The Golden Age of Chinese Thought: Confucianism and Daoism

“To study and then practice [what you have learned] in a timely way—is this not a delight?” Analects 1.1

Why might political disunity and warfare breed new ideas?

Advantages of political division

Misery breeds disdain for old answers

Competition breeds search for new ideas

Political disunity makes it more difficult to suppress ideas

*Confucianism

*Confucius (ca. 551- 479 BCE)

Kong Qiu, Kongzi, Kong Fuzi, Master Kong

From Lu

In exile 498-485 BCE

Traveled to Wei, Qi, and others

Teacher

*The Analects

Method of Compilation

Organization

Later followers

*Mencius (372-289 BCE)

Xunzi (ca. 310-210 BCE)

*Daoism

*Laozi (Master Lao)?

Lao Dan, 604?-517? BCE

*Dao De Jing

The Way and Integrity Classic, compiled, ca. 300 BCE

Dao 道, “the way” or “the path”

*Zhuangzi (Master Zhuang)

Zhuang Zhou, 369-286 BCE

Why are scholars calling into doubt the idea that Confucius and Laozi were sole authors of their works?

Maowangdui & Guodian (Li Feng, 220-224)