As one of the basic characteristics of Chinese philosophy, it emphasizes the natural harmonious relationship between heaven and man, man and man, and man and society, advocates the natural harmony of man as a part of the nature of the universe, and achieves the harmonious unity of subjectivity and objectivity, emotion and reason, rights and obligations, individuals and society in practice.
What exactly does "heaven" mean?
Mr. Feng Youlan believes that there are five main meanings.
The first is the "heaven of matter", which refers to the heaven that we see in daily life opposite the earth, which is what we now call the sky. The second is the "heaven of domination" or "the heaven of will", which refers to the "supreme God" with personality and will in religion. The third is the "day of destiny", which refers to the so-called luck in the old society. The fourth is the "heaven of nature", which refers to what the materialist philosophers call nature. The fifth is the "Heaven of Righteousness" or "The Heaven of Morality," which refers to the moral law of the universe imagined by idealistic philosophers.
The most basic of these five meanings is nothing more than two aspects: "heaven" in the natural aspect and "heaven" in the spiritual realm. The former is the foundation and plays a decisive role in the latter, but the latter (the "heaven" of the spiritual realm) can be meaningfully constructed of the former once generated, so that the natural lifeless and emotionless "heaven" can acquire the meaning and value of existence. The "heaven" here is actually "man", an externalized or objectified form of "man".
How exactly are "heavens" and "people" "one"?
Mr. Zhang Dainian believes that "the so-called unity of heaven and man in Chinese philosophy has two meanings: one day people are originally one, and two days people should be unified." "Regarding the original unity of heaven and man, there are two sayings: one day people are connected, and two days people are similar. The so-called communication between heaven and man, such as analysis, its meaning can be divided into two layers. The first meaning is that heaven and man are not two things that treat each other, but are a whole that is interconnected, and there is no difference between them. The second meaning is that heaven is the origin of human morality, and the origin of human morality comes from heaven.
In this view, what is fundamental in heaven is the fundamental, in the sense of self-righteousness, it is also fundamental in man, because man is a thing in nature. In another sense, however, the so-called human nature often refers to the fact that man is different from the non-human, that is, he is different from other human beings; and the fact that man is the same as other things, although fundamental, is not included in the so-called human nature. In this sense, man is based on nature, and human nature is a special nature of the later generation, which is either the universal heavenly path. The unity of the Heavenly Dao and human nature seems to speak of the Heavenly Dao as human nature on the surface, but in fact it is to speak of human nature as the Heavenly Dao, that is, to speak of human morality and righteousness as the dominant principle of the universe. This falls into an anthropomorphic error. The meaning of the similarity between heaven and man can also be analyzed into two aspects. First, the celestial beings are similar in form, and this is actually a matter of talking about the meeting. Second, the nature of heaven and man is similar, and this meaning is similar to the theory of the same theory of heaven and man, the theory of the same way of heaven and man, the human nature of the heavenly way, in fact, it is also the human morality of the heavenly way. ”
Mr. Zhang's analysis here is very reasonable and wonderful. Simply put, there are two ways: heaven "together" to man or man "together" to heaven in two ways. From this point of view, "the unity of heaven and man" is a very troublesome issue, and it is impossible for us to delve into it here. We have to understand and grasp it in the most ordinary sense. We believe that the meaning of "heaven" and "man" can be understood from two aspects. First, from the perspective of the relationship between man and nature, it is equivalent to the relationship between subjectivity and objectivity, spirit and matter or consciousness and existence; second, from the relationship between man and society, it is similar to the relationship between individuals and groups, sensibility and reason, or selfish desires and public morality. Further, the "unity of heaven and man" is defined here in the following: the harmonious and unified relationship between man and nature, man and society, subjectivity and objectivity, sensibility and reason, etc., is a special spiritual realm or state obtained by man in social practice in the process of moving from the kingdom of necessity to the kingdom of freedom.
The Confucian idea of "the unity of heaven and man"
The idea of "the unity of heaven and man" can be traced back to the Yin Zhou period, and the Book of Rites and Tables says: "Yin people respect God and lead the people to serve God." "The Yin people regard God as the lord of all things in heaven and earth, seeking divination in all things, which is actually a primitive obscurantist worship of man and God.
In the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the various schools established their own views of heaven and man, among which the Confucian school's view of heaven and man constituted the main vein of the idea of "the unity of heaven and man". Mencius Devoted to the Heart day: "He who does his best knows his nature, and he who knows his nature knows the heavens." The "unity of heaven and man" in Mencius emphasizes more human nature, and human nature is based on heaven. Here, Mencius not only gave morality to heaven, but also used the moral heaven as the fundamental basis for human morality. As Mencius said, "dedication, cultivation, and self-cultivation" and even "the one who does things in heaven and establishes destiny"; the cloud in "Zhongyong" "does his best" and even "participates with heaven and earth".
In the Han Dynasty, Dong Zhongshu established a complete theoretical system of "heaven and man induction" on the basis of his predecessors, such as his "Spring and Autumn Prosperity and Yang Mingyi" Cloud "Heaven" also has "mood and anger, mournful heart, and match people." In the case of the analogy, the heavens and men are also one.".
