The term "dialectical materialism" was first used by Ditzgen to describe the philosophical system invented by Marx and Engels, and was later popularized by Plekhanov and Lenin, becoming a household name. In their early years, Marx and Engels often called their philosophical ideas "materialist view of history", and in their later years, after the establishment of natural dialectics and dialectical logic, their philosophical ideas were no longer limited to the field of history, but also expanded into natural science and the science of thinking, so the new term "dialectical materialism" appeared in the later period.
In 1868, Marx reiterated in a letter to Kugelmann: "I am a materialist and Hegel is an idealist." But his materialism, unlike Feuerbach's, did not reject Hegel's dialectics, but absorbed and transformed its kernel of truth. Therefore, Marx's materialism is inseparable from dialectics.
However, it cannot be said that Marx's philosophy is "dialectics" + "materialism", because before Marx there were many thinkers who combined dialectics with materialism. In the west there are Heraclitus and Diderot, and in the east there are Zhang Zai and Wang Fuzhi. For example, he bases mass interaction on the melting point and boiling point of chemical reactions and physics, and bases the theory of contradiction on electromagnetic polarity and labor duality, and so on. Ancient thinkers did not find a scientific basis for "dialectical materialism", they could only expound dialectics through some partial experience, or their own imagination, so they had a simple nature, although they could also combine dialectics with materialism, but this kind of thinking can only be called "simple materialism" because its foundation is not solid.
In order to understand naïve materialism, we take the ideological system of the Northern Song Dynasty philosopher Zhang Zai as an example and comprehensively expound and analyze it.
Marx based philosophy on science, not on imagination
Zhang Zai's representative as "Zhengmeng", at the beginning of the book, he guessed that the world is a state of "taihe".
In Zhang Zai's worldview, the world is quiet and harmonious, but the interior is full of contradictions and opposites. The world in the state of Taihe has the characteristics of opposing movements such as floating and sinking, rising and falling, and dynamic and static changes. Movement has no beginning, and all kinds of movements are carried out in accordance with the natural state of Yang and Yin. In the state of Taihe, the world has a "qi" side and a "god" side; taihe is the harmony between qi and God, the so-called qi is the part of the world that is scattered and imaged, and can be sensed, and the so-called God is the part of the world that is clear, unseen, and cannot be felt. Qi is metaphysical, while God is metaphysical.
The world is on its elephant side, full of yin and yang. These two qi are stuffed in the void, there are gatherings and dispersions, and they are constantly changing and coming. Dynamic and static intercourse.
The concentration and dispersion of qi is a natural and inevitable state that cannot be transferred by human will. Therefore, the saints should plan their own methodology for this reality. Since the change in the concentration and dispersion of qi is inevitable, there is no way for man to forcibly change it. Man cannot rely on qi so that he will not disperse and attain eternal life, nor can he dissipate his breath and make man perish. While obeying the natural changes of qi, what the saints can do and should do is "exist in God." The saints are not implicated in material desires, but must learn and gather the five principles of the five permanences; they must ask and discern the scriptures of heaven and earth; they must be lenient in the rule of all things; and they must be benevolent and keep the will of all things.
The saints make themselves in harmony with the Taihe Essence, the unity of heaven and man, the birth of humanity without regret, and the return of death to the void and without tiredness. This is Zhang Zai's proposition for the philosophy of life. Buddhism and Taoism, on the other hand, are at odds with this. The Buddha says "silence", thinking that the qi is scattered and does not return, it disappears forever, and all things are destroyed in the great pan nirvana, and life is meaningless; the Taoist says eternal life, thinking that it can be detained, held, and kept the qi, so that it will not disperse, and obtain eternal life. Although the Buddhist path is opposite, they agree on the view that they deny the natural concentration and dispersion of qi.
