Ming Ru Luo Qinshun said in the Book of Sleepy Knowledge: "When Buddhism first entered China, it was only moved by the theory of the cycle of birth and death. "Because greed for life and evil death is a common human condition, Buddhism uses this to spread. The Sutra of Enlightenment says, "All sentient beings, from beginninglessness, have all kinds of love and greed, so there is reincarnation." It is believed that ordinary people are always unable to go beyond love and greed, so they are deeply trapped in samsara, can only see the illusory world, and only by believing in Buddhism, practicing self, and realizing the realm of "nirvana" that is immortal and immortal can they escape the suffering of the six reincarnations.
As a Confucian, Zhang Zai used philosophy in the Zhengmeng to criticize the Buddhist theory of "nirvana", believing that it and the Taoist immortality are fallacies.
"He who speaks silently does not turn around, and he who clings to things does not transform, and although there is a gap between the two, it is equal to the words that are lost."
The Buddhas all saw the law of the material cycle, but instead of accepting it, they wanted to go beyond the law or block the action of the law. In order to dispel their illusions, Zhang Zai proposed a systematic theory of material circulation based on the Zhou Yi.
Zhang Zai put forward the materialistic cyclic theory on the basis of the "theory of qi"
<h1>Matter is immortal</h1>
Before Zhang Zai, many thinkers referred to the origin of the world as "Taihe", "Taiji", "Tai void" or "Tao", some people said that it was formless and imageless, some said that it was invisible and reasonable, and some people said that it could generate "qi". In this regard, Zhang Zai is different, arguing that the fundamental feature of the ontology is not "angry" but "qi", and that qi is not produced from the ontology - or that qi is the ontology. He uses qi as the matrix for making up the world, saying that the world is essentially a material world full of qi.
The Taihe Chapter says that qi is divided into two sides, yin and yang, and the yang qi that floats and rises is clear, and the yin qi that sinks and falls is turbid. The negative represents the divergence of the qi, and the negative represents the condensation of the qi, just like the rejection and attraction, which is in contradiction. The monistic qi originally exists, it is divided into yin and yang, masculine partial dispersion, yin partial gathering, "yin gathering, yang will disperse", although the two are opposed, but unified in the same ontology.
Although the qi of heaven and earth is changeable and elusive, there is a basic law that exists in it, that is, gathering and dispersing. When qi gathers together, all things will form all things, and all things will disintegrate and return to qi, which is "unavoidable", "nirvana" and "eternal life" all violate this principle, and are therefore all illusory, they cannot see the conservation of the total amount of matter in the universe.
Qi gathers together to form all things, all things have forms and images, so that we can be seen and perceived by us, so we call it "being"; when the qi is dispersed, it returns to the formless and imageless void, just like ice condensed in water, out of our sight and perception, as if retreating into darkness, so we call it "nothingness". In this way, qi is in fact eternal, immortal, and immortal, and the so-called "being" and "nothingness" are just that we see or cannot see it—that is, "nothingness" is not established.
When qi appears and is seen for us, it is called "being", and the true meaning of "being" is only "ming"; when qi is hidden and not seen by us, it is called "nothing", so "nothing" is only an inaccurate statement of "you".
Zhang Zai said: "Fang Qijuye, Ande is not a guest (there)? Fang Qishan, Anderson said nothing? Therefore, the saint looked up and looked down, but the cloud 'knew the reason for the shadow', and the cloud 'knew the reason for existence'. ”
In this way, he replaced the "existence" of Lao Tzu with the "youming" of "Zhou Yi", proving that qi is immortal and immortal, it is only concentrated and scattered, and it does not arise from nothing and disappear back into nothingness. The Hengji Yishu writes:
"The Great Easy does not say whether there is or not, there is no word or not, and the ugliness of the sons is also."
Qi gathers together, incarnates all things, has forms and images, so it is "bright"; qi disperses and returns to too virtual, formless and imageless, so it is "ghost". This is Zhang Zai's theory of the immortality of matter.
