Easy 10 pts: Chinese philosophers?

Question

why did chinese find a golden past attractive?

THANKS MUCHO :)

Answer 1

because it paves a path for a golden future.

was there supposed to be a specific philosopher who said that?

Answer 2

Every culture the world over sees the remote ancient world as a "golden era" of the human race.  Greek myth, had;

1)  The golden age

2)  The silver age

3)  The bronze age (figuratively speaking, not literally)  and what they considered the worst one

4)  The age of Iron; where men were "hard, cold, cruel, and violent."

China has a similar concept actually, but the ages are not named after metal.  Lao Tzu only makes brief references to the "ancient adepts of the Tao," but he mentions little else.  Why did Chinese Philosophers find the "golden past" attractive?

Like the Greeks, ancient Chinese saw the "forgotten ancient past," as a utopic era, free of all corruption, when people were more spiritually enlightened.  Money did not exist, everyone was a hard worker, there was no crime, and no one worked for material gain.  The whole concept of "business" and "store" did not exist either; everything was on the "honor system."  That is a farmer would grow their crops, he would set up a stall, and people took only what they needed.  In other words it was a give and take relationship where no one exploited anyone.

That is the reason the Chinese philosophers found that "golden past" so attractive.  This vision of the remote past is not restricted only to China; ancient cultures the world over all talk of a golden age, creationists Christian fundamentalists arguing that is "proof of the truth of the bible!"  What many Christians, ultra fundamentalists, argue, as well as many Orthodox Jews actually, is that these visions of the "golden era," was the time when Adam was alive.

Because humanity still had the "newness" and "perfection" of the creator, everyone was naturally well behaved.  However with each subsequent generation, humanity decayed to its present state.  Every major world culture, again, has that myth in some form or other, and China is no exception.

The Philosopher you are talking about is Lao Tze, who mentions "the ancient adepts of the Tao" in his Tao Te Ching, as well as a writting involving his conversation with an ancient Chinese prince.  Kong Fu Tze (Confucious) did not care much for those visions of an ideal ancient past, because for all intents and purposes Kong Fu Tze was a hardline pragmatist for most of his life.  From what is known of the man, he thought of the idea of a perfect world as "ridiculous nonsense."  Its part of the reason he rejected much of what Lao Tze taught.  What Kong Fu Tze wanted, wha the envisioned, was a well run and harmonious society where crime did not exist, nor want, but ultimately, it was to be achieved through practical means rather than fantasies of a perfect utopic world.  See, that is part of the reason Kong Fu Tze is the most popular Chinese philosopher in the west; a lot of westerners are all about pragmatism.

later.