The position of philosophy in China culture
Westerners think Confucianism is a religion when they see Confucianism permeating people's lives in China. But realistically speaking, Confucianism is no more like religion than Plato or Aristotle's theory. It is true that the Four Books used to be the Bible of China people, but there is no Genesis in the Four Books, nor does it talk about heaven or hell.
Of course, philosophy and religion are both polysemous nouns. For different people, philosophy and religion may have completely different meanings. When people talk about philosophy or religion, they may have very different ideas related to it. As for me, what I mean by philosophy is the idea of systematic reflection on life. Everyone, as long as he is not dead, is in life. But not many people have reflective thoughts about life, and even fewer people have systematic reflective thoughts. Philosophers must be philosophized; That is to say, he must reflect on life and then express his thoughts systematically.
This kind of thought is therefore called reflective, because it takes life as the object. Life theory, cosmology and epistemology all come from this type of thought. Cosmology comes into being because the universe is the background of life and the stage of life drama performance. The emergence of epistemology is because thought itself is knowledge. According to some western philosophers, in order to think, we must first understand what we can think; That is to say, before we start thinking about life, we must first "think about our thoughts".
All these "theories" are the products of reflective thoughts. Even the concept of life itself, the concept of the universe itself, and the concept of knowledge itself are the products of reflective thinking. Whether we think about life or talk about it, we are all in life. Whether we think about the universe or talk about it, we are all part of it. However, philosophers say the universe, physicists also say the universe, and they mean different things in their hearts. Philosophers say that the universe is the totality of all existence, which is equivalent to the "freshman" called by ancient China philosopher Hui Shi, and its definition is "nothing beyond the greatest". So everyone and everything should be regarded as a part of the universe. When a person thinks about the universe, he is thinking reflectively.
when we think or talk about knowledge, this thinking and talking is knowledge itself. In the words of Alex Dodd, it is "thought"; Thoughts and thoughts are reflective thoughts. If a philosopher insists that we must think of our thoughts before we think, he will fall into an evil cycle here; It's as if we have another ability to think our thoughts with it! In fact, the ability we use to think, that is, the ability we use to think, is the same ability. If we doubt our ability to think about life and the universe, we have the same reason to doubt our ability to think.
Religion also has something to do with life. There is a philosophy at the core of every great religion. In fact, every major religion is a philosophy plus a certain superstructure, including superstitions, dogmas, rituals and organizations. This is what I call religion.
The definition of the word religion in this way is actually no different from the common usage. If we understand it according to this meaning, we can see that Confucianism cannot be regarded as a religion. People are used to saying that there are three religions in China: Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism. We have seen that Confucianism is not a religion. As for Taoism, it is a school of philosophy; Taoism is religion, and there are differences between them. Taoism and Taoism are not only different, but even opposite. Taoism teaches people to follow nature, while Taoism teaches people to follow nature. For example, according to Laozi and Zhuangzi, being born and dying is a natural process, and people should follow this natural process calmly. But the main doctrine of Taoism is the principle and magic of how to avoid death, which is obviously contrary to nature. Taoism has the scientific spirit of conquering nature. People who are interested in the history of Chinese science can find a lot of information from Taoist works.
Buddhism as a philosophy is different from Buddhism as a religion. Educated people in China are much more interested in Buddhism than Buddhism. It is common for monks and Taoists to attend China's funeral. Even if China people believe in religion, it is philosophical.
Now many westerners know that compared with people from other countries, China people have always been the least concerned about religion. For example, Professor Derk Bodde has an article, "The Dominant Ideas in the Formation of China Culture" 4, which says: "China people do not regard religious ideas and activities as the most important and fascinating part of their lives. ..... The spiritual foundation of China culture is ethics (especially Confucian ethics), not religion (at least not a formal and organized religion). ..... All this naturally indicates that China culture is fundamentally different from most other major cultures, which are dominated by monasteries and monks.
in a certain sense, this statement is completely correct. But some people will ask: Why? For the pursuit beyond this world, if it is not one of the innate desires of human beings, why do most ethnic groups take religious concepts and activities as the most important and fascinating part of their lives? If this pursuit is one of the basic human desires, why are China people an exception? If the spiritual foundation of China culture is ethics, not religion, does this mean that China people have no understanding of values higher than moral values?
