Mou Tsung-san (1909–95), Chinese philosopher, perhaps the most original thinker among contemporary Neo-Confucians. Educated at Peking University, he first studied Western philosophy but was converted to Chinese philosophy under the influence of Hsiung Shih-li. He made a great breakthrough in his study of Sung–Ming Neo- Confucian philosophy, arguing that Chu Hsi was really a side branch that took the position of the orthodoxy. He maintained that all three major Chinese traditions, Confucian, Taoist, and Buddhist, assert that humans have the endowment for intellectual intuition, meaning personal participation in tao (the Way). See also CHINESE PHILOSOPHY, HSIUNG SHIH – LI , HSÜ FU – KUAN , NEO – CONFUCIANISM , T ‘ ANG CHÜN – . S.-h.L.