Introduction to Chinese Philosophy
Dr. Jinmei Yuan
Introduction:
1. What is Chinese Philosophy
--A wisdom beyond language
2. How to Understand Chinese Philosophy?
--Look at the world from the perspective of aesthetics
3. Why do we need to study Chinese Philosophy?
--(Your answer…)
--To go into a different world where 1/5 of people on the earth live in
Chapter One: Aesthetics
--The Path of Beauty
1. Chinese words and the way of Chinese thinking:
1.1. The earliest Chinese characters:
1.1.1. Oracle Bone Inscription:
(Activity 1: To communicate by simplest picture instead of words)
Oracle Bone Script is the oldest known form of Chinese written language.
According to recent archaeological research, it dates back as far as 4,800
years ago.
The script was carved on tortoise shells and ox scapulas (shoulder blade)
bones. Hence the name of "bone script"
It is commonly called "oracle bone script," because some of the objects are
thought to be used as oracles, though the script language was not restricted
to just oracle applications.
(Activity 2: Study oracle bone script)
Bronze Inscriptions ware shown later (around 1273 B. C.)
1.1.2. The art of line:
Chinese characters are basically pictographic symbols.
They are simulations of objects, but also highly generalized.
They could even express subjective feelings, hopes, and desires.
1.1.3. The pure linear beauty:
The beauty of Chinese characters is that the lines can be free arranged or
moving in space.
The linear beauty can express even feelings and emotions.
Chinese calligraphy:
1.1.3. Both imagery and simulation
1.2.
The way of Chinese thinking
1.2.1. The earliest thoughts about the world in Chinese Myths:
Mythology is an important and interesting part of China's rich cultural
heritage. Ideas, images, imaginations from ancient Chinese mythology
have left a strong imprint on Chinese philosophy, religion, literature, art,
and education.
1.2.2. Chinese myths include:
Cosmogonic myths, creation myths, etiological myths, myths of divine
birth, mythic metamorphoses, myths of strange places, peoples, plants,
birds, and animals, myths of the primeval and the lesser gods, mythical
figures, and myths of the semi-divine heroes who found their tribe, city, or
dynasty at the dawn of history.
Our emphasis will be placed on the philosophical ideas and religious
beliefs embodied in those myths.
(Activity 3. Read myths and fill a table of the comparison to the western
culture)
1.2.3. Important characters and their stories in Chinese myths:
Pan Gu—the one who opened up Heaven and Earth
Nu Wa—Mother of Chinese
Fu Xi—Father of Chinese, he began the Changes by drawing the eight
trigrames.
The Yellow Emperor (Huang Di)—the one who won the struggle for
supremacy. He was the one who pursued justice.
Tai Hou—God of the east. He could contemplate the future and created
the eight diagrams.
The Fiery Emperor (Divine Preasan/Shen Long)—He taught people how
to pant rice. He was the first Chinese doctor.
1.2.4. The war among gods:
Chi You—the person who challenged the Yellow Emperor
Kua Fu—the person who challenged the nature (the Sun)
Xing Tian—the person with no head but he still fought against the Yellow
Emperor.
1.2.5. The Summary of the characteristics of Chinese myths:
1.2.5.1.Gods, human and nature in Chinese myths are transcendent.
1.2.5.2. Semi-divine heroes, the mixture of human-animal figures, strange
things and places play main roles in Chinese myths.
1.2.5.3. The different figures in Chinese myths all are very humane.
1.2.5.4. Chinese myths offered the reason for the worship of ancestors in
Chines culture.
1.2.5.5. Pursing harmony from a chaos world often is an ideal ending for
Chinese myths.
1.3.
What kind of philosophy shown in Chinese myths:
Questions: Is there a single world or many worlds?
1.3.1. A comparison to western myths:
1.3.1.1.Western myths (Ames, pp. 6-9)
1.3.2. From chaos to cosmos:
1.3.2.1.Cosmos: an ordered whole, the ordered or harmonious world.
