School · 59 thinkers

East Asian Philosophy

59 thinkers of East Asian Philosophy on the Agora star map, from Laozi to Karatani Kōjin, in chronological order.

• legendary figureLaozi

  The text attributed to him teaches that the deepest way of things cannot be put into words, and that the wise act by not forcing anything.

• traditionally 551–479 BCEConfucius

  A good society grows from people who cultivate themselves, treat others with humanity and keep the rituals that hold life together.

• c. 470–391 BCEMozi

  We should care for everyone equally, not favour our own family – and judge every action by whether it benefits people.

• c. 372–289 BCEMengzi (Mencius)

  People are good by nature – everyone is born with the seeds of compassion and justice, which only need the right conditions to grow.

• c. 370–310 BCEHui Shi

  His paradoxes argue that big and small, here and there are relative – so we should love all things alike, since the universe is one.

• c. 369–286 BCEZhuangzi

  Every viewpoint is as limited as every other, so stop insisting on fixed distinctions and move freely with the natural flow of things.

• c. 325–250 BCEGongsun Long

  Names and things do not simply match: a white horse is not the same as a horse, because the two names pick out different things.

• c. 310–235 BCEXunzi

  People are born selfish, and only education, ritual and effort make them good – morality is a human achievement, not a gift of nature.

• c. 280–233 BCEHan Feizi

  Rulers cannot rely on people being good; only clear laws, firm power and skilful control keep a state in order.

• c. 27–100Wang Chong

  Wang Chong held that Heaven and Earth produce things spontaneously and without purpose, so portents are not messages about rulers’ conduct; fortune depends on destiny, the dead do not become ghosts, and every claim, even of the sages, must be tested by evidence.

• c. 45–117Ban Zhao

  Her guide for women teaches humility and devotion within the family – but insists that girls deserve the same education as boys.

• 226–249Wang Bi

  Beneath all the things that exist lies non-being, the empty root from which they come – and words should be dropped once their meaning is grasped.

• c. 252–312Guo Xiang

  Nothing created the world and nothing lies behind it; each thing changes by itself and is complete when it lives out its own nature.

• 538–597Zhiyi

  Every single moment of experience is at once empty, provisionally real and the middle between the two – and contains the whole universe.

• 617–686Wonhyo

  All Buddhist teachings are different views of the One Mind, so their disputes can be reconciled rather than fought out.

• traditionally 638–713Huineng

  Everyone already has Buddha-nature, so awakening does not come by slow purification but suddenly, when you see your own true nature.

• 643–712Fazang

  Everything contains and reflects everything else, like jewels in a net each mirroring all the others – nothing exists on its own.

• 768–824Han Yu

  China must return to the moral Way of Confucius and Mencius, handed down from the ancient sages, and turn away from Buddhism and Daoism.

• 774–835Kūkai

  The whole universe is the body and voice of the cosmic Buddha, so enlightenment can be reached in this very life and body.

• 1017–1073Zhou Dunyi

  From one Supreme Ultimate come yin and yang, the five elements and all things – and the sage is the person who lives in perfect sincerity.

• 1020–1077Zhang Zai

  Everything is one vital energy that condenses and disperses, so heaven and earth are our parents and all people are our brothers and sisters.

• 1032–1085Cheng Hao

  A truly humane person feels at one with heaven, earth and every living thing – and finds the principle of all things in inner calm.

• 1033–1107Cheng Yi

  One principle runs through all things in countless forms, and we come to know it by investigating things carefully, one after another.

• 1130–1200Zhu Xi

  Everything combines an underlying principle with vital energy, and we understand the world and ourselves by studying things one by one.

• 1139–1193Lu Jiuyuan (Lu Xiangshan)

  The principle of everything is not out there in books and objects but in your own mind – so look inward first.

• 1158–1210Jinul

  Awakening comes suddenly, but it must be followed by patient practice – and meditation and study of the teachings belong together.

• 1173–1263Shinran

  No one can reach salvation by their own effort; it comes entirely from trusting the Buddha Amida – and even the wicked are saved.

• 1200–1253Dōgen

  To exist is to be time itself, and sitting in meditation is not a means to awakening but already awakening.

• 1222–1282Nichiren

  The Lotus Sutra alone contains the true teaching, and chanting its title brings salvation to people and peace to the land.

• 1472–1529Wang Yangming

  Everyone already carries an inner knowledge of good and bad – and real knowing shows itself only in action.

