| CHINESE
PHILOSOPHY |
 
 
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Classical Age
The classical age of Chinese philosophy occurred
in the late years of the Zhou dynasty,
which lasted from about 1122 BC
to around 221 BC. During
this era of political and social turmoil, feudal states long subordinate
to the house of Zhou gained economic and military strength and moved
towards independence. When their power eclipsed that of Zhou, feudal
bonds were broken, and widespread interstate warfare broke out in the
5th century BC, developing
into political anarchy in the 4th and 3rd centuries BC. Meanwhile, the social and economic
changes resulting from new currents of trade and commerce were transforming
the hitherto simple agricultural society. In this climate of political
anarchy and social upheaval a new class of scholar-officials emerged,
consisting of men who aspired through their learning and wisdom to reunify
the empire and restore order to society. The new situations and problems
forced them to reconsider the standards and values of their society.
Confucianism
The most important of these scholar-officials
was Confucius, a minor
aristocrat and official of the state of Lu, the present Shandong (Shantung) province, who spent most of his
life from around 551 BC
to around 479 BC as an
itinerant scholar-teacher and adviser to the rulers of various states.
Confucius refused to engage in speculation on other-worldly topics:
his main philosophical concern rested with the individual in society.
While referring to the authority of records of the early Zhou dynasty
and advocating a return to its ritual codes, to the ethical values as
well as ceremonial practices of this supposedly ideal culture, Confucius
delivered very much his own interpretation of how this can be achieved.
In view of the aim of re-establishing order and prosperity, social hierarchies
must be made clear, and individual responsibilities within society must
be accepted and acted upon by its members. People who develop essential
virtues, such as filial piety and loyalty to the ruler, by studying
and following the examples given in the classics, achieve both individual
perfection and harmony within society. Social intercourse was to be
determined by the virtue of humanity and benevolence (ren), a
concept involving openness and concern for others. Men of high social
rank had the additional responsibility of providing an example of proper
ethical conduct to the people.
Two of his 4th and 3rd century BC successors, Mencius
and Xunzi (Hsün-Tzu), did much to clarify these
issues. Like Confucius, Mencius accepted the hierarchically ordered
feudal society in which he lived. However, he put great emphasis on
the importance of benevolent government, and the ruler’s concern for
the welfare of his subjects. The source of legitimacy to kingship was
called the Mandate of Heaven, once held by the great rulers of the Zhou
dynasty, as well as any other benevolent sovereign. The Mandate of Heaven
found expression in the support a ruler could attract from his people.
The withdrawal of popular support clearly indicated that he was no longer
worthy of the Mandate of Heaven and had thus lost his right to rule.
Heaven (Tian), the impersonal authority governing all the operations
of the universe, had endowed human beings with an inherently good nature.
In order to cherish and develop it one must therefore undergo a process
of inner self-cultivation on the basis of the four cardinal virtues
of benevolence, righteousness, ceremony, and wisdom.
Contrary to Mencius, Xunzi held that human
nature was essentially evil. However, he agreed with Mencius on the
importance of self-cultivation: humankind had the definite capacity
for improvement if schooled by means of reward and punishment. Through
education—the study of the classics and the rules of propriety—virtue
could be acquired and order be established in society. This entails
that Xunzi regarded morality not as natural to humankind, but as an
artificial and useful human invention to control the evil of human nature.
While Mencius had defended the people’s right to rebel against a tyrannical
ruler, Xunzi condemned rebellion as disruptive and evil. Xunzi’s version
of Confucianism thus involves a vision of society characterized by formal
education and a tendency towards rigid rules and their uncompromising
implementation for the regulation of human conduct. On the basis of
certain passages in Confucius’s teaching, Xunzi developed his philosophy
of the “rectification of names”, concerned with precise definition of
actions and things as well as their respective relations to each other.
Daoism
The second great philosophy of the classical
age was Daoism (Taoism).
