Development and Basic Assumptions of Ancient Chinese Thought

Abstract

The article was written in order to familiarize the reader with the genesis, development and basic assumptions of ancient Chinese philosophy. The first part presents the external and internal conditions that influenced the intense development of ideas in the Middle Kingdom in the period preceding the creation of the authoritarian Qin Empire in 221 BC. The second and third parts discusse the general assumptions of the most important philosophical schools, focusing in the third part on a detailed discussion of the main topic of Chinese philosophy, which is the retention of the social order, in the four main schools of thought: Confucianism, Legism, Mohism and Daoism. The main research method was the analysis of Chinese classical texts, carried out on the basis of the author’s own translations, which enabled deeper penetration into the raised issues. As a result, it was established that the philosophy of ancient China is above all a political philosophy, which results from the declared pragmatism of Chinese thinkers. The author compares selected aspects of Chinese thought with the West European thought, which allows partial reconciliation of both perspectives and makes it easier for the Western reader to approach the understanding of the far-eastern view of reality.