【Commemorating the 1000th Anniversary of Zhang Zai's Birth】
Author:Xu Hongxing (Professor, Fudan University)
This year marks the millennium anniversary of zhang zai, the great Confucian of the Northern Song Dynasty.
Zhang Zai is a true philosopher, he has the courage to "create the Tao", "establish a heart for heaven and earth, establish a destiny for the people, continue to learn from the saints, and open up peace for all the worlds" This "four sentences of the horizontal canal" has been passed down through the ages. Zhang Zai not only thought well of people, but also paid attention to the practice of "foreign kings" and advocated Guanzhong with "bowing to etiquette and teaching". In terms of philosophy, he first focused on "Zhou Yi", and his masterpiece "Zhengmeng" was written on the basis of "Yi Chuan", which expressed cosmological and ontological ideas based on "qi". Proceeding from the theory of "qi", Zhang Zai constructed his philosophical system: In the theory of human nature, he put forward the categories of "nature of heaven and earth" and "nature of temperament", and better handled the confucian controversy on the good and evil of human nature since the pre-Qin; in terms of epistemology, he put forward the distinction between "knowledge of seeing and hearing" and "knowledge of virtue"; in the theory of work, he put forward important propositions such as "mental unity disposition" and "changing temperament"; in the theory of life, he put forward the ideal and mission of "people and things" to organically unify the people of heaven and earth. The idea of "the unity of heaven and man" in traditional Chinese philosophy has developed to a new stage. The above content has been discussed in many and details by the previous revision shiyan. Here, I would like to focus on the value and significance of Zhang Zai's philosophy from the perspective of intellectual history.
Qing carved version of "Zhang Zi Quanshu" information picture
"Philosophy is the era of grasping in thought", Zhang Zai's philosophy is a good confirmation of Hegel's famous saying. The emergence of Zhang Zai's philosophy was one of the important symbols of the Confucian revival movement in the ideological world at that time, that is, a creative response to the impact of mainstream Chinese thought after the rise of Indian Buddhism and indigenous Taoism.
In traditional Chinese thought, the world has always been regarded as an endless and popular whole, that is, it has been affirmed as a reality, and there has never been any doubt about its objective reality and the rationality of its existence. The most important classic that embodies this idea is "Zhou Yi". However, Confucian scholars from the pre-Qin to the Han and Tang dynasties were not very concerned with the ontology of the world, and when they talked about the ontology of the Heavenly Dao, they were often only satisfied with the generation and evolution of the universe, that is, the traditional "YuanQi" theory. This seemed natural at the time. However, since Buddhism came east, the situation has changed, and there is a growing trend, Zhang Fangping once concluded in the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty: "Confucianism is indifferent, can't be cleaned up, all belong to the Shi clan ear!" In the eyes of Buddhists at that time, the philosophical foundation of traditional Chinese thought and culture (including Confucianism, Taoism, etc.) was too shallow, and they were only satisfied with phenomena and could not be "extremely fundamental" to the world and life, so they could only be regarded as "right religions" that did not reach the source. A more typical view in this regard is as stated in the Tang Dynasty's Huayan Sect monk Zongmi's "Treatise on The Original Man", "Only knowing the near is the continuum of the ancestor and the father's lineage, and receiving this body; far away is chaotic and one breath, dissected into two yin and yang, two births of heaven, earth, three, three births of all things." All things and people are based on qi." This kind of "Yuanqi" theory is only equivalent to the stage of "empty robbery" in Hinayana Buddhism: "I don't know that the void world has been formed thousands of times before, and it has become a bad void and has finally begun again." Therefore, it is known that the Buddhist Method of the Lesser Theravada shallow teachings have gone beyond the deep sayings of the Outer Texts (the study of the two schools of Confucianism). ”
Buddhism talks about life, death, mind, body and other issues, and its theories all start from the ontology of the universe, argue from the height of world outlook and epistemology, that is, build their own theoretical system from the perspective of discussing the true illusion, existence, movement and stillness of the real world, the possibility, necessity, and truth of people's cognition. Therefore, if Confucian scholars want to respond to the challenge, they must explore and explain the highest existential problems, which is a task that is forced to be undertaken. Because at that time, Buddhism, which had been highly developed and had a refined metaphysical system, had established its own rational way of reasoning. Unless challenged to confront this metaphysical way of thinking head-on, it is possible to defeat the opponent, otherwise the status of Confucianism cannot be truly established. More importantly, if Confucianism wants to affirm the order in real life, it must first affirm the real world itself, so it must discuss and affirm the reality of this world and the rationality of its existence, stand at the height of philosophy to argue the rationality of the existence of Confucian benevolence, righteousness, and ritual music, and rebuild the theme of taking the human order as the ontological axis, so that Confucianism can once again become people's ultimate spiritual destination, and then can once again comprehensively guide people's social life.