Cosmologies are the groundworks of rational order.
1.3.2.2. Chaos: the elemental, the first state of the universe.
1.3.2.3. Principles are directly related to archon, one authorized to give
orders. Principles are beginning points of thought and action.
1.3.3. The world-order is analogized from the order of the law court. It is a manmade order.
1.3.3.1. Anaximander believed in an infinite number of worlds which
succeeded one another in time.
1.3.3.2.Democritus believed in a plurality of world-orders coexist in space.
1.3.3.3. What these philosophers told are
Order is not presupposed, but constructed by analogy to the artificial
order of human society.
A single world is not a given but is something that comes to be
believed.
1.3.4. The contingency of the notion of rationality:
1.3.4.1.Aristotle is the primary source of our understanding of principle as
determining source of order.
1.3.5. The philosophy in Chinese myths:
1.3.5.1.There are many worlds.
1.3.5.2.Chaos is the fact of the universe
1.3.5.3. Harmony not a single order
The first Anticipation:
Western Tradition
(Myths)
 Notions of “Being” and “Not-Being of
Cosmos
 A single-ordered whole
 The concept of “rationality”
Chinese Tradition
(Myths)
 The process of creating “the thousand
things”
 No belief of a single-ordered world
 The “transcendental pretense”
Chapter Two: Chinese Cosmology
--I Ching (The Book of Changes)
1. Chinese numeration:
1.1. The function of numbers is to represent the pattern of changes.
1.1.1. Knotted cords and tallies were used to govern with.
1.1.2. Two different systems of numeration have been distinguished:
1.1.2.1. The first system uses a combination of two elementary series of
symbols, one consisting of ten elements, and other of twelve elements.
1.1.2.2. The second system is decimal and comprises 14 symbols (handout“Numbers and Numeration”)
1.2.3. People believe that the Chinese symbols for numbers came from the
trigrams of the I Ching
1.2.3.1. The small numbers using magic correlations of the yin-yang and “five
phases(wu xing)”
2.
The pattern of Changes:
2.1. Lou Shu and He Tu: (handout: Liu Xie, “The Pattern of the Tao”)
2.1.1. Lou Shu —The Scroll of the River Luo:
2.1.2. He Tu—The Plan of the Yellow River:
3.
I Ching (the Book of Changes):
3.1. The theory of yin-yang:
3.1.1. Yin and yang are original forces. Yin is written as a divided line “- -,”
and yang is an undivided line, “—.”
3.1.2. The theory of Yin-yang provides an explanation to the original source
of changing. It explains the origin of the world.
3.1.3. The meaning of yang: sunshine, father, strength, power, manhood,
active, brightness, hardness, dryness, etc.
3.1.4. The meaning of yin: earth, mother, weakness, cold, femininity,
passivity, darkness, softness, wetness, etc.
3.1.5. The relationship between yin and yang:
3.1.5.1. They are two opposed forces but can inter-exchange the power
of each side (e.g. Li, pictures).
3.1.5.2. One depends on the another to exist (e.g. Zhuang Zi and Hui
Shi).
3.1.5.3. Harmony represents the balance between yin and yang.
3.2. The patterns in the Book of Changes:
3.2.1. The eight trigrams: each made up of combinations of three divided or
undivided lines (see your handout):
3.2.2. The sixty-four hexagrams: by combining any two of these trigrams
with one another into diagrams of six lines each.
3.2.3. There are explanations to each lines and start from the bottom one.
There are also commentaries on the meanings of these explanations.
3.2.4. The function of the Book of Changes: foretell the future and the
consequence of a particular human activity. (Activity: Practice by your
own)
3.3. The philosophical thoughts in the Book of Changes:
3.3.1. The world is changing all the time.
3.3.2. The changes can be represented by the eight trigrams and their
combinations. (If one change a single line in the pattern, the whole
meaning of the diagram will change as well.)
