In ancient China, the worship of natural phenomena and the spirits of dead ancestors was widespread. An early form of religion among the Chinese was the cult of Shang-di, who was revered as the supreme deity, the legendary totemic ancestor. The cycle in nature and the order of movement of heavenly bodies, the Chinese explained by the existence of the sky god. The sky in Chinese mythology was understood as the creator of all things, as a conscious being that controls the world. The believing Chinese believed that Heaven punishes the unworthy and rewards the virtuous. Therefore, the meaning of the life of the ancient Chinese was to establish right relationship man with heaven.

The cult of Heaven is not only mythological representations and beliefs, but also a developed religious and cult system. The sky acted as the progenitor of the Chinese emperors. The ruler was considered the son of Heaven, and his country began to be called the Middle Kingdom. The main prerogative of the Chinese rulers was the implementation of sacrifices and the rendering of honors to the Father - the guardian of the world order.

The priestly class in China did not receive strong development, religious functions were performed by officials. The activities of officials were aimed primarily at performing administrative duties to maintain the social stability of Chinese society. Therefore, the cult of Heaven wore a bureaucratic connotation. The mystical component was also weakly expressed in the mythology of ancient China. Main acting characters myths - cultural heroes who create crafts, language, crops and much more that people use. Cultural heroes are marked by extraordinary birth, they are often guarded by protective animals, and they become wise rulers or perform great deeds.

The peculiarities of the Chinese worldview are not only an appeal to social problems, but also an attitude about the finiteness of existence. The Chinese believe that the birth of a person is his beginning, and death is his end. Life is good, and death is bad. Chinese culture is characterized by the veneration of ancestors in order to propitiate them and thereby protect the living from their possible harmful effects. The ancient Chinese believed that the most important thing in life should be the harmonious balance of things, this led to the fact that the Chinese consider the goal of their religion to preserve the natural rhythm of life and strive for harmony in all relationships.

The cult of Heaven persisted in China until the 20th century. In Beijing, the Temple of Heaven has been preserved, where sacrifices were made by both emperors and ordinary people.

Term Taoism comes from the Chinese word "tao", which can be translated as a path and explained as the smooth movement of everything natural in the world. The main concept of the Taoist religious system - Tao, is very ambiguous. This is the root, the fundamental principle of the world, the law of being, a certain Divine absolute. No one created the Great Tao, but everything comes from it in order to return to it after completing the circuit. Tao is also the path followed by everything in the world, including the great Heaven. Each person, in order to become happy, must take this path, try to cognize the Tao and merge with it. "Tao is empty, but inexhaustible in application." Tao can also be interpreted as unity with nature through submission to the same laws. Violation of harmony between people and nature is the cause of disasters: famine, war, disease, etc.

The power of Tao is expressed in two opposite sources of energy, yin and yang. Yin personifies the feminine principle - the dark and passive aspect of being, yang - the masculine, bright, active principle. For example, yin is inactivity, winter, death, deprivation, yang is activity, summer, life, abundance. The interaction of these two principles is the source of the cycle of life. All objects and living beings contain these two principles, but in different proportions, which are not always the same in different time.

Taoism begins to take shape as a religious and cult system in the 4th-3rd centuries. BC. In the future, there was an evolution of its institutions, the development of theoretical and practical foundations. The founder of Taoism is considered the legendary thinker Lao Tzu (“old teacher”). According to one of the legends, during his last trip, he left a treatise "Tao Te Ching" ("The Book of Tao"), in which he outlined the ideas of Taoism, to a customs officer. According to another version, the author of this philosophical work is the Taoist sage Zhuangzi ("Teacher Zhuang").

As far as politics is concerned, Lao Tzu taught that what less state interferes in people's lives, the better. According to this theory, difficulties in power appear because it resorts to dictatorial methods, forcing people to act in a way that is unnatural for them. If all people follow the Tao, there will be harmony in the world human relations. The Tao desires nothing and strives for nothing, and so should people.

Everything natural happens by itself, without much effort of the individual. The natural course is opposed by the selfish egoistic activity of man. Such activity is reprehensible, therefore the main principle of Taoism is non-action (“wuwei”). Wuwei is not passivity, but non-resistance to the natural course of events.

For Zhuangzi's worldview, the concept of "equalizing things" (qi-wu), according to which the world is a kind of absolute unity, was of great importance. There is no place in it for clear boundaries between things, everything is merged with each other, everything is present in everything. For traditional Chinese philosophy the psychophysical integrity of a living being was recognized as real. The spirit itself was understood as a refined material and energy substance - qi. After the death of the body, "qi" dissipated in nature. In addition, Taoism inherited from shamanism the doctrine of the plurality of souls - animals (po) and thinking (hun). The body was the only thread tying them together. The death of the body led to the separation and death of souls. The concept of the qi substance that flows through all living organisms holds the key to understanding the basics of Chinese medicine and therapies such as acupuncture (acupuncture) and acupressure (pressure on specific areas of the body).

Already in ancient times, great importance was attached to the means of prolonging physical life, and longevity has become one of the most important values ​​of Chinese culture.

The path to immortality involved two aspects: the perfection of the spirit and the perfection of the body. The first consisted in meditation, contemplation of the Tao and unity with it. The second included gymnastic and breathing exercises, alchemy classes. Alchemy was divided by Taoists into external and internal. The first involved the search for the elixir of immortality. Taoist alchemists accumulated valuable empirical material in the field of chemistry and medicine, which greatly enriched traditional Chinese pharmacology. The followers of internal alchemy proceeded from the position of complete similarity human body and the universe. And since the human body has everything that is in space, it is possible to create a new immortal body from substances, juices and energies own body. Particular attention was paid to the management of energies flowing through special channels of the body (jing) and accumulating in special reservoirs (dan tian). Energy control was achieved with the help of concentration of consciousness and visualization (qi gong).

The moral ideal of Taoism is a hermit who, with the help of meditation, breathing and gymnastic exercises, and alchemy, achieves a high spiritual state of merging with nature, Tao, and achieves immortality. Achieving immortality, or at least longevity, included: "nourishing the spirit" by observing the commandments, "nourishing the body" - following the strictest diet.

The history of Taoism in China is controversial, sometimes the emperors made it the official religion of their state, and sometimes banned it, closed Taoist monasteries. Some aspects of the teachings of Taoism were influenced by traditional folk beliefs. The synthesis of these two factors led to the emergence of a religious cult using witchcraft and superstition. There were ritual physical exercises, special diets, magic spells. Attempts to achieve immortality led to interesting consequences in the popular interpretation of Taoism. Thus, a legend has been preserved that, on the advice of the Taoist sages, Emperor Han Qi in the 3rd century. BC. sent several expeditions in search of the island of bliss in order to get the mushroom of immortality.

Thus, one can trace some evolution of Taoism: first, the assertion that there is complete order in the earthly world and there is no need to change anything, and the later version of Taoism indicates dissatisfaction with its adherents with the existing order of things in the world. And in this case, his followers abandoned the passive approach to life by searching for the elixir of immortality.

Confucianism developed by the great Chinese thinker Kung Tzu, teacher Kun (551-479 BC). Not only China, but also some countries of East and Southeast Asia live by its principles. He expressed his views in the book "Lun Yu" ("Conversations and Judgments").

The peculiarity of Confucianism is that it was originally an ethical-political and philosophical concept and later began to perform the functions of a religion. Confucius lived in an era of unrest and civil strife in the so-called period of the Warring Kingdoms, which completes the history of the ancient Chinese state of Zhou. This period was distinguished, on the one hand, by the fragmentation of the country, on the other hand, by stormy innovative processes, the transition to a new type of thinking.

Mainly, the teachings of Confucius addresses the issues of the family, society, the state and the individual as an individual. To bring harmony into people's lives, the philosopher suggested that they follow the five main virtues. To explain the role of each virtue, Confucius used the fruit tree as an example. “Ren” (humanity) is its roots, “yi” (justice) is its trunk, “li” (ideal behavior) is its branches, “zhi” (wisdom) is flowers, “hsin” (fidelity) is the fruits of the tree of virtue. With the help of "li" one can achieve social and political harmony, which in turn will lead to the highest harmony between heaven and earth.

Best of all, the virtue “li” was observed by the ancestors. Therefore, it is necessary to honor the ancestors, to observe rituals. Once he was asked whether people should perform duties towards their ancestors. He answered with a question: “Without learning to serve people, is it possible to serve the spirits?” On another occasion, he spoke thus: “To strive for the people to fulfill their duty in honoring the spirits and souls of the dead, but to stay away from them. This is wisdom."

Confucius believed folk beliefs superstition, paid little attention to the doctrine of spirits and the other world. But he advocated the preservation of existing customs and insisted on the performance of rituals, of which he emphasized the ritual of sacrifice to ancestors. The cult in Confucianism was extremely formalized and performed by officials.

The starting position of Confucianism is the concept of Heaven and heavenly command, that is, fate. The sky is a part of nature, but at the same time the highest spiritual force that determines nature itself and man. A person endowed by Heaven with certain ethical qualities must act in accordance with them and with the highest moral law (Tao), and also improve these qualities through education. Confucianism, unlike Taoism, argued that a person must act. Only work on oneself will help to achieve moral perfection. The goal of self-improvement is to achieve the level of a noble husband, and this level does not depend on social status, but is achieved through the cultivation of high moral qualities and culture. A noble husband must have jen, humanity, philanthropy. Ren is based on the principle - "do not do to another what you do not wish for yourself."

Confucius taught that a person should adhere to the golden mean - this is the only way to avoid extremes in behavior.

A special place in the teachings of Confucius is occupied by the concept of xiao - filial piety, respect for elders in general. The country is also considered big family. The basis of the doctrine of a clear hierarchical division of duties in society, as well as the correct understanding of things and their application, was the concept of zheng ming - correcting names, i.e. bringing things in line with their name.

On the basis of these philosophical provisions, Confucius developed his political concepts, advocating a clear division of responsibilities between members of society. This idea was expressed by Confucius in his saying: “the ruler must be the ruler, and the subject must be the subject, the father must be the father, and the son must be the son.” At the same time, the ruler must rule the people not only on the basis of laws and punishments, but by an example of personal virtue. If the rulers act honestly and honorably, the citizens will follow their example. To clarify his thought, Confucius used a metaphor: “The virtue of a prince is like the wind, and the virtue of the people is like grass. When the wind blows, the grass "naturally" bends."

In the Han Empire (2nd century BC - 3rd century AD), Confucianism received the status of a state ideology, which persisted until the beginning of the 20th century. Gradually, the deification of Confucius himself took place. By decree of the emperor in 555, a temple was erected in each city in honor of the sage and regular sacrifices were held. His canon became the basis of education, his knowledge became mandatory for obtaining official positions. The cult of Confucius was banned after the communist government came to power in 1949.

3. Shinto.

Shintoism is the traditional religion of the Japanese and has not spread outside this country. The term "Shinto" appeared in the Middle Ages and means "the way of the gods." Shintoism, based on patriarchal tribal cults, dominated Japan for a long time, in the period 1868-1945 it was the state religion.

