The Chinese philosophy. The six schools of the ancient Chinese philosophy

The ancient China was the third place where independently on others the philosophy emerged. It happened approximately at the same time as in the ancient Greece or India. As well as the Indian traditional philosophy the Chinese one begins from the certain premises containing also the base of popular worldview. The initial premise of the Chinese philosophy is the organismic point of view (organismism) on the world. I.e. the traditional Chinese philosophy and worldview regards the universe as a gigantic organism every part of which has its own place and functions. The latter was called by the word Tao. The word 'Tao' isn't translatable literally but conditionally it can be interpreted as a way (the main interpretation), the chief principle, sense, essence and so on. The concept of Tao is the key concept of all traditional Chinese philosophy and worldview.

The Universe according to them is considered as a holistic organism and different things are like its particular organs, everyone of them has its own Tao or the way of functioning in the frame of the whole. Different schools of the Chinese philosophy differ from each other mainly by the concrete explanations of Tao’s nature.

According to the legendary history at first China was united under the government of the legendary Jade (or Yellow) Emperor. Soon after his death his empire disintegrated and all its numerous officials again having become usual men were compelled to earn for their lives by teaching. Every official taught people to his own occupation and thus different philosophical schools arose. According to the same legend at the outset there were one hundred schools. The historical sources however contain the information only about six schools arising in the 1st millennium B.C. They are: 1) Scholars' School (or Confucionism); 2) Mohists' School; 3) Lawyers' School; 4) the School of Names; 5) Taoists' School and 6) the Metaphysics Yin-Yang School. Among these six the main are Scholars' School (or Confucionism) and Taoists' School which has assimilated the teaching of the Metaphysics Yin-Yang School. Later (beginning from the 1st c A.D.) the Buddhists teaching joined them. Thus the traditional Chinese worldview and culture were influenced by three schools: Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism [5].

Date: 2014-12-21; view: 1930