A Hundred Schools of Thought

Time flies.The wheel of history entered around 500 B.C. At that time, the oriental China was at the end of the Spring and Autumn Period (722 BC - 481 BC). A golden age of philosophy was about to begin.

The "Tao" of Lao Zi would spread in the world. Hundreds of schools of thought bloomed. Different theories, thoughts and opinions mushroomed. This age was the Golden Age of Chinese thinking. It was comparable to the ancient Greek times. During this period, the Chinese culture, ideas and wisdom saw significant developments. It was a grand age comparable to the Renaissance.

Let's have a look at the time when the Hundred Schools of Thought came to the stage during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods.

Taoism

Lao Zi is the founder of Taoism. The scope of his fundamental thoughts is "Tao." Therefore people later on refer to the school of Lao Zi as Taoism.

Lao Zi wrote the seminal of Taoist work named Tao De Jing ("Jing" means scripture). Tao De Jing has a total of more than 5,000 characters. However, later people who studied Tao De Jing wrote millions of words to discuss the work. Lao Zi didn't give his own work a title. Later people gave it the name of Tao De Jing because it talked about the issue of Tao and virtue (De). Today's Chinese people treat "Tao" and "De" as a single word for morality. In fact, in ancient Chinese, each of the two characters had different meanings. Tao means "the way." De means "virtue." The two characters mean different things. Lao Zi expounded on both in his book. People called it Tao De Jing.

Many people treat Tao De Jing as a grand philosophical work. However, people who are truly predestined see it as a way of cultivation, a way to obtain the Tao, and cultivate according to it to return to their true selves. Lao Zi said at the beginning of his work, "You can call the Tao [I teach] a Tao, but it is not an ordinary Tao." An extraordinary "Tao" cannot be obtained casually. Therefore it is very precious. When the "Tao" is spread in the world, people treat it differently. Lao Zi said, "When a wise man hears the Tao, he will follow it diligently. When an average person hears the Tao, he will do it on and off. When a low person hears the Tao, he will laugh at it. If he doesn't laugh loudly, it is not the Tao." (Chapter 41 of Tao De Jing)

In order to help those who are predestined to obtain the Tao to return to their true selves, Lao Zi wrote in his 5,000 character work the meaning of the "Tao" and the relationship between the formation of the universe and the origin of all objects. The work covered the main issues of how to be a human beings and how to return to one's true self. Any other issues illustrated in his book were for explaining the main issues. In order to help cultivators understand the way of cultivation, Lao Zi mentioned many times how a sage who has obtained the "Tao" would react to different issues as examples for cultivators to follow.

Why did Lao Zi spread the Tao?

Lao Zi said, "Virtue comes after the Tao is lost. Kindness comes after virtue is lost. Loyalty comes after kindness is lost. Etiquette comes after loyalty is lost."

No doubt, Lao Zi thought that Tao and virtue were above kindness and loyalty. So he said, "When the Great Tao is lost, kindness and loyalty emerge." It means that people pursue kindness and loyalty after the Great Tao doesn't exist any more. Lao Zi thought that developments in society caused people's pursuit of fame and interest, therefore, it disturbed people's xinxing (mind nature), and caused people to lose their true selves. The emergence of kindness, loyalty and piety are signs of the decay of societal morality. People move toward kindness and loyalty precisely because there are unkind and disloyal phenomena in the society. If people all loved each other, and politics were uncorrupted, nobody would deliberately advocate such things because they were as natural as other elements of our daily life. In order to help people return to their true selves, Lao Zi spread the Tao.

What is the Tao?

Tao De Jing starts with this, "You can call the Tao [I teach] a Tao, but it is not an ordinary Tao. You can call the names [I teach] a name, but they are not ordinary names. Nothingness is the beginning of naming the Heaven and Earth. Existence is the mother of naming everything."

What is the extraordinary Tao that Lao Zi referred to? Lao Zi described it as "something holistic, born prior to the Heaven and the Earth It can be considered as the mother of the Heaven and the Earth. I don't know its name. I force it into the name of Tao." This Tao cannot be seen, cannot be heard, and cannot be obtained through fighting. But it truly exists. This Tao, the mother of the Heaven and Earth, is then the origin of everything in the universe.