Xi Ming (partial) profile picture
The construction of Zhang Zai's philosophical system follows this line of thought and sequence. The first sentence of the "Four Sentences of Hengqu", "Establishing a Mind for Heaven and Earth", essentially refers to the task of establishing the Confucian cosmic ontology under the challenge of the metaphysics of Buddhism and Taoism. This point was made very clear by Zhang Zai's disciple Fan Yu in the preface to the book "Zhengmeng": "Since Kong Mengwu, he has been studying the Absolute Tao for more than a thousand years, and the virgins have discussed, heretics, and the book of Ruofu Tu and Lao Tzu has been passed down under the heavens, in parallel with the Six Classics." And his disciples say that they think that the subtle principles of the Dao Dao cannot be discussed by The Confucians, and they must take my book as the right one. The Confucians of the world also said to themselves: "My Six Classics have not tasted the language, and Kong Meng has not tasted it." 'Thus believing in his books and his way, the whole world is in the same wind, and there is no doubt about it, and he can argue with one dynasty, and compare it with the right and wrong! Zi Zhangzi is uniquely known for his great talent in the world, the insight of the ancients, the study of knowledge and strong memory, and the thinking of the poor earth, and Yao, Shun, Kong, and Meng Hede for a thousand years. Min Hu Dao is unknown, si people are confused and sick, and the reason of the world is that it will be destroyed, so for this reason, it is different from Fu Tu and Lao Tzu. Cover as a last resort also. ”
Zhang Zai was one of the main representative figures who criticized Buddhist and Taoist thought at that time, and he stood on his own philosophical standpoint and criticized the Two Religions of Buddhism and Taoism from the height of cosmic ontology, and the level of criticism greatly exceeded that of his predecessors. For example, for the Taoist "virtual energy and anger", he pointed out that "virtual" is the natural form of the existence of "qi", and the generation theory of "virtual energy and vitality" has broken the body (virtual) and the use (qi) into two sleighs, resulting in "the use of the body is extraordinary", and the ontology and phenomenon cannot coexist and unify, so it is impossible to explain the phenomenon of "virtual infinity, limited qi", and the result can only be attributed to "existence is born of nothing". In addition, each prescribed form of "qi" is temporary and limited, there must be "gathering" and "scattering", and only the "too virtual" as the ontology has transcendence and is eternal, so the so-called "immortality" of "materialization" is also illusory. For another example, for the Buddhist "Everything is seen in the void", he pointed out that this is only "a little knowledge of the emptiness of the body as sex", and "do not know the use of the original Heavenly Dao", subjectively want to "avoid the tiredness of day and night, yin and yang", so that "the direct language is too virtual", do not know that the body must also be popular, otherwise it is useless. This kind of "emptiness" is to "destroy the heavens and the earth with the law of the mind", to recognize only the "true world" (the essence) and deny the "reality" (phenomenon), and then to "slander the world as an illusion". This is another form of expression of "the use of the body is extraordinary", and the result can only be that "things are not related to the virtual, the form is self-formed, the sex is self-nature, the form, the nature and the heavens and men do not treat each other." It is through the elaboration of "too vain is qi" that Zhang Zai criticizes the "emptiness" and "nothingness" views of Buddhism and Taoism.
The final foothold of Zhang Zai's philosophy is on the "People's Compatriots and Things" in his "Xi Ming": "Qian is called father, Kun is called mother, and Yu Zi is despised, but it is in the middle of chaos." Therefore, the plug of heaven and earth, my body; the handsomeness of heaven and earth, my nature. People, my fellow citizens; things, my people and also... Save, I go along; no, I'm not going to do it. "This really goes back to the roots of Chinese philosophical culture, the whole universe is the great epidemic of qi, so it is all-that-is." Zhang Zai used his theory of qi to unify the idea of "the unity of heaven and man" in traditional Chinese culture under the new philosophical framework. Further, Zhang Zai's Ximing breaks through the Buddhist theory of "living to death", which holds that people always go to death, and in the end everything is empty. Zhang Zai dealt with this problem with a different point of view, what is a person? It's gas. Qi is immortal, it is endless, and this actually solves man's last problem, that is, the problem of existence after life. The epilogue of the "Xi Ming" is "Existence, I am smooth; no, I am not ning also", alive, I will do a good job, dead, I am not ashamed. What about after death? According to the "Zhou Yi" qi theory of "endless life", just like the fable "Yugong Moves the Mountain", "the children and grandchildren are infinitely poor". Chinese transform this immortal speech into the theory of "three immortals"—to be virtuous, meritorious, and to make a statement in this lifetime. It can be said that the link of Zhang Zai's philosophy is very important in the history of the development and evolution of Chinese thought.
To put it a little further, the contemporary value of Zhang Zai's philosophy also lies in this. At present, the world is experiencing major changes unprecedented in a hundred years, And Chinese culture must not only absorb excellent foreign cultures, but also understand where our roots are, so that we can "have the best of our own, the united states and the united" and achieve "harmony and difference".
Guangming Daily (December 12, 2020, 11th edition)
Source: Guangming Network