Chinese Philos
ophy
I. The Chinese Mind
II.The Chinese
Thinkers
III.The Chinese
I. The Chines
e Mind
Recurring Dominant Key Idea
s
in the Teachings of the Sa
ges
1. belief that the highest achievement
of man as man is to be a sage or wi
se man; the highest achievement of
a sage is the identification of the
2. belief that life is a gift to be treasured
“Life is desirable.”
3. belief in the cycle of ups-and-downs and the
right-and-left movement of the pendulum
“All that happens in the universe is a co
ntinuous whole like chain of natural sequence
due to yang and yin.”
4. belief in the coordination of thought and a
ction
“Action must agree with thought.”
Other beliefs/philosophies:
• Chinese’s Cosmic conception:
“All that happens in the universe is a con
tinuous whole like chain of natural sequence
s. All events in the universe follow a transi
tional process due to the primeval pair, the
yang and yin. The universe does not proceed o
nward but revolves without beginning or end.
There is nothing new under the sun, everythin
g is just a repetition of the old.”
• On happiness:
“Man’s happiness lies in his conformity w
ith tao, which can mean his conformity with n
ature, the course of which cannot be subject
to man.”
• On morality:
“Follow Tao – what follows tao cannot be
morally wrong, and what conflicts with tao ca
nnot be morally right.” And in following ta
o, man accomplishes his humanity.
“He who knows the Tao does not speak about
it; he who speaks about it does not know i
• On Divine Power:
“There is no divine power that controls the
motion of the universe, but everything is a r
esult of the single or combined action of fou
r factors : Tao, heaven, earth, king.”
• On happiness:
“Man’s happiness lies in his conformity w
ith tao, which can mean his conformity with n
ature, the course of which cannot be subject
to man.”
II. The Chinese
Thinkers
1. Kung Tzu (551-479 B.C.)
(Lun Yu)
Confucius:
Analects o
r Sayings
Of Co
a. The gentleman or superior man
• Possesses the Way (Tao)
• Doesn’t preach what he practises till h
e has practised what he preaches
• Always act out of yi (righteousness) and
never out of li (profitable)
• Is always happy; he accepts with equanim
ity what has to be (ming)
b. life
• “He who has only vegetables for food an
d water to drink and a bent arm for a pi
llow will still find happiness.”
• It is not worthwhile to discourse about
death:
“Not yet understanding life, how can
one understand death?”
Life is a gift that must be treasured.
It is a part of tao to live life as it ou
c. Ren (The Golden Rule)
• “Do not do unto others what you wou
ld not like them to do unto you.” B
ook XII, 2
• “Never do to others what you would
not like them to do unto you.” Book
XV, 23
d. Rectification of names
“Let the ruler be ruler, the ministe
r, minister, the
father, father, the son, son.”
e. Government
“Sufficient food, sufficient weapon
s, and the
confidence of the common people” mak
f. mourning
“only when a child is three years ol
d does it leave its
parents’ arms”
2. Meng tzu (371-289 B.C.)
Mencius
Book of Menciu
s
a. Man is originally good
• Man becomes evil because of exposure
and a relentless surrender to evil i
nclinations.
b. All-embracing love
• Love covers all. It is extended to a
ll humanity.
• There is hierarchy of love.
c. The “heart”
“It is with the heart that man think
s. There is no need for the law of mo
rality if man uses his heart, for he
would know what is good and evil.”
d. The Great Morale (Hao jan Chih C
h’i)
“Everything must be put in its right
place. However, there should be a hie
3. Lao tzu
Old Master
Tao Te Ting
• It is the tao that begins, proceeds,
and ends
- The Tao produced One; One produc
ed Two; Two
produced Three; Three produced
All Things
• The tao does not do anything (wu-we
i) but accomplishes everything
• Tao is not the product of anything b
• Tao is eternal, unchanging, nameles
s.
• Tao is all pervading – it may be fo
und on the left hand and on the righ
t.
• Tao is humble, wise, inactive, yet i
t is the peak of excellence, power,
The Tao may be similar to:
Hegelian undertones: Pure Being equals Pure
Nothing
Plato’s eternal ideas or the Divine Archetype
s in the
Mind of God: How do we know they exist? We do
n’t.
But if they do, their existence can only be po
sited,
not logically argued.
Tao is a cornerstone of Chinese thoug
ht and without
truly understanding what it means, on
e cannot truly
appreciate Chinese philosophy. And as
a final
warning:
“He who knows the TAO does not speak abo
4. Chuang tzu
The Writings of Chuang Tzu
Philosophies:
• Happiness comes from conformity with
Tao; sadness and frustration proceed
from non-alliance with nature.
• To each one belongs a peculiar natur
e. What is natural to one may not be
natural to another.
• On life and death:
When the Master came, it was at th
e proper time;
when he went away, it was the sim
ple sequence
of his coming.
• On the Grand Beginning of all th
ings:
There is not a single thing without
the Tao. So it is with the Perf
ect Tao. And if we call it the Great
Tao, it is just the same. There are
three terms – ‘complete’, ‘all-e
mbracing’, the whole.
• On epistomology:(relativism of t
ruth/personal
truth)
Each one has a point of view, a co
ntextual
situation, and each one understan
ds in his own
5. Mo tzu
The Works of Mo Tz
u
Philosophies:
• On universal love:
In the matter of loving people, o
ne has to love
everybody before he can be spoken
of loving
people. Failing to love all, one
fails to love
• On the Will of Heaven:
“Heaven wants righteousness and
dislikes
unrighteousness.”
On Confucian Ming:
“Life’s experiences do not give
credence to the
doctrine of fatalism.”
6. Yang Chu
Philosophies:
• On man’s self preservation:
“No one should sacrifice a limb, no
t even for a kingdom”
• On life:
“Life is for beauty and abundanc
e.”
III. The Chinese Classics
1. I Ching
“Tao is the way, and the way is n
ecessary change made possible by the
yang and yin which are the primeval
pair.”
“Change is made possible by the inte
raction of the Yang and Yin”
2. Han Fei Tzu
• “Power has to be invested in a sing
le ruler in order to concentrate the
state’s control.”
• “The citizens were to be given duti
es to perform, failure of which coul
d subject them to disciplinary measu
res.”
3. Hsun Tzu
• Believes that human nature is evil a
nd goodness arises only out of artif
icial training – education is the s
alvation of men
• Believed that if Tao were followed,
then Heaven would necessarily follo
w.
4. The Great Learning
• Believes that the perfection of know
ledge implies knowing the root of th
e problem
• Believes that “The ‘cultivation of
the person depends on the rectificat
ion of the mind”
5.The Mean (Chung Yung)
• “When Chung and Yung are respected,
there would be balance in the univer
se.”
• “Human virtue does not only exist i
n the ethical but also in the cosmic
sphere. Sincerity is an active force
that welds the theoretical and the p
Reference:
The Merging Philosophy of East and W
est
by Emerita S. Quito
Reporter:
Maria Cris S. Zorilla – Dela Rosa
MA-ELT
Xie Xie!
