Respondents | Michael Puming
Interviewer | Nigel Warburton
Excerpts | Xu Yuedong
Eat a balanced diet, balance life and work, balance expectations and reality... In times of change, modern people's lives need to be balanced. Balance, the philosophical practice advocated by Plato and the Stoic school, is also the aesthetic of survival advocated by Nietzsche. How to lead a balanced life with the way of seeking truth, not to lose, not to blindly follow, not to despair, this is a big problem that people who love philosophical thinking seriously ponder.
In Chinese philosophy, balance is an extremely important concept. With the penetration of yin and yang philosophy into all aspects of Chinese life practice, every Chinese immersed in Chinese culture will more or less understand some ways of balance. In the face of the imbalances that modern life has given to modern people, the balance in Chinese philosophy provides a rich spiritual heritage for people around the world. How does Chinese philosophy understand the way of balance? What kind of inspiration can we draw from the balance of Chinese philosophy?
The first issue of the Chinese edition of New Philosopher magazine was "Balance". The light magazine "New Philosopher" itself balances the professionalism and popularity of philosophy, providing philosophical answers to the anxieties of modern people in a simple and simple way. The following is an excerpt from the first issue of New Philosophers with the permission of the publishing house.
"New Philosopher", edited by the Editorial Department of New Philosophers in Australia, translated by Xiang Jingting, CITIC Publishing Group, January 2021 edition
For Chinese philosophy,
What is really important is the constant convergence of forces
Nigel Warburton: From an objective point of view of Chinese philosophy, balance, especially Taoist balance, seems to be a key concept. It is the balance of forces, at least the view that has spread to the West. Is this view accurate? Does balance play an important role in Chinese philosophy?
Michael Puming: Exactly. One of the key reasons why it is an important part of Chinese philosophy is that there is a primary assumption in China that the world is made up of constantly flowing energies and is chaotic. These energies are often very different and come in different forms.
Therefore, in this world of constant energy, things often collide with each other in bad ways. This becomes particularly bad if it comes to humans specifically, because they also belong to this kind of messy thing, with a lot of different energies surging inside, interacting with other chaotic things with a lot of different energies (i.e., other humans), and often fighting fiercely with each other.
So the big picture of balance is that you understand the world in which humans interact as a world that is perpetually in danger of conflict. Here, chaos is always fighting with other chaos in bad ways. If that's your primary concern, then all you have to do is learn to live in harmony with these competing forces and make the most of it.
It's not about letting these forces disappear, or about marginalizing them. You have to harness these different forces, connect them, and then go to prosperity. There, the balance can finally be reached. The idea is that one of the goals you seek is to balance these different forces, no matter how long they are, and not to let any of them dominate.
Nigel Warburton: It's really interesting because a model of a balance has two weighing pans and a pivot point, and it just needs to find a balance between the two things. But from what you describe, balance sounds like there are many other aspects.
Michael Puming: That's right! There are many more. This is also an aspect that I think the West usually does not fully understand, because many people feel that there are two main categories of energy classification: yin and yang, and this part is correct. If you think of yin as a woman and say, "I'm cold," then yang is hot, male.
When we hear this statement, we often think, "Oh, so that means there are two energies, like there are only two genders, male and female, and the whole world is divided into two parts." "As you said, it's just a matter of balancing these two things. But of course, what really matters to Chinese philosophy is that these categories are applied from top to bottom in all aspects and are constantly blended.
That is, as a male, I don't mean that I am made up of yang energy, but that I have more yang energy, which is why I am male, but I also have a lot of yin energy, and it is plural energy. What's more, these energies interact. There are all kinds of energies in my body, some of which are yang, some of which are yin, and they are also interacting. At the same time, I interact with other people, and I interact with their yang and yin. So it's not really just two things that need to be balanced, you're actually balancing a variety of completely different forces.
Michael Puming, Harvard University Chinese History and Anthropology "Walter M. Professor C. Klein", photo: Charles Klein K. Michael
Nigel Warburton: So to understand this question, is it also possible to compare it to other paired concepts, such as anger and longing, to which they depend?
Michael Puming: Exactly. The one thing they can attach to is what we call emotion. So if I'm angry and use this way of thinking to explain what's happening, it's an explosion of yang-form energy in my body. Of course, this means that if there are too many yangs that we can call angry, I will become too radical and no longer see the complexity of the situation, because I will be overwhelmed by the radical energy of anger.
Therefore, I need to balance it with a gentler form of energy. So, in the face of my anger, I will balance it with more yin. It's just an internal balance within the individual, but if people are going to deal with me who is in such a bad state, they'll try to do something to get their balance back – trying to quell this overwhelming anger or trying to generate more yin energy in my body.
