Great changes have taken place in China's traditional Confucianism in the Han Dynasty, with the emergence of a Confucian school characterized by the teleology of heaven and man. From the end of the Han Dynasty to the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the study of Confucian classics declined, and "chapters and sentences gradually became sparse", and scholars mostly kept pace with glitz, while Confucianism flourished and declined. Metaphysics prevailed in Wei and Jin Dynasties. Some metaphysical scholars devote themselves to the harmony between Confucianism and Taoism, but they abandon the teleology of the interaction between man and nature in the Han Dynasty in content, which opens the distance between the traditional Confucian study of heaven, life and the mysterious meaning of heaven. Avoiding the transformation of Confucianism on the road of superstition is a beneficial inhibition of metaphysics on the development of Confucianism. However, metaphysics combines the life principle, ideal personality and realistic character of the traditional Confucian way of "being king from the outside" with the natural principle and nihility of Taoism, thus strengthening the negative factors of Confucian fatalism, making the wind of indulgence of glitz worse and worse, and finally making Confucianism deviate from its ideal of "being king" and get into trouble. During the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the wind of metaphysics still existed, but Buddhism and Taoism rose sharply to compete with Confucianism, thus forming a social and ideological pattern in which Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism coexisted and disputes continued. Although Confucianism tried to maintain its traditional character and humanistic spirit in the dispute between the three religions, the law of ideological development inevitably made Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism merge to a certain extent, and Confucianism began a tortuous process of survival in the dispute and development in the integration. This situation lasted from the Eastern Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties to the Sui and Tang Dynasties. In the middle and late Tang Dynasty, although Han Yu, Li Ao and others openly played the banner of rejecting Buddhism and promoting Confucianism, their absorption and integration of Buddhism and Taoism were still clearly visible. However, the efforts of Han and Li are, after all, the real revival of the traditional spirit of Confucianism after hundreds of years of decline.

Looking at the evolution history of Confucianism from Wei Jin to Sui and Tang Dynasties, it is not difficult to see that Confucianism in this period not only has different characteristics from Confucianism in the pre-Qin and Han Dynasties, but also has its own laws to follow. This is mainly manifested in:

First, the development of Confucianism is at a low point.

The so-called low tide, from the whole process of the development of ancient Confucianism, the ideological pattern of Confucianism dominating the whole country in the Han Dynasty was broken, and Confucianism was impacted and restricted by many thoughts, losing its vigorous development like that in the Han Dynasty. At the same time, compared with the rapid development of Buddhism and Taoism at that time, traditional Confucianism did not develop by leaps and bounds during this period. Its social status has declined and its role has been greatly weakened. The reasons for the decline of Confucianism are very complicated. Although its root lies in its specific social conditions, the development of internal contradictions in social thought at that time was also one of the important reasons, that is, the negative factors in traditional Confucian classics and the influence of Buddhism and Taoism made Confucianism lose its normal and independent social ideological conditions and finally embarked on a tortuous development path. However, the decline of Confucianism is not the stagnation of development. The tradition of Confucianism has not been interrupted, and Confucianism still plays a wide role in society. The study of Confucian classics has not stopped, and it has also made due contributions. It can be said that this is a transitional period from depression to revival.

Second, although the monopoly of Confucianism has been broken, the suzerain status of Confucianism has not been lost.

The formation of the dispute between the three religions in Wei, Jin, Sui and Tang Dynasties made Confucianism lose its monopoly position since Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. Although its status has declined and its role has weakened, it is still difficult to maintain its suzerain position in social thought. In the dispute between the three religions, although the rulers of this period hesitated to construct a new ruling ideology, they finally chose the policy of Confucianism as the mainstay, Buddhism and Taoism as the supplement, and the three religions were used together. Emperor Wu of the Northern Zhou Dynasty measured the three religions and clearly put forward that "Confucianism comes first" is proof. For many rulers, offering sacrifices to heaven and Confucius is still a major daily activity. Confucian general ethics is still the essential guiding ideology of governing the country and safeguarding the country in every dynasty, and rulers still mainly cite Confucian classics as the basis for formulating political platforms, issuing letters, playing tables and proclamations; Confucian classics were included in the designated content of national education in almost every dynasty at that time, and were also used as the basic content and evaluation standard of imperial examination in Sui and Tang Dynasties. The Confucian ethics of loyalty, filial piety, benevolence and righteousness is still the basic code of conduct that people follow in society. It can be seen that the suzerain status of Confucianism has not been lost during this period.

Thirdly, emphasizing the application and ignoring the pursuit of Confucian spirit greatly restricted the development of Confucianism, which is also one of the characteristics of Confucianism in this period.