Zhang Zai speculates that the world is essentially a gas full of contradictions
At this point, it can be seen that Zhang Zai's philosophy has a strong theory of the immortality of matter and the theory of the circulation of matter. Qi is matter, and there is no distinction between "existence and absence", only the change of concentration and dispersion. When qi is gathered, it becomes an image thing, which can be seen and called "ming"; when qi is dispersed, it becomes an invisible thing and cannot be seen, which is called "you". The difference between the bright and the faint is like day and night, between the visible and the invisible, not the presence or non-existence. Therefore, qi is said to be non-birth and death, and qi exists forever and will not be extinguished into nothingness - this is the theory of the immortality of matter. On the other hand, qi is changing in motion, following the inevitable law of gathering and dispersing, and qi cannot only gather without dispersing, nor can it only disperse without gathering, always in infinite motion changes, from gathering to dispersing, from dispersion to gathering, so eternal life is also impossible - this is the theory of material circulation.
Zhang Zai's theory of material immortality is outstanding, and qi exists and exists forever, which destroys the religious idealistic theory of creation and doom, leaving no room for the gods. Qi already exists, and it is already in motion, so there is no need for the groundbreaking Pangu to create the world, and the materialist autogeneous theory is based on this. If we think that the void is absolute nothingness and can produce qi, then the void is infinite and the qi is limited, and the body is isolated, falling into the Taoist so-called theory of nothingness. To arise from absolute nothingness, it is impossible not to turn to the gods and creators. On the contrary, if we think that emptiness is irrelevant to qi, that it is self-forming, that it is sexually self-natured, and that nothingness is true, and that qi is reduced to illusion and dream bubble, one will fall into Buddhist nihilism. Therefore, Zhang Zai's materialism first lies in unifying the void and qi, believing that the void is the qi, the qi is the void, and there is no such absolute emptiness.
The universe exists, and it will always exist
Zhang Zai's theory of the immortality of matter is perfect, but the theory of the circulation of matter has great limitations. In Zhang Zai's philosophy, movement has not yet risen to development, and the movement of qi is a movement of gathering and dispersing in a reciprocating cycle, but has not progressed to an upward movement, so the changes in the world are only rotating in a great cycle, which Zhu Xi has already criticized. Wang Fuzhi made a more specific discussion of this cycle, saying that there is no "birth and death", only flexion, dispersion, and ghost. The annihilation of things is not to become nothing, but to enter the great cycle of matter and continue to move, but the human eye cannot see. Therefore, Wang Fuzhi believes that if a person dies and becomes nothing, then Bo Yi and the thief are also the same destination, so why don't people indulge in evil desires, why should they cultivate themselves and do good? Thus, the absurdity of the doctrine of nothingness is already evident. In Wang Fuzhi's view, people should have the fullest nature of God, become one with the void, and enter the material cycle, so that Yao Shun Zhou Kong will last for thousands of years.
What Zhang Zai and Wang Fuzhi have in common is that they use circulation instead of development, and there is no further view that the trajectory of the world is not a closed circle that starts from the starting point and returns to the starting point, but a spiral that constantly returns to the starting point and constantly exceeds the starting point, which is a kind of propulsion process similar to the double helix. Ordinary matter does not arise and perish, objectively existing things exist forever, but specific matter has a process of birth and death, of course, the birth and death here is relative, referring to the loss of its quality.
Zhang Zai believes that the universe is closed in a loop, rather than developing upwards
The qi fills the void, rising and falling. From the perspective of the image, it is divided into two sides: yin and yang; yang is the dynamic nature, and yin is the static nature. There is yang in the yin, and there is yin in the yang. From the perspective of form, it is divided into two sides: rigid and soft; from the perspective of sexuality, it is divided into benevolence and righteousness. From this, it can be seen that Zhang Zai's worldview contains a dialectic of contradictions divided into two.
Among them, the floating and rising part is yang and clear; the falling and sinking part is yin and turbid. The gathering and dispersion of qi is only a change in state, not a birth and death. Qi gathers and disperses in the void, just like ice solidifies and melts in water, knowing that ice and water are the same thing, we also know that too vain is qi. Thus, when the saints talk about philosophical issues such as sex and the way of heaven, they focus on the movement of things, while the sons are shallow and mistakenly focus on the existence or non-existence of things.
