According to directoryaah.com, China is a country located in eastern Asia. It was during the lesser known period in the history of China that philosophical thought had its greatest development. In the sec. V-III a. C., described by indigenous historians as a time of anarchy and which instead must be considered as one of the greatest moments of Chinese civilization, the political changes, which were to lead China from a feudal regime to the foundation of a nation and therefore to the creation of a state, made possible a new, radical consideration of the collective and individual destinies, of the ranks, of the legacies of the past, of the traditions themselves and of the customs. In this way, techniques, ideas, symbols, ways of acting were drawn from all sides (even from the barbarians): since everything changed and everyone wanted to innovate. The despots and lords, especially the hegemons who aimed to found an empire that would continue, for prestige, the great dynasties of the past welcomed the owners of techniques, the inventors of stratagems, the enlightened advisers, the owners of recipes. And it was precisely in this period that corporations, sects, “schools” (hia) swarmed. In a situation somewhat similar to that of Greece between the century. V and III a. C., when the teaching of politics and morals was founded, in China there was the rise of a large number of schools, each holding a “practical knowledge” (dialectical and political, or mystical and sapiential) that led to social action or recommended abandoning oneself to nature, but which in any case tended to shape new personalities, to “create” the new man (especially the prince, the “authority” destined to rule over men and nature). Not much is known about this swarm of schools; in fact, it would be vain to try to trace the history of ideas in detail, that is, the fundamental lines of Chinese philosophical thought, in this time of great fruitfulness. In fact, when Shi Huangdi founded in the century. III a. C. the imperial unit wanted to destroy the memory of the feudal ages and burned the “Speeches of the Hundred Schools” (one hundred is a total that means “all”), for which of most famous masters there is only the name or clearly apocryphal works. On the other hand, even the few works, only partially authentic, which have been preserved and which date back to the following centuries never contain a dogmatic exposition, a history of the schools and ideas that were taught there, so that many thinkers do not they know what their adversaries say. It should also be noted that in China the masters did not seek so much to demonstrate doctrinal originality as to highlight the effectiveness of the teaching they advocated: that is, they taught a “wisdom” and not a “doctrine”; Confucius, for example, expressed himself in half words and Zhuangzi in parables. And precisely in Confucius and in Zhuangzi (more than in Lao-Zi, the alleged author of Tao-te-ching) we can indicate the greatest exponents of the two fundamental and divergent philosophical tendencies of China: the first positive and practical, that of the “literati”; the second metaphysics and above all mystical, that of the “Taoists”. The literati (Ji) studied the Five classics and the Ceremonial, they deepened the social responsibilities, the respect of the hierarchies, the practice of the great human virtues; the Taoists professed union with the Principle (tao), flaunted contempt for conventions, preaching a return to the “state of nature”. And it was precisely these two opposing tendencies that consolidated the inseparable partnership between religious and philosophical thought that in fact characterizes the whole Chinese mentality. It is in fact arbitrary to want to discriminate between religious and speculative elements both for Confucianism and for Taoism: both are in fact religions and philosophies at the same time, that is, they propose a complete, unified “vision of the world” in accordance with the rules taught by each school. who first of all support the need for “total” research. Confucius was not only the most famous but also one of the first itinerant masters who went from one lordship to another to offer their knowledge to the leaders of the great houses. Tradition has it that he was born in the principality of Lu in 551 BC. C. and died in 479 a. C., but these dates are completely uncertain since there is no other testimony than that of the historian Sima Guang (145-86 BC). The teaching of Confucius is known through the Lun-yü (Dialogues) which dates back to the beginning of the century. IV a. C. In fact, he did not leave any writings and although the publication of the Five Classics is attributed to him, it is only certain that he provided them with a commentary. In fact, his maxim was: “I transmit, and I do not invent”. The foundation of his doctrine consisted in teaching the imperative need to acquire a perfect knowledge of the nature of things, a science that would allow us to act with fairness (ji) and in all circumstances, trying above all to deepen the meaning of the rites (li). Hence, in order to know the behaviors proper to each circumstance, the importance attributed to the fact of “knowing how to put reality in agreement with the terms that designate it”. To govern a lordship, Confucius taught, “it is first of all necessary to correct the denominations (cheng ming)”. Fairness, sense of ritual, goodness in the sense of “human sympathy, benevolence” (jen) are the key terms, the main formulas of his teaching: jen in fact it is a particular virtue that creates order and harmony around itself, it is a social virtue that implies a high sense of reciprocity, of community duties among men.