Back to the topic, what is the historical root of a hundred schools of thought contending? The biggest change during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period was the transformation of several productive forces. The emergence of Niu Geng has made a qualitative leap in productivity, and the progress of production tools has helped mankind to accelerate the transformation and understanding of nature. The further disintegration of the well-field system and the emergence of the private sector have expanded and enriched people's activities and thinking content. Therefore, the progress of productivity and production tools is the fundamental reason for a hundred schools of thought to contend.
Secondly, social unrest has contributed to a hundred schools of thought contending. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the status of Zhou Tianzi was not as good as before. Under the enfeoffment system, the power of the vassal States expanded, the royal family of Zhou declined, the vassal States competed for hegemony, wars continued, the enfeoffment system was difficult to maintain, and the patriarchal clan system was challenged. In other words, the blood relationship between the two systems has been weakened. If you think deeply, it is not difficult to find that this is actually an awakening of self-awareness and self-spirit.
The third reason is that private schools began to rise during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and this progress is closely related to Confucius. It was he who created the wind of private schools and broke the situation that knowledge was in the official position. From learning in the government to learning in the people, the educational threshold is lowered, the educated groups are expanded, and a large number of intellectuals stand out. I'm afraid the connection between this and a hundred schools of thought is obvious. In addition, during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the corporal class rose and became active. In order to meet the needs of the hegemony war and the merger war, the vassal States attached great importance to the guest ministers, and the scholar class wrote books from different interests and positions, which was the reason why a hundred schools of thought contended in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.
Similarly, we might as well make an analogy with the active thoughts in the Ming and Qing Dynasties: in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, many thinkers such as Huang Zongxi, Gu and Wang Fuzhi appeared, which was also the reason for the great social changes. Rooted in the great changes in productivity and economy, that is, the development of industry and commerce and the germination of capitalism, the traditional agriculture-oriented thought was impacted by the commodity economy, and the other was the political change, in which the autocratic monarchy reached its peak and its disadvantages were increasingly exposed.