Zhu Zi (The Great
Thinkers before Qin Dynasty)" in The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons is always neglected by scholars.
In this chapter, Liu Xie introduces and evaluates these great
thinkers'
thoughts and systematically expresses his ideas assimilated from the great thinkers, the core of which is his idea of "armed with the great thinkers' thoughts to deviate from the teaching of Confucian Classics". This shows that he recognizes the full academic and literary values of the great thinkers' ideas. The ideas Liu Xie draws from the great thinkers can be found in the following three aspects: First, he thinks the Confucian Classics and the thoughts of the great thinkers before Qin Dynasty enjoy equally long histories, but they have different origins. Such an idea is more advanced than that expressed in Yi Wen Zhi of Han Shu (History of the Former Han Dynasty), viz. the thoughts of the great thinkers are but "a branch of the six Confucian Classics", indicating his intention to endear and praise the ideas of the great thinkers. Second, Liu Xie's idea of "armed with the great thinkers' thoughts to deviate from the teaching of Confucian Classics" is found in the incisive and objective remarks on the great thinkers' literary achievement. He points out that the great thinkers' works have their own literariness. Thirds the so-called Tao in "Zhu Zi" is based on Confucianism and yet compatible with other schools of thoughts. This idea of Liu Xie's is the consequence of a fact that he breaks loose from shackles of the Confucianism rife in the Former and Later Han Dynasties and the manifest that the dominance of Confucianism had been broken since Wei and Jing Dynasties as well.