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Chinese philosophy is extensive and profound. The advocacy of benevolence by Confucianism, which reflects a broad-minded, virtue-based attitude toward the world, is the most valuable quality of the Chinese nation - a sublime spirit that is now in the blood of the whole nation. The Taoist wisdom, which is as infinite as heaven and earth and as inexhaustible as rivers, provides a deep and undying source and eternal motivation for the survival and development of the Chinese nation. Throughout her history, this nation has returned time and again to those ancient sages to reread the classics, listen to their teachings, and conduct self-examination. The same we should do today. In fact, Chinese philosophy based on Confucianism and Taoism is among the most important and most precious cultural legacy of the whole humankind. The virtue and wisdom contained therein can be compared to those in any other great tradition of humanity.
What is the nature of the world? This question, which concerns phenomenon and essence, is asked in every kind of philosophy. In the West, however, attention to and thought about phenomenon have been largely excluded from philosophy due to Parmenides' discussions of being, Plato's skepticism about the reliability of phenomenon, Aristotle's exploration of essential properties, and the demonstration of the existence of God in Christian philosophy. However, this was not the case in ancient China, in which phenomenon plays as important a role as essence in philosophy. We will start from the issue of shen (which can be translated as God, divinity, spirit, or "spiritual power" - translator's note), which, as we shall see, involves both polytheism and atheism. Read more
• The Concept of Difference or Diversity
• The Concept of Change or Changeability
• The Quest for Essence and Laws: Dao
• The Quest for Essence and Laws: Li
• The Quest for Essence and Laws: Qi
The relationship between things was another important concern of the ancient Chinese philosophers, which made them different from their European counterparts. The ancient European philosophers mainly concerned the nature of things. In some sense, European philosophy originated from the exploration of "What's the nature of it." In China, however, it was quite different. In the history of Chinese philosophy, the commonest question might be "What's the relationship between them." No matter in the ancient or modern China, the question on relationship between things had been a widely-discussed issue, where most philosophers would be involved and reached the consensus meanwhile. Read more
• The Religious Approach to Heaven-human Relationship
• The Intellectual Approach to Heaven-human Relationship
What were the social norms or what was the ideal society like? These had been important issues in ancient Chinese. As early as in Zhou Dynasty, the idea Morality was considered the precondition of "dedicating life and protecting people." Later, the value of morality had been a basic tradition of Chinese people. In Confucian's view, the social norms could be summarized as Rite (Li), Benevolence (Ren), Righteousness (Yi), and Reason (Li). Rite (Li) and Benevolence (Ren) had been important ideas for Confucianism and Chinese philosophy since the time of Confucius. Mencius and Xun Zi inherited Confucius's thought in different ways and proposed "benevolent rule" and "propriety and law" respectively. Besides, the views on "righteousness vs. profit" and "heavenly principle vs. human desire" became the criterion to judge right or wrong in early and late Confucianism, whose negative effect proved evident in spite of the positive value. Read more
• Origin of the Sense of Morality
• Edification and Ethical Tradition of Chinese Civilization
• The Taoist Idea of Non-action
• The Legalist Idea of Rule by Law
• The Circulatory Theory of History
What was the proper orientation of life? Philosophers in ancient China expressed diverse and valuable views. In Confucianism, the proper orientation of life was firstly understood as an ideal character, which was called sage or gentleman (Jun Zi) in Confucian's term, meaning a perfect man. Ethically, the proper orientation of life referred to a morality or an ideal, which was precondition for a sage. Anthropologically, the proper orientation of life referred to the most ideal model that epitomized the morality or ideal. It was perceivable that the ideal character was how to behave or which kind of character one chose. Read more
• The Ideal Confucian Character
• The Cultivation of the Ideal Character
• Equilibrium and Harmony of Confucianism
• Mencius' Doctrine of the Goodness of Human Nature
• Xun Zi's Doctrine of the Evil of Human Nature
• The Development of Theories on Human Nature
• Chuang Tzu's Outlook on Life
In addition to the outer world and reality, ancient Chinese philosophers also dealt with human's thinking. In fact, knowledge played a vital role in human's discussion of the nature of the world, the relationship between things, the human nature, and the ideal character. Therefore, knowledge was the way by which human obtained truth or Tao. How did human understand the world and themselves? Chinese philosophers had discussed many issues on the topic, such as the ability of knowledge, the relationship between knowledge and the object, the structure of knowledge, the form or stage of knowledge, and the relationship between knowledge and action. Read more
• Investigating Things and Gaining Knowledge
• The Foundation of Early Views on Knowledge and Action
• Word and Action, Knowledge and Practice
• Zhu Xi's View on Knowledge and Action