How does this Tao create everything? Lao Zi told us, "Everything comes from something. Something comes from nothingness." "One gives birth to two. Two gives birth to three. Three gives birth to everything." The evolvement of the entire universe follows the Tao. Tao is the origin of the creation and development of everything in the universe.

Since Tao has created all living beings in the universe, isn't Tao the highest rule of nature and human society? Isn't it the highest law of restricting people's morality and behavior? If people follow the requirements of the Tao, aren't they cultivating the Tao? Aren't they returning to their true selves?

Then how to achieve it? Lao Zi gave us the answer.

How can one cultivate the Tao?

As for those who long for the Tao, how can they return their true selves? The answer Lao Zi gave was "human beings follow the Earth. The Earth follows the Heavens. The Heavens follow the Tao. The Tao follows nature." (Chapter 25 of Tao De Jing)

Cultivators should assimilate to kindness. Lao Zi thought "the best kindness is like water. Water benefits everything but doesn't fight for itself. It resides where people dislike... It doesn't fight for itself, therefore it doesn't worry." (Chapter 8 of Tao De Jing)

Cultivators should extinguish all kinds of desires and attachments. Cultivators should be calm and without pursuits.

Cultivators should believe in the Tao firmly.

Even for people who don't cultivate, they will understand the principles of being a good person after reading Tao De Jing. The difference between cultivators and non-cultivators is that cultivators do not pursue interests in human society. They pursue returning to their true selves. Non-cultivators are attached to all interests and desires in human society. This tells us precisely the preciousness of the true Tao.

Lao Zi's Tao is deep and inspiring. It is a way of cultivating the Tao, just like the Buddha Fa and western divine teachings. When people are attached to fame and self-interest, they can only see ordinary principles in his book.

Confucianism

Confucius says, "Rulers should emphasize the way of kings, advocate kind politics to manage the kingdom well. Rulers also need to advocate kindness, loyalty, etiquette, wisdom and faith to educate all citizens."

Confucianism advocates kindness and morality. It has been the mainstream of Chinese culture for several thousand years. Those who have practiced Confucianism exceptionally well have been respected by the Chinese people. Confucius created the theory of kindness. He required rulers to understand ordinary people's situations and cherish ordinary people's hard work. He was against tyranny and arbitrary executions. Post-Confucian Chinese emperors respected him as a sage.

Legalism

Legalism thinks that there is no need for education in kindness and morality and a sound legal system can organize society.

A legal system can play a role in the society, but it cannot adjust all societal relationships. In some social fields, morality and common values are still needed. Legalism places a lot of emphasis on punishment and overlooks the function of moral education. The result is that people do not genuinely want to be kind. They are simply too afraid of being punished to do bad things. When people have resentment in their hearts, the society is weakly balance.

Legalism's representative figures are Shang Yang, Han Fei Zi, and Li Si. None of them had a good ending.

Shang Yang was the Chief Advisor in the state of Qin for ten years, and started a reform there. Shang Yang's reform was strict and cruel. He allocated every ten families as a "shi" and five families as "wu." If a family committed a crime, the other nine families had to report it. Otherwise, all ten families would be punished together. This was called "chain punishment." People didn't dare to talk about the "new law." The society was very stable. However, this was not due to the improvement of the people's morality, it was because people's fear of cruel punishment.

Shang Yang was also an untrustworthy person. One year, he urged Duke Xiao of Qin to attack the State of Wei. Then he sent a letter to the Duke of Wei and invited him over for a glass of wine to sign an alliance agreement with Qin. The Duke of Wei came and was captured. Soon after, Shang Yang led the Qin army to defeat the army of the State of Wei.

While serving as the Chief Advisor of Qin, Shang Yang upset many people. Zhao Liang once advised him, "You secured your first audience with the Duke of Qin through corrupt officials, and that is not the right way. Not focusing on the people but building a lot of palaces is not the right way of building your achievement. Using torture on the teacher of the prince and people will accumulate hatred and disaster. If you continue to be greedy and suppress people, you will be hurt once the Duke passes away. You will only be safe if you advise the Duke of Qin to emphasize etiquette and virtue. Otherwise, you will soon be troubled." Shang Yang didn't follow this advice.