This religion is not based on a system of dogmas or developed theological teachings. Her original creed is "Fear the gods and obey the emperor!". The characteristic features of this religion are love for the native country and aesthetic perception of natural phenomena. Shinto is also associated with animistic ancestor worship and shamanism.

Shintoism has a developed cult of gods and spirits - kami or shin, in the images of animals, plants, natural phenomena. According to the ideas of the ancient Japanese, spirits inhabited the entire surrounding person, the world - the sky, earth, mountains, rivers, forests and even objects. Man also descended from kami and after death again becomes a spirit. The most common embodiment of the mysterious divine power is a stone.

Shintoism stopped at the first stage of the development of religion from the cult of nature. Since the main natural object in Japan, the sun was considered (the Japanese call their country the “land of the rising sun”), the sun goddess Amaterasu became the highest deity in the Shinto pantheon. She is the progenitor of all Japanese emperors and the patroness of agriculture. According to legend, Amaterasu sent her grandson Ninigi (translated as "youth-god of abundance of rice ears") to rule over the Japanese islands. He became the ancestor of the Japanese emperors, symbolizing their divine origin. He betrayed the next emperor from the goddess Amanteras three sacred objects: a mirror, a sword and threads with beads strung on them - magatama, which became symbols of the sacred power of the emperors. An imperial rescript issued in 1898 required that schools teach children about the divinity of emperors. It is no coincidence that Japan is called the land of the rising sun and its flag depicts the emblem of the main luminary.

Other gods who originally inhabited the earth include the gods of the earth, sea, mountains, trees, fire, etc. The trinity of great gods, along with Amaterasu, is the god of the moon and the god of wind and water expanses, all objects are under their influence. The world is divided into the upper, heavenly, where the divine ancestors of people live, the middle one - the earth - the habitat of people and earthly spirits, and the "lower world of darkness", where birds carry the souls of dead people.

The gods in Shinto are both the divine ancestors of humans and cultural heroes. Shinto does not have sacred texts as such. Shinto tradition was recorded in writing in the works of a historiographical nature - "Kojiki" and "Nihongi". They contain the history of Japan from the creation of the world, presented in the form of myths and legends. According to Shinto cosmology, earth and sky gave birth to three gods, later two more, then five pairs of deities. The gods created the Japanese islands and Amaterasu.

The goal of life in Shintoism is the embodiment of the ideals of the ancestors, and salvation is achieved in this, and not the other world, by spiritual merging with the deity through prayers and rituals. Salvation - in the ascension of gratitude to the kami and their ancestors, in life in harmony with nature, in constant spiritual connection with the gods. All that Shinto requires of people is to live peacefully and not be defiled, avoiding the action of evil spirits.

In the early stages of the development of Shinto, shamanic rites were widespread, the cult was seasonal. Temporary temples were built from thin, freshly cut trees, bundles of which supported a roof covered with foliage. The floors in such temples were covered with grass, which was a symbol of the unity of man with nature, involvement human life to earth, fertility.

Later, spacious wooden temples were built, the architecture of which is connected with the landscape. In addition, each house has a small altar. The presence of an altar in a temple or home is symbolized by its emblem or sculpture. In Shinto there is no anthropomorphic depiction of the gods.

The system of cult actions was developed scrupulously: the rite of individual prayer of the parishioner, collective temple actions - purifications, sacrifices, complex procedures of temple holidays. The prayer ceremony is simple - a coin is thrown into a wooden box in front of the altar, then the deity is “attracted” with a few handclaps and a prayer is said. The rite of purification consists in washing hands with water and rinsing the mouth, and the mass purification procedure consists in sprinkling believers with salt water and sprinkling with salt. The sacrifice includes the offering of rice, cakes, gifts to the temple. The rite of libation is a joint meal of parishioners, when soke is drunk and part of the sacrifices is eaten, which symbolizes the participation of the gods in the meal.

Of great importance in the development of the Shinto ritual were calendar customs and rituals that arose in ancient times and were associated with prayers for the harvest. The deity was not only requested, but also entertained, resulting in a series of festivals in honor of the various gods who patronize the harvest. Part of the Shinto cult are holidays associated with the history of the shrine. Most local holidays are characterized by originality and unique individuality. A holiday that all of Japan celebrates from August 13 to 15 is Bon Matsuri - the Festival of the Lost Souls. According to legend, these days the souls of the dead return to their families again. In order for the soul not to get lost, relatives light lanterns, and toy boats with food are lowered into the water.

The struggle for power between the clans contributed to the penetration of Confucianism and Buddhism into the Japanese islands. After the victory of the Soga clan in the 6th century, Buddhism began to spread widely, accompanied by the construction of monasteries and temples. Buddhas and bohisattvas entered the Shinto pantheon as new gods. Shinto gods are recognized as avatars of various deities in Buddhism. Buddhism supplemented the religious worldview of the Japanese with its attention to inner world individual person. Local cults and Buddhism divided among themselves the functions associated with special moments in the life of the Japanese: bright, joyful events - birth, marriage - remained in the introduction of tribal gods. Death, interpreted by Shinto as filth, took Buddhism under the protection, providing the concept of nirvana. This is how the process of connecting the two religions gradually takes place - in Japanese terminology, "rebusito" - "the path of Buddhism and Shinto."

An important stage in the development of Shintoism was the formation in the Middle Ages of the cult of the emperor - tennoism. In the Meiji era, from 1868, when the modernization of all spheres of Japanese life began, Shinto was proclaimed the state religion. His reform led to the division of Shinto into four currents: Imperial Shinto, Temple Shinto, Sectarian Shinto, and Folk Shinto.

After the defeat of Japan in World War II, the democratization of the country began and the eradication of militarism and tennoism began. At present, there are more than 100 million Shintoists in Japan and almost the same number of Buddhists. The worldview of the Japanese is based on the combination of Shinto and Buddhism. Many Japanese consider Shinto as a spiritual heritage associated with the national idea, the preservation of traditions. The priorities of Shinto - the cult of nature and ancestors - in the modern world are in demand as humanitarian values. The Shinto shrine has always been and remains today the organizing and unifying principle of life, a symbol of social balance in society.

Literature

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He was one of those contemporary politicians in Asia whose name and activities are forever associated with the struggle of developing countries for national liberation and progressive transformation. However, in his political practice, Hinduism and attitude towards it could not but play a very significant role. And this is quite understandable, because Hinduism for India is not so much a religion as a cultural tradition, a way of life of the country and people. Nehru often operated with such a concept as "national spirit", he attached great importance to the "spiritual traditions" of the "Old Indian ideal", which remained the foundation of India.

Religious traditions, and especially the traditions of Hinduism, play a huge role in the modern political life of India, when the opposing forces in the political arena often appeal to various aspects of the national culture. The most reactionary forces are trying to revive the most backward and conservative sides of the Hindu tradition. The more moderate ones rely on reformed Hinduism, which, in various forms of neo-Hinduism, modernized and simplified in its ritual practice, now occupies a prominent place in the modern religious and cultural life of India.

To complete the picture, it should be noted that not only Hinduism, but also Jainism, Sikhism, Buddhism, which has somewhat revived over the past decades (many Tibetan Buddhists, led by the Dalai Lama, who fled from the Chinese communists, settled in the Himalayas), largely retained its position in India Islam, Christianity, strongly strengthened by the efforts of the British in India, as well as other religions, such as Zoroastrianism, which survived after the Islamization of Iran (in the form of the religion of the Parsis who migrated to Western India from Iran in the 7th-10th centuries), now make up a rather motley picture of religious life modern India. On the whole, all these religions quite consistently fit into the socio-cultural structure of the country, so that the main contradictions are found not so much in the form of religious strife (Indo-Muslim antagonism), but in the form of opposition between conservative traditions, which the reaction relies on, and more progressive, modern , modernized aspects of the religious past, supported by the official legislation and political administration of modern India.

Chapter 17 Religion in Ancient China

If India is the realm of religions, and the religious thinking of the Indian is saturated with metaphysical speculations, then China is a civilization of a different type. Social ethics and administrative practice have always played a much greater role here than mystical abstractions and individualistic searches for salvation. A sober and rationalistically thinking Chinese never thought too much about the mysteries of being and the problems of life and death, but he always saw before him the standard of the highest virtue and considered it his sacred duty to imitate him. If the characteristic ethnopsychological feature of the Indian is his introversion, which in its extreme expression leads to asceticism, yoga, monasticism of a strict style, to the desire of the individual to dissolve in the Absolute and thereby save his immortal soul from the material shell that binds it, then the true Chinese valued the material shell above all else. shell, i.e. your life. The greatest and generally recognized prophets here were considered, first of all, those who taught to live with dignity and in accordance with the accepted norm, to live for the sake of life, and not in the name of bliss in the other world or salvation from suffering. At the same time, ethically determined rationalism was the dominant feature that determined the norms of the social and family life of the Chinese.

The specificity of the religious structure and psychological characteristics of thinking, of the entire spiritual orientation in China is visible in many ways.

In China, too, there is a higher divine principle - Heaven. But the Chinese Sky is not

Yahweh, not Jesus, not Allah, not Brahman, not Buddha. This is the highest supreme universality, abstract and cold, strict and indifferent to man. You cannot love her, you cannot merge with her, it is impossible to imitate her, just as there is no point in admiring her. True, in the system of Chinese religious and philosophical thought, there existed, in addition to Heaven, the Buddha (the idea of ​​him penetrated China along with Buddhism from India at the beginning of our era),

and Tao” (the main category of religious and philosophical Taoism), and Tao in its Taoist interpretation (there was another interpretation, Confucian, which perceived Tao as the Great Path of Truth and Virtue) is close to the Indian Brahman. However, neither Buddha nor Tao, but precisely the Sky has always been the central category of the supreme universality in China.

The most important feature of the ancient Chinese religion was the very insignificant role of mythology. Unlike all other early societies and corresponding religious systems, in which it was mythological legends and legends that determined the whole face of spiritual culture, in China, from ancient times, the place of myths was taken by historicized legends about wise and just rulers. The legendary sages Yao, Shun and Yu, and then cultural heroes such as Huangdi and Shennong, who became their first ancestors and first rulers in the minds of the ancient Chinese, replaced numerous revered gods. Closely associated with all these figures, the cult of ethical norms (justice, wisdom, virtue, striving for social harmony, etc.) pushed into the background purely religious ideas of sacred power, supernatural power and mystical unknowability of higher powers. In other words, in ancient China, from a very early time, there was a noticeable process of demythologization and desacralization of the religious perception of the world. The deities, as it were, descended to earth and turned into wise and just figures, whose cult in China grew over the centuries. And although from the Han era (3rd century BC - 3rd century AD), the situation in this regard began to change (many new deities and mythological traditions associated with them appeared, and this was partly due to the emergence of and the recording of popular beliefs and numerous superstitions, which until then remained as if in the shadows or existed among the national minorities included in the empire), this had little effect on the character of Chinese religions. Ethically determined rationalism, framed by desacralized ritual, has become the foundation of the Chinese way of life since ancient times. It was not religion as such, but primarily ritualized ethics that shaped the face of Chinese traditional culture. All this affected the character of Chinese religions, beginning with the ancient Chinese.