Zhang Zai's Theory of Material Immortality Denies Lao Tzu's "Being Born of Nothingness" and Buddhism's "Extinction"
<h1>Replace "with or without" with "youming"</h1>
Cheng Hao, like Zhang Zai, denies "nothingness" and acknowledges that the opposition of "existence and non-existence" is a misunderstanding. He said:
If there is "none", there are many words; if there is no "nothing", there are many words. Presence or absence is the same as movement and stillness. For example, before the winter solstice, the heavens and the earth are closed, which can be described as quiet, and the sun, moon, and stars also run on their own without stopping, so it is said that there is no movement. But man does not know whether there is movement or not. ”
Saying that there is a state of "nothing" is itself a sick sentence, because if "nothing" exists, then it is not "nothing", because "nothing" represents nothingness without anything, so there is an additional word for "being"; similarly, saying that there is no state of "nothing" is also a language disease, because "nothing" means nothing, and saying no "nothing" is equivalent to saying that there is no "no", which is a meaningless synonymous repetition. The idea of existence and non-existence is a misunderstanding, which regards "being" and "non-existence" as two ends of separation, separates them, and then carries out a simple negation.
In the past, people also understood "motion" and "still" as complete opposites, and thought that stillness was "inactivity." However, rest is actually only a relative motion, and absolute stillness does not exist. Motion is absolute, and rest is only a state of relative equilibrium in absolute motion.
Similarly, the nothingness and emptiness understood by Buddhism and Taoism do not exist, and nothingness is only a special existence, a existence that is not seen and known to us. Therefore, in real terms, the two categories of "you and ming" should be used to replace "being and non-being", "being" is "ming", and "non-being" is "you".
Zhang Zai believes that the world does not arise from nothingness, and its essence is not emptiness. The world already existed, but its initial state was scattered qi, so it was formless and formless, and later the qi gathered into what we can observe now. Later, it may continue to disperse and return to a state of formlessness and no image, but that is not the "end" because qi is eternal.
What is invisible does not equal "nothing"
<h1>Zhang Zai and Wang Fuzhi's theory of the cycle of matter</h1>
Qi is matter, and there is no distinction between "existence and non-existence", but only the concentration and dispersion of changes. The concentration and dispersion of qi is the light, and the light and the light are like day and night, and the difference is between being visible and invisible, not existing or not existing. Therefore, qi is not born and dies, does not disappear into nothingness, does not "disappear" - this is the theory of the immortality of matter. On the other hand, qi is changing in motion, following the inevitable law of gathering and dispersing, and qi cannot only gather without dispersing, nor can it only disperse without gathering, always in the infinite movement change, from gathering to dispersing, from dispersion to gathering, so "immortality" is also impossible - this is the theory of material circulation.
So Zhang Zai said:
"Gathering and scattering my body, those who know the immortals of death can be related to speech."
He used the theory of material immortality to break the Buddhist emptiness of "silence" and believed that reincarnation could not be surpassed; he also used the theory of material circulation to refute the Taoist illusion of "immortality", saying that there is a specific death, but there is no universal death. This shatters the religious idealistic doctrine of creation and doomsday, leaving no room for the gods.
In Zhang Zai's system, movement is not yet development, the movement of qi is a cycle of gathering and dispersing, and does not progress to rise, so the changes in the world are only rotated in a great cycle. Wang Fuzhi was a disciple of Zhang Zai, and he made a more specific discussion of this cycle of reincarnation, saying that there is no "birth and death", only flexion, gathering, and yuming. The Commentary on The True Mask says:
"The fire of the car salary has been exhausted, but for the flame, for the smoke, for the embers, the wood is still returned to the wood, the water is still returned to the water, the earth is still returned to the earth, and the Tessy is not seen."
The annihilation of things is not to become nothing, but to enter the great cycle of matter and continue to move, but the human eye cannot see.
Zhang Zai and Wang Fuzhi
Wang Fu's move gives four examples of the cycle of matter:
First, the four seasons run, spring and summer are born and autumn and winter are killed, and the cycle begins again and again, which is for the cycle, while spring and summer are the germination of old trees, and autumn and winter killing is the withering and moisturizing of branches and leaves, not out of nothing and eliminated;
Second, the fire of salary, fiercely burning, turning into ashes, only transformation, not elimination, this transformation is too small, the human eye can not see;
Third, all tangible things will be transformed, let alone the unseen? "There is no accumulation of hard years, and once it is destroyed, it will be clear."
Fourth, a gentleman and a thief have different virtues, and if they are destroyed in infinity, there is no difference between a person with high moral character and a person with inferior moral character. However, although the flesh and blood of a person with high moral character is transformed into other things, his spirit, Taoism, thought, and quality still exist in the concept of future generations, which is for "The reason why Yao Shun Zhou Kong is ten thousand years".