By the Song Dynasty, the three-dimensional structure of traditional Chinese culture had been basically formed, and the Confucian idea of "unity of heaven and man" had further matured, although Song Mingxue's "unity of heaven and man" and Zhang Zai's concept of "unity of heaven and man" were derived from Mencius's concept of heaven and man, but they and the theory of "Ercheng" had further developed mencius and Dong Zhongshu's theory of "heaven and man", which was mainly based on the idea that man and heaven and earth were one, and introduced the idea of fraternity into it, on the basis of which they affirmed the identity of heaven and humanity. Zhu Xi also developed heavenly reason and human desire to the extreme, and put forward the idea of "preserving heavenly reason and destroying human desire", which he believed was the only way to achieve the saintly realm of "the unity of heaven and man".
Looking at the development of the Confucian idea of "the unity of heaven and man", it can be seen that the idea of "unity of heaven and man" as the core concept of Confucianism and the realm pursued have far-reaching implications. The "heaven" of "the unity of heaven and man" can be summarized as: "One refers to the supreme master, the second refers to the vast nature, and the third refers to the highest principle." Obviously, the Confucian "heaven" has a moral meaning, that is, a moral heaven. "Unity" is also "unity", which means that the two sides are interconnected and have an inseparable relationship, of course, "unity" is not a simple addition of "heaven" and "man", but a concept of the whole, or beyond this simple sum.
The Taoist idea of "the unity of heaven and man"
The Taoist idea of "the unity of heaven and man" is different from that of Confucianism, and The Taoists pay more attention to the unity of the three "heaven and earth people" when discussing the "relationship between heaven and earth", based on the study of the time of heaven and earth people. In the history of Chinese culture, whether It is Taoism, Taoism, Xiandao, or Fang dao, they all regard the "Tao" as the source of the universe and the source of all things.
Lao Tzu said in the Tao Te Ching: "The Tao sheng one, the life two, the two births three, and the three births of all things", which is the pattern of cosmic generation outlined by Lao Tzu. Heaven and earth and all things in the universe are incarnated by the Tao, and neither can exist independently without the Tao. Taoists regard heaven and earth as a whole, in which man is a small universe, and all things in heaven and earth are a large universe, which, in the words of the Book of Dan, is "a small world of human beings, and a large human body of heaven and earth." The small universe of the human body also has its "Tao", "Qi", "Yin and Yang" and "Five Elements", which are homologous, isomorphic, and mutually perceptive with the large universe and nature. Man's birth is the incarnation of essence, qi, and God, and man's death is the exhaustion of essence, qi, and God. Therefore, The Taoists require people to maintain this state of fullness of essence, qi, and god, and not to be wasted to the point of exhaustion. To this end, The Taoists put forward a set of mysterious cultivation methods of "double cultivation of life" of "accumulating vitality", "accumulating qi and generating essence", "refining refining qi", "refining qi and refining god", and "refining god and returning to emptiness" to maximize the potential energy of the human body. Let the essence, qi, and God of the small universe communicate with each other with the essence, qi, and God of the large universe—the unity of man and heaven.
The Buddhist idea of "the unity of heaven and man"
Sinicized Buddhism also speaks of harmony with the universe, but its thinking is markedly different from that of Confucianism and Taoism. "The Buddhist period is 'becoming a Buddha', the Confucian period is 'becoming oneself', and the daily 'becoming oneself and becoming a thing', that is, the post-secular language 'becoming a person'." When Confucianism talks about "heaven", it never leaves man, and its fundamental foothold and ultimate boil down to man. The Buddhist "heaven" is another world opposite to the human world, this world is a pure realm that has no human world at all, and the "heaven" spoken of by the Buddhists always transcends man's position, and does not come down to man himself, but to a pure blissful world in which the Buddha is free from the sufferings of the world.
If the Confucians say that "heaven" is for a positive human life, then the Buddhists say "heaven" entirely for the purpose of prudently practicing in the current world, which is an attitude of life based on the current world in order to seek birth or passively live in the world. It can be seen from this that this kind of Buddhist thinking not only fundamentally negates real life, but also denies the positive value of real life.
According to the Buddhist view, all worlds are suffering, life is suffering, and the whole life is suffering, even life or existence itself is suffering. In order to get rid of these sufferings in life, we must transcend the "Three Realms", base ourselves on the current world, and practice in the human world, so that we can enter the heavenly kingdom according to the size of merit and achieve the unity of heaven and man. This realm of the unity of heaven and man is completely opposed to reality, and is the realm of "unity of heaven and man" in which all things are empty and the merits of great consummation are complete.
The ancient Chinese idea of "the unity of heaven and man" has roughly gone through three stages of development: the pre-Qin, the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, and the Song and Ming dynasties. "The unity of heaven and man" is a long-standing dominant idea in the history of Chinese culture. "The unity of heaven and man" is the ideological core left by the ancient Chinese sages to all mankind, and is the greatest contribution of Chinese culture to mankind. "The unity of heaven and man" means that man and nature must be one and coexist peacefully. In order to achieve harmonious coexistence between man and nature, it is necessary to realize the organic unity of the humanistic spirit and the scientific spirit. Harmony develops, and disharmony mutates, which is an unchangeable truth for eternity.
I am not Shang Shu
The idea of "the unity of heaven and man" is an important part of traditional Chinese culture, and has a profound impact on all aspects of traditional culture, such as science, ethics and morality, aesthetic consciousness, etc. Shangshu felt that this idea at least affected Li Shuangjiang, and he named the child Li Tianyi.
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