Abstract
This chapter deals with the philosophies of Taoism, Legalism, and the Mohist School during the era of the “Contention of a Hundred Schools of Thought”. It first discusses Lao Tzu’s metaphysical concepts of Tao, wordless teaching, and the idea of following nature. Then it elaborates on Chaung Tzu’s renouncing of “wisdom” and knowledge, and his idea of following natural laws to preserve spiritual serenity and health. Next it covers philosophy in Legalism, including Guan Zhong’s advocacy of using the human tendency to pursue gain in order to promote moral education, and Han Feizi’s belief in replacing moral education with legal education. Last, the chapter centers on Mo Tzu’s propositions for nurturing “universal love” and “austerity”. The chapter also interprets the moral education concepts of all these philosophical schools by using comparisons.
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Notes
- 1.
Religious Taoism is an indigenous Chinese religion that adopted the idea of Tao from philosophical Taoism and believed that people could obtain eternal life through acquiring Tao.
- 2.
The concept of “Confucian in appearance and Legalist in essence ” indicates that Chinese politics was in reality a system of combining Confucian moral teaching with the law enforcement and power tactics of Legalism, with the latter overriding the former. This proposition, however, has not been recognized in mainstream Chinese academia.
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You, Z., Rud, A.G., Hu, Y. (2018). The Contention of a Hundred Schools of Thought: The Philosophy of Moral Education in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods. In: The Philosophy of Chinese Moral Education. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56434-4_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56434-4_4
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