Nigel Warburton: The person who's reading this can't see your gesture, but when you describe it, you seem to be performing some kind of martial art. Therefore, the relationship between people is to convert the energy towards a positive way of use, like some kind of... I do not know...... In something like kung fu, you absorb some of the energy that comes at you and make it no longer aggressive, rather than simply fighting it.
Michael Puming: Exactly. Judo, for example, which means "path of softness" in Chinese, is that its goal, the key trick of martial arts, is indeed to try to perceive the energy of another person, either to live in harmony with these energies and make the most of them, or to use them to fight back when they attack you.
So, in the typical example you mentioned, if someone is aggressive toward me, then according to the definition of this thinking, they are too dependent on yang, which can cause them to be a little too aggressive, slightly beyond the energy source they have. I would try to grasp the moment, use the energy they used to attack me, and attack them instead. In judo, literally, suppose someone tries to lunge at me, I just need to switch the position of my body and use his strength to throw him off me.
The philosophy of yin and yang is not only Taoist,
It also penetrates into all aspects of Chinese daily life
Nigel Warburton: So, I'm trying to understand the different aspects of what you feel. So, for example, is it possible, for example, to be a balanced person, that is, to maintain a total balance between these two forces, while at the same time, in some ways, one of the energies is more than the other? We've already talked about anger on this point, but if you have too much love from the point of view of love... I don't know which of the two forces of yin and yang will be associated with it. In addition, in other areas, such as anger, you will have another balance, but overall they cancel each other out. Is this possible? Or do they have to achieve an independent equilibrium at some point of equilibrium in all aspects of the visible, existing yin and yang? Or are we really concerned with the balance between the various aspects of the self?
Michael Puming: In a strange way, both of the situations you mentioned hold true, and a third element is added, the time element. So when dealing with other people in different situations and constantly invoking all your energy, the other people you're dealing with also have very complex energies that are constantly emerging. At this point, if one energy dominates for a long time, it will certainly not lead you in a good direction, either way.
Because if any kind of energy is completely dominant, it means that you are too focused on one thing and will not see other things. You would think... To take a standard example from the literature, it is certainly a good thing to be an enthusiastic person. Yes, but the right way is that you are "always" enthusiastic. If you've been overzealous, at some point you may be confronted with someone who needs to be more determined to deal with, a brief moment. However, if your attitude is too decisive, it may be harmful to the situation at that time.
So it's reasonable to say that in any case, you'll have a set of energies that will have a brief advantage, but at the same time you'll come to realize that there's always an inherent danger when any set of energies is dominant, and you're immediately trying to keep the balance. So yeah, back to your question, there will be dominant energy at some point, which is even a good thing. But if this situation lasts too long, it is always dangerous to lead you into a situation where this set of energies no longer applies.
Nigel Warburton: So, is the philosophy of yin and yang unique to Taoism, or is it a more universal concept?
Michael Puming: This is actually quite common in concepts. They can be found in a large number of literary works, and the focus of these literary works is how to develop the habit of getting along with these energies. This concept did develop in Both Taoism and Confucianism because in the face of a wide variety of issues (such as morality, how to live better, etc.), regardless of your ultimate philosophical stance, it is an extremely rich word that helps practitioners gain a deep sense of self and understand the complex, chaotic emotional tendencies that we all have. Using these terms, you have a very specific way of learning to perceive, use, and perfect them, so "yin and yang" has become an omnipresent language of thought that spans different Chinese ideas.
NIGEL WARBURGTON: So what do you learn about this language? In reality, does anyone use it to describe others in this framework?
Michael Puming: Oh, very common. You can use it to describe people, and you can use it to describe food. So, if you're dining, sometimes you'll experience a little bit of imbalance. This is not because (say) the food is too spicy, but because it is too spicy and not balanced with other foods.
So if you're eating a dish with a higher level of masculinity, you'll want to balance it out with another dish that can be moderately blended. Of course, at this point, you can also take time into account – at some point in the meal, I will serve this dish that is very, very, very strong, and then immediately after you finish eating it, balance it with a more gentle dish. So you can talk about people in this way, talk about food, talk about all kinds of situations.
In addition to the yin and yang energies, I might add another classification method that classifies the energies according to the level of intensity. You can have high-energy moments, low-energy moments, or high-energy states, low-energy states. You can have a highly perfect feeling of energy, or you can have a feeling of low perfection of energy, which means that you are slower to react to the situation around you. As a result, you will learn many different patterns, and in any given situation, you will always notice them and try to balance them with other patterns.
Nigel Warburton: So, is this energy different from yin and yang? Or is it a description of yin and yang?
Michael Puming: We can think of yin and yang as a possible way to classify these different energies. It's a very advantageous way to classify, but you can also categorize by how well you are. For example, air is a highly perfect energy. The sludge itself also contains energy, but in the spectrum of perfection, it is low in position.
