Confucius
During the Song dynasty, the scholar Zhu Xi (AD 1130–1200) added ideas from Daoism and Buddhism into Confucianism. In his life, Zhu Xi was largely ignored, but not long after his death, his ideas became the new orthodox view of what Confucian texts actually meant. Modern historians view Zhu Xi as having created something rather different and call his way of thinking "Neo-Confucianism". Neo-Confucianism held sway in China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam until the 19th century.
The works of Confucius were first translated into European languages by Jesuit missionaries in the 16th century during the late Ming dynasty. The first known effort was by Michele Ruggieri, who returned to Italy in 1588 and carried on his translations while residing in Salerno. Matteo Ricci started to report on the thoughts of Confucius, and a team of Jesuits—Prospero Intorcetta, Philippe Couplet, and two others—published a translation of several Confucian works and an overview of Chinese history in Paris in 1687. François Noël, after failing to persuade ClementXI that Chinese veneration of ancestors and Confucius did not constitute idolatry, completed the Confucian canon at Prague in 1711, with more scholarly treatments of the other works and the first translation of the collected works of Mencius. It is thought that such works had considerable importance on European thinkers of the period, particularly among the Deists and other philosophical groups of the Enlightenment who were interested by the integration of the system of morality of Confucius into Western civilization.
Zhang Shi (scholar)
He was a native of Mianzhu (綿竹), Sichuan, and son of a distinguished general and statesman, named Zhang Jun (1097–1164), otherwise known as Duke of Yi (益). After studying under Hu Hong, son of Hu Anguo, he entered upon an official career and became aide-de-camp and secretary to his father. In 1164 the latter died, and Zhang Chi buried him according to his wish at the foot of Mount Heng in Hunan, remaining in seclusion near the grave for several years. While there he was visited in 1167 by Zhu Xi, and it is said that they spent three days and three nights arguing upon the "Doctrine of the Mean". The result was that Zhang returned to official life, and became a violent opponent of the Tartars and of the policy of conciliation and concession which had been introduced by Qin Gui. He was alternately promoted and degraded until he died as Governor of Zhingzhou in Hubei. He was the author of divers treatises and commentaries upon portions of the Confucian Canon, in which he gave expression to doctrines which his friend, Zhu Xi, felt himself called upon to refute. Nevertheless, Zhu Xi held him in high esteem and always spoke of him with admiration. He was canonised as Xuān 宣, and in 1261 was admitted into the Confucian Temple.