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Chinese History - The Hundred Schools of Thought

The Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, though marked by disunity and civil strife, witnessed an unprecedented era of cultural prosperity -- the "golden age" of China. The atmosphere of reform and new ideas was attributed to the struggle for survival among warring regional lords who competed in building strong and loyal armies and in increasing economic production to ensure a broader base for tax collection. To effect these economic, military, and cultural developments, the regional lords needed ever-increasing numbers of skilled, literate officials and teachers, the recruitment of whom was based on merit. Also during this time, commerce was stimulated through the introduction of coinage and technological improvements. Iron came into general use, making possible not only the forging of weapons of war but also the manufacture of farm implements. Public works on a grand scale -- such as flood control, irrigation projects, and canal digging -- were executed. Enormous walls were built around cities and along the broad stretches of the northern frontier.

So many different philosophies developed during the late Spring and Autumn and early Warring States periods that the era is often known as that of the Hundred Schools of Thought. From the Hundred Schools of Thought came many of the great classical writings on which Chinese practices were to be based for the next two and onehalf millennia. Many of the thinkers were itinerant intellectuals who, besides teaching their disciples, were employed as advisers to one or another of the various state rulers on the methods of government, war, and diplomacy.

The body of thought that had the most enduring effect on subsequent Chinese life was that of the School of Literati (ru), often called the Confucian school in the West. The written legacy of the School of Literati is embodied in the Confucian Classics, which were to become the basis for the order of traditional society. Confucius (551-479 BC), also called Kong Zi, or Master Kong, looked to the early days of Zhou rule for an ideal social and political order. He believed that the only way such a system could be made to work properly was for each person to act according to prescribed relationships. "Let the ruler be a ruler and the subject a subject," he said, but he added that to rule properly a king must be virtuous. To Confucius, the functions of government and social stratification were facts of life to be sustained by ethical values. His ideal was the junzi (ruler's son), which came to mean gentleman in the sense of a cultivated or superior man. Confucius was, to a large extent, successful because he systematized, practiced and taught what was already accepted as the Chinese ideal. He himself disclaimed being an originator: he professed himself a "transmitter."

The K'ungs of Shantung are probably the oldest nobility on earth, being, in fact, the only hereditary nobility in China other than royalty, and, strangely enough, the descendants of the "Sea quelling" Duke, the famous pirate Coxinga. Among Confucius' ancestors was Ch'eng Tang, the founder of the Yin dynasty (1215-1203 B. K. or 1766-1754 B. C). After the fall of this dynasty, Wei Tzu, brother of the fallen emperor, was enfeoffed by Chou Ch'eng Wang in the dukedom of Sung. The tenth ancestor of Confucius resigned his dukedom to his younger brother, and thus it passed out of the direct line of Confucius. Five generations later, K'ung-fu Chia. the sixth ancestor of Confucius, invented the surname of K'ung from his adult designation indicating separation from the house of the duke in conformity with the ancient custom. On account of some political trouble, the great-grandfather of Confucius fled from Sung to the state of Lu, and became mayor in the city of Fang. Confucius' father, Shu-liang Ho, was mayor in the city of Tsou, and distinguished himself as a brave soldier. Since on reaching the age of sixty-four he had no heir who could be his successor, he was obliged to marry a young girl, Yen Cheng-tsai, who became the mother of Confucius. The present Duke of K'ung traces his descent back over seventy generations to Confucius, first of the line, born BC 551.

Mencius (372-289 BC), or Meng Zi, was a Confucian disciple who made major contributions to the humanism of Confucian thought. Mencius declared that man was by nature good. He expostulated the idea that a ruler could not govern without the people's tacit consent and that the penalty for unpopular, despotic rule was the loss of the "mandate of heaven." The distinctive merit of Mencius's philosophy, as compared with the teachings of Confucius himself, is its application to state life, starting, of course, in true Confucian spirit from family relations and filial duty; but his feelings in this respect are essentially democratic, the prosperity of the people being his first care, and loyalty to the sovereign, as taught by Confucius, being of secondary importance. It was not sufficient for governments to providefor the physical welfare of the masses; it was also their duty to educate the people. He despises power and external grandeur if not backed by justice and righteousness; but he is an idealist and expects the world to be better than it can ever be.

The effect of the combined work of Confucius, the codifier and interpreter of a system of relationships based on ethical behavior, and Mencius, the synthesizer and developer of applied Confucian thought, was to provide traditional Chinese society with a comprehensive framework on which to order virtually every aspect of life. There were to be accretions to the corpus of Confucian thought, both immediately and over the millennia, and from within and outside the Confucian school. Interpretations made to suit or influence contemporary society made Confucianism dynamic while preserving a fundamental system of model behavior based on ancient texts.

After a brief period of persecution during the Ch'in Dynasty, the influence of Confucianism experienced a remarkable revival. Confucius was made Duke and Earl under the Han Dynasty; "Perfect Sage" in the 5th Century A.D.; King (Wang) under the T'ang Dynasty; Emperor (Hwang-ti) under the Sungs; while the Mings and Manchus learned to pay him reverence under the title, "Perfect Sage, Ancient Teacher."

Diametrically opposed to Mencius, for example, was the interpretation of Xun Zi (ca. 300-237 BC), another Confucian follower. Xun Zi preached that man is innately selfish and evil and that goodness is attainable only through education and conduct befitting one's status. He also argued that the best government is one based on authoritarian control, not ethical or moral persuasion.

