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Introduction
I Ancient Indian Philosophy.
1. Vedas - the first monument of thought of the ancient Indians.
II Philosophy of Ancient China.
3. The main problems posed by ancient Chinese thinkers a) The sky and the origin of all things. b) Society and the individual. c) Human nature. d) The nature of knowledge and logical ideas.
Conclusion.
Bibliography.
INTRODUCTION
When writing this work, several points are especially important: first of all, familiarization with the main ideas
Ancient Eastern philosophy, as well as the desire to figure out what is the attractiveness and vitality of these ideas, moreover, why they not only did not become something of the past and forgotten, but live and spread far beyond the East to this day.
The first attempts of man to comprehend the surrounding world - living and inanimate nature, outer space, and finally, himself - should be attributed to that period of human existence (presumably it can be dated to the second millennium BC), when a person in the process of evolution, primarily mental, began to differentiate nature as a means of one's dwelling, gradually separating oneself from it. It is due to the fact that a person began to perceive the animal and plant worlds, the cosmos as something different and opposed to him, he began to form the ability to comprehend reality, and then to philosophize, i.e. make inferences, conclusions and put forward ideas about the world around him.
The philosophical thought of humanity was born in an era when the first class societies and states replaced tribal relations.
Separate philosophical ideas that summarized the thousands of years of experience of mankind can be found in the literary monuments of Ancient Egypt, Ancient
Babylon. The most ancient is the philosophy that arose in the countries of the Ancient
East: in India, China, Egypt and Babylon.
This paper examines the origin and development of the ancient Eastern philosophy of India and China.
I. Ancient Indian philosophy.
1. Vedas - the first monument of thought of the ancient Indians.
The first monument of thought of the ancient Indians was the "Vedas", literally meaning "knowledge, knowledge" in Sanskrit. The Vedas, which arose between the second and first millennium BC, played a huge, decisive role in the development of the spiritual culture of the ancient Indian society, including the development philosophical thought.
The Vedas consist of hymns, prayers, incantations, chants, sacrificial formulas... For the first time, they make an attempt at a philosophical interpretation of the human environment. Although they contain a semi-superstitious, semi-mythical, semi-religious explanation of the world around man, nevertheless they are considered as pre-philosophical, pre-philosophical sources.
Actually, the first literary works in which attempts are made to philosophize, i.e. interpretations of the world surrounding a person, in their content, could not be different. The figurative language of the Vedas expresses a very ancient religious worldview, the first philosophical idea of the world, man, and moral life. The Vedas are divided into four groups (or parts).
The oldest of them are Samhitas (hymns). Samhitas, in turn, consist of four collections. The earliest of them is the Rigveda, a collection of religious hymns (about one and a half thousand years BC). The second part of the Vedas is the Brahmanas
(collection of ritual texts). The religion of Brahmanism, which dominated before the emergence of Buddhism, relied on them. The third part of the Vedas - Aranyakas
("forest books", rules of conduct for hermits). The fourth part of the Vedas -
The Upanishads are actually the philosophical part that arose about a thousand years before our era.
Already at this time, the first elements philosophical consciousness, the formation of the first philosophical teachings (both religious-idealistic and materialistic) began.
Rigveda.
Let us try to turn directly to the earliest monument of ancient Indian culture, which is the Rigveda. As I said, this is a collection of religious hymns. But already in this early book, the first manifestations of doubts about the truth of priestly spells and rituals are visible. Let's open the texts of the Rig Veda:
(doubts about the existence of gods)
Competing, sing a beautiful song,
Praising Indra (song) true if it is true.
"There is no Indra," some say, "who saw him?
Whom shall we chant?"
As you know, Indra in ancient Indian mythology is the master of various deities (devas). Indra is at the same time also the lord of lightning, as well as the keeper of a drink or plants that give immortality, eternal youth and wisdom.
Thousand-headed, thousand-eyed and thousand-legged purusha...
Purusha is all that has become and will become...
What became his mouth, than his thighs, his feet?
His mouth became Brahman, his hands became a kshatriy,
His thighs became a vaishya, and a sudra emerged from his legs.
The moon was born from a thought, the sun arose from the eyes,
From the mouths of Indra and Agni, from the breath arose the wind,
From the navel arose air space,
The sky emerged from the head.
From the feet - the earth, the countries of the world - from hearing.
This is how the worlds were distributed.
The brahmins mentioned above are a priestly varna (group). Kshatriyas are the varna of the military aristocracy. Vaishyas are the varna of farmers, artisans, merchants. Shudras are the lowest varna, which does not have the right to communal property, which is subordinate to the rest of the varnas. Varnas - groups subsequently formed the basis of the caste system. According to ancient Indian mythology
Purusha - the first man, from which the elements of the cosmos, the universal soul, "I" arose. Purusha acts as a material "filler" of the Universe.
It exists everywhere at the same time, it fills everything. At the same time, Purusha is the cosmic mind: he is the "expert of the VED", in him, "thought is embedded". Later (in
Upanishad) he is identified with the world soul - Atman.
Upanishads.
The Upanishads ("to sit near", i.e. at the feet of the teacher, receiving instructions; or - "secret, secret knowledge") - philosophical texts that appeared about one thousand years BC and, in form, represented, as a rule, the dialogue of a sage - a teacher with his student or with a person who seeks the truth and subsequently becomes his student. In total, about a hundred Upanishads are known. They are dominated by the problem of the root cause, the first principle of being, with the help of which the origin of all phenomena of nature and man is explained. The dominant place in the Upanishads is occupied by teachings that consider as the root cause and fundamental principle of being spirituality- Brahman, or atman. Brahman and atman are usually used as synonyms, although Brahman is more often used to denote God, the omnipresent spirit, and atman is the soul.
Beginning with the Upanishads, Brahman and atman become the central concepts of all Indian philosophy (and, above all, Vedanta). In some Upanishads Brahman and atman are identified with the material root cause of the world - food, breath, material primary elements (water, air, earth, fire), or with the whole world as a whole. In most texts of the Upanishads, Brahman and atman are treated as a spiritual absolute, the incorporeal root cause of nature and man.
The idea of the identity of the spiritual essence of the subject (man) and the object (nature) runs like a red thread through all the Upanishads, which is reflected in the famous saying: "Tat tvam asi" ("You are that", or "You are one with that") .
The Upanishads and the ideas presented in them do not contain a coherent and holistic concept. With the general predominance of the explanation of the world as spiritual and incorporeal, they also present other judgments and ideas, and, in particular, attempts are made to give a natural-philosophical explanation of the root cause and fundamental principle of the phenomena of the world and the essence of man. So, in some texts there is a desire to explain the external and internal world, consisting of four or even five real elements. Sometimes the world is presented as an undifferentiated being, and its development as a successive passage of certain states by this being: fire, water, earth, or gaseous, liquid, solid. This is what explains all the diversity that is inherent in the world, including human society.
Cognition and acquired knowledge are divided in the Upanishads into two levels: lower and higher. At the lowest level, one can only cognize the surrounding reality. This knowledge cannot be true, since its content is fragmentary, incomplete. The highest is the knowledge of truth, i.e. spiritual absolute, it is the perception of being in its entirety. It can be acquired only with the help of mystical intuition, the latter in turn is formed largely due to yogic exercises. It is the highest knowledge that gives power over the world.
One of the most important problems in the Upanishads is the study of the essence of man, his psyche, emotional disturbances and forms of behavior. Thinkers
In ancient India, the complexity of the structure of the human psyche is noted and such elements as consciousness, will, memory, respiration, irritation, calm, etc. are distinguished in it. Their interconnection and mutual influence are emphasized.
An undoubted achievement should be considered a characteristic of various states of the human psyche and, in particular, the waking state, light sleep, deep sleep, the dependence of these states on external elements and primary elements of the outer world.
In the field of ethics in the Upanishads, the preaching of a passive-contemplative attitude to the world prevails: the deliverance of the soul from all worldly attachments and worries is proclaimed the highest happiness. In the Upanishads, a distinction is made between material and spiritual values, between the good, as a calm state of the soul, and the base pursuit of sensual pleasures. By the way, it is in the Upanishads that the concept of transmigration of souls (samsara) and retribution for past actions (karma) is expressed for the first time. Here the desire is expressed to determine the cause-and-effect relationship in the chain human actions. An attempt is also made with the help of moral principles (dharma) to correct the behavior of a person at each stage of his existence. The Upanishads are essentially the foundation for all or almost all subsequent philosophies that appeared in India, since they set or developed ideas that for a long time
"nourished" philosophical thought in India.
2. Divine song - Bhagavad Gita.
Speaking about the philosophy of ancient India, one cannot fail to mention the extensive epic poem Mahabharata, consisting of eighteen books. The greatest interest from a philosophical point of view is one of the books - Bhagavad-
Gita (divine song). In contrast to the Upanishads, where philosophy is presented in the form of separate statements and provisions, here already developed and integral philosophical concepts appear, giving an interpretation of worldview problems. Chief among these concepts is the teaching of _Sankhya_ and the yoga closely related to it, which were occasionally mentioned in
Upanishads. The basis of the concept is the provision on prakrita (mother, nature), as the source of all being (including the psyche, consciousness) and a pure spirit independent of it - purusha (also called Brahman, atman). Thus, the worldview is dualistic, based on the recognition of two principles.
The main content of the Bhagavad Gita is the teachings of the god Krishna.
God Krishna, according to Indian mythology, is the eighth avatar
(incarnation) of the god Vishnu. Lord Krishna speaks of the need for each person to fulfill their social (varna) functions and duties, to be indifferent to the fruits of worldly activities, to devote all their thoughts to God. Bhagavad Gita contains important ideas of ancient Indian philosophy: about the mystery of birth and death; about the relationship between prakriti and human nature; about the gunas (three material principles born by nature: tamas - an inert inert principle, rajas - a passionate, active, exciting principle, sattva - an uplifting, enlightened, conscious principle. Their symbols are respectively black, red and white colors), which determine the life of people; about the moral law (dharma) of the performance of duty; about the path of a yogi (a person who has devoted himself to yoga - the improvement of consciousness); about true and false knowledge. The main virtues of a person are called balance, detachment from passions and desires, non-attachment to the earthly.
3. Philosophical schools of ancient India.
It is typical for ancient Indian philosophy to develop within the framework of certain systems, or schools, and divide them into two large groups. The first group is the orthodox philosophical schools of Ancient India, recognizing the authority of the Vedas (Vedanta (IV-II centuries BC), Mimansa (VI century BC),
Sankhya (VI century BC), Nyaya (III century BC), Yoga (II century BC),
Vaisheshika (VI-V centuries BC)). The second group is non-orthodox schools that do not recognize the author of the Vedas (Jainism (IV century BC), Buddhism (VII-VI century BC), Charvaka-Lokayata).
