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Philosophy of Ancient China

The philosophy of Ancient China dates back to the beginning of the 1st millennium BC.The formation of philosophical ideas in China took place in difficult social conditions. Already in the middle of the II millennium BC. e. there is a slave-owning way of economy, the birth of economy of ancient China .

The labor of slaves, in which the captured prisoners were converted, was used in cattle breeding, in agriculture. In the XII century BC. e. As a result of the war, the state of Shan-Yin was defeated by the Zhou tribe, who founded their own dynasty, which lasted until the 3rd century BC. BC e.

In the era of Shang-Yin and in the initial period, the existence of the Jou dynasty was dominant religiously - mythological worldview. One of the distinguishing features of Chinese myths is zoomorphic character gods and spirits acting in them.

The supreme deity was Shang-di- Ancestor and patron of the Chinese state. He obeyed both gods and spirits. Often the personified power of Heaven appeared in the image of Shang-di. According to the ideas of the ancient Chinese, impersonal, but all-seeing The sky controlled the entire course of events in the universe, and its high priest and sole representative on earth was emperor, who bore the title of Son of Heaven.

Features of the philosophy of ancient China

1) The cult of ancestors- was built on the recognition of the influence of the spirits of the dead on the life and fate of descendants. The duty of the ancestors who became spirits included constant care for the descendants living on earth.

2) The idea of ​​the world as an interaction of opposite principles: female yin and male - yang . In ancient times, when there was neither heaven nor earth, the Universe was a gloomy formless chaos. Two spirits were born in it - yin and yang, who took up the ordering of the world. The yang spirit began to rule the sky, and the yin spirit - the earth. In the myths about the origin of the universe, there are very vague, timid beginnings of natural philosophy.

3) Holism- the world and each individual are considered as a "single whole", more important than its constituent parts. The idea of ​​the harmonious unity of man and the world is central to this thinking. Man and nature are considered not as subject and object opposing each other, but as a "holistic structure" in which body and spirit, somatic and mental are in harmonious unity.

4) Intuitiveness- in Chinese traditional philosophical thinking have great importance methods of knowledge similar to intuition. The basis of this is holism. The “One” cannot be analyzed in terms of concepts and reflected in terms of language. To understand the "single wholeness" - it is necessary to rely only on intuitive insight.

5) Symbolism- knowledge was combined with aesthetic sensation and the will to implement moral norms in practice. Moral consciousness played the leading role in this complex.

6) Collectivism- the priority of the social principle over the personal.

7) Traditionalism - a broad reliance on the customs and traditions of a given society.

8) Conformity- fear of change.

9) Hierarchy – building a society from the highest to the lowest

Philosophical schools of ancient China

1) Confucianism

Confucianism (school of scientists, school of scribes) is a religious and philosophical system that formed in China in the 6th century BC, the founder of which was Confucius (Kung Fu Tzu).

B over two millennia this philosophical, religious and ethical doctrine regulated all aspects of Chinese life starting from family relations and ending with the state-administrative structure. Unlike most other world religious doctrines, Confucianism is not characterized by mysticism and metaphysical abstractions, but strict rationalism putting the public good above all else and priority of general interests over private ones. There is no clergy here, as, for example, in Christianity, its place was taken by officials performing administrative functions, which included religious functions.

Confucianism is often interpreted as a way of life that for two thousand years maintained the religious unity of the Chinese people and promoted ethnic consolidation.
This school is founded by Kung Fu Tzu (Confucius) (551-479 BC). Relatively little known during his lifetime, Confucius became widely known after his death. According to this teaching, wisdom comes from the past, and failures befall the one who rejects traditions.

The main principle of social organization is "he" (harmony, unity), to which they come by mutually overcoming polar interests and opinions. The fusion of opposites is the basis of all things.

Confucianism formulates concepts "jen" (humanity, philanthropy) and "li" (rules, ethics).

In Confucianism, society was divided into two categories - noble and common people. noble husband strives for philanthropy and justice, the "little" person strives for wealth and profit.
A noble person cares about the observance of morality, a "small" one thinks about the earth.
The noble takes care of the observance of the law, and the "small" one takes care of receiving good deeds. It is necessary to be an honest dignitary and honor the ruler.

In Confucianism developed public administration system: at the top is the highest ruler - the "son of Heaven".

Love and respect for the "superior", love for the mother and respect for the father are preached. being put forward principle of justice as the basis for solving cases. Unwavering loyalty to the doctrine, the ability to master it and keep it is an important requirement of Confucianism. A person's personal desire should be reduced to caring for others, and not about their own well-being. Love is the best test of a person's greatness.

cultivated respect for ancestors and seniors. filial duties are of two types:
caring for the food and health of parents and maintaining parental authority, caring for parents after their death by performing ceremonies;
maintaining family authority.

Confucianism proclaimed the doctrine of following "middle way" to avoid extremes. To achieve perfection, a balance in activity is necessary:
adaptation to the conditions of life and submission to the authority of the authorities. Justice and laws are the result of a long development of thought and practice. Only a few are capable of self-sacrifice, while the majority of people must be kept within the bounds of the law, asserting it by force.

People are divided into three groups:
1) good by nature, the qualities of which are improved by education;
2) bad by nature, who are kept only by the fear of punishment;
3) mixing good and evil in their behavior, which can move in different directions.

The canons of Confucianism were created over thousands of years by many authors and played a huge role in the spiritual life of Chinese society until the 20th century. On the basis of the canon, systems of upbringing and education were built, each official, in order to take a certain place in the state apparatus of China, was required to pass an exam on knowledge of the Shi-sanjing texts, etc. The influence of Confucianism on Chinese culture remains significant today. According to rough estimates, at present the number of followers of Confucianism is St. 300 million people.

2) Taoism

2. Taoism- ancient philosophy China, which is trying to explain the foundations of the construction and existence of the surrounding world and find the path that man, nature and space should follow.

The founder of Taoism is considered Lao Tzu(Old Teacher) who lived at the end of the 6th - beginning of the 5th centuries. BC e.

The main sources are the philosophical treatises "Daojing" and "Dejing", collectively referred to as "Daodejing".

2. The basic concepts of Taoism are "Tao" and "Te". "Tao" has two meanings:

The path along which man and nature must go in their development, the universal world law that ensures the existence of the world;

The substance from which the whole world originated, the beginning, which was an energetically capacious void. "De" - grace coming from above; energy, thanks to which the original "Tao" was transformed into the surrounding world.

3.Philosophy Taoism contains a number of key ideas:

Everything in the world is interconnected, there is not a single thing, not a single phenomenon that would not be interconnected with other things and phenomena;

The matter of which the world is composed is one; there is a circulation of matter in nature ("everything comes from the earth and goes to the earth"), that is, today's man was embodied yesterday in the form of other forms that exist in the universe - stone, wood, parts of animals, and after death what the man consisted of , will become the "building material" of other forms of life or natural phenomena;

The world order, the laws of nature, the course of history are unshakable and do not depend on the will of man, therefore, the main principle of human life is peace and non-action ("wu-wei");

The person of the emperor is sacred, only the emperor has spiritual contact with the gods and higher powers; through the personality of the emperor, "Te" descends on China and all mankind - life-giving power and grace; the closer a person is to the emperor, the more "De" will pass from the emperor to him;

To know "Tao" and get "Te" is possible only with full observance of the laws of Taoism, merging with the "Tao" - the origin, obedience to the emperor and proximity to him;

The path to happiness, knowledge of the truth is liberation from desires and passions;

It is necessary to yield to each other in everything.

3) Legalism

Legalism(fr. Légisme) - a philosophical school of China, formed in the 4th-3rd centuries. BC BC, also known as the "School of Lawyers" (fajia).

The founders of t Theories and practices of legalism are considered Guan Zhong(late 8th–7th century BC), Zi Chan (6th century BC), as well as Li Kui, Li Ke (perhaps this is one person), Wu Qi (4th century BC AD). The largest theorists of legalism are recognized Shang Yang, Shen Dao, Shen Buhai (4th century BC) and Han Fei(3rd century BC; see Han Feizi).

Shang Yang

The main idea of ​​the school was the equality of all before the Law and the Son of Heaven, which resulted in the idea of ​​distributing titles not by birth, but by real merit. According to the ideas of legalism, any commoner had the right to rise to any rank, up to the first minister.

The Legists were infamous for the fact that when they came to power, they established extremely cruel laws and punishments.

The main ideas of the school:

The equality of all before the Law and the Son of Heaven was proclaimed and, as a result, the emergence of the idea of ​​distributing titles not by birth, but by real merit, according to which any commoner had the right to rise to the rank of first minister. Shang Yang recommended to nominate in the first place those who proved their devotion to the sovereign in the service in the army.

Success in politics is achieved only by those who know the situation in the country and use accurate calculations.

The experience of previous rulers should be assimilated. And at the same time, "in order to benefit the state, it is not necessary to imitate antiquity."

The economic situation in the country is very important for politics.

In the field of administration, it was proposed to concentrate all power in the hands of the supreme ruler, to deprive the governors of power and turn them into ordinary officials. A smart ruler, says the treatise Shang jun shu, "does not condone turmoil, but takes power into his own hands, establishes the law and restores order with the help of laws."

In order to ensure the representation of the wealthy strata in the state apparatus, the sale of bureaucratic positions was envisaged.

Shang Yang made only one requirement for officials - to blindly obey the sovereign.

It was supposed to limit communal self-government, to subordinate family clans and patronymics to the local administration.

It was also proposed to establish uniform laws for the entire state. The law was understood to mean repressive policies (criminal law) and administrative orders of the government.

Shang Yang considered the relationship between the government and the people as a confrontation between the warring parties. “When the people are stronger than their authorities, the state is weak; when the authorities are stronger than their people, the army is powerful.” In a model state, the power of the ruler is based on force and is not bound by any law.

The slightest offense should be punished by death. This punitive practice was to be supplemented by a policy aimed at eradicating dissent and stupidity of the people.

The supreme goal of the sovereign's activity is the creation of a powerful state capable of uniting China through wars of conquest.

4) Moism

Mohism founder is considered the philosopher Mo Di, who lived in the 5th-4th centuries. BC.

Major Theories of Mohism set out in the treatise Mo-tzu, which is the main theoretical monument of this school. Mo Di believed that every person has equal political opportunities, it all depends on his innate abilities. He opposed the nomination of officials by kinship.
The ethical system of Mohism is expressed the principle of mutual respect and mutual assistance of all inhabitants of the country. Rulers, the Mohists believed, should work on an equal footing with everyone, set a good example with their actions and deeds. They also advocated an ascetic lifestyle, i.e. rejection of luxury, for savings in burials, against music.
Mohists considered heaven as a model for the embodiment of ethical principles. They said that it applies equally to all who are on earth.

Mohism flourished in the 4th century BC, and already in the third century the Mohist school broke up into three currents, and then completely began to lose its position and popularity. Moreover, having broken up into currents, it became associated with popular movements and conspirators. Despite the fact that some of the ideas of Mohism influenced people until the 20th century, it still lost its original role in antiquity and could not restore it, which soon led to its disappearance.

ON PHILOSOPHY.

TOPIC 2. PHILOSOPHY OF ANCIENT CHINA AND ANCIENT INDIA.

1. Features of the emergence and development of philosophy in ancient China.

China is a country of ancient history, culture, philosophy; already in the middle of the second millennium BC. in the state of Shan-Yin (17-9 centuries BC), a slave-owning economy emerged. Slave labor was used in cattle breeding and agriculture. In the 12th century BC. As a result of the war, the state of Shan-Yin was defeated by the Zhou tribe, who founded their own dynasty, which lasted until the 3rd century BC.

In the era of Shan-Yin and in the initial period of the existence of the Jou dynasty, the religious and mythological worldview was dominant. One of the distinguishing features of Chinese myths was the zoomorphic nature of the gods and spirits acting in them. Many of their Chinese deities had a clear resemblance to animals, birds and fish.

The most important element of the ancient Chinese religion was the cult of ancestors, which was based on the recognition of the influence of the dead on the life and fate of their descendants.

In ancient times, when there was neither heaven nor earth, the Universe was a gloomy formless chaos. Two spirits, yin and yang, were born in him, who took up the ordering of the world.

In the myths about the origin of the universe, there are very vague, timid beginnings of natural philosophy.

The mythological form of thinking, as the dominant one, lasted until the 1st millennium BC.

The decomposition of the primitive communal system and the emergence of a new system of social production did not lead to the disappearance of myths.

Many mythological images pass into later philosophical treatises. Philosophers who lived in the 5th-3rd centuries. BC, often turn to myths in order to substantiate their concepts of true government and their norms of correct human behavior. At the same time, Confucians carry out the historicization of myths, demythologization of plots and images of ancient myths. Rationalized myths become part of philosophical ideas, teachings, and the characters of myths become historical figures used to preach Confucian teachings.

Philosophy was born in the depths of mythological ideas, using their material. Was no exception in this respect and the history of ancient Chinese philosophy.

The philosophy of ancient China is closely connected with mythology. However, this connection had some features arising from the specifics of mythology in China. Chinese myths appear primarily as historical legends about vulgar dynasties, about the "golden age".

Chinese myths contain relatively little material that reflects the views of the Chinese on the formation of the world and its interaction, relationship with man. Therefore, natural philosophical ideas did not occupy the main place in Chinese philosophy. However, all the natural-philosophical teachings of Ancient China originate from the mythological and primitive religious constructions of the ancient Chinese about heaven and earth, about the "eight elements".

Along with the emergence of cosmogonic concepts based on the forces of yang and yin, naive materialistic concepts arise that were associated with the "five elements": water, fire, metal, earth, wood.

The struggle for dominance between the kingdoms led in the second half of the 3rd century BC. to the destruction of the "Warring States" and the unification of China into a centralized state under the auspices of the strongest kingdom of Qin.

Deep political upheavals were reflected in the stormy ideological struggle of various philosophical, political and ethical schools. This period is characterized by the flourishing of culture and philosophy.

In literary and historical monuments we meet certain philosophical ideas that arose on the basis of a generalization of the direct labor and socio-historical practice of people. However, the true flowering of ancient Chinese philosophy falls precisely on the period of the 6th-3rd century BC. BC BC, which is rightly called the golden age of Chinese philosophy. It was during this period that the formation of Chinese schools took place - Taoism, Confucianism, Mohism, Legalism, natural philosophers, who then had a huge impact on the entire subsequent development of Chinese philosophy. It was during this period that those problems, concepts and categories were born, which then become traditional for the entire subsequent history of Chinese philosophy, right up to modern times.

Two main stages in the development of philosophical thought in ancient China: the stage of the birth of philosophical views, which covers the period of 8-6 centuries. BC, and the heyday of philosophical thought - the stage of rivalry "100 schools", which traditionally refers to the 4th-3rd centuries. BC.

The period of the formation of the philosophical views of the ancient peoples, which laid the foundations of Chinese civilization, coincides in time with a similar process in India and Ancient Greece. On the example of the emergence of philosophy in these three regions, one can trace the commonality of the patterns that followed the formation and development of human society of world civilization.

At the same time, the history of the formation and development of philosophy is inextricably linked with the class struggle in society and reflects this struggle. The confrontation of philosophical ideas reflected the struggle of different classes in society, the struggle between the forces of progress and reaction. Ultimately, the clash of views and points of view resulted in a struggle between two main trends in philosophy- materialistic and idealistic - with varying degrees of awareness and depth of expression of these directions.

The specificity of Chinese philosophy is directly related to its special role in the acute socio-political struggle that took place in numerous states of Ancient China during the periods of "Spring and Autumn" and "Warring States". In China, a peculiar division of labor between politicians and philosophers was not clearly expressed, which led to the direct, immediate subordination of philosophy to political practice. Issues of managing society, relations between different social groups, between kingdoms - that's what mainly interested the philosophers of ancient China.

Another feature of the development of Chinese philosophy is connected with the fact that the natural scientific observations of Chinese scientists did not find, with a few exceptions, a more or less adequate expression in philosophy, since philosophers, as a rule, did not consider it necessary to refer to the materials of natural science. The only exception is the Mohist school and the school of natural philosophers, which, however, ceased to exist after the Zhou era.

Philosophy and natural science existed in China, as if fenced off from each other by an impenetrable wall, which caused them irreparable damage. Thus, Chinese philosophy deprived itself of a reliable source for the formation of an integral and comprehensive worldview, and natural science, despised by the official ideology, experiencing difficulties in development, remained the lot of loners and seekers of the elixir of immortality. The only methodological compass of Chinese naturalists remained the ancient naive-materialistic ideas of natural philosophers about the five primary elements.

This view arose in ancient China at the turn of the 4th and 5th centuries and lasted until modern times. As for such an applied branch of natural science as Chinese medicine, it is still guided by these ideas to this day.

Thus, the isolation of Chinese philosophy from specific scientific knowledge has narrowed its subject matter. Because of this, natural-philosophical concepts, explanations of nature, as well as problems of the essence of thinking, questions of the nature of human consciousness, and logic have not received much development in China.

The isolation of ancient Chinese philosophy from natural science and the lack of elaboration of questions of logic are one of the main reasons that the formation of the philosophical conceptual apparatus proceeded very slowly. For most Chinese schools, the method of logical analysis remained virtually unknown.

Finally, Chinese philosophy was characterized by a close connection with mythology.

2. The idea of ​​the world and man in Confucianism and Taoism .

Confucianism is an ethical and philosophical doctrine developed by its founder Confucius (551-479 BC), developed in religious complex China, Korea, Japan and some other countries.

The state cult of Confucius, with an official sacrificial ritual established in the country in 59 AD, existed in China until 1928. Confucius borrowed primitive beliefs: the cult of dead ancestors, the cult of the earth and the veneration by the ancient Chinese of their supreme deity and legendary ancestor - Shang-di. In Chinese tradition, Confucius is the guardian of the wisdom of the "golden age" of antiquity. He sought to restore the lost prestige to the monarchs, improve the morals of the people and make them happy. Moreover, he proceeded from the idea that the ancient sages created the institution of the state in order to protect the interests of each individual.

Confucius lived in an era of major social and political upheavals: patriarchal and tribal norms were violated, the very institution of the state was being destroyed. Speaking out against the reigning chaos, the philosopher put forward the idea of ​​social harmony, based on the authority of the sages and rulers of ancient times, priority over which became a constantly acting impulse of the spiritual and social life of China.

Confucius expounded the ideal of a perfect man, considering personality as self-valuable. He created a program for the improvement of man: with the aim of achieving a spiritually developed personality in harmony with the Cosmos. A noble husband is the source of the ideal of morality for the whole society. He alone has a sense of harmony. And an organic gift to live in a natural rhythm. It represents the unity of the inner work of the heart and external behavior. The sage acts in accordance with nature, since from birth he is attached to the rules of observing the "golden mean". Its purpose is to transform society according to the laws of harmony that reigns in the Cosmos, to streamline and protect its living. For Confucius, five "permanences" are important: ritual, humanity, duty-justice, knowledge and trust. In the ritual, he sees a means that acts as a "foundation and utopia" between heaven and earth, allowing each individual, society, state to be entered into the infinite hierarchy of a living cosmic community. At the same time, Confucius transferred the rules of family ethics to the sphere of the state. He based the hierarchy on the principle of knowledge, perfection, the degree of familiarization with culture. The sense of proportion, embedded in the inner essence of the ritual through external ceremonies and rituals, conveyed the values ​​of harmonious communication at an accessible level to everyone, introducing them to the virtues.

As a politician, Confucius recognized the value of ritual in governing a country. Involving everyone in compliance with the measure ensured the preservation of moral values ​​in society, preventing, in particular, the development of consumerism and damage to spirituality. The stability of the Chinese society and state, nourished by the vitality of Chinese culture, owed much to the ritual.

Confucianism is not a complete doctrine. Its individual elements are closely connected with the development of ancient and medieval Chinese society, which it itself helped to form and conserve, creating a despotic centralized state. As a specific theory of the organization of society, Confucianism focuses on ethical rules, social norms, and the regulation of government, in the formation of which it was very conservative.

Confucius focuses on educating a person in a spirit of respect and reverence towards others, towards society. In his social ethics, a person is a person not “for himself”, but for society. The ethics of Confucius understands a person in connection with his social function, and education is leading a person to the proper performance of that function. This approach was of great importance for the ordering of life in agrarian China, but it led to the reduction of individual life, to a certain social status and activity. The individual was a function in the social organism of society.

