Traditional Chinese Ideology
Buddhism – Chinese Culture
As early as the Han Dynasty, Buddhism, originated from ancient India, had been introduced to China. During its development in China, Buddhism had to constantly adapt itself to the actual conditions in China so as to become of the most important religions in China and to deeply influence upon thoughts and living habits of the majority of Chinese.
The Sui and Tang Dynasties are the important periods for the localization of Buddhism in China. In this period, with the unity of country, the development of the economy and the more and more frequent exchange of culture, the study of Buddhism reached an unprecedented height.
In the Tang Dynasty, the state put forward the policy that Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism would coexist. In the process of amalgamation of Buddhism and Chinese traditional culture, Buddhism had absorbed the thought of Confucianism and Taoism and therefore some Chinese schools emerged, amongst which Zen is considered to be full of vitality.
The speculative philosophy of Buddhism made up the shortage of directness and simplicity of the traditional ideology, and enriched Chinese culture.
Laozi, Zhaungzi and Taoism – Chinese Culture
The founder of Taoism was Laozi, whose family name was Li and given name was Er. He lived in the later years of the Spring and Autumn Period, and worked as an archivist in the Imperial Library of the Zhou’s court.
His masterpiece Tao Te Ching (The Book of the Way and Its Virtue), although with only about 5,000 characters, had a significant impact upon the thoughts of later genearations.
Laozi applies “Tao” to elucidating the origin and evolvement of the universe. Moreover, Laozi maintained that the characters and law of “Tao” could be applied to guide people’s thinking and behavior, which should be in conformance with the nature, Laozi believed that what appears soft and weak can actually defeat what is hard and strong, inasmuch as what looks fragile is hard in nature.
Proficient in the philosophy of Laozii, Zhuangzi was an inheritor and promoter of Taoism. Zhuangzi, whose give name was Zhou, once worked as an official in charge of painting work at the town of Meng in the Song State.
In the boo bearing his name, Zhuangzi succeeded to and developed Laozi’s viewpoint that “Tao is defined by nature”, and claimed that everything exterior can be equated with self, and life and death are equal.
What Zhuangzi had been pursuing is a spiritual realm of absolute freedom. Since there are so many similarities between Laozi and Zhuangzi in terms of thinking, descendants usually mention them comparably.
“Four Books and Five Classics” and Confucianism – Chinese Culture
“Four Books” (Si Shu) came into existence before the Qin Dynasty, altogether they were not called “Four Books” at that time. The Analects of Confucius (Lun Yu), one of the Four Books, is a collection of words and deeds of Confucius. The other three are Mencius (Mengzi), the Great Learning (Da Xue) and The Doctrine of the Mean (Zhong Yong).
Mencius recorded the political thought of Master Meng Ke (Mengzi) who was another prominent figure of Confucianism. The Great Learning and The Records of the Mean are two chapters from the corpus of The Records of Rites (Li Ji) originally. They are the collection of treatises on the rules of propriety and ceremonial usages.
Zhu Xi, the well-known scholar of the Southern Song Dynasties, offered elaborate comments on the two books. Together with The Analects of Confucius and Mencius, they were called The Collected Notes on Passages in the Four Books, commonly known as “Four Books”. They were regarded as the elementary textbooks for Confucianism stuay.
Five Classics refer to five ancient classics: The Book of Changes (Yi Jing), The Book of Documents (Shang Shu), The Book of Poetry (Shi Jing), The Records of Rites (Li Ji) and The Spring and Autumn Annals (Chun Qiu).
In the Dynasties of Ming and Qing, the sentences from “Four Books and Five Classics” were the basis for the Imperial Examination. Examinees had to explain them according to The Collected Notes on Passage in the Four Books. Therefor, “Four Books and Five Classics” became the most important textbooks for scholars of the time.
Then the Confucian thought of “Four Books and Five Classics” became the guideline of behavior. Further more, as the most important ancient corpus of China, it still has great influence on the current generation.
Confucius – Chinese Culture
Confucius (551BC-479BC), whose personal name was Qiu and stryled Zhongzi, was born in the Lu State. Confucius was a great thinker and educator in the late Spring and Autumn Period. He was also the founder of Confucianism.
Confucius was a descendant of a noble family in the Song State. When he was a child his father died, and his family went to a decline as a result, but he studied very hard. He once said: “From any three people walking, I will find something to learn for sure.”
Later, Confucius began to travel about and instruct disciples. In his life, Confucius had instructed more than 3,000 disciples, some were from poor families. In this way, Confucius has gradually changed the tradition that nobody but nobilities had the right to receive education.
In his later years, Confucius complied and preserved many literary works of ancient times, including The Book of Song, The Book of Documents and The Book of Changes.
Even in the modern times, many of Confucius’s ideas are quite valuable. For instance, Confucius established and developed a moral and ethical system called “ren” (benevolence). To achieve “ren”, he believed that one should show benevolence to others, and therefore “Do as you would like to be done by others”.
Confucius also believed that “Gentlemen are harmonious but different” which reveals that difference between people should be recognized in dealing with human relationship, thereby it is inappropriate to judge with a single standard, and thus the harmony and stabilization of a society will be accomplished.
In terms of education, Confucius maintained that teachers should enlighten students to think independently, and that students should formulate their own opinions when acquiring knowledge from textbooks.
The sayings and behaviors of Confucius’ were complied in The Analects of Confucius by his disciples. Confucius’ ideology has been absorbed and carried forward by later generations, composing the essential part of Chinese traditional ideology.
It was also spread into the border regions and areas, building up a circle of culture of Confucianism exerting profound influence on the whole East Asian countries.
Confucius belongs to China. He is a household name in China, and most of the Chinese people have been influenced by Confucius in one way or another. Confucius also belongs to the world, UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) had labeled him one of the “Ten Cultural Celebrities”.
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