A Analysis of Yang Zhu's Thoughts of "Everything Being Favorable For Me"

Yang Zhu is one of the ancient Chinese thinkers during the Spring and Autumn Period(770-476 B.C.) and the Warring States Period(475-221B.C.).His thinking on life is one of influential philosophical schools but has been long been misunderstood,either being regarded as an individualism that presents the thinker's selfishness or being treated as a school of thoughts connected with Daoism.Based on the historical documents in pre-Qin Dynasty and related records in the Chapter Yang Zhu in the book Lie Tzu,this paper has analyzed the historical backgrounds in which Yang Zhu has developed his ideas,and concluded that Yang Zhu's thoughts of Everything being favorable for me indicate the thinker's thinking on the ideal society-everything should be favorable for others,for all the human beings and for the ruling of people,for which the author regards as a utopia ideal that could not be realized in the special historical context.This paper has also analyzed the reasons that lead to a misunderstanding and vanish of his ideas.