chinese philosopher

confucius(kong zi)

one of the most famous people in ancient china was a wise philosopher named confucius (circa 551-479 bc). he sometimes went by the names kong zi though he was born - kong qiu - styled zhong ni. he was born in the village of zou in the country of lu.

this chinese man was a well-known leader in philosophy and he also made many wise phrases and theories about the law, life, and the government. philosophy is a kind of a system of ideas and thoughts that talk about the human's behavior, the rules that you should follow to make a successful life, and about the government.

in other words, it's about thoughts and theories that teach other people lessons about principles, or rules, about life and it also teaches you a moral ( sort of like the morals that are at the end of a fable). confucius is famous for his philosophy because he made many wise sayings in ancient china that helped many people learn about nature, the world, and the human behavior. he also helped the government and the emperor by teaching them lessons on how the emperor should rule his kingdom successfully.

confucius was born in a poor family in the year 551 b.c., and he was born in the state of lu. his original name was k'ung ch'iu. his father, commander of a district in lu, died three years after confucius was born, leaving the family in poverty; but confucius nevertheless received a fine education. he was married at the age of 19 and had one son and two daughters.

he worked as a keeper of a market. then he was a farm worker who took care of parks and farm animals. when he was 20, he worked for the governor of his district.

his mother died in 527 bc, and after a period of mourning he began his career as a teacher, usually traveling about and instructing the small body of disciples that had gathered around him. his fame as a man of learning and character and his reverence for chinese ideals and customs soon spread through the principality of lu.

living as he did in the second half of the zhou (chou) dynasty (1027?-256 bc), when feudalism degenerated in china and intrigue and vice were rampant, confucius deplored the contemporary disorder and lack of moral standards. he came to believe that the only remedy was to convert people once more to the principles and precepts of the sages of antiquity. he therefore lectured to his pupils on the ancient classics.

confucius taught in his school for many years. his theories and principles were spread throughout china by his disciples, and soon many people learned from his wise sayings. one of his rules said," if you governed your province well and treat your people kindly, you kingdom shall not lose any war. if you govern selfishly to your people, you kingdom will not only lose a war, but your people will break away from your kingdom." he had also said a wise phrase called the golden rule that is still being used as a rule today. it said,"a man should practice what he preaches, but a man should also preach what he practices."

one day, his students and he passed a grave where they saw a women weeping at a gravestone. she told confucius that her husband, her husband's father, and her son were killed by a tiger. when confucius asked her why she didn't leave such a fated spot, she answered that in this place there was no oppressive government. confucius said," remember this my child. an oppressive government is fiercer and more feared than a tiger." that meant that the government in the woman's province did not rule the province well. so confucius said that the government was more feared than a tiger. this was one of the many events he had to give a person a lesson.

he taught the great value of the power of example. rulers, he said, can be great only if they themselves lead exemplary lives, and were they willing to be guided by moral principles, their states would inevitably become prosperous and happy.

confucius had, however, no opportunity to put his theories to a public test until, at the age of 52, he was appointed magistrate of chung-tu, and the next year minister of crime of the state of lu. his administration was successful; reforms were introduced, justice was fairly dispensed, and crime was almost eliminated. so powerful did lu become that the ruler of a neighboring state maneuvered to secure the minister's dismissal. confucius left his office in 496 bc, traveling about and teaching, vainly hoping that some other prince would allow him to undertake measures of reform. in 484 bc, after a fruitless search for an ideal ruler, he returned for the last time to lu.

confucius was then abandoned from his province and he wandered about china for 13 years. when confucius was 69 years old, he returned to lu, his home state, and he died there 3 years after settling in lu - 479 bc.

after confucius died, he was buried in a grave in the city of ch'ufu, shandong. today the site of his final resting place is the beautiful k'ung forest.

yet, when the philosopher died, many people honored all of confucius' work by building temples in every city in china to honor confucius. since confucius' teachings and philosophy was so advanced, it was the education for china for 2,000 years. it is called confucianism.

confucius himself had a simple moral and political teaching: to love others; to honor one's parents; to do what is right instead of what is of advantage; to practice "reciprocity," i.e. "don't do to others what you would not want yourself"; to rule by moral example (dé) instead of by force and violence; and so forth. confucius thought that a ruler who had to resort to force had already failed as a ruler. "your job is to govern, not to kill"

confucius did not put into writing the principles of his philosophy; these were handed down only through his disciples.

mencius(meng zi)

mencius (most accepted dates: 372 bc – 289 bc; other possible dates: 385 bc – 303 bc or 302 bc) was born in the state of zou, now forming the territory of the county-level city of zoucheng, shandong province, only 30 km (18 miles) south of qufu, the town of confucius. he was an itinerant chinese philosopher and sage, and one of the principal interpreters of confucianism. like confucius, according to legend, he travelled china for forty years to offer advice to rulers for reform. he served as an official during the warring states period (403 – 221 bc) in the state of qi from 319 bc to 312 bc. he expressed his filial devotion when he took an absence of three years from his official duties for qi to mourn his mother's death. disappointed at his failure to effect changes in his contemporary world, he retired from public life.

a follower of confucianism, mencius argued for the infinite goodness of the individual, believing that it was society's influence—its lack of a positive cultivating influence—which caused bad character. he even argued that it was acceptable for people to overthrow or even kill a ruler who ignored the people's needs and ruled harshly. mencius argued that human beings are born with an innate moral sense which society has corrupted, and that the goal of moral cultivation is to return to one's innate morality.

mencius' interpretation of confucianism has generally been considered the orthodox version by subsequent chinese philosophers, especially the neo-confucians of the song dynasty. mencius (also spelled mengzi or meng-tzu), a book of his conversations with kings of the time, is one of the four books which form the core of orthodox confucian thinking. in contrast to the sayings of confucius which are short and self-contained, mencius consists of long dialogues with extensive prose.