When the qi is not yet condensed in the void, the xiwei is not visible, so it is clear. Because it is clear, it can be entered into the visible and the image; if the qi condenses in too vain, it will change from clear to turbid, and the image cannot enter, and there are obstacles. Therefore, the concentration and dispersion of qi has a clear change, but God is consistent, and the saints who want to have the fullness of God are the same as too vain.
What is the relationship between God and qi? Zhang Zaiyue: "Where qi is clear, it is clear, it is dusk, and it is god." From this we can see that God is the pure breath, the state of being clear and unhindered. God and qi are opposites and unified, God is qi, qi is God, and at the same time God is not qi, and qi is not God. God is the pure qi, and the qi is the god of the unpurified pole. The two opposites are unified in Taihe. The qi is metaphysical, and the eyes and ears hear it, so there is an obstacle; God is metaphysical, and it does not come, and the god of the heart is in the six combinations. Therefore the saints should keep the god of the heart, so that they will be clear and not blocked by material desires.
Matter (qi) is not separated from movement (God).
"Two ends of one body" is also called "one thing and two bodies", this theory is the dialectical aspect of Zhang Zai's philosophy, Zhang Zai said: "If the two are not standing, one is not visible; if one is not visible, it is two uses." Wang Fuzhi explained: "But the two ends are used interchangeably, so that they become the image of opposites, so that we can know what is moving and what is quiet, what is gathered and scattered, what is virtual and real, and what is clear and turbid, all of which are given to the entities of Taihe and Yin." If there is only one body of water, then cold can be ice, heat can be soup, and the difference between ice soup is enough to know the normal body of water. ”
In Zhang Zai's "two ends of the body", as contradictions, it is not only the ends of the "two ends", but also the "two ends" themselves and the "one body". One is the body, two is used, and if the one is not established, the use of the two ends cannot be established; if the two ends are not established, the unity cannot be revealed. If Taihe is one, Yin and Yang are two ends, Taiheli, Yin and Yang can be incarnated; Yin and Yang are separated, and Taihe can be manifested. Water is one, cold water is ice, hot water is soup, ice and soup are two ends, only when water exists, there is a distinction between ice and soup; only with ice and soup, the water temperature can be revealed. Water is the body, ice and soup are used. This is the contradictory relationship between the body and the end, the body is unity, and the end is the opposite. The theory of contradiction between Zhang Zai and Wang Fuzhi regards unity as the main aspect of contradiction and is the body; opposition is the non-main aspect of contradiction and is used. But the one and the two ends are opposites and unity, and the two cannot be separated and exist alone.
The contradiction between the two ends of the one body is the root of the changes in all things under the heavens, Zhang Zai said: "The creation of creation, there is no one thing, to know that although there are many things, in fact, there is one thing; there is no yin and yang, to know the changes in heaven and earth, only the two ends." ”
Regarding the contradictory world outlook at both ends of the body, Zhang Zai came up with the methodology of "the saints are based on rigidity and softness, and the destruction of "Qian" and "Kun" cannot be seen in "Yi"" if they are destroyed. The saints acknowledged the contradiction between the two ends of the one body between heaven and earth, and practiced personnel to emulate heaven and earth, knowing that life knows death, and knowing that there is God knows nourishing qi. Grasp unity in opposition, grasp opposition in unity.
Zhang Zai's simple materialism is very rich, he regards qi as the origin of the universe and stands on the stand of materialism; at the same time, he has discovered contradictions such as yin and yang, two qi, and two ends of the body, and has a strong dialectical thought. It can be seen that as early as more than a thousand years ago, Chinese had already combined materialism and dialectics to form a philosophical theory.
However, as stated at the beginning, Zhang Zai's entire theory lacks a reliable scientific basis. He could not prove why qi is the origin of the universe, and how yin and yang function. He bases the philosophical system on a rich imagination, but lacks concrete proof, so it has "simplicity". Although it is possible to guess certain truths, in this system, there are often more errors than truths, which is a common flaw of ancient naïve materialism. This defect was compensated when Marx based "dialectical materialism" on science.