A Study Of The Spread And Reception Of Lao Zi's Thought During The Period Of The Pre-Qin Dynasty

The pre-Qin period is an important historical period during which the thought of Lao Zi comes into being and exerts great influence,and the period witnesses the heyday of the spread and reception of Lao Zi's thought.In the pre-Qin period known as the period of "one hundred schools of thought vying with each other" the spread and reception of Lao Zi occur chiefly among the thinkers of different schools.The thesis, relying on logical reasoning and analytical induction,researches the spread and reception of Lao Zi during this period by examining the literature of the thinkers in pre-Qin period which has been handed down or unearthed.Due to remote age,the authenticity of the literature of this period is difficult to ascertain,so the thesis only does textual research on the veritable literature and takes one school as a scholastic whole to discuss the spread and reception of Lao Zi's thought.Instead of classifing the literature recently unearthed into different schools as most scholars tend to do,the thesis lists one chapter of the unearthed literature.The thesis falls into five parts.Chapter one is about the inheritance and absorption of Lao Zi on the part of Yang Zhu and the school of Zhuang Zi.Among different Taoist schools in pre-Qin period, Yang Zhu,Lie Zi and the school of Zhuang Zi are the first to inherit and develop the thought of Lao Zi directly.Revolving Lao Zi's theory of "Tao" and natural inactivity, they emphasize the spiritual inheritance and absorption of Lao Zi's thought and lay the foundation for its wide spread in the Warring States.Chapter Two examines the absorption and development of Lao Zi on the part of the School of Huang and Lao.Combining almost all schools of thought and foregrounding Taoism as the core the school of Huang and Lao finds its expression in Peng Meng,Tian Pin,Song Yan and Yin Wen as well as the four articles of Guan Zi, Wen Zi,the Spring and Autumn of Lv etc.These scholars and works chiefly absorb and develop Lao Zi's thought in a realistic way and demonstrates the wide spread of Lao Zi's thought in the Warring States period.Chapter Three is about the reception and absorption of Lao Zi among other schools in pre-Qin period.The influence of Lao Zi's thought is tremendous and such schools as the Confucian,the school of law,the school of name and the military school all come under Lao Zi's influence.The chapter mainly takes as exmple the school of law with Han Feizi as its representative,the Confucian with Confucius,Mencius and Xun Zi as its representatives and the school of name with Hui Shi as its representative to discuss the influence of Lao Zi's thought on different schools.Chapter Four discusses the spread of Lao Zi in light of the unearthed literature in pre-Qin period.The spread of Lao Zi can also be detected from the silk book of Lao Zi and Four Classics of Emperor Huang unearthed from the Han tomb of Mawangdui,the bamboo book of Lao Zi unearthed from the Chu tomb of Guodian and Tai Yi Sheng Shui as well as the Confucian literature of Zhong Xin Zhi Tao.Chapter Five is about some preliminary conclusions drawn from the spread of Lao Zi in pre-Qin period.First,the spread of Lao Zi increases in terms of scale and through the Warring States period different copies of Lao Zi are circulated.The image of Lao Zi as "the Great Perfect Man" has been established.In the spread of Lao Zi,the text gets improved.To sum up,the influence of Lao Zi is huge in pre-Qin period.Under the influence of Lao Zi,various Taoist schools and the school of law not only absorb but also quote and explain the thought of Lao Zi,which helps us perceive the truth about Lao Zi.The different schools of thought in pre-Qin period are influenced by Lao Zi,directly or indirectly,hence his tremendous influence and indubitable position.