking proof for everything, often cited this famous maxim of Zhu Xi to support his argument that Zhu well understood the spirit of "hypotheses and confirmation." It was this spirit that drove Zhu to reinterpret the Chinese classics, and later generations have recognized him as a forerunner of the school of textual criticism of the Qing dynasty.
提倡不斷質疑、尋找證據的胡適也常引朱子名言，以證實朱子具有「假設與求實證」的精神，朱熹以此精神考證《論語》、《書經》、《詩經》，也被後世視為清朝考證學的先鋒。