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This thesis examines individualism and genuineness in the philosophy of the late Ming dynasty writer Li Zhi李贽（1527-1602）.It analyzes the application of the title of“individualism”to Li Zhi’s thought and argues,to the contrary,that Li Zhi’s philosophy should be understood as genuine.To demonstrate this thesis,it first explains the meaning of calling Li Zhi an individualist.It then proceeds to understand Li Zhi’s life and thought through the idea of genuineness（zhen真）.This involves investigating the theoretical ideas of Li Zhi’s philosophy and the practical consequences of those ideas.By the end of this paper,Li Zhi’s philosophy is shown to be united by the single occupation of genuineness.Chapter 1 explains the individualist readings by scholars such as W.T.De Bary and Ray Huang.According to their interpretations,Li’s philosophy is understood to be individualistic due to its intense focus on the desires of the individuals,amounting to a type of egotism,based,especially,on Li’s seemingly ambivalent commitments to Confucianism and Buddhism.This chapter concludes with a different reading of Li Zhi that emphasizes his singular commitment to a genuine life.Chapter 2 explicates the theoretical core of Li Zhi’s philosophy of the genuine.This includes three important notions.The first is the“childlike heartmind”（tongxin童心）,which constitutes the theoretical core of Li Zhi’s philosophy.We consider the childlike heartmind’s relation to two other classic models of Chinese philosophy;those being the“original mind”（benxin本心）and the“genuine heartmind”（zhenxin真心）.The second idea is the importance of expressing“genuine feelings”（zhenqing真情）.We will see that for Li,expressing genuine feelings is a natural consequence of the childlike heartmind.It serves a further purpose of changing literature and culture.The third idea is uniting“words”（yan言）and“actions”（xing行）.For Li,the unity of words and actions is meant to guard against hypocrisy.This is relevant to Li’s correspondence with Geng Dingxiang with broader consequences to how politics can be shaped by the genuine.The chapter concludes situating Li Zhi’s philosophy between sincerity and authenticity.I argue Li does not quite fit into either paradigm and say it is best to understand Li’s thought as“genuine”—which I define as the idea that there is a source for moral behavior perfectly present from birth and prior to language and culture.Chapter 3,the final chapter of this thesis,explores the practical aspects of Li Zhi’s philosophy of the genuine.This chapter also returns to the individualist readings covered in the Chapter 1.The practical aspects of Li’s philosophy of the genuine,I argue,demonstrates Li integrating his philosophy with the genuine,which is contrary to the individualist readings.In the pieces covered in this chapter,many deal with a pair of monks who considered Li their teacher.Li advises them on ideas such as“loftiness and cleanliness”（gaojie高洁）and the idea of“genuine teachers”（zhenshi真师）.In every case,he expands on the ideas of genuineness covered in Chapter 2.However,we can also show how Li Zhi can integrate the commitments of Buddhism and Confucianism and how he can combine the roles of teacher and friend.Demonstrating Li combining and integrating disparate ideas runs counter to the individualist readings,which had read Li’s thought to be divided and contradictory.