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In the Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Period, because wars caused a lot of chaos and China was not unified, private studies thrived and various schools' writings emerged one after another. This was the first large-scale ideological debate and academic contention in China's history called "contention of a hundred schools of thought" in later generations.
The so-called a hundred schools of thought refer to the numerous book writers of that period with great influence and diverse styles. According to the summarization in The Book of Arts of the Chronicles of Han Dynasty, they mainly include "ten schools:" the Confucian School, the Taoist School, the Legalist School, the Mohist School, the School of Logicians, the School of Diplomacy, the Yin-Yang School, the Agriculturist School, the School of Eclectics and the School of Minor Talks. In light of the influence in that period and later ages, the Confucian School, the Taoist School, the Legalist School and the Mohist School are more important. Various schools wrote books mainly to express views and state reasons, and most of their writings are prose. Among the academic essays of various schools, the most influential ones are Analects of Confucius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, etc.
It is a book recording the words and deeds of Confucius and his disciples. Today's edition of Analects of Confucius consisting of 20 chapters in total began to be compiled around the early Warring States Period.
Confucius (551 BC^70 BC), with the given name of Qiu and the courtesy name of Zhongni, was a native of Zouyi in the Lu State and the founder of the Confucian School. His ancestors were aristocrats of the Song State, and later migrated to the Lu State. Confucius never achieved his ambition in his lifetime. Though he served as the Minister of Justice of the Lu State, traveled in various states and made great efforts to advocate his political opinions, he never realized his ambition. At last, he returned to the Lu State and engaged in teaching and writing. It is said that he had 3,000 disciples including 72 brilliant ones. Analects of Confucius systematically reflects Confucius' thoughts. The core of his thoughts is "benevolence" and "propriety." The so-called "benevolence" mainly refers to moral cultivation and ethical education; the so-called "propriety" refers to political systems, moral standards, etc. Confucius advocated "looking not at what is contrary to propriety; listening not to what is contrary to propriety; speaking not what is contrary to propriety; making no movement which is contrary to propriety," thinking that only by preserving "propriety" could the world order be maintained to "let the king be a king, the minister a minister, the father a father and the son a son."
Incomplete pages of the Tang handwritten version of Analects of Confucius annotated by Zheng Xuan
Analects of Confucius is also of important significance with respect to education. Analects of Confucius vividly records Confucius' educational opinions such as teaching with tireless zeal, teaching students in accordance with their aptitude and teaching with skill and patience as well as how he practiced what he advocated. Some famous sayings such as "in education there should be no class distinctions," "knowledge is recognizing what you know and what you don't" and "learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous" have deeply influenced Chinese people for thousands of years.
From the literary perspective, Analects of Confucius adopts the form of quotation-style prose with profound meanings and concise, plain, vivid, implicit and meaningful words. Even long arguments are interesting and full of strong emotion. Analects of Confucius also records some penetrating views of Confucius on literature and art - for example, Confucius said, "In the Book of Poetry are three hundred pieces, but the design of them all may be embraced in one sentence -'Having no depraved thoughts.'" This view exerted far-reaching influence on the development of Chinese literature in later ages.
Laozi, with the surname of Li, the given name of Er, the courtesy name of Dan and the alias of Laodan, lived in the Chu State in the Spring and Autumn Period, and was the founder of the Taoist School. According to later scholars' textual research, the book Laozi was written not by Laozi, but by his students. Today's version of Laozi consists of 81 chapters. The first volume is Tao Classic including 37 chapters, and the second volume is Virtue Classic including 44 chapters. Therefore, Laozi is also called Tao Te Ching.
Laozi contains only 5,000 Chinese characters, but is abstruse and profound, epitomizing Laozi's complete philosophical thought system. "Tao" and "nature" are the core of Laozi's philosophy. He emphasized, "the Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao," "the name that can be named is not the eternal name" and "humans follow the laws of Earth; Earth follows the laws of Heaven; Heaven follows the laws of Tao; Tao follows the laws of nature." What Laozi called "Tao" is not human will or social systems but universal principles and fundamental laws governing the existence and change of all things in the world - the "Tao" of "nature." "Tao" proposed by Laozi marked a very high level of man's understanding of all things on earth and a new peak of China's philosophical development. Laozi's "laws of nature" not only emphasize the life philosophy of "nature and non-action" and "governing by doing nothing," but also are quite dialectic:
Misfortune is what fortune depends upon; fortune is where misfortune hides beneath.
Nothing in the world is softer or weaker than water, yet nothing is better at overcoming the hard and strong. This is because nothing can replace it. That the weak overcomes the strong and the soft overcomes the hard. Everybody in the world knows but cannot put into practice.
True words are not beautiful; beautiful words are not true. Those who are good do not debate; those who debate are not good. Those who know are not broad of knowledge; those who are broad of knowledge do not know.
Laozi contains simple, concise, clear and though-provoking words. Its sentences are mostly dialectal sayings, proverbs, adages and epigrams, adding to its profound philosophical connotations and at the same time having poetic flavor.
There were 52 chapters according to The Book of Arts of the Chronicles of Han Dynasty, and 33 chapters exist today. It is the main representative work of the pre-Qin Taoist School. Zhuangzi (c. 369 BC-286 BC), with the courtesy name of Zhou, lived in the Song State in the mid Warring States Period. Zhuangzi's studies belonged to the category of the Taoist School, but he inherited and further developed the thought of Laozi. From Confucius to Laozi and Zhuangzi, we can see different tracks of China's political and philosophical development. Confucius "did something even though it was impossible," Laozi "did nothing to do everything," and Zhuangzi "did nothing" or "did not act." It seems that Zhuangzi's thought is relatively negative and void. He pursued absolute spiritual freedom and complete transcendence from real society and imagined a spiritual state not restricted by any condition. However, what is more manifested by Zhuangzi's philosophy is the pursuit of ideals. For example, he particularly emphasized "the perfect man cares for no self; the holy man cares for no merit; the sage cares for no name." This is a typical state of ideal personalities. Confucius' realistic approach had progressive significance, Laozi's abstruse approach conformed to nature and had important value, and Zhuangzi's idealistic approach had the unique effect of transcending reality.
Besides, the more important value of Zhuangzi lies in the artistic charm of its prose. People often describe the free and transcendent literary style of Zhuangzi's prose as "powerful and unstrained like a heavenly steed soaring across the skies," and weird artistic images are also a unique characteristic of Zhuangzi's prose. The huge fish and roc, the butterfly that Zhuangzi became in his dream, Zhi Lishu the Lame whose body was incomplete, the stonemason who whirled the hatchet with a noise like the wind, etc. were all written by Zhuangzi with inspiration. This strange style of conception and writing makes Zhuangzi a glorious representative of the prose of a hundred schools of thought.