A Short History of Chinese Philosophy by Yu-lan Fung Read Free Book Online
Authors: Yu-lan Fung
basic human relationships. The nature of these human relationships may change according to circumstances. But the ideal itself does not change. One is wrong, then, when one insists that since some of the five human relationships have to go, therefore the Confucianist ideal of life must go as well. And one is also wrong when one insists that since this ideal of life is desirable, therefore all the five human relationships must likewise be retained. One must make a logical analysis in order to distinguish between what is permanent and what is changeable in the history of philosophy. Every philosophy has that which is permanent, and all philosophies have something in common. This is why philosophies, though different, can yet be compared with one another and translated one in terms of the other.
Will the methodology of Chinese philosophy change? That is to say, will the new Chinese philosophy cease to confine itself to concept by intuition? Certainly it will, and there is no reason why it should not. In fact, it is already changing. In regard to this change, I shall have more to say in the last chapter of this book.
046
THE BACKGROUND OF IIINESE PHILOSOPHY
CHAPTER 3
THE ORIGIN OF THE SCHOOLS
IN the last chapter I said that Confucianism and Taoism are the two main streams of Chinese thought.
They became so only after a long evolution, however, and from the fifth through the third centuries B.C.
they were only two among many other rival schools of thought. During that period the number of schools was so great that the Chinese referred to them as the "hundred schools.
Ssu-ma T'an and the Six Schools
Later historians have attempted to make a classification of these"hundred schools." The first to do so was Ssu-ma T'an (died HO B.C.), father of Ssu-ma Ch'ien (I45~ca. 86 B.C.), and the author with him of China's first great dynastic history, the Shih Chi or Historical Records. In the last chapter of this work Ssu-ma Ch'ien quotes an essay by his father, titled "On the Essential Ideas of the Six Schools." In this essay Ssu-ma T'an classifies the philosophers of the preceding several centuries into six major schools, as follows:
The first is the Yin-Yang chia or Yin-Yang school, which is one of cos-mologists. It derives its name from the Yin and Yang principles, which in Chinese thought are regarded as the two major principles of Chinese cosmology, Yin being the female principle, and Yang the male principle, the combination and interaction of which is believed by the Chinese to result in all universal phenomena.
The second school is the Ju chia or School of Literati. This school is known in Western literature as the Confucianist school, but the word ju literally means literatus or scholar. Thus the Western title is somewhat misleading, because it misses the implication that the followers of this school were scholars as well as thinkers; they, above all others, were the teachers of
048
THE ORIGIN OK THE SCHOOLS
the ancient classics and thus the inheritors of the ancient cultural legacy. Confucius, to be sure, is the leading figure of this school and may rightly be considered as its founder. Nevertheless the term^u not only denotes Confucian" or "Confucianist, but has a wider implication as well.
The third school is that of the Mo chia or Mohist school. This school had a close-knit organization and strict discipline under the leadership of Mo Tzu. Its followers actually called themselves the Mohists. Thus the title of this school is not an invention of Ssu-ma T'an, as were some of the other schools.
The fourth school is the Ming chia or School of Names. The followers of this school were interested in the distinction between, and relation of, what they called "names" and "actualities.
The fifth school is the Fa chia or Legalist school. The Chinese word fa means pattern or law. The school derived from a group of statesmen who maintained that good government must be one based on a fixed code of law instead of
Will the methodology of Chinese philosophy change? That is to say, will the new Chinese philosophy cease to confine itself to concept by intuition? Certainly it will, and there is no reason why it should not. In fact, it is already changing. In regard to this change, I shall have more to say in the last chapter of this book.
046
THE BACKGROUND OF IIINESE PHILOSOPHY
CHAPTER 3
THE ORIGIN OF THE SCHOOLS
IN the last chapter I said that Confucianism and Taoism are the two main streams of Chinese thought.
They became so only after a long evolution, however, and from the fifth through the third centuries B.C.
they were only two among many other rival schools of thought. During that period the number of schools was so great that the Chinese referred to them as the "hundred schools.
Ssu-ma T'an and the Six Schools
Later historians have attempted to make a classification of these"hundred schools." The first to do so was Ssu-ma T'an (died HO B.C.), father of Ssu-ma Ch'ien (I45~ca. 86 B.C.), and the author with him of China's first great dynastic history, the Shih Chi or Historical Records. In the last chapter of this work Ssu-ma Ch'ien quotes an essay by his father, titled "On the Essential Ideas of the Six Schools." In this essay Ssu-ma T'an classifies the philosophers of the preceding several centuries into six major schools, as follows:
The first is the Yin-Yang chia or Yin-Yang school, which is one of cos-mologists. It derives its name from the Yin and Yang principles, which in Chinese thought are regarded as the two major principles of Chinese cosmology, Yin being the female principle, and Yang the male principle, the combination and interaction of which is believed by the Chinese to result in all universal phenomena.
The second school is the Ju chia or School of Literati. This school is known in Western literature as the Confucianist school, but the word ju literally means literatus or scholar. Thus the Western title is somewhat misleading, because it misses the implication that the followers of this school were scholars as well as thinkers; they, above all others, were the teachers of
048
THE ORIGIN OK THE SCHOOLS
the ancient classics and thus the inheritors of the ancient cultural legacy. Confucius, to be sure, is the leading figure of this school and may rightly be considered as its founder. Nevertheless the term^u not only denotes Confucian" or "Confucianist, but has a wider implication as well.
The third school is that of the Mo chia or Mohist school. This school had a close-knit organization and strict discipline under the leadership of Mo Tzu. Its followers actually called themselves the Mohists. Thus the title of this school is not an invention of Ssu-ma T'an, as were some of the other schools.
The fourth school is the Ming chia or School of Names. The followers of this school were interested in the distinction between, and relation of, what they called "names" and "actualities.
The fifth school is the Fa chia or Legalist school. The Chinese word fa means pattern or law. The school derived from a group of statesmen who maintained that good government must be one based on a fixed code of law instead of
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