The performance of functions based on order necessarily leads to the manifestation of humanity. Humanity is the main of all the requirements for a person. Human existence is so social that it cannot do without the following regulators: a) help other people achieve what you yourself would like to achieve; b) What you do not wish for yourself, do not do to others. People differ depending on their family and then social status. From family patriarchal relations, Confucius derived the principle of sons and brotherly virtue. Social relationships are parallel to family relationships. The relationship of subject and ruler, subordinate and superior, is the same as the relationship of son to father and younger brother to the elder.

To comply with subordination and order, Confucius develops the principle of justice and serviceability. Justice and serviceability are not connected with the ontological understanding of truth, which Confucius did not specifically deal with. A person must act as the order and his position dictate. Correct behavior is behavior with respect for order and humanity.

Taoism arose in the 4th-6th centuries BC. According to legend, the ancient legendary yellow emperor discovered the secrets of this teaching. In fact, the origins of Taoism come from shamanistic beliefs and the teachings of magicians, and its views are set forth in the "Canon on the path and virtue", attributed to the legendary sage Lao-tzu, and in the treatise "Zhuan-tzu", reflecting the views of the philosopher Zhuan Zhou and "Huainan- Tzu".

The social ideal of Taoism was a return to the "natural" primitive state and intracommunal equality. The Taoists condemned social oppression, condemned wars, opposed the wealth of luxury and the nobility, castigated the cruelty of the rulers. The founder of Taoism, Lao Tzu, put forward the theory of "non-action", calling on the masses to be passive, to follow the "tao" - the natural course of things.

The philosophical constructions of ancient Taoism became the foundation of the religious teachings of the Taoists in the Middle Ages as part of the syncretic complex of the "three teachings", along with Confucianism and Buddhism. The Confucian-educated intellectual elite showed interest in the philosophy of Taoism, the ancient cult of simplicity and naturalness was especially attractive: in merging with nature, freedom of creativity was acquired. Taoism adopted some features of the philosophy and cult of Buddhism in the process of adapting the latter to Chinese soil: Buddhist concepts and philosophical concepts were transferred into familiar Taoist terms. Taoism influenced the development of neo-Confucianism.

Taoism focuses on nature, the cosmos and man, however, these principles are comprehended not in a rational way, by constructing logically consistent formulas, but with the help of direct conceptual penetration into the nature of existence.

Tao is a concept with the help of which it is possible to give a universal comprehensive answer to the question of the origin and mode of existence of all things. In principle, it is nameless, it manifests itself everywhere, because there is a “source” of things, but it is not an independent substance or essence. Tao itself has no sources, no beginning, it is the root of everything without its own energy activity.

Tao has its own creative power de, through which Tao manifests itself in things through the influence of yin and yang. The understanding of de as an individual concretization of things for which a person is looking for names is radically different from the anthropologically directed Confucian Confucian understanding of de as a moral force of a person.

The ontological principle of sameness, when a person, as a part of nature from which he emerged, must maintain this unity with nature, also postulates epistemologically. Here we are talking about harmony with the world, on which the peace of mind of a person is based.

3.Sociocultural origins of Indian philosophy. Fundamentals of Buddhism, Jainism.

If we abstract from the most ancient written monuments found on the territory ancient india, then the texts of the Hindu culture (2500-1700 BC), which have not yet been fully deciphered, are the first source of information about the life (together with archaeological finds) of the ancient Indian society - the so-called Vedic literature.

Vedic literature was formed during a long and complex historical period, which begins with the arrival of the Indo-European Aryans in India and ends with the emergence of the first state formations uniting vast territories. During this period, important changes take place in society, and the originally nomadic tribes of the Aryans turn into a class-differentiated society with developed agriculture, crafts and trade, social structure and hierarchization, containing four main varnas (estates). In addition to the Brahmins (clerics and monks), there were kshatriyas (warriors and representatives of the former tribal government), vaishyas (farmers, artisans and merchants) and shudras (a mass of directly dependent producers and a predominantly dependent population).

Traditionally Vedic literature is divided into several groups of texts. First of all, these are the four Vedas (literally: knowledge - hence the name of the entire period and its written monuments); the oldest and most important of them is the Rigveda (knowledge of hymns) - a collection of hymns, which was formed for a relatively long time and finally took shape by the 12th century BC. Somewhat later are the brahmanas - the manuals of the Vedic ritual, of which the most important is Shatapathabrahmana (brahmana of a hundred paths). The end of the Vedic period is represented by the Upanishads, which are very important for the knowledge of ancient Indian religious and philosophical thinking.

The Vedic religion is a complex, gradually developing complex of religious and mythological ideas and their corresponding rituals and cult rites. Partially archaic Indo-European ideas of the Indo-Iranian cultural layer slip through it. The formation of this complex is being completed against the background of mythology and the cult of the native (not Indo-European) inhabitants of India. The Vedic religion is polytheistic, it is characterized by anthropomorphism, and the hierarchy of the gods is not closed, the same properties and attributes are alternately attributed to different gods. The world of supernatural beings complete various perfumes- enemies of gods and people (rakshasas and asuras).

The basis of the Vedic cult is the sacrifice, through which the follower of the Vedas appeals to the gods in order to ensure the fulfillment of his desires. Ritual practice is devoted to a significant part of the Vedic texts, in particular the Brahmins, where certain aspects are developed to the smallest detail. Vedic ritualism, which concerns almost all spheres of human life, guarantees a special position for the brahmins, the former performers of the cult.

In the later Vedic texts - the Brahmins - there is a statement about the origin and emergence of the world. In some places, old provisions are being developed about water as the primary substance, on the basis of which individual elements, gods and the whole world arise. The process of genesis is often accompanied by speculation about the influence of Prajpati, who is understood as an abstract creative force that stimulates the process of the emergence of the world, and his image is devoid of anthropomorphic features. In addition, in the Brahmins there are provisions pointing to various forms of breathing as the primary manifestations of being. Here we are talking about ideas that were originally associated with direct observation of a person (breathing as one of the main manifestations of life), projected, however, onto an abstract level and understood as the main manifestation of being.

The Brahmins are, first of all, the practical guides of the Vedic ritual, the cult practice and the mythological provisions associated with it are their main content.

The Upanishads (literally: sit around) form the consummation of the Vedic literature. The Old Indian tradition has a total of 108 of them, today about 300 different Upanishads are known. The predominant mass of texts arose at the end of the Vedic period (8-6 centuries BC), and the views that develop in them have already been modified and are influenced by other, later philosophical trends.

The Upanishads do not provide a coherent system of ideas about the world; one can find only a mass of heterogeneous views in them. Primitive animistic representations, interpretations of sacrificial symbolism and priestly speculations are interspersed in them with bold abstractions that can be described as the first forms of truly philosophical thinking in ancient India. The dominant place in the Upanishads is occupied by a new interpretation of the phenomena of the world, according to which the universal principle acts as the fundamental principle of being - an impersonal being (brahma), which is also identified with the spiritual essence of each individual.

In the Upanishads, Brahma is an abstract principle, completely devoid of previous ritual dependencies and designed to comprehend the eternal, timeless and supra-spatial, many-sided essence of the world. The concept of atman is used to denote an individual spiritual essence, the soul, which is identified with the universal principle of the world (brahma). This statement of the identity of various forms of being, the elucidation of the identity of the being of each individual with the universal essence of the entire surrounding world, is the core of the teachings of the Upanishads.

An inseparable part of this teaching is the concept of the cycle of life (samsara) and the closely related law of retribution (karma). The doctrine of the cycle of life, in which human life is understood as a certain form of an endless chain of rebirths, has its origin in the animistic ideas of the original inhabitants of India. It is also associated with the observation of certain cyclic natural phenomena, with an attempt to interpret them.

The law of karma dictates constant inclusion in the cycle of rebirths and determines the future birth, which is the result of all the deeds of previous lives. Only he, the texts testify, who performed good deeds, lived in accordance with the current morality, will be born in a future life as a brahmana, kshatriya or vaishya. The one whose actions were not correct may in the next life be born as a member of the lower varna (estate), or his atman will fall into the bodily storehouse of the animal; not only varnas, but everything that a person encounters in life is determined by karma.

Here is a peculiar attempt to explain the property and social differences in society as a consequence of the ethical result of the activity of each individual in past lives. Thus, one who acts according to existing standards may, according to the Upanishads, prepare for himself a better fate in some of the future lives.

Cognition consists in full awareness of the identity of atman and brahma, and only one who realizes this unity is released from the endless chain of rebirths and rises above joy and sorrow, life and death. His individual soul returns to brahma, where it remains forever, having come out from under the influence of karma. This is, as the Upanishads teach, the path of the gods.

The Upanishads are basically an idealistic teaching, however, it is not holistic in this basis, since there are views close to materialism in it. This refers to the teachings of Uddalaka, who did not develop a coherent materialistic doctrine. He attributes creative power to nature. The whole world of phenomena consists of three material elements - heat, water and food (earth). And even the atman is a material property of man. From materialistic positions, the notions are discarded, according to which at the beginning of the world there was a carrier, from which the existing and the whole world of phenomena and beings were born.

The Upanishads had a great influence on the development of later thinking in India. First of all, the doctrine of samsara and karma becomes the starting point for all subsequent religious and philosophical teachings, with the exception of materialistic ones. Many of the ideas in the Upanishads are often referred to by some later schools of thought.

In the middle of 1 thousand BC. great changes begin to take place in the Old Indian society. Agrarian and handicraft production, trade are developing significantly, property differences between members of individual varnas and castes are deepening, the position of direct producers is changing. The power of the monarchy is gradually increasing, the institution of tribal power is falling into decay and losing its influence. The first large state formations arise. In the 3rd century BC. e. Under the rule of Ashoka, almost all of India is united within the framework of a single monarchical state.

A number of new doctrines are emerging, fundamentally independent of the ideology of Vedic Brahminism, rejecting the privileged position of the Brahmins in the cult and approaching the question of a person's place in society in a new way. Around the heralds of the new teachings, separate directions and schools are gradually formed, naturally with a different theoretical approach to pressing issues. Of the many new schools, the teachings of Jainism and Buddhism are acquiring pan-Indian significance, first of all.

Jainism.

Mahavira Vardhamana (4th century BC) is considered the founder of Jainism. He was engaged in preaching activities. He first found disciples and numerous followers in Bihar, but soon his teachings spread throughout India. According to the Jain tradition, he was only the last of 24 teachers whose teaching originated in the distant past. The Jain teaching existed for a long time only in the form of an oral tradition, and a canon was compiled relatively late (in the 5th century AD). The Jain doctrine proclaims dualism. The essence of a person's personality is twofold - material (ajiva) and spiritual (jiva). The connecting link between them is karma, understood as subtle matter, which forms the body of karma and enables the soul to unite with gross matter. The connection of inanimate matter with the soul by the bonds of karma leads to the emergence of an individual, and karma constantly accompanies the soul in an endless chain of rebirths.

Jains believe that a person, with the help of his spiritual essence, can control and manage the material essence. Only he himself decides what is good and evil and to what to attribute all that he encounters in life. God is just a soul that once lived in a material body and was freed from the fetters of karma and the chain of rebirth. In the Jain concept, god is not seen as a creator god or a god who interferes in human affairs.

Jainism places great emphasis on the development of an ethic traditionally referred to as the three jewels (triratna). It speaks of right understanding based on right faith, right knowledge and right knowledge that follows from this, and finally right living. The first two principles concern, first of all, faith and knowledge of Jain teachings. Right living is essentially a greater or lesser degree of austerity. The path to liberation of the soul from samsara is complex and multi-phased. The goal is personal salvation, for a person can be freed only by himself, and no one can help him. This explains the egocentric character of Jain ethics.

The cosmos, according to the Jains, is eternal, it was never created and cannot be destroyed. Ideas about the ordering of the world come from the science of the soul, which is constantly limited by the matter of karma. The souls that are most burdened with it are placed the lowest, and as they get rid of karma, gradually rise higher and higher until they reach the highest limit. In addition, the canon also contains discussions about both basic entities (jiva-ajiva), about the individual components that make up the cosmos, about the so-called environment of rest and movement, about space and time.

Over time, two directions were formed in Jainism, which differed in their understanding of asceticism. The orthodox views were advocated by the Digambaras (literally: dressed in air, that is, rejecting clothes), a more moderate approach was proclaimed by the Shvetambaras (literally: dressed in white). The influence of Jainism gradually declined, although it has survived in India to this day.

Buddhism.

In the 6th century BC. Buddhism emerged in northern India, founded by Siddhartha Gautama (585-483 BC). At 29, he leaves his family and goes into "homelessness". After many years of useless austerity, he achieves awakening, that is, comprehends the right life path who rejects extremes. According to tradition, he was subsequently named Buddha (literally: Awakened One). During his life he had many followers. Soon there is a large community of monks and nuns; his teaching was accepted by a large number of people leading a secular lifestyle, who began to adhere to certain principles of the doctrine of the Buddha.

The center of the teachings are the four noble truths, which the Buddha proclaims at the very beginning of his preaching activity. According to them, human existence is inextricably linked with suffering. Birth, illness, old age, daring, encountering the unpleasant and parting with the pleasant, the impossibility of achieving the desired - all this leads to suffering.

The cause of suffering is thirst, which leads through joys and passions to rebirth, rebirth. The elimination of the causes of suffering consists in the elimination of this craving. The path leading to the elimination of suffering, the virtuous eightfold path, is as follows: right judgment, right aspiration, right attention, and right concentration. Rejected as a life devoted to both sensual pleasures, and the path of asceticism and self-torture.

In total, five groups of these factors are distinguished. In addition to physical bodies, there are mental ones, such as feelings, consciousness, etc. The influences acting on these factors during the life of an individual are also considered. Particular attention is paid to further refinement of the concept of "thirst".

On this basis, the content of the individual sections of the eightfold path is developed. Right judgment is identified with the right understanding of life as a vale of sorrow and suffering, right decision is understood as the determination to show sympathy for all living beings. Correct speech is characterized as unsophisticated, truthful, friendly and precise. The right life consists in prescribing morality - the famous Buddhist five precepts, which both monks and secular Buddhists must adhere to. These are the following principles: do not harm living beings, do not take someone else's, refrain from forbidden sexual intercourse, do not make idle and false speeches, and do not use intoxicating drinks. The rest of the steps of the eightfold path are also analyzed, in particular, the last step is the peak of this path, to which all the other steps lead, considered only as a preparation for it. Right concentration, characterized by four degrees of absorption, is related to meditation and meditation practice. A lot of space is given to it in the texts, separate aspects of all mental states that accompany meditation and meditation practice are considered.

A monk who has gone through all the stages of the eightfold path and, with the help of meditation, has come to a liberated consciousness, becomes an arhat, a saint who stands on the threshold of the ultimate goal - nirvana (literally: extinction). This does not mean death, but the way out of the cycle of rebirths. This person will not be reborn again, but will enter the state of nirvana.

The most consistently adherent to the original teachings of the Buddha was the direction of the Hinayana (“small cart”), in which the path to nirvana is completely open only to monks who have rejected worldly life. Other schools of Buddhism point to this direction only as an individual doctrine, not suitable for spreading the teachings of the Buddha. The cult of bodhisattvas plays an important role in the teachings of the Mahayana (“big cart”) - individuals who are already able to enter nirvana, but who postpone the achievement of the final goal in order to help others achieve it. The Bodhisattva voluntarily accepts suffering and feels his predestination and calling to care for the good of the world for so long until everyone is freed from suffering. Mahayana followers see the Buddha not as historical figure, the founder of the doctrine, but as the highest absolute being. The essence of the Buddha appears in three bodies, of which only one manifestation of the Buddha - in the form of a man - fills all living things. Rites and ritual actions are of particular importance in the Mahayana. Buddha and bodhisattvas become objects of worship. A number of concepts of the old teaching (for example, some steps of the eightfold path) are filled with new content.

In addition to the Hinayana and Mahayana - these main directions - there were a number of other schools. Buddhism soon after its emergence spread to Ceylon, later through China penetrated to the Far East.

List of used literature:

1. Introduction to philosophy: in 2 parts. M., 1990.

2. Historical and philosophical knowledge (from Confucius to Feuerbach). Voronezh, 2000.

3. Brief history of philosophy. M., 1996.

4.Philosophy. M., 2000.

The content of the article

CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 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 the “basic composition” of the lexicon of traditional Chinese philosophy, were already contained in the oldest written monuments of Chinese culture - Shu jing (canone [documentary] scriptures), shi jing (Canon of poetry), Zhou and (Zhou changes, or and jing – Canon of change), which developed in the first half of the 1st millennium BC, which sometimes serves as the basis for statements (especially by Chinese scientists) about the emergence 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 that have a developed philosophical content, for example, Hong fan (majestic specimen) from Shu jing or Xi ci zhuan from Zhou and. However, as a rule, the creation or final design of such texts dates back to the second half of the 1st millennium BC.

The first historically reliable creator of philosophical theory in China was Confucius (551-479), who realized himself as the spokesman for the spiritual tradition "zhu" - scientists, educated, intellectuals ("zhu" later began to denote Confucians).

According to traditional dating, Laozi (6-4 centuries BC), 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 .

The era ended with the "anti-philosophical" repressions of Qin Shi Huang (213-210 BC), directed precisely against the Confucians. The term "zhu" from the very beginning of Chinese philosophy meant not only and not so much one of its schools, but philosophy as a science, more precisely, an orthodox direction in a single ideological complex that combined the features of philosophy, science, art and religion.

Confucius and the first philosophers - zhu - saw their main task in the theoretical understanding of the life of society and the personal fate of a person. As carriers and disseminators of culture, they were closely associated with social institutions, responsible for the storage and reproduction of written, including historical and literary, documents (culture, writing and literature in the Chinese language were designated by one term - "wen"), and their representatives - scribs-shi. Hence the three main features of Confucianism: 1) in institutional terms - connection or active desire for connection with the administrative apparatus, constant claims to the role of official ideology; 2) in terms of content - the dominance of socio-political, ethical, social science, humanitarian issues; 3) formally - recognition of the textual canon, i.e. compliance with strict formal criteria of "literaryness".

From the very beginning, Confucius' attitude was "to transmit, not to create, to believe in antiquity and love it" ( lun yu, VII, 1). At the same time, the act of transferring ancient wisdom to future generations had a culturally creative and creative character, if only because the archaic works (canons) on which the first Confucians relied were already obscure to their contemporaries and required interpretation. As a result, commentary and exegesis of ancient classical works became the dominant forms of creativity in Chinese philosophy. Even the most daring innovators strove to look like mere interpreters of the old ideological orthodoxy. Theoretical innovation, as a rule, not only was not emphasized and did not receive explicit expression, but, on the contrary, was deliberately dissolved in the mass of commentary (quasi-commentary) text.

This feature of Chinese philosophy was determined by a number of factors - from social to linguistic. Ancient Chinese society did not know the polis democracy of the ancient Greek model and the type of philosopher generated by it, consciously detached from the empirical life around him in the name of understanding being as such. Introduction to writing and culture in China has always been determined by a fairly high social status. Already from the 2nd c. BC, with the transformation of Confucianism into an official ideology, an examination system began to take shape, which consolidated the connection of philosophical thought both with state institutions and with “classical literature” - a certain set of canonical texts. From ancient times, such a connection was determined by the specific (including linguistic) complexity of obtaining an education and access to the material carriers of culture (primarily books).

Thanks to its high social position, philosophy was of outstanding importance in the life of Chinese society, where it has always been the "queen of the sciences" and has never become the "servant of theology." However, it is related to theology by the immutable use of a regulated set of canonical texts. On this path, which involves taking into account all previous points of view on the canonical problem, Chinese philosophers inevitably turned into historians of philosophy, and in their writings historical arguments prevailed over logical ones. Moreover, the logical became historicized, just as in the Christian religious and theological literature the Logos turned into Christ and, having lived a human life, opened a new era of history. But unlike “real” mysticism, which denies both the logical and the historical, claiming to go beyond both conceptual and spatio-temporal boundaries, Chinese philosophy was dominated by a tendency to completely immerse mythologems in the concrete fabric of history. What Confucius was going to "transmit" was recorded mainly in historical and literary monuments - Shu jing and shi jing. Thus, the expressive features of Chinese philosophy were determined by a close connection not only with historical, but also with literary thought. Philosophical works have traditionally been dominated by the literary form. On the one hand, philosophy itself did not strive for dry abstraction, and on the other hand, literature was also saturated with the "finest juices" of philosophy. According to the degree of fictionalization, Chinese philosophy can be compared with Russian philosophy. On the whole, Chinese philosophy retained these features until the beginning of the 20th century, when, under the influence of acquaintance with Western philosophy, non-traditional philosophical theories began to emerge in China.

