CHINESE PHILOSOPHY
 

Chinese Philosophy has a long history of many thousand years. It is the intellectual tradition of the Chinese culture from their early recorded history to the modern time. The main philosophical topics of Chinese philosophy were heavily influenced by the ideas of important figures like Laozi, Confucius, Mencius and Mozi, who all lived during the second half of the Zhou dynasty (8th to 3rd century BCE). Chinese culture as a whole has been shaped by the influence of these intellectual leaders.

Chinese Philosophy refers to any of several schools of philosophical thought in the Chinese culture, including Buddhism, Legalism, Taoism and Confucianism. For better understanding the important schools of Chinese philosophy are discussed briefly below:
 

Confucianism

This school was developed from the teachings of the sage Confucius (551 - 479 B.C.), and collected in the Analects of Confucius. Confucianism is a system of social, ethical, political and religious thought. Its influence also spread to Japan and Korea. The basic and important concepts of Confucian were ren, xiao, Zhengming, li, zhong, Ren means humanity and humanness, xiao means filal piety, zhengmeng refer the concept similar to mandate of heaven, li stands for ritual and zhong refers loyalty.  

Confucius introduced the Golden Rules (treat others as you would love to be treated), the idea of Yin and Yang ( tow opposing forces that are permanently against each other, leading to perpetual contradiction and transformation ), the concept of meritocracy and the idea of reconciling opposites in order to bring at some middle ground combining the best of both. 
 

Taoism

It is also called and written Daoism, Taoism is a philosophy which later also developed into a religion. Tao literally means "path" or "way", although it more often used as a meta-physical term that describes the flow of the universe, or the force behind the natural order. The Three Jewels of the Tao are compassion, moderation, and humility. Taoist thought focuses on wu wei ("non-action"), spontaneity, humanism, relativism, emptiness and the strength of softness (or flexibility). 
 

Buddhism

Buddhism is a practical philosophy and arguably a psychology, considered as religion. Buddhism focus is in on the teachings of Buddha. His real name was Siddhartha Gautama, who dwelled in India from the mid-6th to the early 5th Century B.C. It was introduced to China from India, probably sometime during the 1st Century B.C. Chinese tradition focuses on ethics rather than metaphysics, and it developed several schools distinct from the originating Indian schools, and in the process integrated the ideas of Confucianism, Taoism and other indigenous philosophical systems into itself. The most prominent Chinese Buddhist schools are Sanlun, Tiantai, Huayan and Chán (known as Zen in Japan).