Many people think that we didn't have philosophy in ancient China because of Confucianism. Actually, it's not. Japan and South Korea have also been baptized by Confucianism. So why didn't we have philosophy in ancient times? This depends on the ideological gap.
For example, when China people opened their eyes to see the world for the first time in the late Qing Dynasty, the first thing they saw was that their instruments and technology were not as good as others. Therefore, the slogan of China people is: "foreign things serve China", "middle school is the body, and western learning serves China". It means: under the premise of ensuring the traditional concept, any western learning and western instruments will be brought under the policy of "serving us".
Japan, which has also accepted Confucianism, has the attitude of learning western learning. Why are western artifacts so advanced? Why can the western social system greatly promote the development of productive forces? Why can we mobilize everyone's subjective enthusiasm?
The same is true of western learning. Japan is actively looking for the "source power" to produce this result; China, on the other hand, is the result of seeking "a strong ship and a strong gun".
In this context, the Japanese found western philosophy, and we found out how to find the relationship between superiors and subordinates in philosophy.
This is the philosophy in the eyes of China people.
Is there any philosophy in ancient China?
It is true that there was no philosophy in ancient China, but it is not entirely true. Because there is really no form.
Because there was no clear classification of disciplines in ancient China, it was mainly a skill in one article under the imperial examination system, so at least in terms of classification, there was no independent philosophical concept, which came from Japan during the Republic of China.
And tell from the content, also can't say no:
Philosophy is interpreted according to the norms of modern theoretical system, mainly in four dimensions and levels: cosmology (the origin of the world), world outlook (man and nature), values (the purpose of man and human society) and methodology (logical thinking-how to abstract the external world and human thinking). It's about thinking, about abstraction and generality.
Because there was no development of natural science in ancient China, China's ancient philosophy was mainly a "mixture" of historical views, values and moral values, and some of them were even the theories of "managing the country and ensuring the country" and "applying the world", which had a strong purpose.
In ancient China, the world outlook, cosmology and methodology depended not on research, practice and demonstration, but mainly on experience and conjecture. The ancestors said that we inherited science.
Therefore, China's thousands of years of civilization history did not form a standardized, rigorous and complete modern philosophy system like the West.
China's greatest philosophy is the philosophy of calling names and engaging in relationships.
Many people regard Laozi and Confucius and Mencius as philosophers, but they are actually talking nonsense. For example, Confucius' thoughts serve the ruling class, so his thoughts can last for more than two thousand years, and most dynasties have set up special official positions to publish Confucius' remarks.