The specificity of Chinese classical philosophy in the substantive aspect is determined primarily by the dominance of naturalism and the absence of developed idealistic theories such as Platonism or Neoplatonism (and even more so by the classical European idealism of modern times), and in the methodological aspect, by the absence of such a universal general philosophical and general scientific organon as formal logic (which is a direct consequence of the underdevelopment of idealism).

Researchers of Chinese philosophy often see the concept of the ideal in the categories of "u" - "absence / non-existence" (especially among the Taoists) or "li" - "principle / reason" (especially among the Neo-Confucians). However, “y” at best can denote some analogue of Platonic-Aristotelian matter as a pure possibility (actual non-existence), and “li” expresses the idea of ​​an ordering structure (regularity or “lawful place”), immanently inherent in each individual thing and devoid of a transcendental character. In classical Chinese philosophy, which did not develop the concept of the ideal as such (idea, eidos, forms of forms, transcendent deity), not only the “Plato line”, but also the “Democritus line” was absent, since the rich tradition of materialistic thought was not formed in a theoretically meaningful opposition clearly expressed idealism and did not independently give rise to atomism at all. All this testifies to the undoubted dominance of naturalism in classical Chinese philosophy, typologically similar to pre-Socratic philosophizing in ancient Greece.

One of the consequences of the general methodological role of logic in Europe was the acquisition philosophical categories first of all, the logical sense, genetically ascending to the grammatical models of the ancient Greek language. The very term "category" implies "pronounced", "asserted". Chinese analogues of categories, genetically ascending to mythical ideas, images of divinatory practice and economic and ordering activities, acquired primarily a natural philosophical meaning and were used as classification matrices: for example, binary - Yin Yang, or liang and- "two images"; ternary - tian, jen, di- "heaven, man, earth", or san cai- "three materials", quinary - Wu Xing- Five elements. The modern Chinese term "category" (fan-chow) has a numerological etymology, originating from the designation of a square nine-cell (9 chow) construction (according to the 3ґ3 magic square model - lo shu, cm. HE TU AND LO SHU), on which the hun fan.

The place of the science of logic (the first genuine science in Europe; the second was deductive geometry, since Euclid followed Aristotle) ​​as a general cognitive model (organon) in China was occupied by the so-called numerology ( cm. XIANG SHU ZHI XUE), i.e. a formalized theoretical system, the elements of which are mathematical or mathematical-figurative objects - numerical complexes and geometric structures, interconnected, however, mainly not according to the laws of mathematics, but in some other way - symbolically, associatively, factually, aesthetically, mnemonically, suggestively . As shown in the early 20th century. one of the first researchers of ancient Chinese methodology, the famous scientist, philosopher and public figure Hu Shi (1891-1962), its main varieties were the "Confucian logic", set out in Zhou and, and "Mohist logic", set out in chapters 40-45 Mo Tzu(5th–3rd centuries BC) i.e. in more precise terms, numerology and protology. The most ancient and canonical forms of self-understanding of the methodology of Chinese classical philosophy were implemented, on the one hand, in numerology Zhou and, Hong fan, tai xuan jing, and on the other hand, in protology Mo Tzu, Gongsun Longzi, Xunzi.

Hu Shih in his pioneering book Development of the logical method in ancient China(The Development of the Logical Method in Ancient China), written in 1915–1917 in the United States and first published in 1922 in Shanghai, sought to demonstrate the presence of a “logical method” in ancient Chinese philosophy, including protology and numerology on an equal footing. Hu Shi's achievement was the "discovery" in ancient China of a developed general cognitive methodology, but he failed to prove its logical nature, which was rightly noted by V.M. Alekseev (1881–1981) in a review published in 1925. In the 1920s The most prominent European Sinologists A. Forke (1867–1944) and A. Maspero (1883–1945) showed that even the teaching of the later Mohists, which is closest to logic, is, strictly speaking, eristic and, therefore, at best has the status of protology.

In the mid-1930s, understanding Zhou and as a logical treatise was convincingly refuted by Yu.K. Shchutsky (1897–1938). And at the same time, Shen Zhongtao (Z.D.Sung) in the book Symbols of the I Ching, or Symbols of the Chinese Logic of Change(The Symbols of the Y King or the Symbols of the Chinese Logic of Changes) in expanded form showed that numerology Zhou and can be used as a general scientific methodology, since it is a coherent system of symbolic forms that reflect the universal quantitative and structural patterns of the universe. However, Shen Zhongtao left aside the question of the extent to which this potential was realized by the Chinese scientific and philosophical tradition.

But methodological role numerology in the broadest context of the spiritual culture of traditional China was demonstrated at the same time by the outstanding French sinologist M. Granet (1884–1940). The work of M. Granet Chinese thought (La pensee chinoise) contributed to the emergence of modern structuralism and semiotics, but for a long time, despite its high authority, did not find proper continuation in Western Sinology. M. Granet considered numerology as a kind of methodology of Chinese "correlative (associative) thinking".

The theory of “correlative thinking” found its greatest development in the works of the greatest Western historian of Chinese science, J. Needham (1900–1995), who, however, fundamentally separated “correlative thinking” and numerology. From his point of view, the first, by virtue of its dialectical nature, served as a breeding ground for genuine scientific creativity, while the second, although a derivative of the first, hindered rather than stimulated the development of science. This position was criticized by another outstanding historian of Chinese science, N. Sivin, who, using the material of several scientific disciplines, showed the inherent organic nature of their inherent numerological constructions.

Radical views in the interpretation of Chinese numerology are held by Russian sinologists V.S. Spirin and A.M. Karapetyants, who defend the thesis of its full scientific character. V.S. Spirin sees in it, first of all, logic, A.M. Karapetyants - mathematics. In a similar way, Chinese researcher Liu Weihua interprets numerological theory Zhou and as the world's oldest mathematical philosophy and mathematical logic. V.S. Spirin and A.M. Karapetyants propose to abandon the term "numerology" or use it only when applied to obviously unscientific constructions. Such a distinction, of course, is possible, but it will reflect the worldview of a modern scientist, and not a Chinese thinker who used a single methodology in both scientific and non-scientific (from our point of view) studies.

The foundation of Chinese numerology is made up of three types of objects, each of which is represented by two varieties: 1) "symbols" - a) trigrams, b) hexagrams ( cm. GUA); 2) "numbers" - a) he tu, b) lo shu; 3) the main ontological hypostases of "symbols" and "numbers" - a) yin yang (dark and light), b) wu xing (five elements). This system itself is numerologised, since it is built on two initial numbers - 3 and 2.

It reflects all three main types of graphic symbolization used in traditional Chinese culture: 1) "symbols" - geometric shapes, 2) "numbers" - numbers, 3) yin yang, wu xing - hieroglyphs. This fact is explained by the archaic origin of Chinese numerology, which has performed a cultural modeling function since time immemorial. The most ancient examples of Chinese writing are extremely numerological inscriptions on oracle bones. In the future, canonical texts were created according to numerological standards. The most significant ideas were inextricably fused with iconic clichés, in which the composition, number and spatial arrangement of hieroglyphs or any other graphic symbols were strictly established.

Over its long history, numerological structures in China have reached a high degree of formalization. It was this circumstance that played a decisive role in the victory of Chinese numerology over protology, since the latter did not become either formal or formalized, and therefore did not possess the qualities of a convenient and compact methodological tool (organon). The opposite outcome of a similar struggle in Europe from this point of view is explained by the fact that here logic was built from the very beginning as a syllogistic, i.e. formal and formalized calculus, and numerology (arrhythmology, or structurology) and in its mature state indulged in complete content freedom, i.e. methodologically unacceptable arbitrariness.

Chinese protology was both opposed to numerology and strongly dependent on it. In particular, being under the influence of the numerological conceptual apparatus, in which the concept of “contradiction” (“contradiction”) was dissolved in the concept of “opposite” (“contrarality”), protological thought failed to terminologically distinguish between “contradiction” and “opposite”. This, in turn, most significantly affected the character of Chinese protology and dialectics, since both the logical and the dialectical are determined through the relation to contradiction.

The central epistemological procedure - generalization in numerology and numerologized protology had the character of "generalization" ( cm. GUN-GENERALIZATION) and was based on the quantitative ordering of objects and the value-normative selection of the main one from them - the representative - without logical abstraction of the totality of ideal features inherent in the entire given class of objects.

Generalization was associated with the axiological and normative nature of the entire conceptual apparatus of classical Chinese philosophy, which led to such fundamental features of the latter as fiction and textual canonicity.

In general, in Chinese philosophy, numerology prevailed with the theoretical underdevelopment of the "logic-dialectic" opposition, the undifferentiated materialistic and idealistic tendencies and the general dominance of combinatorial-classificatory naturalism, the absence of logical idealism, as well as the preservation of the symbolic ambiguity of philosophical terminology and the value-normative hierarchy of concepts.

In the initial period of its existence (6th–3rd centuries BC), Chinese philosophy, in the conditions of the categorical non-differentiation of philosophical, scientific and religious knowledge, was a picture of the utmost diversity of views and directions, presented as “the rivalry of a hundred schools” (bai jia zheng min ). The first attempts to classify this diversity were made by representatives of the main philosophical currents - Confucianism and Taoism - in an effort to criticize all their opponents. Chap. 6 Confucian treatise Xun Tzu(4th–3rd centuries BC) ( Against twelve thinkers, fei shih tzu). In it, in addition to the propagandized teachings of Confucius and his disciple Zi-Gong (5th century BC), the author singled out “six teachings” (liu shuo), presented in pairs by twelve thinkers and subjected to sharp criticism: 1) the Taoists Tu Xiao ( 6th century BC) and Wei Mou (4th–3rd centuries BC); 2) Chen Zhong (5th-4th centuries BC) and Shi Qiu (6th-5th centuries BC), who can be assessed as unorthodox Confucians; 3) the creator of Moism Mo Di (Mo-tzu, 5th century BC) and the founder of the independent school close to Taoism, Song Jian (4th century BC); 4) Taoist legalists Shen Dao (4th century BC) and Tian Pian (5th–4th centuries BC); 5) the founders of the "school of names" (Ming Jia) Hoi Shi (4th century BC) and Deng Xi (6th century BC); 6) the later canonized Confucians Zi-Sy (5th century BC) and Meng Ke (Mengzi, 4th–3rd centuries BC). In the 21st chapter of his treatise Xun Tzu, also, giving the teachings of Confucius the role of "the only school that has reached the universal Tao and mastered its application" (yong, cm. TI - YUN), singled out six "chaotic schools" (luan jia) opposing him: 1) Mo Di; 2) Song Jian; 3) Shen Dao; 4) legist Shen Buhai; 5) Hoi Shi; 6) the second patriarch of Taoism after Lao Tzu Zhuang Zhou (Zhuang Tzu, 4-3 centuries BC).

Approximately synchronous (although, according to some assumptions, later, up to the turn of our era) and typologically similar classification is contained in the final 33rd chapter Chuangzi(4-3 centuries BC) “Celestial Empire” (“Tian-xia”), where the core teaching of Confucians, inheriting ancient wisdom, is also highlighted, which is opposed by “one hundred schools” (bai jia), divided into six directions: 1) Mo Di and his student Qin Guli (Huali); 2) Song Jian and his like-minded contemporary Yin Wen; 3) Shen Dao and his supporters Peng Meng and Tian Pian; 4) Taoists Kuan Yin and Lao Dan (Lao Tzu); 5) Zhuang Zhou, 6) dialecticians (bian-zhe) Hoi Shi, Huan Tuan and Gongsun Long.

These structurally similar sixfold constructions, proceeding from the idea of ​​the unity of truth (tao) and the diversity of its manifestations, became the basis for the first classification of the main philosophical teachings as such, and not just their representatives, which was carried out by Sima Tan (2nd century BC) , who wrote a special treatise on the "six schools" (liu jia), which was included in the final 130th chapter of the first dynastic history compiled by his son Sima Qian (2-1 centuries BC) shi chi (Historical notes). This work lists and characterizes: 1) “the school of dark and light [world-forming principles]” (yin yang jia), in Western literature also called "natural-philosophical"; 2) “school of scientists” (zhu jia), i.e. Confucianism; 3) “school of Mo [Di]” (mo jia), i.e. moism; 4) the “school of names” (ming jia), also called “nominalist” and “dialectical-sophistical” in Western literature; 5) “school of laws” (fa jia), i.e. legalism, and 6) “the school of the Way and Grace” (dao de jia), i.e. Taoism. The highest rating was awarded to the last school, which, like Confucianism in the classifications from Xun Tzu and Chuangzi, is presented here as a synthesis of the main virtues of all other schools. Such an opportunity is created by the very principle of its naming - by belonging to a circle of persons of a certain qualification (“scientists-intellectuals”), and not by adherence to a specific authority, as in the “Mo [Dee] school”, or specific ideas, as is reflected in the names of all the rest of the schools.

This scheme was developed in the classification and bibliographic work of the outstanding scientist Liu Xin (46 BC - 23 AD), which formed the basis of the oldest catalog in China, and possibly in the world and wen chih (Treatise on Art and Literature), which became the 30th chapter of the second dynastic history compiled by Ban Gu (32–92). Han shu (Book [about the dynasty] Han). The classification, firstly, grew to ten members, four new ones were added to the six existing ones: the diplomatic “school of vertical and horizontal [political unions]” (zong heng jia); eclectic-encyclopedic "free school" (tsza jia); "agrarian school" (nong jia) and folklore "school of small explanations" (xiao sho jia). Secondly, Liu Xun proposed a theory of the origin of each of the "ten schools" (shih chia) encompassing "all philosophers" (zhu zi).

This theory assumed that in the initial period of the formation of traditional Chinese culture, i.e. in the first centuries of the 1st millennium BC, officials were the bearers of socially significant knowledge, in other words, “scientists” were “officials”, and “officials” were “scientists”. Due to the decline of the "way of the true sovereign" (wang dao), i.e. the weakening of the power of the ruling house of Zhou, the destruction of the centralized administrative structure occurred, and its representatives, having lost their official status, were forced to lead a private lifestyle and ensure their own existence by implementing their knowledge and skills already as teachers, mentors, preachers. In the era of state fragmentation, representatives of various spheres of the once unified administration, who fought for influence on the specific rulers, formed different philosophical schools, the very general designation of which “jia” testifies to their private nature, because this hieroglyph has the literal meaning “family”.

1) Confucianism was created by people from the department of education, who “helped the rulers follow the forces of yin-yang and explained how to exercise educational influence”, relying on the “written culture” (wen) of canonical texts ( Liu and, wu jing, cm. JING-SEED; SHI SAN JING) and putting humanity (ren) and due justice (yi) at the forefront. 2) Taoism (dao jia) was created by people from the department of chronography, who “compiled chronicles about the path (tao) of success and defeat, existence and death, grief and happiness, antiquity and modernity”, thanks to which they comprehended the “royal art” of self-preservation through “purity and emptiness”, “humiliation and weakness”. 3) The “School of dark and light [world-forming principles]” was created by people from the department of astronomy who followed heavenly signs, the sun, moon, stars, cosmic landmarks and the alternation of times. 4) Legalism was created by people from the judiciary, who supplemented the administration based on "decency" (li 2) with rewards and punishments determined by laws (fa). 5) The "School of Names" was created by people from the ritual department, whose activity was conditioned by the fact that in ancient times nominal and real did not coincide in ranks and rituals, and the problem arose of bringing them into mutual correspondence. 6) Moizm was created by people from temple guards who preached thrift, “comprehensive love” (jian ai), nomination of “worthy” (xian 2), reverence for “navyam” (gui), rejection of “predestination” (ming) and “uniformity” (tun, cm. DA TUN-GREAT UNITY). 7) The diplomatic "school of vertical and horizontal [political alliances]" was created by people from the embassy department, who are able to "do things as they should and be guided by prescriptions, not verbiage." 8) The eclectic-encyclopedic "free school" was created by people from the councilors who combined the ideas of Confucianism and Mohism, the "school of names" and legalism in the name of maintaining order in the state. 9) The "agrarian school" was created by people from the department of agriculture, who were in charge of the production of food and goods, which in Hong fan assigned to the first and second of the eight most important affairs of state (ba zheng), respectively. 10) The "School of small explanations" was created by people from low-ranking officials who were supposed to collect information about the mood among the people on the basis of "street gossip and road rumors."

Evaluating the last school, which was more folklore than philosophical in nature and produced "fiction" (xiao shuo) as not worthy of attention, the authors of this theory recognized the nine remaining schools as "mutually opposite, but shaping each other" (xiang fan er xiang cheng) , i.e. going to the same goal in different ways and relying on a common ideological basis - six canons (liu jing, cm. SHI SAN JING). It followed from the conclusion that the diversity of philosophical schools is a forced consequence of the collapse of the general state system, which is naturally eliminated when such is restored and philosophical thought returns to the unifying and standardizing Confucian channel.

Despite the refusal to consider the “school of small explanations”, which is more of a folklore and literary (hence the other meaning of “xiao shuo” - “fiction”) than a philosophical one, in and wen chih the number of philosophical schools in ten is implicitly preserved, since further the “military school” (bing jia) is singled out in a special section, which, in accordance with the general theory, is represented by those educated by people from the military department.

The origins of this ten-term classification can be traced in encyclopedic monuments of the 3rd-2nd centuries. BC. lu shi chun qiu (Mr. Lu's springs and autumns) and Huainanzi ([Treatise] Huainan teachers). The first of them (Ch. II, 5, 7) contains a list of "ten eminent men of the Middle Kingdom": 1) Lao Tzu, "extolling compliance", 2) Confucius, "extolling humanity", 3) Mo Di, "extending moderation ", 4) Kuan Yin, "exalting purity", 5) Le-tzu, "exalting emptiness", 6) Tian Pian, "exalting equality", 7) Yang Zhu, "exalting selfishness", 8) Sun Bin, "exalting strength”, 9) Wang Liao, “exalting precedence”, 10) Er Liang, “exalting following”. In this set, in addition to Confucianism, Mohism and various varieties of Taoism, the last three positions reflect the “military school”, which corresponds to the text and wen chih.

In the final 21 chapter summarizing the content of the treatise Huainanzi carried out the idea of ​​socio-historical conditionality of the emergence of philosophical schools, described in the following order: 1) Confucianism; 2) moism; 3) the teaching of Guanzi (4th-3rd centuries BC), which combines Taoism with legalism; 4) the teaching of Yan-tzu, apparently expounded in yang tzu chun qiu (Spring and Autumn Master Yan) and combining Confucianism with Taoism; 5) the doctrine of "vertical and horizontal [political alliances]"; 6) the doctrine of "punishments and names" (xing min) Shen Buhai; 7) the doctrine of the laws of the legist Shang Yang (4th century BC); 8) own teaching imbued with Taoism Huainanzi. At the beginning of the same chapter, the teachings of Lao Tzu and Zhuang Tzu are singled out, and in the 2nd chapter - Yang Zhu (along with the teachings of Mo Di, Shen Buhai and Shang Yang repeated in the classification quartet), which as a whole forms a ten-membered set, correlating with classification and wen chih, especially the specific labeling of the “school of vertical and horizontal [political unions]” and the general linking of the genesis of philosophical schools to historical realities.

Created during the formation of the centralized Han empire, whose name became the ethnonym of the Chinese people themselves, who call themselves “Han”, the Liu Xin-Ban Gu theory in traditional science acquired the status of a classic. Further, throughout the history of China, its development continued, with a special contribution to which Zhang Xuecheng (1738–1801) and Zhang Binglin (1896–1936) made.

