Syncretism (Chinese philosophy)

Syncretism or the Mixed School (Chinese: 雜家; pinyin: zájiā) in Chinese philosophy was an eclectic school of thought that combined elements of Confucianism, Taoism, Mohism, and Legalism. Its texts include the Shizi (c. 330 BCE), Lüshi Chunqiu, and Huainanzi.[1]

Liu Xin says in the Book of Han:[2]

"Those of the Eclectic school had their origin in the Councillors. They drew both from the Confucianists and the Mohists, and harmonized the School of Names and the Legalists. They knew that the nation had need of each of these, and saw that kingly government should not fail to unite all. Herein lies the strong point of this school."

As used by the Confucians for the Lüshi Chunqiu and Huainanzi, the term groups texts that would otherwise earlier be interpreted in relation to Sima Tan's concept of syncrectic political Daoism, or Daojia. That is, the category splits off texts that would otherwise be interpreted as incorporating notable quantities of "Daoist" elements. Their two texts can be understood as seeking to comprehensively incorporate or otherwise syncretize "all" knowledge of their time, a defining feature held in common with Sima Qian's Daoist Shiji; or, a defining feature of that period's syncretist Daoism, from the late Warring States period to the early pre-Confucuan Han dynasty.[3]

References

  1. ^ Jiao Shi; Paul Fischer (1 June 2012). Shizi: China's First Syncretist. Columbia University Press. p. 11. ISBN 978-0-231-50417-1.
  2. ^ Youlan 1976, p. 34.
  3. ^ Smith 2003, p. 150.

Sources

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.