Chinese Link Words: The 3 Wise Men of Chinese Ideologies

Confucius (孔子)

Confucius was a Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher of the Spring and Autumn period of Chinese history. Confucianism, which was established by Confucius, forms the main body of Chinese traditional culture; it has had an important influence on the social culture and ideas over a period of two thousand years in China.

Filial piety, 孝 (xiào), is considered a key virtue in Chinese culture. Although it is hard to find the origin of it, people believe that it was Confucius who first clearly put forward a thought that filial piety should be the core value of the society. In Confucian philosophy, filial piety is a virtue of respect for one’s father, elders and ancestors.

Lao-Tzu | 老子 (Lǎozǐ)

Lao-Tzu, or 老子 (Lǎozǐ), is known as the founder of philosophical Taoism. He is said to live in the same time period as Confucius.

He was a man of secret and left us many sayings where there is much philosophy.

Let’s learn one of them. It is:

治大国若烹小鲜
Zhì dà guó ruò pēng xiǎo xiān
“Governing a large country is like cooking a small fish”

In 2013, Chinese chairman 习近平 (Xí Jìnpíng) quoted this saying in a conference of BRIC. Then he explained that when you cook a small fish, the oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and the fire should be just right so as not to make it too salty or too light. You should be patient and serious. Otherwise you can burn it easily. Governing a large country may be exactly like this.

Chuang-Tzu | 庄子 (Zhuāngzǐ)

Chuang-Tzu, or 庄子 (Zhuāngzǐ) in Chinese, lived 200 years after Confucius and Laozi. Different from those two seniors who explained their theory by sayings, Zhuangzi prefer to put his ideas into fables, which made people often compare him with Aísôpos in the West.