Xun Zi's unsentimental and authoritarian inclinations were developed into the doctrine embodied in the School of Law (fa), or Legalism. The doctrine was formulated by Han Fei Zi (d. 233 BC) and Li Si (d. 208 BC), who maintained that human nature was incorrigibly selfish and therefore the only way to preserve the social order was to impose discipline from above and to enforce laws strictly. The Legalists exalted the state and sought its prosperity and martial prowess above the welfare of the common people. Legalism became the philosophic basis for the imperial form of government. When the most practical and useful aspects of Confucianism and Legalism were synthesized in the Han period (206 BC-A.D. 220), a system of governance came into existence that was to survive largely intact until the late nineteenth century.

Taoism (or Daoism in pinyin), the second most important stream of Chinese thought, also developed during the Zhou period. Its formulation is attributed to the legendary sage Lao Zu, said to predate Confucius, and Zhuang Zi (369-286 BC). The name Lao Tzu may mean either "Aged Boy," in allusion to the legend of his having been born already seventy years old and with white hair, or else "Old Philosopher." His personal name was Li (Plum tree) and he was born about BC 604 in the State of Ch'u (the present provinces of Hupeh and Hunan). Almost nothing is known of his life and some regard the whole story as mythical.

The focus of Taoism is the individual in nature rather than the individual in society. It holds that the goal of life for each individual is to find one's own personal adjustment to the rhythm of the natural (and supernatural) world, to follow the Way (dao) of the universe. In many ways the opposite of rigid Confucian moralism, Taoism served many of its adherents as a complement to their ordered daily lives. A scholar on duty as an official would usually follow Confucian teachings but at leisure or in retirement might seek harmony with nature as a Taoist recluse.

There was never any very clear idea in China as to what the "Way " precisely was. According to Lao Tzii himself, " Those who know do not tell; those who tell do not know." Confucius says that he studied the Tao for twenty years and came no nearer to the understanding of it. The one interview which legend ascribes to the two philosophers is said to have resulted in mutual perplexity. The exponent of the Way seemed to Confucius to be "soaring dragonlike above the clouds to Heaven." Confucius himself was all for externals, for rules of propriety and the duties of the "superior man." Lao Tzu asserted that "the crow does not become black through being painted nor the pigeon white through bathing." Lao Tzu " anticipated the Christian doctrine of returning good for evil, a sentiment which was highly reprobated by the practical mind of Confucius, who declared that evil should be met by justice." The classic of Taoism is known as the Tao Te King, or " Classic of the Way." It is in all probability the work of a later age, perhaps of the 2nd Century B. C, but it is generally regarded as containing many of the sayings of Lao Tzu.

Lao Tzu's chief interpreter was Chwang Tzu [Chuang-tzi], who lived two centuries later and endeavored to rescue his master's name from oblivion. As Mencius was the principal representative of the Confucian school of philosophers, so Chuang-tzi, his contemporary, was the chief representative of Tauist philosophy. Chuang-tzi's views thus formed the greatest contrast of everything preached by the Confucianists; and this contrast may be shown even in his personal life. Whereas Confucius and Mencius constantly hankered after personal influence with princes and governments, their great ambition being to be social reformers, Chuang-tzi was the better philosopher inasmuch as he cared more for the absolute liberty of a scholar's life than for a grand position in the world. Twice he declined the honor of being prime minister to the king of Ch'u. He compared the man who held such a position and who could at any time fall into disgrace to "the sacrificial ox fattened for years in order to be led to the altar, decked with embroidered trappings, and killed."

The period of the Ch'in dynasty was that which in one sense was the most favorable to Taoism, though from another point of view it led to so much corruption that some have even distinguished between Laoism, the teaching of the sage, and Taoism, the later, and corrupt, system. During the Ch'in dynasty the Emperor was wont to expound Taoism to his courtiers and caused those who yawned to be executed. Ch'in Shih Huang Ti, the "Burner of the Books," was an ardent Taoist and sent a famous expedition to Japan in search of the Elixir vita. The first sovereign of the Han dynasty was also much devoted to this faith and the hierarchy of Taoist Popes dates from about this time. The first Pope was Chang Tao-ling who ascended to heaven at the age of 123 from the Dragon Tiger Mountain in Kiangsi on which his descendants have ever since resided. "He had acquired power to walk among the stars, to divide mountains and seas, to command the wind and the thunder, and to quell demons." The later Taoism received from Buddhism the worst of that system as it imparted to Buddhism the best of its own. It was later little but a system of magic and charlatanry.

Another strain of thought dating to the Warring States Period is the school of yin-yang and the five elements. The theories of this school attempted to explain the universe in terms of basic forces in nature, the complementary agents of yin (dark, cold, female, negative) and yang (light, hot, male, positive) and the five elements (water, fire, wood, metal, and earth). In later periods these theories came to have importance both in philosophy and in popular belief.

Still another school of thought was based on the doctrine of Mo Zi (470-391 BC?), or Mo Di. Mo Zi believed that "all men are equal before God" and that mankind should follow heaven by practicing universal love. Advocating that all action must be utilitarian, Mo Zi condemned the Confucian emphasis on ritual and music. He regarded warfare as wasteful and advocated pacificism. Mo Zi also believed that unity of thought and action were necessary to achieve social goals. He maintained that the people should obey their leaders and that the leaders should follow the will of heaven. Although Moism failed to establish itself as a major school of thought, its views are said to be "strongly echoed" in Legalist thought. In general, the teachings of Mo Zi left an indelible impression on the Chinese mind.