Yoga is based on the Vedas and is one of the Vedic philosophical schools. Yoga means "concentration", its founder is considered to be a sage
Patanjali (II century BC). Yoga is a philosophy and practice. Yoga is an individual path of sapsenia and is intended to achieve control over feelings and thoughts, primarily through meditation. In the yoga system, belief in God is considered as an element of a theoretical worldview and as a condition for practical activity aimed at liberation from suffering. Connection with the One is necessary for the realization of one's own unity. With successful mastery of meditation, a person comes to a state
_samadhi_ (i.e. the state of complete introversion achieved after a whole series of physical and mental exercises and concentration). In addition, yoga includes the rules of eating. Food is divided into three categories according to the three modes of material nature to which it belongs.
For example, food in the modes of ignorance and passion is capable of multiplying suffering, misfortune, illness (first of all, this is meat). Yoga teachers pay special attention to the need to develop tolerance towards other teachings.
Jainism.
The Jain school arose in the VI century BC on the basis of the development of teachings (sages). It is one of the non-orthodox philosophical schools
Ancient India. The philosophy of Jainism got its name from one of the founders - Vardhamana, nicknamed the winner ("Gina"). The goal of the teachings of Jainism is to achieve such a way of life, in which it is possible to free a person from passions. Jainism considers the development of consciousness to be the main sign of a person's soul. The degree of consciousness of people is different.
This is because the soul tends to identify itself with the body. And despite the fact that by nature the soul is perfect and its possibilities are unlimited, including the possibilities of cognition; the soul (bound by the body) also bears the burden of past lives, past actions, feelings and thoughts. The reason for the limitations of the soul is its attachments and passions. And here the role of knowledge is enormous, only it is able to free the soul from attachments, from matter.
This knowledge is transmitted by teachers who have won (hence Gina -
Winner) own passions and are able to teach this to others. Knowledge is not only obedience to the teacher, but also the correct behavior, the way of action. Liberation from passions is achieved through asceticism.
II. Philosophy of Ancient China.
China - country ancient history, culture, philosophy; already in the middle of the second millennium BC. e. in the state of Shang-Yin (XVII-XII centuries BC), a slave-owning economy emerged. 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 tribe
Zhou, who founded her own dynasty, which lasted until the III century. BC e.
In the era of Shang-Yin and in the initial period of the existence of the Jok 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 the ancient Chinese deities (Shan-di) had a clear resemblance to animals, birds or fish. But Shang-di was not only the supreme deity, but also their ancestor. According to myths, it was he who was the ancestor of the Yin tribe.
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, existed until the first millennium BC. e.
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 V-III century. BC BC, often turn to myths in order to substantiate their conceptions 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.
“The historicization of myths, which consisted in the desire to humanize the actions of all mythical characters, was the main task of the Confucians. In an effort to bring the mythical traditions in line with the dogmas of their teachings, the Confucians did a lot of work to turn spirits into people and to find a rational explanation for the myths and legends themselves. So the myth became part of the traditional story.” 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 past 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 in Chinese philosophy. However, all natural philosophical teachings
Ancient China, such as the teachings of the “five elements”, the “great limit” - tai chi, the forces of yin and yang, and even the teachings of the Tao, originate from the mythological and primitive religious constructions of the ancient Chinese about heaven and earth, about “ eight elements."
Along with the emergence of cosmogonic concepts based on the forces of yang and yin, naive materialistic concepts arose, which were primarily 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 e. 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 - the collapse of the ancient unified state and the strengthening of individual kingdoms, the sharp struggle between large kingdoms for hegemony - were reflected in the stormy ideological struggle of various philosophical, political and ethical schools. This period is characterized by the dawn of culture and philosophy.
Such literary and historical monuments such as "Shi jing", "Shu jing", we meet certain philosophical ideas that arose on the basis of generalization of direct labor and socio-historical practice of people. However, the true flowering of ancient Chinese philosophy falls precisely on the period of VI-III in BC. BC, which is rightly called the golden age of Chinese philosophy. It was during this period that such works of philosophical and sociological thought appeared as “Tao Te Ching”, “Lun Yu”, “Mo Tzu”,
Mencius, Chuangzi. It was during this period that the great thinkers Lao Tzu, Confucius, Mo Tzu, Chuang Tzu, Xun Tzu came forward with their concepts and ideas. It was during this period that the formation of Chinese schools took place.
- Taoism, Confucianism, Mohism, Legalism, natural philosophers, who then had a tremendous influence on the entire subsequent development of Chinese philosophy. It is during this period that the problems arise. Those concepts and categories that then become traditional for the entire subsequent history of Chinese philosophy, up to modern times.
1. Features of the development of philosophy in China.
Two main stages in the development of philosophical thought in ancient China: the stage of origin philosophical views, which covers the period of the VIII-VI centuries. BC e., and the heyday of philosophical thought - the stage of rivalry "100 schools", which traditionally refers to the VI-III centuries. BC e.
The period of the formation of the philosophical views of the ancient peoples who lived in the basins of the Huanghe, Huaihe, Hanshui rivers (VIII-VI centuries BC) and 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 various classes in society, the struggle between the forces of progress and reaction, clinging to everything old that sanctified the authority of tradition, the inviolability and eternity of their domination. Ultimately, the clash of views and points of view resulted in a struggle between the two main trends in philosophy - materialistic and idealistic - with varying degrees of awareness and depth of expression of these trends.
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 Realms". The development of social relations in China did not lead to a clear division of spheres of activity within the ruling classes. 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 social management, relations between different social groups, between kingdoms - this is what mainly interested the philosophers of ancient China.
Another feature of the development of Chinese philosophy is related to 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. Perhaps the only exception of this kind 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 singles 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 6th 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 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 greater development in China.
The isolation of ancient Chinese philosophy from natural science and the lack of development of questions of logic are one of the main reasons for the fact 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. Schools in Chinese philosophy.
In "Shi chi" ("Historical Notes") by Sima Qian (II-I centuries BC), the first classification of the philosophical schools of Ancient China is given. Six schools are named there: “supporters of the doctrine of yin and yang” natural philosophers), “school of service people” (Confucians), “school of Mohists”, “school of nominalists”
(sophists), “school of lawyers” (legists), “school of supporters of the doctrine of Tao and Te” - Taoists.
Later, at the turn of our era, this classification was supplemented by four more “schools”, which, however, with the exception of the zajia, or “school of eclecticists”, in fact, have nothing to do with Chinese philosophy. Some schools are named after the nature of the social activity of the founder of the school, others - after the founder of the doctrine, and others - according to the main principles of the concept of this doctrine.
At the same time, despite all the specifics of philosophy in ancient China, the relationship between philosophical schools ultimately boiled down to a struggle between two main tendencies - materialistic and idealistic, although, of course, this struggle cannot be imagined in its pure form.
In the early stages of development of Chinese philosophy. For example, even in the time of Confucius and Mo Tzu, the attitude of these thinkers to the main question of philosophy was not expressed directly. Questions about the essence of human consciousness and its relationship to nature, the material world have not been defined clearly enough. Often, the views of those philosophers whom we classify as materialists contained significant elements of religious, mystical ideas of the past, and, conversely, thinkers who generally occupied idealistic positions gave a materialistic interpretation to certain issues.
The sky and the origin of all things.
One of the important places in the struggle of ideas during the VI-V centuries. BC e. occupied the question of the sky and the root cause of the origin of all things. At that time, the concept of heaven included both the supreme lord (Shan-di), and fate, and the concept of the fundamental principle and root cause of all things and at the same time was, as it were, a synonym for the natural world, “nature”, the surrounding world as a whole.
The ancient Chinese turned all their thoughts, aspirations and hopes to the sky, because, according to their ideas, personal life, state affairs, and all natural phenomena depended on the sky (supreme).
From the huge role of the sky in the life of the ancient Chinese, their faith in its power, many pages speak not only of the Shi jing, but also of the Shu jing.
The decline of the dominance of the hereditary aristocracy was expressed in the decline of faith in the omnipotence of heaven. The former purely religious view of the heavenly path began to be replaced by a more realistic view of the Universe surrounding man - nature, society. However, the basis of all religious superstitions was the cult of ancestors, for this cult is the genealogy of the ancient Chinese state.
The ideology of Confucianism as a whole shared traditional ideas about the sky and heavenly destiny, in particular, those set out in the Shi Ching. However, in the context of widespread doubts about the sky in the VI century. before. n. e. Confucians and their main representative Confucius (551-479 BC) focused not on preaching the greatness of heaven, but on fear of heaven, its punishing power and the inevitability of heavenly fate.
Confucius said that “everything was originally predetermined by fate, and here nothing can be added or subtracted” (“Mo-tzu”, “Against the Confucians”, part II). Confucius said that a noble husband should be afraid of heavenly fate, and even emphasized: “Whoever does not recognize fate cannot be considered a noble husband.”
Confucius revered the sky as a formidable, universal and supernatural ruler, while possessing well-known anthropomorphic properties.
The sky of Confucius determines for each person his place in society, rewards, punishes.
Along with the dominant religious view of the sky, Confucius already contained elements of the interpretation of the sky as a synonym for nature in general.
Mo Tzu, who lived after Confucius, around 480-400 years. BC, also accepted the idea of faith in heaven and its will, but this idea received a different interpretation from him.
Firstly, the will of the sky in Mo-tzu is cognizable and known to everyone - this is universal love and mutual benefit. The fate of Mo-tzu rejects in principle.
Thus, Mo-tzu's interpretation of the will of heaven is critical: the denial of the privileges of the ruling class and the affirmation of the will of the common people.
Mo Tzu tried to use the weapons of the ruling classes and even the superstitions of ordinary people of ordinary people for political purposes, in the struggle against the ruling class.
Mohists, while subjecting the views of Confucians to the celestial struggle to fierce criticism, at the same time considered the sky as a model for
Celestial.
In Mo-tzu's statements about the sky, the survivals of traditional religious views are combined with an approach to the sky as a natural phenomenon. It is with these new elements and in the interpretation of the sky as periods that the Moists connect Tao as an expression of the sequence of changes in the world around man.
Yang Zhu (6th century BC) rejected the religious elements of the early Moist Kofucian views of heaven and denied its supernatural nature. In place of the sky, Yang Zhu puts forward “natural necessity”, which he identifies with fate, rethinking the original meaning of this concept.
In IV-III centuries. BC e. the cosmogonic concept associated with the forces of yang and yin and the five principles, the elements - wuxing, receives further development.
The relationship between the origins was characterized by two features: mutual defeat and mutual overcoming. Mutuality had the following sequence of origins: wood, fire, earth, metal, water; wood generates fire, fire generates earth, earth generates metal, metal generates water, water again generates wood, etc. The sequence of beginnings from the point of view of mutual overcoming was different: water, fire, metal, wood, earth; water overcomes fire, fire overcomes metal, etc.
Even in the VI-III centuries. BC e. a number of important materialistic propositions were formulated.
