Feng Youlan's History of Confucianism in the History of China's Philosophy.
Feng Youlan thinks that Confucius is the beginning of China's philosophy. The so-called history of China's philosophy begins with Confucius and ends with Kang Youwei's thought that Confucianism is the core of China's philosophy, which is obvious from the fact that his History of China's Philosophy is divided into Confucius and Confucianism. There are obvious differences between eastern and western cultures. Strictly speaking, it is more appropriate to name it The History of China Thought. There is no need to cater to the west. It is still very valuable to study Feng Youlan's History of China Philosophy, which is related to academic thought. Even in terms of the study of pre-Qin philosophers during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the first volume of China's Philosophical History is much higher than Hu Shi's Outline of China's Philosophical History. Feng Youlan compared Confucius to Socrates and Mencius to Plato. I think that Confucius called his disciples to give lectures to create a precedent for civilian education, which is quite similar to that of the wise men in ancient Greece. This is a very interesting contrast between East and West. Their times are roughly the same, that is, the golden axis period of human civilization that IELTS later said. The biggest difference between Socrates and the wise is that they are free, leading people to do good and returning people to basic social ethics. Judging from the irony of Plato's dialogue on the wise men, many of these wise men who preach and teach for a fee tend to be sophistry (although Plato always likes to vilify his enemies), which is completely different from Confucius' behavior of teaching without distinction, educating people with morality and being full of idealism. Confucius is similar to Socrates in virtue, but Socrates who likes to satirize his sloppy life and Confucius who pays attention to etiquette are two completely different lifestyles. Moreover, Confucius' profound knowledge and profound thoughts are incomparable to Socrates, who likes satirical debates. Socrates' greatest contribution to western culture is to change ancient Greek philosophy from the era of natural philosophy to concern about people themselves. Confucius and Plato are quite similar in profound knowledge and profound thoughts. Confucius and Mencius had a positive ambition to study the world, which was very similar to Plato, but Confucius was more inclined to practice ethics, which was the ideological basis of Confucianism later. Plato's ideological system is almost all-encompassing, extremely profound, and the argumentative Mencius and Plato have no comparative significance. Moreover, Mencius' thought was obviously influenced by the Taoist thought of Jixia Xuegong at that time, and the so-called spirit of cultivating integrity was a typical Taoist thought. Feng Youlan of Mencius' theory of Qi thinks this is a mystical tendency, but denies the influence of Jixia Xuegong. He thinks this mysticism is similar to Zhuangzi's later meditation. However, Feng Youlan pointed out that Confucianism is idealism, while Mohism is typical utilitarianism, and many viewpoints tend to be extreme. This comparison is very meaningful.