The Qi-Lu Civilization In The Perspectives Of The Pre-Qin Philosophers

As an essential part of traditional Chinese culture, Qi-Lu civilization wasshaped in a certain geographical region during a specific historical period, andplayed a key role in the development of Chinese civilization. More important, inthe periods of Spring-Autumn and Waning States, both the traditional Chineseculture and Qi-Lu civilization experienced their first peak level. In reality, theculture reflects but influences the political and economic status in the society.Depicting the real politics, economy and customs during the periods ofSpring-Autumn and Waning States, pre-Qin opuses are the most brilliantfireworks in traditional Chinese culture and valuable materials to investigate thepre-Qin regional culture, recording customs in a variety of places in detail, such as“Liezi”,“Zhuangzi”,“Hanfeizi” and “Lu’s Spring and Autumn”. On the basis ofthe existing textual information and the past annotation, this dissertation will startwith the introduction of regional culture elements without considering theargument for authenticity, afterwards classify and analyze these elements andfinally summarize the perspectives of the pre-Qin philosophers for the regionalculture and the features of Qi-Lu civilization.This dissertation consists of four chapters as following.(1) Introduction: thesignificance and the current state-of-the-art of the selected research topic arediscussed. Afterwards, the new ideas and methods for this research are proposedaccordingly.(2) The horizon of the pre-Qin philosophers for the regional culture:including the regional culture partition which covers each person’s career and life,and the perspectives of pre-Qin philosophers which focus on several typicalregions, such as Song where the fool gathered, Zheng where the wisdom and foolwere argued and Wei where the gentlemen and villains struggled with each other.It is found that although many materials collected by these philosophers weresimilar, their perspectives were quite subjective, largely different from each other,and unfair sometimes.(3) The perspectives of the pre-Qin philosophers for Qicivilization: The viewpoint of each philosopher is explained in detail withclassified materials and the features of Qi civilization can be summarized to threemain points, viz. the pride of a great country, the desire to earn fame and profits,and the characters with both courage and intelligence.(4) The perspectives of thepre-Qin philosophers for Lu civilization: The research methodology is similarwith that of Qi civilization, whereas a large proportion of pre-Qin philosopherscriticized Confucianism. The features of Lu civilization can be concluded to be the willing to abide by the existing rules and the determination to be honest andfaithful.(5) Analysis for the genesis of the perspectives of pre-Qin philosophersfor Qi-Lu civilization: being started with the geographical environment, thenational strength, and the impact factor.In summary, based on these four opuses, our research for the pre-Qinregional culture is instrumental in comprehending the regional culture charactersof the pre-Qin people and understanding the inchoate characteristics andregularity of the formation and development of the Chinese nation more precisely.