Chinese Philosophy
2 min readChinese philosophy has a history of several thousand years，being said to date back to an oracular tradition in Neolithic Times.Traditionally，ancient China with its vast land largely developed as an inland country.Rulers of each dynasty attached increasing importance to agriculture rather than commerce.Kinship is highly valued by Chinese people.All these factors contribute to a Chinese-characterized philosophy.
Firstly，Chinese philosophy is practical both individually and politically.For example，Confucianism regards man as the ultimate concern，putting forward many guiding principles for individual conduct.Taoism focuses on the harmony between man and the Dao of nature.Another point that all Chinese philosophical schools were concerned with in one way or another is politics and government.It is safe to say that the philosophy of a given philosophical school is the political idea that its members would pursue.Secondly，Chinese philosophers view all universal beings as an integrated whole which are closely related and interdependent.Such an idea is well manifested by the Taoist concept of”the harmony between heaven and man”.Thirdly，Chinese philosophy emphasizes a dialectical way of seeing things in their entirety.Philosophers of ancient China realized both the inner conflict between opposite forces in an entity and phenomenon and the possible transformation of struggling opposites.Finally，unlike the clear logic of Western philosophies，ancient Chinese philosophers tended to think and express freely and poetically，which resulted in an ambiguity of some philosophical concepts such as Dao，Li，Qi，and Chan.Thoughts and sayings of Chinese philosophers are not very systematic，scattering in various books.And they are usually explained in concise language，using many allegories，metaphors，proverbs and stories.
China produced a great variety of original philosophical schools，each with several sects that differ subtly in certain aspects.The most influential schools are Confucianism，Taoism，and Buddhism，and other important schools include Legalism，Mohism，Mingism（School of Names，or Dialecticianism）and the Yin-Yang School.
