New Perspectives on Traditional Thought

Author: Wang Keqi / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2000-06-01
Features: The School of Masters (Zongzi Xue) was a social thought during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods. At that time, the intellectual world experienced an unprecedented prosperity, with various schools of thought emerging and forming the situation of "hundred schools of thought contending." Among the more influential schools were Confucianism, Military Strategy, Mohism, Taoism, Legalism, Names, and Yin-Yang Five Elements. The School of Masters is a general term for the thoughts of these schools. Although the thoughts of the masters were distinct and innovative, there were boundaries in academia, yet they were all from the same era, sharing roughly the same political, economic, and cultural background. Moreover, through long-term academic debates, they exchanged and permeated each other, forming a situation where one was intertwined with the other. Therefore, as a trend of thought of the era, the School of Masters has its own characteristics, the main features of which are:
First, the humanistic nature of the School of Masters. Thought is a phenomenon unique to human society, emerging with the birth of human society and developing with its progress. Early thoughts in human society were often associated with superstition, fantasy, mythology, and religion, reflecting the immaturity of thought at the time. During the Shang Dynasty, rulers regarded "Heaven" as the god governing everything, calling it "Emperor" or "Supreme God," who could bestow blessings or bring disasters upon humanity. For example, oracle bone inscriptions from the Shang ruins record phrases like "Heaven commands rain" and "Heaven brings famine." King Zhou of Shang once declared, "Is it not my fate that is decreed by Heaven?" (Book of Documents · Western Zhou's Subjugation of Li). However, during the transition from the Shang to the Zhou dynasties, the ruling class's thought gradually changed. The "Revolutions of Tang and Wu" led the Zhou rulers to develop the idea that "Heaven's mandate is not constant." Although the concept of "Heaven's mandate" still had some influence, the emphasis on human affairs gradually rose, and the thought of "complying with Heaven while responding to humanity" became the dominant ideology. The Zhou Dynasty's emphasis on human affairs primarily included "protecting the people" and "manifesting virtue." This idea of "matching virtue with Heaven" was a transition from the concept of "Heaven's mandate" to humanistic thought and also an early attempt to combine political and ethical thought of the ruling class. On this basis, a significant feature of traditional Chinese thought emerged: a strong political and ethical emphasis. The Book of Rites · Tabulation of Records states: "The Shang people revered gods, leading the people in serving them, prioritizing ghosts over rituals. The Zhou people revered rituals and practiced benevolence, serving ghosts and gods while keeping them at a distance, being close to people and loyal to them." This reflects the differences between Shang and Zhou thought and the shift from the concept of "Heaven's mandate" to humanistic thought.
Entering the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, humanism became the mainstream of thought. Confucianism, as the orthodox heir to Zhou culture, naturally emphasized ethics and morality. The Legalists, in particular, marked their identity by advocating for merit and law while opposing superstition, sorcery, and idolatry. The Military Strategists and Taoists' "theory of" (Heaven and Humanity) may have discussed "Heaven's way," but ultimately served their "human way." Mozi's thought retained more religious remnants, advocating "Heaven's will" and "manifesting ghosts," but he emphasized "valuing the worthy" and "seeking unity," stressing "those who rely on their efforts to survive" and highlighting human subjective initiative. The rise of humanistic thought was not accidental. With the rapid development of social productivity during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, humanity's ability to conquer nature improved, and with the disintegration of the patriarchal system, the social dependence attached to individuals was gradually released. Human independence and consciousness gradually awakened, providing social soil for the survival of humanistic thought. And Xunzi's idea of "controlling Heaven's mandate and using it" was the inevitable theoretical outcome of this humanistic trend.
