The unification of the theories of Chang Wen Tao and Meng Ren

One

When taking the Zhongzhe examination, Mencius's theory of sexual goodness, Xunzi's sexual evil theory, and the theory of no good and no evil in the nature of the child, as well as the comparative explanation of the three, were the topics of the pre-Qin examination.

For the above three theories, it is a cliché in the examination, and it is a few words of rutting back and forth. Since the pre-Qin dynasty, Confucianism has also produced various views on human nature, but its origins are all in the pre-Qin. Meng's argument, Xun Meng's difference, until the modern Neo-Confucians are still holding their own opinions, saying everything, for example, Feng Youlan wrote to Li Zehou in a letter in 1981:

Incidentally, the peak of the development of pre-Qin rationalism was still Meng Ke, not Xun. The starting point of Chinese rationalism is 'sexual goodness', and Xun Quan advocates 'sexual evil', which is wrong from the starting point. ”

Of course, Feng Youlan's words have a complex intellectual background, and we will not discuss them here. The implication of this example is that a figure of Feng Youlan's level does not seem to have unified Xun Meng, but has inherited the tradition of Honoring Meng in Taoism.

It is strange to say that countless university people throughout the ages can not solve the problem, we just saw a glimmer of hope from a best-selling author in modern times, this person is Li Zongwu, many people do not know him, but when it comes to the three big words of "thick black study", I believe that few people have not heard.

We have reviewed various modern Chinese philosophical histories, and we have not seen any records of him, probably everyone does not regard him as a philosopher, so let's introduce his views on the Xun Meng controversy.

Two

Li Zongwu's method of proof is very simple, it can be said that it is not a philosophical proof, but an empirical proof, or even an empirical method, in today's words, his proof is to do a "thought experiment".

What kind of thought experiment? There are mainly servants.

The first, the children grab the cake to push the brother experiment.

This experiment is to lead to a problem, and begins by quoting Mencius: "A child of a child loves his relatives and his elders, and respects his brothers." ”

Li Zongwu said that there is no problem in reading this sentence usually, but when he looks at the reality, he knows that this sentence is not reliable. If we don't believe it, let a mother take the child out, the mother feeds the child, the child will drag the mother's bowl, and if he is not careful, he will beat the bowl to pieces; the mother will take a fragrant cake in his hand, and the child will see it, and he will drag it again; if the mother does not give him food, but puts it in his mouth, the child will grab it from the mother's mouth and put it in his mouth. Now I ask, is this child's behavior of loving his mother? This baby drinks milk and eats cake in her mother's arms, if her brother comes, this baby will push his brother and not let him come, now ask, is this behavior a respect for brothers?

Li Zongwu's above meaning is not that people do not have good deeds, but rather that Mencius's statement has flaws and cannot fully conform to reality. So, in the first experiment, we saw that Mencius's teachings had drawbacks. Immediately afterwards, he conducted a second thought experiment.

The second is the Love Serial Comparison Experiment.

Li Zongwu said, let's consider the following six consecutive scenes:

(1) Go out to play in the late spring in March, see the mountains and rivers here, the heart is happy, see the mountains and rivers are evil, the heart is bored, why is this? Because things are one, landscapes are things, I am also things, things are good, I am happy, things are not good, I am unhappy.

(2) Continue to go forward, it is still a desert, full of rubble, but now, above the rubble, there are falling flowers, so I am distressed about the falling flowers, and forget the rubble. What's going on here? That's because stones have no life, and flowers are living things, so I care more about falling flowers than stones.

(3) If there is a dog dying next to the flower now, and the mourning is gentle and frightening, you must have abandoned the flower again to care for the dog, because you belong to the same animal as the dog, and the flower is just a plant.

(4) Suppose, next to the dead dog, there is a vicious dog that is fighting with a person you don't know, and it is difficult to tell the difference, are you going to help the dog beat people? Or go and help someone beat up a dog? Naturally it is the latter, because you are both human, and the dog is far away.

(5) Now that you are home after playing, and on the way you see a friend of yours fighting with a stranger, which one is inseparable, and it is equally divided, please ask which one do you say to go up to rescue? Unconsciously, in fact, you went to rescue your friend, not the person, because you had a friendship with your friend, and the person was one level away.