Chinese philosophy in the 20th century it was strongly criticized by Hu Shi, but supported and developed by Feng Yulan (1895-1990), who concluded that the six main schools were created not only by representatives of different professions, but also by different personality types and lifestyles. Confucianism was formed by scholars-intellectuals, Mohism - by knights, i.e. wandering warriors and artisans, Taoism - hermits and recluses, the "school of names" - polemical rhetoricians, "the school of dark and light [world-forming principles]" - occultists and numerologists, legalism - politicians and advisers to rulers.

Although after the creation of the Liu Xin-Ban Gu classification, schemes with even more elements arose, in particular in the official history of the Sui Dynasty (581-618) sui shu (Book [about the dynasty] Sui, 7 c.) lists fourteen philosophical schools, a really significant role in the historical and philosophical process was played by six of them, identified already in shi chi and is now recognized as such by most experts.

In this set, in terms of the duration of existence and the degree of development, Taoism is comparable to Confucianism. The term “tao” (“the way”) that determined its name is as broader than the specifics of Taoism, as the term “zhu” is wider than the specifics of Confucianism. Moreover, despite the maximum mutual antinomy of these ideological currents, both early Confucianism and then Neo-Confucianism could be called the “teaching of the Tao” (dao jiao, dao shu, dao xue), and adherents of Taoism could be included in the category of zhu. Accordingly, the term "adept of the Tao" (tao jen, dao shi) was applied not only to Taoists, but also to Confucians, as well as to Buddhists and alchemist magicians.

The most serious problem of the relationship between the philosophical-theoretical and religious-practical hypostases of Taoism is connected with the latter circumstance. According to the traditional Confucian version, at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century. prevailing in the West, these are diverse and heterogeneous phenomena, which correspond to different designations: philosophy - “school of tao” (tao jia), religion - “teaching (reverence) of tao” (dao jiao). In the historical aspect, this approach suggests that initially in the 6th–5th centuries. BC. Taoism arose as a philosophy, and then by the 1st-2nd centuries, either as a result of the patronizing influence of imperial power in the late 3rd - early 2nd centuries. BC, either in imitation of Buddhism that began to penetrate China, radically transformed into a religion and mysticism, retaining only a nominal community with its original form.

In essence, this model is similar to the traditional idea of ​​the development of Confucianism, which arose in the 6th-5th centuries. BC. as a philosophy, and by the 1st-2nd centuries. AD transformed into an official religious and philosophical doctrine, which some Sinologists propose to consider as an independent ideological system (“Sinistic” or “imperial”), different from the original Confucianism. Wider than Confucianism itself, the ideological basis of this system was made up of pre-Confucian religious beliefs and worldviews, which Confucianism included in its own concepts.

In Western Sinology of the second half of the 20th century. the theory prevailed according to which Taoist philosophy similarly arose on the basis of the proto-Taoist religious and magical culture of the shamanic type, localized in southern China, in the so-called "barbarian kingdoms" (primarily Chu), which were not part of the circle of the Middle States, considered the cradle of Chinese civilization (hence the idea of ​​China as a Middle Empire). In accordance with this theory, pioneered by the French sinologist A. Maspero (1883–1945), Taoism is a single teaching and its philosophical hypostasis, expressed primarily in the classical triad of texts Dao Te Ching (Canon of the Way and Grace), Zhangzi ([Treatise] Zhuang's teachers), Lezi ([Treatise] Le teachers), was a theorizing reaction to contact with the rationalistic Confucian culture, localized in the North, in the Middle States.

The fundamental difference between Taoist mystical-individualistic naturalism and the ethical-rationalistic sociocentrism of all other leading worldview systems in China during the formation and flourishing of the “hundred schools” prompts some experts to strengthen the thesis about the peripheral origin of Taoism to the assertion of foreign (primarily Indo-Iranian) influence, in according to which his Tao turns out to be a kind of analogue of Brahman and even the Logos. This view is radically opposed by the point of view that Taoism is the expression of the Chinese spirit itself, since it is the most developed form of the national religion. This point of view is shared by the leading Russian researcher of Taoism E.A. Torchinov, who divides the history of its formation into the following stages.

1) From ancient times to 4-3 centuries. BC. there was a formation of religious practice and worldview models based on archaic shamanistic beliefs. 2) From the 4th–3rd centuries. BC. by 2nd–1st centuries BC. Two parallel processes took place: on the one hand, the Taoist worldview acquired a philosophical character and written fixation, on the other hand, the methods of “acquisition of immortality” and psycho-physiological meditation of the yogic type, implicitly and fragmentarily reflected in classical texts, were implicitly and esoterically developed. 3) From the 1st c. BC. by 5th c. AD there was a rapprochement and merging of theoretical and practical divisions with the inclusion of the achievements of other philosophical directions (primarily numerology Zhou and, legalism and partly Confucianism), which resulted in the acquisition of an explicit form by the implicit material and the written fixation of a single Taoist worldview, the previously hidden components of which began to look like fundamental innovations. 4) In the same period, Taoism was institutionalized in the form of religious organizations of both “orthodox” and “heretical” directions, and a canonical collection of its literature began to take shape. Dao Zang (Treasury of the Tao). Further development Taoism proceeded mainly in the religious aspect, in which Buddhism played a great stimulating role as its main "competitor".

The original Taoism, represented by the teachings of Lao Dan, or Laozi (traditional dating of life: c. 580 - c. 500 BC, modern: V - IV centuries BC), Zhuang Zhou, or Zhuang- zi (399-328 - 295-275 BC), Le Yu-kou, or Le-zi (c. 430 - c. 349 BC), and Yang Zhu (440-414 - 380- 360 BC) and reflected in the works named after them: Lao Tzu(or Dao Te Ching), Chuang Tzu, Le Tzu, Yang Zhu(ch. 7 Lezi), as well as Taoist sections of encyclopedic treatises Guan Tzu, Lü Shi Chun Qiu and Huainanzi, created the most profound and original ontology in ancient Chinese philosophy.

Its essence was fixed in the new content of the paired categories "tao" and "de 1", which formed one of the first names of Taoism as "schools of dao and de" (tao de jia) and to which the main Taoist treatise is devoted. Dao Te Ching. Tao is presented in it in two main forms: 1) lonely, separated from everything, constant, inactive, at rest, inaccessible to perception and verbal-conceptual expression, nameless, generating "absence / non-existence" (u, cm. Yu - U), giving rise to Heaven and Earth, 2) all-encompassing, all-penetrating, like water; changing with the world, acting, accessible to “passing”, perception and cognition, expressed in the “name / concept” (min), sign and symbol, generating “presence / being” (yu, cm. Yu - U), which is the ancestor of the "dark things".

In addition, the fair - "heavenly" and the vicious - "human" Tao are opposed to each other, and the possibility of deviations from the Tao and its absence in the Celestial Empire is recognized. As a “beginning”, “mother”, “ancestor”, “root”, “rhizome” (shi 10, mu, zong, gen, di 3), the Tao genetically precedes everything in the world, including the “lord” (di 1 ), is described as an undifferentiated unity, a “mysterious identity” (xuan tong), containing all things and symbols (xiang 1) in the state of “pneuma” (qi 1) and seed (ching 3), i.e. “thing”, manifesting itself in the form of a non-objective (objectless) and formless symbol, which in this aspect is emptiness-all-encompassing and equal to the all-penetrating “absence / non-existence”. At the same time, “absence/non-existence” and, consequently, Tao is interpreted as an active manifestation (“function – yun 2 , cm. TI - YUN) "presence / being". The genetic superiority of "absence/non-existence" over "presence/being" is removed in the thesis of their mutual generation. Thus, the dao Tao de jing represents the genetic and organizing function of the unity of "presence/being" and "absence/non-existence", subject and object. The main regularity of Tao is reverse, return (fan, fu, gui), i.e. circular movement (zhou xing), characteristic of the sky, which was traditionally thought of as round. As following only its own nature (Zi Ran), Tao opposes the dangerous artificiality of "tools" (Qi 2) and the harmful supernaturalness of spirits, at the same time determining the possibility of both.

"Grace" is defined in Tao de jing as the first stage of the degradation of Tao, on which the “things” born by Tao are formed and then move downward: “The loss of the Way (Tao) is followed by grace (Te). The loss of grace is followed by humanity. The loss of humanity is followed by due justice. Decency follows the loss of due justice. Decency [means] the weakening of fidelity and trustworthiness, as well as the beginning of turmoil” (§ 38). The fullness of “grace”, the nature of which is “mysterious” (xuan), makes a person like a newborn baby, who, “not yet knowing the intercourse of a female and a male, raises a childbearing ud”, demonstrating “the ultimate spermatic essence”, or “the perfection of the seminal spirit ( jing 3)” (§ 55).

With such a naturalization of ethics, “the grace of good” (de shan) implies the same acceptance of both good and bad as good (§ 49), which is opposite to the principle put forward by Confucius of repaying “good for good” and “directness for insult” ( lun yu, XIV, 34/36). From this follows the opposite to the Confucian understanding of the whole “culture” (wen): “The suppression of perfect wisdom and the rejection of rationality / cunning (zhi) [means] the people receiving a hundredfold benefit. The suppression of humanity and the rejection of due justice [means] the return of the people to filial piety and love of children. The suppression of craftsmanship and the renunciation of profit [means] the disappearance of robbery and theft. These three [phenomena] are not enough for culture. Therefore, it is still required to have a detectable simplicity and hidden primordialness, small private interests and rare desires ”( Dao Te Ching, § 19).

AT Chuangzi the tendency towards convergence of Tao with “absence / non-existence”, the highest form of which is the “absence [of even traces of] absence” (y y), has been strengthened. The consequence of this was the divergent Tao Te Ching and the then popular thesis that the Tao, not being a thing among things, makes things things. AT Chuangzi notions of the unknowability of Tao were strengthened: "The completion, in which it is not known why this is so, is called Tao." At the same time, the omnipresence of Tao is emphasized as much as possible, which not only “passes (sin 3) through the darkness of things”, forms space and time (yu zhou), but is also present in robbery and even in feces and urine. Hierarchically, Tao is placed above the “Great Limit” (tai chi), but already in lu shi chun qiu it is like the "ultimate seed" (zhi jing, cm. JING-SEED) is identified with both the "Great Limit" and the "Great One" (tai yi). AT Guanzi Tao is interpreted as a natural state of “seed”, “subtle”, “essential”, “spirit-like” (jing 3, ling) pneuma (qi 1), which is not differentiated by either “bodily forms” (syn 2) or “names/ concepts” (min 2), and therefore “empty-non-existent” (xu wu). AT Huainanzi"absence/non-existence" is presented as the "corporeal essence" of the Tao and the active manifestation of the darkness of things. Tao, which manifests itself in the form of "Chaos", "Formless", "One", is defined here as "contracting space and time" and non-localized between them.

The basic principles of the first Taoist thinkers are “naturalness” (zi ran) and “non-action” (wu wei), which signify the rejection of deliberate, artificial, nature-transforming activity and the desire for spontaneous following of natural nature up to complete merging with it in the form of self-identification with by the unconditional and purposeless Path-dao that dominates the world: “Heaven and earth are long and durable due to the fact that they do not live by themselves, and therefore are able to live for a long time. On this basis, a perfectly wise person puts back his personality, and himself excels; throws away his personality, and he himself is preserved ”( Dao Te Ching, § 7). The relativity of all human values ​​revealed with this approach, which determines the relativistic “equality” of good and evil, life and death, ultimately logically led to an apology for cultural entropy and quietism: “A real man of antiquity knew neither love for life nor hatred for death. .. he did not resort to reason to oppose the Tao, did not resort to the human in order to help the heavenly "( Chuangzi, Ch. 6).

However, at the turn of the new era, the previous highly developed philosophy of Taoism appeared to be connected with newborn or emerging religious, occult and magical teachings aimed at the maximum, supernatural increase in the vital forces of the body and the achievement of longevity or even immortality (chang sheng wu si). The theoretical axiom of original Taoism - the equivalence of life and death with the ontological primacy of meonic non-existence over existing existence - at this stage of its development was replaced by a soteriological recognition of the highest value of life and an orientation towards various types of relevant practice from dietetics and gymnastics to psychotechnics and alchemy. In this philosophical and religious form, the entire further evolution of Taoism took place, fertilizing science and art with its influence in medieval China and neighboring countries.

One of the ideological bridges from the original Taoism to its subsequent incarnation was laid by Yang Zhu, who emphasized the importance of individual life: “What makes all things different is life; what makes them the same is death" ( Lezi, Ch. 7). The designation of his concept of autonomous existence - “for oneself”, or “for the sake of one’s self” (wei wo), according to which “one’s own body is undoubtedly the main thing in life” and for the benefit of the Middle Kingdom there is no point in “losing even a single hair”, has become synonymous with selfishness , which the Confucians opposed to Mo Di's disordered, ethical-ritual decency altruism and equally denied.

According to Feng Yulan, Yang Zhu personifies the first stage in the development of early Taoism, i.e. an apology for self-preserving escapism, which goes back to the practice of hermits who left the harmful world in the name of "preserving their purity." The sign of the second stage was the main part Tao de jing, in which an attempt is made to comprehend the immutable laws of universal changes in the Universe. In the main work of the third stage - Chuangzi the further-reaching idea of ​​the relative equivalence of the changing and the unchanging, of life and death, self and non-self, was fixed even further, which logically led Taoism to the self-exhaustion of the philosophical approach and the stimulation of the religious attitude, which was supported by contradictory-complimentary relations with Buddhism.

The Taoist-oriented development of proper philosophical thought had another historical rise in the 3rd–4th centuries, when the “doctrine of the mysterious” (xuan xue), sometimes called “neo-daoism,” was formed. This trend, however, was a kind of synthesis of Taoism and Confucianism. One of its founders, He Yan (190-249), proposed, "based on Lao[-tzu], penetrate into Confucianism." The specificity of the doctrine was determined by the development of ontological issues that stood out from the traditional Chinese philosophy of immersion in cosmology on the one hand and anthropology on the other, which is sometimes qualified as a retreat into “metaphysics and mysticism”, and the binomial “xuan xue” is understood as “mysterious teaching”. This was done mainly in the form of comments on the Confucian and Taoist classics: Zhou Yi, Lun Yu, Tao Te Ching, Chuang Tzu, which later became classical in their own right. Treatises Zhou Yi, Tao Te Ching and Chuangzi in this era they were called "Three Mysterious" (san xuan).

The category “xuan” (“secret, mysterious, hidden, incomprehensible”), which gave the name to the “doctrine of the mysterious”, goes back to the first paragraph Tao de jing, in which it means the supernatural "unity" (tun) of "absence / non-existence" (y) and "presence / being" (yu, cm. Yu-U). In an ancient medical treatise associated with Taoism huangdi nei jing (The Yellow Emperor's Canon of the Inner, 3rd–1st centuries BC) the processuality included in the concept of “xuan” is emphasized: “Changes and transformations are an active manifestation (yong, cm. TI - YUN). In the [sphere] of heaven it is the mysterious (xuan), in the [sphere] of the human it is Tao, in the [sphere] of the earth it is transformation (hua). Transformation gives rise to the five tastes, Tao gives rise to rationality (zhi), the mysterious gives rise to the spirit (shen). Yang Xiong (53 BC - 18 AD) put forward the category of "xuan" to the center of the philosophical proscenium, who devoted his main work to it. tai xuan ching (Canon of the Great Mystery), which is an alternative continuation Zhou and, i.e. universal theory of world processes, and interprets the Tao, “empty in form and determining the path (tao) of things”, as the hypostasis of “mystery”, understood as “the limit of active manifestation” (yong zhi zhi).

As the history of the “xuan” category shows, the “mystery” of the global interaction of things that it marks is concretized in the dialectic of “presence/being” and “absence/non-existence”, “bodily essence” (ti) and “active manifestation” (yong). It was these conceptual antinomies that turned out to be the focus of attention of the “doctrine of the mysterious”, in which, in turn, an internal polarization occurred, due to the controversy between the “theory of glorifying absence/non-existence” (gui wu lun) and the “theory of honoring presence/being” (chun yu lun). ).

He Yan and Wang Bi (226–249), based on the definitions of Tao and the thesis “presence/being is born from absence/non-existence” in Tao de jing(§ 40), carried out a direct identification of Tao with “absence / non-existence”, interpreted as “single” (yi, gua 2), “central” (zhong), “ultimate” (ji) and “dominant” (zhu, zong) "primordial essence" (ben ti), in which the "corporeal essence" and its "active manifestation" coincide with each other.

Developing the thesis Tao de jing(§ 11) about “absence/non-existence” as the basis of “active manifestation”, i.e. “use”, of any object, the largest representative of the “doctrine of the mysterious” Wang Bi recognized the possibility for absence / non-existence to act not only as a yun, but also as a ti, thus in a commentary on § 38 Tao de jing he was the first to introduce the direct categorical opposition "ti-yun" into philosophical circulation. His follower Han Kangbo (332–380) in a commentary on Zhou and completed to the end this conceptual construction of two pairs of correlative categories by correlating presence/being with yun.

On the contrary, Wang Bi's main theoretical opponent is Pei Wei (267–300), in a treatise Chun yu lun (On honoring presence/being) who affirmed the ontological primacy of presence/being over absence/non-existence, insisted that it is the first that represents ti and everything in the world arises due to “self-generation” (zi sheng) from this bodily essence.

Xiang Xu (227-300) and Guo Xiang (252-312) took a compromise position of recognizing the identity of Tao with absence/non-existence, but denying the original generation from the last presence/existence, which eliminated the possibility of a creation-deistic interpretation of Tao. According to Guo Xiang, the really existing presence/being is a naturally and spontaneously harmonized set of "self-sufficient" (zi de) things (wu 1), which, having "its own nature" (zi xing, cm. XIN), "self-generated" and "self-transformed" (du hua).

Depending on the recognition of the all-penetrating power of absence/non-existence or the interpretation of its generation of presence/being only as the self-generation of things, “perfect wisdom” was reduced to the embodiment in its carrier (preferably a sovereign) of absence/non-existence as its bodily essence (ti u) or to “inactive” (wu wei), i.e. uninitiated, and "unintentional" (wu xin), i.e. non-setting, following things in accordance with their "natural" (zi zhan) self-movement.

The "doctrine of the mysterious", which developed in aristocratic circles, was associated with the dialogical tradition of speculative speculation - "pure conversations" (qing tan) and the aestheticized cultural style of "wind and flow" (feng liu), which had a significant impact on poetry and painting.

In the field of philosophy, the "doctrine of the mysterious" played the role of a conceptual and terminological bridge through which Buddhism penetrated into the depths of traditional Chinese culture. This interaction led to the decline of the "mysterious doctrine" and the rise of Buddhism, which could also be called "xuan xue". In the future, the "doctrine of the mysterious" had a significant impact on neo-Confucianism.

moism

was one of the first theoretical reactions to Confucianism in ancient Chinese philosophy. The creator and the only major representative of the school named after him is Mo Di, or Mo-tzu (490-468 - 403-376 BC), according to Huainanzi, was originally a supporter of Confucianism, and then made a sharp criticism of it. from other philosophies ancient China Mohism is distinguished by two specific features: theologization and organizational formality, which, together with an increased interest in logical and methodological issues, painted it in scholastic tones. This peculiar sect of people from the lower strata of society, primarily artisans and freelance daring warriors (“knights” - xia), was very reminiscent of the Pythagorean union and was headed by a “great teacher” (ju tzu), who, according to Chuangzi(ch. 33), was considered "perfectly wise" (sheng) and whom Guo Moruo (1892–1978) compared to the pope. The following succession of the holders of this post is reconstructed: Mo Di - Qin Guli (Huali) - Meng Sheng (Xu Fan) - Tian Xiang-tzu (Tian Ji) - Fu Dun. Then at the end of the 4th c. BC, apparently, there was a disintegration of a single organization into two or three areas of “separated moists” (be mo), headed by Xiangli Qin, Xiangfu (Bofu), Denlin. After the theoretical and practical defeat of Moism in the second half of the 3rd c. BC, due to his own disintegration and anti-humanitarian repression during the Qin Dynasty (221-207 BC), as well as Confucian prohibitions in the Han era (206 BC - 220 AD), he continued exist only as a spiritual heritage, collectively developed by several generations of its representatives, wholly attributed to the head of the school and enshrined in a deep and extensive, but poorly preserved treatise Mo Tzu.