Second, the divergent way of thinking in the School of Masters. During the Xia, Shang, and Western Zhou dynasties, "learning was in the hands of officials," with academic culture monopolized by the state. By the early Spring and Autumn period, the advent of iron tools brought a revolution in productivity, which in turn drove a revolution in production relations and the superstructure. The Zhou's unified rule over the heavens was broken, and the monopoly of "learning in the hands of officials" no longer existed. Academic culture moved down from the elite to the common people, a sign marked by the emergence of "private schools." At the same time, the "scholar" class rapidly rose to become a significant force in society. The scholar was originally the lowest noble rank in the Western Zhou ruling class, but with the collapse of the patriarchal system, they lost their privileges. Relying on some knowledge and skills they possessed—known as the "Six Arts" (Rites, Music, Archery, Charioteering, Calligraphy, and Mathematics)—they gradually transformed into a special social class, with a large portion dedicated to academic and cultural activities. Later, the composition of the scholar class became increasingly diverse, with many fallen nobles and commoners also participating. The scholar class became the main bearer of academic thought and culture at the time. The scholar class had the following characteristics:
1. Knowledgeable, allowing them to play a leading role in the academic and cultural activities of the time.
2. Possessing a relatively independent social identity, with the competing policies of the warring states to recruit talent providing them with broad space for development, giving their thinking and activities great freedom.
3. Having a diverse membership, giving them broad social representation in terms of ideological tendencies, so they often became the voice of various classes and strata in society.
It was precisely because of these characteristics of the scholar class that the masters of the various schools of the School of Masters had different ideas and opinions, exhibiting a divergent feature. The Book of Han · Treatise on Arts and Literature states: "The hundred schools of thought, with nine of them being worth reading, all arose when the royal way had declined, and the feudal lords wielded power. The rulers of the time had different preferences, so the nine schools of thought emerged and flourished, each drawing on one aspect and promoting what they deemed good, thereby persuading and gaining favor with the feudal lords. Although their words differed, they were like water and fire—mutually destructive yet mutually productive." The divergent way of thinking in the School of Masters, as well as the intellectual and cultural situation of "hundred schools of thought contending" it created, was both a product of the political and economic fragmentation of the time and gave rise to a diversified pattern of intellectual and cultural "hundred flowers in bloom," enriching the connotation of the School of Masters.
Taoism was the most influential school during the Warring States period. However, there was no name "Taoism" at the time. The name "Taoism" first appeared in Sima Tan's Essentials of the Six Schools in the early Han Dynasty. Examining the various schools of Taoism, they all took the "Dao" theory established by Laozi as their core, and later scholars referred to them as "Taoists." Guo Moruo said: "All schools of Taoism take 'Dao' as the substance of the universe and all things" (Ten Critiques · Critique of the Yellow and Old School of Jishan). This summary basically reflects the main academic characteristics of the Taoist school. In the middle and early Warring States period, Laozi first established a system of thought centered on "Dao," framed by the relationship between "Heaven and Humanity," and with "natural non-action" as its fundamental spirit, becoming the founder of Taoist thought. Later, the Taoist schools became numerous, but they could be broadly divided into two factions: the Yellow and Old School and the Zhuangzi School. The Yellow and Old School was enthusiastic about social and political theory, viewing Laozi from a positive perspective, mainly inheriting Laozi's idea of "non-action" and transforming it into an active philosophy of "non-action but non-doing." The Zhuangzi School, on the other hand, focused on constructing a philosophy of life, viewing Laozi from a negative perspective, mainly inheriting Laozi's idea of "naturalness," aiming for a return to simplicity, maintaining spiritual freedom, and taking seclusion as the ideal way of life. The abstract nature of "Dao" and the grand scale of the "theory of" gave Taoist thought great inclusivity and plasticity, so various schools of thought with dazzling colors emerged on the basis of the original theory of Taoism, becoming an inexhaustible source of traditional Chinese thought.
