Chinese Key Academy - 3.2.3 Cultural Awakening and Contention of a Hundred Schools of Thought 春秋战国：思想觉醒和百家争鸣

The argument among the pre-Qin schools and their mutual influence greatly helped promote the prosperity of thoughts and culture.

1 Mohist School

The founder of Mohist School was Mo Tzu, a man of humble birth in the State of Lu. He was once a craftsman and later became a senior official of the Song State. Mo Tzu advocated "universal love,"going far beyond the concept of "benevolence" proposed by Confucius that was based on different classes. He considered all the people are equal, no matter they are nobles or commoners. He also upheld "respecting the wise," employing talented people regardless of which class they come from, and proposed "respecting the working people,"stressing the position of labor in the society. Meanwhile, Mo Tzu opposed extravagance and waste, advocated "thrift in daily life and funerals."The book MoTzu that has been passed down for generations also greatly contributes to natural science and logical science. The Mohist School highlights the interests of the working class, especially those of craftsmen. It was once prominent and widely adopted and cited by other schools.

2 Zhuang Tzu

Zhuang Tzu inherited and developed the thoughts of Lao Tze and was the representative of Taoism in the Warring States Period. He was named Zhou and born in the State of Song. He despised wealth and fame, hated the unfair social phenomena of "stealing ideas from one person is plagiarism, and stealing ideas from many is research." He once refused the request of the King of Chu to be a senior official, and earned a living by making grass shoes and wrote books for recreation instead. Zhuang Tzu upheld the idea that "natural law" has its own roots and everything is the same in nature. On such a basis, he put forward a playful living attitude of pondering over nothing, and worrying about nothing. He pointed out that "dimensions are limitless, and time is endless." He recognized the infinity of time and space and believed that humans should obey the natural laws. Politically, Zhuang Tzu upheld the thought of ruling without intervention.

3 Han Fei

Han Fei, a philosopher of the late Warring States Period, was an integrator of Legalism. In his philosophy, the ruler firmly controls the state with the help of three concepts: his position of power (Shi), certain techniques (Shu), and laws(Fa) to set up a monarchic despotism. He believed laws were the basis of handling state affairs, techniques were the tools for the emperor to control the ministers, and power was the regime and influence of the emperor. He advocated "ruling a state according to law"and "laws don't protect the powerful persons," which was of positive significance for attacking the privileges of former nobles and maintaining the centralized system of emerging landocracy. He believed that the society keeps developing and changing and history will never reverse itself. He was against the historical concept of Confucians, "confirming the ancient practice and denying today's practice" and advocated reform. In his opinion, ruling the people with the politics of ancient kings was as ridiculous as standing by a tree stump waiting for a hare to dash itself against it. Han Fei's philosophy met the requirements of establishing a centralized regime and was advocated by Ying Zheng, which made Han's philosophy the guiding concept of ruling the country. In the more than one millennium since the Western Han Dynasty, his thought and Confucianism supported each other and became the theoretical foundation of the ruling thought of ancient China. The spirit of reform became the theoretical weapon for progressive thinkers and politicians in the following generations to implement reform.

4 Prosperity of thoughts and culture

The argument among the pre-Qin schools and their mutual influence greatly helped promote the prosperity of thoughts and culture. The creative concepts and theories established in all the representative works cover a wide range of fields, including politics, economy, military science, laws, education, philosophy, history, literature, art and natural science, jointly constituting the original classics that guide Chinese ideology and the fundamental spirit of traditional Chinese culture.

Around 5th century BC, both the eastern civilization and western civilization reached a very high level of development. They affected each other and jointly created a spectacle that marked the start of a brand-new era in human history. The city-state democratic politics of ancient Greece, established on the basis of a slavery economy, gave rise to such great thinkers as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. Meanwhile the profound yeoman reforms and social transformation in China's Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods offered the environment for the rise of many cultural masters like Confucius and Lao Tze. The philosophers in both the east and west jointly built numerous lofty monuments for human civilization.