Listen to this articlezhūzǐ-bǎijiā 诸子百家
A Hundred Schools of Thought
指春秋末期至汉初的各派学者及其著作。春秋时期，周代旧有的社会秩序与价值观念日益崩坏。当时的学者面对现实的社会危机，展开了自由而深刻的思考，在社会秩序与价值观念的建构方面提出了多元的理论主张。这样一种活跃的理论创建与学术讨论持续至西汉初年。后人将这一时期涌现的诸多学者及其著作称为“诸子”，又将其归纳为儒家、墨家、道家、名家、法家、阴阳家、农家、纵横家、杂家及小说家等十个流派，其中前九个流派更具学术价值，因此称为“九流十家”。因其人物与学说众多，又泛称“诸子百家”。
This refers to the various schools of thought and their proponents during the period from the late Spring and Autumn Period through the early Han Dynasty. The Spring and Autumn Period witnessed an increasing disintegration of the old social order as well as of the values of the Zhou Dynasty. Faced with a social crisis, scholars of the times reflected deeply on problems, free from any restrictions. They advanced diverse theories on how to restore order and develop values. Such active theory-building and academic debating continued up to the early period of the Western Han Dynasty. Later generations referred to the large number of scholars and their works which had emerged at that time as “A Hundred Schools of Thought” (numerous philosophers and their works), and classified them into ten schools of thought: Confucianism, Mohism, Daoism, Logicians, Legalism, School of Yin-Yang, Agriculturalism, School of Diplomacy, Syncretism (or School of Miscellany, za jia), and School of Minor Talks (xiaoshuo jia). Among them, the first nine were more scholarly, and were therefore known as the “nine mainstream schools of the ten schools of thought.” Due to the large number of proponents and their various theories, they are generally referred to as “A Hundred Schools of Thought.”
引例 Citation：
◎诸子十家，其可观者九家而已。皆起于王道既微，诸侯力政，时君世主，好恶殊方，是以九家之术蜂出并作，各引一端，崇其所善，以此驰说，取合诸侯。”（《汉书·艺文志》）
（诸子的十个学派，其中值得了解的只有九个学派而已。诸子都兴起于王道衰微的时代，诸侯以武力为政，当时的君主，好恶差别极大，因此九个学派的学说蜂拥而作，各自从一个角度提出主张，推崇其以为至好的学说，用它来游说诸侯，以取得诸侯的认同与支持。）
Of the ten schools of thought, nine of them are worth learning about. The scholars of these schools all emerged during a time when the rule of virtue was in decline and many rulers governed with military might. Some of the kings were benign rulers, while others were despotic. Scholars of the nine schools of thought eagerly made propositions in which they believed to kings to seek their endorsement and support. (The History of the Han Dynasty)