(6) After persuasion, you and your friends stand under the dangerous wall to chat, you look up and see that the wall has fallen, you must subconsciously jump out, and then persuade your friends to run, so that you embody the basis of self.

According to the above six scenes, you can get the above picture, with me as the center, layer by layer, the more outward, the less I love, the more inward, the more I love. Li Zongwu said that It can be seen that Newton's law of gravitation is also suitable for psychology. However, further will find the difference between Xunzi and Mencius. Consider a third example.

Third, friends persuade the fight experiment.

This experiment is very simple, similar to the above, and now a very good friend of yours comes to you to play and is done playing. As a result, now someone has come to report to you, your friend is out fighting with someone else, the rest of the situation is unknown, what will you think now? You're sure to think: Oh he must not be in trouble, he is hitting others, don't let others hit him.

Now, now, I would like to ask you, is this kind of thinking a manifestation of sexual goodness or a manifestation of sexual evil? Li Zongwu said, we may as well interview Mencius and Xunzi.

We told Mencius about this, and Mencius said, "Oh, this is a manifestation of sexual goodness. A friend fights with others and has nothing to do with you, and your wish for the winner is the heart of a friend, unconsciously, flowing naturally from nature, and the ancient sages and sages are nothing more than the love of a single thought. Therefore, your love for a friend must be extended and expanded. ”

We told Xunzi about this again, and Xunzi said, "Mencius is talking nonsense, and this is obviously a manifestation of sexual evil. Your friends are human beings, others are also human beings, and it is selfishness that flows naturally from nature unknowingly when you save others but your friends. So you have to suppress this selfishness. ”

You see, the same phenomenon, both sides of the explanation is reasonable, in the end who said it right? Li Zongwu said, I draw a picture and everyone will understand. Take a look at the image below:

In fact, the truth of the thing itself is clear, the result of the second thought experiment: love is inversely proportional to distance. Whoever is closer to me, I love whom more. The different comments on this matter are because Mencius and Xunzi stand at different angles. Li Zongwu said:

"As shown in the picture: the first circle is me, the second circle is friends, the third circle is someone else, please ask the circle of friends, is it big or small? Mencius drew a small circle of my character in it, and compared it, he said that he was a large circle. Xun Zi drew a large circle of characters outside, compared with it, it is said that he is a small circle. ,,,,, the dispute between Meng Xun and so on. ”

That is to say, the same figure, Mencius is standing in the circle to look out, see the trend of the circle enlargement, so feel that along this trend, the circle can eventually expand and fill, bigger and bigger. Xun Zi, on the other hand, stood outside the circle and looked inward, saw the trend of the circle shrinking, and felt that along this trend, the circle should shrink smaller and smaller, so it was necessary to prevent the circle from becoming smaller. Due to this difference in perspective, the opinions put forward by Xun Meng and The two were also different.

Mencius saw the trend of expanding the circle from the inside out, so he believed that human nature is inherently good, and it is enough to expand and fill it. And so he said, "The old man, and the old man, the young man, and the young man." He also said, "Raise your heart, and add it to the other." ”

Xunzi, on the other hand, sees a shrinking trend in the circle from the outside to the inside, so he believes that human nature is inherently evil and needs to be curbed. Thus he said, "The wife is possessed and decays from relatives, lust and trust declines from friends, and lords decline with loyalty to kings." It is also said: "The wood will be tightened, steamed and then straight, and the blunt gold will be sharp and then sharp." ”

Three

Finally, Li Zongwu concluded:

"The dispute between Meng Xun is only a dispute over the terms of sexual goodness and evil, and in fact, the truths spoken by the two of them are all good and can be seen in all kinds of practicality." I thought we didn't need to ask whether human nature is good or evil, but just create a common example: 'Psychology changes according to the laws of mechanics.' Wouldn't it be simple and clear to put Newton's suction, Einstein's theory of relativity, to apply it to psychology, to psychophysics, to study it in one piece? He Bitterly argues about terms such as sexual good and evil. ”

It can be seen that although Li Zongwu's way of argumentation is not philosophical, the reasoning he has drawn is thought-provoking, and the status of this kind of thinking in the history of philosophy is still worthy of our extremely serious attitude.

For a follow-up discussion, see the next article in this issue:

Mei Ruyu and other 丨 Xun and Meng human nature theory of conventional and super-conventional discussion