What is the development process of the history of Chinese philosophy?

The history of Chinese philosophy, which corresponds to the stage of Chinese social and historical development, has experienced in the academic tradition the pre-Qin scholars’ studies, the Confucian classics of the Han Dynasty, the metaphysics of the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the Buddhism of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the Neo-Confucianism of the Song and Ming Dynasties, the plain (simple) studies of the Qing Dynasty, and the new studies of modern times.

and modern Marxist philosophy and other major stages of development.

Chinese philosophy initially gradually differentiated from primitive religion.

As early as primitive society (about 1.7 million years ago to 2100 BC), the germ of philosophy was already gestating.

Primitive man understood the natural world through his own labor and had the basis for the germination of materialism.

Mainly reflected in the concept of Yin Yang and Five Elements.

As far back as 1,000 BC, based on the development of agriculture and animal husbandry, people had the concept of time in the present, past, and future. They called the present day "today", the past days "past", and a certain day within ten days as "past".

"Yi" (yì, tomorrow), a day in the next ten days is "coming".

At the same time, in order to distinguish land, carry out commercial transportation and military expeditions, people also had the concept of space in the five directions of east, west, south, north and center.

On the basis of the development of production, in addition to the concept of time and space, people also developed the original concept of yin and yang and the five elements.

The concept of yin and yang is recorded in the Book of Changes.

People have long observed natural phenomena such as heaven and earth, wind and thunder, water and fire, mountains and swamps, as well as human reproductive phenomena, and thus summarized the opposition between heaven and earth, thunder and wind, water and fire, mountains and swamps.

Observe birds and beasts, there are females and males; observe vegetation, there are males and females; observe humans, there are males and females.

Therefore, the opposition of Yin (——) and Yang (——) is regarded as the universal and fundamental opposition in the universe.

The concept of the Five Elements is recorded in "Shang Shu·Zhou Shu·Hong Fan".

The so-called five elements: the first is water, the second is fire, the third is wood, the fourth is metal, and the fifth is earth.

These reflect people's understanding of the five material materials necessary for food, clothing, housing and transportation and their performance, and have materialistic elements.

It can be said that the concept of Yin Yang and Five Elements is the germ of China's primitive and simple materialism and dialectics.

However, due to low productivity and poor knowledge, they were helpless in the face of natural disasters, which gave rise to primitive religious concepts, such as various beliefs about heaven, earth, sun, moon, wind, rain, mountains, water, birds, beasts, etc.

Worship and worship of ancestors and gods have the germination of philosophical thoughts.

However, philosophy, as a systematic and theoretical doctrine for understanding the entire universe, as a relatively complete world view recorded in writing, could only be produced in a slave society.

In the early slave state-Deishang (about 1562 BC), there was a written classic "Shang Shu".

Chinese historians have unanimously concluded that the Shang (Yin) Dynasty was the era of slavery in Chinese history. The subsequent chapters of "Shang Shu·Shang Shu·Pangeng" and the oracle bone inscriptions unearthed in Xiaotun of the Yin Ruins are China's earliest written historical materials.

"The Book of Songs: Song of Shang" says: "The emperor established his son and gave birth to Shang." The rulers of the Shang Dynasty considered themselves to be descendants of God and managed their subjects on behalf of God.

When the Zhou Dynasty destroyed the Shang Dynasty, the rulers of the Zhou Dynasty declared: "King Pi Xianwen was blessed by the destiny of heaven." ("Da Yu Ding") This means that Wen Gong founded the cause of destroying the Shang Dynasty and was blessed by the destiny of heaven.

So the projection of God in the sky.

"Zhuangzi Tianxia Chapter" also pointed out that the philosophical thought of this period was "taking heaven as the ancestor and morality as the basis."

This shows the combination of philosophy, religion and ethics.

However, the philosophical thought at this time was only in its infancy, a philosophical school had not yet been formed, and a real philosophical system had not yet been established, so there were no famous philosophers.

The Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period (770 BC to 221 BC) were a period of rapid transformation from slavery to feudalism in China.

At this time, a new stage of "a hundred schools of thought contending" formed on the philosophical front.

The so-called "hundred schools" can be summarized into more than ten schools in terms of schools.

Among them, there are mainly six schools: Confucianism, Mohism, Taoism, Dharma, Ming Dynasty, and Yin and Yang.

In addition, there are military strategists, farmers, political strategists, miscellaneous writers and novelists.

The dispute between hundreds of schools of thought originated from the Xianxue at the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, that is, the dispute between Confucianism and Mohism. It peaked in the early Warring States period and was concluded by Gou Zi at the end of the Warring States period.

The philosophical topics of "Hundred Schools" mainly revolve around issues such as the rule of etiquette and the rule of law, kingship and domineering, good and evil nature, ancient and present, heaven and man, name and reality, and the origin of the universe.

The controversy during this period marked the maturity of ancient Chinese philosophy.

The central issue in the debate is the relationship between heaven and man.

What is the essence of "heaven"?

Is it spiritual or material?

Is it "the separation of nature and man" or "the unity of nature and man"?

This has touched upon the basic issues of philosophy.

During the Han Dynasty, the formation of the centralized system of the landlord class urgently required theoretical demonstration of the sanctity of royal power.

As a result, Dong Zhongshu's theory of "influence between heaven and man" and the theological teleology of "Wang inherits the will of heaven" became the official orthodox philosophy.

Wang Chong's theory of vitality and naturalness that "the way of heaven is naturally inactive" is in opposition to Dong Zhongshu's theological teleology of "the influence of heaven and man".

This philosophical oppositional struggle has a certain connection with the dispute between modern and ancient classics in Confucian classics at that time. Therefore, it is called the Classics of the Two Han Dynasties in academic history.

During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the wealthy gentry and landlords achieved absolute rule. He Yan and Wang Bi established metaphysics (a philosophical trend formed by combining Lao and Zhuang thoughts with Confucian classics). Through the debate on "pure philosophical" propositions such as Ti Yong and Ben Wei,

, to defend the rule of the wealthy gentry.

This combination of metaphysics and foreign Buddhism became the dominant ideology in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Sui and Tang Dynasties.

Pei Yong (wěi) and others criticized metaphysics.

During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, some emperors and prime ministers took the lead in believing in Buddhism, and Buddhism became the state religion.

Fan Zhen wrote "Theory on the Destruction of Gods", which proved that form and spirit are intertwined and that form, matter and spirit function to prove the death of human beings and the destruction of gods. He wrote a glorious page in the history of Chinese philosophy.