Pensiero e religione in epoca Zhou

The chapter outlines the history of thought and religion in pre-Han China, starting with a brief introduction on the shi, warriors and scholars who filled minor offices in Zhou times. It describes their fundamental role in the development of Chinese thought. In the Warring States period the shi were employed by the rulers for their talents, their knowledge, and their political strategies. The main subjects dealt with by these scholars were the inner cultivation and the art of government and The records of their encounters and dialogues with the rulers were transmitted in written form by their disciples and followers, as in the case of the Lunyu and of the Mengzi. The chapter is divided in the following sections: 1. Introduction; 2. The experts of “yin-yang”; 3. Confucius and the “ru”; 3.1. The Confucian Ethics; 3.2 The discovery of the manuscripts: the end of a myth; 4. Mozi and the refusal of the tradition; 5. Yang Zhu and the value of life; Mengzi and the search for compromise; 7. On the practice of the mean; 8. Xunzi and the power of man; 9. Han Feizi and the power of law; 10. Hui Shi and Gongsun Long: the art of paradox; 11. Zhuangzi and the oblivion of man; 12. Laozi and the wuwei providing benefit; 13. Inner cultivation aimed at the control of the cosmos; 13.1 The soul as mirror, the skin as jade; 14. Rituals and religious beliefs; 14.1 Funerary rites: “Soul, come back!”; 14.2 A new dwelling; 14.3 Souls, gods and spirits; 14.4. In search of immortality