mencius spoke frequently and highly of the well-field system.

sun tzu

from wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.(redirected from sun zi)

sun tzu (also commonly written in pinyin: sūn zǐ) was the author of the art of war, an influential ancient chinese book on military strategy. it is a common misconception to think that his writings refered to tactics (or tacticity). he is also one of the earliest realists in political science.

some scholars have concluded that the work was actually authored by unknown chinese philosophers.

the only surviving source on the life of sun tzu is the biography written in the 2nd century bc by the historian sima qian, who describes him as a general who lived in the state of wu in the 6th century bc. however, the biography is not consistent with other sources for the period, and both the form and content of the book indicate that it was most likely written between 400 bc and 320 bc.

lao zi

lao zi (also spelled laozi) was a famous chinese philosopher who is believed to have lived in approximately the 4th century bc, during the hundred schools of thought and warring states periods. he is credited with writing the seminal taoist work, the dao de jing. he became a popular deity in taoist religion's pantheon. his most famous follower, zhuang zi, wrote a book that had one of the greatest influence on chinese literati, through the ideas of individualism, freedom, carefreeness, and, even if the author never speaks about art, which may well be the cornerstone of chinese aesthetic.

his work

see main article : dao de jing

lao zi's famous work, the dao de jing, has been widely influential in china. the book is a mystical treatise covering many areas of philosophy, from individual spirituality to techniques for governing societies.

if we refer to this book, we can draw in few lines what and how lao zi was thinking. he emphasised a specific "tao" (pinyin: dào), which often translates as "the way", and widen its meaning to an unnameable inherent order or property of the universe : "the way nature is". he highlighted the concept of wu-wei, or "action through inaction". this does not mean that one should sit around and do nothing; but that one should avoid explicit intentions, strong will, and proactive action and then reach real efficiency by following the way things spontaneously increase or decrease. actions taken in accordance with tao (nature) are easier and more productive than actively attempting to counter the tao. lao zi believed that violence should be avoided when possible, and that military victory was an occasion to mourn the necessity of using force against another living thing, rather than an occasion for triumphant celebrations. lao zi also indicated that codified laws and rules result in society becoming more difficult to manage.

as most other chinese ancient thinker, his way to explain his ideas often uses paradoxes, analogies, reuse and appropriation of ancient sayings. using ellipsis, repetition, symmetries, rhymes, rhythm, his writings are poetical, dense and often obscure. they often served as a starting point for cosmological or introspective meditations. many of the chinese art aesthetic theories are widely grounded on his ideas and the ones of his most famous follower : zhuang zi.

although lao zi does not have as deep an influence as confucius does in china, he is still widely respected by the chinese. confucius and lao zi are the best-known chinese philosophers in the western world.

xun zi

in chinese, "xun zi" refers to both the philosopher and the book he is attributed to. in this article, the book is spelled "the xunzi"

xun zi (hsün tzu c. 310 - 237 bc) was a chinese philosopher who lived during the warring states period. his social and political theories are developed from and influenced by confucianism. active during the hundred schools of thought, in the book known as the xunzi, he developed a systematic doctrine mostly oriented on "realism" and "materialism", as opposed to mencius' interpretation of confucius' thought.

he taught that man is innately selfish and evil and that the natural state of human societies is anarchy, endless wars and chaos. he was one of the first thinkers to recognise that morality is a social institution and debated on the difference between nature and nurture. he said that goodness is attainable only through education and conduct befitting one's status. his unsentimental and authoritarian inclinations were developed by his students li si and han fei zi into the doctrine embodied in the school of law, or legalism.

besides the book written by han fei zi, the xunzi is the only know book of chinese antiquity to show an elaborated and constructed doctrine. each chapter deals with a given ic and often fights against concurrent ideas, as the ones of daoism, mohism, and even idealist version of confucianism defended by mencius.

han feizi

han fei (d. 233 bc) was a philosopher who, with li si (d. 208 bc), developed the unsentimental and authoritarian inclinations of xun zi into the doctrine embodied in the school of law or legalism.

himself part of the aristocracy, he was born into the ruling family of han during the end phase of the warring states period (zhan guo). he put the ruler at the centre of his philosophy. it is him that firmly controls the state with the help of three concepts: his position of power ; certain techniques (術, shu), and the laws . han fei's philosophy assumes that all people act according to one principle: avoiding punishment, while at the same time trying to achieve gains. thus the law must severely punish any unwanted action, while at the same time reward those who follow it. (compare: legalism)

apart from the confucianist xun zi, who was his and li si's teacher, the other main source for his political theories was lao zi's taoist work, the tao te ching, which he interpreted as a political text, and on which he wrote a commentary (chapters 20 and 21 in his book, named after him han feizi). he saw the tao as a natural law that everyone and everything had to follow. parallel to this, his ideal ruler's laws should be to the people like a natural phenomenon that they cannot resist.

his philosophy was very influential on the king of qin, the later first emperor of china qin shi huangdi, and became one of the guiding principles of his policies. after its inherent failure to admit for differences in personalities contributed to the early demise of the qin dynasty, it was officially despised by the following han dynasty. yet despite its outcast status throughout the history of imperial china, han fei's political theory continued to heavily influence every dynasty afterwards, and the confucian ideal of a rule without laws was never again realized.

han feizi's philosophy experienced a renewed interest under the rule of the communist party during the leadership of mao zedong, who personally admired some of the principles laid out in it.

han feizi's whole recorded work is collected in one book of 55 chapters, the han feizi. it is important also as the only source for a magnitude of anecdotes of the warring states period.