Background
and the ideas of the great thinkers and philosophers
During the early Eastern Zhou, the Spring and Autumn and Warring
States Periods, persistent social upheavals gradually broke up the monopoly
of culture and literature by members oi the nobility. Private schools
became a developing trend. During the late Spring and Autumn Period, Confucius
started the trend by providing private teaching. Then, in the Warring
States Period, many schools of thought came into existence and began to
contend with one another.
Confucius, whose personal name was Qiu and courtesy name Zhongni, was
born in 551 BC. During his youth, Confucius was for a time a low-ranking
official managing warehouse; then he tended sheep and oxen. For the most
part of his life, however, he was a private teacher. It is said that he
had more than 3,000 students, 72 of whom were considered to be excellent.
He often took some of his students with him while touring the various
states. The rulers of these states all received him courteously and consulted
him. Nevertheless, Confucius never had the opportunity to put his theory
of government into practice. Not until his fifties did he become an official
in charge of criminal punishment and the maintenance of social order in
the State of Lu, his homeland.
As the first private teacher who brought education to a large number of
people, Confucius was properly regarded as having made great contributions
in the cultural history of China. The school of thought founded by Confucius
was known as Confucianism. A later school of thought that had equal influence
was the school of Mohism founded by Mo Zi.
Mo Zi advocated universal love, the love for all without discrimination,
and his love was totally different from the concept of benevolence taught
by Confucius. In politics, Mo Zi believed that people with ability should
be elevated. According to him, heaven and the demons rewarded the good
and punished the evil. Ideologically speaking, both Confucius and Mo Zi
were idealists, but there are noteworthy elements of materialism in Mo
Zi's theory of knowledge. Actually, they made their contributions in the
realm of natural sciences.
During the Warring States Period, apart from Confucianism and Mohism,
there were also Taoism and Legalism. The author of the book Lao Zi and
Zhuang Zi of the Taoist school, Mencius and Xun Zi of the Confucian school,
and Han Fei Zi of the Legalist school were the best known scholars.
The book Lao Zi, which has been attributed to him, was actually a work
of the Warring States Period. It may not fully express his ideas. The
book repudiated the theory of a god, a heaven, or a supreme authority
that had been popular since the Shang Dynasty. In the area of political
thought, the book Lao Zi refuted the Confucian theory of benevolence and
the Mohist concept of elevating good, virtuous people. It was in favor
of letting nature take its own course and of non-interference in people's
life.
From Zhuang Zi's point of view, only the Way was absolute , while everything
else was relative. His ideal society was one in which people lived in
harmony with animals and birds. Zhuang Zi's denial of the differences
between right and wrong, life and death, oneself and others, illusion
and reality, his antagonism to progress and his longing for a return to
the prehistoric times, reflected a deep sense of pessimism, similar to
that expressed in Lao Zi.
Mencius, he too was a private teacher and took his students with him while
touring the various states. Mencius condemned tyranny, describing it as
a system that "directs beasts to eat people". He was concerned
with the sharpening of social contradictions. The basis for Mencius' theory
of a government by benevolence was that man was born with goodness. The
constant wars of annexation were strongly opposed by Mencius. He advocated
the democratic principle that the people were more important than kings
were.
Xun Zi traveled to the state of Qi twice as a visiting teacher and served
on two occasions in Chu as magistrate. Han Fei Zi was a student of Xun
Zi. His works were brought to Qin, the king of Qin admired it greatly.
Xun Zi and Han Fei Zi lived in the late Warring States Period, shortly
before the state of Qin unified China. By this time, the feudal landlord
class had already established its position of supremacy, and the political
trend was clearly the development of an autocratic monarchy and the unification
of China.
Xun Zi's concept of nature was a step forward compared to the naive materialism
or atheism initiated during the Spring and Autumn Period, and he also
spoke of benevolence, but he emphasized the importance of rites. According
to Xun Zi's theory of innate evil, the good qualities man had were acquired
through learning after birth.
Han Fei Zi held that history was evolutionary, each era being more progressive
than the preceding one. His opposition to conservatism was clear-cut and
his advocacy of reform positive.
New successes in art and literature were achieved during the later part
of the middle Warring States Period. A typical example was the Elegies
of Chu, a collection of poetic verses and songs written in the local dialect
and tone of Chu. It possessed strong regional characteristics and a unique
style. Qu Yuan, whose personal name was Ping, became famous as the author
of these works. Unlike poets before his time who were anonymous, Qu Yuan
was the first poet to leave his name in the history of Chinese literature.
His works had tremendous influence on the development of Chinese literature.
The collection of writings by Confucius and his disciples is often referred
to as "Four Books and Five Classics".
The Four Books
The Analects of Confucius, The Great Learning, The Doc trine of Mean ,
Mencius
The Five Classics
The Book of Change, The Book of Odes, The Book of Rites o The Book of
History, The Spring and Autumn Annals
Other famous writing by great philosophers in Hundred Schools period include:
Sun Zi's Art of War, The Book of Mencius, Zhuang Zi (Chuang Tze), Lao
Tze (Dao De Jing), and so on.