These provisions are:
1) to the explanation of the world as the eternal formation of things;
2) to the recognition of movement as an inalienable property of an objectively existing real world of things;
3) to finding the source of this movement within the world itself in the form of a constant collision of two opposite, but interconnected natural forces.
4) to the explanation of the change of diverse phenomena as the cause of regularity, subject to the perpetual motion of contradictory and interconnected substantive forces.
In IV-III centuries. before. n. e. materialistic tendencies in the understanding of the sky and nature were developed by representatives of Taoism. The sky itself in the book "Tao Tse Ching" is considered as component nature is the opposite of earth. The sky is formed from the light particles of yang qi and changes according to the Tao.
“The function of heaven” is the natural process of the emergence and development of things, in the course of which a person is also born. Xun Tzu considers man as an integral part of nature - he calls the sky and its sense organs, the very feelings and soul of a person "heavenly", that is, natural. Man and his soul are the result of the natural development of nature.
In the sharpest form, the philosopher speaks out against persons who praise heaven and expect favors from it. The sky cannot have any influence on the fate of a person. Xun Tzu condemned the blind worship of heaven and urged people to strive to subdue nature to the will of man with their work.
This is how the views of ancient Chinese philosophers about nature, the origin of the world, the reasons for its changes went on. This process proceeded in a complex struggle of elements of natural scientific, materialistic ideas with mystical and religious-idealistic views. The naivety of these ideas, their extremely weak natural-scientific justification, is primarily due to the low level of productive forces, as well as the underdevelopment of social relations.
Society and man.
Socio-ethical problems were dominant in the philosophical reflections of the Chinese.
In China, unlike Ancient Greece, cosmogonic theories were put forward not so much to explain the origin of the infinite variety of natural phenomena, earth, sky, but to explain the fundamental principle of the state and the power of the ruler.
One of the main places in the socio-political and ethical views of ancient Chinese thinkers was occupied by the problem of appeasement of society and effective government.
Confucianism, which primarily expressed the interests of the tribal nobility, whose dominance was declining, was subjected to serious blows from the “new rich” from among the wealthy community members, merchants, etc.
Confucius had two goals:
1) to streamline the relationship of kinship among the most tribal nobility, to streamline it mutual relations, to rally the tribal slave-owning aristocracy in the face of the impending threat of its loss of power and the capture of its “lower” people.
2) justify the ideologically privileged position of the clan nobility
Confucius condemned those who attracted strangers to power and removed their relatives. And in his opinion, this weakened the dominance of the hereditary aristocracy.
Mo Tzu opposed the inheritance of power on the principle of kinship.
For the first time in the history of Cathay, he put forward a theory of the origin of the state and power on the basis of a general contract of people, according to which power was handed over
"to the wisest of men" regardless of his background. In many ways, Mo Tzu's views on the state echo the ideas of Plato, Epicurus,
Lucretia.
Central to the teachings of the Mohists is the principle of “universal love”, which is the ethical justification for the idea of equality of people and the demand for the free lower classes of ancient Chinese society to participate in political life.
In the teachings of Xun Tzu, the traditional ideas about the basis of government, expounded by Confucius and Mencius, were rethought in the spirit of a compromise between ancient rituals and a single modern centralized legislation.
At the end of the reign of the Zhou dynasty, a school of so-called legists (lawyers) appeared. The Legists, whose main representatives were Zichang, Shang Yang and Han Feizi, resolutely opposed the survivals of tribal relations and their main bearer, the hereditary aristocracy. Therefore, the Legalists criticized Confucianism no less sharply than the Mohists. The Legists rejected management methods based on ritual and tribal traditions, assigning the main role to single, binding laws for all and the absolute, unrestricted power of the ruler.
They pointed to the two sides of the laws - reward and punishment, with the help of which the ruler subjugates his subjects.
Legislation, a well-thought-out system of rewards and punishments, a system of mutual responsibility and universal surveillance - that was what was supposed to ensure the unity of the state and the strength of the power of the ruler. The Legists shared the views of Mo-tzu on the promotion of talented people regardless of rank and family relations with the ruler.
Theoretically, the Legalists, like the Mohists, advocated equal opportunities for exaltation in the country of every person.
A significant place in the history of ancient Chinese thought is occupied by utopian views.
The basis of ancient Chinese utopias about an ideal society were the ideas of equalization and peace.
In the III century. BC e. Xu Xing, a representative of the so-called agrarian school, preaches the ideas of egalitarianism.
Xu Xing's utopian concept reflects the ideas of the disadvantaged and oppressed masses of Zhou society. Their significance was that they undermined the tenets of Confucianism about the inviolability and justice of the social order in the Celestial Empire.
Mengzi, from the point of view of Confucians, considers the best system of labor organization to be the joint cultivation of public fields and the mutual assistance of community members.
Lao Tzu came up with the idea of creating a society without exploitation and oppression, but his ideal was a patriarchal community.
A progressive moment in social utopias and a major conquest of the political thought of ancient China is the idea of the natural origin of state power as a result of the social agreement of people.
The period preceding the emergence of the state is portrayed by all thinkers, with the exception of the Confucians, in the most unattractive light.
Human nature.
In ancient Chinese society, due to the stability of the consanguineous community (patronymy), a person was considered as a particle of the community, clan, clan.
Therefore, when considering the nature of man, ancient Chinese thinkers took as an object not an individual, but some kind of abstraction, “man in general.”
However, in China, as the class struggle developed and property differentiation within the community grew, a process of singling out a person as an individual took place; it gradually became the subject of reflection of philosophers.
The first question about human nature was raised by Confucius in connection with his concept of education and training.
The very idea of Confucius was very fruitful, its further development led to the emergence of two opposing concepts - about “good nature” and about
"evil nature". Common to both concepts was the conviction that human nature can be changed with the help of education, improvement of society, laws. Mohists developed the idea that the circumstances of people's lives make them good or evil, and the original nature of a person is very unstable in itself and can be both good and bad.
For the first time, the question of man as an individual was raised by Yang Zhu. Ethical views are reduced to provisions on the disclosure by a person of those properties that are inherent in him from birth by nature. He viewed life and death as a form of being in nature.
Rejecting Yang Zhu's ideas, Confucians systematize Confucius's views on education and management. They argued that human nature is originally, innately good.
The highest criteria for kindness, according to Meng Tzu, are Confucian ethical principles.
Ancient Chinese thinkers, who especially expressed the interests of the forces opposed to the hereditary aristocracy, in their views on man, emphasized not only the possibility of reshaping his nature, but emphasized the active transformative role human activity. For the first time this question was raised by Mo-Tzu, who saw in the ability of people to conscious activity the main difference between man and animals and the condition for changing the life of people themselves. Subsequently, a similar point of view was expressed by Xun
Zi and representatives of the legalist school: “people are the same by nature and
“a noble man and a commoner” are naturally equal, but the difference between them arises as a result of the accumulation of good qualities and the overcoming of evil ones. Xun-
Zi substantiated the social role of the educator, with the help of which one can
"to remake the original nature of man."
The views of the supporters of Taoism on the nature of man follow from their doctrine of the first law. Human nature corresponds to Tao, it is empty, unknowable, the meaning of life is in following naturalness and inaction.
Chuang Tzu believed that human nature and the world as a result of its infinite and fleeting variability, it is unknowable.
The nature of knowledge and logical ideas.
Human consciousness, thinking in Chinese philosophy became the subject of a special study only at the end of the 4th century. before. n. e. Until that time, there were only a few statements on the question of the nature of thinking.
The question of knowledge and its sources was reduced mainly to the study of ancient books, borrowing the experience of ancestors. Ancient Chinese thinkers were not interested in the conceptual and logical basis of knowledge.
Confucius considered the main method of obtaining knowledge - learning, and the source of knowledge was ancient giving and annals.
Confucius preached a way of perceiving knowledge through the prism of traditional institutions and fitting new knowledge, new experience to the authorities of antiquity.
The antipode of Confucianism was the school of early and late Mohists. Their views on knowledge were not only a generalization of the achievements of Chinese thought V-
3rd century BC e. in the field of the study of thinking and the process of cognition, but the pinnacle of achievement of Chinese philosophy in the field of epistemology and logic until the end of the 19th century.
The merit of Mo Tzu and the Moists in the history of Chinese philosophy lies in the fact that they were the first to study the process of cognition itself, raised the question of the criterion of knowledge, the source of knowledge, the ways in which a person cognizes the world around him and himself. They considered questions about the goals and practical significance of knowledge, about the criterion of truth, and tried to give answers to them.
CONCLUSION
Historically, the development of China for a long period of time was separate from the development of European countries. The knowledge of the Chinese about the world around them was very limited, which contributed to the emergence in ancient China of the idea that China is the center of the world, and all other countries are in vassal dependence on it.
As for Europe, it really “discovered” China only in the late Middle Ages, when, after the journey of Mark Paul, missionaries began to arrive in China to convert the many millions of Chinese to Christianity. The missionaries did not know the history of the country, its culture well, they failed to understand its culture and traditions. This led to a distortion of the true face of Chinese culture, including the main part of philosophy.
With the light hand of the missionaries, China either appeared as a country of special traditions and culture, unique in its originality, where people have always lived according to other social laws and moral standards than in Europe, or as a country where the true lost in the West were preserved in pristine purity. moral principles. This led to the emergence of two diametrically opposed points of view on the history of Chinese culture and philosophy, one of which was to contrast Western and Chinese culture and philosophy by belittling the latter, and the other to the transformation of individual elements of Chinese culture, including philosophical teachings.
(Confucianism) as a role model.
Indian philosophy is truly "living fruits" that continue to nourish the world human thought with their juices. Indian philosophy has retained full continuity. And no philosophy has had such a strong impact on the West as the Indian one. Search for "the light that comes from the East",
"truths about the origin of the human race", which were occupied by many philosophers, theosophists, and, finally, hippies in the 60s and 70s of our century, are obvious evidence of the living connection that connects Western culture with India. Indian philosophy is not only exotic, but precisely that appeal of healing recipes that help a person survive.
A person may not know the intricacies of the theory, but engage in yoga breathing exercises for purely medical and physiological purposes. The main value of ancient Indian philosophy lies in its appeal to the inner world of a person, it opens up a world of possibilities for a moral personality, and this, probably, is the secret of its attractiveness and vitality.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Ancient Indian philosophy. Initial period. M., 1963.
2. Anthology of world philosophy. M., ed. "Thought", 1969.
3. A book to read on the history of philosophy. Ed.
A.M. Deborin. M., 1924. 4. Gods, Brahmins, people. Transl. from Czech. M., ed.
"The science",
1969.
4. Smirnov I.N., Titov V.F. Philosophy. M., "Arevazun", 1996.
5. Nemirovskaya L.Z. Philosophy. M., 1996.
6. Bauer V., Dumots I., Golovin S. Encyclopedia of Symbols. M., "Kron-press",
1995.