During the Wei, Jin, Sui and Tang Dynasties (especially in the Southern and Northern Dynasties), Confucian etiquette was paid great attention. Most Confucian scholars pay attention to the study of the three rites, and rulers often take the study of the rites as the theoretical basis, and unilaterally exert the coward's way of "being sage inside and being king outside". It can be said that Xunxue, rather than Meng Xue, developed rapidly in this period, and it was the road of "being king from the outside" rather than "being holy from the inside". In traditional Confucianism, the spirit of "integrating inside and outside, linking up from top to bottom", such as emphasizing "self-cultivation for security" and "learning from the classics", and paying attention to inner moral cultivation, the pursuit of life ideal and the perfection of moral personality, has not been generally recognized by the whole social intellectual class, and even has not formed a conscious consciousness to play this spirit of Confucianism. No matter the metaphysical annotation of "the sage has no body" and "the sage is affectionate but tireless", the Buddhist explanation of "Buddhism is internal and Confucianism is external", or the Taoist model of "Confucianism at the end of Taoism", there is a lack of proper excavation, profound understanding and exertion of the essence of traditional Confucianism, even those who are interested in restoring Confucian classics, such as Fan Ning and Xu Zunming. By the middle Tang Dynasty, Han Yu, Li Ao, Liu Zongyuan and others, accompanied by the ancient prose movement, had already known this bias, and began to admire the doctrine of the mean and the study of university, paying attention to the "study of mind and nature". However, as a whole, many people, including some Confucian scholars, tend to be empty in metaphysics in their spiritual pursuit, or tend to be empty in Buddhism and intrinsic in Confucianism. In the period of political turmoil, frequent regime changes and the main task of governing the country and ensuring the security, Confucian etiquette is bound to be valued, and the promotion of the "foreign king" approach has become an inevitable trend. Perhaps it is precisely because scholars pay more attention to this aspect that although there are many Confucians in this period, none of them can establish a lofty position, surpass all Confucians and win the hearts of the people. This shows that although Confucianism existed in this period, it seems to be an inexhaustible depressive situation.

Fourthly, the interpretation of Confucian classics has broken the traditional family tradition and diversified interpretation methods have emerged.

The method of interpreting Confucian classics with righteousness in Wei and Jin Dynasties was a negation of the academic annotation of Confucian classics in Han Dynasty. His freedom of thought, spiritual liberation and change of study style have brought great vitality to the ideological circle. At the same time, under the stimulation of Buddhist teaching methods, the study of righteousness and sparseness has also risen. The Justice of the Five Classics written by Confucius in the Tang Dynasty is an important achievement of applying new classical interpretation methods, which has played a certain role in the popularization and popularization of Confucianism and had a great impact on the development of Confucianism, especially after the Song and Ming Dynasties.

Fifth, from Wei and Jin Dynasties to Sui and Tang Dynasties, the struggle and integration of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism was the main theme of this period.

From the external relations among them, Confucianism and Taoism are born in the same cultural background and have the same political interests. There is more coordination and integration between them, but the impact is less. The conflict and integration between Confucianism and Buddhism is a prominent aspect of the relationship between Confucianism and Buddhism. With the deepening of the contradiction between Confucianism and Buddhism, Confucianism gradually realized that it is useless to simply exclude Buddhism, and the spread of Buddhism is an unavoidable fact. Rejecting it will not be able to resist the impact of Buddhism, but will also become an obstacle and shackle to the development of Confucianism itself. Only by facing up to its existence and responding positively can we get out of the boring maze and regain our vitality. Therefore, from Su Chuo Yan Zhitui to Wang Tong, from Fu Yi to Han Yu, Li Ao and Liu Zongyuan, they all changed their opposing attitudes towards Confucianism. They either respect Confucianism and suppress Buddhism, or respect Confucianism and unify Buddhism, or say that "the three religions can be unified", or directly assist Buddhism to enter Confucianism. Confucianism also absorbed the Buddhist speculative method and the theory of mind and nature, and integrated the Taoist world view and so on. The external conflicts among the three religions ended in mutual infiltration and integration. Confucianism not only changes each other, but also transforms itself and enriches itself, making it develop in the dispute and integration of the three religions.

In a word, Confucianism in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Sui and Tang Dynasties experienced such a tortuous development process due to the above characteristics, which became an important transition period from Confucianism in the Han Dynasty to Confucianism in the Song and Ming Dynasties. It is the tortuous development of Confucianism under the special conditions of this period that Confucianism can be revived with a new attitude in the Song, Yuan and Ming Dynasties.