Although these views are powerful proof of the fact that matter is immortal and cyclical, they do not see the rise and fall, and there is a danger of falling into the immutability of the cycle of birth and death, the perpetuation of institutions, and the permanence of human nature. As a result, he was criticized by many Taoist scholars.
<h1>The development of the universe is actually a spiraling process</h1>
Cheng Yi disagreed with Zhang Zai's point of view, and when he entered the customs lecture, he particularly criticized the theory of material circulation, saying:
"When everything is scattered, its qi is exhausted, and there is no reason to return to its original origin." The heavens and the earth are like a furnace, although the creatures are exhausted, and the qi that has been dispersed is gone, will there be a return? Heaven and earth were created and used this scattered qi? ...... Opening is 'easy', 'opening a door is a change'. ”
Cheng Yi believes that new things are not completely composed of the original essence of dead things, and the qi that has been dispersed can no longer continue to participate in the creation, and they cannot return to the original, otherwise it will cause the fallacy of perpetual motion, and they must have been "destroyed". The real change is not a reciprocating cycle, but an upward development or a downward recession, and the so-called "one opening and one entry is called a change" is also. Just like today and yesterday, although it seems that day and night are a day, everyone's age has actually changed.
Cheng Yi used the concept of development to transform Zhang Zai's cyclic theory, but then he had to admit that "anger" is not "qi", and if qi is continuously produced by a certain entity, then it exists and dies. Cheng Yi proposed a "True Yuan" ontology and used it to "get angry", saying:
"The qi of the true yuan is born from the qi."
"Zhenyuan can be angry."
"The qi of man is born in the true yuan, and the qi of heaven is naturally born and endless."
Cheng Yi uses the concept of development to treat Zhang Zai's circular theory
In Zhu Xi's system, we find that Cheng Yi's point of view is actually the prototype of "rationalizing anger". Zhu Xi also did not approve of Zhang Zai's theory of the circulation of matter, saying:
"Hengqu dispels the theory of reincarnation. However, it is said that where it is gathered and scattered, the disadvantage is great reincarnation. The Gaishi clan is a reincarnation of each, and the horizontal canal is a sum, still a big reincarnation. ”
Buddhism is the reincarnation of each person, and Zhang Zai avoided this view, but instead established a universal great reincarnation, and still did not overcome Buddhism. Therefore, Cheng Zhu abandoned the "theory of qi" and advocated the "theory of theory", and used "reason" to produce "qi".
In the Ming Dynasty, Luo Qinshun found that Zhang Zai's "Theory of Qi" and Cheng Zhu's "Theory of Theory" both tended to divide "reason" and "qi" into two things, he said:
"Zhang Zi's "Zhengmeng" is a number of words ' from the name of the heavens and the heavens', which also regards Li Qi as two things."
"The so-called Zhu Zi has a small disagreement, and Gai Qi's words have clouds, 'Reason and qi are two things.'"
It is precisely because Zhang Zai and Cheng Zhu both regard "reason" and "qi" as two things, which leads to two irreparable defects of "great reincarnation" and "anger".
Zhang Zai's creation theory, which advocates the immortality of matter to avoid "anger", fell into the "great reincarnation"; Cheng Zhu advocated that "qi" was born of "reason" to make up for the defects of reincarnation, but fell into the creation theory. So how exactly should these contradictions be resolved?
In this regard, Luo Qinshun put forward the idea of unifying "reason" and "qi", believing that they are not "two things", qi is the essence, and reason is the attribute of qi - it is the order of qi. In terms of the idea of "rationalizing one point of difference", from the perspective of universality and universality, that is, "rational one", matter will not disappear into a void state of emptiness, and the total amount of material that exists in the world will never increase or decrease, and will not be born or perish; from the perspective of special and individual, that is, "differentiation", concrete, individual substances are the cycle of birth and death, and will change from one state to another.
Through the further development of Luo Qinshun's thought, we believe that the trajectory of the world is not a closed circle that starts from the starting point and returns to the starting point, but a spiral that constantly returns to the starting point and constantly goes beyond the starting point. It is a propulsion process similar to a double helix. Ordinary matter is not born and died, objectively existing things exist forever, but specific matter is the process of birth and death, of course, the birth and death here is relative, referring to the loss of its quality.