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Philosophy of Ancient China - the most important briefly. Confucianism briefly and Taoism. This is another topic from a series of articles on philosophy. In a previous post, we reviewed together. Now let's turn to ancient Chinese philosophy.
Philosophy of Ancient China
Philosophy in China began to develop in the fifth century BC, when society began to stratify along economic lines and a class of wealthy city dwellers and an extremely poor class of village dwellers arose. As well as a class of officials who own not only money, but also land.
The philosophy of Ancient China is based on the principle of the trinity of the Universe represented by Earth, Sky and Man. The Universe is an energy ("Ci"), divided into the feminine and the masculine - yin and yang.
The philosophy of ancient China has a mythological-religious origin in the same way as the philosophy of ancient India. Its main characters were spirits and gods. The world was understood as the interaction of 2 principles - male and female.
It was believed that at the moment of creation the Universe was a chaos and there was no division into Earth and Sky. Chaos was ordered and divided into Earth and Sky by two born spirits - yin (the patron of the Earth) and yang (the patron of Heaven).
4 Concepts of Chinese Philosophical Thinking
- Holism- is expressed in the harmony of man with the world.
- Intuitiveness- the earthly essence can be known only through intuitive insight.
- Symbolism- the use of images as tools for thinking.
- Tiyan- the fullness of the macrocosm can be comprehended only by emotional experience, moral awareness, volitional impulses.
Confucianism
Confucianism - the main ideas briefly. This philosophical school was created by Confucius, who lived in the 6th-5th centuries BC. During this period, China was torn apart by turmoil and the struggle for power between senior officials and the emperor. The country was plunged into chaos and civil strife.
This philosophical direction reflected the idea of changing chaos and ensuring order and prosperity in society. Confucius believed that the main occupation of a person in life should be the pursuit of harmony and observance of moral rules.
The main part of the philosophy of Confucianism is considered human life. It is necessary to educate a person and only then do everything else. It is necessary to devote a lot of time to the soul of people, and as a result of such education, the whole society and political life will be in harmonious interaction with each other and there will be neither chaos nor wars.
Taoism
Taoism is considered one of the most important philosophies in China. Its founder is Lao Tzu. According to the philosophy of Taoism, Tao is the law of nature that governs everything and everyone, from one person to all things. A person, if he wants to be happy, must follow this path and be in harmony with the entire Universe. If everyone observes the principle of the Tao, it will lead to freedom and prosperity.
The basic idea of Taoism (basic category) is non-action. If a person observes the Tao, then he can completely follow non-action. Lao denied the effort of one person and society in relation to nature, since this only leads to chaos and an increase in tension in the world.
If someone wants to rule the world, then he will inevitably lose and doom himself to defeat and oblivion. That is why non-action should serve as the most important principle of life, as soon as it is able to give freedom and happiness to a person.
Legalism
Xun Tzu is considered its founder. According to his ideas, ethics is needed in order to keep everything bad that is in human essence under control. His follower Han-Fei went further and argued that the basis of everything should be a totalitarian political philosophy, which is based on the main principle - a person is an evil being and seeks to benefit everywhere and avoid punishment before the law. In legalism, the most important idea was the idea of order, which should determine the social order. There is nothing above it.
Moism
Its founder Mozi (470-390 BC). He believed that the most basic should be the idea of love and equality of all living things. According to his beliefs, people need to be told which traditions are the best. It is necessary to strive for the good of everyone, and power is a tool for this, and should encourage behavior that benefits as many people as possible.
Philosophy of Ancient China - the most important briefly. VIDEO
Ideas of Confucianism briefly. VIDEO
Taoism. Key ideas and principles in 1 minute. VIDEO.
Summary
I think the article “Philosophy of Ancient China is the most important thing. Confucianism and Taoism in brief” has become useful for you. Did you know:
- about the main schools of ancient Chinese philosophy;
- about the 4 main concepts of the philosophy of Ancient China;
- about the main ideas and principles of Confucianism and Taoism.
I wish you all always a positive attitude for all your projects and plans!
Indian philosophy
Indian philosophy is a set of views of all Indian thinkers, both theistic (Greek Theos - God) and atheistic way of thinking.
The specifics of Indian philosophy are given by the peculiarities of the Indian social structure and worldview in general. This:
1. division into varnas (and castes). So, the social system of India involves the division of the population into 4 main varnas (brahmin priests, owners-rulers - kshatriyas, devotees and dependents - vaishyas, feeding everyone - sudras), and many castes (butchers, etc. - by occupation) . At the same time, the transition from one Varna (caste) to another is impossible.
2. pervasive religiosity with an abundance of gods (more than 3,000 gods for all occasions);
3. the conviction that the entire cosmos is alive. The doctrine of the identity of Brahman (universal, objective, impersonal world soul, the beginning of the whole world) and Atman (individual, subjective soul).
4. recognition of the existence of the law of karma - the inexorable law of cause and effect. Karma determines samsara - the cycle of life and reincarnation, during which the future of a person is determined by deeds and deeds. past life. Moksha can alleviate samsaric suffering - liberation from the world of passions, moral perfection.
Before the beginning of the emergence of ancient Indian philosophy (approximately by the 16th century BC), Veda(Snskrt. Vedas - knowledge) - the most ancient collections of books in the history of mankind. The Vedas are otherwise called "shruti" and are considered divinely revealed, without an author. They represent eternal transcendental (from Latin trans- “through”, otherworldly, supernatural) knowledge, a record of “cosmic sounds of truth”. According to tradition, this knowledge has been transmitted orally by holy sages since the beginning of the universe.
The Vedas represent a very diverse ancient knowledge, ranging from the picture of the universe and hymns to the gods and ending with practical instructions for life up to conspiracies on different cases life: The Vedas are divided into 4 groups:
1. Rigveda - "Veda of hymns"
2. Yajurveda - "Veda of sacrificial formulas"
3. Samaveda - "Veda of chants"
4. Atharvaveda - "Veda of Spells"
Later, by the 9th c. BC arise Upanishads- a popular concise presentation, comprehension of the Vedas, containing the fruits of only human thought, and not supernatural revelation. The Upanishads (literally: "to sit near") are the wise instructions of the teacher to the disciples "sitting near his feet."
classical period development of Indian philosophy is associated with the existence of philosophical schools (darshan). Subsequently, they are divided into orthodox (based on the teachings of the Vedas) and unorthodox (not recognizing the authority of the Vedas).
Orthodox darshans include: Vedanta, Sankhya, Yoga, Vaisesika, Nyaya, Mimamsa, Charvaka Lokayata.
Starting from the middle of 1 thousand BC. arise unorthodox(not recognizing the authority of the Vedas) teachings: Jainism, Buddhism.
Jainism-from "genie" - the winner of karma. Jains are opponents varnes and follow ahimsa - they sacredly protect all living things (up to the point that they cover their mouths with a white bandage so as not to accidentally swallow any insect, do not eat "yesterday's" food, because microorganisms have already bred and multiplied in it, etc.) .
Buddhism: founder - Siddhartha Gautama (6th century BC).
Key Ideas: Recognition "four noble truths": 1) the essence of life is suffering; 2) the cause of suffering - desires and attachments; 3) deliverance from suffering lies through the rejection of attachments and desires; 4) liberation is possible through the "eightfold path", leading to enlightenment and through it - to Nirvana. The Eightfold Path includes the control of one's body, breathing, right thoughts, deeds, etc., up to the constant control of one's consciousness. Buddhist goal = Nirvana extinction of any kind of desires, feelings, attachments. As a result of the extinction of the will, the power of karma is broken, and the sage gains absolute freedom (freedom "from", from the world, suffering, attachments). It is generally accepted that freedom in Buddhism differs from Western European freedom as activity, belief (freedom "for"). But this is a superficial opinion. A liberated, enlightened Buddha lives in the Common Good, he has no personal (in the sense of his limited, earthly personality) desires associated with self-affirmation at the expense of others. It is identical to its pure, divine essence and contributes to the establishment of divine vibrations in the universe.
Buddhism has two branches: Hinayana and Mahayana. Hinayana for monks, hermits who leave the world forever and devote themselves to achieving Nirvana. Mahayana is intended for most people, and Buddhist ethics is of particular importance in it - reverence for all living things, the desire at all costs not to harm anything living. Conclusion: Buddhism, being a world religion, nevertheless differs from other religions in that it does not contain God as the supreme creator, creator of the world. Divine in Buddhism is the achievement of Nirvana as the liberation of man from his suffering "I".
Chinese philosophy
China is traditionally characterized by despotic-monarchical state rule. The basis of the social system here is the family, headed by the father, the system of government here has traditionally been an analogy of family and clan subordination. At the head of the state is an all-powerful van, the "father" of his subordinates, obedience to him is beyond doubt. Speaking about the external, social side of the life of the Chinese, one cannot fail to note its stable conservatism, admiration for traditions, and the obligatory nature of rituals.
The peculiarities of China's religious system created a certain void in the sphere of faith, which, as you know, requires sacrificial self-giving in overcoming the "this world" and reaching the higher, perfect other world. The Chinese perceive the world as a cycle of elements, not assuming a transcendental beginning in it. Tao ("Way") - the cycle of things, the will of heaven, everything. The very flow of life. After the death of the body, the soul disintegrates into elements that become part of the surrounding space). This void was filled by the cult of the legendary heroes and sages of antiquity, the cult of well-rewarded virtue. Therefore, the work of historiographers was welcomed, whose functions included recording and chanting the deeds of the wise and virtuous. The result of their activities was the creation of the basis for the first canonical books in China - "Books of History" /Shu-jing/ and "Books of Songs" /Shi-jing/. These books laid the foundation for ancient Chinese thought, determined the nature of the Chinese mentality, and together with the later "Book of Changes" / I-tsing /, "Book of Rites" / Li-ching / and the chronicle "Chun-qiu" made up the ancient Chinese "Pentateuch"- the basis of the worldview of an educated Chinese.
Confucianism (VI century BC). The founder of Kung Tzu is the teacher Kun (Confucius). Main book: "Lun Yu" (Conversations and Judgments). For more than two thousand years, Confucianism has been the ideological foundation of the Chinese empire. And now they distinguish a special structure of the Chinese economy - Confucian.
The focus of the Confucian doctrine was a person, a team, society. The cult of practical benefit, concrete happiness, achieved primarily through internal virtues and self-improvement, finding a compromise between extreme despotism and democracy, the desire to teach people to live together, to restore the dialogue between society and the state. The ideal ruler should educate his subjects, not oppress and suppress.
Confucius finds the historical ideal in the past. Morality modern society unsatisfactory: it is not improved, bad deeds are not corrected. According to Confucius, "people who understand morality are few." Idealizing antiquity, Confucius creates a new doctrine of morality.
