Philosophy of ancient China

1. KARAGANDA STATE MEDICAL UNIVERSITYDepartment: History of Kazakhstan and social-political disciplines Lecture 3 Philosophy of ancient China Temirbekova M.Y. - teacher of department’s History of Kazakhstan and SPD, Master of Humanities

2. Brief contents • Introduction • Taoism • Confucianism

3. Introduction • Philosophy has had a tremendous effect on Chinese civilization, and East Asia as a whole. Many of the great philosophical schools were formulated during the Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Period, and came to be known as the Hander Schools of Thought. The four most influential of these were Confucianism, Taoism, Mohism, and Legalism. Later on, during the Tang Dynasty, Buddhism from India also became a prominent philosophical and religious discipline. • The Chinese believed that heaven, t'ien, governed the world in its entirety, including human affairs; in fact, heaven was especially and scrupulously attentive to all things human, especially government. As a result of this interest, heaven frequently intervened in governmental affairs: when a dynasty grew corrupt, heaven intervened and overthrew that dynasty and replaced it with a new one. This concept was called the "mandate of heaven," t'ienming; rulers were put in place by heaven and could continue to rule as long as they did so with justice and wisdom.

4. Philosophic mythology has been included into the Five Classic books: 1) The Book of Changes or the I ching 2) The Book of History; or the Shuching 3) The Book of Odes; or the Shih chin; 4) The Book of Rites; or the Lich 5) The Spring and Autumn Annals; or the Ch'unch'iu The central philosophic outlook: • The five basic elements: water, fair, tree, metal, and earth; • Morality, the good & bad, justice & injustice; • The heaven, t'ien , governed the world inits entirety, including human affairs; in fact, • heaven was especially and scrupulously attentive to all things human, especially government. The most influential schools: • Taoism; • Confucianism.

5. Taoism • The founder is Lao Tzu (VI BC); • In the centre of this strain is nature, cosmos, human being. • Taoism is based on the idea that behind all material things and all the change in the world lies one fundamental, universal principle: the Way or Tao. • Tao gives rise to the expansive force (yang) and the contractive forces (yin) • Tao is like an empty bowl that holds and yields the vital energy (ch’i) in all things • This principle gives rise to all existence and governs everything, all change and all life. • Behind the bewildering multiplicity and contradictions of the world lies a single unity, the Tao.

6. The purpose of human life, then, is to live life according to the Tao, which requires passivity, calm, non-striving (wuwei ), humility, and lack of planning, for to plan is to go against the Tao • Tao aims to make union of nature and human being; • Tao is thing which give answer on all question of the Universals; • Tao is eternity; • Tao is everywhere and everything; • Tao contains the individual inspired power as “te”.

7. Confucianism • Confucianism is an ethical and philosophical system developed from the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius (K'ung-fu-tzu, lit. "Master Kong", 551-479 BCE). Confucianism originated as an "ethical-sociopolitical teaching" during the Spring and Autumn Period, but later developed metaphysical and cosmological elements in the Han Dynasty. Following the official abandonment of Legalism in China after the Qin Dynasty, Confucianism became the official state ideology of the Han. Nonetheless, since the Han period onward, most Chinese emperors used a mix of Legalism and Confucianism as their ruling doctrine, often with the latter embellishing the former. In other words, Confucian values were used to sugarcoat the harsh Legalist ideas that underlie the Imperial system. The disintegration of the Han in the second century CE opened the way for the spiritual and otherworldly doctrines of Buddhism and Daoism to dominate intellectual life at that time.

8. The Five Confucian Classics and the Confucian vision • Traditionally, Confucius was thought to be the author or editor of the Five Classics which were the basic texts of Confucianism. • The scholar Tu Wei-ming explains these classics as embodying “five visions" which underlie the development of Confucianism: • I Ching or Classic of Change or Book of Changes, generally held to be the earliest of the classics, shows a metaphysical vision which combines divinatory art with numerological technique and ethical insight; philosophy of change sees cosmos as interaction between the two energies yin and yang, universe always shows organismic unity and dynamism. • Classic of Poetry or Book of Songs is the earliest anthology of Chinese poems and songs. It shows the poetic vision in the belief that poetry and music convey common human feelings and mutual responsiveness.

9. Book of Documents or Book of History Compilation of speeches of major figures and records of events in ancient times embodies the political vision and addresses the kingly way in terms of the ethical foundation for humane government. The documents show the sagacity, filial piety, and work ethic of Yao, Shun, and Yu. They established a political culture which was based on responsibility and trust. Their virtue formed a covenant of social harmony which did not depend on punishment or coercion. • Book of Rites describes the social forms, administration, and ceremonial rites of the Zhou Dynasty. This social vision defined society not as an adversarial system based on contractual relations but as a community of trust based on social responsibility. The four functional occupations are cooperative (farmer, scholar, artisan, merchant). • Spring and Autumn Annals chronicles the period to which it gives its name, Spring and Autumn Period (771-476 BC) and these events emphasize the significance of collective memory for communal self-identification, for reanimating the old is the best way to attain the new.