ABSTRACT
Philosophy was mostly discussed in the Schools of Thought in Guoxue. Although distantly related to philosophy, Confucian classics were mostly written for other purposes. Among the Schools of Thought in the Zhou and Qin dynasties, Daoism and Confucianism were unique in that they were from the same origin, but separated later. Zhuangzi’s fundamental propositions are “freedom” and “equality.” Philosophers in the Northern Song Dynasty were self-effacing in their ideas while philosophers in the Southern Song Dynasty boasted of their ideas. Scholars of the Ming Dynasty became independent of Song Confucians and formed their own self-contained systems. However, neo-Confucianism could be ignored in the Qing Dynasty.
