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Classical Age of Chinese Thought

e rise to both a set of workable political values and a class to implement those values in a way that Western political philosophies, more idealistic (in the everyday, not the theoretical sense) failed to do. Thus, Confucianism shaped Chinese public life more intimately than any philosophy shaped the public life of the West, while other Chinese philosophical positions (Taoism and later Buddhism) survived largely as complements to the Confucian mainstream. The intent of this essay is to inquire into the development of Chinese thought in the classical period, the forms that thought took, and their consequences for later Chinese history.

A persisting mystery of history is that, in the space of a few generations around the year 500 BC, sometimes called the Axial Age, schools of critical philosophical thought appeared in widely separated--and, so far as we know--mutually culturally isolated regions of the Eurasian continent (Schwartz, 1985, pp. 2-3). The Buddha in India, Isiah in Judea, and the classical Greek philosophers and historians, all appeared during this period, an era which might well be characterized as the first Age of Enlightenment. China, too, saw the flowering of its intellectual culture at this time, with the appearance of Kung fu-Tsu, or Confucius (traditionally 551-479 BC), who in later ages came to be regarded as the Sage, par excellence, in Chinese intellectual tradition, with an influence that might roughly be compared to that of Plato and Aristotle together.

Moreover, Confucius did not stand alone in the classical age of Chinese intellect. As happened in the contemporary Greek world, a number of rival philosophical schools--the so-called Hundred Schools--arose in the centuries following Confucius. Later Chinese tradition made Lao-tzu, the traditional founder of Taoism, a contemporary of Confucius. Modern scholars have come to question whether Lao-Tzu was a historical figure at all; if some actual perso...

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Classical Age of Chinese Thought. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 05:59, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1689722.html