Work Classification Layer
Compare Works
Pick two or more works to set their attribute fingerprints, dimension-by-dimension passages, and shared school embodiments side by side. Especially useful for author-stage comparisons (Wittgenstein early vs late) and for setting a single tradition's foundational texts against each other.
Collected Commentaries on the Four Books (Sishu Jizhu)
The investigation of things and the extension of knowledge — the Four Books as the gateway to moral self-cultivation and cosmic order
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | Collected Commentaries on the Four Books (Sishu Jizhu) (Late) |
|---|---|
| Time · Extent | Infinite |
| Time · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Time · Grain | Continuous |
| Time · Freedom | Both |
| Time · Traversability | Linear |
| Time · Dimensionality | One |
| Time · Direction | Uni-directional |
| Space · Extent | Infinite |
| Space · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Space · Curvature | not engaged |
| Space · Dimensionality | Three |
| Space · Locality | Local |
| Matter · Extent | Infinite |
| Matter · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Matter · Conservation | Conserved |
| Matter · Dimensionality | Three |
| Matter · Locality | Local |
| Observer · Time Instance | Single |
| Observer · Space Instance | Single |
| Observer · Knowledge Extent | Mediated |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Partial |
| Observer · Physicality | Embodied |
| Observer · Agency | Active |
| Observer · Number | Plural |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | not engaged |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Tradition |
| Observer · Theological Method | — |
| Energy · Extent | Infinite |
| Energy · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Energy · Conservation | Conserved |
| Energy · Dispersibility | Reversible |
| Information · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Information · Cosmic Conservation | Conserved |
| Information · Personal Conservation | Non-conserved |
| Information · Granularity | Continuous |
Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence
What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.
Time
Collected Commentaries on the Four Books (Sishu Jizhu)
Infinite, substantival. The cosmos cycles endlessly; li is eternal; qi moves through time.
Space
Collected Commentaries on the Four Books (Sishu Jizhu)
Infinite, substantival, local. Li and qi pervade all of space.
Matter
Collected Commentaries on the Four Books (Sishu Jizhu)
Infinite (qi is inexhaustible), substantival, conserved. Qi condenses and disperses.
Observer
Collected Commentaries on the Four Books (Sishu Jizhu)
Embodied, active, plural. The sage investigates things (gewu) to extend knowledge.
Energy
Collected Commentaries on the Four Books (Sishu Jizhu)
Infinite, substantival, reversible. Qi is both matter and energy in continuous cycles.
Information
Collected Commentaries on the Four Books (Sishu Jizhu)
Li as objective pattern is conserved eternally; personal knowledge must be actively cultivated.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
The commentary's claim that a chapter on gewu was "lost" and needed supplementation was contested by rivals (Lu Xiangshan, Wang Yangming). The Six-hundred-year orthodoxy of the Sishu Jizhu paradoxically stifled the intellectual innovation it was meant to encourage.