Daoism may have grown out of a little-known school called Yangism, ridiculed
by Mencius and other Confucians for its uncompromising selfishness,
which preached withdrawal from the responsibilities and dangers of public
life in favour of self-cultivation. Whereas Confucianism sought intellectual
as well as moral development of human beings through education and the
establishment of a hierarchically ordered society, Daoism advocated
a lifestyle in harmony with nature. This could be achieved by following
the “Way” (Dao), a concept no longer restricted to its Confucian
connotation of the proper course of human conduct as exemplified by
the sages of the classical tradition. In Daoism, the Way came to express
a mystical whole in which all human beings and all things have a part,
yet which eludes definition. By acting spontaneously, responding to
change in a flexible manner, and never forcing things, this mystical
union with the Way could be followed and realized.
The philosopher Laozi
(Lao-Tzu) of the 6th century BC,
supposedly a teacher of Confucius, is usually credited with having initiated
the school of Daoism. However, the famous book that bears his name dates
back only to around 250 BC.
The text, codified as political teaching, advises “doing nothing” (wuwei),
but rather than advocating passivity it recommends a policy of perpetually
succeeding by never forcing things against their nature. Confucianism
had encouraged initiative and proposed active ways of improving life
within state and society; Daoism favoured reverting to primitive agrarian
communities and a government that did not exert control or interfere
with the life of the people.
Zhuangzi (Chuang-Tzu),
the second founding father of Daoism, who lived in the late 4th century
BC, concentrated on the
private individual, whom he advised to avoid politics altogether. He
believed in accepting and going with the flow through a perfect, mirror-like
response to changing circumstances. His philosophical position was one
of radical relativism, calling for the dismissal of all artificial distinctions
generated on the basis of reason.
Parabolic stories of immortals and practitioners
of meditation in a quest for the Daoist ideal as they appear in Zhuangzi’s
work were taken literally by some, and thus gave rise to a school of
Daoist religion, concerned with practices of alchemy and a search for
immortality, concerns opposed to those of Daoist philosophy.
Other Important Schools
Among the other important schools of this
period were Mohism, Naturalism, and the Dialecticians. Mohism, founded
by Mozi (Mo-tzu) during the 5th century BC, taught strict utilitarianism and mutual
love among all people regardless of family or social relationships.
Mohism was the first school to judge the basically conservative propositions
of Confucius rationally, by calculating what benefit or harm they would
bring. Mozi also believed in the operation of spirits, and that Heaven
would punish wrongful acts. His school, which evolved into a semi-monastic
brotherhood, achieved great proficiency in defensive warfare, spreading
universal peace by protecting weak states and maintaining the balance
of power, and mastering rational disputation, in order to convince
rulers to uphold peace.
During the 4th century BC, naturalism offered an analysis of the
workings of the universe based upon certain cosmic principles used in
the Yijing and other contemporary forms of divination. The most famous of these, the yin and yang
system of the Tai Ji (T’ai Chi), represented the duality of nature,
consisting of two interacting and mutually complementary aspects, exemplified
in extremes such as female and male, passivity and activity, shadow
and light, winter and summer.
Also in the 4th century BC, dialecticians moved towards a system
of logic by analysing the true meaning of
words so as to avoid the logical pitfalls inherent in language. Later
Mohists took this trend further, approaching the rigour of Classical
Greek logic, but subsequent Chinese philosophy ignored or rejected their
efforts.
Legalism
Legalism emerged as the dominant philosophy
in the state of Qin during the chaotic years of the 4th and 3rd centuries
BC. Han Fei Zi was the
leading philosopher of the movement, while Li Si, Minister of Qin, implemented
much of Legalist theory in politics. Both were disciples of Xunzi. Basing
their ideas on Xunzi’s teachings that human nature was incorrigible
and that strict controls were needed to regulate human conduct, the
Legalists developed a political philosophy that emphasized strict laws
and harsh punishments in the control of every aspect of human society.
All personal freedom was subordinated to their objective of creating
a strong state under a ruler of unlimited authority.
Legalism proved an effective instrument in
creating a powerful and totalitarian military and economic machine in
the state of Qin. By 221 BC,
Qin had succeeded in conquering the other feudal states and establishing
the Qin dynasty, the first imperial dynasty of China, a
unified, centrally administered empire characterized by strict laws,
harsh punishment, rigid thought control (for example, the burning of
all non-Legalist books in 213 BC),
government control of the economy, and enormous public works projects,
such as the Great Wall, accomplished with forced labour and at
great cost in terms of human life.