Five months later, the Duke of Qin died. The crown prince ascended the throne. He immediately sent someone to arrest Shang Yang. When Shang Yang fled to the customs, he wanted to stay in an inn for the night. The owner of the inn didn't know that he was Shang Yang. The owner said, "Shang Yang's law has decided that allowing someone without an ID to stay for the night is a crime for the owner of the hotel." Shang Yang sighed and said, "The law has gone too far!" He fled to the State of Wei. People in Wei hated him for lying to the Duke of Wei. They caught Shang Yang and deported him to the State of Qin. Duke Hui of Qin killed Shang Yang and his entire family.

Han Fei Zi advocated punishment and didn't endorse kindness and love. He thought that human nature was evil and rooted in self-interest. He thought "carriage makers want everyone to be rich and thus afford buying carriages. Coffin makers want everyone to die so they can make more coffins." To him, everything was determined by self-interest. He didn't think the evil human nature could be changed via morality and education. He felt that only authority and punishment could manage it.

In terms of managing a country, Han Fei Zi thought that strict laws were necessary to force people to work. He didn't think that he could rely on people's voluntary work. As the population grew, people would fight for their interests. Only authority and power could suppress the evilness in human nature. Only strict laws could avoid riots and instabilities.

Li Si's wish was to be a "mouse in the food warehouse." This thought determined that he only cared about his own interest and overlooked other people's interest, or even was hostile to other people's interests.

His book, Advice Against the Driving Away of Guest Immigrants (Jian Zhu Ke Shu) was an important work in Chinese history. In this book, Li Si emphasized the talent of immigrants and the fact that immigrants all wanted to be loyal to the Duke of Qin. However, when Li Si framed Han Fei Zi, he used exactly the same reason in the opposite way. He argued that an immigrant fundamentally couldn't be loyal to the Duke of Qin. This was simply common sense. He advised the Duke of Qin to kill Han Fei Zi to avoid possible harm to the State of Qin by Han. This was only an excuse. Li Si wanted to kill a potential competitor out of jealousy. Li Si wasn't convinced that the Duke of Qin was determined to kill Han Fei Zi. So he poisoned Han to death in jail. Later on, the Duke of Qin regretted arresting Han. But Han was already dead.

Li Si simply cared about protecting his interest. The state and people were not really in his heart.

The Duke of Qin later became the Emperor of Qin. After he died, Li Si and Zhao Gao altered and forged the name on the Emperor's will. The faked decree ordered Qin Shi Huang's first son, the heir Fusu, to commit suicide, and named the second son Huhai as the next emperor. The decree also stripped the command of troops from Marshal Meng Tian a faithful supporter of Fusu and sentenced Meng's family to death. This was the beginning of the collapse of Qin Dynasty. Li Si, as the Imperial Secretary, played an important role in that.

Li Si supported Huhai when the new emperor wasted money and persecuted royal officials. When the farmer's rebellion army was close to the capital of the Qin Dynasty, Huhai asked Li Si for an explanation. Li Si advised Huhai, "As an emperor, you should not serve the country. The entire country should serve you." How can you achieve this? Li Si used an example: Shang Yang imposed brutal torture on someone who spilled dirt on the road. When people see that a small mistake could cause so much pain, they wouldn't dare not to serve you. Li Si told Huhai to control everything and not let anything restrict him. The Qin Dynasty collapsed soon.

Li Si was loyal only to himself, not to the emperor or the people. In the end, he was killed by Zhao Gao. Li's entire family was also killed.

The representative figures of Legalism didn't spare any methods to achieve their goal. They didn't care about friendship, love, other people's interests or even other people's lives. Their mentality was based on cruelty. History has proven that this school of thought doesn't work for human society.

Mohism

Mozi was the founder of Mohism. He advocated thriftiness, friendship, no wars without a righteous reason and promoting talented people.

Logicians
The Logicians' school of thought was similar to western logic. They analyzed relationships among different things from the perspective of philosophy.

It was purely theoretical and couldn't be directly applied to worldly events. However, it could guide people's behaviors from the thought level. Hui Shi and Gong Sunlong were two representative figures of this school of thought. However, their works have been lost.

Ying-Yang School

The Ying-Yang School focused on ying and yang, the five elements, astrological calendars, and fortune-telling. It originated from The Book of Changes. The theory of the five elements came from Hong Fan. The theory of ying and yang is part of the Chinese cultural heritage. It is a combination of ancient Chinese physics, astrology, calendar-making and forecasting.

