Wang An-shi's Inheritance and Development of Laozi's Philosophy

The North Song philosopher Wang An-shi both inherited and developed Loazi's philosophy in establishing his own philosophical system. He carried on Lao'sidea of non-action, and developed this genesis into an ontology. In dealing with human relations, Wang An-shi advocated Lao's idea of following the law of the heaven while animadverting on his suggestion of in-action. In dialectic thinking,Wang An-shi inherited Lao's idea of a moving world to form his own progressive historical idea of a changing world. Besides, Wang An-shi used Ou and Dui to generalize the relationship of the unity of opposites among things, which further advances our understanding of the law of opposites.