Editing Chinese philosophy (section)

===History===

==== Qin and Han dynasties ====
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| image1            = Confucius, fresco from a Western Han tomb of Dongping County, Shandong province, China.jpg
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| image2            = Confucius and Laozi, fresco from a Western Han tomb of Dongping County, Shandong province, China.jpg
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| footer            = A [[Western Han]] (202 BC – 9 AD) [[fresco]] depicting [[Confucius]] (and [[Laozi]]), from a tomb of [[Dongping County]], [[Shandong province]], China
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The short founder [[Qin dynasty]], where Legalism was the official philosophy, [[To burn the classics and to bury the scholars|quashed Mohist and Confucianist schools]]. Legalism remained influential during the early [[Han dynasty]] under the Taoist-Realist ideology [[Huang-Lao]] until [[Emperor Wu of Han]] adopted Confucianism as official doctrine. Confucianism and Taoism became the determining forces of Chinese thought until the introduction of [[Buddhism]].

Confucianism was particularly strong during the Han dynasty, whose greatest thinker was [[Dong Zhongshu]], who integrated Confucianism with the thoughts of the Zhongshu School and the theory of the Five Elements. He also was a promoter of the New Text school, which considered Confucius as a divine figure and a spiritual ruler of China, who foresaw and started the evolution of the world towards the Universal Peace.

In contrast, there was an Old Text school that advocated the use of Confucian works written in ancient language (from this comes the denomination ''Old Text'') that were so much more reliable. In particular, they refuted the assumption of Confucius as a godlike figure and considered him as the greatest sage, but simply a human and mortal

==== Six Dynasties ====
The 3rd and 4th centuries saw the rise of the ''[[Xuanxue]]'' (mysterious learning), also called ''Neo-Taoism''.

Buddhism arrived in China around the 1st century AD, but it was not until the [[Southern and Northern dynasties|Northern and Southern]], [[Sui dynasty|Sui]] and [[Tang dynasty|Tang]] dynasties that it gained considerable influence and acknowledgement. At the beginning, it was considered a sort of Taoist sect. [[Mahayana Buddhism]] was far more successful in China than its rival [[Hinayana]], and both Indian schools and local Chinese sects arose from the 5th century. Two chiefly important monk philosophers were [[Sengzhao]] and [[Daosheng]]. But probably the most influential and original of these schools was the [[Chan Buddhism|Chan]] sect, which had an even stronger impact in Japan as the [[Zen]] sect.

In the mid-Tang Buddhism reached its peak, and reportedly there were 4,600 monasteries, 40,000 hermitages and 260,500 monks and nuns. The power of the Buddhist clergy was so great and the wealth of the monasteries so impressive, that it instigated criticism from Confucian scholars, who considered Buddhism as a foreign religion. In 845 Emperor [[Emperor Wuzong of Tang|Wuzong]] ordered the [[Great Anti-Buddhist Persecution]], confiscating the riches and returning monks and nuns to lay life. From then on, Buddhism lost much of its influence.