The Relationship between Virtue and Law in Zhu Zi's Thought
Zhu Zi believes that penalty and governance are not necessarily in conflict with the supreme principles of neo-Confucianism, on the contrary, the function of penalty and governance is just to ensure the realization of heavenly principles. If appropriate punishment is not imposed on those who ought to be punished, it is an injury to those who abide by law and discipline. Zhu Zi op-posed the blind advocation of "light punishment", he advocated reasonable punishment according to the actual conditions and believed that heavy punishment for the wicked did not violate the prin-ciples of heaven. In terms of the relationship between virtue, ritual and penalty, governance, Zhu Zi regarded virtue and ritual as the fundamental while penalty and governance as the incidental, highlighting the priority of the former, which is different from the "superiority or inferiority" pat-tern in Confucian classics of the Han and Tang Dynasties. Zhu Zi did not set virtue and ritual as the principle of value against penalty and governance, instead, he put forward the point of view that "morality, ritual, penalty, governance are the etiquette of heavenly principles", which, to some extent, settled the problem of penalty and governance or punishment within the framework of Confucianism.
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