Ethics of Confucius based on the categories
1.as "reciprocity" /shu/. “Reciprocity” or caring for people is the main commandment of Confucianism, expressed by the teacher at the present time with the winged phrase: “Do not do to others what you do not wish for yourself”, supplemented by an essential remark: “And then in the state and in the family you will not feel enmity ";
2, "golden mean" / zhong yong /, "golden mean" is the line of behavior between intemperance and caution, it is not easy to find it, but it is necessary, because most people are either too cautious or too unrestrained;
3. "philanthropy" /jen/. To be philanthropic, according to Confucius, means "to love people." This is important for the assertion of the Confucian principles of morality: "only he who has philanthropy ... will not commit evil." A philanthropic person is characterized by many qualities: respectfulness, courtesy, truthfulness, sharpness, kindness, devotion, caution in conversation, restraint. His behavior is aimed at helping other people in their moral and business improvement;
4. "filial piety" /xiao/;
5. the principle of changing (correcting) names: the requirement that the name correspond to the designated, the actual behavior and social position of a person with his ethical and ritual status (the sovereign must be a sovereign, a dignitary - a dignitary, a father - a father, a son - a son, a commoner - a commoner, a subject - a subject ). This was the only way to put everything in order and avoid chaos, while preserving traditions as the main value of Ancient China.
Following these principles is generally the same correct path / Tao /, they are fully observed by the “noble husband”
The characteristic of a "noble man" (jun-tzu) is based on the opposition of him to a commoner - a "low man" (seo-jen). For the first, the main thing is to follow the duty and the law, the second thinks only about his own personal benefit. The first is demanding primarily to himself, the second - to other people. A "noble husband" cannot be judged by trifles, he is entrusted with big and important things. The "low man" manifests himself in small things; he cannot be trusted with big things. The first lives in harmony with other people, but does not follow them; the second, following people, does not live in harmony with them. A "noble man" helps people do beautiful things and does not help them do ugly things. "Low man" acts in the opposite way. "It is difficult for a "low man" to serve, but it is easy for him to please. He is disgusted by those who, having courage, do not observe the ritual. So, a "noble man" in kindness is not wasteful; forcing to work, does not cause anger; in desires is not greedy; in greatness is not proud; causing respect, not cruel ". Finally, unlike a commoner, a "noble man" is not like a thing, his life is not reduced to only one function, he is harmonious and versatile.
Philosophy of Taoism
The main problems of Taoism are collected in the work "Tao Te Ching" ("The Book of Tao and Te"), the author of which is considered to be Lao Tzu (Li Er, the old teacher).
The concept of "Tao" in the history of Chinese thought is the most universal and comprehensive, acting as the ideological core not only of all natural philosophy and ontology, but also in many respects of sociology, aesthetics and ethics, not to mention the disciplines of the natural sciences - medicine, astrology, alchemy, etc. This concept can be called the quintessence of the philosophy of traditional China.
Tao was perceived in China as the basic norm of being, as the original supreme universality, as the great law of nature and the root cause of all that exists, as the highest absolute reality (the One), from the giant path-stream of which the phenomenal world is born, in order to eventually go there and then reappear, but already updated, over the millennia.
Unlike the Confucians, who sought to know the Tao in order to achieve a golden age of wisdom and justice on earth, the Taoists, who by no means rejected the need to improve earthly existence, saw the main meaning of knowing the Tao in approaching and eventually merging with it.
Preachers and followers of Taoism avoided socio-political activity and put into practice the idea of solitude and self-cultivation. Like the ancient Indian Brahmins, they chose the practice of hermitage and austerity in order to achieve enlightenment through exhausting psychophysical training, to know the truth and get closer to the absolute reality of Tao. This attitude is determined by the ontological principles of Taoism. If the entire order of the cosmos turns out to be generated by Tao and determined by it in all its manifestations, then deviations from the natural order harm not only nature itself, but also apostates from it. true essence- Dao. Human self-will, violating the laws of Tao, leads people to death. "Whoever does not observe the Tao will perish ahead of time" - this saying from the "Tao Te Ching" is found more than once in later Taoist sources.
Putting the question in this way, Taoism is in many ways close to Buddhism, but unlike nirvana, Tao is not a transcendent entity remote from the world. It permeates the entire universe with its invisible currents, it manifests itself as a kind of invisible energy. Tao is creative energy. Rising above the Universe, Tao creates it. It regulates the eternal game of the two polar principles of the Cosmos: Yin and Yang.
The task of the sage is to acquire the Tao, i.e. dissolve, merge with nature, renounce one's own personality, one's social "I". The main way of gaining freedom is non-action (wu-wei), "success without effort" - spontaneous merging with the natural course of things, in which there is no need for special activity, effort of will.
Over time, Taoism has evolved into a form of organized religion due to the strong influence of Buddhism, the abundance of translatable canonical Pali Indian texts, an ever-growing pantheon of deities, and a significant number of philosophical and religious schools, often politically active. Together with Buddhism, Taoism is still one of the two main religions in China today, although it is not recognized as a religion by practicing Taoists. The popularity of the philosophical and cult means of Taoism continues to serve as a practical guide to achieving a harmonious existence, good health.
By the 12th century, Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism—the "Three Teachings" or "Three Pearls"—were seen as complementary, though at times vying for influence at court. Indeed, since the 12th century, the doctrines of these teachings begin to intersect in the field of architecture and art, reflecting the mentality (Latin "mens" - "mind") of a wide period of time and different regions. Professional artists, as well as leading Taoist masters, adepts, students, and even emperors, practiced calligraphy, drew, sewed, sculpted, created a surprisingly eclectic image of artwork, ranging from appealing to the sublime spheres of being and ending with the visualization of representatives of the pantheon of deities in sculpture.
So, Chinese philosophy seeks to explain not the world in general, but the world of man. Man, not only as a part of the great Cosmos (from the Greek "order"), similar to him, but also as a part of society and the state. And not only to understand and explain, but also to transform, to find the best version of the social order and a perfect management system. Such a formulation of philosophical problems brings Chinese thought beyond the borders of only China, making it a common property.
3. Western style philosophy
Greek antique (from Latin "ancient") philosophy was formed in the 7th - 6th centuries. BC. In its character and orientation of the content, especially the method of philosophizing, it differs from the ancient oriental philosophical systems and is, in fact, the first attempt in history to rationally comprehend the surrounding world.
There are mythogenic, epistemogenic and historical concepts of the emergence Greek philosophy. According to the first, the emergence of philosophy is associated with the development of mythological consciousness, according to the second, philosophy comes from the rudiments scientific knowledge, according to the third, it was the slave system that contributed to the emergence of philosophical thinking among free people who were not burdened with physical labor. However, none of these concepts explains why philosophy arose in Greece in the 6th century. BC e. In this regard, philosophy is called the "Greek miracle."
At the origins of Greek philosophy is the desire to rationally answer the questions:
what is the basic principle of the world (or cosmos) and
what principles or forces determine its development.
In development ancient philosophy There are roughly four main stages:-
1. Pre-Socratic or natural philosophical, associated with the formation of characteristic Greek philosophical thinking since the 6th century BC. before the turning point in the 5th - 4th centuries. BC e. Philosophers who lived and worked at that time are called pre-Socratics. In essence, they were spontaneous materialists.
2. Classical - (from about the middle of the 5th century and a significant part of the 4th century BC) is characterized by the influence and activities of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, it is associated with the emergence of significant philosophical systems that laid the foundation for all European culture.
3. Hellenistic (late 4th - 2nd centuries BC). At this time, a number of all kinds of philosophical trends and schools that consider questions of human destiny in conditions of social instability appear on the arena.
4. Roman - (1st century BC - 5th - 6th centuries AD) - At this time, teachings appear that are not original, comprehending ideas that already existed in the context of new socio-political realities.
4. Features of medieval philosophy and stages of its development.
By medieval philosophy we mean European philosophy of the 2nd-14th centuries. AD (sometimes it is also dated to the 5th-15th centuries). Its formation and development is connected with Christianity, which, having spread in the Roman Empire in the first centuries of the new era, brought with it a new system of values. The establishment of Christianity is associated with the rejection of ancient culture, which it calls "pagan".
The main principles of medieval thinking are:
1).Revolutionism- the idea of divine revelation of knowledge. Knowledge does not come from human reflection, but is given by God and subsequently acts as a reflection on revelation. The Bible stands as absolute truth.
2) Theocentrism- a theological concept that considers God to be the source, center and goal of all that exists.
3) creationism- the idea that God created the world from nothing, and his omnipotence preserves, supports being every moment.
4) Eschatological(from Greek - last, final, teaching) - system religious views and visions of the end
light, redemption and afterlife, about the fate of the Universe and its transition to a qualitatively new state.
5) providentialism-belief in the divine predestination of everything that exists.
6) Historicity- the idea of history as a linear and progressive movement. For example, as in the teaching of Augustine the Blessed about human history, as an ascent from an imperfect "city of the earth" (state, power of the devil) to a perfect "city of God" (the kingdom of heaven, the community of the righteous). Both "city" exist simultaneously, but belonging to one of them depends on the internal choice of each.
Stages of development of European medieval philosophy:
1) Patristics (from Greek πατηρ, Latin pater - "father") (2-8 centuries) - a set of theological, philosophical, socio-political doctrines presented Church Fathers(spiritual founders of the Christian Church, orthodox teachers
Christian faith).
Representatives: Augustine Aurelius (Blessed), Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory the Theologian, John Chrysostom, Tertullian, Origen).
During the period of patristics, the formation of the Christian doctrine took place, canonization took place (from the Greek κανονίζω - to regulate, determine, legitimize) of the texts of the Bible: in New Testament included only 4 texts of the Gospel, the epistles of the apostles, the revelation of John the Theologian and other texts. A large number of works of original Christian literature were recognized as apocryphal (not included in the biblical
There was a development of Christian dogmatics (from other Greek δόγμα, δόγματος - opinion, decision, decision), i.e. the position of the dogma approved by the highest religious authorities, declared to be an indisputable truth, not subject to criticism (doubt): the Creed (the system of fundamental dogmas of the dogma) was adopted at the Nicene Ecumenical Church Council in 325 and supplemented in 381 by
Niceno-Constantinople Ecumenical Council).
2) Scholasticism (9-15 centuries) (from the Latin word schole) - medieval "school philosophy", whose representatives - scholastics - sought to rationally substantiate and systematize christian doctrine. In scholasticism, philosophy is understood not as free research, scientific research, but as learning and teaching (as the culture of the school).
Representatives: Eriugena, Anselm of Canterbury, Thomas Aquinas, Albert the Great, Pierre Abelard, John Roscellinus, John Duns Scotus, William of Ockham, Meister Eckhart.