For example, the circumstance that the religious structure of China has always been characterized by an insignificant and socially insignificant role of the clergy, the priesthood, deserves attention. The Chinese have never known anything like the class of the ulema or the influential castes of the Brahmins. They usually treated Buddhist and especially Taoist monks with poorly concealed disdain, without proper respect and reverence. As for the Confucian scholars, who most often performed essential functions priests (during worship in honor of Heaven, the most important deities, spirits

and ancestors), it was they who were respected and privileged class in China; however, they were not so much priests as officials, so that their proper religious functions always remained in the background.

Shantsy, Zhoutsy and Shang-di

All these and many more key features The religious structure of China was laid down in ancient times, starting from the Shang-Yin era. The urban-type Shang civilization appeared in the Yellow River basin in the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. e., about the same time as the Aryans in India. But, unlike the Vedic Aryans, the Shants did not have a pantheon of influential gods. The role of the highest divine powers was played by the dead ancestors of the Shang-di and various kinds of spirits, personifying the forces of Nature. Ancestors shan-di

the Shants regularly made sacrifices, most often bloody, including human ones, as reported in records like “We sacrifice three hundred people from the Qiang tribe to Ancestor Geng.” It was believed that the requests accompanying the victims (they, like notifications about the victim, were usually written on mutton shoulder blades and tortoise shells specially prepared for this) would induce the deified ancestors, who possessed supernatural power, to influence the spirits of the forces of nature or to help people achieve what they wanted with their own power. Requests were accompanied by special rites of fortune-telling, which is why they received the name "fortune-telling" in modern Sinology.

The absence of great gods and the coming to the fore of the Shang-di cult played a huge role in the history of Chinese civilization: it was this that logically led to the weakening of the religious principle and to the strengthening of the rational principle, which manifested itself in the hypertrophy of the ancestor cult, which then became the foundation of the foundations of the Chinese religious system. These trends can be traced already in the Shang. The Shan rulers-vans, who were considered as direct descendants and earthly governors of the Shang-di, were buried in large tombs with horses and weapons, wives and servants, food supplies and various household items - with everything that a person could need in the next world. .

In the cult of their ancestors, the Shang-di, which was a symbol of the cult of their small ethnic community, which sharply opposed the numerous periphery of the Neolithic tribes surrounding them in the Yellow River basin (captives from among which they usually sacrificed to their deified ancestors), the Shants sought to draw additional power and stability . Divine help, the assistance of otherworldly forces, to which supernatural power has always been attributed, constant communication with the deceased ancestors were a source of spiritual comfort for the Shants, that is, a necessary element of their existence. That is why in the system of Shan religious ideas, and then in general in the religious system of ancient China, mantic played such a large role.

Divination and fortune tellers in the Shang

The main point in the ritual of communication with the divine ancestors was the rite of divination, which was usually combined with the rite of sacrifice. The purpose of fortune-telling was to inform the ancestors about certain intentions, successes or concerns of their descendants living on earth and, accordingly, to find out their opinion on this matter, approval or disapproval, the degree of readiness to assist, etc. The fortune-telling ritual consisted next. On a specially prepared mutton shoulder or turtle shell, the fortuneteller in a strictly defined order made several indentations and scratched out an inscription from several pictographic signs, prototypes of future Chinese characters. The inscription contained information formulated in such a way that an unambiguous answer could be obtained. Then the bone or shell was burned in the recesses with a heated bronze stick, and along the cracks on reverse side the fortuneteller judged the results of divination. Subsequently, this technique, as well as the yarrow divination technique, formed the basis of the Yijing divination book, whose trigrams and hexagrams, consisting of various combinations of a straight line and a broken line in the middle, genetically go back to cracks in the bones and fibers of yarrow.

Shan fortune-tellers were extraordinary people. Unlike the primitive village sorcerers-shamans, they approached in their status and significance in the life of society the ancient Egyptian priests. Firstly, the fortune-tellers were literate, that is, they owned a system of pictographic writing, which, apparently, they themselves developed. Secondly, they were involved in power, that is, they were close to those who led the team, and they were well versed in the problems facing the trenches: after all, a lot depended on the correct formulation of the question and the interpretation of the results of divination. In a word, the rite of divination was a matter of great national importance, which had

a thoroughly developed system of fixed indicators with objective reference criteria.

Zhou, Shandi and the cult of Heaven

The era of Shang-Yin was relatively short. In 1027 BC. e. In the decisive battle of Mus, the union of the peoples surrounding the Shang united around the Zhou tribe and defeated the Shants, who after the defeat became known as Yin-tsami in the Zhou documents. The Zhou dynasty, which after the victory extended power over a large territory of the Yellow River basin, borrowed a lot from the Shang, including the cult of ancestors and the practice of divination. The fact is that the semi-barbarian tribe of the Chou people did not have their own deities, did not deify their ancestors, and was not familiar with the practice of cult in any serious and developed form. supernatural forces. When the winner of the Shangs, the Zhou Wu-wang, invaded the capital of Shang, he did not find anything better than to make a thankful sacrifice for the victory in the temple of the Shang ancestors and to the Shan Shang-di. Shortly thereafter, he died, and the leadership of the Zhou dynasty fell into the hands of a regent under his young son, the famous Zhou Gong. It was Zhou-hong who created the foundations of the domination of the dynasty. He was able, in particular, to use the Shan cultural tradition in the interests of the victorious Zhou people. To this end, the Chou people began to perceive the familiar Shan term "shan-di" as a designation for the totality of all deified ancestors, and not only Shan ones. In addition, by using the term shan-di in the corrected form of the ancestor-shandi (there is no concept of number in Chinese, which helps this kind of manipulation), Zhou-gong brought Shandi closer to Heaven, his supposed residence. Over time, the cult of Heaven in Zhou finally supplanted Shandi in the main function of the supreme deity. At the same time, the notion of a direct genetic connection between divine forces and the ruler passed to Heaven: the Zhou wang began to be considered the son of Heaven, and this title was retained by the ruler of China until the 20th century.

Starting from the Zhou era, Heaven, in its main function of the supreme controlling and regulating principle, became the main pan-Chinese deity, and the cult of this deity was given not so much a sacred-theistic as a moral-ethical emphasis. It was believed that the great Heaven punishes the unworthy and rewards the virtuous. The concept of "virtue" (te) included a sacred connotation of higher conformity (mainly the ruler, personifying the people) to divine institutions, as well as internal divinely determined power. Only having de, the ruler had the right to govern; losing it, he was losing that right.

So, the Zhou Sky (tian), having absorbed some of the functions of Shandi, became not so much even the Supreme Deity, but the highest personification of reason, expediency, justice and virtue. By bringing its rational principle to the fore in this cult, the Chou people further strengthened the rationalistic accent that was already present in the practice of beliefs and cults among the Shants. Claiming kinship with Heaven, the Zhou rulers began to call their country the Celestial Empire (tian-xia), and themselves - the sons of Heaven (tian-tzu). For the Chinese rulers, identification with Heaven meant assuming responsibility for the whole world, in which they included China proper (Zhongguo, the "Middle State") and the barbarian periphery surrounding it, which, according to their ideas, clearly gravitated towards the center, i.e. to Zhongguo, to the Chinese ruler of the Celestial Empire, the son of Heaven.

The cult of Heaven became the main one in China, and its complete administration was the prerogative of only the ruler himself, the son of Heaven. The administration of this cult was not accompanied by mystical awe or bloody human sacrifices. A respectful attitude towards the higher principle usually manifested a clearly realized filial duty of the ruler, who understood the need to report to the highest divine authority and give the necessary honors to the heavenly father, the guardian of the world order.

Briefly about the culture of ancient China.
Chinese culture is not only one of the most ancient world cultures, but at the same time one of the most unique. It begins its development approximately from the 3rd century BC already as a culture of the ancient state and is actively developing to this day. The rudiments of the culture of ancient China arose before this culture began to be perceived as the heritage of the ancient state, approximately 2-3 centuries before the formation of the empire.
The Chinese have a unique architecture, many religions were practiced in the country at different times, many of which have been carried through the centuries and are still relevant to this day. The people have their own literary tradition, musical and dance canons are different from other peoples.

Religion of ancient China

Initially, the Chinese religion was a kind of cult of fetishism, this happened around the 2nd century BC. Further, already a century later, beliefs were reduced to totemic and were closely connected with mysticism and all kinds of magical rituals. All totems were associated with natural phenomena, and religious ideas themselves, first of all, extolled nature. Worshiped not only the mountains, the earth and various phenomena, such as lightning and rain, but also there were various animal totems. The bear was considered one of the most powerful animal patrons.
There was also a cult of ancestors - they were revered, turned to them with requests and, of course, the heads of the family built temples to honor all the ancestors of their kind.
Closer to the zero year, more civilized religions were formed. In particular, Confucianism arose. All religions of that time were with philosophical overtones and assumed not following dogmas, but knowledge of the world and respect for traditions. Confucius was the most prominent representative of the religious life of that time, and his teachings meant, first of all, the preservation of the traditions of society and the receipt of proper education, and not the performance of religious rites.

Writing and literature

Writing in ancient China can be called original, different from other civilizations. First of all, with such assessments we are talking about hieroglyphics, which is the most ancient form of writing, except for cave paintings.
Initially, all texts were written with sticks, which were carved from bamboo. All texts were imprinted on wooden planks. This was the first stage in the development of writing. Later, these writing tools were replaced by other, more progressive ones. They significantly increased the speed of writing, and also increased the convenience of writing characters. These include a brush and cloth, mostly silk. At the same time, ink was invented. Even later, paper, a purely Chinese invention, replaced the cloth canvases. Then writing began to develop most actively.
As for literature, a lot of ancient texts have come down. The Chinese had both sacred books intended for the enlightened in religious and ritual matters, as well as philosophical and historical writings. The so-called "Book of Songs" is also popular, containing about three hundred song texts of that time. The following writers were popular: historians Sima Qian and Ban Gu, who is considered the first poet in China Qu Yuan and others.

Architecture, sculpture and painting

Chinese architecture has been considered progressive since ancient times. When many peoples built only primitive dwellings or buildings made of clay and stones on one floor, Chinese architecture was amazing - there were a huge number of multi-story buildings in the country. Of course, there was also a certain scheme for their construction - the basis Chinese house there was a massive support of wooden poles. Roofs were usually covered with tiles, created by firing clay. Pagodas were the most popular type of building.
Painting in ancient China was also progressive when compared with the painting of the countries that existed at that time. Pictures were usually drawn on silk, and later on paper. Ink and brushes were used for drawing.
Sculpture also developed actively, and the skills of the people in the production of ceramics were honed. Many vases and small figurines have survived to this day, they were made mainly from ornamental stones or ivory. Closer to the new era, dishes and jewelry began to be made from porcelain - another purely Chinese invention that was kept secret.

