Classical Age of Chinese Thought

This classical period of Chinese thought coincides strikingly with that of the West, stretching from Plato to Augustine. The main stream of Chinese thought also resembles that of Western thought--in spite of their vast differences in practically every detail--in that political philosophy was very central to both traditions. Even moral philosophy was in large measure considered as a necessary precondition for political philosophy: how could one pursue the good in public life until "the good" was adequately defined. Confucius shared with Plato and Aristotle an overriding concern with the construction of a just political order, and relatively apolitical streams of thought (Taoism in China, Stoicism in the West) were in both traditions relegated to a somewhat secondary role.

The tradition begun by Confucius, however, differs dramatically in one crucial respect from that associated with any classical

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ver a large territory. Many factors--economic structure, geography, the need for centralized management of flood-control and irrigation systems, and others--may account in part for the "revivability" of the Chinese Empire, in contrast to the shadowy afterlife of the Roman Empire. But one crucial factor was surely the eminantly practical nature of the prescriptions offered by Confucius and his successors for progress toward the goal of good governance that they shared with their less realistic Greek counterparts. The political and practical emphasis of the Chinese tradition may, in some important respects, be traced back far beyond the time of Confucius. In the year 1123 BC, the Shang Dynasty was overthrown and its place taken by the Chou Dynasty. The Duke of Chou, brother of the first Chou ruler, outlined the philosophy of Chou government in a speech, which we have from a document believed to be reliable: We do not presume to know and say that the lords of Yin [the later Shang] received Heaven's Mandate for so-and-so many years, we do not know and say that it could not have been prolonged. It was that they did not reverently attend to their virtue and so they prematurely threw away their mandate. Now the king [of C
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Approximate Word count = 5230
Approximate Pages = 21 (250 words per page)

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