### I. Laozi's Thought
Laozi, surnamed Li, named Er, styled Dan, also known as Lao Dan, was a native of Kuhuan (Lu Yi, Henan). His birth and death dates are uncertain. His thought is mainly preserved in the Tao Te Ching. Because the existing Tao Te Ching is divided into the Tao Jing and the De Jing, it is also called the Tao De Jing. The book has over 5,000 characters and is written in rhyming poetry. Regarding the relationship between Laozi and the Tao Te Ching, the Tao Te Ching may have been written by later generations, recording and elaborating on Laozi's thoughts and words. The formation of the Tao Te Ching was a gradual process. For example, the Chu bamboo slips of the Tao Te Ching unearthed in Guodian, Jingmen, Hubei in 1993 contained content only up to 31 chapters of the current version, with over 2,000 characters. The current version was gradually developed on this basis. The theoretical core of Laozi's thought is his "Dao" ontology. The character "Dao" originally referred to a path people walked, later extended to mean "method" or "way," and had initially acquired a sense of regularity and universality. "Dao" evolved from "Heaven's way." The term "Heaven's way" appeared very early, such as in the Book of Documents · Tang's Declaration, which states, "Heaven's way blesses the virtuous and punishes the wicked, bringing disasters upon Xia." Here, "Heaven's way" is equivalent to Mozi's "Heaven's will," reflecting the will of the gods. During the Spring and Autumn period, people's understanding of "Heaven's way" changed. For example, Zilu of Zheng said, "Heaven's way is far, while humanity's way is near, beyond our reach" (Zuo Zhuan · 18th Year of Zhao). This diluted the mystical color of "Heaven's way" and denied its intervention in "humanity's way." In traditional views of Heaven, "Heaven's way" always appeared as the counterpart to "humanity's way." Laozi's theoretical contribution lay in his abstract synthesis of "Heaven's way" and "humanity's way," extracting an absolute ontology "Dao" that transcended both. On the basis of emphasizing the unity of the universe, he reinterpreted the relationship between "Heaven and Humanity." The emergence of "Dao" ontology laid the foundation for the later formation of Taoist thought.
The "Dao" in Laozi's thought has the following characteristics:
First, it is the unity of the cosmic substance and the law. Laozi said: "Something coalesced in chaos, born before Heaven and Earth. It is silent and empty, standing alone without change, moving endlessly without stopping, and can be called the mother of all things. I do not know its name, but call it Dao. I force its name to be Great. Great is passing, passing is far, far is returning." (Chapter 25) Dao is the substance, "born before Heaven and Earth," "the mother of all things"; at the same time, it is also the law manifested as "passing," "far," and "returning," "standing alone without change, moving endlessly without stopping." Some people do not understand this characteristic of Dao, leading to debates about whether Laozi's thought is materialist or idealist. This characteristic of Dao had a profound influence on traditional thought. Whether it was the metaphysics of Xuanxue or the metaphysics of Daoxue, both emphasized this unity, forming a major feature of traditional philosophy.
Second, it is a product of philosophical abstraction. Before Laozi, some schools of thought tried to find something in the concrete things of nature as the origin of the world to explain its unity. For example, the Five Elements theory in the Hong Fan believed that wood, fire, earth, metal, and water were the five most fundamental elements constituting the world, while the Book of Changes took eight natural objects—Heaven, Earth, water, fire, wind, thunder, mountains, and marshes—as the origin of all things. The common feature of these original theories of the substance of the world was that they used part to explain the whole, proving the universal meaning with concrete things, so their theoretical level was low. Laozi's proposal of "Dao" emphasized its universality. He said: "The Dao that can be spoken is not the eternal Dao; the name that can be named is not the eternal name." (Chapter 1) The essence of Dao lies in its transcendence over concrete things, and it cannot be defined by conventional language and names. Laozi described it as: "It is invisible, unheard, and untouchable, different from all concrete things, yet includes all concrete things, a summary and abstraction of concrete things, hence called 'one in chaos.'" "Dao" is a highly abstract concept, a 'formless form, imageless image.' At the same time, "Dao is always non-action but non-doing" (Chapter 37). Based on the characteristics of Dao being "nameless," "formless," "imageless," yet "non-doing but non-doing," Laozi also called Dao "nothing." He said: "All things in the world arise from being, being arises from nothing." (Chapter 40) "Being" refers to concrete things, "nothing" is the induction and abstraction of "being," and also becomes the origin and inner law of "all things." The emergence of "Dao" and "nothing" indicated that traditional thought had moved beyond the sensory and concrete realm of understanding the world, developing human cognition from concrete thinking to creative abstract speculation, a true revolution in the history of traditional thought. Laozi's mode of thinking and intellectual achievements, mediated by the Yellow and Old School, had a significant influence on Xunzi's thought. On this basis, Confucianism established its own philosophical worldview in the Commentary on the Changes. Although the styles of the Commentary on the Changes and the Tao Te Ching differed—one valued yang's vigor and emphasized initiative, while the other valued yin's gentleness and advocated following the natural course—their basic mode of thinking, that is, the method of abstract thinking, was the same.