This way of thinking is very useful because humans have some more perfect energy, but also less perfect energy. Our lifestyles can be dangerous because we may waste our highly perfect energy. Our goal is the opposite, to develop the habit of being able to literally recharge ourselves, that is, to get more highly perfect energy.
Therefore, if you can feel the highly perfect energy in this way of thinking, you can use it to practice, train yourself, and make yourself more able to replenish the highly perfect energy more often. However, as before, too much highly perfect energy is also a bad thing in some cases, and because of this, you need to balance.
Nigel Warburton: So, you talked about air and silt. When I think about energy, I think of things that make me feel powerful, or things that make me happy. Obviously, for everyone, breathing air is a prerequisite for these activities. Is it because of this that air is highly perfect energy? Or is it irrelevant, just because of the metaphysical assumptions that some Chinese philosophers made about air?
Michael Puming: In part because of the latter. Part of broad metaphysics sees the heavens above our heads as highly perfect energies. Therefore, if the gods exist in heaven and are visualized as having a highly perfect energy that transcends ordinary people, able to see thousands of miles, hear in all directions, and communicate and respond perfectly with other gods and natural forces, it means that they are highly perfect energies.
Below is the earth. Let's say we use the example of silt again, which is very low-level perfect energy, silt has no vitality, no vitality, certainly can't listen, can't speak. It won't respond to anything, maybe it will react to the pond, I can stand up and move it, but it won't respond to me. And back to your question, of course, the air is more sacred, and the mud belongs to the earthly world.
And the reason these things are so important is that human beings are right in between. We have life, and therefore can be considered alive; we are conscious, we can see, we can hear, but usually we don't see it so clearly, which means, looking at the world around us in an effective way. We don't hear very well, in limited ways, from a specific perspective.
Therefore, the goal of genetic self-cultivation is to train oneself closer to the gods of heaven, isn't it? More alive, more energetic, seeing more clearly, hearing more clearly, reacting more quickly to the world around us. We are human beings, so we can never be Gods, but our goal is to be closer to God in the way we live.
Nigel Warburton: So, do you think this way of thinking would be helpful for people who look at the world in a more scientific way? In a sense, what lies beneath the silt, perhaps coal, may also have highly perfect energy. Above, where the air is thin, there may be only low levels of perfect energy, and the sun obviously has a lot of energy by the standard of how much energy we can produce with it. This is a very different way of conceptualizing the world. Is exploring this useful? Or should we see it as an interesting feature of Chinese metaphysics, dividing the world in some way that transcends science?
Michael Puming: I find this way of thinking very useful. Specifically, let me start with "humanity" and then move on to the larger, metaphysical world.
From a human perspective, this is very valuable. I think we're going to fall into one of the danger zones, especially in the modern West, where we tend to think of having some sort of pre-given "real" self, and from that point of view I might call it "dangerous." There is a self here, and if I act in some way, that is me, that is the real me, and I should learn to love myself and embrace the real me.
Of course, from an energy perspective, you should never think that way, because the way you feel right now may be nothing more than a set of energies (assuming they usually do badly), then the question is how to make habits and make changes. So instead of feeling, "I have some 'self' intrinsic character traits that I should accept," you should think, "No, I'm just a mess with different energies, like all people, so I can be a more balanced person, like those around me." I can work with the people around me to make things better. "So, for humans, it's definitely helpful to think like this."
However, we now return to the question of metaphysics. I think it's easy to believe in similar ideas when we understand the wider universe. It's easy to fall into the danger of interpreting the world as a world of basic matter that is what they look like—following clear, natural, unchanging laws. If we understand those laws, we understand what those substances are, and we understand which forces determine their interaction.
Now, in some ways of thinking, there is no doubt that this understanding is very effective, and it brings about a simplified approach in science. But of course there is a danger, which forces you to believe that the world is indeed made up of those basic substances, and that there are clear laws of nature that govern their interactions. And I think we should suspect that all this may just be a false idea. Of course, we know that at the quantum level it is wrong. So, is it possible that it is also wrong on a deeper level?
Imagine a world, like the one we see in Chinese metaphysics, that has always been filled with infinite, interactive energies that ultimately fail to reach the level of conceptualization. Therefore, you will not find a clear law of nature that defines everything. You can describe it by interactive patterns.
But of course, once the expression "interactive mode" is used, you can ask: "Are these modes always advantageous?" Are there any ways to use these models to make us and the rest of the wider natural world more productive? "As with a human perspective, once you ask this question, the next question arises: Can we change the established and unchanging facts that are otherwise considered unchanging? I think it must be particularly effective to think in this way.
