Shan Gao Zhihan talks about eight characters: the seventh lecture, Confucianism and Taoism

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Section 1: Whether there was democracy in ancient China

The Chinese nation has produced the I Ching culture in the understanding and transformation of nature, and the "I Ching" culture is composed of two parts: "Hetu" and "Luoshu", which are the innate gossip and acquired gossip that fortune tellers often hang on their lips.

Now whether it is Eastern civilization or Western civilization, in fact, all the cultures practiced by human beings are included in the culture of the Book of Changes. It's not gibberish, it's a fact. That is to say, whether it is ancient or modern, the political program or ideology practiced by human beings is contained in the Book of Changes, whether you are Eastern civilization or Western civilization, no matter how sound and profound your cultural system is, you will not be able to jump out of the tight spell of the Book of Changes.

The reason is that human civilization is interconnected, and culture is the carrier of civilization, and there can be no civilization without culture, because if you can't use words to convey the narrative, the spread of civilization is limited under oral transmission. The "Hetu" and "Luoshu" parts of the Book of Changes are the common cultural carriers recorded by the written transmission of human civilization.

Now it can be said that whether you are an Eastern civilization or a Western civilization, the political program and ideology you practice are all at the hands of fortune tellers or wizards. This sentence is light and thin, but it is the same in essence.

Let's not think of culture as noble, in fact, all advanced culture comes from slang.

In his Lectures on the History of Philosophy, Hegel argues that the culture of Confucius is "only a kind of common-sense morality, which we can find everywhere, in every nation, and perhaps better, which is nothing outstanding at all." This also shows that his culture also comes from common sense morality and slang. Again, something that doesn't have anything outstanding.

Don't think that Hegel's culture is necessarily superior to Confucius's, not really. Looking at Hegel's concept of culture as a whole, it can be summed up in one sentence: human civilization is a civilization under the domination of the spirit, and everything survives, develops, and continues only under the domination of the spirit (mind). Confucius culture, on the other hand, believes that human civilization survives, develops, and continues under one yin and one yang, and that human civilization exists in a world where nature and man are one.

The core of Hegel's culture is that all human beings must abandon the human worldview and human ideology under the domination of spirit (mind) in order to achieve the unity of speculation and method. To put it simply, all people should abandon their thoughts and rise to the level of the spirit (mind), because the mind is changeable, and the spirit (mind) is unchanging. The spirit (mind) can strengthen the will of human beings without wavering. This is the ultimate goal of Hegel's Absolute Spirit (Idea). Indeed, his theory has found a theoretical framework for the constitutions of contemporary countries, especially for the idea of limiting the monarchy.

In fact, this is exactly the case, if the monarch spreads his ideas to the lower echelons every day, and constantly changes his thoughts, it is indeed impossible for the people to follow, and the constitution is the unity of the human worldview and methodology from the spiritual (ideological) level of human beings.

The core of Hegel's culture is to abandon thought, possess spirit, stand on the height of absolute spirit, and respect spirit, because the spiritual constitution is the will of the people and cannot be changed at will.

This proposition of Hegelian culture is indeed more clever than Confucius's "unity of heaven and man", and the monarch is exercising power for heaven. But it does not mean that Confucius culture is "just a common sense morality." However, he was right when he said, "The philosophy of Confucius is the philosophy of the state."

Confucius culture is indeed an atheistic secular culture that denies the existence of the spirit (mind).

Confucius culture is an empiricist culture from beginning to end, emphasizing a closed culture of empirical correctness and political correctness. This is absolutely true, and there is no need to argue about it. Confucius culture is the philosophy of the state, a culture of centralization, closure and dictatorship.

Why did ancient China fully adopt Confucius's culture of centralization, closure and dictatorship, rather than the democratic culture of decentralization, openness and democracy?

Why is Taoism a democratic culture in China? Why has the political ideology completely abandoned Taoist culture since the Ming Dynasty?

To be precise, Taoist culture does not belong to atheistic culture, Taoism is a divine culture, a democratic culture.