It was not long before the oppressive rule
of the Qin dynasty drove the Chinese people to rebellion. In 206 BC
a rebel leader of plebeian origin proclaimed the Han dynasty. The Legalist-inspired centralized administration was
retained (it endured in principle until 1912), but government controls
over the economy and ideology were relaxed. Although some schools, such
as Mohism, never recovered from the devastating consequences of the
Qin purges, numerous philosophies that had flourished during the late
Zhou dynasty were resurrected and re-examined with a view towards establishing
a system of thought of adequate compass and sophistication to serve
as a philosophical basis for the new and vastly expansive Han Empire.
The Han philosophers were largely compilers rather than original thinkers;
Qin totalitarianism had the extinguished philosophical creativity of
the classical period.
Han Confucianism
Basing their ideas largely on the Confucian
concept of the universe as a triad of heaven, earth, and humanity, the
Confucian philosophers of the Han, the most famous of whom was Tong
Zhongshu, welded a system of thought that incorporated the yin-yang
cosmology of the naturalists; a Daoist concern for perceiving and harmonizing
with the order of nature; Confucian teachings on benevolent government,
rule by virtuous leaders, and respect for learning; and Legalist principles
of administration and economic development. They hoped that this all-encompassing
philosophy would give the ruler and the government the knowledge to
understand the heavenly and earthly aspects of the triad and the means
necessary to regulate the human aspect so as to coordinate it with heaven
and earth and establish perfect harmony in the universe. The rationalistic
systematization that prompted this formulation eventually led to far-fetched
notions and superstitions to explain the mysterious workings of heaven
and earth. Although Han Confucianism was supported by the government
from 136 BC and subsequently
became the required learning for government service, its excessive superstitiousness
produced a camp of opposition during the first few centuries AD,
and the school divided over questions of the authenticity of classical
texts.
Medieval Age
During the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD, a variety of social and economic causes
brought the downfall of the Han dynasty, leading to political disunity
and foreign invasion. The philosophical void created by the collapse
of Han Confucianism was filled by Daoism, now mutating into a religious
cult, and also by Buddhism, a creed then new to China. One group
of Daoist philosophers attempted to reconcile the Confucian teachings
of social responsibility with the naturalness and mysticism of Daoism;
a second group sought escape from the troubled environment through the
belief in pleasure as the only good.
Buddhism
Buddhism filtered into China from India (see
Indian Philosophy) and Central
Asia from the 1st to the 6th century. Language difficulties at first
hampered the Chinese in their attempts to grasp the philosophical subtleties
of the Indian system. Between the 3rd and 8th centuries, however, Buddhist
doctrine was translated and disseminated through all levels of Chinese
society by Chinese pilgrims returning from India and by the great Central
Asian translator Kumarajiva. The teachings of Buddhism were basically
religious, offering escape from the sufferings of life and the endless
transmigration caused
by human desires into an indescribable state of non-desire known as
nirvana. Buddhism was also of great philosophical
importance, because the formulas for achieving nirvana that it brought
to China included sophisticated metaphysical explanations of the nature
of existence.
The development of Buddhism in China was
shaped by the Chinese predilection for syncretism. Indian Buddhism was
divided into sects, some holding that the basic elements of existence
were real (realism) and others that they were unreal or empty (idealism).
Neither of these extreme positions could satisfy Chinese Buddhist philosophers
of the Tian Tai sect, who formulated the “Perfectly Harmonious Threefold
Truth” to explain the nature of existence. This doctrine held that although
things are fundamentally empty, they have a temporary existence, and
this is the true nature of all things in the universe. The syncretic
metaphysics of the Tian Tai sect made the greatest doctrinal contribution
to Buddhism; however, the Meditation sect (Chan), which taught a direct
and intuitive method of penetrating the true nature of the universe,
had far broader appeal and permanence in China. This sect is better
known in the Western world under its Japanese name of Zen Buddhism.
Syncretistic Period
The reunification of China under the Sui
dynasty from 589 to 618 and the Tang dynasty
from 618 to 906 ushered in several hundred years of religious and philosophical
syncretism involving Daoism, Buddhism, and resurgent Confucianism. A
Neo-Confucian movement emerged, initiated by the philosopher Han Yu.
