THE ROLE AND INFLUENCE OF CHINA’S HISTORICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL TRADITIONS ON MODERN EDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENT AND SOCIETY
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32782/2787-5137-2023-2-6Keywords:
Chinese philosophy, ideas, traditional contentAbstract
Chinese philosophy arose at about the same time as ancient Greek and ancient Indian philosophy, in the middle of the 1st millennium BC. Separate philosophical ideas and themes, as well as many terms that later formed a large part of the lexicon of traditional Chinese philosophy, were already contained in the most ancient written monuments of Chinese culture – "Shu jing" ("Canon of [documentary] writings"), "Shi jing" ("Canon of poems”), “Zhou i” (“Zhou changes”), which developed in the 1st half. 1st millennium BC, which sometimes serves as the basis for claims (especially by Chinese scholars) about the origin of philosophy in China at the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. This point of view is also motivated by the fact that these works include separate independent texts with a developed philosophical content, for example. "Hong fan" ("Majestic Pattern") from "Shu jing" or "Xi ci zhuan" ("Commentary of tied words") from "Zhou Yi". However, as a rule, the creation or final design of such texts dates back to the 2nd half of 1st millennium BC. The first historically reliable creator of philosophical theory in China was Confucius (551–479 BC), who realized himself as the spokesman for the spiritual tradition of Zhu – scientists, educated people, intellectuals, whose name later became a terminological designation for Confucianism. According to traditional dating, Lao Tzu, the founder of Taoism, the main ideological movement opposed to Confucianism, was an older contemporary of Confucius. However, it has now been established that the first Taoist works proper were written after the Confucian ones, and even, apparently, were a reaction to them. Lao Tzu, as a historical person, most likely lived later than Confucius. Apparently, the traditional idea of the pre- Qin (until the end of the 3rd century BC) period in the history of Chinese philosophy as an era of equal controversy of the “hundred schools” is also inaccurate, since all the philosophical schools that existed at that time were self-determined through their attitude to Confucianism.
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