Summary of Yu-lan Fung's A Short History of Chinese Philosophy - E-book - ePub

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 Chinese civilization has been influenced by philosophy. In China, philosophy has been the concern of every educated person. The Four Books, which consist of the Confucian Analects, the Book of Mencius, the Great Learning, and the Doctrine of the Mean, have been the most important texts of Neo-Confucianist philosophy. #2 Reflective thinking is the process of taking life as its object and thinking about it.
The theory of the universe, the theory of knowledge, and the concept of life are all the products of reflective thinking. #3 The Chinese people have had little concern with religion because they have had so much concern with philosophy. They are not religious because they are philosophical. In philosophy, they satisfy their craving for what is beyond the present actual world. #4 The problem that Chinese philosophers have tried to solve is how to achieve the highest form of achievement of which any one kind of man is capable.
According to the Chinese, this is nothing less than being a sage, and the highest achievement of a sage is the identification of the individual with the universe.