The Rise of Idealism in Ancient China

The period of four or five hundred years of the first half of the Chou dynasty (周), is regarded as the preparatory stage for the formation of the idealistic philosophy in ancient China. In this period rational thinking conspicuously developed itself on the following three problems. First comes the problem of morals in regard to which a kind of moralism (敬德) is emphasized. It is asserted that virtue is (1) a spiritual value produced by man himself and that it is (2) a spiritual pleasure which results from the control of sensual pleasures. In brief, virtue has come to be regarded as a property of man as man, independent of any religious authorities. Furthermore, running parallel with the elaboration of the list of moral virtues, their mutual relations also are rationally explained. In the second place, there is the problem of religious rites. It is pointed out that merely formal perfection of religious rites is meaningless, and that a pious service for the divine spirits has no primary singificance. Rather, the very nature of the spirits should, according to the rationalists, be rationally re-interpreted. It was during this period that the concept of 'heaven' began losing its 'personal' character, finally to be transformed into an abstract principle. The third problem concerns the interpretation of the I (易). Over against traditional mystical interpretation are now proposed symbolical as well as purely rationalistic interpretations of it. After such a preparatory stages there appeard Mêng tzu (孟子). He researched into human nature itself which lies behind all human phenomena, and found it to be good. In order to get at this conclusion, he could not rely on experience but only on the logic of reason. This fact can not be overestimated for understanding the history of rationalistic view of the world. The doctrine of the mean in the "Ching Yung" (中庸) and the doctrine of filial duty in the "Hsiao Ching" (孝經) and the "Ta Tai Li" (大戴禮) do not only teach the most basic moral laws, but the ultimate principles of the cosmos. These philosophies are not empirically constructed but developed wholly on the ground of rational logic. Here it is rationally demonstrated that the divine is immanent as well as transcendent, and such a conception of the divine-human relationship has for the first time made the permanent co-existence of God and man possible