Confucian culture is broad and profound. Looking back along the history of the Chinese nation, it is not difficult to find that the Confucian culture represented by Confucius and Mencius Thought has long been engraved into the soul of our entire nation. As we all know, the core of Confucianism is "benevolence", and the resulting "benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom and faith" has become the default moral code of conduct Chinese generations. It is precisely for this reason that civilized etiquette has become a classic national heritage.
Just as a coin has both sides, no event can be absolutely good or completely bad, they all have their own two sides, and the same is true of Confucianism. This kind of thinking unique to the Chinese nation not only regulates people's behavior, but also puts a huge shackle on people's thinking. In order to assist the feudal imperial rule, Confucianism became more and more systematic and systematic with the change of history. Because of this, people's minds naturally fell under the rule of "male superiority over female inferiority" and "three principles and five constants" and other ideological dross.
For Confucianism, the famous British scholar Joseph Needham stated his views in his "History of Science and Technology in China", he believes that Confucianism has no beneficial effect on the development of science, but will hinder scientific researchers from exploring the world, prevent people from exploring the principles of science and technology, and thus hinder the development of Chinese science.
In the book "History of Science and Technology in China", Needham also proposed a famous problem that made the world think deeply, that is, the "Needham problem". In the book, he sincerely asks: Why was China's scientific and technological level far more developed before the sixteenth century than that of Europe in the same period? Why did Chinese society not give birth to modern science, but europe after the Renaissance achieved a scientific and technological revolution?
The throwing out of a series of questions reflects Needham's serious thinking on China's development, and reminds us, as the descendants of the Chinese nation, that we should fully face up to and seriously explore historical issues. In fact, Joseph Needham was not the first to ask questions about the "role of Confucianism", and there have been many inferences and conjectures in this regard in history, but a truly complete theoretical system has never been formed. So follow the British scientist's train of thought and explore whether Confucianism is really as useless to the development of Chinese science as Needham claims.
First, it began in the Spring and Autumn And has been passed down for thousands of years
When it comes to Confucianism, we have to carefully introduce the originators of this school of thought - Confucius and Mencius, because Confucianism has another name of "the way of Confucius and Mencius". During the Confucius period, the Confucian school had just emerged, and Confucius used his own ideas to construct a grand overall framework for the entire Confucian thought, and the Confucian emphasis on "etiquette" began.
In the early years of the Han Dynasty, in order to let the people rest and recuperate, the emperor at that time implemented the "Huang Lao Zhi Shu", but the Daoist desirelessness and lack of desire were not suitable for the maintenance of feudal rule after all, so during the Han WuDi Period, Confucianism took over the position of "Huang Lao Zhi Shu" and provoked the big beam. At that time, the prime minister strongly promoted Confucianism, and he strongly advocated the ruling ideology of the Han Dynasty by "deposing hundreds of families and respecting Confucianism alone". After listening to Dong Zhongshu's statement of the various benefits of Confucianism for feudal rule, Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty was naturally very happy, so Confucianism was pushed into a dominant position. Since then, Confucianism has gradually entered every inch of the skin of feudal society, and gradually took root and grown.
With the continuous change of dynasties, Confucianism is also constantly changing, and in order to consolidate the position of its own ruling ideology, Confucianism has kept pace with the times. During the Tang and Song dynasties, Buddhist and Taoist ideas rushed to the stage of history, and once reached an equal position with Confucian thought. Seeing that their position was challenged, Confucian scholars began to seek a way out, and eventually they chose an "inclusive" path and began to absorb some ideas in Buddhism and Taoism, so that Confucian thought was no longer the simple "way of Confucius and Mencius" at the beginning, but became a convergent school of thought.
In the absorption and integration of Taoist thought, Confucianism began to pay more attention to the pursuit of "Tao", which directly formed a non-scientific reasoning model of "seeking truth" in the heart, which had a profound impact on the development of Chinese science.
While the ancients trusted in Confucian thought, they also slowly fell into the "cage" carefully woven by Confucian thought, and their belief in traditional concepts such as the code of ethics and the reincarnation of the Heavenly Dao enabled all irrational things to be well explained. And because of this, the ancients lacked the curiosity to explore the world, which was simply fatal to the development of science. Confucianism has always promoted the idealistic view of "the unity of heaven and man", which is extremely detrimental to understanding the world.
