Water In Confucianism And Taoist Philosophy Of Pre-Qin Philosophy

The thesis mainly analyzes water in Confucianism and Taoist Philosophy of Pre-Qin Philosophy, based on the Analects of Confucius and Mencius and Tao Te Ching and Chuang Tzu. It’s because that Confucianism and Taoist Philosophy have deeply influence on Chinese people during more than two thousand years. Confucius and Mencius and Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu are the representatives of Confucianism and Taoist Philosophy. They use water help them explain what’s Tao and how moral people should behave. This is distinguishing feature of Pre-Qin Philosophy and this also influences the development of Chinese philosophy and literature. So I take water as the object of my research. I want look into the differences between Confucianism and Taoist Philosophy from the aspect of rhetoric method and the influence brought by the differences.From Chapter one to Chapter four, I make research on the Analects of Confucius and Mencius and Tao Te Ching and Chuang Tzu respectively. They all use water as metaphor, but their emphasis on water are very different. Through water, Confucius expresses his aesthetic attitude for daily life. He is full of a sense of humanity. Mencius mainly expresses what human nature is by water. He thinks a good moral education is useful for dynasty governance structure. Lao Tzu is the one who use water at the most. Tao is a implicit structure of water. As for Chuang Tzu, he prefers to use fables in his articles, so he doesn’t concern water as much as Chuang Tzu. But he also uses water to elaborate his theory of human nature. He also describes what will happen when you really know what Tao is by water. All the analogies are vivid and impressive.In Chapter five, I consider why the philosophers like using water so much at first. Water has many excellent qualities, so it’s deserve to be taken as metaphor. Of course this is one of reasons. But besides that, the theory of water is the origin of the world also should be taken into account. After this, I compare the differences between Confucianism and Taoist Philosophy when they use water. And why they have the differences.Because of water, the philosophers’thoughts have endless meaning. This isn’t only a kind of rhetoric method, but also a kind of thinking--the analogical thinking. Behind the analogical thinking, it’s the tradition of taking images from nature that plays a role. Because the concepts and principles specified in the Pre-Qin Philosophy have a deep influence on the development of Chinese philosophy. Because Confucius and Mencius and Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu are representatives of Chinese ancient philosophy. So both water and the reason that they select water, exert a profound influence on Chinese philosophy.