The School of Uniting and Breaking-up

What is the strategy of uniting and breaking up (zong heng)? The literal translation of zong heng is horizontal and vertical. Chinese people in ancient times thought of North and South as vertical and East and West as horizontal. The strategy of uniting and breaking up was a foreign relations strategy developed by Su Qin and Zhang Yi during the Warring States period. Su Qin and Zhang Yi were the representative figures of this strategy. Su Dai and Su Li, the younger brothers of Su Qin, inherited the thoughts.

Su Qin initially went to the State of Qin to lobby the Duke of Qin. His advice was not accepted. Upon returning home, he studied Yin Fu Jing, the book of Jiang Taigong, for several years. Whenever he was sleepy, he used an awl to sting his legs to keep himself awake. The legend of "awl stinging legs" came from Su Qin. After several years of hard work, he further studied the situation in China. A new strategy emerged in Su's mind. He was confident that he could successfully lobby Dukes in China. His strategy was uniting (zong). He lobbied six states, Yan, Zhao, Han, Wei, Qi, and Chu, to form an alliance to resist Qin. He became the chief of the alliance. This strategy held Qin soldiers inside of the alliance's boundary for 15 years.

When Zhang Yi and Su Qin were young, they were classmates under the same teacher, Guiguzi. Once Su Qin died in the State of Qi, Zhang Yi started lobbying for the strategy of "breaking up." (heng) He lobbied the six states to abandon the alliance, but become dependent on the State of Qin. This "breaking up" strategy gave people some time to take a break from the civil war.

The School of Uniting and Breaking Up is equivalent to today's foreign relations strategy. It is very practical. The strategy of Uniting and Breaking up maintained peace in China for 29 years. It brought benefits to the Chinese people.

However, the strategy of uniting and breaking up was a temporary solution. The fundamental motive was for personal fame and gains. It was not ultimately for world peace. Therefore, the school of uniting and breaking up was only popular for 2 or 3 decades and its contribution to China is not as great as that of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. Su Qin and Zhang Yi are considered great strategists but not sages. The difference between ordinary people and sages lie in whether they pursue personal interests or interests of the masses.

The Miscellaneous School

The Miscellaneous School combines many schools of thoughts such as Confucianism, Taoism, Mohism, Logicians, and Legalism. It doesn't have its own unique principles. The book Lu Shi Chun Qiu by the chief advisor to Duke of Qin in the Warring States period was a work of the Miscellaneous School.

The Agriculture School

Books of the Agriculture School usually dealt with agricultural technologies. They were beneficial for Chinese agricultural development. The representative figure was Xu Xing.

The Novel School

The Novel School isn't like today's novelists. It simply meant that people in the Novel School expressed themselves in a way that people found easy to understand. They didn't have their own theories, but used a specific style to convey existing theories. So the name of the Novel School didn't touch upon the essence of a theory, but a form of expression.

So among the 10 schools mentioned, there were indeed 9 schools. The ancient Chinese called all schools of thought the "three religions and nine schools." The three referred to Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. The nine referred to Taoism, Confucianism, Legalism, Mohism, Logicians, Ying and Yang, Uniting and Breaking Up, Miscellaneous, and Agriculture Schools.

The War School

Actually, aside from the nine schools, there were other schools, such as the War School. Ancient Chinese didn't count them in the term of "three religions and nine schools." Sun Wu during the Spring and Autumn period and Sun Bin and Pang Juan from the Warring States period were representative figures of the War School. Sun Wu (Sun Zi) and Sun Bin both wrote their versions of the Art of War.

Sun Bin and Pang Juan were both students of Guiguzi, who was also the teacher of Su Qin and Zhang Yi. Sun Bin and Pang Juan studied the art of war. Su Qin and Zhang Yi studied strategies. They were highly influential to the military and politics during the Warring States period.

Pang Juan and Sun Bin took an oath to treat each other as brothers. Pang Juan swore that if he betrayed Sun Bin, he would be shot to death by arrows. Sun Bin was from the family of Sun Wu (Sun Zi). After they left their teacher, Pang Juan became an official in the State of Wei. Out of jealousy, he framed Sun Bin and caused him to be tortured severely and become disabled. Sun Bin worked for the State of Qi. Sun Bin used what he learned to completely defeat Pang's army in Ma Ling Tao (Ma Ling Passage). Pang was shot to death by many arrows.