Editing Ancient philosophy (section)

====Early Imperial China====
The founder of the Qin dynasty, who implemented Legalism as the official philosophy, [[To burn the classics and to bury the scholars|quashed Mohist and Confucianist schools]]. Legalism remained influential until the emperors of the [[Han dynasty]] adopted Daoism and later Confucianism as official doctrine. These latter two 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.

The 3rd and 4th centuries saw the rise of the ''[[Xuanxue]]'' (mysterious learning), also called ''Neo-Taoism''. The most influential philosophers of this movement were [[Wang Bi]], [[Xiang Xiu]] and [[Guo Xiang]]. The main question of this school was whether Being came before Not-Being (in Chinese, ''ming'' and ''wuming''). A peculiar feature of these Taoist thinkers, like the [[Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove]], was the concept of ''[[feng liu]]'' (lit. wind and flow), a sort of romantic spirit which encouraged following the natural and instinctive impulse.

[[Buddhism]] arrived in China around the 1st century AD, but it was not until the [[Northern and Southern dynasties|Northern and Southern]], [[Sui dynasty|Sui]] and [[Tang dynasty|Tang]] dynasties that it gained considerable influence and acknowledgement. In the beginning, it was considered a sort of Taoist sect, and there was even a theory about [[Laozi]], founder of Taoism, who went to India and taught his philosophy to [[Buddha]]. [[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.