Pre Qin scholars

Pre Qin scholars

"Pre Qin" refers to a period of time before Qin Shihuang burned books, which is known as the spring and Autumn period and Warring States period of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. The main academic thoughts of our country all originated in this period. Zi is the honorific name for people at that time, and later called the wholehearted works, also called "Zi". Now it refers to Laozi, Zhuangzi, Mozi, Mencius and Xunzi. Generally speaking, the hundred schools refer to Taoism, Mohism, Legalism, strategists, political strategists and other academic schools.

According to the records of Hanshu Yiwenzhi, there are 189 famous schools with 4324 works; later, about 10 developed into schools. Among them, Confucianism, Taoism and Legalism are the most successful, legendary and controversial. The representatives of military strategists are Sun Bin and Pang Juan, and the representatives of political strategists are su Qin, Zhang Yi and GUI GuZi.

Basic introduction

After the Zhou royal family moved eastward, the academic focus gradually shifted from the royal officials to the folk. After Laozi and Mozi, there were many great thinkers, such as Mencius, Zhuangzi, Xunzi and Han Feizi, who were able to write books and establish theories. Later generations called these thinkers "pre Qin philosophers".

The theories of the pre Qin philosophers occupy a high position in the history of Chinese thought, which is the origin of the later ideological schools. The works of the pre Qin philosophers are valuable materials for understanding the politics, economy and culture of ancient China. For details, please refer to "Laozi", "Confucius", "Zhuangzi", "Mozi", "Mencius" and "Xunzi".

Prose

Pre Qin philosophers and their prose

At the turn of the spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period, there was a storm of great social change in China.

In this great change, the old slave owner class declined and the new landlord class rose; the old slave system and moral and ethical concepts were replaced by the new feudal system and ideology; some farmers gained more freedom, and the social relations of production also underwent profound changes; the class contradictions were sharp and fierce, and the annexation war continued year after year The whole society presents a complicated situation of great turbulence and reorganization.

In this period, a new social class appeared, namely, the scholars. They come from all aspects of society. Although their status is low, many of them are knowledgeable and talented people. Some of them are scholars who are familiar with astronomy, calendar, geography and other knowledge, and some of them are outstanding political and military talents. Their representatives, such as Mencius, Mozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Shang Yang, Shen Buhai, Xu Xing, Chen Xiang, Su Qin, Zhang Yi, are all famous thinkers, politicians, militarists or scientists. As for the general people who give advice, talk and carve dragons, as well as the people who fight swords and carry tripods and steal from dogs and chickens, there are a large number of them.

Because of their different origins and positions, they put forward different political opinions and demands in solving or answering practical problems. They wrote books and argued endlessly, and a hundred schools of thought contend, forming many schools of thought, such as Confucianism, Taoism, Mohism, Legalism, Yinyang school, famous school, political strategist, miscellaneous school, peasant school, novelist and so on. Among them, Confucianism, Mohism, Taoism and Legalism are the most influential. The Analects of Confucius, Mencius, Mozi, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi and Hanfeizi are the representative works of these four schools. Among them, the Analects of Confucius, Mencius, Laozi and Zhuangzi have high literary value.

A comparison of the scholars

Confucius and Mencius

Confucius was a great scholar in the spring and Autumn period (551-479 BC). He first started his private school and founded the Confucian school. Mencius was a scholar in the Warring States period (his birth and death are unknown, 385-304 BC, 372-289 BC). He inherited Confucius' theory and made great contributions to the spread and development of Confucianism. Confucius was born in today's Qufu, Shandong, while Mencius was born in Zoucheng, which is only tens of miles away from Qufu. They all bathed in Qilu culture with Mount Tai as the center.

In the middle of the 2nd century B.C., Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty realized that Confucius' theory was conducive to the centralized and unified social pattern, so he adopted Dong Zhongshu's proposal of "dismissing all schools of thought and respecting Confucianism alone". Since then, in the feudal society of more than 2000 years, China has always respected Confucius as a saint and Mencius as a sub saint, up to the emperor, down to the common people, as well as the descendants of Confucius and Mencius In short, they are the so-called Confucius and Mencius. In fact, this is a big misunderstanding, and it may also be a political conspiracy that has lasted for two thousand years. Because, in fact, some of Mencius' academic thoughts are inherited from Confucius' thoughts, the other part is Mencius' own creation, and the latter part has greatly surpassed Confucius.

