Philosophers and Hundred Schools of Thought

TOPIntroduction

The Hundred Schools of Thought is a general abbreviation of various academic and ideological genres and their representative figures. Philosophers refer to Confucius and Mencius, and Xun Zi of Confucian School, Lao Zi of Taoism, and Han Feizi of School of Law. The Hundred Schools mean different schools of thoughts and ideas. After West Han Dynasty, Philosophers after Spring and Autumn can be summarized as disciples of Confucian School, Taoism, School of Yin-yang, School of Law, School of Ming, Mohism, School of Zong and Heng, Shool of Za, School of Nong (agriculture), as well as School of Xiaoshuo (novel). Except School of Xiaoshuo, the others are generally known as Ten Genres and Nine Schools. The most important include Confucian School, Taoism, School of Yin-yang, School of Law, School of Ming, and Mohism.

TOPConfucius School

Representative Figures: Confucius, Mencius, and Xun Zi.

Works: Confucius, Mencius, Xun Zi

Confucian School is one of the most important schools of thought in the Warring States. It admires Confucius as its master and has the Six Skills as its standards. This school emphasizes liyue (civilized and enlightened behavior) and renyi (benevolent and upright character), advocates zhongshu (loyalty and catholicity) and golden mean, and upholds dezhi (rule by moral education) and renzheng (enlightened governance). It focuses on moral and ethnic education as well as self-cultivation of character.

Confucian School values the function of education very much. It holds that the development of education and less punishment is a necessity to national stability and happy life. It believes that everyone should receive education and enlightenment so that the whole nation would become civilized and its people have high morality.

On politics, this school proposes that the head of the country should govern his nation with rites and morality. It also suggests the recovery of Zhouli Thought which is considered as an ideal way of implementing politics. In the period of Warring States, the School of Confucius was divided into eight genres, the most important of which were school of Mencius and Xun Zi.

TOPTaoism

Representative Figures: Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi

Works: Lao Zi’s Dao De Jing and Book of Mater Zhuang

Like Confucian School, Taoism is one of the most schools of thought in the Warring States period and it is also called the School of Morality. This school takes the ideas of Taoism as its theoretical basis, and use Taoism to explain the nature, the source, and composition and the changes of the earth. It believes everything in the nature appears automatically and there is no god or immortal that has the power of control anything. Therefore it advocates that we should let everything as what it is, follow what is going to happen, live without desire, and cultivate heart calmly. People should take an amiable and reasonable way to persuade others rather than resorting to force. On politics, this school upholds ruling a nation with enlightenment instead of military force. After Lao Zi, Taoism developed into several groups and the most famous four are School of Zhuang Zi, Yang Zhu, Song Yin, and Huang Lao.

TOPMohism

Representative Figure: Mo Zi

Works: Mo Zi

The theoretical basis of this school is benevolent to and benefiting all. It suggests that people should love others as love themselves; as long as people in the country can love each other, they can benefit each other in communication. In terms of political governance, Mohism upholds co-existence and harmonization rather than exclusion; on economic development, it emphasizes consolidation and preservation; on thought, it believes the existence of and worships God. At the same time, this school proposes Feiming, which means people should survive and prosper through hard work and efforts.

Mohism has strict regulations and secret organizations. Its members are mostly from the middle and lower social classes. It is said all of them are very capable, and courageous enough to anneal their characters.

When Mo Di died, Mohism developed into genres. In the late period of Warring States, they evolved into two: one emphasized Ideology, Logistics, Math, Optics, and Mechanics, and was therefore called Late Mohism; the other turned into the paladins in Qin and Han Dynasties.