3.3.3. Good and bad is relative and will not last forever.
3.3.4. Changing will bring new things into the process of the development.
3.4. A discussion on a few hexagrams:
3.4.1. Qian:
 The force of yang and the metaphor of the Tian (Heaven)
 Change is the great instrument.
 One takes control of the great instrument by riding change and
transformation.
 The six positions of the dragon represent the process of changing.
 Four virtues, goodness, beauty, righteousness, and propriety played
important roles in the process of changing and were discussed in the
“Commentary on the Images.”
 Using the movement of the nature force, yang indicates the right
actions that human should perform:
Images:
 First Yang: A hidden dragon means that the yang force is hidden in the
depths. To hold on the force is good, which is the way of the noble
man performs his deeds.
 Second Yang: “When there appears a dragon in the fields, it is fitting
to see the great man.” It means the virtue of a dragon spreads wide.
The yang force starts to go up. It is good.
 Third Yang: Be careful, it could be no harm. The noble man should
be able to understand what a maximum point is and fulfills it can take
part in the incipiency of the moment. Thus, when he occupies a high
position, he is not proud, and when he is in a low position he is not
distressed.
 Fourth Yang: Hesitating to leap.
 Fifth Yang: A flying dragon is in the sky. A great man takes charge.
The force/power has been used.
 Top Yang: A dragon overreaches should have cause for regret.
3.4.2. Kun:
 The yin force brings constancy with serenity.
 The mare is a metaphor for the Earth, for it travels the Earth without
limit.
 Its virtue is square and solid.
 It is the force to being things to completion
 The Dao of Kun forms Female.
3.4.3. Guan:
 The key in the 64 hexagrams.
 Guan means “observation.”
3.4.4. Tai:


Things are not in the right position. It will cause changes. It is good.
3.4.5. Pi:
Good and bad things are relative. The worst situation implies that the great
change will come soon.
4. Rest and Permanence:
Question: Is the world permanent or restless?
4.1. Western philosophers accepted the priority of rest and permanence over motion
and change.
4.1.1. The formalization of the idea of quantity and the transition from
mythos to logos:
4.1.2. Three principal modes of “accounting”: Mythos, Logos, Historia:
4.1.3. The privileged status of logos among the three in the western
tradition:
4.1.4. Reason is the elaboration and ramification of the cosmogonic impulse.
e.g.:
In the Homeric epic, mythic themes are employed as a means of
setting up structural analogies expressing similarities between the
human and the mythic realm. These structural analogies help to meet
“our need for establishing out place in the world order by means of
comparisons, in order to arrive at a tolerable degree of certainty and
stability.”( Ames, 13)
4.1.5. In both the epic and the lyric there is a reflection of the cosmogonic
activity involving the construal of order from chaos.
4.2. The problematic thinking:
4.2.1. The marriage of the terms physis and logos shaped the philosophical
preference for permanence over process and change.
 Herodotus and Thucydides sought to account for past and present time
in terms of the time of beginnings.
4.2.2. Early philosophers’ ideas:
 Thales claimed everything is water. Our world is a fluid medium.
 Anaximenes held that the basic stuff of which things are made is aer,
which is something like “air.”
4.2.3. Aristotle termed the above philosophers “materialists.” This was based his
own doctrine of the four causes.
4.2.4. Two other fundamental turnings helped to guarantee the preference for
permanence over the flux of human experience:
 The dualism of soul and body:
 Ontological dualism:
The Second Anticipation:
Western Tradition
(Cosmology)
 The preference of rest and permanence
Chinese Tradition
(Cosmology)
 The preference of a changing process




The separation of mythos, logos, and
histoira.
