This course is to trace the development of Chinese thoughts and intellectual activities, from the ancient time to the premodern time with a focus on the periods of Tang, Song and Ming, and to show the evolving ideas and diverging theories of the core Chinese thoughts and philosophies along the change of social and political circumstance. It will try to find the lasting fundamental elements of traditional Chinese thoughts, no matter how their discourses and expressions on surface differed, as well as their advancement and continuity.