Although Buddhism was dominant initially, Confucianism alone among these
three schools offered a political and social philosophy suited to the
needs of a centralized empire. Consequently, it was re-established as
the basis for the education of prospective officials, and the educated
official class became increasingly Confucian. This fact, as well as
fear on the part of the government regarding growing monastic power,
resulted in persecutions of Buddhists and Daoists and their ultimate
decline. Daoism, however, lived on as a philosophy espoused by many
educated Chinese as a guideline in their personal lives and in their
relationships with nature.
Modern Age
It was not until the Song dynasty, after China had undergone another period
of political disunion from 907 to 960 known as the Five Dynasties, that Confucianism was reinstated. Neo-Confucianism
grew out of the renewed study of the classics required for the imperial
civil service examinations, and attempted to reinforce Confucian ethics
with a metaphysical foundation. In so doing, it unconsciously adopted
some Buddhist and Daoist ideas, although in substance it was quite different.
Neo-Confucianism taught that a principle (li) underlay all things
in the universe; it sought to discover this principle, which it held
would unite the individual with the universe and guide him or her in
personal, social, and political relations. Buddhism, on the contrary,
had taught that all things in the universe were ultimately empty; it
sought to enlighten its followers to this and held that enlightenment
would lead the individual to reject mundane affairs. Daoism did not
regard the universe as empty, but it sought to lead the individual away
from human society and even to transcend life and death. Neo-Confucianism
found expression in three schools. These schools were the School of
Principle (rationalism), the School of Mind (idealism), and the School
of Practical Learning (empiricism).
School of Principle
The host of creative philosophical activity
of the 11th century, mainly generated by the philosophers Zhou Dunyi,
Shao Yong, and Zhang Zai, as well as the brothers Cheng Hao and Cheng
Yi, was synthesized in the 12th century by the great Neo-Confucian Zhu Xi (Chu Hsi), who developed the doctrines of
the School of Principle. In the 14th century these doctrines were adopted
for the imperial civil service examinations, remaining the same until
1905. This school asserted that all things were composed of two elements:
principle (li), which was a reflection of the Great Ultimate
(Tai), and matter (qi); though in fact qi, with
an etymology based on “breath”, was not a heavy physical medium but
a chaotic mass-energy flux with objects perpetually congealing and dissolving.
Through the “investigation of things”, which came to mean the study
of human affairs as taught in the classics, and through self-cultivation,
one could penetrate substance and perceive principle. This study would
result in an understanding of all things and at the same time accentuate
the principle (the fundamentally good human nature), and minimize
matter (the physical propensities) in one’s mind. Since Chinese thought
has no strongly developed dichotomy of matter and spirit, this could
be regarded as equivalent to a spiritual elevation in Western thought.
Thus enlightened, the individual could comprehend the affairs of the
universe and regulate them through the power of personal virtue.
School of Mind
The Neo-Confucian School of Mind originated
in the 11th and 12th centuries, but it was not until the late 15th century
that it found a formidable advocate in the scholar-statesman Wang Yangming.
Following the early teachings of the school, Wang held that the mind
was not a combination of principle and matter but was pure principle,
unencumbered by matter. As the mind was principle and shared in the
essential goodness of human nature, everyone possessed “innate knowledge”,
that is, the ability to distinguish good from evil, or moral consciousness.
Wang believed that willing and knowing were correlated functions of
the mind and that true knowledge must entail a practical consequence.
This led him to conclude that knowledge and action formed an inseparable
unity. He advocated a philosophy that started with discovery of principle,
or knowledge of the good, in one’s mind and carried the promptings of
the mind into virtuous actions beneficial to society. After Wang’s death,
the School of Mind veered towards practices of Zen-like meditation to
achieve enlightenment. Eventually this led one group of his followers
into subjectivism, with a kind of spontaneous response to all natural
urges. This trend was associated with the weakening of Chinese government
during the latter years of the Ming dynasty, which ended in 1644.
School of Practical Learning
During the early Qing dynasty, beginning in 1644, Confucian philosophers re-examined
the Ming civilization in an attempt to discover the weaknesses that
had led to the downfall of that dynasty. The School of Practical Learning
rejected both the metaphysical speculation of the orthodox School of
Principle and the subjective idealism of Wang Yangming’s followers.
