Ancient thinkers in China made a lot of explorations on various psychological phenomena of human beings, such as The Book of Songs, The Book of Changes, The Book of History, etc., which clearly recorded many psychological thoughts about the relationship between body and mind, self-awareness, group psychology and individual psychological process. By the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, thinkers such as Confucius, Mozi, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Yang Zhu and Xunzi had made considerable research on psychological phenomena.
Thinkers in the Qin, Han, Wei, Jin, Tang, Song, Ming and Qing Dynasties discussed psychological phenomena more richly and deeply, and did a lot of valuable research from two dimensions: speculative and empirical. Many research results are consistent with the conclusions of modern psychology and still have practical significance.
On the whole, China's ancient psychological thoughts are mainly concentrated in seven categories: the theory of valuing human beings, the theory of form and spirit, the theory of heaven and man, the theory of sexual habits, the theory of knowing and doing, the theory of emotion and the theory of subjectivity and objectivity.
Compared with western psychological thought, the main value of China's ancient psychological thought lies in the study of psychological problems biased towards social science.
Specifically, it is mainly reflected in the research of social psychology, educational psychology, literary psychology, military psychology and health care psychology, because these fields are greatly influenced by social, political, economic, cultural and historical factors, and are more suitable for research from the humanistic perspective of psychology.
Actually, it's true.
Even compared with the research results of modern psychology, these views are not inferior.
For example, the theory of gradual infection and childlike innocence about people's psychological socialization, the theory of differences between Yin and Yang and the five elements, the theory of differences between practice and nature, the theory of knowledge and practice about heredity, environment and education, and the theory of sexual habits, as well as the physical, psychological, natural and social overall health care model of mental health, still have certain scientific value.