• 1501–1570Yi Hwang

  Our purest moral feelings come from principle itself, not from mere physical energy, so the mind must be guarded with reverent attention.

• 1536–1584Yi I (Yulgok)

  All our feelings arise from vital energy, with principle only riding along on it – and this view should guide practical reform of the state.

• 1610–1695Huang Zongxi

  The ruler exists to serve the people, not the other way round, and laws and schools must keep his power in check.

• 1619–1692Wang Fuzhi

  There is no principle floating above the physical world – order exists only within things, and history changes with its circumstances.

• 1627–1705Itō Jinsai

  The Confucian Way is not an abstract principle but simply love and humanity practised in everyday life, as the original texts say.

• 1666–1728Ogyū Sorai

  The Way is not a law of nature but the rites and institutions that ancient sage-kings created – and good government matters more than private virtue.

• 1724–1777Dai Zhen

  Talk of a higher principle has been used to crush ordinary desires – but true morality is the right ordering of the feelings and needs everyone has.

• 1730–1801Motoori Norinaga

  For Norinaga, Japan’s true spirit lies not in Chinese moral theory but in a sensitivity to the sadness and beauty of things, found in its oldest poetry.

• 1762–1836Jeong Yak-yong (Dasan)

  Human nature is a leaning toward the good, virtue is earned by acting well, and government exists to serve the people.

• 1854–1921Yan Fu

  China can only become strong again if it learns why the West became strong: not through weapons but through the freed energies, knowledge and public spirit of its people.

• 1858–1927Kang Youwei

  For Kang Youwei, Confucius was really a reformer, and history moves toward a Great Unity in which nations, classes and even families dissolve.

• 1870–1945Nishida Kitarō

  For Nishida, before we split the world into a self and objects there is pure experience – and all things arise in a place of absolute nothingness.

• 1873–1929Liang Qichao

  China needs new citizens with public spirit and rights, because a modern nation is built from the character of its people.

• 1885–1962Tanabe Hajime

  For Tanabe, philosophy must pass through the admission of its own failure – and repentance, relying on a power beyond the self, opens a new way of thinking.

• 1885–1968Xiong Shili

  Reality is not hidden behind the world but is the world in its ceaseless creative activity, as the ocean is in its waves – and our original mind takes part in it.

• 1886–1971Hiratsuka Raichō

  Women were once the sun and have become a pale moon reflecting men – they must rediscover their hidden self and win their rights.

• 1888–1941Kuki Shūzō

  A culture’s taste, like the stylish detachment of old Edo, can be analysed philosophically – and chance, not necessity, is at the heart of existence.

• 1889–1960Watsuji Tetsurō

  A human being is not an isolated individual but exists in the space between people, shaped by climate and culture.

• 1891–1962Hu Shih

  China should write in everyday language, test ideas by scientific method and examine its own philosophy critically instead of revering it.

• 1893–1988Liang Shuming

  Cultures differ in their basic attitude to life; the Confucian way of balance and intuition is not outdated but offers the modern world what Western striving lacks.

• 1895–1990Feng Youlan

  The old Confucian idea of principle can be rebuilt with modern logic, and a human life rises through four levels of meaning.

• 1900–1990Nishitani Keiji

  For Nishitani, modern nihilism can only be overcome by passing through it to the Buddhist standpoint of emptiness, where things are themselves at last.

• 1901–1989Ham Seok-heon

  The ordinary people, like seeds, are the true subject of history; their suffering has a meaning, and they must think for themselves and resist without violence.

• 1909–1995Mou Zongsan

  Against Kant, moral experience gives us direct insight into our own true self – so Confucian ethics can ground a whole metaphysics.

• 1909–1978Tang Junyi

  All culture grows from the moral self, and the mind can rise through many horizons – from things through the self to the transcendent; Chinese culture holds these horizons together.

• 1914–1996Maruyama Masao

  Wartime Japan was a system in which everyone obeyed and no one was responsible; democracy needs citizens who see social order as something people make and can change.

• 1930–2021Li Zehou

  Reason and our sense of beauty are not innate but have settled in us over history through human work and practice.

• b. 1940Tu Weiming

  Confucianism is a living way of becoming fully human: the self grows by learning in ever wider circles of relationship, from family to humanity and heaven.

• b. 1941Karatani Kōjin

  History is shaped less by how people produce than by how they exchange – gift, rule, market – and a society beyond capital, nation and state would revive the gift at a higher level.

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