Linji Yixuan (c. 810–866 CE), the Chan master behind the Rinzai school of Zen, shocked his students with shouts, blows, and paradoxes. His teaching of the “True Person of No Rank” still challenges us today to break free from labels and discover authenticity.
Bodhidharma (5th–6th c. CE), the Indian monk who travelled to China, is remembered as the founder of Zen. Surrounded by legend, his legacy lies in teaching meditation, discipline, and awakening the Buddha-nature within.
Zou Yan (c. 305–240 BCE) pioneered the philosophy of Yin-Yang and the Five Phases, creating a cosmology that shaped Chinese thought for centuries. His vision of balance, cycles, and transformation continues to echo in medicine, politics, and philosophy today.
Discover the ancient Chinese School of Yin-Yang, a pioneering worldview that explained the universe through the balance of opposites and the cycles of nature. From cosmic forces to the Five Phases, their ideas shaped medicine, philosophy, and culture for centuries.
Dong Zhongshu (c. 179 – c. 104 BCE) was the architect of Confucian state ideology in the Han dynasty, synthesising Confucian ethics with cosmological theories. His thought anchored imperial governance, education, and political legitimacy for nearly two millennia.
Li Si, architect of China’s first empire, forged unity through law, order, and ruthless control—only to be destroyed by the same system he created. His rise and fall reveal both the power and peril of absolute authority.
Han Fei (c. 280–233 BCE) was the sharpest voice of Legalism, the hard-edged philosophy that helped forge China’s first empire. Living in the brutal Warring States era, he argued that people can’t be trusted to act virtuously — only strict laws, harsh punishments, and centralised power could hold a state together. Though his ideas were ruthless, they shaped the Qin dynasty’s unification of China and left an enduring imprint on its bureaucratic system. Han Fei reminds us that order can be built without kindness — but at a cost.
Yang Zhu, the 4th-century BCE founder of Yangism, championed self-preservation, natural enjoyment, and acceptance of death in defiance of duty-bound traditions — a radical reminder that life’s true worth lies in living authentically before it ends.
Yang Zhu, the 4th-century BCE founder of Yangism, championed self-preservation, natural enjoyment, and acceptance of death in defiance of duty-bound traditions — a radical reminder that life’s true worth lies in living authentically before it ends.
The Sophists of ancient Greece were not seekers of absolute truth but masters of persuasion and practical wisdom. Figures like Protagoras and Gorgias taught rhetoric, relativism, and critical thinking, equipping citizens for life in a democratic society while sparking fierce debate among philosophers like Plato and Aristotle.