Disputers of the Tao : philosophical argument in ancient China / A.C. Graham.

Bibliography: p. [447]-467.

Includes indexes.

[Pt.] I : The Breakdown of the world order decreed by heaven -- 1. A Conservative reaction : Confucius -- Ceremony and music -- Government as ceremony -- Heaven and the spirits -- The Thread which unifies morality -- Confucius and 20th-century Western philosophy -- The Centrality of Confucianism in Chinese civilization -- 2. A Radical reaction : Mo-tzu -- The Three tests of argument -- The Criticism of traditional practice by the utilitarian text -- The Unifying principle of morality -- The Centralisation and bureaucratisation of the state -- Heaven, spirits and destiny -- Divisions of the Mohist school -- 3. Retreat to private life : the Yangists -- The Yangist teachings -- The Supposed egoism of Yang Chu -- 4. Idealisation of the small community : the utopia of Shen-nung -- The Golden age of Shen-nung -- Hsü Hsing -- The Influence of the Shen-nung ideal -- 5. The Sharpening of rational debate : the Sophists -- Hui Shih -- Kung-sun Lung -- The 'White horse' -- 'Pointings and things' -- Left and right -- 6. The Discovery of subjectivity : Sung Hsing -- The Kuan-tzu chapter, 'Inward training' -- [Pt.] II : From social to metaphysical crisis : heaven parts from man -- 1. From Confucius to Mencius : morality grounded in man's nature as generated by heaven -- Government -- The Controversy with Kao-tzu over human nature -- The Goodness of human nature -- Two Confucian essays : the 'Great learning' and the 'Doctrine of the mean' -- 2. From Mo-tzu to later Mohism : morality re-grounded in rational utility -- Knowledge and naming -- Change and necessity -- The 'A priori' -- The First discipline : discourse (knowledge of how to connect names and objects) -- The Revised art of discourse in 'names and objects' -- The Second discipline : ethics (knowledge of how to act) -- The Third discipline : the sciences (knowledge of objects) -- The Fourth discipline : argumentation (knowledge of names) -- 3. From Yangism to Chuang-tzu's Taoism : reconciliation with heaven by return to spontaneity -- The Name 'Taoism' -- The Book Chuang-tzu -- Stories about Chuang-tzu -- The Assault on reason -- The Later Mohist defence of reason -- Spontaneity -- The Illumination of spontaneity -- Waking and dream -- Heaven and man -- Language -- Reconciliation with death -- A 'School of Chuang-tzu' development : the 'Great man' metaphysic

[Pt.] III : Heaven and man go their own ways -- 1. Lao-tzu's Taoism : the art of ruling by spontaneity -- Old Tan and the book Lao-Tzu -- The Way -- Reversal -- Doing nothing -- The Mystical and the practical -- 2. Hsün-tzu's Confucianism : morality as man's invention to control his nature -- Heaven -- Human nature -- The Heart -- Ceremony and music -- Theory of naming -- (1) The Purpose of having names -- (2) The Evidence for assimilating and differentiating -- (3) The Pivotal requirements for instituting names -- 3. Legalism : an amoral science of statecraft -- Adapting to change -- Standards and laws -- The Debate over power, morality and law -- Control of the bureaucracy -- Legalism and Lao-tzu -- 4. Two political heresies -- 1. Criticism of hereditary monarchy -- 2. The Question of Chinese anarchism -- The Chuang-tzu 'Primivist' -- [Pt.] IV : The Reunification of the Empire and of heaven and man -- 1. The Cosmologists -- Proto-science and modern science -- Correlative thinking and correlative cosmos-building -- Cosmology before the Han -- Pairs : Yin and Yang -- Fours and fives : the five processes -- A Kuan-tzu cosmology based on water -- The Yi -- 2. Syncretism and the victory of Confucianism -- Appendix 1 : A Classification of Chinese moral philosophies in terms of quasi-syllogism -- Appendix 2 : The Relation of Chinese thought to Chinese language -- Notes -- Romanisation conversion table : Wade-Giles/Pinyin.