Philosophical ideas of different schools such as Confucian, Taoist, Mohist, Nominalist, Military Strategist, Yin and Yang (Female/Negative and Male/Positive), and Agriculturist in periods prior to the Qin Dynasty (221-202 BC)are expounded and analyzed against their times in the book. Advantages and disadvantages of different theoretical constructs and their social and historical functions are also investigated from a critical perspective. In addition, the book presents the authors' personal views on the category of Chinese Philosophy and the relations between traditional Chinese thoughts and modern sciences.

About the authors

He Zhaowu is professor emeritus in the Department of History at Tsinghua University, Beijing. His many publications include Essays in Critique of Historical Reason, and Reflections on the History of Intellectual Intercourses between China and the West. He is one of the co-authors of A History of Chinese Thoughts and A History of Neo-Confucianism in the Sung and Ming Dynasties (with Prof. Hou Wailu as the editor-in-chief). He has also translated many western classics into Chinese, including the works of Kant, Pascal, Rousseau, Edmund Burke and Condorcet.

Peng Gang is associate professor in the Department of History at Tsinghua University, Beijing. He is the author of Spirit, Freedom and History: A Study of the Philosophy of History of Benedetto Croce and The Narrative Turn: Recent Developments in Contemporary Western Historical Theories.