Science in ancient China

Science developed no less rapidly than other areas of the country's culture. There were important astronomical discoveries, created its own medicine, different from other cultures. Mathematics and geometry also developed. The Chinese already in antiquity knew the basic properties of figures, counted fractional numbers, and also introduced the concept of negative numbers. Arithmetic progression was also known.
The 1st century BC is significant in Chinese science in that the greatest mathematical treatise was written then, explaining the subject of mathematics in two hundred chapters. This knowledge was obtained by Chinese scientists and systematized.
Scientists were able to calculate the exact length of the year. Then the whole year was divided by them into 12 months, and those in turn consisted of four weeks. The system is up to date and is still in use today.
In ancient China, maps of stars and luminaries were also created, describing their location in the sky, as well as their movement. But the compass is considered the most ingenious Chinese invention - this item was not available anywhere at that time, and it was the Chinese who created it first.
Chinese civilization has been one of the most advanced since ancient times. AT different areas culture this ancient state has its own unique inventions and merits. By the beginning of the new era, a civilized religion had already taken shape in China - Confucianism, which is still popular today. The country has achievements in the field of art and literature, and in science. The Chinese script is also original. This suggests that in ancient times, China was a strong civilization with great potential.

In China, in the XII-VIII centuries BC, a primitive ideographic writing was invented, improved and subsequently turned into a hieroglyphic calligraphy completed in form, and a monthly calendar was also basically compiled.

Peculiar Chinese culture has reached a special flourishing since the transformation of China at the end of the 3rd century BC into a single powerful empire from the beginning of the Qin dynasty, and later the Han dynasty

During the early history of the imperial era, ancient China enriched world culture with such important inventions as the compass and speedometer, seismograph, porcelain, printing and gunpowder. It was in China for the first time in the world that nautical devices were invented - the tiller and multi-tiered sails, in the field of writing and printing - paper and movable type, in military equipment- guns and stirrups. In the 7th-10th centuries, mechanical watches, silk weaving, a drive belt and a chain transmission were invented.

In mathematics, an outstanding Chinese achievement was the use decimal fractions and an empty position to denote zero, calculating the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter (number e), discovering a method for solving equations with two and three unknowns. Even before the beginning of XTV, the so-called "Pascal's triangle" in China was considered an old way of solving equations.

The ancient Chinese were experienced astronomers, they knew how to calculate the dates of an eclipse of the Sun, observed spots on it, and compiled one of the world's first catalogs of stars. The device known today as the Cardano suspension (invented in Europe in the 16th century) should in fact be called the Ding Huan suspension (II Tue).

When creating blowers for metallurgy, the Chinese were the first to apply the method of converting circular motion to translational, which was later used in Europe for the operation of steam engines. In China, a long tradition of biological plant protection was born - IV in belong to descriptions of methods for using some insects to fight others.

Astronomy, knowledge of calendar calculations and astrological predictions, mathematics, physics and hydraulic engineering reached a high level in ancient China. Fortification construction remained an important matter to protect the outer borders of the empire from incursions by warlike nomads. Chinese builders became famous for their grandiose structures - the Great Wall of China and the Great Canal that connected Beijing and Hangzhou. The construction of the canal began as early as the 6th century BC, continued for two thousand years, and was completed only in the 13th century. n. e.

This complex hydraulic structure with a length of more than 1800 km and a width of 15 to 350 m with numerous devices for pumping and purifying water has become a real masterpiece of world irrigation art.

In ancient China, a manual on pharmacology was first written, surgical operations were performed using narcotic drugs, and acupuncture and massage treatments were used. The ancient method of treatment with the help of the "root of immortality" - ginseng - is extremely popular in the world.

The originality of the spiritual culture of Ancient China is largely due to the phenomenon known as "Chinese ceremonies": strictly fixed stereotypes of ethical and ritual norms of behavior and thinking, developed in compliance with the rules and prescriptions of antiquity. The specificity of the spiritual life of the ancient Chinese consisted precisely in the fact that the exaggeration of ethical and ritual values ​​in their minds eventually led to their replacement of the religious and mythological perception of the world. This demythologization and, to a certain extent, desacralization of ethics and ritual have shaped the uniqueness of Chinese culture. The place of the cult of the gods was taken by the cult of real clan and family ancestors.

However, those gods whose cult was preserved became abstract deities-symbols without human traits: Heaven, Heaven, Tao Heaven is the highest impersonal naturalistic universality, the Great Tao, the omnipotent creator of the world, is absolutely indifferent to man, is all-encompassing and universal, formless and the nameless Law and Absolute of life, inaccessible to human senses, unseen and unheard of. To know the Tao, to understand it with one's own mind, having united with it - these are the key worldview principles and the ultimate life goal of the ancient Chinese.

Taoism is an ancient Chinese philosophical system (tao - "way"), the founder of which is considered to be the semi-legendary Lao Tzu (VI century BC). laws, but to know the laws of nature and merge into it without separating oneself from other components (animals, plants, minerals, etc.). Taoism was formed against the backdrop of continuous internal wars and an ecological catastrophe that hit China in the middle of the 1st millennium BC. due to the predatory economic activity of Chinese farmers armed with tools, therefore Taoism called for the destruction of any statehood and promoted "wuwei" ("non-action"), the maximum restriction of any human activity, a priori harmful to nature, and therefore to man himself. Over time, Taoism acquired the features of a real religion, which promoted the fusion of man with nature and was repeatedly the ideological banner of anti-state peasant movements.

Confucianism, the ethical and political doctrine of the idealist philosopher Confucius, occupies a particularly important place in Chinese spiritual culture.

Under the influence of the religious, ethical-philosophical and socio-political views characteristic of ancient Chinese society, classical literature also developed. Even in the first poetry collection of ancient China, the famous "Book of Songs", based on folk songs, ancient hymns sing the exploits of the ancestors.

The "Book of Historical Traditions", which includes speeches and instructions, according to legend, belonged to the ancient kings and their advisers, under the influence of Confucianism turned into a collection of teachings and advice. Confucius himself is credited with the authorship of the book "Spring and Autumn", which most clearly reflects his concept of the norms and rules of social order.

In the II-III centuries, Buddhism penetrated China, which influenced traditional Chinese culture. This has been shown, in particular, in the literature fine arts and especially in architecture (rock complexes like the temples of Ellora, graceful pagodas in indian style, cave temples Dunhuang, reminiscent of the cave temples of Ajanta).

Buddhism, having existed in China for almost two millennia, changed markedly in the course of adapting to a specific Chinese civilization, in particular, based on the synthesis of its ideas about alleviating suffering in this life and salvation, eternal bliss in the afterlife with Confucian pragmatism in China in the 6th century, one of the The most interesting intellectual currents of world religious thought - Chan Buddhism, which subsequently spread also in Japan, acquired the completed form of Zen Buddhism, is still very popular in many countries. The most significant transformation of Buddhism turned out to be in a peculiarly Chinese art based on original traditions. The Chinese never accepted the Indian image of the Buddha, creating their own image.

Chinese art is characterized by calligraphy, poetry and painting, which form an inseparable three single system. It is this hieroglyphic code system with its linguistic and pictorial possibilities that allows, from the point of view of Chinese aesthetics, with the help of one tool - a brush - to combine three different types of art and together achieve the most complete and accurate transfer of their artistic means to the surrounding harmony.

History of Chinese philosophy

Mythology and religion.

China is one of the oldest civilized countries in the world. Philosophical ideas in China, originating in the mists of time, are extremely rich in content and are a huge storehouse of ideas in the history of knowledge of all mankind.

The first sprouts of philosophy appeared already in primitive society. People in primitive society, based on their own work experience, sought to understand the natural world, which served as the basis for the emergence of materialistic views. In addition, in the conditions of the primitive communal system, the idea of ​​the need to worship the spirits of ancestors arose.

The idea of ​​the existence of a soul in humans was also extended to animals, plants and the entire natural world: it was believed that everything in the world has its own soul, that all natural bodies and phenomena: earth, sky, sun, moon, thunder, wind, mountains, rivers , birds, wild animals, etc., being in the presence of some spirits, show their strength, as a result of which totheism and the worship of many gods arose.

However, under the conditions of the primitive communal system, only sprouts of a philosophical idea could appear. Philosophy as a theory of knowledge of the surrounding world, as a relatively holistic worldview, fixed in writing, arose only in a slave-owning society.

Europeans first became acquainted with Chinese myths in the 18th century, and before that China itself was a myth for Europeans. It was then that a number of European philosophers thought that the history of civilization should begin with China. This opinion was based on the idea that China is the birthplace of the most ancient and wise philosophers. Meanwhile, as it is clear now, the Chinese philosophers are not older than the Greeks and much younger than the sages of Egypt.

Before philosophy in China, there was a poetic understanding of the world and the past of mankind in the form of myths. These myths were not told, but sung, accompanied by beats, hums, and the rumble of musical instruments. Their heroes were the first ancestors and sage-kings, the creators of human culture. Between the birth of these songs, which were kept in the people's memory, and their fixation with the help of an invention in the second half of the 2nd millennium BC. writing has been going on for centuries. And it took several centuries for the recorded songs to be systematized and comprehended by the Chinese sages as documents of the historical past, as stories about true events and people of a certain territory and time.

The songs themselves, on the basis of which the fictitious history was created by philosophers, are partially preserved in the collections Shijing (Book of Songs) and Shujing (Book of History). The Chinese historian Sima Qian (146-86 BC) said about the selection of these songs: “In ancient times there were more than three thousand songs (shi). Confucius discarded the unfit and took what was in accordance with the rules and due. Since there are 305 songs that have come down to us, it is clear that nine-tenths of the poetic heritage of the ancient Chinese are recognized as worthless. Thus, Chinese songs conveyed to us an ordered, dissected mythology, corresponding to the worldview prevailing in the time of Confucius.

The ordering of Chinese mythology has complicated the understanding of its development. One can only guess that the Chinese, like other peoples, revered: snakes, swallows, bears, elephants, considering them the patrons of certain clans and tribes. Over time, one of these patrons, in the imagination of the narrators of myths, acquired the appearance of a monstrous snake - a dragon, to which dominance over meteorological phenomena was attributed and celestial bodies, water element and special patronage of kings. In the same way, real birds revered by the Chinese turned into the fantastic Fenghuang bird, which became the symbol of the queen. The appearance of the dragon was also given to the goddesses and gods, who were credited with the creation of the world and the creation of mankind.

The Chinese, who lived on the plains, often flooded with great rivers overflowing their banks, revered the saving mountains. One of them, Kunlun, was thought to be located in the center of the world in the form of a pillar of the sky. It was believed that on the top of this mountain was the residence of the supreme god and emperor Shang-di. At the same time, there was an idea of ​​another vertical axis - the world tree, which became the abode of ten suns.

The sky itself was thought of as a higher being, directing everything that happens on earth. At the same time, in the mythological consciousness, the Supreme Lord of Heaven and Heaven were replaced by the mythological Sovereigns of Heaven. Among them was the supreme lord of the Huangdi center and his assistant, the god of the earth Hou-tu, who patronizes the temple of the sun and rules over the constellations and planets Ursa Major, Saturn, Jupiter, Mercury, Venus. Each of the mythical lords corresponded to a certain material principle: season, color, animal, body part, weapon. All this indicates the formation of a complex mythological system, including various natural and spatial elements.