Confucius is inferior to Mencius in democratic idea

The fatal problem of the social structure "monarch, courtiers, father, son" advocated by Confucius is that when the monarch does not fulfill his responsibilities or when the monarch acts recklessly, there is no legitimate way to correct the monarch's mistakes or replace the monarch. Confucius understood this problem, but he didn't find it or didn't dare to Propose solutions. In contrast, Mencius clearly pointed out: "the people are the most important, the country is the second, and the monarch is the least." In the history of China, he was the first to make it clear that the interests of the people are supreme, that the interests of the court should be subordinated to the interests of the people, and that the interests of the king should be subordinated to the interests of the people and the court.

Has the final say has the final say, has the final say that Meng Zi can not restrain the king's behavior, but he can not be counted by a king or a few ministers, but must seek the opinions of the people. In conviction and sentencing, he can not be counted by a king or a trusted friend or a minister has the final say. See you. As for the incompetent monarch, Mencius put forward with the spirit of fearlessness: "if a monarch has a big fault, he will admonish him; if he does not listen to it repeatedly, he will change his position" (Mencius, chapter WAN) Mencius also insisted on the dignity and equality of personality in the relationship between the monarch and the minister. He once said to King Xuan of Qi, "if the monarch regards the minister as a local mustard, then the minister regards the monarch as a Kou (Mencius · lilouxia)"

As a matter of fact, the above-mentioned ideas of Mencius were not put forward by Confucius, which shows that Mencius' academic thoughts and political ideas are quite different from Confucius. Strictly speaking, they are not the same school, and Confucius and Mencius are not the same school. In fact, there are essential differences between Mencius and Confucius, which are understood by the feudal emperors and their scholars. When Zhu Yuanzhang became emperor, he was very angry with many of the propositions in the book Mencius. In a rage, he wanted to move the statue of Mencius out of the Confucian temple. However, when he calmed down, he found it necessary to put the statue of Mencius in the Confucian temple. This is because, as long as we publicize Confucius and Mencius, Mencius will always be subordinate to the position of sub saint, and the correctness of Mencius' ideas must be based on Confucius' ideas. In this way, we can suppress the sub saint with Zhengsheng and bury Mencius' ideas with Confucius' ideas, thus strangling the spread of Mencius' democratic ideas.

In the spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period, Mozi advocated that the people should have the right to participate in state affairs. Mozi's followers also established a strict organization to implement their own ideas. Mencius, by contrast, was a theorist, not a politician. He hoped to persuade the monarch to adopt a management method similar to "constitutional monarchy". However, for the feudal autocratic emperors, the most valuable theory is Confucius' idea, because Confucius' idea helps to maintain the established pattern, which is the most popular one for the emperors who hope to stay in the world forever (those who fight in the world do not use Confucius' idea). Therefore, Confucius and his theory were treated with courtesy by feudal emperors, while Mozi's theory was treated with indifference, and Mencius's theory was "appeased". Unfortunately, most scholars don't know the secret. As for the common people, they are even hoodwinked, which means they believe in "Confucius and Mencius".

Chuang Tzu is inferior to Hui Tzu in scientific spirit

Zhuangzi and Huizi

Sophist's argument and the loss of scientific spirit in China

In the third and fourth centuries B.C., during the Warring States period, there were two famous experts in academic forum. One was Zhuang Zhou, who was a minor official in the lacquer garden, and the other was Hui Shi, who was appointed prime minister in the reign of King Hui of Liang Dynasty. Zhuangzi and Huizi have been debating on knowledge, learning and wisdom for a long time; Zhuangzi's thinking is agile and elegant, while Huizi's thinking is profound and extraordinary. It's a pity that there is injustice. Zhuangzi's works exist in the world, but Huizi's works on bamboo slips full of five carts are gone. As a matter of fact, the academic views of Huizi we know today are almost all obtained from the records of Zhuangzi, which are included in Zhuangzi, especially in the chapter 33 of world Huishi.

In the chapter of Huishi in Tianxia, Zhuang Zhou first admitted that Huishi was knowledgeable and had five works; then he gave a basic negative conclusion, that is, Huishi's views were disorderly and his words could not express his ideas. Then some representative academic viewpoints of Huishi are given

1. "The greatest without outside is called the great one; the smallest without inside is called the small one.". That is to say, the largest matter is that there is no other matter outside it, which is equivalent to what we call the universe; the smallest matter is that there is no other matter inside it, which is equivalent to the ancient Greeks' atoms or today's basic particles.

2. "Without thickness, you can't accumulate. It's thousands of miles away.". It is generally explained that "Wu Hou" is a plane concept in geometry. However, the author doubts that "not integrable, its great distance" is the mistake of "integrable, its thick distance"

Chinese PinYin : Xian Qin Zhu Zi