Logos as rational account to provide
the primary means of explaining things
The mind and body dualism
The dialectic between Being and NotBeing




No this separation
Yin-yang as a changing source to
provide the primary means of
explaining things
“Heart- and-mind
The discussion of“you” and “wu”(no
verb “to be” in Chinese)
The Pre-Qin Chinese Philosophers:
The Original Schools during Pre-Qin:
 Pre-Qin is the golden age of Chinese thoughts. It is the greatest time for the
development of Chinese Philosophy in Chinese history.
 Chinese Philosophy is systematic, reflective thinking on life.
 Ethics, politics, reflective thinking and knowledge were inseparable for Chinese
philosophers.
 There are nine main schools during the period, and we will study five of them).
Daoism:
Lao Zi (LaoTzu) and Dao de jing:
Lao Zi : An older contemporary of Confucius (551-479 BC). He was born in Chu
and lived in Chou. He was the founder of Daoism.
Dao de jing:
1. The characteristics of the Dao:
1.1. The important characteristic of the Dao: Dao is beyond language.
The way that can be spoken of
Is not the constant way. (1)
The way is for ever nameless (72)
The way conceals itself in being nameless (92)
1.2. The Dao is responsible for creating and supporting the universe.
The way begets one, one begets two; two begets three, three begets the myriad
creatures. (93)
1.3. The Dao is often indicated by “Nothing.”
The myriad creatures in the world are born from Something, and Something from
Nothing. (89)
1.4. The Dao creates the myriad things by doing nothing.
2. The movement of the Dao:
The way is empty, yet use will not drain it (11)
It is empty without being exhausted. (14)
Better to have stopped in time (23)
3. The governing skills according to the Dao:
In governing the people, the sage empties their minds but fills their bellies, weakens
their wills but strengthens their bones. (9)
The Sage has no mind of his own. He takes as his own the mind of the people (110)
4. Relative moral standards:
Something and Nothing produce each other. (5)
The whole work recognizes the beautiful as the beautiful, yet this is only the ugly; the
whole world recognizes the good as the good, yet this is only the bad. (4)
Highest good is like water. (20)
5. Going back our original nature:
In concentrating your breath can you become as supple as babe? (24)
Are you capable of keeping to the role of the female? (24)
Are you capable of not knowing anything? (24)
6. No human knowledge:
The five colours make man’s eyes blind;
The five notes make his ears deaf;
The five tastes injure his palate. (28)
7. Politics:
When the people are not afraid of death, wherefore frighten them with death? (180)
The people are hungry;
It is because those in authority eat up too much in taxes. (181)
The Watershed: Zeno and the Power of Paradox
1. Zeno (?490-?430):
1.1. Zeno used his arguments to demonstrate the absurd consequence
attending a belief in the rationality of change and motion.
2. The principle paradoxes:
2.1.They deal with the concept of motion in terms of the relations of space and
time.
3. The four possible assumptions are:
a. Both points and moments are infinitely divisible.
b. Neither points nor moments are infinitely divisible.
c. Points are infinitely divisible, but moments are not.
d. Moments are infinitely divisible, but points are not.
4. Zeno’s four paradoxes:
a. “The Bisection”
b. “The Achillies”
c. “The Arrow”
d. The Sradium
5. Zeno’s influence:
Whitehead’s “philosophy of process”:
Whitehead developed his theory of “actual occasions” These occations are acts of
becoming.
The Third Anticipation:
Western Tradition
(From Zeno to Whitehead)
 The dualistic understanding of Time
and motion
 The speculation was to drive a wedge
between reason and sense experience.
Chinese Tradition
(Lao Zi and Daoism)
 No dualistic problems in explaining
the relation between Time and
motion
 Not force to become obsessed with
the goal of providing a rational
account of motion and change
Counterdiscourse: Heraclitus and Anaxagoras
1. Heraclitus (ca, 544-484): The greatest proponent of process thinking remembered from
the ancient Greek work.
“All things come into being through opposition, and all are in flux like a river.”
“The path up and down is one and the same.”
2.