a value higher than moral value can be called "super-moral" value. Love is a moral value; Loving God is a super moral value. Some people will tend to call super moral value religious value. But in my opinion, this value is not limited to religion, unless the meaning of religion here is different from that mentioned above. For example, loving God is a religious value in Christianity, but it is not a religious value in Spinoza's philosophy, because what Spinoza said about God is actually the universe. Strictly speaking, the Christian love for God is actually not super-moral. This is because the Christian God has personality, so that people can love God compared with their sons who love their fathers, which is a moral value. Therefore, it is very problematic to say that Christian love for God is a super moral value. It is a quasi-transcendental moral value. And the love of God in Spinoza's philosophy is the true super moral value.
To the above questions, I want to answer that the pursuit of transcendence is one of the innate desires of human beings, and China people are no exception to this rule. They don't care much about religion because they are extremely concerned about philosophy. They are not religious, because they are all philosophical. They satisfied their pursuit of transcendence in philosophy. They also expressed and appreciated the super-moral values in philosophy, and lived according to philosophy, and they also experienced these super-moral values.
According to the tradition of China's philosophy, its function is not to increase positive knowledge (positive knowledge. I mean about the actual information), but to improve the realm of the mind-to reach the realm beyond this world and gain value higher than moral value. Laozi said: "Learning is getting worse, and Tao is getting worse. (Chapter 48) Regardless of this difference in profit and loss for the time being, I don't fully agree with the statement of Laozi. Quoting it now just shows that there is a difference between learning and being Tao in China's philosophical tradition. The purpose of learning is what I call increasing positive knowledge, and the purpose of being Tao is what I call improving the realm of the mind. Philosophy belongs to the category of Tao.
The function of philosophy, especially metaphysics, is not to increase positive knowledge. The Vienna School of contemporary western philosophy has also given play to this view, but from different angles and for different purposes. I don't agree with this school: the function of philosophy is only to clarify ideas; The nature of metaphysics is only conceptual poetry. Moreover, it can be clearly seen from their debates that philosophy, especially metaphysics, will become nonsense if it tries to give practical information.
Religion does give practical information. However, the information given by religion is not in harmony with that given by science. So in the west, religion and science have always been in conflict. If science takes a step forward, religion takes a step back; In the face of scientific progress, the authority of religion has decreased. People who maintain tradition are sad about this, and feel sorry for people who have become unbelievers, thinking that they have fallen. If there is no other way to gain higher value than religion, we should really feel sorry for them. People who give up religion will lose higher value if they have nothing to replace it. They had to confine themselves to worldly affairs and isolate themselves from spiritual affairs. Fortunately, besides religion, there is also philosophy, which provides a way for mankind to obtain higher value-a more direct way than that provided by religion, because in philosophy, in order to get familiar with higher value, there is no need to take circuitous roads such as prayer and worship. The higher value that is familiar through philosophy is even more pure than that obtained through religion, because the latter is mixed with imagination and superstition. In the future world, mankind will replace religion with philosophy. This is in line with the tradition of China. Man should not necessarily be religious, but he must be philosophical. Once he is philosophical, he will have the blessing of religion.
The problems and spirit of China's philosophy
The above is a general discussion on the nature and function of philosophy. The following is devoted to China's philosophy. There is a mainstream in the history of China's philosophy, which can be called the spirit of China's philosophy. In order to understand this spirit, we must first understand the problems that most China philosophers try to solve.
there are all kinds of people. For every kind of person, there is the highest achievement that any kind of person can have. For example, the highest possible achievement for a person engaged in practical politics is to become a great politician. The highest achievement a person who is engaged in art can achieve is to become a great artist. There are all kinds of people, but all kinds of people are human. What is the highest possible achievement when it comes to whether a person is a person? According to China philosophers, that is to be a saint, and the highest achievement of a saint is the identity of the individual and the universe. The question is, if people want this identity, do they have to leave society, or even deny "life"?
according to some philosophers, this is necessary. Buddhists say that life is the root of the pain of life. Plato also said that the body is the prison of the soul. Some Taoist people "attach warts to life, and take death as the decisive factor." "This is all thinking that in order to get the highest achievement, we must get rid of the dusty net, the society and even the" life ". Only in this way can we get the final relief. This kind of philosophy is the so-called "born philosophy".