So, on the one hand, the period of the Middle Ages can be considered a time of stagnation and decline of philosophical thought (philosophy is just a “servant of theology”), but, on the other hand, the Western European Middle Ages approved a new idea of a person as a person with freedom of internal choice (in the “city of God's" or "city of the earth" lead the paths of the depths of the human heart, and not external circumstances that weigh on a person). medieval philosophy also made a positive contribution to the development of epistemology, formal logic. During this period, the creative forces of man accumulated, which were fully manifested in the Renaissance.
5. Renaissance
Features of the philosophical thinking of the Renaissance.
Revival (Renaissance) is an era in the history of European culture of the 13th-16th centuries, which marked the beginning of the onset of the New Age as an era of secular culture.
This is the era of transition - a "bridge" to the system of social relations and culture of the New Age. It was in this era that the foundations of bourgeois social relations were laid, and science was developing.
Originally, the Renaissance is a literary, artistic and philosophical movement that originated in Italy and then spread throughout Europe.
The revival is associated with the renewal of the achievements of ancient culture. Hence the name of the era. However, this is not a direct restoration of the ideals of antiquity, but a return to the values of the culture of antiquity through the prism of the Christian worldview.
The principles of philosophical thinking of the Renaissance are as follows:
1.Anthropocentrism- the principle according to which man is the central link of the universe, the main subject of philosophy.
2. Secularization- liberation from church influence in social and mental activities and artistic creativity, anti-clericalism is a movement against the privileges of the church and the clergy.
3. Pantheism- the principle that identifies God with nature and considers nature as the embodiment of a deity.
4. Humanism- the value principle and cultural movement of the Renaissance, characterized by anthropocentrism, titanism (belief in the unlimited possibilities of a human-titan), the exaltation of the human personality, the recognition of a person's right to freedom, happiness, and the development of one's abilities. The humanist Pico della Mirandola in his Oration on the Dignity of Man, as well as Lorenzo Valla, believe that man is the creator of himself, he can rise to the angels and fall to the animal, i.e. a person changes himself, while an animal or an angel cannot do this. Humanism has become a cultural and social movement, having accumulated around itself the most talented scientists, thinkers, and translators.
5) Individualism- creations of thought, works of art are now copyrighted, and not anonymous, the identity of the creator becomes important.
Representatives: Pico della Mirandola, Francesco Petrarca, Dante Alighieri,
Niccolo Machiavelli, Nicholas of Cusa, Lorenzo Valla, Michel Montaigne,
Tommaso Campanella, Thomas More, Erasmus of Rotterham, Nicolaus Copernicus,
Giordano Bruno, Leonardo da Vinci and others.
So, we note: the philosophical thought of the Renaissance was in constant development, made a huge contribution to the development of scientific thought thanks to a new understanding of the place and role of man in the objective world. Man began to be understood not as an exclusively being of nature, but as the creator of himself, which by this circumstance differs from all other living beings. Man takes the place of God: he is his own creator, the master of nature. However, the end of the Renaissance brought extreme disappointment, skepticism (which is reflected in the works of Shakespeare, Cervantes and Montaigne.)
6. Philosophy of Modern times and Enlightenment
The 17th century in Western Europe is associated with the intensive development of bourgeois relations in society. The needs of capitalist production have radically changed people's attitude to science, to meaning and goals. cognitive activity.
So, in the previous era of the Middle Ages, the main efforts of the cognizing mind were directed to substantiating the existence of God and proving his greatness. And already in modern times, the cognizing mind and the emerging science began to be perceived as useful tools in transforming the world. The face of the era is gradually beginning to be determined by science, its authority pushes religion to the periphery of the cultural space. The 17th century is the beginning of the formation of the scientific mind, as it appears today. Throughout the first half of the 17th century, the church persecuted scientists (J. Bruno, Vanini and Fontagnier, the heliocentric system of the world was banned), for deviation from the orthodox following of Aristotle (according to the charter of Oxford University), teachers and bachelors were fined, etc., so this the era cannot be considered a time of triumph and complete victory of reason, but it was a period of neutralization and limitation of dogmatic faith and the assertion of the possibilities of reason.
The main features of the New Age are as follows:
1. Priority of epistemology and methodology, questions of knowledge over questions of being, ontology.
2. Rationalism - the assertion of the power of reason: "Knowledge is power" (Fr. Bacon's slogan, which is a symbol of scientific knowledge today).
3. Focus not on religion (as in the Middle Ages) or art (as in the Renaissance), but on science, which should:
serve to increase the power of man over nature;
be a means of understanding the causal relationships of natural phenomena;
· intrude into the natural course of development of nature with the help of an experiment.
F. Bacon: "The goal of our society is to know the causes and hidden forces of all things and to expand the power of man over nature, until everything becomes possible for him."
4. Mechanism is a reductionist principle of cognition that reduces all the phenomena of the surrounding world to various forms of mechanical movement, reducing the complex to simple elements, the whole to the sum of parts.
social philosophy new time
S. f. New time is an attempt at a non-religious explanation of the existence of the state, the mechanisms of the functioning of society. Here, the creativity of such thinkers as T. Hobbes and J. Locke is especially noticeable.
So, T. Hobbes (English philosopher) creates the following concept, called "social contract theory"
1) the natural state of people is “the war of all against all”, since they are characterized by selfishness;
2) in a society where there is no state organization, the arbitrariness of some and the lack of rights of others reign;
3) the state arises as a result social contract between people through the transfer of power the only person or a group of people. The state limits the natural state of people (enmity) to civil law.
J. Locke - eng. philosopher, creator of the concept division of power into three branches(executive, judicial, legislative, which restrain each other, do not give the opportunity to suppress the interests of society). The creator of the theory of human rights: a person from birth has three basic rights: to life, to freedom, to property. This formula of D. Locke was included in many early bourgeois constitutions (for example, the first constitution of North Carolina).
Locke's concept of law puts in the first place respect and observance of the civil independence of a person, respect for the constitution as a powerful weapon of social progress. And thus, the style of philosophical thinking of the New Age led to the development of a progressive legal worldview.
Philosophical ideals era of the Enlightenment.
Philosophers of the French Enlightenment (18th century): B. Pascal, F. Voltaire, C. Montesquieu, J. J. Rousseau, J. La Mettrie, P. Holbach, K. Helvetius, D. Diderot. The main principles of their philosophy:
1) Materialism: everything is material, even thinking and soul, movement is an inseparable sign of matter, which has a source in itself. The greatest work of French materialism was Holbach's System of Nature. The main ideas of the French materialists:
· Nature is the whole universe, it is eternal. Substance is matter. Matter is in motion. Movement occurs in space and time.
Causality dominates in nature. There are no accidents. There are many laws in nature. Many of them were known, especially clearly, they believed, the laws of celestial mechanics were formulated. The laws of mechanics permeate all spheres of nature, including those that operate during the functioning of man. The universe is a permanent mechanical stationary unit. And man is a kind of machine that operates according to the laws of mechanics.
2) "Enlightenment" rationalism and optimism: the ideas of the special role of knowledge in social development, the idea of the world as a whole, bound by reasonable laws, primarily the laws of mechanics that need to be learned, a look at negative moments in history as mistakes of an unenlightened mind, which can be eliminated by bringing knowledge into human society, and above all into the minds of rulers.
3) The secular nature of culture, expressed in a special philosophical attitude to religion: deism - the view that God created the world without taking part in its further development or atheism - criticism religious outlook in general, priests and the Church.
The views of Zh.Zh. Rousseau criticized the civilization of his day, because he believed that the progress of knowledge and the progress of morals did not coincide. A man in a natural, wild state, who does not know what property is, is pure and spontaneous, while a man of civilization is selfish and ambitious, and, armed with reason, is able to destroy everything that remains human in him, becoming soulless and powerful.
The era of the New Age and the Enlightenment laid the foundations of all European culture in the best and highest sense of the word. It was a time of faith in reason and the unrestrained progress of science, bringing positive changes in all spheres of society. At this time, science for the first time becomes a social institution, the so-called "European values" take shape.
7. German classical philosophy
German classical philosophy covers the period from the 70s. 18th century and until about the middle of the 19th century. It is the most important stage in the development of European philosophy. concept classical German philosophy was introduced by F. Engels to indicate the line in the development of new European thought, represented by the teachings of I. Kant, I.Kh. Fichte, F.V. Schelling, G.W.F. Hegel, L. Feuerbach.
Despite the difference in the concepts of these thinkers, their creativity is united common features and features:
1)- dominance epistemological problems (explored the possibilities and boundaries human knowledge; the structure of the cognitive process and the history of the formation of cognitive activity; the specifics of the cognizing subject and the nature of his activity; concept of truth and its criteria. In addition to epistemology, an important place was occupied by methodology. German classical philosophy developed methods corresponding to modern science - dialectical and historical, which made it possible to move forward sharply in the knowledge of the world.
2) - by form philosophical systems of this direction are presented in the form of classical, exemplary philosophical works, "great systems", written for a very limited circle of professional readers. The thinkers of this school have never sought to popularize their ideas and teachings, to make them available to the general public. It was the form of writing the philosophical works of German thinkers that gave the name to this philosophy.
3) - by influence for the further development of philosophical reflection, classical German philosophy is unique. On the one hand, it accumulated, synthesized and deepened the problems that emerged in the philosophy of the New Age, ensuring the continuity of the philosophical tradition. On the other hand, practically all modern directions of philosophical thought originate to one degree or another from classical German philosophy.
The founder of German classical philosophy was Immanuel Kant(1724-1804). In the work of I. Kant, it is customary to distinguish between two periods: pre-critical and critical. The first period is devoted to natural science research, mainly in the field of cosmology, mathematics, and physics.
Second, to rhytic the period covers the actual philosophical work of the thinker, when epistemology, ethics, and aesthetics become the subject of his research. Most famous works of this period were: "Critique of Pure Reason", "Critique of Practical Reason", "Critique of the Ability of Judgment". Kant considers the conditions of our perception of experience, the transcendental conditions of experiential knowledge. His philosophy - transcendental idealism.
Like Copernicus, who made the heliocentric revolution, Kant undermines the fundamental assumption that the prerequisite for knowledge is the impact of the object on the subject. Kant reverses this relationship between object and subject and says that we must imagine that it is the subject that influences the object. The object as we know it is represented as a result of the perception and thinking of the subject.
Kant's philosophical discovery lies precisely in the fact that he sees the basis of scientific knowledge not in the contemplation of the intelligible essence of an object, but in the activity of constructing it, generating idealized objects.
The dialectic of the development of the "pure concept" constitutes the general law of the development of both nature and human thought.
So, according to Hegel, any development proceeds according to a certain pattern (triad):
1. approval, or assumption (thesis);
2. negation of this statement (antithesis);
3. negation of negation, removal of opposites (synthesis). In the synthesis, as it were, the thesis and antithesis are reconciled with each other, from which a new qualitative state arises. However, one should not think that in this third moment the first two are completely destroyed. The Hegelian subversion means, to the same extent, overcoming as well as the preservation of the thesis and antithesis, but the preservation in some higher, harmonizing unity.