Second, the positive significance still exists, and it cannot be completely denied
It is true that the focus on exploring the inner world of man without studying the truth of things in the objective world is indeed, as Needham says, "Confucianism does not have much positive significance for the study of natural science", but we cannot completely deny Confucianism, after all, this kind of thinking is not meaningless at all.
As a brilliant branch of Chinese civilization, the reason why Confucianism has been able to circulate for thousands of years without seeing a decline naturally has its own reason and significance, and this unique idea cannot be completely denied because of its negative significance in natural science. It is precisely because Needham saw the positive significance of some ideas in Chinese Confucian culture that he did not criticize Confucianism in the book.
According to Needham, Confucianism actually contributed to the development of science, but most of its contributions were reflected in its ideas, so it was often overlooked. Needham mentioned that the contribution of Chinese Confucianism to science was first reflected in the development of science during the Song Dynasty. During the Two Song Dynasties, Confucianism flourished on the basis of absorbing Buddhist and Taoist ideas, and once rushed to a new peak. There is such a view in the song dynasty thought- "wuji and taiji", which basically means that the universe is regarded as an organic whole, and now it seems to coincide with the "organic view of nature" proposed by Western scientists in natural science. It is not difficult to see from this that Confucianism actually contained the germ of natural science ideas in a specific period.
In addition to containing the germ of natural science ideas, another beneficial aspect of Confucianism for science is its skeptical rationalist element, and a considerable part of the Confucian school is extremely critical. This critical spirit and behavior of thinkers directly contributed to the development of the Confucian school of skepticism. As we all know, the most important thing in scientific research is the spirit of exploration and criticism, and the rationalism behind the spirit of skepticism in Confucianism is the source of motivation for the spirit of exploration and criticism. From this point of view, Confucianism does have positive significance for the development of natural science.
Perhaps because of this, the Song Dynasty will have the peak of ancient Chinese scientific and technological development. The four famous Chinese inventions at home and abroad, including the compass, gunpowder and printing, were widely used and promoted during the Song Dynasty. Not only that, during the Song Dynasty, China's navigation and shipbuilding technology once reached the world's leading level.
Third, the development of natural science is shackled, and the culprit is someone else
People often misunderstand Confucianism, believing that this systematic and feudal ideology has constrained the pace of China's natural science. It can be said that "there is no wind and no waves", and the reason why the world has such a cognition is not unfounded, but if it is complete
The responsibility for the stagnation of natural science is placed on Confucian thought, which is inevitably biased. In fact, if we look down on the reasons from the bottom of the question, it is not difficult to find that the real development of natural science is the bureaucratic selection system of China's feudal society and the social environment of emphasizing agriculture over commerce.
In feudal society, in order to select a large number of talents for his own use, the emperor adopted a system of examination and selection. This system has also brought some adverse effects while ensuring China's political stability, because most people in the world are willing to enter the official arena through the imperial examination system, so official ideology and culture have become the object of study by the world, and test-taking issues such as the Eight Strands of Literature have become a trend, which has directly caused the rigidity of social concepts. People blindly attach importance to the study of the Four Books and Five Classics, so it is difficult to generate some new ideas. At the same time, because technology is not included in the examination of the examination, it is difficult to produce new talents in the field of technology, which directly leads to the stagnation of natural science.
In addition to the imperial examination system, the national policy of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce also constrained the development of natural science. Because ancient China used agriculture as the economic pillar, the rulers began to implement the policy of "emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce" in order to consolidate feudal rule, which is why China's commodity economy sprouted late. Judging from the development of science and technology in the West, the role of the commodity economy is crucial. Because the development of the commodity economy brings economic benefits and also brings about the emancipation of the people's minds, this will directly help stimulate people's desire to explore and seek knowledge for scientific and technological research.
Judging from the above two points, the black cauldron that hinders the development of natural science cannot be completely carried on Confucianism.
summary:
The reason why Confucianism has been able to live endlessly in the long history of the Chinese nation and last for thousands of years is naturally unique. We cannot reject others by listening to them. Even though Confucianism does have some obstacles to the development of natural science, "white is slightly flawed, and flaws are not hidden." For a nation, if it wants to be truly culturally confident, it cannot arbitrarily change its own thinking because of the interference of others. Only by strengthening faith can Chinese culture go further!