Among the cosmogonic myths that interpret the origin of nature and man from the state of initial chaos, two main concepts are presented: division and transformation. According to one of them, inanimate things and living beings arise as a result of the division of chaos into two primary elements - the light (male) principle of yang and the dark (female) principle of yin. The second concept assumes the emergence of all things as a result of transformation. Thus, man was created from clay by a goddess named Nu Wa. According to another version of the same myth, Nu Wa herself turned into objects and creatures that fill the world.

The image of New Va (“Woman”, “Mother Va”) is reconstructed from scattered and multi-temporal data. In its original form, this is the goddess of the Earth, hence her appearance as a half-woman, half-snake. It is also believed that Nu Wa was revered as the progenitor of tribes that had a snake as a totem.

The functions of the goddess of the earth are associated with images of New You, together with another snake-like creature Fuxi, on the lids of stone coffins. New Va was also identified with the goddess of fertility, connecting boys and girls in marriage. At the beginning of the first spring month, sacrifices were made in her honor, chants, dances and archery were arranged. There are some hints that New Wa was considered not only the progenitor of people, but also the mother of the gods. Thus, one ancient commentator writes: “Nyu Wa is an ancient goddess and empress with human head and snake body. In one day she underwent seventy transformations. Her insides turned into gods."

The name Fu Xi is interpreted as "Ambusher of Sacrificial Animals", but it is understood as a god who patronizes hunting and fishing. He was also considered a deity of the east, ruling under the auspices of the elements and vegetation. Confucian philosophers turned Fu Xi into a king who ruled in our time period from 2852 to 2737 BC.

An extensive group is made up of myths about natural disasters and the heroes who saved people from them. The two most common types of disasters are floods and droughts. In some myths, the flood appears as a kind of initial state, in others - the flood was sent by God as a punishment to people. The drought is the result of the appearance of ten suns at the same time, incinerating crops and threatening people with death. The Great Yu saved people from the flood, from the drought - the Shooter Yi, who shot down all the extra suns from the bow.

The myth of the Yi arrow is one of the most popular in Chinese mythology. And a cultural hero, who was considered both the inventor of the bow and arrows, and the savior with the help of this weapon from many disasters, including those of a cosmic nature. The very shape of the bow in the form of an arc-rainbow turned the hero into a hunter for the Suns that violated the order. In this incarnation, I can be compared with the heroic hunter hero Orion, also associated with the solar myth.

The monsters with which he fights are partly connected with natural phenomena (Dafeng - "Great Wind", Bashe - "Long Serpent", personifying the water element). As a purifier of the earth from monsters And close to the Greek hero Hercules. Just as Hercules visits the country of the West and the realm of the dead.

A visit to the Yi countries of the West is motivated by the search for a potion of immortality. There is a similarity with the myth of Gilgamesh here. The country of the West itself in Chinese myths is not just a realm of death, but a habitat for amazing animals, amazing plants. The mistress of this country, who possesses a potion of immortality, appears in the guise of the mistress of animals. Although Yi is not interested in these animals, his visit to the mistress of animals could be originally connected precisely with his functions as a hunter, and the search for immortality serves as a later addition to the main plot.

Killing And with a peach club reveals another feature of the multifaceted image of the hunter. According to the beliefs of the Chinese, only such a weapon could be struck to death. evil spirit. Thus, the supernatural abilities of Yi in archery receive an explanation: the hunter was associated with evil spirits, Zongbu, into which he turned after death. And, according to the definition of a connoisseur of Chinese myths, Yuan Ke, he was the lord of all the evil spirits of the Celestial Empire, who made sure that evil forces couldn't harm people.

Myths about ancient heroes reflect the desire of the ancient Chinese to find personified "authors" of the most important technical achievements of ancient times. Among those who taught people how to make fire by friction; first built a hut from branches; invented ways of hunting and fishing; made the first agricultural tools and taught people to eat cereals; discovered a way to steam grain, etc. It is characteristic that many of these heroes were depicted by the Chinese as half-humans, half-animals: with the body of a snake, with the head of a bull, which is undoubtedly a reflection of ancient totemic ideas.

An independent cycle is made up of myths about the ancestors. All of them were born as a result of an immaculate conception. The ancestor of the Yin accidentally swallowed the egg of the sacred Purple Bird, and the mother of the first Zhou stepped on the footprint of the Giant, etc. These details of the myths about the first ancestors are connected with the widely held notion that once “people knew the mother and did not know the father.” Survival reflection in the minds of people of the original maternal filiation.

The idea of ​​the Yin people about the other world was mirror image law and order that existed on earth. Just like in Heaven sovereignty belonged to Wang, the Yin people believed, so in the sky everything and everyone obeys the Supreme Deity (Di). Di is omnipotent - it is he who does good deeds to people or punishes them with misfortune, he grants them a harvest, sends drought, rain and wind depend on him. Di's inner circle consists of Wang's deceased ancestors, who are his "servants". Wang's ancestors carry out various assignments for Di, they also convey to him Wang's requests for sending down reverence and help. Therefore, by making sacrifices to his ancestors, Wang could propitiate them and, thanks to this, enlist the support of the Supreme Deity. Wang functions like high priest just consisted in the fact that he could communicate with his ancestors, who were intermediaries between the world of people and the world of gods.

In the early Zhou time, this system of religious ideas did not undergo any significant changes. Later, there is a gradual process of separation in the minds of people of the world of ancestors and the world of gods, which leads to the isolation of the cult of ancestors from the cult of the Supreme Deity. As a result, the functions of the mediator are transferred to the priest or priestess - a person who has the ability to deal with spirits and gods. The emergence and spread of Confucian teachings contributed, on the one hand, to the strengthening of the cult of ancestors, and on the other hand, the transformation of ideas about Di and the cult of Heaven. After the transformation of Confucianism into the official state ideology, his interpretation of the meanings of these cults became the canon.

Along with this, in the Han period, folk beliefs developed, revealing a significant Taoist coloring. In II-III centuries. Buddhism enters China. According to legend, the first Buddhist sutras were brought to China on a white horse; in memory of this, near Luoyang, a surviving to this day was built Buddhist temple"White Horse". Translation of the sutras into Chinese and the spread of Buddhism in China dates back to the 4th-6th centuries.

Writing.

The earliest monuments of ancient Chinese writing are Yin divinatory inscriptions of the 14th-11th centuries. BC. The emergence of this writing system should be attributed to a much earlier time, since Yin writing appears before us in a fairly developed form. From a typological point of view, there are no significant differences between Yin writing and modern hieroglyphics. Like the modern Chinese, the Yin people used signs that fixed certain units of the language mainly from the side of their meaning. The vast majority of Yin signs were idiograms depicting objects or a combination of such images, conveying more complex concepts. In addition, Yin writing already used signs of a different type, absolutely prevalent in modern Chinese hieroglyphography: one element of such a sign indicated reading, the other - an approximate value. This category of Yin signs is typologically close to those ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, which fix the sound of the word with an additional semantic determinant. Yin characters are characterized by three features that differ from Chinese characters. Firstly, each elementary sign was an image of the contour of some object, indecomposable into complex parts. Secondly, there was great diversity in the spelling of the same sign. Thirdly, the orientation of the sign relative to the directions of the line has not yet stabilized.

Thanks to the borrowing of the Yin script by the Chou people, its development was not interrupted even in the first millennium BC. Significant changes occur in it only in the second-first centuries BC, when, after the unification of local variants of hieroglyphs, a new handwriting of signs appears. The hieroglyphs of this time have already completely lost touch with their original inscriptions. The writing of the Khan's time, in principle, almost does not differ from the modern one. The transformation of writing signs was largely due to the evolution of the materials used for writing. In ancient China, they usually wrote on wooden or bamboo planks, which were then connected with a cord or belt. They wrote with ink with a brush, and erroneously written characters were cleaned with a metal knife (hence the common name for writing implements - “knife and brush”). Starting from the middle of the first millennium BC. the ancient Chinese also wrote on silk (samples of such “silk” books were found in Han burials). At the turn of the new era, paper was invented and came into use in China. In the first centuries of the new era, paper supplants all the old writing materials.

Literature.

Samples of the most ancient poetic works have come down to us in the inscriptions on bronze vessels of the 11th-6th centuries. BC. the rhymed texts of this time show a certain similarity with the songs included in the Shijing.

Shijing is a true treasure trove of ancient Chinese poetry. This monument includes 305 poetic works, grouped into four sections: "Morals of the Kingdoms", "Small Odes", "Great Odes" and "Hymns". The lyrical folk songs included in the first section of "Shijing" amaze with their sincerity and sincerity. Other stylistic features for works included in the second and third sections. These are mostly author's poems, the main themes of which are serving the ruler, military campaigns, feasts, sacrifices. The fourth section contains samples of solemn temple chants in honor of the ancestors and rulers of the past. The tradition of "Shijing" was inherited by the authors of poetic works of the 4th century. BC. , which have come down on stone pedestals, shaped like drums, which is why the inscriptions on them were called "texts on stone drums."

The era of Zha-nu was the time of the rapid rise of ancient Chinese culture. In the 4th century BC, in the kingdom of Chu, the outstanding poet Qu Yuan lived and worked, in whose works the contradiction of contemporary society was vividly reflected. The figurative power of Qu Yuan's poetic gift, the expressiveness of his verse and perfect forms put this poet among the bright talents of antiquity. Folk poetry nourished the work of the Han poets. The works of the most famous among them - Sima Xiang-zhu - were included by Sima Can in the biography of this poet. The poems of Sima Qian himself have also come down to us, although the question of their authorship continues to be controversial.

natural science knowledge.

An indicator of the general rise of the culture of Ancient China during the Zhangguo era was also the development of scientific knowledge, primarily mathematics.

Compiled in the II century BC. the treatise Mathematics in Nine Books, like Euclid's Elements, contains a compendium of mathematical knowledge accumulated by previous generations of scientists. This treatise fixes the rules of action with fractions, proportions and progressions, the Pythagorean theorem, the use of the similarity of right triangles, the solution of the system linear equations and much more. "Mathematics in Nine Books" was a kind of guide for surveyors, astronomers, officials, etc. for the study of the history of Ancient China, this book is, among other things, valuable in that it reflects the realities of the Han era: prices for various goods, indicators of agricultural crop yields, etc.

Significant achievements of the ancient Chinese in the field of astronomy and calendar were closely connected with the development of mathematics. In Sima Qin's "Historical Notes" one of the chapters of the "Treatises" section is specially devoted to the problems of celestial bodies. A similar chapter is contained in the "Han History" of Ban Gu, where the names of 118 constellations (783 stars) are given. Much attention was paid at this time to the observation of the planets. In the 1st century BC. the ancient Chinese knew that the period of the Tree Star (Jupiter) was 11.92 years. This almost corresponds to the results of modern observations.

In 104 BC it was calculated that the length of the year is 365.25 days. The calendar adopted this year was used until 85 AD. Therefore, the calendar year consisted of 12 months, an additional month was added in a leap year, which was set every three years.

solar-lunar The ancient Chinese calendar was adapted to the needs of agricultural production.

