The contribution focuses on Neo-Confucian texts as collected by Zhu Xi (?? 1130-1200) and Lü Zuqian (1137-1181) and is a look from the "outside", from the perspective of German theories of Bildung ("self-cultivation"). It aims at demonstrating that among other insights that today's readers may gather from Neo-Confucian literature, one aspect protrudes from others: that learning can be considered as a virtue--even a meta-virtue--a form of life and mode of self-formation of the person. It does not seem exaggerated, from this perspective, to state that Neo-Confucian philosophy is--to a large extent--a philosophy of learning and self-transformation which offers fruitful irritants for questioning the widespread habits of thinking about skills and their development in today's strong and problematic discourses and corresponding educational policies.