The teachings of Mo Tzu himself are presented in ten initial chapters, the titles of which reflect his fundamental ideas: “Honoring the Worthy” ( shang xian), "Honoring Unity" ( shang tong), "Uniting Love" ( jian ai), "Attack Denial" ( fei gong), "Consumption reduction" ( Jie yoon), "Reduction of funeral [expenses]" ( ze zang), "The Will of Heaven", ( tian chih), "Spiritual Vision" ( ming gui), "Negation of Music" ( fei yue), "Negation of predestination" ( fei ming). All of them are divided into three parts similar to each other, which was a consequence of what was noted in Ch. 33 Chuangzi and Ch. fifty Han Feizi division of Mohists into three directions, each of which left its own version of the presentation of general provisions. In the middle of the treatise are the chapters of the "Canon" ( jing), "Explanation of the Canon" ( jing sho), each in two parts; "Big choice" ( Da qu) and "Small Choice" ( xiao qu), which are collectively referred to as the "Moist Canon" ( mo ching), or "Moist dialectic » (mo bian), and represent a formalized and terminological text demonstrating the highest achievements of the ancient Chinese protological methodology, obtained by the 3rd century BC. BC. in the circles of the late Mohists or, according to Hu Shih's hypothesis, the followers of the "school of names". Contents of this section Mo Tzu, covering primarily epistemological, logical-grammatical, mathematical and natural science problems, due to its complexity and specific (intensional) form of presentation, it has become obscure even for the immediate descendants. The final chapters of the treatise, the latest in time of writing, are devoted to more specific issues of city defense, fortification and the construction of defensive weapons.

The main pathos of the socio-ethical core of Mohist philosophy is ascetic love of people, which implies the unconditional primacy of the collective over the individual and the struggle against private egoism in the name of public altruism. The interests of the people are mainly reduced to the satisfaction of elementary material needs that determine their behavior: “In a good year, people are humane and kind, in a lean year they are inhumane and evil” ( Mo Tzu, Ch. 5). From this point of view, traditional forms of ethical-ritual decency (li 2) and music are seen as manifestations of waste. Strictly hierarchical Confucian humanity (jen), which the Mohists called "dividing love" (be ai), directed only at their loved ones, they opposed the principle of comprehensive, mutual and equal "unifying love" (jian ai), and Confucian anti-utilitarianism and anti-mercantilism, which extolled due justice (and) over benefit/benefit (li 3), - the principle of "mutual benefit/benefit" (xiang li).

The Mohists considered the deified Heaven (tian) as the highest guarantor and exact (like a compass and a square for a circle and a square) criterion of the validity of this position, which brings happiness to those who experience uniting love for people and brings them benefit / benefit. Acting as a universal “pattern/law” (fa), “blessed” (de) and “selfless” (wu sy) Heaven, from their point of view, having neither personal nor anthropomorphic attributes, nevertheless has a will (zhi 3), thoughts (and 3), desires (yu) and equally loves all living things: “Heaven desires the life of the Celestial Empire and hates her death, desires her to be in wealth and hates her poverty, desires her to be in order and hates confusion in her” ( Mo Tzu, Ch. 26). One of the sources that make it possible to judge the will of Heaven was the “navi and spirits” (gui shen) mediating between it and people, the existence of which is evidenced by historical sources, reporting that with their help “in ancient times, wise rulers put things in order in the Celestial Empire” , as well as the ears and eyes of many contemporaries.

In late Mohism, which reoriented itself from theistic to logical arguments, the omniscience of love was proved by the thesis “Loving people does not mean excluding oneself”, which implies the inclusion of the subject (“oneself”) among “people”, and the counter opposition between the apology of benefit / benefit and the recognition of due justice “desired by Heaven” and being “the most valuable in the Celestial Empire” was removed by a direct definition: “due justice is benefit / benefit”.

Struggling with assimilated Confucianism ancient faith into "celestial predestination" (tian ming, cm. MIN-PREDESTINATION), the Mohists argued that there is no fatal predestination (min) in the fate of people, therefore a person should be active and active, and the ruler should be attentive to the virtues and talents that should be honored and promoted regardless of social affiliation. The result of the correct interaction of the top and the bottom on the basis of the principle of equal opportunities, according to Mo-tzu, should be a universal "unity" (tun), i.e. having overcome the animal chaos and primitive turmoil of general mutual enmity, centrally controlled, like a machine, the structural whole, which is made up of the Celestial Empire, the people, the rulers, the sovereign and Heaven itself. This idea, according to some experts (Tsai Shansy, Hou Weilu), gave rise to the famous social utopia of the Great Unity (da tong), described in Ch. 9 li yun("The Circulation of Decency") Confucian treatise Li chi. In connection with the special attention on the part of the representatives of the “school of names” to the category “tun” in the meaning of “identity / similarity”, the late Mohists subjected it to a special analysis and identified four main varieties: “Two names (min 2) of one reality (shi) - [ it is] tun [as] repetition (chun). Non-isolation from the whole is [this] tun [as] one-bodiedness (ti, cm. TI - YUN). Being together in a room is [this] tong [like] a coincidence (he 3). The presence of a basis for unity (tun) is [this] tun [as] kinship (ley)" ( jing sho, part 1., ch. 42). The most important conclusion from the Mohist ideal of universal "unity" was the call for anti-militarist and peacekeeping activities, which was reinforced by the theory of fortification and defense. To defend and propagate their views, the Mohists developed a special technique of persuasion, which led to the creation of an original eristic-semantic protology, which became their main contribution to Chinese spiritual culture.

Until the 18th and 19th centuries treatise Mo Tzu occupied a marginal position in traditional Chinese culture, a specific manifestation of which was its inclusion in the 15th century. into the canonical Taoist library Dao Zang (Treasury of the Tao), although already in mencius the opposition of Moism and Taoism (represented by Yang Zhu) was noted. An increased interest in Mohism, which arose in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. and supported by such prominent thinkers and public figures as Tan Sitong (1865-1898), Sun Yat-sen (1866-1925), Liang Qichao (1873-1923), Lu Xun (1881-1936), Hu Shi and others, was conditioned, in - firstly, a general tendency to see in it an ancient proclamation of utilitarianism, socialism, communism, Marxism and even Christianity, which then turned into his denunciation of Guo Moruo as a fascist-type totalitarianism, and secondly, the intensification of the search for Chinese analogues of Western scientific methodology stimulated by the collision with the West.

legalism,

or "school of law", is formed in the 4-3 centuries. BC. the theoretical substantiation of the totalitarian and despotic government of the state and society, which was the first in Chinese theory to achieve the status of a single official ideology in the first centralized Qin empire (221–207 BC). Legist teaching is expressed in authentic treatises of the 4th-3rd centuries. BC. Guanzi ([Treatise] Guan teachers [Zhong]), shang jun shu (Ruler's Book [areas] shang [Gongsun Yana]), Shenzi ([Treatise] Master Shen [drunk]), Han Feizi ([Treatise] Han Fei's teachers), as well as less significant ones due to doubts about authenticity and content non-differentiation regarding the “school of names” and Taoism Dan Xi Tzu ([Treatise] Deng Xi's teachers) and Shenzi ([Treatise] Shen teacher [Dao]).

During the latent period of the 7th–5th centuries. BC. protolegist principles were worked out in practice. Guan Zhong (? - 645 BC), adviser to the ruler of the kingdom of Qi, apparently was the first in the history of China to put forward the concept of governing the country on the basis of "law" (fa), defined by him as "the father and mother of the people" ( Guanzi, Ch. 16), which was previously used only as a definition of a sovereign. Law Guan Zhong opposed not only the ruler, over whom he should rise and whom he should limit in order to protect the people from his unbridledness, but also wisdom and knowledge that distract people from their duties. To counteract vicious tendencies, Guan Zhong, also, apparently, the first, proposed the use of punishment as the main method of management: “when punishment is feared, it is easy to manage” ( Guanzi, Ch. 48).

This line was continued by Zi Chan (c. 580 - c. 522 BC), the first adviser to the ruler of the Zheng kingdom, according to Zuo Zhuang(Zhao-gun, 18, 6), who believed that "the path (tao) of Heaven is far, but the path of man is close and does not reach it." He broke the tradition of "judgment in conscience" and for the first time in China in 536 BC. codified criminal laws, ebb in metal (apparently, on tripod vessels) “code of punishments” (xing shu).

His contemporary and also a dignitary of the Zheng kingdom, Deng Xi (circa 545 - circa 501 BC) developed and democratized this undertaking by publishing the "bamboo [code of] punishment" (zhu xing). According to Dan Xi Tzu, he expounded the doctrine of state power as the sole implementation by the ruler through the "laws" (fa) of the correct correspondence between "names" (min 2) and "realities" (shi). The ruler must master a special “technique” (shu 2) of management, which involves the ability to “see with the eyes of the Celestial Empire”, “listen with the ears of the Celestial Empire”, “argue with the mind of the Celestial Empire”. Like Heaven (tian), he cannot be "generous" (hou) to people: Heaven allows natural disasters, the ruler does not do without the application of punishments. He should be “serene” (ji 4) and “closed in himself” (“hidden” - cang), but at the same time “majestic-powerful” (wei 2) and “enlightened” (min 3) regarding the lawful correspondence of “names” and "realities".

In the period from the 4th to the first half of the 3rd c. BC. on the basis of individual ideas formulated by predecessors, the practitioners of public administration, and under the influence of certain provisions of Taoism, Mohism and the "school of names", Legalism was formed into a holistic independent doctrine, which became the sharpest opposition to Confucianism. Humanism, love of the people, pacifism and ethical-ritual traditionalism of the latter were opposed by legalism to despotism, reverence for authority, militarism and legalistic innovation. From Taoism, the Legalists drew the idea of ​​the world process as a natural Way-dao, in which nature is more significant than culture, from Mohism - a utilitarian approach to human values, the principle of equal opportunities and the deification of power, and from the "school of names" - the desire for the correct balance of "names" and "reality".

These general attitudes were concretized in the works of the classics of legalism Shen Dao (c. 395 - c. 315 BC), Shen Buhai (c. 385 - c. 337 BC), Shang (Gongsun) Yang (390 -338 BC) and Han Fei (c. 280 - c. 233 BC).

Shen Dao, originally close to Taoism, later began to preach "respect for the law" (shang fa) and "respect for the power" (zhong shi), since "the people are united by the ruler, and matters are decided by the law." The name Shen Dao is associated with the promotion of the category “shi” (“imperious force”), which combines the concepts of “power” and “strength” and gives content to the formal “law”. According to Shen Dao, "It is not enough to be worthy to subjugate the people, but it is enough to have power to subdue the worthy."

Another important legalistic category of "shu" - "technique/art [management]", which defines the relationship between "law/pattern" and "power/force", was developed by the first adviser to the ruler of the kingdom of Han, Shen Buhai. Following in the footsteps of Deng Xi, he brought into legalism the ideas of not only Taoism, but also the “school of names”, reflected in his teaching on “punishments/forms and names” (xing ming), according to which “realities must correspond to names” (xun ming ze shi). Focusing on the problems of the administrative apparatus, Shen Dao called for "elevating the sovereign and belittling the officials" in such a way that all executive duties fell on them, and he, demonstrating the Celestial Empire's "non-action" (wu wei), secretly exercised control and authority.

Legist ideology reached its apogee in the theory and practice of the ruler of the Shang region in the kingdom of Qin, Gongsun Yang, who is considered the author of a masterpiece of Machiavellianism. shang jun shu. Having accepted the Mohist idea of ​​a machine-like structure of the state, Shang Yang, however, came to the opposite conclusion that it should win and, as Lao Tzu advised, fool the people, and not benefit them, because “when the people are stupid, they are easy to control » with the help of the law (ch. 26). The laws themselves are by no means inspired by God and are subject to change, since “the smart one makes laws, and the stupid one obeys them, the worthy one changes the rules of decency, and the worthless one is curbed by them” (ch. 1). “When the people overcome the law, confusion reigns in the country; when the law conquers the people, the army is strengthened” (ch. 5), so the authorities should be stronger than their people and take care of the power of the army. The people, on the other hand, must be encouraged to engage in the dual most important business - agriculture and war, thereby relieving them of innumerable desires.

Management of people should be based on an understanding of their vicious, selfish nature, the criminal manifestations of which are subject to severe punishments. “Punishment gives birth to strength, strength gives birth to power, power gives birth to greatness, greatness (wei 2) gives birth to grace/virtue (te)” (ch. 5), therefore “in an exemplarily ruled state there are many punishments and few rewards” (ch. 7). On the contrary, eloquence and intelligence, decency and music, grace and humanity, appointment and promotion lead only to vice and disorder. The most important means of combating these "poisonous" phenomena of "culture" (wen) is recognized as war, which inevitably implies iron discipline and general unification.

Han Fei completed the formation of legalism by synthesizing the system of Shang Yang with the concepts of Shen Dao and Shen Buhai, as well as introducing some general theoretical provisions of Confucianism and Taoism into it. He developed the connection between the concepts of “tao” and “principle” (li 1), which was outlined by Xun Tzu and most important for subsequent philosophical systems (especially Neo-Confucian), “Tao is that which makes the darkness of things such that determines the darkness of principles. Principles are signs (wen) that form things. Tao is that by which the darkness of things is formed. Following the Taoists, Han Fei recognized for Tao not only a universal formative (cheng 2), but also a universal generative-revitalizing (sheng 2) function. Unlike Song Jian and Yin Wen, he believed that Tao could be represented in a "symbolic" (xiang 1) "form" (xing 2). The grace (de) that embodies the Tao in a person is strengthened by inaction and lack of desires, because sensual contacts with external objects squander "spirit" (shen) and "seed essence" (ching 3). From this it follows that in politics it is useful to maintain quiet secrecy. We must surrender to our nature and our predestination, and not teach people humanity and due justice, which are as inexpressible as intelligence and longevity.

The next extremely short historical period in the development of legalism became for him historically the most significant. Back in the 4th c. BC. it was adopted in the state of Qin, and after the conquest of neighboring states by the Qin and the emergence of the first centralized empire in China, it acquired the status of the first all-Chinese official ideology, thus ahead of Confucianism, which had great rights to it. However, the illegal celebration did not last long. Having existed for only a decade and a half, but leaving a bad memory of itself for centuries, struck by utopian gigantomania, cruel servility and rationalized obscurantism, the Qin empire at the end of the 3rd century. BC. collapsed, burying under its rubble the formidable glory of legalism.

Confucianism, by the middle of the 2nd c. BC. achieved revenge in the official orthodox field, effectively taking into account previous experience through the skillful assimilation of a number of pragmatically effective principles of the Legalist doctrine of society and the state. Morally ennobled by Confucianism, these principles were implemented in the official theory and practice of the Middle Empire until the beginning of the 20th century.

Even in spite of the persistent Confucian idiosyncrasy on Legalism, in the Middle Ages, a prominent statesman, reforming chancellor and Confucian philosopher Wang Anshi (1021-1086) included in his socio-political program Legalist provisions on reliance on laws, especially punitive ones (“severe punishments for small misdemeanors"), about the encouragement of military prowess (at 2), about the mutual responsibility of officials, about the refusal to recognize the absolute priority of "ancient" (gu) over modernity.

At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century. legalism attracted the attention of reformers, who saw in it a theoretical justification for limiting the imperial omnipotence by law, consecrated by official Confucianism.

After the fall of the empire, in the 1920s–1940s, the “etatists” (guojiazhui pai) began to propagate the Legist apologetics of statehood, and, in particular, their ideologist Chen Qitian (1893–1975), who advocated the creation of “neolegism”. Kuomintang theorists led by Chiang Kai-shek (1887–1975) held similar views, declaring the legist nature of state planning of the economy and the policy of "people's welfare".

In the People's Republic of China, during the "criticism of Lin Biao and Confucius" campaign (1973–1976), the Legists were officially declared progressive reformers who fought conservative Confucians for the victory of emerging feudalism over obsolete slavery, and the ideological predecessors of Maoism.

School of Names

and the related more general tradition of bian ("eristic", "dialectic", "sophistry") in the 5th-3rd centuries. BC. accumulated in the teachings of its representatives protological and "semiotic" problems, partially touched upon in the Taoist theory of sign relativism and the verbal inexpressibility of truth, in the Confucian concept of "correcting names" (zheng ming) according to the order of things, in the Mohist, science-oriented systematics of terminological definitions and in methodological constructions of legalism connected with judicial practice.

First of all, thanks to the efforts of the philosophers of the “school of names”, as well as the later Mohists who were influenced by them and who combined Confucianism with the legalism of Xun Tzu, an original protological methodology was created in China, which in the 5th-3rd centuries. BC. a real alternative to the ultimately victorious numerology.

The leading representatives of the school were Hoi Shi (4th century BC) and Gongsun Long (4th-3rd centuries BC), however, from the numerous writings of the first of them, which, according to Chuangzi, could fill five wagons, now only a few sayings have been preserved, scattered over ancient Chinese monuments and collected mainly in the final 33rd chapter Chuangzi. According to these data, Hoi Shi appears to be the author of paradoxes designed to demonstrate the similarity (or even identity) of entities that differ in name, due to which he is considered the founder of a trend that asserted "the coincidence of similar and different" (he tong yi). Proceeding from this attitude, according to which "the whole darkness of things is both similar and different", Hoi Shi introduced the concepts of "great one", which is "so big that it has nothing outside", and "small one", which is "so small that has nothing inside." Following Zhang Binglian and Hu Shih, they are sometimes ontologically interpreted as representing space and time, respectively.

Unlike Hoi Shi, the Gongsun Long treatise, which bears his name, has survived to this day and, being mostly authentic, is the main source representing the ideas of the "school of names". hardness and whiteness ”(li jian bai) as fixed by different names of various qualities of a single thing. Gongsun Lun, like Hoi Shi, and sometimes together with him, is attributed a number of paradoxical aphorisms. Some of them are reminiscent of the aporias of Zeno of Elea: “In the swift [flight] of an arrow there is a moment of absence of both movement and stop”; “If a stick [length] of one chi is taken away daily from half, it will not be completed even after 10,000 generations.” According to Feng Yulan, Hoi Shi preached universal relativity and variability, while Gongsun Long emphasized the absoluteness and permanence of the world. He united their method of argumentation based on the analysis of the language. In its development, Gongsun Long advanced much further than Hoi Shi, trying to build a "logical-semantic" theory that syncretically connects logic and grammar and is called upon to "correct names (min 2) and realities (shi 2) to transform the Celestial Empire." Being a pacifist and a supporter of "comprehensive love" (jian ai), Gongsun Long developed the eristic aspect of his theory, hoping to prevent military conflicts through evidence-based persuasion.

The world, according to Gongsun Lun, consists of separate "things" (wu 3), which have independent heterogeneous qualities, perceived by various senses and synthesized by the "spirit" (shen 1). What makes a "thing" such is its existence as a concrete reality that must be uniquely named. The ideal of unambiguous correspondence between “names” and “realities” proclaimed by Confucius led to the emergence of the famous thesis of Gongsun Long: “A white horse is not a horse” (bai ma fei ma), expressing the difference between “names” “ White horse' and 'horse'. According to the traditional interpretation, coming from Xun Tzu, this statement denies the relation of belonging. Modern researchers often see in it: a) the denial of identity (the part is not equal to the whole) and, accordingly, the problem of the relationship between the individual and the general; b) the assertion of the non-identity of concepts based on the difference in their content; c) ignoring the volume of concepts in the accentuation of content. Apparently, this thesis of Gongsun Long testifies to the correlation of "names" not according to the degree of generality of concepts, but according to the quantitative parameters of denotations. Gongsun Long viewed the signs as naturalistically as the objects they represented, reflecting his aphorism "A rooster has three legs", implying two physical legs and the word "leg".

In general, the problem of reference was solved by Gongsun Lun with the help of the most original category in his system “zhi 7” (“finger”, nominative indication), interpreted by researchers in an extremely diverse way: “universal”, “attribute”, “attribute”, “definition”, "pronoun", "sign", "meaning". Gongsun Long revealed the meaning of "zhi 7" in paradoxical characteristics: the world as a whole multitude of things is subject to zhi 7, since any thing is available for nominative indication, but this cannot be said about the world as a whole (Celestial Empire); defining things, zhi 7 are at the same time determined by them, because they do not exist without them; the nominative indication itself cannot be nominatively indicated, and so on. The study of the treatise Gongsun Long with the help of a modern logical apparatus reveals the most important features of the cognitive methodology of ancient Chinese philosophy.

