Chinese Philosophy

Article Outline

Introduction; Classical Age; Medieval Age; Modern Period

Other Classical Schools

Among the other important schools of the classical 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. During the 4th century bc, naturalism offered an analysis of the workings of the universe based upon certain cosmic principles. The best known of these principles were yin and yang, which represented the interacting dualities of nature, such as female and male, shadow and light, and winter and summer. Also in the 4th century bc, philosophers known as dialecticians started to explore the philosophy of language. They used subtle arguments to either attack or defend paradoxical conclusions.

Legalism

Legalism emerged as the dominant philosophy in the state of Qin (Ch’in) during the chaotic years of the 4th and 3rd centuries bc. Two disciples of Xunzi, Han Fei (Han Fei-tzu) and Li Si (Li Ssu), were, respectively, the leading philosopher and the leading practitioner of Legalism. The Legalists based their ideas on Xunzi’s teachings that human nature was evil, but they rejected his optimism that humans could be ethically perfected. Instead, they claimed that strict controls were needed to regulate human conduct. The Legalists also developed the basis of the Chinese bureaucratic government with their view that officials must be assigned precise responsibilities and rewarded if they met those responsibilities, but punished if they failed to meet them.

Legalism proved an effective instrument in creating a powerful military and economic system in the state of Qin. By 221 bc, Qin had succeeded in conquering the other feudal states and establishing a unified, centrally administered empire (see Qin dynasty). Qin rule was 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 an early version of the Great Wall, accomplished with forced labor and at great cost in 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.

Medieval Age

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Han Confucianism

The Confucian philosophers of the Han dynasty 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. Han Confucianism was officially patronized by the government from 136 bc and subsequently became the required learning for government service. However, many scholars paid only lip-service to Confucianism, and even among committed Confucians there were major disagreements over many issues.

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 and also by Buddhism, a philosophy 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 and central Asia from the 1st to the 6th century. The teachings of Buddhism offered escape from the sufferings of life and from the endless reincarnation caused by human desires into an indescribable state of no desire known as nirvana. An individual attains nirvana by achieving enlightenment about the true nature of reality. Buddhism was also of great philosophical importance because it brought to China sophisticated metaphysical explanations of the nature of reality.

The Chinese Buddhist philosophers of the Tiantai (T’ien T’ai) sect formulated the doctrine of the “Perfectly Harmonious Threefold Truth” to explain the nature of existence. This doctrine held that things are fundamentally empty because everything depends on something else to cause it to exist; however, things have a temporary existence, and so the everyday world is not a complete illusion.

Neo-Confucian Period

In the Tang (T’ang) dynasty (618-907) Buddhism and Daoism were dominant initially, but Confucianism alone among the three schools offered a political and social philosophy suited to the needs of a centralized empire. Consequently, it was almost inevitable that there would be a revival of Confucian cultural and philosophical thought. This revival became known as Daoxue (Tao-hsueh, “The Study of the Way”), which is usually called neo-Confucianism in English. One of the early leaders in this movement was Han Yu, a late 8th- and early 9th-century thinker who almost lost his life for criticizing the emperor’s reverence for Buddhism.

The growth of neo-Confucianism, along with fear on the part of the government regarding the growing power of Buddhist monasteries, resulted in persecutions of Buddhists and Daoists during the Tang dynasty. However, Daoism and Buddhism lived on as philosophies espoused by many educated Chinese in their personal lives and in their relationships with nature, and as religious movements popular among the people.

Neo-Confucianism reached intellectual maturity during the Song dynasty (ad 960-1279). Neo-Confucians of this period maintained that everything in the universe has two aspects: li and qi. Li, usually translated as “principle,” can be understood as the structure or organizing principle of everything in the universe. It is fully present in each thing that exists. The li determines why things are the way they are, and how they ought to be. Qi, for which there is no standard English translation, is a spontaneously moving and self-generating physical “stuff.” Qi comes in varying degrees of clarity or turbidity (murkiness).

Because the li is the same in everything, the qi is what gives things their distinctive qualities. The qi of a dog is more turbid than the qi of a human, so humans are more intelligent than dogs. The qi of a plant is more turbid than the qi of a dog, so dogs can think and perceive, whereas plants cannot. The qi of a rock is more turbid than the qi of a plant, so a plant is alive, while a rock is not. The qi also distinguishes different individuals within kinds. Thus, your qi is different from my qi even though we are both humans. And if you are more virtuous than I, your qi is less turbid than mine.

The neo-Confucians thought that they were using these ideas to make explicit what earlier sages such as Confucius and Mencius had meant, but they unconsciously borrowed heavily from Buddhism and Daoism. The very term li first gets prominence in Daoist texts, and it was adopted by Huayan Buddhists before the Confucians took it up. At the same time, neo-Confucians criticize Buddhists for selfishly trying to escape this world rather than trying to improve it, even though most Buddhists stressed compassion for the suffering of this world and some Buddhists maintained that nirvana was not a state separate from this world but was rather a way of viewing this world. Perhaps the greatest similarity is that both neo-Confucians and Buddhists aim at cultivating themselves by discovering some facts about themselves and the world through reason, observation, or meditation. This emphasis on discovery contrasts with the views of Mencius, who advocated developing our inclinations toward virtue, and of Xunzi, who encouraged us to reform our evil nature.