There is another kind of philosophy, which pays attention to human relations and world affairs in society. This kind of philosophy only talks about moral value, and will not or will not talk about super-moral value. This kind of philosophy is the so-called "philosophy of joining the WTO". From the philosophical point of view of China's entry into WTO, the philosophy born is too idealistic, impractical and negative. From the point of view of born philosophy, the philosophy of entering WTO is too realistic and superficial. It may be positive, but it is like the fast running of people who have gone the wrong way: the faster they run, the more wrong they are.
Many people say that China's philosophy is the philosophy after China's entry into WTO. It's hard to say that these people are completely right or completely wrong. On the surface, China's philosophy can't be said that these people are wrong, because on the surface, China's philosophy, no matter which school of thought, is directly or indirectly about politics and morality. On the surface, China's philosophy focuses on society, not the universe; It is a daily use for human relations, not a hell paradise; It's a person's life, not an afterlife. A student in Confucius asked about the meaning of death, and Confucius replied, "How do you know death if you don't know life? "(Advanced Analects of Confucius) Mencius said:" A saint is the most important person in human relations. "("Mencius on Li Lou ") Literally speaking, this sentence means that saints are morally perfect people in society. On the surface, the ideal personality of China's philosophy also entered the WTO. The so-called saint in China's philosophy is not in the same category as the so-called Buddha in Buddhism and the so-called saint in Christianity. On the surface, the so-called saints in Confucianism seem to be especially so. In ancient times, Confucius and Confucian people were laughed at by Taoist people, which is why.
But this is only superficial. China's philosophy can't be understood so simply. As for the main tradition in China's philosophy, if we understand it, we can't say that it entered the WTO, and certainly we can't say that it was born. It entered the WTO and was born again. A philosopher talked about the Neo-Confucianism in the Song Dynasty and described him like this: "I never left my daily life until I was born." "This is exactly what China's philosophy is trying to do. With this spirit, it is the most idealistic and realistic; It is very practical, but it is not superficial.
WTO entry and birth are opposites, just as realism and idealism are opposites. The task of China's philosophy is to unify these counter-propositions into a compound proposition. This is not to say that these counter-propositions have been cancelled. They are still there, but they have been unified into a propositional whole. How to unify? This is the problem that China's philosophy seeks to solve. Seeking to solve this problem is the spirit of China's philosophy.
China's philosophy holds that a person who completes this unification not only in theory but also in action is a saint. He was born after joining the WTO. The spiritual achievements of China saints are equivalent to those of Buddhists and saints of Western religions. But the saints in China are not people who don't do things. His personality is the so-called "inner sage and outer king" personality. Inner holiness refers to his accomplishment; Foreign king means its function in society. A saint may not have a chance to become a leader in actual politics. As far as practical politics is concerned, he probably must have no chance. The so-called "inner sage and outer king" only means that the person with the highest spiritual achievement can be king according to the truth, and it is most suitable to be king. Whether he actually has a chance to be king or not is another matter and irrelevant.
According to the tradition of China, the personality of a saint is the personality of a saint inside and a king outside, so the task of philosophy is to make people have this personality. Therefore, what philosophy is talking about is what China philosophers call the way of being sage inside and king outside.
This statement is very similar to Plato's "philosopher-king". According to Plato, in an ideal country, philosophers should be kings, or kings should be philosophers; In order to become a philosopher, a person must undergo long-term philosophical training so that his mind can "turn" from the changing world of things into the eternal world of reason. What Plato said, and what China philosophers said, is that the task of philosophy is to make people have the personality of inner saints and outer kings. But according to Plato, once a philosopher is king, it is against his will, in other words, it is forced, and he has made a great sacrifice for it. That's what the ancient Taoists said. It is said that there was a saint who was asked to be king by a certain country. He fled to a cave and hid. Someone found this hole, smoked him out with smoke, and forced him to take up this chore (see Lv Shichun