Medicine has received a very significant development in ancient China. Ancient Chinese doctors back in the 4th-3rd centuries. BC. began to apply a method of treatment, later widely used in traditional Chinese medicine - acupuncture.

In ancient literature, there are many legends about the origin of acupuncture and moxibustion, such as the invention of bian stone needles by Fu Xi, the invention of acupuncture and moxibustion by the legendary Emperor Huang Di.

In the "Commentaries on the Chronicles of Spring and Autumn", dated 550 BC. , says: "It is pleasant to hear that diseases recede, but it is unpleasant to hear that stones act at the same time." This indicates the use of stone tools and needles by the ancient Chinese to treat diseases. During archaeological excavations of settlements of those times, stones were found that could be used for medicinal purposes. At the same time, the main philosophical concepts of traditional Chinese medicine began to be formulated, such as the teachings of Yin and Yang, the Five Elements, the organs and channels of the body, and the idea of ​​human adaptation to environment and about the material causation of diseases.

The first systematic book on traditional Chinese medicine is Chuan Di Nei Jing Su Wen Ling Shu (Treatise on the Inner Emperor Huang Di), written in the early 3rd century BC. It consists of 18 volumes and two parts: "Su Wen" (Questions about existence) and "Ling Shu" (Effective, wonderful point). Based on more than 200 years of experience, the treatise summarizes and systematizes the ideas of ancient doctors about the theory of Yin-Yang, Wu-Xing, Zang-Fu organs, channels and collaterals, the doctrine of Chi and blood, the etiology and pathogenesis of the disease in the light of philosophical concepts traditional Chinese medicine. At the same time, with the development of metal production and the practice of acupuncture, metal needles, as evidenced by the decree of Emperor Huang Di: “I regret that my people, weighed down by the burden of disease, do not pay taxes and dues. My will is not to prescribe him more drugs that only poison him, but also not to use the ancient stone points. I want only the mysterious needles of metal to be used to channel the energy.”

Extremely interesting are the manuscripts of medical writings recently found in one of the Han burials of the early second century BC. They include a treatise on dietetics, a manual on therapeutic exercises, a manual on the application of the moxibustion method, a collection of various recipes. Among them there are also some magical methods, in later treatises of the Han time, magical methods of treatment are practically not mentioned. The use of local anesthesia by the doctor Hua Guo dates back to the 3rd century.

ancient Chinese philosophy.

Teaching and Yin-Yang.

The Yin-Yang theory is a philosophical concept that was formed by observing and analyzing the phenomena of the surrounding world. It crystallized during the Yin and Zhou dynasties (6th century - 221 BC) and first appeared in the book “I Ching” (Book of Changes): “Yin and Yang reflect all forms and signs that exist in the Universe”

The idea that everything in nature has two beginnings is inherent in all forms of Taoist philosophy. The Yin-Yang theory, however, does not reflect any specific phenomenon, but is only a theoretical method and tool for its knowledge. Yin-Yang is two phenomena of opposite nature and two opposite aspects of one phenomenon. So the ancient thinkers of China were able to understand the duality of the phenomena of the surrounding world.

The treatise "Su Wen" says: "Water and fire are symbols of Yin and Yang." This means that water and fire reflect two opposite qualities. Thus, all the basic properties of fire, such as heat, upward and outward movement, brightness, excitability, and strength, belong to Yang; and all the basic properties of water - cold, slowness, dullness, downward and inward movement - are related to Yin.

The nature of the Yin-Yang phenomenon is not absolute, but relative: on the one hand, under certain conditions, Yin can turn into Yang, and vice versa (the internal transforming nature of Yin-Yang), and on the other hand, any manifestation can be infinitely divided into Yin and Yang, which reflects their internal relationship. Therefore, Yin and Yang are at the same time opposite and interconnected, they both oppose and complement each other. The Yin-Yang theory is a kind of interpretation of the materialistic principle of unity and struggle of opposites, which underlies all manifestations of the surrounding world.

The Yin-Yang relationship was depicted in the form of a monad (TAI JI TU), on which the white color reflects Yang, and the black color reflects Yin, the opposite and interconnectedness are personified by a curved line, and the ability to transmutate each other is shown by points-“embryos” of one principle in another. .

The main tenets of the Yin-Yang theory can be summarized as follows:

1. The opposite of Yin and Yang. It manifests itself mainly in the ability to resist and control each other. Normally, the constant confrontation of Yin-Yang maintains a relative physiological balance, and when it is disturbed, a disease occurs. In the fifth chapter of "Su Wen" it is said: "When Yin prevails, Yang suffers, When Yang prevails, Yin begins to suffer."

2. The interdependence of Yin and Yang is manifested in the close connection of both principles. Nothing can exist in isolation from each other - without Yin there cannot be Yang, just as without Yang there cannot be Yin; Without going up you can't go down. In the fifth chapter of "Su Wen" it is said: "Yin is inside and guards Yang, and Yang stands outside and protects Yin"

3. The internal consuming-supporting relationship reflects the fact that Yin and Yang are not in a fixed state, but constantly support each other.

4. The internal transforming relationship is manifested in the fact that under certain conditions, Yang can turn into Yin, and vice versa. In the fifth chapter of “Su Wen” it is said: “Strong Yang will definitely form Yin, and strong Yin always leads to the formation of Yang ... Strong cold generates heat, and strong heat generates cold”

5. The infinite divisibility of Yin and Yang is manifested in the fact that any manifestation of the external environment can be infinitely divided into two beginnings - Yin and Yang. All in all, Vital energy(Chi) can be more or less present, so there are three degrees of Yang and three degrees of Yin: big Yang (Tai-Yang), small Yang (Shao-Yang) and middle Yang (Yang-Ming), as well as big Yin (Tai -Yin), small Yin (Shao-Yin) and decreased Yin (Jue-Yin).

Five elements.

The Five Elements Theory (Wu Xing) reflects the five categories of the surrounding world, namely: wood, fire, earth, metal and water. The theory of the Five Elements was formulated in China at the turn of the Yin and Zhou dynasties (6th century - 221 BC) and consists in the fact that all phenomena in the Universe are in in constant motion.

The Five Elements have different properties, but they depend on each other and are closely related to each other, maintaining a relative balance. The Wu-Sin theory is used to analyze the phenomena of the surrounding world. In the treatise “Shu Ching” they are described as follows: “The permanent nature of water is to be wet and flow down; the permanent nature of wood is to succumb to bending and straightening; the permanent nature of fire is to burn and rise upwards; the permanent nature of the earth is to receive sowing and produce a harvest; the permanent nature of metal is to submit external influence and straighten up." Other natural phenomena and human functions were classified similarly.

The law of interaction of the Five Elements manifests itself as follows: activation, suppression of oppression and counter-oppression.

Activation indicates an increase in growth and activity. Thus, wood activates fire, fire activates earth, earth activates metal, metal activates water, and finally water activates wood. These are creative connections and are also called “mother-son” type connections, where each element is both the “mother” of the activated element and the “son” of the activating element.

An oppressive bond is a restraining or controlling bond, also called a "destructive" bond. At the same time, the tree oppresses the earth, earth-water, water-fire, fire-metal and metal-wood. Here each element plays both the role of the oppressor and the oppressed.

Activation and oppression are two inalienable properties of the Five Elements that bind them into a single system, the Wu-Sing system (five principles). Without activation there is no oppression, without oppression there is no balance and coordination of activation processes.

In addition to the normal activating interaction according to the “mother-son” principle, there is also an abnormal depressing interaction according to the “son-mother” principle. For example, normally water stimulates a tree, i.e. the “mother-son” principle is implemented, where the “mother” is water, and the “son” is a tree. With excessive activation of the “tree” element, its reverse interaction occurs according to the “son-mother” principle, i.e. the tree begins to oppress the water. Note that in the second case, the principle of the sequence of terms is still preserved, i.e. the tree is still the “son” of water, and the water is the “mother” of the tree. This relationship also has a certain compensatory role; By suppressing the activating element, the activated element no longer receives support from it, and this does not give the latter an additional source of energy for its growth.

The theory of the Five Elements contains the idea of ​​the materiality of the world, the interaction and interrelationships of parts of nature and phenomena, the integrity of the body, its self-regulation and systemic response to external stimuli. The Five Elements should not be taken literally, but considered as symbols under which all objects and phenomena of nature fall under and on the basis of which interact.

The doctrine of the dark and light principles and the eight trigrams.

Even during the Shang dynasty, with the process of production and the development of natural sciences, such as astronomy, meteorology, the beginnings of ideas about the dark and light principles begin to appear. According to these ideas, the dark and light principles were considered as properties inherent in material objects, the opposition of which causes development and changes, both in ongoing processes and in things. In the interpretation of natural phenomena, these views are reflected in numerous inscriptions on fortune-telling shells and bones, in which a sunny day is called “yan-zhi” (bright day), and a cloudy day is called “bu yan-zhi” (dark day) or “mei- zhi” (i.e. a gloomy day). Sunrise was associated with light, and sunset - with a dark beginning, turning to the sun with a face was considered as light, and turning back to it as a dark beginning. These two properties gave rise to two forces and determined their respective roles; oppose each other, they mutually depended on each other, perished and arose, causing changes.

The emerging ideas about the dark and light principles were further developed in the "I-Ching" (Book of Changes). The name “Book of Changes”, which is also called “Zhou-i” (Zhou Book of Changes), or simply “I” (changes), is associated with the changes that took place, and it is a fortune-telling book by hectograms, which explores the changes that occur with dark and bright beginnings, and divination is made about happy and unfortunate events, about expected troubles and happiness.

The main idea of ​​the I-Ching is the opposition of the dark and light principles, which are indicated as intermittent horizontal lines, symbolizing the dark beginning (yin yao) and whole lines, symbolizing the light beginning (yang yao). Icons symbolizing the dark and light beginnings are called yao, which means the combination of light and dark beginnings, causing changes. Initially, the icons consisted of three strokes (this, it is said, symbolized the relationship of heaven, earth and man), which, arranged in a certain order, made up eight trigrams (ba gua): qian, kun, zhen, xun, kan, li gen and dui , symbolizing the eight phenomena of nature - sky, earth, thunder, wind, water, fire, mountains, lakes. Eight trigrams, which are called simple trigrams (dan gua), in further way the doubling of the rows turned into 64 hexagrams, which are called doubled trigrams (chung gua). As a result, the sky, the earth began to be denoted by icons. In eight trigrams, there were 24 features, and changes in the icons are relatively simple, while in 64 hexagrams 384 features characterizing complex changes make it possible to predict any complex relationships in ongoing processes.

Each hexagram has three components: symbol (xiang), number (shu) and interpretation (tsy).

Initially, the doctrine of the eight trigrams contains elements of primitive materialism about the universe. From the innumerable manifestations of nature, it chose eight names to show with their help the materialistic basis that forms the world. Among the selected eight names of manifestations of nature, heaven and earth are the main sources that give rise to all things. Heaven and earth, at a time when man's forces in the struggle with nature were at a relatively low level, created the most important material conditions affecting man's life, therefore they occupied the most important place in the existing worldview. Although the explanation of the foundations of the universe was given at an extremely low scientific level, nevertheless, it was looking for the source of the origin of the world in the natural world, and therefore this worldview can be attributed to primitive materialism.