The understanding of change:
2.1. For something A to become B, it must first be A-but-not-B, then it must be nolonger-A-but-not-yet-B, then it must be B. Heraclitus seemingly to affirm the
identity of opposites.
2.2. Changes are always qualitative.
2.3. The world is an immanent dynamism.
2.4. The preference for permanence and rest is allied with the affirmation of a
ordering agency associated.
3.
Anaxagoras (500-428)
Anaxagoras explained the dynamic aspect of the processes of nature. He believes that
the reason for the changes is caused by the notion of Nous or Mind.
3.1. The notion of the continuity of matter and the assumption of an indefinite
number of qualitative elements expressed in terms of opposites:
4.
The influence of Heraclitus and Anaxagoras:
4.1. Henri Bergson
4.2. William James
4.3. A, N. Whitehead
The Fourth Anticipation:
Western Tradition
(The understanding of change)
 The dominance of “substance” over
“process” entailed the devaluation of
the metaphoric and imagistic language
in which Heraclitian intuitions.

Chinese Tradition
(The understanding of change)
 China is characteristically Heraclitian
 Chinese thinking depends upon the
acceptance of “images” and
metaphors”
Zhuang Zi:
Chapter 1. “Going rambling without a destination”
The main topic of the chapter: the art of living
Zhuang Zi’s writing style: Using metaphors or stories to illuminate the philosophical
wisdom:
Zhuang Zi’s relativism:
1. Being big or small is just that the way a thing is; living longer or short is just that the
nature of each life is.
Story: The bird, Kun and the small cicada and a turtle-dove:
Wisdom: Little wits cannot keep up with great, or few years with many. How
would we know that this is so?
Zhuang Zi’s understanding of freedom and happiness)
2. If one lives his life by depending on the other things, one is not truly free.
Story: Lie Zi (Lieh-tzu) journeyed with the winds for his chariot. He was fast and
great but he was still depending on something.
Wisdom: The true freedom is to ride a true course (Dao) between heaven and earth
with the changes of the Six Energies for his chariot, to travel into the infinite.
1.
3. The true course is doing nothing (wu wei).
Story: Emperor Yao gave the Empire to Xu You and Xu You refused. He said: “The
tit that nests in the deep forest wants no more than one branch, the mole that drinks in
the Yellow River no more than a bellyful” “The Empire is not use to me.”
Wisdom: Don’t always think of what we need, but think of what we do not need.
4. Keeping the things that one already has is the best.
Story: A man of Sung traded his ceremonial caps to someone else.
Wisdom: When one wants to gain more, it always ends up that he loss more.
5. Everything between heaven and earth should have its usage.
Story: Hui Shi got a great tree, and he thought the he had no use of it. Zhuang Zi
disagree with Hui Shi.
Wisdom: We should appreciate everything that nature gives to us.
*A few important characters in chapter one:
Lie Zi (Lieh Tzu): A thinker in the state of Zhen. He was earlier than Zhuang Zi
Emperor Yao: One of three best emperors in ancient time
Xu You (Hsu Yu): A sage in the legend. He hide himself in the mountain
Jian Wu (Chien Wu) and Lian Shu (Lien Shu): Some people belief that they were
the persons who tried to do meditation; the
others belief that they were the persons made
up by Zhuang Zi to compare with the sage
who lived in the mountains.
Jie Yu (Chien Yu): A Daoist sage. The ideal person in Zhuang Zi’s work
Hui Shi (Hui Shih): Zhuang Zi’s best friend. He always challenges Zhuang Zi.
The Analects of Confucius:
Book 1-Book 10:
1. Key concepts (See pp.45-60):
2. The difference between Confucius’ Dao and Daoist Dao
Dao in Confucius roots in ren/jen:
Ren: authoritative conducct
3. A different way to solve the problems in our real life:
Xiao: Filial piety:
A difference between human beings and beasts.
A harmony in from each family.
A foundation of an order among human society
Di: A respectful relationship among the bothers and sisters.
4.