In addition to citations and descriptions in Chuang Tzu, Le Tzu, Xun Tzu, Lü Shi Chun Qiu, Han Fei Tzu and other ancient Chinese monuments, the teaching of the "school of names" is reflected in two special treatises, entitled by the names of its representatives Dan Xi Tzu and Yin Wenzi, which, however, raise doubts about their authenticity. Nevertheless, they somehow reflect the main ideas of the "school of names", although (unlike the original Gongsun Longzi), with a significant admixture of Taoism and legalism. Thus, using the simplest logical and grammatical techniques (“the art of saying” - yang zhi shu, “the doctrine of dual possibilities”, i.e. dichotomous alternatives - liang ke sho), in aphoristic and paradoxical Dan Xi Tzu the doctrine of state power is expounded as the sole implementation by the ruler through laws (fa 1) of the correct correspondence between “names” and “realities”. With the help of the Taoist antinomy of the mutual generation of opposites, the treatise proves the possibility of supersensory perception, superintelligent cognition (“seeing not with the eyes”, “hearing not with the ears”, “comprehending with the mind”) and the realization of the omnipresent Tao through “non-action” (wu wei 1). The latter implies three superpersonal "arts" (shu 2) - "seeing with the eyes of the Celestial Empire", "listening with the ears of the Celestial Empire", "reasoning with the mind of the Celestial Empire" - which the ruler must master. Like Heaven (tian), he cannot be "generous" (hou) to people: Heaven allows natural disasters, the ruler does not do without the application of punishments. He should be “serene” (ji 4) and “closed in himself” (“hidden” - cang), but at the same time “authoritative-autocratic” (wei 2) and “enlightened” (min 3) regarding the lawful correspondence of “names” and "realities".

School of dark and light [world-forming principles] specialized in natural-philosophical-cosmological and occult-numerological ( cm. XIANG SHU ZHI XUE) issues. The pair of fundamental categories of Chinese philosophy "yin yang", included in its name, expresses the idea of ​​the universal duality of the world and is concretized in an unlimited number of binary oppositions: dark - light, passive - active, soft - hard, internal - external, lower - upper, female - male, earthly - heavenly, etc. The time of occurrence and the composition of the representatives of this school, originally astrologer astrologers and natives of the northeastern coastal kingdoms of Qi and Yan, have not been precisely established. Not a single extended text of this school has survived; its ideas can be judged only by their fragmentary presentation in Shi chi, Zhou yi, Lu-shi chun qiu and some other monuments. The central concepts of the "school of dark and light [world-forming principles]" - the universal dualism of the forces of yin yang and the cyclical interactions of the "five elements » , or phases (wu xing 1) - wood, fire, soil, metal, water - formed the basis of the entire ontology, cosmology and, in general, the traditional spiritual culture and science of China (especially astronomy, medicine and the occult arts).

Probably until the middle of the 1st millennium BC. the concept of yin yang and the "five elements » , expressing various classification schemes - binary and fivefold, developed in separate occult traditions - "heavenly » (astronomical-astrological) and "terrestrial » (mantico-economic). The first tradition was primarily reflected in Zhou and, implicitly - in the canonical part i ching and explicitly in the comments and zhuan also called ten wings (Shi and). The most ancient and authoritative embodiment of the second tradition is the text Hong fan, which is sometimes denied the standard dating of the 8th c. BC. and refer to the work of representatives of the "school of dark and light [world-forming principles]" and specifically Zou Yan (4-3 centuries BC). The specificity of both traditions and the monuments reflecting them is their reliance on "symbols and numbers" (xiang shu), i.e. universal spatial-numerical models of world description.

In the second half of the 1st millennium BC, having acquired a philosophical status, these concepts merged into a single doctrine, which is traditionally considered the merit of the only known major representative of the “school of dark and light [world-forming principles]” - Zou Yan, although in the surviving universally recognized There are no obvious traces of the concept of yin yang in the evidence about his views.

Zou Yan spread the concept of "five elements » on the historical process, represented by a circular change of their primacy as "five graces » (at de, cm. DE), which greatly influenced official historiography and the ideology of the new centralized empires of Qin and Han (3rd century BC - 3rd century AD) in general. Among the ancient Chinese thinkers, the numerological idea of ​​the division of the Celestial Empire into 9 regions (jiu zhou) in the form of a nine-cell square, which was used since ancient times as a universal world-descriptive structure, was generally accepted. Mencius in connection with the development of the utopian-numerological concept of "well fields" (ching tian), or "well lands" (ching di), which was based on the image of a piece of land (field) in the form of a nine-cell square with a side of 1 li ( more than 500 m), clarified the size of the territory of the Chinese (“middle”) states (Zhong Guo). According to him, it "consists of 9 squares, the side of each of which is 1000 li" ( mencius, I A, 7). Zou Yan, on the other hand, declared this nine-cell territory (Zhong Guo) the ninth part of one of the nine world continents and, accordingly, the entire Celestial Empire. Substituting the Mencius numerical data into his scheme produces a square with a side of 27,000 li.

This numerological ternary-decimal value (3 3 ґ10 3) was transformed into the formula for the size of the Earth "within the four seas: from east to west - 28,000 li, from south to north - 26,000 li", contained in encyclopedic treatises of the 3rd-2nd centuries . BC. lu shi chun qiu(XIII, 1) and Huainanzi(Ch. 4). This formula no longer looks like a speculative numerological construction, but a reflection of the actual size of the globe, since, firstly, it corresponds to the actual oblateness of the Earth at the poles, and secondly, it contains numbers that are strikingly close to the values ​​of the earth's axes from east to west and from south to the north: here the average error slightly exceeds 1%. In the Western world, the fact that the "width" of the Earth is greater than its "height" was already stated in the 6th century. BC. Anaximander, and Eratosthenes (about 276–194 BC) calculated close to the true dimensions of the Earth. Perhaps there was an exchange of information between the West and the East, since Zou Yan was a native of the Qi kingdom, which developed maritime trade and, accordingly, foreign relations, and his scheme is ecumenical in nature, generally atypical for China, and especially of that time.

For the first time as a single teaching covering all aspects of the universe, the concepts of yin yang and the "five elements » presented in the philosophy of Dong Zhongshu (2nd century BC), who integrated the ideas of the "school of dark and light [world-forming principles]" into Confucianism, thus developing and systematizing its ontological-cosmological and methodological basis. In the future, the natural-philosophical component of the “school of dark and light [world-forming principles]” found a continuation in the Confucian tradition of canons in “new writings » (jin wen) and neo-Confucianism, and religious-occult - in the practical activities of fortunetellers, soothsayers, magicians, alchemists and healers associated with Taoism.

Military school

developed a philosophical doctrine of military art as one of the foundations of social regulation and expression of general cosmic laws. She synthesized the ideas of Confucianism, Legalism, Taoism, "the school of dark and light [world-forming principles]" and Moism. AT Han shu, in chapter and wen chih its representatives are divided into four groups of experts: strategies and tactics (quan mou), disposition of troops on the ground (xing shi), temporary and psychological conditions of war (yin yang), combat techniques (ji jiao).

The theoretical foundation of this school is the Confucian principles of attitude to military affairs, set out in Hong fan, lun yue, Xi ci zhuang: military action is the last on the scale of state affairs, but a necessary means of suppressing unrest and restoring "humanity" (ren 2), "due justice" (and 1), "decency" (li 2) and "compliance" (zhan).

The most important works representing the ideas of the “military school” are Sun Tzu(5th-4th centuries BC) and wu tzu(4th century BC). Together with five other treatises, they were combined into Heptateuch of the military canon (Wu jing qi shu), the provisions of which formed the basis of all the traditional military-political and military-diplomatic doctrines of China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam.

Compound Heptateuch of the Military Canon finally determined only in the 11th century. It includes treatises created from the 6th century. BC. to the 9th c. AD: liu tao (six plans), Sun Tzu[bean fa] (Sun teacher [about the art of war]), wu tzu[bean fa] (teacher [about the art of war]), Sima fa(Sima rules), san lue (Three strategies), Wei Liaozi, ([Treatise] Wei Liao teachers), Li Wei-gong wen dui (Dialogues [Emperor Taizong] with Wei Prince Li). In 1972, another fundamental treatise of the "military school" was found in the PRC, which was considered lost by the middle of the 1st millennium - sun bin bin fa (Sun Bin's military laws).

The worldview of the “military school” is based on the idea of ​​the cyclical nature of all cosmic processes, which are the transition of opposites into each other according to the laws of interconversion of the forces of yin yang and the circulation of the “five elements”. This general course of things is the way of "returning to the root and returning to the beginning" ( wu tzu), i.e. dao. Representatives of the "military school" put the concept of Tao at the basis of all their teachings. AT Sun Tzu Tao is defined as the first of the five foundations of military art (along with the "conditions of Heaven and Earth", the qualities of a commander and law-fa 1), consisting in the unity of the willed thoughts (and 3) of the people and the leaders. Since war is seen as "the path (tao) of deceit", the tao is associated with the idea of ​​selfish selfishness and individual cunning, which was developed in late Taoism ( yin fu jing). According to wu tzu, Tao pacifies and becomes the first in a series of four general principles of successful activity (the rest are “due justice”, “planning”, “demanding”) and “four graces” (the rest are “due justice”, “decency / etiquette”, “humanity ").

Opposites also operate in social life; “culture” (wen) and the opposition “militancy” (wu 2), “education” (jiao) and “management” (zheng 3) are interdependent in it; in some cases, it is necessary to rely on the Confucian “virtues” (de 1): “humanity”, “due justice”, “decency”, “trustworthiness” (xin 2), and in others - on the legalistic principles opposite to them: “legality” ( fa 1), “punishability” (syn 4), “usefulness/profitability” (li 3), “cunning” (gui). The military sphere is an important area of ​​state affairs, and the main thing in military art is victory without a fight, and one who does not understand the harmfulness of war is not able to understand its “usefulness / profitability”. In such a dialectic, “rulers of the destinies (min 1) of the people” are well-versed - talented and prudent commanders who, in the hierarchy of victorious factors, follow the Tao, Heaven (tian), Earth (di 2) and ahead of the law (fa 1), and therefore (as and according to the teachings of the Mohists) should be revered and not depend on the ruler.

School of vertical and horizontal [political unions], existed in the 5th-3rd centuries. BC, included theorists and practitioners of diplomacy, who worked as advisers to the rulers of the kingdoms that fought among themselves. They gained the greatest fame in this field in the 4th century BC. Su Qin and Zhang Yi, whose biographies as chapters 69 and 70 were included in the shi chi. The first of them sought to substantiate and create a coalition of states located along the “vertical” (zong) south-north in order to resist the strengthening of the Qin kingdom, in which the Legalist ideology prevailed. The second tried to solve a similar problem, but only in relation to the states located along the "horizontal" (heng) east-west, in order, on the contrary, to support Qin, which eventually prevailed and, having overcome its competitors, created the first centralized empire of Qin in China. This political and diplomatic activity determined the name of the school.

As described in Chap. 49 Han Feizi(3rd century BC), “adherents of the “vertical” rally many of the weak in order to attack one strong one, and adherents of the “horizontal” serve one strong one in order to attack the crowd of the weak.” The arguments of the first are presented in Han Feizi as moralistic: “If you do not help the small and do not punish the big, then you will lose the Celestial Empire; if you lose the Celestial Empire, you will expose the state to danger; and if you endanger the state, you will humiliate the ruler,” the argument of the latter is pragmatic: “If you do not serve the great, then the attack of the enemy will lead to misfortune.”

The theoretical basis of such an argument was a combination of the ideas of Taoism and Legalism. In Su Qin's biography shi chi it is reported that he was inspired to his activities by reading the classic Taoist treatise yin fu jing (The Canon of Secret Destiny), in which the universe is presented as an arena of general struggle and mutual "robbery".

AT shi chi it is also said that Su Qin and Zhang Yi studied with mysterious character Nicknamed Guigu-tzu, the Teacher from Nawei Gorge, about whom little is known and who is therefore sometimes identified with more specific figures, including Su Qin himself.

The pseudonym Guiguzi gave the title to a treatise of the same name attributed to him, which is traditionally dated to the 4th century BC. BC, but, apparently, it was formed or even written much later, but no later than the end of the 5th - beginning of the 6th century. Guiguzi- the only surviving work that more or less fully expresses the ideology of the "school of vertical and horizontal [political unions]".

Theoretical basis Guiguzi- the idea of ​​the genetic-substantial origin of all things - a single Tao, material ("pneumatic" - qi 1) and "principled" (li 1), but "bodily" (sin 2) not formalized initial state of which is called "refined spirit" ( shen ling). The highest regularity of Tao is the circulating ("reverse" and "reversing" - fan fu) transition from one opposite to another (bitsy). The opposite phases of the main structures of the universe - Heaven (tian) and Earth (di 2), yin and yang, "longitudinal-vertical" (zong) and "transverse-horizontal" (heng) - are summarized in the original categories of "opening" (bai) and "closing" (he 2), which, together with a similar pair of "li" (synonymous with "bai") and "he 2" from Zhou and (Xi ci zhuan, I, 11) go back to the mythological image of the gate, philosophically and poetically comprehended in Tao de jing(§ 1, 6) as a symbol of the innermost bosom of the all-begetting mother nature. Universal and constant variability according to the "opening - closing" model serves to Guiguzi theoretical substantiation of the legalistic principles of political pragmatism and utilitarianism, combined with complete autocracy. The proposed practice of manipulating people on the basis of prior encouragement and revealing their interests is designated by the term "uplifting pincers" (fei qian). But "to know other people, you must know yourself." Therefore, mastery of oneself and others presupposes "reaching the depths of the heart (xin 1)" - "the master of the spirit." "Spirit" (shen 1) is the main among the five "pneuma" of a person; the other four are “mountain soul” (hun), “downhill soul” (po), “seed soul” (jing 3), “will” (zhi 3). According to Guiguzi, names (min 2) are “born” from “realities” (shi 2), and “realities” from “principles” (li 1). Jointly expressing sensuous properties (cng 2), "names" and "realities" are interdependent, and "principles" are "born" from their harmonious "beautification" (de 1).

agricultural school

little is known now, since the works of its representatives have not been preserved. From fragmentary reports about it, it follows that the basis of its ideology was the principle of the priority of agricultural production in society and the state as the most important factor in ensuring the livelihoods of the people. Some substantiations of this principle developed by the "agrarian school" are set out in separate chapters of encyclopedic treatises of the 4th-3rd centuries. BC. Guanzi(ch. 58) and lu shi chun qiu(XXVI, 3-6).

In the catalog created by the Confucians and wen chih the main orientation of the "agricultural school" is recognized as consistent with the Confucian view of the importance of the production of food and consumer goods, reflected in Hong fan from canon Shu jing and in the saying of Confucius from Lun Yuya. However, in an earlier classical Confucian treatise mencius(III A, 4) sharply criticized the ideas of the most famous representative of the "agrarian school" Xu Xing (3rd century BC).

Xu Xing is presented as a "southern barbarian with a bird's voice" who seduced the unstable Confucians with demagogic heresy. The true “way” (tao) he preached required that all people, down to the rulers, combine their activities with self-sufficiency and self-service, doing agricultural work and cooking. Mencius rejected this position, showing that, firstly, it contradicts the basic principle of civilization - the division of labor, and secondly, it is practically unrealistic, since it is violated by its spokesman himself, wearing clothes not sewn by him, using tools not made by him, and etc.

Such an apology for subsistence farming, direct exchange of goods, determining prices by the quantity rather than the quality of goods, and in general the social equalization associated with the "agrarian school" allowed Hou Weil and Feng Yulan to hypothesize that its representatives participated in the creation of a social utopia Yes tun (Great Unity).

free school

is a philosophical trend, represented either by eclectic works of individual authors, or collections compiled from texts of representatives of various ideological trends, or encyclopedic treatises intended to be compendiums of all contemporary knowledge.

Determining the general guidelines of this school, the canonologist of the 6th–7th centuries. Yan Shigu noted the combination in it of the teachings of Confucianism and Moism, the “school of names” and Legalism. However, the special role of Taoism is also generally recognized, due to which the “free school” is sometimes qualified as “late” or “new Taoism” (xin dao jia).

Encyclopedic treatises of the 3rd-2nd centuries became classic examples of the creations of the "free school". BC. lu shi chun qiu (Spring and autumn Mr Lu [Buwei]) and Huainanzi ([Treatise] Huainan teachers).

According to legend, the content completeness of the first of them after the completion of work on the text in 241 BC. guaranteed a prize of a thousand gold coins to anyone who is able to add to it or subtract it even by one word. The authors also followed the orientation towards such comprehensiveness. Huainanzi, largely based on the vast (more than two hundred thousand words) content lu shi chun qiu.

The forerunner of both works was a 4th-century text similar in ideological and thematic diversity and size (about 130,000 words). BC. Guanzi ([Treatise] Guan teachers [Zhong]), which presents the widest range of knowledge: philosophical, socio-political, economic, historical, natural sciences and others, drawn from the teachings of various schools.

Subsequently, the hieroglyph “tsza” (“mixed, heterogeneous, combined, motley”), which is part of the name of the “free school”, began to designate the bibliographic heading “Miscellaneous” along with the classical headings: “Canons” (jing), “History” (shi), “ Philosophers" (tzu), and in modern language became a formant of the term "magazine, almanac" (tsza-zhi).

Confucianism.

Both in the “axial time” of the birth of Chinese philosophy, and in the era of “the rivalry of a hundred schools”, and even more so in subsequent times, when the ideological landscape lost such a magnificent diversity, Confucianism played a central role in the spiritual culture of traditional China, therefore its history is pivotal for the entire history of Chinese philosophy, or at least that part of it that begins with the Han era.

From its inception to the present, the history of Confucianism in its most general form is divided into four periods, and the beginning of each of them is associated with a global socio-cultural crisis, the way out of which Confucian thinkers invariably found in theoretical innovation, clothed in archaic forms.

First period: 6th–3rd centuries BC.

Primordial Confucianism arose in the “axial time”, in the middle of the 1st millennium BC, when China was torn apart by endless wars that separate decentralized states waged against each other and against “barbarians” who attacked from different sides. Spiritually, the early Zhou religious ideology was decomposing, undermined by relics of pre-Zhou (Yin) beliefs, neo-shamanistic (proto-Taoist) cults and other cultural trends brought to the Middle States by their aggressive neighbors. The reaction to this spiritual crisis was the canonization by Confucius of the ideological foundations of the early Zhou past, captured in classical texts wu jing (Pentacanony, cm. SHI SAN JING), and the result is the creation of a fundamentally new cultural education - philosophy.

Confucius advanced the ideal state structure, in which, in the presence of a sacredly ascended, but practically almost inactive ruler, the real power belongs to the ju, combining the properties of philosophers, writers, scientists and officials. From its very birth, Confucianism was distinguished by a conscious social and ethical orientation and a desire to merge with the state apparatus.

This desire was consistent with the theoretical interpretation of both state and divine (“heavenly”) power in family-related categories: “the state is one family”, the sovereign is the Son of Heaven and at the same time “father and mother of the people”. The state was identified with society, social ties - with interpersonal ones, the basis of which was seen in the family structure. The latter was derived from the relationship between father and son. From the point of view of Confucianism, the father was considered "Heaven" to the same extent that Heaven is the father. Therefore, “filial piety” (xiao 1) in a canonical treatise specially dedicated to it Xiao ching was elevated to the rank of "root of grace/virtue (de 1)".

