Since Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty "ousted a hundred schools of thought and respected Confucianism alone", Confucian culture has become the mainstream culture in China, which can also be said to be the mainstream of Chinese culture. The mainstream culture of China has basically never stopped, but has changed in different historical periods according to the specific historical environment, but the core has always been Confucius and Mencius.

Although the Yuan Dynasty was ruled by ethnic minorities, Mongolian nobles were constantly absorbing the feudal culture of the Han nationality. Although Mongolian aristocrats entered the Central Plains, they brought backward systems and customs, seriously damaged social production, and the relations of production once regressed, thus affecting cultural development. However, the feudalization of vast areas is also a feature of this period.

In the Song Dynasty, Confucianism had a new development, and a philosophical trend of thought centered on the discussion of qi and heart appeared, namely "Neo-Confucianism". There are also many famous Neo-Confucianism scholars and many precious Neo-Confucianism works. When the Southern Song Dynasty perished, Neo-Confucianism was once hit, but it soon spread to the north, and a group of Neo-Confucianism appeared in the Yuan Dynasty. Neo-Confucianism became the dominant thought of Yuan people.

The Ming and Qing Dynasties were the end of our traditional society, and the traditional culture continued to develop under the impetus of the prosperous farming economy. But at the same time, the commodity economy is also developing, and new social and cultural factors are gestating. In the collision between the old and new cultures, the strong suppression of the old culture has intensified the anti-traditional thinking. The introduction of foreign culture in the late Qing Dynasty was also a powerful medicine. In such a special historical environment, the culture of Ming and Qing dynasties presents characteristics different from the traditional culture in the past.

First, the internal evolution of Neo-Confucianism. In the mid-Ming Dynasty, the development of commodity economy, the intensification of social contradictions and the complication of ethnic issues gave birth to Yangming's Mind Theory. Yangming's theory of mind emphasizes individual's historical responsibility and moral consciousness, and denies the control of "mind" by foreign norms, which is essentially different from Zhu Cheng's theory of "preserving nature and extinguishing human desires" and reverses the development direction of social thought in Ming Dynasty.

Second, the emergence of anti-neo-Confucianism. The appearance of naive materialism has something to do with the development of science and technology in Ming Dynasty and the influence of foreign missionaries. More radical is the emergence of "heresy" thought. For example, Wang Gen and Li Zhi directly questioned Confucius and even criticized Neo-Confucianism. This actually reflects the rising businessmen and citizens' demand for individual liberation and general awakening.

Third, the early enlightenment appeared in the Qing Dynasty. Huang Zongxi, Gu and Wang Fuzhi in the early Qing Dynasty are typical representatives. In addition to criticizing Neo-Confucianism, they even began to criticize feudal autocracy and had new thoughts on imperial power, human rights and society.

Fourth, the wave of learning from the West in the late Qing Dynasty. From Lin Zexu's "seeing the world with eyes open" to Wei Yuan's "learning from foreigners to control foreigners", to the Westernization Movement, the Reform Movement of 1898 and the New Deal in the late Qing Dynasty, China's traditional thought was greatly impacted, and the study of western culture gradually deepened. This is a new function that the previous generation didn't have.