Peng Fuchun: Heaven and earth in the natural world

Of the three worlds (nature, society, and mind), nature is given first. What is nature? It refers here to the natural world or nature. But nature includes both narrow and broad senses. Nature in the narrow sense refers to the material world that is distinguished from human beings, that is, the general inorganic and organic worlds, but excludes human beings. Nature in a broad sense includes human beings in addition to the material worlds of the organic and inorganic worlds in general. But human beings here are primarily of their natural attributes, not their social attributes. That is to say, man is only a man as a natural man, not as a man of society. Man as such a trait is only a special creature, not a being who distinguishes himself from animals. Nature in this broad sense can be understood as heaven and earth and everything in between.

What is the day? The original meaning of heaven is the firmament above man's head, which is an infinite vast and far-reaching space. But the sky is not only the sky or the void, but also the celestial body. It includes all beings in the sky, such as the sun, moon, and stars. There the sun rises and sets; the moon runs, clouds and clouds go round; the stars shine brightly and brightly. Also the weather. The sky is filled with atmosphere, and its tangible and invisible changes form wind and clouds, rain and snow, lightning and thunder. Of course, heaven also refers to the way of heaven. It is the path and trajectory of the day running. It can be tangible or intangible; it can be visible or invisible.

What is the ground? The original meaning of the land is the land, which is the surface layer of the land. But it generally refers to the Earth, which is different from other celestial bodies in the universe. The earth in this sense refers not only to vast plains, but also to majestic mountains, rushing rivers and boundless oceans. It includes both above and below ground. But underground refers to both underground space and underground beings. The nature of the earth is to nurture, that is, to nurture all life such as plants and animals. The earth is not static, but changing. The sea becomes a mulberry field, and the mulberry field becomes a sea. Plants grow and wither, and animals are born and die.

Although there are differences between heaven and earth, heaven is heaven, earth is earth, and at the same time heaven is above and earth is below, they belong to the same body and interact. The Earth rotates alternately toward and away from the Sun. This has led to people on Earth seeing the sun rise in the east in the morning and set in the west at night. The side of the earth facing the sun forms day, and the side away from the sun forms night. The Moon revolves around the Earth, and the time from the new moon to the full moon to the moonless makes up January. Based on the change in the angle at which the sun shines on the Earth, that is, from the equator to the Tropic of Cancer, people divide the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter. The Earth revolves around the Sun for more than three hundred and sixty days and becomes a year. The common activity of heaven and earth not only constitutes the distinction of time, but also forms the layout of space. This is because all the natural space in which man is located is the space between heaven and earth.

Although heaven and earth coexist and move, they are not equal, but different. Comparatively speaking, heaven is dominant and earth is compliant. Not only that, but the earth, as the earth, is also a planet, one of the countless celestial bodies in the universe, and belongs to the heavens. Therefore, the earth is closely related to the fate of other celestial bodies, and the breath is corresponding. In this sense, one can also stop considering the differences between heaven and earth, and can collectively refer to them as heaven.

Although heaven and earth are one, they exist "in between." Between this heaven and earth is space. In space is not nothingness, nothing exists, but is full of all things. It is not finite, but infinite. People know it and people don't know it. Nevertheless, one can distinguish between all things, that is, all beings.

According to the nature and form of existence of all things, people can generally divide them into minerals, plants and animals. Minerals, such as stones, mud blocks and water, are inanimate beings who can maintain their identity relatively; plants, such as plants and trees, are living beings, germinating, growing, flowering, bearing fruit and withering; animals, such as birds and beasts, are sentient beings, born, living, reproducing and dying. Minerals, plants, and animals can be simply divided into inanimate and inanimate beings. The former will live and perish, and the latter will live and die. In addition, man can also be seen as a special animal. He had an animal-like body, born of his parents and gifted by heaven and earth. But unlike ordinary animals, man is not only a sentient being, but also a sentient being. Thus man became the heart of heaven and earth and the spirit of all things.

Such a whole of heaven and earth and all things is nature.

But nature cannot be understood narrowly as an environment in which man is active. Now people divide the earth inhabited by human beings into five major circles: the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, the earthensphere, the lithosphere and the biosphere, according to which people distinguish five environments, namely the atmospheric environment, the water environment, the soil environment, the geological environment and the biological environment. Based on the reality of the relationship between people and the environment, people emphasize attaching importance to the environment and protecting the environment. Although the nature of this activity to protect the environment and destroy the environment is fundamentally different and is positive rather than negative, it still has its limitations. Why? This is because when people call nature the environment, they do not start from nature, but from man.

The so-called environment refers to a surrounding situation, that is, the place around the surrounding of the person. This sets people as the center and nature as the edge. In this way, people can dominate and transform nature. Such an environmental concept, while superficially concerned with nature, implies a strong anthropocentric claim. It is based on such environmental awareness that people destroy the environment. It is only when the environment is destroyed and human beings are correspondingly greatly damaged that people begin to wake up, protecting themselves and protecting the environment at the same time. Only by protecting the environment can people protect themselves.

True or complete awareness of environmental protection must be based on people's correct conception of nature. That is to say, man must not only regard nature as a place around man, that is, the environment, but also as a system of existence that includes human beings, that is, ecology. The reason why nature is ecological, is a system of existence, is because the great virtue of heaven and earth is born, that is, the basic nature of nature is life. Nature or heaven and earth are a whole of life, in which each being exists freely and independently, and has its own process of generation and destruction. At the same time, each being is not alone and unrelated, but co-existent and interdependent.

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Plants grow on the land, absorb its nutrients and thrive. Animals inhabit landscapes and plants and survive by eating herbs or meat. People also live on the land and cannot live without the flora and fauna on it. In order to preserve and prolong his life, he became a plant gatherer and an animal hunter. At the same time, people will plant and breed, let plants grow, let animals grow. Animals, while eating grass and flesh, also spread the seeds of plants and promote balance between animals. In addition, the flourishing of plants maintains the balance of water and soil and provides food to the animals.

It can be seen that each kind of being in the ecosystem is self-generating and mutually exclusive. That is to say, they are both generated and competed with each other. Symbiosis means that one natural object can produce another natural object; phase ke means that one natural thing can restrain another natural thing. Classical Chinese thought divides nature into five elements, namely gold, wood, water, fire, and earth. There is a symbiotic relationship between them. Gold, wood, water, fire, and earth originally referred to the five kinds of existence of nature. Gold refers to metal, wood refers to plants, water refers to liquids, fire refers to thermal energy, and earth refers to land. But then it referred not only to the five material entities, but also to the five characteristics corresponding to this material entity. Gold is divided, wood is straight, water is flowing down, fire is upwards, and soil is planted. The symbiotic relationship between them is: wood makes fire, fire makes earth, native gold, gold grows water, and aquatic wood grows. The phase relationship between them is: Muke Earth, Tuke Water, Water Ke Fire, Fire Ke Jin, Jin Ke Mu.

Nature as an ecology is an infinite circulatory system of symbiosis, the core of which is symbiosis. #大道哲学 #

The author is a professor of philosophy at Wuhan University, and is the author of a series of academic monographs "Five Books of Guoxue" ("On Guoxue", "On Laozi", "On Confucius", "On Huineng", "On Confucianism and Taoism", all published and distributed by the People's Publishing House). This article is excerpted from "On the Avenue", the title is added by the editor.