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Other Traditions

Other Traditions. Most prominent among the hundred schools of thought Mohism Legalism Taoism (Daoism) School of Sophists Yin-yang School (School of Cosmologists) School of Military Affairs. Legalism. Representatives: Lord Shang, Han Feizi

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Other Traditions

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  1. Other Traditions • Most prominent among the hundred schools of thought • Mohism • Legalism • Taoism (Daoism) • School of Sophists • Yin-yang School (School of Cosmologists) • School of Military Affairs

  2. Legalism • Representatives: Lord Shang, Han Feizi • Teachings: Strong government depends on effective laws and procedures; the purpose of rule is “enriching and strengthening the state” • Ruler should use his power and technique to rule effectively by • Establishing strong institutional structure • Accumulating personal power • Using law, rewards, and harsh punishments

  3. Lord Shang (or Shang Yang d. 338 BCE): • law is sovereign’s will, monarch regulates all under him but remains above the law, which he can change as he wishes

  4. Ruler should trust no one, not even wives and concubines • should keep his subjects in awe of him and keep them ignorant of his intentions • should prohibit public opinions and control people by manipulating competition among them • should make his decrees laws, and awards and punishment automatic Han Feizi (or Han Fei-tzu, d. 233 BCE)

  5. Mohism • Founder: Mozi (ca. 480-390 BCE) • Text ascribed to Mozi is called the Mozi.

  6. Teachings: • Universal love: no distinction between loving one’s parents and loving everyone else (strangers) • Utilitarianism: • Work and labor are needed to build a state • Rituals and music are insignificant • mourning parents for three years is unnecessary because it interrupts work

  7. Daoism/Taoism • Legendary founder: Laozi (Lao-tzu, 6th C. BCE) • Most Creative successor: Zhuangzi (Chuang-tzu, ca. 369-286 BCE)

  8. Representative works: • The Laozi or the Daode jing (the Lao-tzu or the Tao-te ching): authorship attributed to Laozi (Lao-tzu), but there probably were more than one author. • The Zhuangzi (the Chuang-tzu): Zhuangzi (Chuang-tzu) authored the first seven chapters; chapters 8-33 by disciples and followers

  9. Early Daoist Teachings • Non-striving: The virtue of non-action • Simplicity: • Importance of an individual’s private and simple life; • Alienated men and isolated society are most ideal • Freedom: • The ruled: people should be left alone; rulers should not interfere with people’s lives; people should enjoy opportunity of free and easy wandering • The ruler: people should remain ignorant and content, which is their natural state

  10. Anti-convention: conventional values bring only disasters • Relativityis the cardinal principle of matters • No absolute fortune or misfortune, gain or lose, give or take • Distinction between things causes social conflict • No ultimate reality: dream and death are parts of the great natural process and transformation

  11. The Zhuangzi/Chuang-tzu • Main ideas and teachings of the text • Holistic view of world and life • The immensity of nature and the immeasurable living beings in human world • Equality of all lives (living beings) and things • Every living being has its place and natural way of life

  12. Inadequacy of knowledge, words, and rational thinking • Ideas and knowledge cannot be conveyed through words effectively • Superiority of inner virtue

  13. Reverence nature • Cultivate spontaneity • Change, Transcendence, Transformation of life, • Meditation and self-cultivation through concentrating qi/ch’i • Useful of being useless Zhuangzi

  14. Later Daoism • Immortality could be achieved through • alchemy • Breathing and meditation exercises • Exorcism • Sexual hygiene • Herbalism • Talismanic charms • Ge Hong (283-343)—Master Who Embraces Simplicity • Later Daoist School: • Supreme Purity • Numinous Treasure

  15. Taoism and Popular Beliefs • Literary works produced in the South, such as the Songs of the Chu (South) indicate the existence of popular beliefs in a multitude of deities, spirits, gods, goddesses, such as : • the Lady of the Xiang (Hsiang), …

  16. Shaman and a variety of religious adepts served as spirit mediums, whose functions: • Evoked spiritual journey to far-off places, fantastic spheres in celestial and terrestrial worlds • Created ecstatic spiritual love and relationship between man and nymph, fairy, or goddess • Summoned the soul of the dead to “come back” to the abode where its living body took residence before his death

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