Shao Yong (redirected from Shao Yung)

Shao Yong

 or Shao Yung

(born 1011, Kung-ch'eng, China—died 1077, Henan) Chinese philosopher who greatly influenced the development of the idealist school of Neo-Confucianism. Originally a Daoist, he refused all offers of government office and lived in a hermitage outside Henan. He became interested in Confucianism by studying the Yi jing, from which he developed his theory that numbers are the basis of all existence. He believed that the key to the world hinged on the number four; thus the universe is divided into four sections (sun, moon, stars, zodiac), the body into four sense organs (eye, ear, nose, mouth), and the earth into four substances (fire, water, earth, stone). He also introduced to Confucianism the Buddhist concept of the universe's repeating cycles.