- 86-15907880780
- contact@youngchinatravel.com
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. Taoists and Legalists in Pre-Qin time also stated their views and theories on social issues, but they were quite different from Confucian's thought. Taoists took negative attitude towards civilization and passive and retrogressive stance, but their criticism on the reality embodied profound value. Legalists pursued the new and reformed the old. They were more objective and practical. Their views on law, in particular, marked a great progress in equality and justice of society. Of course, their discourse on political tricky seemed insidious and immoral. View on History was also an important part of ancient Chinese philosophy.
In China, the social norms originally started from or based itself on moral consciousness, which differentiated them from civilization that relied on the role of belief. With the efforts of Confucius, Rite (Li) and Benevolence (Ren) became two core ideas of social norms and guided people's behavior. As a result, Confucian moral principles were established.
Based on Confucius's thought on benevolence, the systematic Confucian social norms were formed. Mencius and Xun Zi inherited Confucius's thought in different ways and proposed "benevolent rule" and "propriety and law" respectively. The views on "righteousness vs. profit" and "heavenly principle vs. human desire" became the criterion to judge right or wrong for Confucianism in Pre-Qin time and Song and Ming dynasties. And edification became the most important way to run the country and give people peace.
In addition to Confucianism, there are some other schools of thought that deserve our attention. In Pre-Qin time, Taoism represented by Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu held opposite views to Confucianism: the idea of non-action. Meanwhile, they re-evaluated and criticized civilization in a profound way. Legalism appeared later than Confucianism. Legalism attached less attention to tradition and proposed more constructive theories. However, the merciless and darkness of Legalism enormously undermined its positive value. It was notable that some Legalist thoughts were complementary to the mainstream Confucianism or directly absorbed by Confucianism.
View on history was also an important part of views on society. Among the various views on history in ancient China, Confucian view on history was the most influential and had been existing in ancient China. Besides, the circulatory theory of history played an important role in ancient China and presented itself in diverse forms.