The sentence "Man can conquer nature" is obviously unreliable and runs counter to the traditional culture of China. However, for a time, we were very superstitious about the saying that "man can conquer nature" and thought it was a wise saying. So why do we have such an understanding?

Let's talk about why "man can conquer nature" runs counter to the ancient traditional culture of China.

What China paid attention to in ancient times was "harmony between man and nature". The idea of "harmony between man and nature" has been circulating in China for thousands of years and has always been our orthodox thought. Moreover, what we need to understand is that the so-called "harmony between man and nature" is not an equal between man and nature, but that heaven is greater than man, heaven determines man and heaven leads. In other words, the sky is active and decisive. All human activities can develop smoothly only if they conform to proper laws. If people's activities go against God's will, then people will be punished by God. It should be said that this is the exact meaning of "harmony between man and nature".

In this case, why did we put forward the view that "man can conquer nature" for a period of time instead of our traditional cultural view?

In my opinion, the emergence of the proposition "Man can conquer nature" is mainly due to these two reasons.

First of all, "harmony between man and nature" is regarded as idealism by us.

Materialism and idealism, for a time, we strongly advocated materialism and opposed all forms of idealism. Think that idealism is reactionary and backward. And "the unity of heaven and man" is generally considered to be idealistic.

In ancient times, what was "heaven"? There are actually many explanations. One view holds that "Heaven" is a philosophical thought, such as the law of Yin and Yang, five lines of gossip's law, and the law of five virtues circulation. The reason why a dynasty perished, or succeeded, was that it followed God's will, or that it followed the "cycle of five virtues". And the ruler will use this statement to seize the world. Such as Liu Bang, Liu Xiu, Liu Bei, Cao Pi, Zhao Kuangyin and Zhu Yuanzhang. When they were fighting for land, they all said that they were the real dragon emperor, that is, the son of God, and that the world was arranged by God for them. Even Hong Xiuquan of the peasant uprising army said that the "heaven" he said was different from that of the ancient rulers. The "heaven" he said was God, but he still dressed himself as the son of "heaven". Including heroes in the water margin, they also describe themselves as the highest sun star in the sky and the stars on the ground.

During that time, we saw that these ruling classes in ancient times used justice to rule the people and fool them, so we put forward the saying that "man can conquer nature" in order to break the idealistic view of class rule.

Second, "Man can conquer nature" actually means that man can conquer nature.

That is to say, although we are saying that "man can conquer nature", we have not rebelled against heaven, but actually against man's laws. How to understand this sentence?

At that time, Chen Sheng once put forward the words that "princes and princes would rather have seeds". Because in an era like Chen Sheng, it is said that "Kamiuchi is a fool", and those slave owners, nobles and feudal owners all take it for granted and live a comfortable life. Civilian slaves and peasants should work and be enslaved and exploited by them. Therefore, Chen firmly opposes this.

However, Chen Sheng is not against Heaven, but against slave owners and nobles. What he wanted to achieve was to change the hierarchical structure at that time and make himself a new slave owner aristocrat. When Sheng Zaichen didn't get rich, he said to the poor people around him, "Be rich and don't forget each other." But when he made a fortune and became the new ruling class, he immediately forgot his promise.

When "man can conquer nature" was put forward in modern times, the proposer still hoped to change the unreasonable social structure, especially after the poor laid the foundation of the world and became the masters of the country. As a result, power and wealth are not in the hands of the real poor, so advocates believe that this is the only way to make changes.

But obviously, when this sentence was implemented, everyone didn't understand the truth of this sentence, so they thought that the "heaven" here was heaven and a natural law. That's why God opposed us and put forward the wrong statement that "how bold people are and how productive the land is". Put forward the so-called "it is fun to fight with the sky."

After realizing the historical background of "man can conquer nature", we won't make similar mistakes and do things that go against the laws of nature.