They called for renewed study of the classical texts of the Han dynasty
to rediscover the true ethical and socio-political doctrines of Confucianism.
This study produced a highly critical spirit and precise scientific
methods of textual verification. The greatest philosopher of this school
was Dai Zhen, who, during the 18th century, objected to the Neo-Confucian
teaching that the truth or principles of things existed purely in the
human mind and that they were attainable by mental discipline. He believed
that this teaching had resulted in excessive introspection and mysticism.
In addition, he rejected what other Neo-Confucianists had determined
to be truth or principle as no more than their subjective judgement.
He went on to assert that principle could be found only in things and
that it could only be studied objectively through the collection and
analysis of factual data. Such scientific methods, however, were never
used by the empirical school for a study of the natural world; this
school concentrated instead on the study of human affairs as they were
dealt with in the classics. The result was distinguished scholarship
in the fields of philology, phonology, and historical geography, but very little new knowledge and no further
development of the natural sciences.
The 19th and 20th Centuries
The shortcomings of Neo-Confucianism became
abundantly clear in the 19th century. Metaphysical speculation provided
no explanation for the changes that the impact of the West necessitated
in China, and traditional thought seemed only to impede, if not entirely
frustrate, Chinese attempts to modernize. In the 1890s, however, the
brilliant young philosopher Kang Youwei made a radical attempt to adapt
Confucianism to the modern world. In his revolutionary treatise Confucius
as a Reformer, Kang claimed to have discovered Confucian authority
for a sweeping reform of Chinese political and social institutions;
such reform would be necessary if China was to resist the force of Western
imperialism.
Kang’s Confucian reform programme, implemented briefly in 1898, was
frustrated by the entrenched power of orthodox Confucianists in the
imperial government, and Kang himself fled into exile. His fellow philosopher
Tan Sitong was executed, among others.
By about 1897 Western philosophy had appeared
in China through translations, and in the next several decades many
Western philosophical ideas were brought to China by students returning
from North America and Europe. Chinese philosophy in the 20th century
has adapted a number of systems derived from Western thought while attempting
to use ideas from the traditional Eastern schools.
The Western philosophies most influential
in 20th-century China have been pragmatism and materialism. The former, illustrated in the writings
of Hu Shi, a student of the American philosopher John Dewey, conceived of ideas as instruments to cope with actual
situations and emphasized results. It was therefore well suited for
a philosophy of reform, and it played an important role in the New Culture
Movement (begun in 1917), which sought to modernize Chinese social and
intellectual life. By 1924, however, pragmatism began to decline in
popularity, probably because it lacked an integrated political philosophy.
Materialism in China has consisted primarily of dialectical materialism,
as described by Karl Marx, whose works became widely known in China
in about 1919. Materialism has been the moving power in Chinese economic
reconstruction (paradoxically, since China traditionally had no dichotomy
of materialism and idealism), and after the late 1920s historical materialism
(the economic interpretation of history) gained wide acceptance. Most
of the materialists eventually accepted Marxism-Leninism, the orthodox
philosophy of the Chinese Communist Party, enunciated
by Mao Zedong. Although
the Chinese Communists have claimed that Maoism
was a further development of Marxism-Leninism, a careful analysis shows
that Mao’s originality was not so much theoretical as practical.
The best known of the 20th-century Confucian
philosophers is Feng Youlan, who developed and reconstructed the Neo-Confucian
School of Principle. Although his conclusions were similar to those
of the Song Neo-Confucianists, Feng supplied new and logical arguments
and clarified the original system. In the 1960s Feng moved towards historical
materialism and revised his work The History of Chinese Philosophy
(1931, 1934; supplement, 1936; trans. 1948) according to the ideas of
Marxism-Leninism. A “New Confucian” movement has evolved above all in
Hong Kong and Taiwan, aimed at reinterpreting the teachings of Confucianism
and adapting them to the present. (See also Chinese Literature.)[1]
Quelle: Microsoft Encarta
[1]"Philosophy,
Chinese," Microsoft® Encarta® 99 Encyclopedia. © 1993-1998
Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
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