Developing in the form of a kind of socio-ethical anthropology, Confucianism focused its attention on man, the problems of his innate nature and acquired qualities, position in the world and society, abilities for knowledge and action, etc. Refraining from his own judgments about the supernatural, Confucius formally approved the traditional belief in an impersonal, divinely naturalistic, “fateful” Heaven and the ancestral spirits (gui shen) mediating with it, which later largely determined the acquisition of the social functions of religion by Confucianism. At the same time, Confucius considered all sacred and ontological-cosmological issues related to the sphere of Heaven (tian) from the point of view of significance for a person and society. He made the focus of his teaching the analysis of the interaction between the "internal" impulses of human nature, ideally covered by the concept of "humanity" (jen 2), and "external" socializing factors, ideally covered by the concept of ethical-ritual "decency" (li 2). The normative type of a person, according to Confucius, is a “noble man” (jun tzu), who has known heavenly “predestination” (min 1) and “humane”, combining ideal spiritual and moral qualities with the right to a high social status.

Compliance with the ethical and ritual norm li 2 Confucius also made the highest epistemoprakseological principle: “One should neither look, nor listen, nor speak inappropriate 2”; "By expanding [one's] knowledge of culture (wen) and tightening it with the help of li 2 , one can avoid violations." Both ethics and gnoseopraxeology of Confucius are based on the general idea of ​​universal balance and mutual correspondence, in the first case resulting in the "golden rule" of morality (shu 3 - "reciprocity"), in the second - in the requirement of correspondence between nominal and real, word and deed (zheng min - "rectification of names"). The meaning of human existence, according to Confucius, is the affirmation in the Celestial Empire of the highest and universal form of the socio-ethical order - the "Way" (tao), the most important manifestations of which are "humanity", "due justice" (i), "reciprocity", "reasonableness" (zhi 1), "courage" (yong 1), "[respectful] caution" (ching 4), "filial piety" (xiao 1), "brotherly love" (ti 2), "self-respect", "fidelity" (zhong 2), "mercy" and others The specific embodiment of Tao in each individual being and phenomenon is "grace/virtue" (de 1). The hierarchical harmony of all individual de 1 forms the universal Tao.

After the death of Confucius, his numerous students and followers formed various directions, which by the 3rd century. BC, according to Han Fei, there were already at least eight: Zi Zhang, Zi Si, Yan Hui, Meng Zi, Qi Diao, Zhong Liang, Xun Tzu and Yue Zhang. They also developed explicit ethical and social ( Da Xue, Xiao Ching, comments on Chun qiu), and implicit ontological-cosmological ( jung yoon, Xi ci zhuan) representations of Confucius. Two holistic and opposite to each other, and therefore subsequently recognized as orthodox and unorthodox, respectively, interpretations of Confucianism in the 4th-3rd centuries. BC. suggested Mencius (Meng Ke) and Xunzi (Xun Kuan). The first of them put forward the thesis about the original “goodness” of human “nature” (sin 1), which “humanity”, “due justice”, “decency” and “reasonableness” are inherent in the same way as a person has four limbs (ti, cm. TI - YUN). According to the second, human nature is inherently evil, i.e. From birth, she strives for profit and carnal pleasures, therefore, these good qualities must be instilled in her from the outside through constant training. In accordance with his initial postulate, Mencius focused on the study of the moral-psychological, and Xun-tzu, the social and epistemoprakseological aspects of human existence. This discrepancy also affected their views on society: Mencius formulated the theory of “humane government” (ren zheng), based on the priority of the people over the spirits and the ruler, including the right of subjects to overthrow the vicious sovereign; Xun Tzu compared the ruler with the root, and the people - with the leaves and considered the task of the ideal sovereign to "conquer" his people, thereby approaching legalism.

Second period: 3rd c. BC. - 10th c. AD

The main stimulus for the formation of the so-called Han Confucianism was the desire to restore the ideological supremacy lost in the struggle against the newly formed philosophical schools, primarily Taoism and Legalism. The response was also retrograde in form and progressive in essence. With the help of ancient texts, first of all Zhou change (Zhou and) and majestic sample (Hong fan), the Confucians of this period, led by Dong Zhongshu (2nd century BC), significantly reformed their own teaching, integrating the problems of their theoretical competitors into it: the methodological and ontological Taoists and the Yin-Yang school, the political and legal - Mohists and Legists .

In the 2nd century BC, in the Han era, Confucius was recognized as the “uncrowned king”, or “true ruler” (su wang), and his teaching acquired the status of an official ideology and, having defeated the main competitor in the field of socio-political theory - legalism, integrated a number of his cardinal ideas, in particular, recognized a compromise combination of ethical and ritual norms (li 2) and administrative and legal laws (fa 1). Confucianism acquired the features of a comprehensive system thanks to the efforts of the "Confucius of the Han era" - Dong Zhongshu, who, using the relevant concepts of Taoism and the yin-yang jia school ( cm. YIN YANG), developed in detail the ontological and cosmological doctrine of Confucianism and gave it some religious functions (the doctrine of the "spirit" and "will of Heaven"), necessary for the official ideology of a centralized empire.

According to Dong Zhongshu, everything in the world comes from the “original principle” (“original cause” - yuan 1), similar to the “Great Limit” (tai chi), consists of “pneuma” (qi 1) and obeys the unchanging Tao. The action of the Tao is manifested primarily in the successive dominance of the opposing forces of yin yang and the circulation of the "mutually generating" and "mutually overcoming" "five elements" (wu xing 1). For the first time in Chinese philosophy, the binary and fivefold classification schemes - yin yang and wu xing 1 - were brought together by Dong Zhongshu into a single system covering the entire universe. "Pneuma" fills Heaven and Earth like invisible water, in which man is like a fish. He is a microcosm, to the smallest detail similar to the macrocosm (Heaven and Earth) and directly interacting with it. Like the Mohists, Dong Zhongshu endowed Heaven with a “spirit” (shen 1) and a “will” (and 3), which it, without speaking or acting (wu wei 1 , cm. WEI-ACT), manifests through the sovereign, "perfectly wise" (sheng 1) and signs of nature.

Dong Zhongshu recognized the existence of two types of fateful "predestination" (min 1): "great predestination" coming from nature and "changing predestination" coming from man (society). Dong Zhongshu presented history as a cyclical process consisting of three stages (“dynasties”), symbolized by colors - black, white, red and virtues - “devotion” (zhong 2), “respect” (xiao 1), “culture” (wen ). From here, He Xiu (2nd century) derived the historiosophical "doctrine of the three eras", popular up to the reformer Kang Yuwei (19th - early 20th century).

An important stage in the development of Confucianism was Dong Zhongshu's holistic ontological and cosmological interpretation of the social and state structure, based on the doctrine of the mutual "perception and response of Heaven and man" (tian ren gan ying). According to Dong Zhongshu, not “Heaven follows Tao”, as in Lao Tzu, but “Tao comes from Heaven”, being a link between Heaven, Earth and man. A visual embodiment of this connection is the hieroglyph "van 1" ("sovereign"), consisting of three horizontal lines (symbolizing the triad: Heaven - Earth - Man) and a vertical line crossing them (symbolizing Tao). Accordingly, the comprehension of Tao is the main function of the sovereign. The foundation of the social and state structure is made up of "three foundations" (san gan), derived from the unchanging, like Heaven, Tao: "The ruler is the foundation for the subject, the father for the son, the husband for the wife." In this heavenly "way of the sovereign" (wang dao), the first member of each pair marks the dominant yang force, the second the subordinate yin force. Such a construction, close to the position of Han Fei, reflects the strong influence of legalism on the socio-political views of Han and later official Confucianism.

In general, in the Han era (end of the 3rd century BC - beginning of the 3rd century AD), “Han Confucianism” was created, the main achievement of which was the systematization of ideas born from the “golden age” of Chinese philosophy (5–3 centuries BC), and textual and commentary processing of Confucian and Confucianized classics.

A reaction to the penetration of Buddhism into China in the first centuries AD. and the associated revival of Taoism became the Taoist-Confucian synthesis in the “doctrine of the mysterious (hidden)” (xuan xue). One of the founders and the most prominent representative of this doctrine, as well as the dialogic tradition of speculative speculations associated with it - “pure conversations” (qing tan) was Wang Bi (226-249).

In an effort to substantiate Confucian views on society and man with the help of Taoist metaphysics, and not the natural philosophy of his predecessors, the Confucians of the Han era, Wang Bi developed a system of categories that later had a significant impact on the conceptual apparatus and concepts of Chinese Buddhism and neo-Confucianism. He was the first to introduce the fundamental opposition ti - yun in the meaning: "corporal essence (substance) - active manifestation (function, accident)". Based on the definitions of Tao and the thesis “presence/being (yu) is born from absence/non-existence (y 1)” in Tao de jing(§ 40), Wang Bi identified Tao with "non-existence" (wu 1), interpreted as "one" (yi, gua), "central" (zhong 2), "ultimate" (ji 2) and "dominant" (zhu, zong) “primordial essence” (ben ti), in which the “corporeal essence” and its “manifestation” coincide with each other ( cm. Yu - U). Wang Bi understood the supremacy of the universal Tao as lawful, not fatalistic, interpreting both Tao and “predestination/fate” (min 1) with the category “principle” (li 1). He considered “principles” as constitutive components of “things” (y 3) and contrasted them with “deeds/events” (y 3). The variety of unpredictable phenomena, according to Wang Bi, is also due to the opposite (fan, cm. GUA) between their "corporeal essence" and "sensory properties" (qing 2), natural basis (zhi 4, cm. WEN) and aspirations, being realized primarily in time.

Wang Bi interpreted the teaching Zhou and as a theory of temporal processes and changes, having determined that the main elements of the treatise - the symbolic categories gua - are "times" (shi 1). However, the general procedural patterns fixed in gua are not reducible to specific images and cannot serve as a basis for unambiguous predictions - “calculations of the lot” (suan shu). This is a philosophical interpretation of the doctrine Zhou and was directed against its mantic interpretation in the previous numerological (xiang shu zhi xue) tradition and was further continued by the neo-Confucian Cheng Yi (11th century). In neo-Confucianism, the interpretation of the category li 1 proposed by Wang Bi was also developed, and the provision on the dichotomy of li 1 and shi 3 was developed in the teaching of the Buddhist school of Huayan.

The gradual growth of both the ideological and social influence of Buddhism and Taoism caused a desire to restore the prestige of Confucianism. The forerunners of this movement, which resulted in the creation of neo-Confucianism, were Wang Tong (584-617), Han Yu (768-824) and his student Li Ao (772-841).

Third period: 10th–20th centuries

The emergence of neo-Confucianism was caused by another ideological crisis, due to the confrontation of official Confucianism with a new competitor - Buddhism, as well as Taoism transformed under its influence. In turn, the popularity of these teachings, especially in their religious and theological incarnations, was determined by the socio-political cataclysms that took place in the country. The response of the Confucians to this challenge was the promotion of original ideas with references to the founders of their teachings, primarily Confucius and Mencius.

Neo-Confucianism set itself two main and interrelated tasks: the restoration of authentic Confucianism and the solution with its help, based on an improved numerological methodology, of a complex of new problems put forward by Buddhism and Taoism.

Unlike original Confucianism, Neo-Confucianism is based mainly on the texts of Confucius, Mencius and their closest students, and not on proto-philosophical canons. His new approach embodied in the formation Quaternary (sy shu), which most adequately reflects the views of these first Confucian philosophers. During the period of the formation of neo-Confucianism, the normative form thirteencanony (Shi San Jing) the ancient proto-philosophical classics were also covered. The first place in it was taken by the methodological "organon" - Zhou and, which outlines numerological ideas, fully explicated (including by means of graphic symbols) and developed in neo-Confucianism. Neo-Confucians actively developed ontological, cosmological and epistemological-psychological problems, much less developed in the original Confucianism. Borrowing some abstract notions and concepts from Taoism and Buddhism, neo-Confucianism assimilated them through ethical interpretation. The moral dominant of Confucianism in Neo-Confucianism turned into ethical universalism, within which any aspect of being was interpreted in moral categories, which was expressed through consistent mutual identifications of human (“humanity”, “[individual] nature”, “heart”) and natural (“Heaven ”, “predestination”, “grace/virtue”) entities. Modern interpreters and successors of neo-Confucianism (Mou Zongsan, Du Weiming and others) define this approach as "moral metaphysics" (dao-te de xing-er-shang-xue), which is at the same time theology.

The Neo-Confucian ideology began to be created by "three masters of the doctrine of the principle" - Sun Fu, Hu Yuan (late 10th - 11th century) and Shi Jie (11th century), for the first time it acquired a systematized and thematically comprehensive form in the writings of Zhou Dunyi (1017 - 1073). The leading trend in neo-Confucianism was the direction of its followers and commentators, namely the school of Cheng Yi (1033-1107) - Zhu (1130-1200), originally opposed to the official ideology, but canonized in 1313 and retained such a status in China until the beginning of the 20th century.

According to the extremely lapidary treatise of Zhou Dunyi tai chi tu sho, (Explanation of the Plan of the Great Limit) the whole diversity of the world: the forces of yin yang, the “five elements” (wu xing 1, in the treatise are called “five pneuma” - wu qi), four seasons and up to the “darkness of things” (wan wu), as well as good and evil (shan - e), "five constancy" (wu chang, called "five natures" - wu xing 3) and up to the "darkness of deeds" (wan shi, cm. LI-PRINCIPLE; Y-THING; WEI-ACT), - comes from the "Great Limit" (tai chi). That, in turn, follows the "Boundless", or "Limit of absence / non-existence" (wu chi). The term “wu chi”, which allows a double understanding, arose in the original Taoism ( Dao Te Ching, § 28), and the correlative term “tai chi” in Confucianism ( Xi ci zhuan, I, 11). The generative function of the “Great Limit” is realized through mutually conditioning and replacing each other “movement” and “rest” (ching 2, cm. DONG - JING). The latter has priority, which coincides with the principles and formulas of the original Taoism ( Dao Te Ching, § 37; Chuangzi, Ch. 13). For a person, the agentless and motionless essence of the universe, that is, “wu chi”, manifests itself as “authenticity / sincerity” (cheng 1). This category, which combines ontological (“the path of Heaven”, DAO) and anthropological (“the path of man”) sense, was put forward by the first Confucians (in Mencius, Zhong Yune, Xunzi, 4-3 centuries BC), while Zhou Dunyi in Tong shu (book of penetration) took center stage. Determining the highest good (zhi shan) and "perfect wisdom" (sheng 1), "authenticity/sincerity" ideally requires "the supremacy of peace" (zhu jing), that is, the absence of desires, thoughts, deeds. The main theoretical achievement of Zhou Dunyi is the reduction of the most important Confucian categories and related concepts into a universal (from cosmology to ethics) and extremely simple, based primarily on Zhou and worldview system, within which not only Confucian, but also Taoist-Buddhist issues were covered.

Zhu Xi interpreted the connection between the “Great Limit” (tai chi) and the “Infinite / Limit of Absence” described by Zhou Dunyi (wu chi, cm. tai chi; Yu - Wu) as their essential identity, using for this purpose developed by Cheng Yi the concept of a universal global "principle / reason" (li 1). Tai chi, according to Zhu Xi, is the totality of all li 1 , the total unity of structures, ordering principles, patterns of the entire “darkness of things” (wan wu). In each specific "thing" (at 3), i.e. object, phenomenon or deed, tai chi is present in full, like the image of the moon - in any of its reflections. Therefore, without separating from the real world as an ideal entity, the "Great Limit" was defined as "formless and placeless", i.e. nowhere localized as an independent form. The fullness of its presence in “things” makes the main task of a person their “reconciliation”, or “classifying comprehension” (ge wu), which consists in “perfect [disclosure] of principles” (qiong li). This procedure of "bringing knowledge to the end" (zhi zhi) should result in "sincerity of thoughts", "straightness of the heart", "perfection of the personality", and then - "straightness of the family", "orderliness of the state" and "balance [of the whole] Celestial » (formulas Da xue), because whether 1 combines the features of a rational principle and a moral norm: “a real principle has no evil”, “the principle is humanity (jen 2), due justice (i 1), decency (li 2), reasonableness (zhi 1 )". Each “thing” is a combination of two principles: a structural-discrete, rational-moral “principle” (li 1) and a substrate-continuous, vital-sensory, mental, morally indifferent pneuma (chi 1). Physically they are inseparable, but logically does 1 take precedence over qi 1 . Having adopted Cheng Yi's distinction between "extremely root, completely original nature" (ji ben qiong yuan zhi xing) and "pneumatic matter nature" (qi zhi zhi xing), linking them to li 1 and qi 1, respectively, Zhu Xi finally formed the concept from the very beginning. -general “good” human “nature” (syn 1), which has secondary and specific modes, which are characterized by “good” and “evil” to varying degrees.

The teachings of Cheng Yi - Zhu Xi were supported by the foreign Manchu Qing dynasty (1644-1911), which ruled in the last period of the imperial history of China. In the 1930s, it was modernized by Feng Youlan (1895–1990) into the "new doctrine of principle" (xin li xue). Similar attempts are now being actively made by a number of Chinese philosophers living outside the PRC and representing the so-called post-Confucianism, or post-neo-Confucianism.

The main competition for this trend in neo-Confucianism was the school of Lu Jiuyuan (1139-1193) - Wang Yangming (1472-1529), which ideologically prevailed in the 16-17 centuries. The rivalry between the Cheng-Zhu and Lu-Wang schools, which defended, respectively, sociocentric objectivism and personacentric subjectivism, which is sometimes qualified through the opposition “the doctrine of the principle” (li xue) – “the doctrine of the heart” (xin xue), spread to Japan and Korea, where , as in Taiwan, in updated forms continues to this day. In the struggle of these schools, the opposition of externalism (Xun-tzu - Zhu Xi, who only formally canonized Meng-tzu) and internalism (Meng-tzu - Wang Yangming), original for Confucianism, was revived at a new theoretical level, which in neo-Confucianism took shape in opposite orientations to the object or subject , the external world or the inner nature of a person as a source of comprehension of the “principles” (li 1) of everything that exists, including moral norms.

All Lu Jiuyuan's reasoning was permeated with the general idea of ​​such an isomorphic unity of subject and object, in which each of them is a complete analogue of the other: "The universe is my heart, my heart is the universe." Since the "heart" (blue 1), i.e. the psyche of any person, according to Lu Jiuyuan, contains all the "principles" (li 1) of the universe, any knowledge can and should be introspective, and morality - autonomous. The idea of ​​the absolute self-sufficiency of each individual also determined Lu Jiuyuan's neglect of doctrinal scholarship: “Six canons should comment on me. Why should I comment on the six canons?” Confucian orthodoxy criticized these views as Ch'an Buddhism in disguise. For his part, Lu Jiuyuan saw Taoist-Buddhist influence in Zhu Xi's identification of the Confucian interpretation of the "Great Limit" (tai chi) with the Taoist doctrine of "Infinite/Limit of Absence" (wu chi).

Like Lu Jiuyuan, Wang Yangming also saw in the Confucian canons ( cm. SHI SAN JING) is nothing more than exemplary material evidence of the absolute truths and values ​​contained in the soul of every person. The fundamental thesis of this teaching is: “the heart is the principle” (xin chi li), i.e. Li 1 - the structure-forming beginnings of everything that exists - are initially present in the psyche. The "principles" to be revealed by "reconciling things" (ge wu) are to be found in the subject himself, and not in an external world independent of him. The concept of "li 1" stood in Wang Yangming on a par with the ethical ideals of "due justice" (i 1), "decency" (li 2), "trustworthiness" (xin 2), etc. Wang Yangming reinforced this position with the authority of the Confucian canons, interpreting them accordingly.

A specific element of Wang Yangming's system of views is the doctrine of "coinciding unity of knowledge and action" (zhi xing he yi). It involves the understanding of cognitive functions as actions, or movements, and the interpretation of behavior as a direct function of knowledge: knowledge is action, but not vice versa. This doctrine, in turn, defines the essence of the main category of Wang Yangming's teaching - "prudence" (liang zhi). His thesis of "bringing wisdom to the end" (zhi liang zhi) is a synthesis of the concepts of "bringing knowledge to the end" (zhi zhi) from the Confucian canon Da xue and “prudence” (translation options are “innate knowledge”, “natural knowledge”, “ intuitive knowledge"," preexperienced moral knowledge» etc.) from mencius. "Prudence" - "what [a person] knows without reasoning", in mencius parallel to the concept of "well-being" (liang neng), covering "what [a person] is capable of without learning." For Wang Yangming, “prudence” is identical to “heart” and has a wide semantic range: “soul”, “spirit”, “cognition”, “knowledge”, “feelings”, “will”, “consciousness” and even “subconsciousness”. It is self-originating and without prerequisites, supra-individual, inherent in everyone and at the same time intimate, cannot be transferred to others; is identified with the inexhaustible and infinitely accommodating "Great Void" (tai xu), conditions all knowledge and cognition; is the focus of "heavenly principles" (tian li), the basis of an innate moral sense and moral duty. Thus, the Confucian thesis of “bringing knowledge to the end”, which in the Zhuxian tradition was interpreted as a call for the maximum expansion of knowledge (to the “exhaustion of principles” - qiong li), Wang Yangming interpreted with the use of the category of “prudence” and the position of “coinciding unity knowledge and action” as the most complete embodiment of the highest moral ideals.

