Development Of "Xiang Thinking" During The Spring And Autumn And Warring States Period

This article discusses the development process of "Xiang Thinking" during the period. As a very important way of thinking in ancient China, "Xiang Thinking" had important impacts on all aspects of ancient China.This paper is divided into two parts, and the first part is a brief introduction to" Xiang Thinking". Since the invasion of western culture, "Xiang Thinking", being very important thinking elements in the ancient, is gradually lethed by people. Modern scholars have launched a study of it. The author thinks "Xiang is the visual characteristics of things" by summing up the views of modern people, and further brings forward "when understanding things and reasoning, thinking mode being on basis of Xiang is "Xiang thinking."This way of thinking is born out of the original thinking, and it turned into a rational, mature way of thinking after a long development history .Early in the Spring and Autumn period," Xiang Thinking" could only be called "Xiang Thought" because people were short of the reasoning process. With the collapse of ancient religious system, people's thoughts were disentangled from the shackles of "Heaven". People started from a realistic point of view to understand the "Xiang" and gradually realized that "Xiang" of things necessarily implies a certain function or attribute. The rising of "Qi" thought more firmed people's views. Hence, by the early Warring States, "Xiang" to some extent has become the pronoun of "function" and "attribute". Early in Spring and Autumn period, peoples understanding of "Xiang" was more primitive. In the late Spring and Autumn period, with the collapse of the ancient religious system, peoples understanding and analysis of "Xiang" had become increasingly rational and not simply be attributed to "providence". People began to understand "Xiang" from a practical point of view, and to analyze it by personal life experiences, we can clearly see it from people making use of "Zhou Yi".Although "Xiang thinking" being born out of the original thinking, it continued to grow in a long process of development, and ultimately in the Warring States period came into being a set of thinking system. This set of thinking is "yin and yang theory" with which we are familiar. The yin and yang are the natural phenomenon and Wu xing are five materials. But they gradually had philosophical meaning and had become the basic division to all kinds of the "Xiang" from the late Spring and Autumn period. In warring States period, the theory of yin and yang ebb and flow, Wu xing grow and extinguish came into being and prevailed. It was natural to be used for analysing various "Xiang" and understanding things. By this time, "Xiang" had developed into a rational and mature thinking system and had brought significant impacts on China's history, culture.