CHINESE PHILOSOPHY ("love of wisdom") Chinese philosophy has passed through three distinct historical stages: The Classical Age: a creative period from the 6th to the 2nd century BC; The Medieval Age: from the 2nd century BC to the 11th century AD, a period of synthesis and absorption of foreign thought; The Modern Age: from the 11th century to the present, a period of maturation of earlier philosophical trends and introduction of new philosophies from the …showed first 75 words of 902 total…

…showed last 75 words of 902 total…of Nature (Tao) and by reverting to primitive agrarian communities and a government that did not control or interfere with life. Taoism attempted to bring the individual into perfect harmony with nature through a mystical union with the Tao. This mysticism was carried still further by Chuang-tzu, a Taoist philosopher of the late 4th century BC, who taught that through mystical union with the Tao the individual could transcend nature and even life and death.