ABSTRACT
In its formative period Confucianism faced three major competitors. One was in the concepts of Mo Tzu born shortly after the death of Confucius and who died shortly before the birth of Mencius. The other two competing sets of ideas were Taoism and a theory of moral realism that has come down to us under the somewhat misleading label of Legalism. The principal classic in the Taoist tradition is the Lao Tzu, once thought to be by an older contemporary of Confucius. This chapter reviews briefly one instance in which political discussion in ancient China broke out of the bounds of formal remonstrance to take on the form of wide-ranging debate of the major issues facing the Chinese government. The Confucian emphasis on private and public morality was almost certainly a defensive reaction against opportunistic temptations. Scholars who did not get a post must in some cases have lived from the resources of their own property.
