Zhang Zai
E524319
Zhang Zai was an influential 11th-century Neo-Confucian philosopher of the Song dynasty, known for his metaphysical ideas about qi and the moral nature of the universe.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Zhang Zai canonical | 3 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T5233078 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Zhang Zai Context triple: [Zhu Xi, influencedBy, Zhang Zai]
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A.
Zhou Dunyi
Zhou Dunyi was an 11th-century Chinese Neo-Confucian philosopher whose metaphysical and ethical ideas, especially in works like "Taiji Tushuo," laid foundational groundwork for later thinkers such as Zhu Xi.
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B.
Cheng Yi
Cheng Yi was a prominent Song dynasty Neo-Confucian philosopher whose metaphysical and ethical ideas helped lay the foundations for later thinkers such as Zhu Xi.
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C.
Zhu Xi
Zhu Xi was a 12th-century Chinese philosopher and scholar whose synthesis of Confucian thought became the foundation of Neo-Confucianism and dominated East Asian intellectual life for centuries.
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D.
Cheng Hao
Cheng Hao was an influential 11th-century Neo-Confucian philosopher of the Song dynasty, known for developing the School of Principle alongside his brother Cheng Yi and shaping later thinkers such as Zhu Xi.
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E.
Wang Yangming
Wang Yangming was a prominent Ming dynasty Neo-Confucian philosopher, statesman, and general best known for his influential doctrine of the unity of knowledge and action and the innate moral knowledge of the mind.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Zhang Zai Target entity description: Zhang Zai was an influential 11th-century Neo-Confucian philosopher of the Song dynasty, known for his metaphysical ideas about qi and the moral nature of the universe.
-
A.
Zhou Dunyi
Zhou Dunyi was an 11th-century Chinese Neo-Confucian philosopher whose metaphysical and ethical ideas, especially in works like "Taiji Tushuo," laid foundational groundwork for later thinkers such as Zhu Xi.
-
B.
Cheng Yi
Cheng Yi was a prominent Song dynasty Neo-Confucian philosopher whose metaphysical and ethical ideas helped lay the foundations for later thinkers such as Zhu Xi.
-
C.
Zhu Xi
Zhu Xi was a 12th-century Chinese philosopher and scholar whose synthesis of Confucian thought became the foundation of Neo-Confucianism and dominated East Asian intellectual life for centuries.
-
D.
Cheng Hao
Cheng Hao was an influential 11th-century Neo-Confucian philosopher of the Song dynasty, known for developing the School of Principle alongside his brother Cheng Yi and shaping later thinkers such as Zhu Xi.
-
E.
Wang Yangming
Wang Yangming was a prominent Ming dynasty Neo-Confucian philosopher, statesman, and general best known for his influential doctrine of the unity of knowledge and action and the innate moral knowledge of the mind.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (49)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Confucian scholar
ⓘ
Neo-Confucian philosopher ⓘ metaphysician ⓘ |
| birthYear | 1020 ⓘ |
| century | 11th century ⓘ |
| coreConcept |
Great Void as rarefied qi
ⓘ
Heaven as moral principle ⓘ all people as one family under Heaven ⓘ human nature grounded in qi ⓘ qi as fundamental substance of reality ⓘ unity of metaphysics and ethics ⓘ |
| courtesyName | Zihou ⓘ |
| deathYear | 1077 ⓘ |
| dynasty | Song dynasty ⓘ |
| era |
Northern Song
ⓘ
linked to:
Song dynasty
|
| familyName | Zhang ⓘ |
| field |
Chinese philosophy
ⓘ
cosmology ⓘ ethics ⓘ metaphysics ⓘ |
| givenName | Zai ⓘ |
| influenced |
Cheng Hao
ⓘ
Cheng Yi ⓘ Lu Jiuyuan ⓘ Wang Yangming ⓘ Zhu Xi ⓘ later Neo-Confucian metaphysics ⓘ |
| influencedBy |
Buddhist thought
ⓘ
Confucius ⓘ Daoist thought ⓘ Mencius ⓘ Zhou Dunyi ⓘ |
| knownFor |
doctrine that all things are transformations of qi
ⓘ
idea that the universe has moral order ⓘ metaphysics of qi ⓘ moral cosmology ⓘ theory of Great Void (taixu) ⓘ
linked to:
taiji (Great Ultimate)
“Correcting Youthful Ignorance” (Zhengmeng) ⓘ “Western Inscription” (Ximing) ⓘ |
| majorWork |
“Correcting Youthful Ignorance” (Zhengmeng)
ⓘ
“Eastern Inscription” (Dongming) ⓘ “Western Inscription” (Ximing) ⓘ |
| name | Zhang Zai ⓘ |
| nationality | Chinese ⓘ |
| occupation |
Confucian teacher
ⓘ
philosopher ⓘ |
| philosophicalSchool |
Daoxue (Learning of the Way)
ⓘ
linked to:
Neo-Confucianism
Neo-Confucianism ⓘ |
| region | China ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Zhang Zai Description of subject: Zhang Zai was an influential 11th-century Neo-Confucian philosopher of the Song dynasty, known for his metaphysical ideas about qi and the moral nature of the universe.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.