TOPSchool of Law

Representative Figures: Han Feizi and Li Si

Works: Han Fei zi

The School of Law is also one of the important schools of thought in the period of Warring Stats. It upholds the rule of country by law, and proposes that all the people, no matter rich or poor, royal or common, should be treated equally and fairly under law and according to law. This is why it is called School of Law. During the times of Spring and Autumn, Guan Zhong and Zi Chan were eminent disciples of this school. In the early stage of Warring States, Li Li, Shang Yang, Shen Buhai, and Shen Dao established the School of Law. At the end of Warring States, Han Fei combined "Fa" (the idea of Shang yang), "Shi" (proposed by Shen Dao), and "Shu" (advocated by Shen Buhai), and largely promoted the development of the School of Law.

On economy, this school emphasizes agriculture while restricting commerce. It encourages the development of agriculture with awards; on politics, it holds that the country should abolish the divisions of power while set up prefectures and counties under imperial autarchy and rule with serious codes of punishments; on education and thought, it highly advertises banning the ideas of Hundred Schools while educating the public with law and history. Suggestions and propositions of this school provide the theoretical foundation and guidance of behaviors for the imperial autarchy.

TOPSchool of Ming

Representative Figures: Deng Zhe, Hui Shi, Gongsui Long, and Heng Tuan.

Works: Gongsun Long Zi
School of Ming is one of the important schools of thought in Warring States. Its academic activities center on the explanation and argumentation of "Ming" (referring to names and concepts) and "Shi" (means fact), for which it is called School of Ming. Disciples of this school are named as Bianzhe (arguer), Chashi, or Xing Ming Jia. Outstanding figures of this school are Hui Shi and Gongsun Long.

TOPSchool of yin and yang (light and shade principle)

Representative Figures: Zou Yan

School of Yin-yang is also one of the famous schools of thought in the period of Warring States. It advocates the theory of yin and yang and the five elements, and uses it to explain what happens in the social life. This school is originated from the ruling class of the then empire and its representative figure is Zou Yan in the period of Warring States.

School of yin and yang believes that yin and yang are two opposite and invertible kinds of strength within an object, and therefore can be utilized to the explanation of the rule of development. The theory of five elements holds that the world is composed of five kinds of matter, namely, wood, fire, earth, gold, and water. These five elements rely on and facilitate each other, which were later interpreted as two laws for explaining the changes in and source of the world. According to the laws, Zou Yan referred to the character of the five elements as five moralities and proposed the Law of Five Moralities. Later it was used to interpret the prosperity and decline of a dynasty, and inherited as the theoretical basis for national unification.

TOPSchool of Zong and Heng

Representative Figures: Su Qin and Zhang Yi

Most of their ideas are recorded in Intrigues of the Warring States

School of Zong and Heng comprises of the idea men in the period of Warring States. Its disciples maneuvered among various political groupings to canvass, and conducted political and diplomatic activities. This school was listed as one of the Hundreds Schools of Thought, represented by Su Qin and Zhang Yi.

During the period of Warring States, the combination of the south and the north was called Zong, while that of the west and the east was called Heng. Su Qin strongly recommended six states, namely, Yan, Zhao, Han, Wei, Qi, and Chu, to cooperate with each other in the south and north and resist Qin. However, Zhang Yi suggested that the six states should join hands with each other in the east and west, and deal with Qin respectively. Therefore, this school won its name Zong and Heng because of the ideas of its representatives. Their activities had wide influence on the changes of political and military pattern of Warring States.

TOPSchool of Za

Representative Figure: Lv Buwei

School of Za is a combined school of thoughts at the end of Warring States, and Za in Chinese means "various". This school was known for combining the soul and extract of different schools. Lv Buwei, Chief of Councilor in Qin Dynasty, and his followers collaborated on Lü’ s Spring and Autumn Annals, a classic works of School Za.

TOPSchool of Nong

School of Nong is an important school of thoughts during Warring States and Nong here in Chinese refers to agriculture or peasants. It emphasizes the importance of farming very much and is well known for that. This school is established by experts and professionals on agriculture. It holds that agriculture is the very foundation of social life and should be put above everything else.

TOPSchool of Xiaoshuo(Novel)

It is one of the nine schools of thoughts in early Qin Dynasty. It collected stories and folklores from the common people so as to know about various local customs and traditions.