Harmony means "harmony without difference"
Nigel Warburton: You talked about habits – I know that Chinese philosophy is very much linked to the cultivation of habits to change the way we see things, especially in the moral realm. Are there any habits associated with specific texts or schools that make you feel essential to an individual's balance? I think some readers might be interested in exploring Chinese philosophy. Can you provide them with some guidance? What texts or things can, as you describe, empower them to live in a more balanced world in different ways?
Michael Puming: Absolutely. I would especially like to recommend, and indeed write about this habit, "Pipe Inner Industry". It has a good English translation, which was translated by Harold Ross. This article is also one of the earliest in the world, written around the 4th century BC. It's trying to really find the possible outcomes of thinking about the world in different states of energy, which is also one of the earliest in China.
The focus of this article is precisely the habits we can begin to participate in, and its argument is often our daily habits, such as calming our "qi" and calming our high-level energy. As time passed, we slowly became more and more tired, frail and sick, and the time of death that we were supposed to face was much earlier. The most critical habits this article is trying to promote are, literally, the habits that teach us to live better and that also give us more energy. So it's all about things that are obvious at first glance, like learning how to improve your diet, sticking to exercise...
"Pipe", annotated by Li Shan, Zhonghua Bookstore, March 2009 edition
Nigel Warburton: We do say "balanced eating"!
Michael Puming: Yes, that's right! Absolutely crucial. But it doesn't just say this. These are things that we have accepted. It also says more, and in the same way, we would also say that the way our emotions interact with the world is very dangerous and that we need to learn to balance those emotions. Learn to balance the way you interact with the people around you, and learn not to be controlled by your own emotional reactions to the world, because they will make you too excited, or too excited. Happy Pole will always be sad.
So, you're training yourself to regulate and adjust your response to the world, and this article says you need to start by exercising consistently and improving your diet. This is part of a wellness routine. Eating well and sleeping well is something we know should do but don't normally do, and this book will emphasize that you can also think of this as a daily habit, learn to live with mood swings, and learn to accompany your own responses to the world. Once you start thinking about it from an energy point of view, you will find it very practical because you have a very specific way to understand the meaning of these energies and to feel exactly whose presence you are when using them. You can feel their presence when you're exercising, as well as when you're talking to people and working in a variety of situations.
Nigel Warburton: That's great. Who is the author of this article? Does the idea it makes belong to a specific philosophical school?
Michael Puming: Interestingly, it doesn't belong to any genre. This goes back to the question you just asked – how common these ideas are. "The Inner Industry" is only a chapter in "The Pipe". The guanzi is very complex, and the name "guanzi" is used only because this person (Guan Zhong) was the minister of state of the State of Qi during the Spring and Autumn Period, and the book was supposedly written in the State of Qi.
This chapter does not indicate the author, but is called "internal industry". It is not classified as any kind of thought, but simply shows us what is about energy. As soon as neiye and other related texts were written, the same statement became popular in traditional Chinese philosophy. So since then, most people must be very familiar with those characters (such as Mencius, Zheng Xuan) also began to quote this statement. However, it seems to have come from a discussion about self-cultivation and cultivating the energy inside the human body.
Nigel Warburton: Is there a particular word that is often used to describe "balance"? Describe the state you want to achieve...
Michael Puming: Yes, the most used is "harmony." When the word was translated into English, it had a slightly dangerous connotation. When we hear the word "harmony, that is, harmony," we think, "Oh, this means that we want to make all things harmonious and unified, that is, to assimilate them." In Chinese, "harmony" means the opposite, and they'll tell you, "No, it's not." Imagine a world where everything is completely different, with endless energies in it, but rarely communicating with each other. Harmony does not mean assimilating them, but connecting them in an effective way. ”
As you can see, this way of conceiving means something completely different in any case. So, you're learning to train yourself to feel its complexity, to get along with it, to work with it, and to connect them to each other. This is the true meaning of what Chinese means by "harmony"—not to eliminate differences, but to be different from each other.
Nigel Warburton: We can say, for example, harmony in music, and the way to deal with discordant notes is to let them eventually dissolve over time. In this sense, there are many discordant notes in Bach's compositions, but usually they are resolved at the end of the piece, so time is absolutely crucial. The metaphor of balance is also very important, but it's not just balance — it's like a vector that directs the vector in the direction you want, rather than letting them spread out in different directions.
Michael Puming: Yes, that's an interesting statement. Returning to the musical metaphor, in a sense, it would be a work without an ending, with all sorts of very different notes. You keep tying them together, but there will never be a final solution because they will always change. At some point, you may have caught a perfect solution, but after a while you will find that something dangerous that you hadn't noticed before needs to be rearranged to allow these different pieces of tone to fuse again.
Editor| Li Yongbo
Proofreading | Wu Xingfa