About the Author
Lou Yulie, male, from Shengxian County (now Shengzhou), Zhejiang Province, was born in Hangzhou on December 10, 1934. Professor of the Department of Philosophy of Peking University, Director of the Department of Oriental Philosophy of the Department of Philosophy of Peking University, Honorary Dean of the Institute of Religious Studies of Peking University, member of the Academic Committee of Peking University, and former Distinguished Lecturer of Minglun College.
In modern times, after coming into contact with Western philosophy, especially the philosophy of Kant and Hegel, many people feel that there is no philosophy in China, and even if there is, it is only quasi-philosophy, or only specific philosophies such as political philosophy, ethical philosophy, historical philosophy, etc. How should this issue be viewed? The key to the answer is from which angle we stand.
Whether metaphysical and metaphysical are connected or separated is a key difference between Chinese and Western philosophy and even Chinese and Western cultures
During World War II, an American military scientist visited the mainland's embassy in the United States and asked the military attaché what books he read in the military academy, and whether he read Sun Tzu's Art of War. Our military attaché said that Sun Tzu's Art of War is indeed a very important classic, but it is no longer very suitable for modern warfare, and we need to learn Western theory.
Who knows, this American said, if you have read Sun Tzu's Art of War, we can not read these works. Therefore, he analyzed the differences between the Western soldier St. Clausewitz's "Theory of War" and "Sun Tzu's Art of War" and pointed out that Clausewitz's military thought is an idealistic absolutism that is to completely eliminate the enemy, while "Sun Tzu's Art of War" is the middle way of realism, and in reality there can be various alternative methods, and it is possible to "surrender the soldier without fighting."
I think this contrast is not only a contrast of military thought, but also a contrast between Chinese culture as a whole and Western culture: Western culture is the absolute concept of idealism, and Chinese culture is the moderate idea of realism.
The tradition of Western culture, whether it is philosophy or the emerging empirical science of modern times, is to face the ever-changing phenomenal world, to pursue the essence or origin behind it, and to pursue the eternal, universal, and unified truth outside reality. This is a dualistic separation and even an orientation of opposites, where essence and phenomena, origin and reality cannot be unified because of opposition.
In real life, this orientation will transform into the pursuit of standards, believing that only by establishing a definable, universal, and operable standard can the essence of things be grasped. Standardizing individuals with standards often leads to individual differences being smoothed out.
If Kant's pure reason is considered to be philosophy and viewed as a criterion, China does not have a rigorous logical reasoning system, no pure rational thinking that is detached from the metaphysical, so there is no philosophy in China.
But philosophy is not the same as metaphysics. The tradition of Chinese culture has never separated phenomena from essence, metaphysical from metaphysical. "Zhou Yi" is about "the metaphysical one is the way, and the metaphysical one is called the instrument". Although the "Tao" and the "instrument" can be separated in name, they cannot be separated in reality.
"Tao" does not leave "instrument", "instrument" does not leave "Tao". This feature can also be explained by the category of Song Ming's theory. Song Ming Theory has a wealth of logical analysis, and the theoreticians have further developed at the metaphysical level, but "reason" and "qi" are equally inseparable.
Zhu Xi believes that "reason, metaphysical, qi, metaphysical", "there is no irrational qi in the world, nor is there no reason for no qi", and when making theoretical analysis, we must distinguish between "reason" and "qi", but in the real world, "reason" and "qi" are integrated.
The Analects record a story in which Ziyou's students are okay in their daily behaviors such as sweeping, coping, and advancing and retreating, but these are all branches, and the fundamental truth is not taught.
After Zi Xia heard about it, he was very dissatisfied: if he didn't start with the use of human beings, how could he know the life of the Heavenly Dao? The theorists greatly admired Zi Xia's words, believing that "the way of the saints, even more impure, from sprinkling to responding to the essence of the gods, penetrating only one reason", and saying that "all things have an end, can not be divided into two things, sprinkling and sweeping response is its nature, there must be so.".