According to Hegel, every concept, and therefore every phenomenon in nature, society and the spiritual life of a person, goes through such a triple cycle of development, reaching which the whole process is reproduced again, but at a higher level; and so on until the highest synthesis is obtained. An example given by Hegel: “The bud disappears when the flower opens, and one could say that it is refuted by the flower; in the same way, when the fruit appears, the flower is recognized as the false existence of the plant, and the fruit appears instead of the flower as its truth. These forms not only differ from each other, but also displace each other as incompatible. However, their fluid nature makes them at the same time moments of an organic unity in which they not only do not contradict each other, but one is just as necessary as the other; and only this identical necessity constitutes the life of the whole.
The entire universal dialectical process is ultimately subordinated to a certain goal - the achievement of the point of view of the absolute spirit, in which all contradictions are removed and resolved and all opposites are “redeemed”.
Individual consciousness goes through all the path, all those stages that humanity has passed throughout its history.
Conclusion: German classical philosophy, considering history as a subject of knowledge, introduces into history itself the Kantian difference between the empirical and transcendental (intelligible) levels of consideration, so that history itself appears, as it were, in two planes - as factual history, empirically given, and as history, taken, according to Hegel, "in its concept", that is, in truth. From this moment, not the ontology of being, but the ontology of the subject, the cultural and historical activity of mankind, which appears as some kind of absolute, and therefore divine subject, begins to build.
The transfer of the center of gravity of philosophy to the subject led to the analysis of the whole variety of cultural and historical forms as a product of the activity of various historical subjects (peoples, nations, eras), expressing their uniqueness, originality in objects of material and spiritual culture.
During the 19th and 20th centuries, the study of these peculiar forms became the most important subject of the humanities, which, during these two centuries, acquired an unprecedented significance. The 19th century was the century of history: the history of the general (civil), the history of literature and art, the history of language and mythology, the history of science, philosophy and religion, the history of the economy, the state and legal doctrines.
History as a way of being of a subject (man and mankind) has the same status for the 19th century (and post-Kantian German idealism that expressed the ideas of this century) that nature as a way of being of an object had for the 17th and 18th centuries, for the materialism of the Enlightenment. Thus, Hegel and other German philosophers turned out to be the creators of methods for analyzing culture to the same extent as G. Galileo, R. Descartes, G. Leibniz were the creators of natural scientific and mathematical methods.
8. Philosophy of K. Marx and F. Engels
Marxism is a philosophy K. Marx and F. Engels of the middle and end of the 19th century. It is considered both the completion of the German classics and part of postclassical philosophy.
The emergence of Marxism and Marxist philosophy was facilitated by:
Previous materialist philosophy (Democritus, Epicurus, the English materialists of the 17th century - Bacon, Hobbes and Locke, the French enlighteners of the 18th century, and especially the atheistic-materialist philosophy of Ludwig Feuerbach of the middle of the 19th century);
The rapid growth of discoveries in science and technology (the discovery of the laws of conservation of matter and energy, the evolutionary theory of Charles Darwin, the discovery of the cellular structure of living organisms, the invention of the wire telegraph, the steam locomotive, the steamboat, the automobile, photography, numerous discoveries in the field of production, the mechanization of labor);
The collapse of the ideals of the Great French Revolution (freedom, equality, fraternity, the ideas of the French Enlightenment), their impossibility of implementation in real life;
The growth of social class contradictions and conflicts (revolution of 1848-1849, reaction, wars, the Paris Commune of 1871);
The crisis of traditional bourgeois values (the transformation of the bourgeoisie from a revolutionary into a conservative force, the crisis of bourgeois marriage and morality).
The main works of the founders of Marxism are:
"Theses on Feuerbach" by K. Marx;
"Capital" by K. Marx;
"Economic-Philosophical Manuscripts 1844" K. Marx;
"Manifesto of the Communist Party" by K. Marx and F. Engels;
"The Holy Family" and "German Ideology" by K. Marx and F. Engels;
"Dialectics of Nature" by F. Engels;
"Anti-Dühring" by F. Engels;
"The role of labor in the process of turning a monkey into a man" by F. Engels;
"The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State" by F. Engels.
The main ideas of Marx are "concentrated" in the concept of historical materialism. The central one is the materialistic understanding of history. According to the materialistic understanding of history, the mode of production of material life (material goods) determines the social, political and spiritual processes in society. It is not the consciousness of people that determines their being, but, on the contrary, their social being determines their consciousness. Marx's formula: being determines consciousness. That is, the level of the economy, material production, production relations determine the fate of the state and society, the course of history.
Marx considers all human history at three levels: the level of individual actions (through labor, social actions), the sociostructural level (described by the theory of classes and their struggle) and the world-historical level (described by the theory of socio-economic formations).
The teachings of K. Marx about formations:
The history of mankind is the history of dramatic changes from one formation to another - from the primitive communal system, through slavery, feudalism and capitalism, to socialism and, finally, to communism (the highest phase of a humane-civilized society).
The essence of historical materialism is as follows:
At each stage of social development, in order to ensure their livelihoods, people enter into special, objective production relations that do not depend on their will (the sale of their own labor, material production, distribution);
Production relations, the level of productive forces form the economic system, which is the basis for the institutions of the state and society, social relations;
These state and public institutions, public relations act as a superstructure in relation to the economic basis;
Depending on the level of development of the productive forces and production relations, a certain type of base and superstructure, socio-economic formations are distinguished - a primitive communal system, a slave society, an Asian mode of production, feudalism, capitalism, a socialist (communist) society.
In the course of the evolution of capitalism, there is a process of alienation of the main working mass from the means of production and, consequently, from the results of labor. The main commodity - the means of production - is concentrated in the hands of a few owners, and the bulk of the working people, who do not have the means of production and independent sources of income, are forced to turn to the owners of the means of production as hired labor for wages in order to meet their vital needs.
Here, according to Marx, lies the main evil of capitalism - the destruction of the generic essence of man. The generic essence of man, the highest model of the development of nature, lies in his ability to create according to the measure of any species (each species of animal is able to act “according to the measure” only of its own species). The essence of man lies in free creative work and the exchange of the results of labor in society, in the realization of natural potential.
The value of the product produced by the hired labor force is higher than the value of the labor of workers (in the form of wages), the difference between them, according to Marx, is surplus value, part of which goes into the pocket of the capitalist, and part is invested in new means of production to obtain even greater surplus value in the future. The worker increases the surplus value, but his labor is not paid accordingly, therefore, the more he produces, the richer the capitalist becomes and the poorer he himself is. It turns out that the labor of the worker turns against him, and this is alienation. Developing this theme, Marx shows that the alienation of labor leads to alienation from oneself, since in the difficult physical and moral conditions to which the capitalist condemns the worker in the pursuit of profit, the worker is not capable of complex spiritual relationships with others and with himself, he is on the verge of survival, receiving such wages, which is only enough not to die of hunger and therefore stand at the machine again and again
The founders of Marxist philosophy saw a way out of this situation in the proletarian revolution and the establishment of new, socialist (communist) socio-economic relations, in which (the proletariat is a self-realized class of workers who understand their position and are able to correctly formulate their demands):
Private ownership of the means of production will be abolished;
The exploitation of man by man and the appropriation of the results of someone else's labor (surplus product) by a narrow group of people will be eliminated;
Private ownership of the means of production will be replaced by public (state);
The product produced, the results of labor will be shared among all members of society through fair distribution.
Marx and Engels created a holistic doctrine of the laws of development of nature, society and thought - the philosophy of dialectical and historical materialism. The philosophy of Marxism was fundamentally different from all previous philosophical systems and was of great revolutionary importance both for science in society and for all social practice.
9. Russian philosophy
Philosophy originated in the Ancient East in the middle. I millennium BC It was most developed in India and China, where it was closely associated with religion. A characteristic feature of Ancient India was the division of society into castes - closed class groups, belonging to which was determined by the fact of birth: the transition from one caste to another was prohibited, mixed marriages were excluded.
There were four main castes:
Brahmins (priests);
Kshatriyas (warriors);
Vaishyas (traders, farmers, artisans);
Sudras (servants).
This position was supported by religion, which relied on a complex of sacred texts under the general name of the Vedas. These texts were hymns to the gods, spells, sacrificial formulas, etc. Of greatest interest to philosophy are the commentaries on the Vedas, which are called the Upanishads. They contain the ideas of the ancient Hindus about the origin of the world and man. Hindus believed that the soul is immortal and undergoes an infinite number of rebirths, moving from one body to another ( samsara). At the same time, after the death of the body, the soul cannot move into the body of a representative of a higher caste. Under these conditions, salvation moksha) was seen in interrupting the circle of rebirths and bringing the soul into a special state ( nirvana), in which there are no emotions and no life. All Indian philosophy is based on the belief in an "eternal moral order." Hence the common concept for all Indian philosophical systems karma, which shows that everything done by a person is nowhere and never in vain and what happens to a person is a consequence of his own actions. Therefore, the world is an arena for moral deeds, in which every person has the opportunity to deserve the best future.
Depending on their attitude to the texts of the Vedas, the philosophers of ancient India were divided into 2 groups of schools:
Orthodox schools of philosophy considered the authority of the Vedas indisputable and saw their task only in commenting on their texts. These schools include: Samkhya, Vedanta, Mimamsa, Nyaya, Vaisheshiya, Yoga;
Jainism. A mixture of philosophy and religion. The essence of human personality is twofold. It has two principles: material (ajiva) and spiritual (jiva). The connecting element between them is karma. Jainism has elaborated the concept of karma. Jains distinguished eight kinds of different karmas of two qualities (evil and good). Evil karmas negatively affect the soul, good ones keep the soul in the cycle of rebirths (samsara). When a person gradually gets rid of evil and good karmas, he will be freed from samsara. Liberation from karma and samsara is possible with the help of austerity and the fulfillment of good desires.
Buddhism. Religious and ethical doctrine, which later became a world religion. The founder is Siddhartha Gautama. The center of the teaching is the four noble truths.
1. Human existence is connected with suffering.
2. The cause of suffering is desire (thirst), leading through joys and passions to rebirth again.
3. The elimination of the cause of suffering consists in the elimination of this thirst, i.e. renunciation of desires.
4. The path leading to the elimination of suffering, the good eightfold path.
Buddhism preaches the "middle way", that is, it rejects both a life devoted to sensual pleasures and the path of asceticism and self-torture. The end of suffering nirvana(literally "quenched"). A state of complete equanimity, liberation from everything that brings pain, suffering. Distraction from the outside world, as well as from the world of thoughts.
feature Charvaks-Lakoyats there was a materialistic interpretation of the world, while the other schools stood on positions of idealism. In general, the philosophy of ancient India is characterized by a weak attention to the outside world (nature and society) and a person's orientation towards internal self-improvement.
Features of ancient Indian philosophy determined by the characteristics of the culture of this country as a whole.
