Re-examining Traditional Chinese Thinking

Abstract

While diplomats, politicians, businessmen and journalists are paying greater attention to the Far East, the universities and schools of the West are becoming more accustomed to the view that ‘a knowledge of oriental culture is a practical asset rather than an exotic luxury’ (Loewe, 1966). As the world’s longest continuous civilization with the longest tradition of record-keeping and collection and with one of the most sophisticated and profound cultures the world has known, ‘China really does deliver on that oft-made promise of modern life: something for everyone’ (Ropp, 1990: x). What exactly the Chinese contributed to the modern world, in the ancient historical period, was not only in the areas of ancient Chinese science, technology, inventions and discoveries but, even more important, was a distinguished and awe-inspiring way of thinking. Chinese ancient philosophical thoughts such as Confucianism, Taoism and Legalism, as well as ancient military and administrative strategies and tactics, are the main components of Chinese traditional thinking (Cheng, 1986; Liu, 2009; Louie, 1986; Tang and Li, 2008), which is embedded in every aspect of the Chinese people’s life, including art, literature, political and military strategy, business, medicine and so forth. This chapter begins with a brief introduction of Chinese history, and then, from three perspectives, draws a general picture of Chinese traditional thinking.KeywordsChinese CharacterTang DynastyChinese HistoryLandscape PaintingYuan DynastyThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.