From the moment the primitive doctrine of the eight trigrams appeared to its development into the system set forth in the Zhou Book of Changes, a long period passed, approximately from early period Western Zhou until 672 BC, when this doctrine was finally formulated and systematized. In Zuo Zhuan, under the 22nd year of Zhuang Gong's reign, we find: "The Zhou historiographer came to the ruler of the Chen domain, having with him the Zhou Book of Changes" - this is the earliest mention of this book. It was during the Zhou era that the slave system chewed through a period of decline. In this regard, theology and philosophy, striving to know the future fate, turned into sciences that are urgently needed. ruling class.

The dialectic of the I Ching is expressed mainly in three directions.

Firstly, the “I Ching” considers the idea of ​​confrontation of contradictions in the world of nature and society as the result of the interaction of two opposing forces - dark and light principles. Eight trigrams, which are based on contradictions between light and dark principles, gradually in their development began to characterize four pairs of contradictions: between heaven and earth, thunder and wind, water and fire, mountains and lakes. Heaven and earth are the main source that gave rise to all things, and thunder and wind, water and fire, mountains and lakes are derivatives of them.

Secondly, the dialectic of the I Ching is expressed in the idea of ​​mutual attraction and mutual alienation. The denial of the mutual connection between objects and their mutual conditionality is one of the characteristic features of the metaphysical worldview. In contrast to this, the I Ching strives in every possible way, proceeding from the fact of the mutual connection of objects and their mutual conditionality, to show the nature of the contradictions and the causes of the changes taking place.

Thirdly, dialectics is expressed in ideas about development and change.

Confucianism.

The ancestor of the ancient Chinese philosophy, kung Fu-tzu (in Russian, Confucius) lived in 551-479. BC. His homeland is the kingdom of Lu, his father is the ruler of one of the districts of this minor kingdom. The family of Confucius was noble, but poor, and in his childhood he had to be both a shepherd and a watchman, and he was only 15 years old, as he himself reports. He turned his attention to education. Confucius founded his school at the age of 50. He had many students. They wrote down the thoughts of both their teacher and their own. This is how the main Confucian work “Lun Yu” (“Conversations and Sayings”) arose - a completely unsystematic and often contradictory work, a collection of mostly moral teachings, in which it is very difficult to see a philosophical essay. Every educated Chinese learned this book by heart as early as childhood, he was guided by it all his life.Confucius himself bowed to antiquity and ancient books.

In ideas about the sky and spirits, Confucius followed tradition. The sky for him is the highest power. Heaven watches over justice on earth, stands guard over social inequality. Sharing the cult of ancestors, Confucius taught at the same time to stay away from the spirits, because, “without learning to serve the spirits, can you serve the spirits?”

Confucian public. The focus of Confucianism is the relationship between people, the problems of education. The cult of the past is a characteristic feature of the entire ancient Chinese historical outlook. In ancient times, little things were ignored and behaved with dignity, were distinguished by directness, studied to improve themselves, avoided people with rude expressions and ugly manners, avoided a society where there was no order. Idealizing antiquity, Confucius also rationalizes the doctrine of morality. Thinking that he is resurrecting the old, he creates the new.

Confucian ethics is based on such concepts as “reciprocity”, “golden mean” and “philanthropy”, which, in general, constitute the “right path” that everyone who wants to live in harmony with himself, with other people and with himself had to follow. the universe, which means to live happily. "Golden mean" (zhong yong) - the middle in people's behavior between intemperance and caution, being able to find this middle is not easy, most people are either too careful or too intemperate. The basis of philanthropy is "zhen" - "respect for parents and respect for elder brothers." In response to the wish of one of his students “in one word”, to briefly express the essence of the teachings of Confucius, he replied: “Do not do to others what you do not wish for yourself”

Kung Fu Tzu gives a detailed image of a person who follows the Confucian moral precepts. This is jun-tzu - "noble man". Kung Fu Tzu contrasts this "noble man" with a commoner, or "low man" - "xiao ren". This opposition runs through the entire book of Lun Yu. The first follows duty and the law, the second thinks about how to get better and get a benefit. The first is demanding of himself, the second is demanding of people. The first go to death for the sake of philanthropy and due, the second commits suicide in a ditch. “A noble man is afraid of three things: he is afraid of the command of heaven, great people and the words of perfect wisdom. The lower man does not know the command of heaven and is not afraid of it; despises tall people in high positions; ignores the words of a wise man"

The “noble husband” in Confucianism is not only aesthetic, but also political concept. He is a member of the ruling elite.

Confucius saw the key to governing the people in the strength of the moral example of the superiors to the inferiors. The morality of a “noble man” is (like) the wind; the morality of the “low man” is (like) grass. Grass bends where the wind blows”

“Correction of names” (“zhen ming”) is the culmination of the Confucian cult of the past. Kong Fu Tzu recognized that "everything flows" and that "time runs without stopping." But all the more it is necessary to take care that everything in society remains unchanged. Therefore, the Confucian correction of names did not really mean bringing the public consciousness into line with the changing social being, but an attempt to bring things into line with their former meaning. Therefore, Kung Fu Tzu taught that a sovereign should be a sovereign, a dignitary should be a dignitary, a father should be a father, and a son should be a son, not in name, but in reality, in fact. With all deviations from the norm, it should be returned to. This teaching of the most influential ideological trend in China played a significant role in the stagnation of ancient and medieval China. After all, to be, for example, a son meant the observance of the entire ritual of filial piety, which included, along with rational and humane, much and excessive. For example, after the death of his father, the son could not change anything in the house for three years.

For Kung Fu Tzu to know is “to know people.” Knowledge of nature does not interest him. He is fully satisfied with the practical knowledge possessed by those who directly communicate with nature - farmers and artisans. Kung Fu Tzu admits innate knowledge. But it is rare. Kung Fu Tzu admits innate knowledge. But it is rare. He didn't have it himself. "Those who have innate knowledge stand above all." And "they are followed by those who acquire knowledge through learning." Learning, according to Confucius, is necessary both from the ancients and from contemporaries. Teaching should be selective: "I listen to a lot, choose the best and follow it." From these words it is clear that for Kung Fu Tzu, teaching is teaching behavior.

The positive thing in Confucianism is seen in the fact that the main means of governing the people is in the power of example and even in persuasion, and not in sheer coercion. To the question: “How do you look at killing people who are devoid of principles in the name of approaching these principles?” Kung Fu Tzu answered: “Why, while ruling the state, kill people? If you strive for goodness, then the people will be kind.” In this, the Confucians decisively disagreed with the representatives of the “fa-jia” school, legalists, or ogists, who, having rejected the patriarchal concept of society from Kung Fu-tzu (ruler-father, people-children ), tried to build a state solely on the principle of violence and fear of cruelly punishing laws even for small offenses.

The disciple of the grandson of Confucius, Mencius (372-289 BC) further strengthened the doctrine of the sky as an impersonal objective necessity, fate, which, however, stands guard over the good. What was new with him was that he saw the most adequate reflection of the will of heaven in the will of the people. Mencius imagined the universe consisting of "qi", meaning by this the life force, the energy that is subordinate to the will and mind. “Will is the main thing, and qi is secondary. That's why I say: "Strengthen the will and do not bring chaos to qi." The most characteristic moment of the teachings of Mencius is his thesis about the innate goodness of man. The knowledge of good nature is equated by Mencius with the knowledge of heaven. There is no better service to heaven than the discovery in one's soul of the beginning of goodness and justice. While teaching about the natural equality of people, Mencius nevertheless justified their social inequality by the needs of the division of labor. “Some strain their mind. Others tense their muscles. Those who strain their minds control people. Those who govern maintain those who govern them… Such is the universal law in the Celestial Empire.” Mencius said that a wise ruler can defeat people striving for good only after he provides them with the means of subsistence.

As a Confucian, he identifies the relationship between members of the state with the relationship between parents and children. Van must love the people as his children, the people must love the sovereign as a father. “Honoring the elders, extend (this honor) to the elders of other people. Loving your children, love strangers, and then it will be easy to rule the Celestial Empire” Mencius against the dictatorship of the law. “Is it possible that when a philanthropic ruler is in power, they entangle the people with nets?” Mencius asks.

Another Confucian, Xun Tzu, focused on the problems of man and society. His picture of the universe is the basis of his ethical and political doctrine. Xun-ase deprived the sky of any supernatural qualities. Everything in nature occurs according to the laws of nature itself. From the constancy of natural phenomena, Xun Tzu draws two important conclusions. First, nothing is "coming from the spirit." The fact that people think that things come from the spirit is explained by the fact that they see only the result of the process, and not the process itself, they do not see what is happening inside. Without imagining these invisible internal changes, a person associates obvious changes with the activity of the spirit or heaven. The second conclusion concerns the will of heaven. The constancy of the sky, being compared with the impermanence of social life, suggests that the sky does not and cannot influence what happens to people.

Xun Tzu, unlike Men Tzu, taught that man is naturally evil. One of the chapters of the treatise "Xun Tzu" is called "On the evil nature of man." Society makes a person able to get along with other people. Society arose only when the first rulers, “perfectly wise after much reflection and study of the actions of people, introduced the norms of ritual and (the concept of) a sense of duty and created a system of laws”

Speaking against the worship of fate as the will of heaven, widespread in ancient China, Xun Tzu said that “instead of exalting the sky and thinking about it, isn’t it better to subjugate the sky by multiplying things? Instead of serving the sky and singing about it, wouldn’t it be better, overcoming the heavenly fate, to use the sky in your own interests? ... Than to expect the self-destruction of things, isn’t it better, using the capabilities of man, to change things yourself?

Xun Tzu was confident both in the knowability of the world and in the ability of people to know it. He materialistically defined knowledge as the correspondence of the ability to know the state of things. Knowledge accumulates in the heart. The heart distinguishes truth from falsehood, i.e. ponders. Xun Tzu calls for the elimination of dissent, "ruthlessly killing" those who "although they have talents, but in their actions go against the times." The activities of all philosophical schools other than Confucianism, Xun Tzu declares extremely harmful.

The teachings of Xun-tzu about the evil nature of man, about the significance of the transformation of this nature of the state and rulers, about the need for unanimity was picked up by the Fa-jia school and directed against Confucianism itself. The materialistic aspects of the worldview of Xun Tzu were forgotten.

Mo Di (Mo Tzu) was born in the year of the death of Confucius and died in 400 BC. Little is known about his life. The Mo Tzu book is the fruit of the collective creativity of the Moists. Moism lasted two centuries.2

The Mohist school differed in many respects from other philosophical schools of ancient China: Mo Tzu remained its only outstanding representative: his philosophy did not fertilize other teachings; under Mo-tzu and later, the school was a well-organized paramilitary organization that strictly carried out the orders of its head (most of its members were, apparently, people from the stratum of wandering warriors); after the death of Mo-tzu, the school broke up into three groups - Xiangfu-shih, Xiangli-shih, Denlin-shih, according to the names of their leaders, each of which rejected the belonging to Mo-tzu of the other two; Finally, in the activity of the school, despite its short duration, two stages are distinguished - the early one, when Moism had a certain religious coloration, and the later one, when he completely freed himself from it.