The true truth is everywhere, and the Tao is in the daily use of humanity, not another Tao that is separated from reality. What the people use every day and do not know is the common way, and it is important to realize it from the daily use of humanity, which is a good way to penetrate the tao and the instrument. Whether metaphysical and metaphysical are connected or separated is a key difference between Chinese and Western philosophy and even Chinese and Western cultures.
Interpreting Chinese philosophy by the standard of Western philosophy makes it impossible to understand the characteristics of Chinese philosophy itself, and the result is often deconstructing Chinese culture
Some people say that Chinese culture lacks logic, and there must be a point of pre-Qin masters. This makes people wonder, logic and language are linked, how to speak without logic? Chinese have their own logic and have their own set of rules for speaking.
Chinese is contextual logic, which determines the part of speech and meaning of the word in a certain contextual order, rather than analyzing a word in the abstract without the context, nor is it separated from the context and formally drawn conclusions from the premise of size.
If you think that logic is Aristotle's syllogism, then you feel that There is no logic in China. However, Chinese has been talking upside down for thousands of years? China has its own logic, but we haven't dug it out, or rather, because Westerners don't recognize it.
The logical analysis and pure rationality that stay in concepts and thinking have indeed not developed in Chinese culture. But isn't the practical nature of Chinese culture exactly what characterizes Chinese culture? Chinese philosophy has its own values and ways of thinking, so why negate China's own philosophy by the standards of Western philosophy?
This brings us to the question of mindset. Let me give you an example. In the "Tao" in the Tao Te Ching, many people are analyzing whether the "Tao" is a spiritual entity or a material entity. This is already the Western way of thinking, to think about a source that is independent of all things.
If we don't dwell on certain specific terms and understand Lao Tzu's meaning as a whole, where is the Tao? It is not that there is a "Tao" independent of all things, the "Tao" is in all things, and there is no "Tao" without all things. "Heaven gets one to be clear, and the earth gets one to be peaceful", heaven gets the characteristics of purity from the "Tao", the earth gets the characteristics of Ning from the "Tao", and the "Tao" manifests itself as different characteristics in different things.
Lao Tzu most admired water, "good as water", and looking at water can enlighten the "Tao". Water is invisible, but it can be shaped with things. To leave this aside and study whether the Tao is a spiritual entity or a material entity is a complete departure from Lao Tzu's core ideas.
For example, there was a period of time when people were often entangled in which mind and things were the first nature, and who decided whom. This is actually the Western way of thinking, first thinking that the two are separate, and then pursuing the original source of unity. Chinese philosophy focuses not on the question of which is the first nature, but on the question of the relationship between the two, and how the mind and matter react together.
Wang Yangming advocated that there is nothing outside the mind and no reason outside the mind, and in the past we thought it was subjective idealism, thinking that he meant that the mind produced things, but this was not the case. The "Book of Transmissions" records that once, when Wang Yangming was playing outside, a friend pointed to a flowering tree and asked, whether it was in the heart or outside the heart, Wang Yangming replied, "When you do not see this flower, this flower and Ru Xin return to silence; when you come to see this flower, the color of this flower is understood for a while", and the "silence" here means that it is not manifested, but the flower exists.
It is not that the heart produces flowers, but that the heart gives value to the flowers, and that the relationship between the heart and the flowers is mutually inducing. Confucianism talks about the induction of heaven and man, and Buddhism talks about the origin of the state of mind, and the state of mind is manifested, both to reveal the relationship and meaning between the mind and things.
In modern times, due to the influence of empirical science, we have become accustomed to a standardized way of thinking. Different cultures are created by human beings, and it is precisely because of the differences in types that cultural complementarity is possible.
Of course, we must also learn the advantages of Western culture, but the premise is to have cultural subjectivity. Interpreting Chinese philosophy by the standard of Western philosophy makes it impossible to understand the characteristics of Chinese philosophy itself, and the result is often deconstructing Chinese culture.
We can't cut enough, but we have to tailor it. Only by changing the way of thinking and removing the colored glasses can we understand the values and ways of thinking of Chinese culture itself, discover the value and significance of Chinese culture in solving current life and social problems, and better selectively absorb the essence of Western philosophy.
Source: People's Daily Overseas Edition
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