The epistemological views of Wang Yangming found a condensed expression in the “four postulates” (si ju zong zhi): “The absence of both good and evil is the essence (literally: “body” - ti 1 , cm. TI - YUN) hearts. The presence of good and evil - such is the movement of thoughts. The knowledge of good and evil is prudence. Doing good and eliminating evil is the alignment of things.” Prior to Wang Yangming, Neo-Confucians offered solutions to the question of the "heart" and its activities, focusing mainly on the resting, unmanifested "essence of the heart." This strengthened the position of the schools that preached meditation, self-care. In contrast to this trend, Wang Yangming, justifying the unity of “substance and function” (ti-yong), “movement and rest” (tung-jing), “non-manifestation [of the spiritual state] and manifestation” (wei fa – and fa), etc. etc., made a conclusion about the need for active practical activity and the perniciousness of leaving life.

He rejected the concept of consciousness of the Buddhist Chan school, believing, in particular, that the demand for liberation from "attachment" to the phenomenal world and a return to the indistinguishability of good and evil leads to detachment from social and ethical duties and attachment to the egoistic "I". Ascending to the disciple of Huineng (638–713), Shenhui (868–760), the concept of “lack of thought” as the return of the spirit to the original state of “calmness” is untenable, since “prudence” cannot but “be aware” even in a dream. Huineng's doctrine of "instant enlightenment" - spontaneous comprehension of one's own "Buddha nature", according to Wang Yangming, is based on "vacuum emptiness" (kun xu) and is not associated with real spiritual progress - "bringing knowledge to the end", "making thoughts sincere" and "correction of the heart." At the same time, the teachings of Wang Yangming and Ch'an Buddhism have many points of contact, including a common setting for a purposeful change in the psychology of adherents, a resonant interaction between the minds of a teacher and a student.

From the two main trends in neo-Confucianism, the Cheng-Zhu and Lu-Wang schools, two narrower currents separated from the very beginning: representatives of the first showed increased attention to natural philosophical problems and numerological ( cm. XIANG SHU ZHI XUE) constructions (Shao Yong, 11th century; Cai Jiufeng, 12th–13th centuries; Fang Yizhi, Wang Chuanshan, 17th century), representatives of the second emphasized the social and utilitarian significance of knowledge (Lu Zuqian, Chen Liang, 12 c.; Ye Shi, 12th-13th centuries; Wang Tingxiang, 15th-16th centuries; Yan Yuan, 17th - early 18th century).

In the 17th–19th centuries the dominant teachings of Cheng-Zhu and Lu-Wang were attacked by the "empirical" school, which emphasized the experimental study of nature and the critical study of classical texts, taking the textual criticism of Han Confucianism as a model, thanks to which it received the name "Han teaching" (han xue). The forerunner of this trend, now also called the "teaching of nature" or "concrete teaching" (pu xue), was Gu Yanwu (1613-1682), and the largest representative was Dai Zhen (1723-1777). The further development of neo-Confucianism, starting with Kang Yuwei (1858-1927), is associated with attempts to assimilate Western theories.

Gu Yanwu advocated the study and restoration of "authentic" Confucianism ("teachings of the wise" - sheng xue) in the oldest orthodox interpretation developed in the Han era. In this regard, he advocated the introduction of new, higher standards of accuracy and usefulness of knowledge. The need for empirical validity and practical applicability of knowledge in the general ontological plan, Gu Yanwu concluded from the fact that “there is no place for Tao outside of tools (qi 2)”, i.e. outside the concrete phenomena of reality. "The way-teaching (tao) of the wise" he defined two formulas of Confucius from Lun Yuya: "expansion of knowledge in culture (wen)" and "preservation of a sense of shame in one's actions", thus uniting epistemology with ethics. In contrast to Huang Zongxi (1610–1695), in the dilemma “laws or people”, Gu Yanwu considered the human factor to be decisive: the abundance of legal norms is detrimental, because it obscures morality. "The straightening of people's hearts and the improvement of morals" can be achieved through the free expression of public opinion - "frank discussions" (qing yi).

Dai Zhen developed the methodology of "[philologically] evidence-based research" (kao ju), basing the explication of ideas on the analysis of the terms expressing them. He expounded his own views in textual commentaries on the Confucian classics, opposing them to the commentaries of previous Confucians distorted, in his opinion, by Taoist-Buddhist influences.

The main trend of Dai Zhen's theoretical constructions is the desire to harmonize the most general conceptual oppositions as a reflection of the universal and harmonious integrity of the world. coming from Xi ci zhuang(commentary part Zhou and) and the opposition, fundamental for neo-Confucianism, of the “above-form” (xing er shang) dao to the “under-form” (xing er xia) “tools” (qi 2), he interpreted as a temporary, rather than a substantial difference in the states of a single “pneuma” (qi 1): on the one hand, constantly changing, “generating generations” (sheng sheng) according to the laws of the forces of yin yang and the “five elements” (wu xing 1) and, on the other hand, already taking shape in many specific stable things. Dai Zhen substantiated the inclusion of the "five elements" in the concept of "tao" by defining the last term, which has the lexical meaning "way, road", using the etymological component of the hieroglyph "dao" - a graphic element (in another spelling - an independent hieroglyph) "sin 3" ( “movement”, “action”, “behavior”), which is included in the phrase “wu xing 1”. The “[individual] nature” (xing 1) of every thing, according to Dai Zhen, is “natural” (zi zhan) and is determined by “good” (shan), which is generated by “humanity” (ren 2), is ordered by “decency” (li 2 ) and is stabilized by "due fairness" (and 1). Cosmologically, "good" manifests itself in the form of Tao, "grace" (de 1) and "principles" (li 1), and anthropologically - in the form of "predestination" (min 1), "[individual] nature" and "capabilities" (cai ).

Dai Zhen opposed the early (Song Dynasty, 960–1279) Neo-Confucian canonization of "principles" against "feelings" (qing 2) and "desires" (yu), arguing that "principles" are inseparable from "feelings" and "desires". ".

"Principle" is that unchanging thing that is specific to the "[individual] nature" of every person and every thing, the highest object of knowledge. Unlike previous neo-Confucians, Dai Zhen believed that "principles" are not explicitly present in the human psyche - the "heart", but are revealed through in-depth analysis. People's cognitive abilities, according to Dai Zhen, differ like fires with different luminous intensity; these differences are partly offset by training. Dai Zhen substantiated the priority of the empirical-analytical approach both in knowledge and in practice.

The fourth period

- the last and incomplete, which began in the 20th century. Post-Confucianism that arose at that time was a reaction to global catastrophes and global information processes, expressed, in particular, in the rooting of heterogeneous Western theories in China. For their innovative rethinking, post-Confucians again turned to the old arsenal of Confucian and neo-Confucian constructions.

The last, fourth form of Confucianism is most different from all the others, primarily because extremely alien spiritual material has fallen into the sphere of its integrative intentions.

Since the end of the 19th century The development of Confucianism in China is somehow connected with attempts to assimilate Western ideas (Kang Yuwei) and the return from the abstract problems of Sung-Ming neo-Confucianism and Qing-Han textology to the specific ethical and social themes of the original Confucianism. In the first half of the 20th century, especially in the confrontation between the teachings of Feng Yulan and Xiong Shili, the intra-Confucian opposition of externalism and internalism, respectively, revived at a higher theoretical level, combining neo-Confucian and partly Buddhist categories with knowledge of European and Indian philosophy, which allows researchers to talk about the emergence in this is the time of a new, historically fourth (after the original, Han and neo-Confucian) form of Confucianism - post-Confucianism, or rather, post-neo-Confucianism, based, like the two previous forms, on the assimilation of foreign and even foreign cultural ideas. Modern Confucians, or post-neo-Confucians (Mou Zongsan, Tang Junyi, Du Weiming and others), see in the ethical universalism of Confucianism, which interprets any layer of being in a moral aspect and gave rise to the “moral metaphysics” of Neo-Confucianism, see an ideal combination of philosophical and religious thought.

In China, Confucianism was the official ideology until 1912 and dominated spiritually until 1949; today a similar position has been preserved in Taiwan and Singapore. After the ideological defeat in the 1960s (the campaign of "criticism of Lin Biao and Confucius"), since the 1980s, it has been successfully revived in the PRC as a carrier of a national idea waiting to be claimed.

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Dr. India . In the Vedas and Upanishads (the first sacred books of India of the 12th - 7th centuries BC), along with religious ideas, there are speculative ideas about a single and multi-component world order (Rita, the Legend of Purusha), an integral spiritual substance (Brahman), individual soul (Atman), rebirth of souls (their immortality), according to the law of retribution (Karma).

Difference between canonical schools Indian philosophy (Vedanta, Samkhya, yoga, Vaisheshika, Mimamsa) and non-canonical(Jainism and Buddhism) lies in the fact that from the point of view of the latter, the intuitive experience of a particular person directly reveals the truth and forms the basis of an abstract system, and from the point of view of the former, personal experience acquires legitimacy only based on the texts of revelations that are set forth in the Vedas.

Religious and philosophical teachings of that time received mainly ethical orientation. Acquired the greatest fame Buddhism which later became a world religion. The main idea of ​​Buddhism: release from suffering(understood early Buddhism as a psychological reality) by nirvana ( letters. "fading", "cooling down" ), when a person, having lost all connections with the outside world, the idea of ​​his own Self, his own thoughts, merges with the unchanging and inexpressible fullness of being, like a drop falls into the ocean. Nirvana - it is spiritual peace without tension and conflict.

Since the main task of Indian philosophy was moksha (salvation), i.e. in liberation from the circle of rebirths ( samsara), then the ancient Indian philosophers paid extremely little attention to everything external, empirical, transient, i.e., to nature and society. The result of this is the weak development of theoretical natural science and sociology in ancient India. The focus on the “I”, the use of various psychotechnics in order to leave this imperfect world, to merge with the fundamental principle of being, left most philosophers indifferent to changes in the social world and the natural environment of a person.

Opposition to Buddhism was the Charvak school. The philosophers of this school believed that the only reality is matter. Everything that exists in the world consists of four elements (water, earth, air, fire). The goal of human life is enjoyment, not the renunciation of desires.

Dr. China. Peculiar culture and philosophy of ancient China . The Chinese people are a mysterious and unique phenomenon in history: the oldest of all existing, it was already in ancient times one of the educated and cultured peoples. But, having reached a certain degree of civilization, they settled on it and up to the present time have kept it almost unchanged. Traditionalism as a feature of Chinese civilization retains its significance to this day.

Another Chinese feature was its geographical isolation. China was fenced off from the whole world by mountains, deserts and seas. The Chinese themselves called their country the Celestial Empire, and considered themselves the highest race and despised the peoples neighboring them.

The Chinese state throughout its history has been a typical oriental despotism. At the head of the state is an autocratic ruler with unlimited power, which was inherited. All Chinese, regardless of their social level, were considered servants of the king.

The life of the Chinese is strictly ritualized and regulated. Differences between strata of society were reflected in everything: lifestyle, clothing, and even nutrition. The patriarchal way of life, the widely developed cult of ancestors, religious beliefs influenced the formation of philosophical thinking.

It should be noted that in Dr. China mythology was poorly developed. The ancient Chinese were too practical people for that.

Philosophy in China arises in the period of VIII - III centuries. BC. This is the period of "warring kingdoms", at the same time it is often called the "golden age of Chinese philosophy". During this period, six main philosophical schools developed freely and creatively, among which the most popular were Taoism and Confucianism.

Most schools were dominated practical philosophy associated with the problems of worldly wisdom, morality, management. In addition, Chinese philosophy is not systematized, since it was little connected even with the science that was in ancient China. It was characterized by a weak development of ancient Chinese logic, a low level of rationalization.

Main schools - Confucianism and Taoism.

Confucianism. Kung Fu Tzu (Confucius) is considered to be the founder of ancient Chinese philosophy. He was a historian and statesman, the founder of the doctrine, which is a philosophy of morality, dressed in a religious form. Confucius was canonized by the state as a saint.

Confucius bowed to ancient books and to antiquity in general. For most of his life, he organized and compiled a commentary on the Book of Changes.

The ethical principle of Confucius's views found its expression in the corresponding statements and teachings. The main principles of the ethical teachings of Confucius were considered to be the following:

• reciprocity (do not do to another what you do not wish yourself (“The Golden Rule of Morality”);
• philanthropy (veneration of parents, cult of ancestors);
• restraint and caution in actions (condemnation of inactivity, extremism and conciliation).

Confucians sought to comprehend the problem of a person's place in the life of society and considered the possibilities of becoming a person as a citizen, changing society for the better. But a positive model of these changes is seen not in the future, but in samples of respectable antiquity (the legend of the golden age). That is why Confucianism attaches great importance to ritual, the etiquette of tradition.

Based on his moral principles, Confucius developed the rules for governing the state. This management was likened to them driving a chariot: a just, educated emperor rules, officials - reins, law and morality - a bridle, criminal punishment - reins, people - horses.

He considers the family to be the model of the state structure. The father is the sovereign, the subjects are the children. Confucius opposed excessive violence. "Skillfully hold the reins, the horses will run on their own."

Taoism. The founder is traditionally considered Lao Tzu. Taoism is based on an ancient worldview belonging to the East, according to which the supreme eternal spiritual being is recognized as the root cause of everything that exists, and human souls are an outpouring (emanation) of this being.

Basic concepts:

DAO- has two meanings:

1) the substance from which the whole world originated, the beginning, which was an energetically capacious void. Tao means all. It has neither name nor form; inaudible, invisible, incomprehensible, indefinable, but perfect. It is the root of everything, the mother of all things.

2) the path along which man and nature must go, the universal world law that ensures the existence of the world. Lao Tzu is looking for ways to harmonize between man and Tao. A person who is able to merge with the Tao (the path) and abandon the cares of society will be happy and healthy and live a long life.

DE (virtue) is a manifestation of the Tao. "The image of Tao is invisible when it works, when it benefits people."

wu wei- renunciation of activities that conflict with the natural laws of nature, and, therefore, require struggle.

As applied to the ruler (and the Chinese thinkers always gave them advice), it sounds like this: "He who serves the head of the people through the Tao does not conquer other countries with the help of troops, for this can turn against him." War, from the point of view of the Chinese, is a violation of the Tao.

Lao Tzu rejected the ethical principles of Confucius, calling for humility, compassion and ignorance. The highest virtue, in his opinion, is inaction and silence.

The main ideas of the philosophy of Taoism:

- everything in the world is interconnected, there is not a single thing, not a single phenomenon that would not be interconnected with other things and phenomena;

- the matter of which the world consists is one; there is a circulation of matter in nature: everything comes from the earth and goes into the earth, i.e. today's man yesterday was embodied in the form of other forms that exist in the universe - stone, wood, parts of animals, and after death, what a person consisted of will become a building material for other forms of life or natural phenomena;

- the world order, the laws of nature, the course of history are unshakable and do not depend on the will of man, therefore, the main principle of human life is peace and non-action (“wu-wei”);

- the person of the emperor is sacred, only the emperor has spiritual contact with the gods and higher powers; through the personality of the emperor, “De”, life-giving power and grace, descends to China and all of humanity; the closer a person is to the emperor, the more "De" will pass from the emperor to him;

- to know "Tao" and get "Te" is possible only with full observance of the laws of Taoism, merging with the "Tao" - the origin, obedience to the emperor and proximity to him;

- the path to happiness, knowledge of the truth - liberation from desires and passions;

- it is necessary to yield to each other in everything.

Lao Tzu rejected the ethical principles of Confucius, calling for humility and compassion and ignorance. The highest virtue, in his opinion, is inaction and silence.

Chinese philosophy does not recognize the value of the individual. It teaches the individual not to stand out, not to isolate himself, emphasizing the idea of ​​the connection of everything that exists. The anxious well-being of a particular individual is of little concern to the Chinese thinker. The main thing for the Chinese philosopher is the reasonable arrangement of the cosmos, the state. Chinese philosophy clearly lacks human content. "She's pretty much superhuman." (P.S. Gurevich.)

China is very ancient country, which has not only a rich culture, but is also distinguished by its philosophy. It should be noted that even Kipling noted that the west and east will never come together, they are so different. It is the ancient Chinese philosophy that makes it possible to clearly demonstrate the difference in culture and traditions of the two corners of the world.

Briefly about the philosophy of ancient China

For the countries of the East, Chinese philosophy turned out to be the same catalyst for the development of thought and culture, which was the philosophy of ancient Greece for the rest of the civilized world.

The basis of the philosophy of ancient China was the principle of the trinity of the universe, which, according to Chinese philosophers, included heaven, earth and man. At the same time, the entire universe consists of a special energy called "Tsy", which in turn is divided into female and masculinity- yin and yang.

The specifics of the philosophy of ancient China lies in the fact that at the dawn of its appearance, the representation of reality and the construction of the worlds had a religious and mythological structure, and all the main characters were spirits and gods of a zoomorphic nature.

If we talk about the features of the development of the philosophical school, then the most significant in comparison with the rest philosophical currents, a feature was the cult of ancestors, suggesting the acceptance of the fact of the influence of those who had gone to another world on the fate of the living generation. At the same time, the duties of the spirits were to take care of the living.

The second difference is the understanding of the world as a constant interaction of two principles - female and male. According to beliefs and thinking, at the time of the creation of things, the Universe was represented by chaos, while there was no division into heaven and earth. The birth of two spirits - yin and yang, which began to streamline chaos, led to the division of the universe into two unities, heaven and earth. Accordingly, yang became the patron of the sky, and yin became the patron of the earth. Such a worldview demonstrates the infancy of the existing natural philosophy.

Also, for a more complete understanding of Chinese philosophy, it should be borne in mind that China is a world of culture of the right hemisphere, which implies a completely different perception of reality. Right-brain cultures focus on visuals, religious experiences, music, and hypnosis. People of such cultures even hear and perceive sounds in a different way, since their understanding of the world occurs through specific and single images.

Philosophical thinking in China includes four concepts:

1. Holism, which is expressed in the harmonious unity of man and the world. Man and nature are not opposing subjects, but are an integral structure striving for harmony;
2. Intuitiveness. According to ancient Chinese philosophers, the earthly essence cannot be understood through a series of specific concepts or reflected in the semantics of the language. It can only be known through intuitive insight;
3. Symbolism. As tools for thinking, ancient Chinese philosophy used xingxiang, which means images;
4. Tiyan. The fullness of the principles of the macrocosm could only be comprehended with the help of a serious cognitive act, which included cognition, emotional experiences and volitional impulses. Also, the leading role in this scheme was given to moral consciousness.

Philosophical schools of ancient China

The philosophy of ancient China was based on two main teachings that had common features, but differed in the details of worldview judgments.

Philosophy of Ancient China: Confucianism. The first of the schools, which is the most famous today and has a large number of followers. Its founder is considered to be Confucius or Kung Fu Tzu in Chinese transcription. This great thinker designated nobility, humanism and strict adherence to the rules of conduct and rituals as the main postulates of his teaching. At the same time, his philosophy affected the administration of the state. Confucius had a sharply negative attitude towards the imposition of strict laws, believing that people would violate them a priori. Rule should be exercised on the basis of personal example, which will make people understand and realize the shame of their own transgressions.

Philosophy of Ancient China: Taoism. Another trend that also has multiple followers. Its founder is also a real person named . The very concept of Tao means versatility, which includes a common unity, infinity of movement and the universal Law. Tao is a universal beginning and a universal end. And the main thing in this teaching is that a person must strive all his life to merge with the Tao, since only this will lead to harmony, otherwise there will be misfortunes and death.