We discussed Week 1 of Edward Slingerland's edx course on Chinese Thought: Ancient Wisdom Meets Modern Science - Part 1 here. Chinese thought is very different from Western thought and cleverly Slingerland starts by telling us that it is we not the Chinese who are “WEIRD”, that is Western, Educated Industrialised, Rich and Democratic.  He describes first some of the concepts we will find in Chinese thought.  There is Wu-wei which he describes as effortless effort, but really comes down to being in the moment and acting with the skill but without self-consciousness.  Then there is Dao, the path or way, that leads to De, virtue and charismatic power.  He sets out his project, that is what he is going to demonstrate or emphasise in the course.  He argues that religion is about holding a society together and that you can have a religion without necessarily believing in a supernatural being.  There is no priestly class in Chinese society and therefore philosophy is not differentiated from religion as it is in the West.  He points out the importance of economic factors in culture: rice farming has to be a large scale enterprise and therefore the Chinese are used to living in much larger and more integrated societies than the West.  They place far more importance in the society they live in than on the individual. Larger societies need stronger legal frameworks and cultural practices.  He mentions modes of thought quoting Kahneman’s “thinking fast and slow”, and whole body cognition.  He explains the difference between deontology, consequentialism and virtue ethics and we will see that virtue ethics is important in Chinese thought.  You can only get De if you sincerely commit to virtue ethics.  The second half of week one of the course is a timeline of the dynasties of early Chinese society (here is a chart).  Earliest is the Xia with their first king Yu 2205 to 1555 BC.  Then the Shang (or Yin) dynasty with their first king Tang 1554 to 1045 BC, and  and then the Zhou, more specifically the Western Zhou 1045 to 771 BC, starting with their king Wu, son of “king” Wen, and then the Duke of Zhou later identified by Confucius as a model of virtue, who acted as regent and duly ceded power to the rightful heir king Cheng.  This golden age, when the Li ritual and the Zhou formal mode of behaviour gave “Ming" or heavenly mandate to the king, ended when king You was killed by his vassals and power moved east and fragmented under the Eastern Zhou 7709 - 481 BC