"The fundamental goal shall be established for Heaven and Earth; the subsistence shall be granted to the living public; the learning advocated by the past sage shall be inherited; and social fortunes and peaceful order of the coming generations shall be striven for".
    ---Zhang Zai (from the Song Dynasty)

    The Chinese nation is a comprehensive term for many Chinese nationalities. The Chinese nation formed a fairly complete system of philosophy of its own as early as toward the end of the Spring-Autumn Period, which is of importance in the history of the Chinese, Eastern Asian and even the world culture.
In general, the traditional Chinese philosophy progressed through the following periods:

    1) The Pre-Qin period was marked by the emergence of various ancient philosophical views. The primeval religious views were shaken, and a number of philosophical schools successively loomed, forming the "Hundred Schools Contend" period. People began to look at the world from scientific viewpoints. Natural science soon came into being and gradually separated itself from philosophy and became an independent discipline.

    2) The Wei-Jin period was characterized by Metaphysic. Metaphysics in China blended Confucianism and Master Lao��s doctrine and was based on famous classical writings such as the "Book of Changes",the "Book of Master Lao" and the "Book of Master Zhuang".It discussed mainly the propositions of "Existence vs. nonexistence","Essentials vs. nonessentials","Words vs. ideas", "Fundamentals vs. practices","Ethics vs. nature",etc., the discussions and disputes enriched the ancient Chinese philosophies and activated the thoughts of the scholars, making the ancient philosophies more rational and logical, and enhancing the scholars, thinking capabilities. These metaphysical discussions further developed the thinking aptitude of the nation as a whole.

    3) The Sui-Tang period. In this period Buddhism prevailed. The Buddhist philosophy discussed mainly the relationship between the subjective and the objective. It scrutinized and analyzed particularly the spiritual phenomena, introspected human rationality and attempted to gain insight into universe and human life. It considered that man and nature both held in store a superlative degree of wisdom.

    4)In the Song-Ming period the rationalistic Confucian philosophy was of great significance, which was a kind of new Confucianism incorporating the philosophies of Daoism and Buddhism. This period was important in the development of the Chinese ancient philosophy. The rationalistic Confucianism discussed mainly the propositions of the "supreme","Yin vs. Yang (negative vs. positive)","mind vs. dispositions",etc., such thinking proceeded along the line of "nature-man-learning",and attached much importance to the life philosophy of people. In this period there were many different schools of rationalistic Confucianism. Their scholastic contests enriched and perfected this philosophy.

    5)In the Ming-Qing period, philosophy as marked by "self-examination".Application of philosophy on state affairs was emphasized and creative views were encouraged. The scholars in this period were mostly erudite and well versed in philosophies.