The Moists treated the sky like this - “the sky is a model for the ruler. The sky can serve as a model due to its philanthropy. Heaven “desires that people help each other, that the strong help the weak, that people teach each other, that the knower teaches the unknowing, that they divide each other’s property. Heaven also wants the top to show diligence in governing the country, so that order reigns in the Celestial Empire, and the lower classes are diligent in business.” The Moists remain within the limits of protophilosophy and are unable to overcome such vestiges of prephilosophy as anthropomorphism. Therefore, their heaven is able to “will” and “not desire”, it has a will. Moreover, heaven rewards and punishes, and whoever incites people to evil will certainly be punished.

The Mohists rejected Confucian predestination. The sky does not specifically predetermine anything. People are free. Heaven only wants people to love one another.

The Mohists preached love for the distant. Lack of "universal" love - main reason unrest. “Separate love” is “the cause of mutual hatred”.

The people are the highest value. The will of heaven and the will of the people coincide. The love of heaven for people is above all the love of heaven for the common people. Therefore, imitating the sky, following its will, the rulers must love the people.

The Mohists in their social plans did not go further than teaching about the need to improve governance. Rulers should honor wisdom, select service people not by nobility and ability to flatter, but by business qualities, listen respectfully when they are told the truth. In its positive program, Mohism demanded only a change in methods of administration and did not affect class relations. All the evil is in the bad advisers of the Vanir.

The Mohists were critical of the tradition, choosing only the good from it. They ridiculed the Confucians, who equated virtue with following the old days, where there was much evil. Nor did they fetishize the law. The law is an auxiliary means of control, laws must be consistent with the will of heaven, i.e. serve universal love.

Mohists are staunch opponents of wars. They are against the solution of political disputes between states by military means. The will of heaven requires that states love each other.

The Mohist doctrine of knowledge is democratic. The source of knowledge is the people, their labor, practical activity. Knowledge of the people is the criterion of truth. Knowledge must have practical value, serve the people. The Mohists attached great importance to the ability to reason, to logic. The Mohists taught that a concept is empty if this or that thing does not correspond to it. They tried to divide things by kind, they saw the essence of knowledge in finding the cause of the phenomenon.

Mo Tzu was deeply convinced of the truth of his teaching precisely as reasoning. He said that the attempts of other schools to refute his reasoning is like trying to break a stone with an egg. You can kill all the eggs in the Middle Kingdom, but the stone will not collapse. Just as indestructible is the teaching of Mo Di.

Taoism arose in Zhou China simultaneously with the teachings of Confucius as an independent philosophical doctrine. The ancient Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu is considered the founder of Taoist philosophy. An older contemporary of Confucius, about whom there is no reliable information of either historical or biographical nature in the sources, Lao Tzu is considered a legendary figure by modern researchers. Legends tell of his miraculous birth (his mother carried him for several decades and gave birth to an old man - where does his name come from? Old child”, although the same aza sign also meant the concept of “philosopher”, so that his name can be translated as “Old Philosopher”) and about his departure from China. Going west, Lao Tzu graciously agreed to leave his Tao Te Ching to the keeper of the border outpost.

The treatise Tao-te-ching (4-3 centuries BC) outlines the foundations of Taoism, the philosophy of Tao, the universal Law and the Absolute. Tao dominates everywhere and in everything, always and without limits. No one created him, but everything comes from him. Invisible and inaudible, inaccessible to the senses, constant and inexhaustible, nameless and formless, it gives rise, name and form to everything in the world. Even the great Heaven follows the Tao. Know the Tao, follow it, merge with it, the purpose and happiness of life. Tao manifests itself through its emanation - through de, and if Tao gives birth to everything, then de nourishes.1

Lawyers.

Shang Yan. This is a legal practitioner. Rising in the middle of the 4th century BC. in the kingdom of Qin, as an adviser to the ruler of this kingdom, Shan Yang carried out reforms that went down in history as the “reforms of Shang Yang”. Private ownership of arable land was introduced. In the field of management, a system of mutual responsibility and mutual denunciation has been established. The book “Shang jun shu” (“Book of the ruler of the Shang region”) is associated with the estate of wushan Yang.

If earlier it was possible to control people on the basis of virtue, now “it is necessary first of all to have laws of punishment”. Therefore, Shan Yang answers the Confucians, “he who goes against antiquity does not necessarily deserve condemnation”, and “in order to benefit the state, it is not necessary to imitate antiquity”, because “the wise creates laws, and the stupid is limited by them; the gifted one changes the ritual, but the worthless one is bound by the ritual.”

Shang Yang declared that “kindness and philanthropy are the mother of transgressions”, that true virtue “has its origin from punishment” and that such virtue can only be reached “by capital punishment and reconciliation of justice with violence” In order to be able to restore order even before when riots break out, it is necessary: ​​1) to have many punishments and few rewards in the state; 2) to punish cruelly, inspiring awe; 3) severely punish for petty crimes (for example, a person who dropped a burning coal on the way is punishable by death), then there will be nowhere to take big ones; 4) divide people with mutual suspicion, surveillance and denunciation. Only in this way, Shang Yang argued, could a “country be formed where the people are afraid of state laws and are obedient to war”, where “the people will go to death for the ruler”.

Qin Empire.

After a dress rehearsal in the kingdom of Qin under Shan Yang, the program of the lawyers was implemented in the Qin empire, which was formed as a result of the kingdom of Qin emerging victorious from the struggle of the kingdoms. The period of "warring kingdoms" is over. The ruler of the Qin kingdom became the Chinese Emperor Qin Shi Huang. He introduced uniform legislation for all of China, uniform monetary units, a single script, a single property and social gradation of the population, a single military-bureaucratic apparatus, completed the construction of the Great Wall of China. After that, they moved on to the unification of culture.

The new emperor accepted the bill of his adviser Li Si, formerly a former student of Xun Tzu. The bill said: “In ancient times, when the Celestial Empire was in turmoil and fragmentation, no one could bring it to unity and therefore influential princes dominated. And all the preachers praised the old in order to damage the new. They resorted to false words to bring in existing order confusion. People praised those philosophies that they liked, and recognized as false everything that was established from above.

But you, sovereign, united the Celestial Empire, separated white from black and established a single honor for only one emperor. At a time like this, private schools are doing lawlessness. As soon as they find out that this or that decree is being issued, they begin to interpret it in their own way. Firstly, they confuse their own souls, and, secondly, they arouse rumors. They scoff at condemning the deeds of the ruler, arouse illicit interests and, leading the crowd, sow slander. If these private teachings are not banned, then the sovereign may lose authority and groupings will form among his subjects. Therefore, it is most prudent to close private teachings.

I would ask that all available literary works, books of poetry, historical publications and writings of all philosophers be removed. Those who, thirty days after the publication of this work, do not turn in their books, will be sent to hard labor. It is possible not to seize only fortune-telling, medical and agricultural books. People who want to learn, let them learn from our officials.” Further, Sima Qian continues: “Qin Shi-huang approvingly reacted to the advice of Li Si, withdrew the “Shi-ching”, “Shu-ching” and all the sayings of the philosophers. By this he was confused to stupefy the people.

On the basis of this bill, which became law, most of the books were burned, hundreds of philosophers were drowned in latrines. However, this first "cultural revolution" in China (213 BC) did not bring any fruits other than those that despotism usually brings: fear, deceit, denunciation, physical and mental degeneration of the people. For hiding books, they were castrated and sent to build the Great Wall of China, which cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. They were executed for non-information, scammers were rewarded and promoted. Qin Shi Huang fell ill with persecution mania. When Qin Shi Huang died, all his childless wives were killed, and the builders of the tomb were immured together with the dead emperor.

The Qin period is the only period in Chinese history when the tradition was interrupted. The new Han Dynasty restored the tradition. The destroyed books were restored from memory. In 136 BC. The Han Emperor Wu Di raised Confucianism to the level of the state ideology of China. But this Confucianism was mixed with Legalism. In this neo-Confucianism, “li” (ritual) and “fa” (law) merged, the methods of persuasion and example on the one hand, and coercion and punishment on the other, came into a state of harmony. Other philosophical schools (Mohists, the school of names) perished, while others (Taoists) were regarded as unofficial (along with Buddhism that came from India). The phenomena of the spiritual life of society characteristic of the pre-Qin period: the pluralism of schools, the struggle of opinions, the non-interference of the authorities in the field of worldview, have never been restored. In this sense, the Zhangguo period was indeed the "golden age of Chinese philosophy."

Conclusion.

IV-III millennium BC, in the Neolithic and Eneolithic eras, this is the time of the cult of the Sun and heavenly bodies, the appearance of cosmogonic myths. The first settlements in China and the manufacture of Yangshao and Lukshan ceramic vessels date back to this time.

II - I millennium BC (Bronze Age and the beginning of the Iron Age) - the time of the appearance of totemic and animistic beliefs, the cult of ancestors, the most ancient hieroglyphic writing. The constructive foundations of wooden architecture are being formed. Underground burials of the nobility, bronze vessels for ritual purposes, weapons, jade and bone carving, and ceramics can tell a lot about the state of Yin. During the period of the state of Zhou (Eastern Zhou centuries BC, Western Yazhou centuries BC, the period of Zhangguo centuries BC), teachings about the five primary elements of nature and the polar forces of Yin-Yang appeared. The “Book of Songs” appears (8-9 centuries BC) Philosophical teachings develop - Confucianism, legalism, Taoism, Moism (4-3 centuries BC), the urban planning system develops. Bronze vessels and mirrors are made. Brushes and silk are invented. A star catalog is created (4th century BC) Treatises are written: “Lun Yu” by Confucius; "Mengzi"; "Tao Te Ching"; "Chuangzi". This also includes the poetry of Qu Yuan.

The first centralized slave-owning empires take shape in the 3rd century BC. and 3rd century AD: Qin (221-207 BC) and Han (206-220 AD) The unification of writing, the invention of paper.

The Great Chinese Wall, the cities of Laon, Chengdu and others. Funeral ensembles in Shandong and Sichuan, murals, funerary ceramics, the first examples of monumental plastic arts, bronze mirrors, carved stone products, a treatise on architecture "Zhouli" belong to this time.

List of used literature:

1) "Small history of arts" N. A. Vinogradova, N. S. Nikolaeva M.: "Art" 1979.

2) "Myths and legends of the Ancient East" A. I. Nemirovsky M.: "Enlightenment" 1994.

3) "History of the Ancient East" M .: "Higher School" 1988.

4) "A course of lectures on ancient philosophy" A.N. Chanyshev M.: "Higher School" 1981.

5) "History of the Religions of the East" L. S. Vasiliev M .: "Higher School" 1983.

6) "Philosophical Encyclopedic Dictionary" M .: "Soviet Encyclopedia" 1989.

7) "History of Chinese Philosophy" edited by M. L. Titarenko M.: "Progress" 1989.

8) "Fundamentals of Zhenjiu Therapy" A. M. Ovechkin, Saransk: "Voice" 1991.

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