1. In India, philosophy was not the exclusive property of a narrow circle of philosophers or pundits. It was an important element of the religion of the masses and penetrated to them in a simplified form, creating the basis for a worldview.
2. Another feature is the individualism of Indian philosophy, the emphasis on exclusivity, caste. Here everything is centered on the individual on oneself.
3. Extreme tolerance towards the beliefs and customs of others, the ability to adhere to the chosen way of life.
4. In the philosophy of ancient India, attention was not focused on the concept of society as a whole, on the concept of duty to society.
Features of philosophy Ancient China stem from the uniqueness of the history and culture of the peoples of China. The ancient Chinese state is a typical Eastern hierarchical despotism. There was no law here, and no one was protected from the arbitrariness of a higher social ladder. Traditions based on a complex system of rituals dominated the lives of people. Mythology in ancient China was poorly developed. The ancient Chinese were too practical people for that. The whole life of the Chinese appeared as a continuous report to the spirits of their ancestors. Therefore, it is not surprising that this philosophy has a pronounced moral and regulatory character.
Ancient Chinese philosophy is associated with ancient books, the so-called "Chinese Pentateuch", which form the basis of the exemplary Chinese worldview. The Pentateuch included: "Book of Songs", "Book of History", "Book of Changes", "Book of Rites", "Chronicle". The Book of Changes (I Ching) is the most important. It contains the first idea of the world and man in Chinese philosophy, formulated the basic principles of philosophical thinking in China.
The most famous and influential schools of ancient Chinese philosophy, which left a noticeable mark on the history of the culture of this country, were Confucianism, Taoism, Mohism, the school of laws, the school of names. The most influential philosophical currents in China were Confucianism and Taoism, which arose in the 6th century. BC. Founder Taoist Lao Tzu- a semi-legendary personality. The foundations of his teachings are set forth in the treatise "Tao de zi". In his opinion, the world exists due to the interaction of two principles: the dark passive feminine Yin and the bright active masculine Yang. Yin-Yang - two phenomena of opposite nature and two opposite aspects of the same phenomenon - active and passive, leading and led. The nature of Yin and Yang is not absolute, but relative, Yin can turn into Yang and vice versa. They not only oppose each other, but also complement each other. The movement of Yin and Yang is the movement of change in one world. This movement has its own way, the way of Tao, and all things live this way. The world exists and develops thanks to the universal law Dao, to which both the forces of nature and the fate of people are subordinated. One can live in accordance with the Tao, guided by the principle of “wu-wei” (“non-action”): a person should not transform the world around him, but must adapt to the world in all ways.
The spirit of traditionalism characteristic of Chinese culture is most clearly and consistently manifested in Confucianism. The name of this school comes from the name of its founder Kung Fu Tzu (in Latin transcription - Confucius). Confucius, being engaged in state activity, saw his task in offering a doctrine that would ensure lasting peace and prosperity for the people. From his statements, the students compiled a treatise called "Lun Yu" ("Conversations and Sayings") - a collection of moral teachings.
An orderly prosperous existence in peace and harmony occurs when everyone is guided by three moral rules: reciprocity, golden mean and philanthropy, which together constitute the "dao-correct path". This path should be followed by everyone who wants to live in harmony with himself, with other people, with the universe, which means - who wants to live happily. Who adheres to the golden “mean”, that is, is able to choose between intemperance and caution, who achieves “philanthropy” or honoring parents and respect for elders, who does not shy away from “reciprocity”, that is, caring for people, that is a virtuous person. Only such people treat society with respect and reverence, without which a proper way of life is impossible. Society is a family where children's respect for their parents, parental love for children, justice and wisdom prevail.
Confucius said that all troubles are due to the fact that people forget the covenants of their ancestors and violate traditions. Confucius put forward the demand for "correction of names". It meant that everyone should be deeply aware of their position in society and to the smallest detail perform all the rituals (li) that correspond to it. As a result, a mandatory law (fa) will be established in society, and relations between people will become humane ( jen).
Taoism and Confucianism eventually became national-state religions.
Legalism(School of law or lawyers). Representatives Han Fei And Shang Yang. The lawyers opposed the Confucian ritual ("li") - the law ("fa"). They completely abandoned the methods of persuasion, that is, moral coercion, relying entirely on legal coercion and punishment. Conscience they replaced fear. Naive ideas about the state as big family replaced state like a soulless organism. The outer goal has become the highest goal - the victory of his kingdom in the struggle of kingdoms. For the sake of this, various “excesses” were expelled, the arts were abolished, dissent was suppressed, philosophy was destroyed. Philosophy is harmful to the state, it offers people incomprehensible and opposite patterns for behavior and, thereby, confuses people, sows confusion and interferes with management. Thus, Han Fei summed up the so-called "golden age" of Chinese philosophy.
Features of ancient Chinese philosophy are as follows:
1. The historical period of ancient China, known as the period "warring states and kingdoms", in the spiritual life "Golden Age" of Chinese Philosophy" or " period of "the rivalry of a hundred schools."
2. Most philosophical schools of ancient China were dominated by practical philosophy associated with the problems of worldly wisdom, morality, social management.
3. Ancient Chinese philosophy was low-site. This is due to the fact that it was loosely connected with the science that existed at that time in China.
4. Ancient Chinese philosophy was marked by the fact that in ancient China there was poorly developed logic. China did not have its own Aristotle, which is why philosophy was poorly rationalized.
5. The ancient Chinese language used at that time, with its peculiarities, made it difficult to develop an abstract philosophical language.
In general, Chinese philosophers saw their main purpose in teaching order. They were extremely negative about everything new and were supporters of traditionalism. This one-sidedness of philosophy further predetermined China's serious scientific and technological lag behind other civilizations.
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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 (Canon [documentaries] scriptures), shi jing (Canon of poems), 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 with 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 (before 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 philosophical schools that existed at that time defined themselves 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 Chinese were denoted 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 - the 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 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 (the idea, the eidos, the form of forms, the 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 by philosophical categories, first of all, of a logical meaning, 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 model magic square 3ґ3 - lo shu, cm. HE TU AND LO SHU), on which the hun fan.
The place of the science of logic (the first true 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 Shih'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 the methodological role of 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 largest 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, had the most significant impact on the nature of Chinese protology and dialectics, since both the logical and the dialectic 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 a 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 lack of differentiation of materialistic and idealistic tendencies and the general dominance of combinatorial-classification 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 Chuang Tzu(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 (dao) 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), also called “natural-philosophical” in Western literature; 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 Chuang Tzu, 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 (“scientific 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 centralized administrative structure was destroyed, 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 particular character, because this hieroglyph has a 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 (dao) 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."
While evaluating the last school, which was more of a folklore than a philosophical 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, who calls himself "Han", the theory of Liu Xin - Ban Gu 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 are 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, tao 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 pre-Confucian religious beliefs and worldview ideas that 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 included in 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 doctrine 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 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 “gaining immortality” and psycho-physiologised 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 areas (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). The further development of 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 "dao" and "de 1", which formed one of the first names of Taoism as "schools of tao 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 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”, manifested 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 of the 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).
IN Chuang Tzu 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 Dao Te Ching and the then popular thesis that the Tao, not being a thing among things, makes things things. IN Chuang Tzu 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 to the maximum, 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). IN 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). IN 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 non-purposeful Path-dao that prevails in 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 "( Chuang Tzu, 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 appropriate 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 - Chuang Tzu 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 Chuang Tzu in this era they were called "Three Mysterious" (san xuan).
The category “xuan” (“secret, mysterious, secret, 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”, “corporeal 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, 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) "primal 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 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 dialogic 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. Mohism differs from other philosophical currents of ancient China in two ways. specific features: theologization and organizational formality, which, together with an increased interest in the 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 Chuang Tzu(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 Xiangzi (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 Chuang Tzu and Ch. 50 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 "Mohist 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 unifying love for people and brings them benefit / benefit. Acting as a universal “pattern/law” (fa), “blessed” (te) 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 the ancient belief in "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. According to Mo-tzu, the result of the correct interaction of the top and the bottom on the basis of the principle of equal opportunities should be universal "unity" (tun), i.e. having overcome the animal chaos and primitive turmoil of general mutual enmity, centrally controlled, like a machine, a 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 supported 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 - early 20th century. 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, stimulated by the collision with the West, the intensification of the search for Chinese analogues of Western scientific methodology.
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-Tao, 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 "realities".
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 officials" in such a way that they would be responsible for all executive duties, and he, demonstrating "non-action" (wu wei) to the Celestial Empire, 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, stupefy 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 sensory contacts with external objects waste the “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 one is extremely short. historical period 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 the prominent statesman, reforming chancellor and Confucian philosopher Wang Anshi (1021-1086) included in his socio-political program 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 Chuang Tzu, 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 Chuang Tzu. 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 the 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 fixable different names different 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 view Gongsun Long solved the problem of reference 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”, “sign”, “definition”, “pronoun” , "sign", "value". 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 of 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 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. IN 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. IN 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".
IN shi chi it is also said that Su Qin and Zhang Yi studied under an enigmatic figure called Guiguzi, the Nawei Gorge Master, 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 involves "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 quantity rather than quality of goods, and in general 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
represents philosophical direction, represented either by eclectic works of individual authors, or collections compiled from texts of representatives of various ideological directions, 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 put forward the ideal of a state system in which, in the presence of a sacredly elevated, but practically almost inactive ruler, the real power belongs to the zhu, 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 the impersonal, divine-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, which in the first case results in “ Golden Rule"morality (shu 3 - "reciprocity"), in the second - in the requirement of correspondence between nominal and real, words and deeds (zheng ming - "correcting names"). The meaning of human existence, according to Confucius, is the affirmation in the Middle Kingdom of the highest and universal form of the socio-ethical order - the "Way" (tao), the most important manifestations of which are "humanity", "due justice" (and), "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 jing, 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 side 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 the "three masters of the doctrine of the principle" - Sun Fu, Hu Yuan (end of the 10th - 11th centuries) and Shi Jie (11th century), for the first time it acquired a systematic and thematically comprehensive form in the works 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; Chuang Tzu, 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 . Taking 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 by means of the opposition "the doctrine of the principle" (li xue) - "the doctrine of the heart" (hsin 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 Mencius) and internalism (Mengzi - Wang Yangming), which was initial for Confucianism, was revived at a new theoretical level, which took shape in neo-Confucianism 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”, “experimental 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 wisdom. 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, withdrawal into oneself. 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 empirical study of nature and the critical study of classical texts, taking the textual criticism of Han Confucianism as a model, due 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. "Rightening of people's hearts and improvement of morals" can be achieved through free expression 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, and not 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) “xing 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 “goodness” (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". ".
A “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. The ability of people to know, according to Dai Zhen, differ like fires with different intensity of glow; 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 opposition to 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 reanimated in the PRC as a carrier of a national idea waiting to be demanded.
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