To the Westerner, who sees that the life of the Chinese people is permeated with Confucianism, it appears that Confucianism is a religion. As a matter of fact, however, Confucianism is no more a religion than, say, Platonism or Aristotelianism. It is true...[继续阅读]

    The above is a general discussion of the nature and function of philosophy. In the following remarks I shall speak more specifically about Chinese philosophy. There is a main current in the history of Chinese philosophy, which may be called the spirit of ...[继续阅读]

    A Western student beginning the study of Chinese philosophy is instantly confronted with two obstacles. One, of course, is the language barrier; the other is the peculiar way in which the Chinese philosophers have expressed themselves. I will speak about ...[继续阅读]

    It is true of all philosophical writings that it is difficult for one to have a complete understanding and full appreciation of them if one cannot read them in the original. This is due to the language barrier. Because of the suggestive character of Chine...[继续阅读]

    In the Confucian Analects Confucius said: “The wise man delights in water; the good man delights in mountains. The wise move; the good stay still. The wise are happy; the good endure.”[1] In reading this saying, I feel there is in it something which sugge...[继续阅读]

    The ancient Chinese and Greek philosophers not only lived under different geographic conditions, but different economic ones as well. Since China is a continental country, the Chinese people have to make their living by agriculture. Even today the portion...[继续阅读]

    In the Lü-shih Chun-chiu, a compendium of various schools of philosophy written in the third century B. C., there is a chapter titled “The Value of Agriculture.” In this chapter a contrast is made between the mode of life of people who are engaged in the ...[继续阅读]

    Before considering the difference between these two schools, let us first take up a theory which both of them maintained. This is that both in the sphere of nature and in that of man, when the development of anything brings it to one extreme, a reversal t...[继续阅读]

    Taoism and Confucianism differ because they are the rationali-zation or theoretical expression of different aspects of the life of the farmers. The farmers are simple in their living and innocent in their thought. Seeing things from their point of view, t...[继续阅读]

    The farmers have to live on their land, which is immovable, and the same is true of the scholar landlords. Unless one has special talent, or is especially lucky, one has to live where ones father or grandfather lived, and where ones children will continue...[继续阅读]