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Major Schools of Thought in Ancient China
A plain survey of the rival schools of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, from Confucians and Mohists to Legalists and Daoists, and what each cared about.
Ideas and Meaning
Schools of Thought
Thinkers, texts and rival ideas of early and later China.
Confucius and the Analects
How the Analects, a collection of sayings and short exchanges linked to Confucius, treats learning and conduct, and what those themes meant to later readers.
Legalism and the Idea of Strict Rule
What Legalist thinkers argued about clear laws, rewards and punishments, how the Qin put such ideas into practice, and how later Chinese writers judged them.
Mencius on Human Nature
Mencius argued that people have moral sprouts that education can nourish. Learn what the idea means, how it was argued, and how it shaped later Chinese education.
Mohism and the Ethic of Impartial Care
Mozi and his followers argued that people should care for all equally, opposed aggressive war, and criticized lavish rituals. Here is what Mohism taught and why it faded.
Neo-Confucianism in the Song Dynasty
How Song thinkers such as Zhu Xi reworked Confucian ideas around principle, vital energy and the mind, and why the movement shaped learning for centuries.
Ritual and Propriety in Confucian Thought
What li means in Confucian thought: the shared forms of respectful behavior in family and society, why they mattered, and how critics and later thinkers viewed them.
The Four Books and the Five Classics
Which texts formed the core reading of Confucian education, what each contained, and how the Five Classics and the Four Books were studied and used over time.
Wang Yangming and the Unity of Knowledge and Action
An introduction to Wang Yangming, the Ming thinker who argued that true knowing shows itself in conduct, and how his school of mind responded to Zhu Xi.
Xunzi and the Case for Learning and Ritual
Xunzi held that character is shaped by effort, teachers and ritual rather than simply unfolding. Learn how he argued it and how his view differed from Mencius.
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