Mathematics Thoughts And Their Impacts From Confucianism And Mohism Philosophy Of Pre-Qin

In the hundreds of schools and thoughts of Spring and Autumn period, philosophy and mathematics integrated and penetrated each other in various works. The mathematics fruits were often with philosophy reasoning, and the philosophical standpoints were often expressed through the mathematical languages. The schools of Confucius and Mohist were the knowledge of close to realities at that time, and contained rich thoughts of mathematics in their philosophical standpoints. This article analyzes mathematical thoughts of two schools of Confucius and Mo, their influences on mathematics in ancient China, and finally compares them. Three pre-Qin Confucians, Confucius used mathematics to maintain "proprieties", Mencius used it to "rule the world", Hsun-tse used it to "control oneself, harmonize the family, father the country and rule the world". In the old classics of "Changes of Zhou" , mathematics and philosophy were united and integrated. It proposed the standpoint of syncretizing the world by mathematical methods. "Relying on number" is its basic principle, and "Inquirying number" is its practical application , and "Forecast number" is its ultimate goal. "Classics of Mohist" was rich in content and in-depth theory with promotions of mathematics and logics. It was not only using logical thinking to abstract mathematical thinking, but also using mathematics knowledge to express the scope of logics. It used logical thinking as a tool, defined some mathematical conceptions scientifically, and started the history of mathematical theory's research in China. It was not only rich in the form of logical thinking, but also wonderful ideas of dialectical logics, which with its mathematical conceptions was inseparable. "Only Confucius alone" had two aspects' impact of activeness and passiveness on education and development in ancient Chinese mathematics. On the one hand, Confucius recognized the effects of in countries' administration and everyday life. Teaching mathematics as one of "six subjects" popularized it to some extent. On the other hand, mathematics was regarded as only "generalness" without "intensiveness". It hampered the further development of mathematics to a large extent, and influenced in-depth research and innovation of it. "Changes of Zhou" benefited from mathematics and had a profound effect on mathematics in ancient China. Mohist developed logics which was regarded as the thinking rules of "distinguishing similarities and differences, definitude of right and wrong", had a significant impact on later mathematician's researches. However, after Qin and Han dynasties, Mohist had been against even perished, hadn't played a huge role to the development of Chinese mathematics. Exploring mathematics thoughts of pre-Qin philosophies are theoretically valuable, for the study on emergence and development of mathematics, the relations of mathematics and philosophy. It is practically valuable, for the application and development of the mathematics thoughts in philosophy. Exploring mathematics thoughts and their impacts from Confucius and Mohist of pre-Qin, more uses for reference and reflections will be put forward, for contemporary philosophy, the practical application and development of mathematics.