Similar to the ancient Greek philosophical schools, there is a term “The Hundred Schools of Thought (百家争鸣)” in China people use to describe the many philosophical school of teachings flourishing during the Zhou dynasty (in the Spring and Autumn period and Warring States period) around c. 1000 BCE – 221 BCE. Among them, the famous schools were Daoism, Mohism, Confucius School, legalism and the School of the Military.
The students were taught in the same way of the ancient Greek philosophical schools using the means of question and answer for a wide variety of subjects.
At the end of the Zhou dynasty, these teachings and schools all disappeared due to the occupation of the Qin State. Most of the texts/books, teachings and history records were lost completely because of the act of “burning of books and burying of scholars”(焚书坑儒） taken by Qin Shihuang influenced by Satan.
During a meditation, I asked about “the Hundred Schools of Thought” from the Zhou dynasty. GOD Michael commented that most philosophical schools formed based on their own unique understandings of ancient Daoism.
Because pre-history Daoism (Daoism prior to 3000 BC) was mostly lost after the Shang dynasty, the Hundred Schools relied more or less on Laozi’s teaching except Mohism. Mohism originated from pre-history Daoism, a few thousand years earlier than Laozi’s teaching.
From the theory perspective, only Mohism and Daoism are more of Daoism teaching. Kongzi’s teaching doesn’t belong to Daoism because Kongzi’s teaching contained more distortions to help feudal rulers to support and cultivate a hierarchical, obedient, and power-stressed negative system. (This refers to Kongzi’s teaching only and I didn’t ask about others teachers in the Confucianism category1; Kongzi’s teachings were mostly abandoned after the last dynasty ended in China. )
(More information about Mohism and Confucius in later posts. )
Aug 18, 2026
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Note 1: Below are the terms I defined.
Pre-history Daoism (prior to c. 3000 BC; Mohism is an example)
Ancient Daoism (c. 3000BC – c. 2000 BC; c. 1100 BC – c. 220 BC;)
Daoism (c. 220 BC – now)
Note 2: During the time of Kongzi, the last name “Kong” widely pre-existed; Also, even one can trace last name, one’s last name can not reflect last names from both parents. More importantly, one’s action is more important than the last name.
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Footnotes:
- In my view, the Confucianism is not a well-defined category; There was no formal religion around it and people later followed Kongzi was more like his teaching looked positive( faked positivity himself but stressed power; people were deceived; detail later) and it was the only teaching to get ahead on their career paths. Most of writings from others can be said just ancient Chinese writings and some were actually Taoism writings. If one reads old Chinese texts, one needs to judge them carefully and by their own merits. ↩︎