Taoism believes in God, and Taoism recognizes that human beings have spiritual (mind) existence, but Taoism is a pantheistic culture, and Taoist gods are very general, so many as cattle hairs. Taoists like to be gods, but anyone who dies, whether it is a human or a dog, as long as your behavior when you are alive is enough for future generations to admire, you can be a god. The dog of the god Erlang is worshiped as a roaring dog because of its loyalty, and it is a divine beast. Sun Wukong jumped out of the crack in the stone, and was still named the Buddha for his wit and bravery.

Today's world culture is classified into theistic culture and atheistic culture, and theistic culture is the materialist and idealistic culture represented by Western philosophy, which recognizes the existence of God. Atheistic culture is Confucianism and Confucianism, which denies the existence of gods.

Looking back on history, starting from the Zhou Dynasty, the political program and ideology of the Zhou Dynasty came from the hands of King Wen of Zhou and Jiang Zhiya. They are proficient in the art of Huang Lao and are good at the fortune-telling culture of Zhou Yi Bagua. Therefore, the political system practiced by the Zhou Dynasty came from the hands of these two fortune tellers. The feudal system of the Zhou Dynasty was a democratic system, similar to the system of separation of powers practiced by modern Westerners. The feudal system of the princes in the early Western Zhou Dynasty was a democratic system of decentralization, openness and democracy, but the democratic system of the Zhou Dynasty was just a division of power under the imperial system, but the essence was that the situation was clear and the rules were clear. The world is square, and it stresses rules, order, democracy, compromise, struggle, plunder, sharing, openness, and other ideological propositions, and ideology is to stress democracy, decentralization, and openness.

Chinese culture talks about the heaven and the place, in fact, the Western culture also talks about the heaven and the place.

World cultures are essentially the same, but the superstructure is selective in its use of ideology, and if the whole world does not exercise its political system selectively, then it may be the same regime all over the world.

The feudal system practiced by the Zhou Dynasty is the ancestor of the modern Western system of separation of powers, and this idea comes from the "Luo Shu" acquired gossip part of the Book of Changes. This system was implemented in the Zhou Dynasty for more than 800 years, and it was not until the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty that it was expelled from the superstructure and replaced by Confucian culture, which was the ideological blueprint of the "Hetu" innate gossip part of the Book of Changes.

After Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Confucian culture experienced more than 100 years of application, and at the end of the Western Han Dynasty, under Wang Mang's extreme admiration, it led to major confusion in the ideology of the Western Han Dynasty. In the case of Wang Mang's reverence for Confucianism and usurpation of the throne, people began to doubt the usability of Confucian culture. Therefore, after the establishment of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Liu Xiu began to implement a political policy of respecting Taoism and suppressing Confucianism in terms of political program and ideology. In the end, Taoism in the late Eastern Han Dynasty had the upper hand in ideology, and the social atmosphere was highly free, so that the Yellow Turban Army of the rebel army used naked **** as a ritual to worship God when they sacrificed before the war, which shows the openness and freedom of social weathering at that time.

After the Han Dynasty, nearly 500 years of national division and war followed.

After the Han Dynasty until the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, China was in a period of war and strife, and the Three Kingdoms, the Two Jin Dynasties, and the Northern and Southern Dynasties were the period of Taoist ideology. During this period, the ethnic minorities in the north invaded the south on a large scale, and the political programs of many countries were chaotic, which is the so-called "prosperity in troubled times".

Under the "troubled times", the political program is chaotic, and freedom follows. "Freedom" is the foundation for stressing democracy, stressing the separation of powers, and stressing the rule of inaction. Without "freedom", there can be no democracy, separation of powers, and rule by inaction. Therefore, under the superstructure occupied by Taoist ideology, the national political program is basically a cultural phenomenon such as "compromise, struggle, plunder, sharing, and openness" referred to by modern culture. In this period, there were the most evil sects, vertical and horizontal arts, yin and yang techniques, fortune telling, girls' yin and yang techniques, room techniques, alchemy, etc., all produced in this period, and this period of the West is the period of philosophical development and perfection.

The political system of the Tang Dynasty was also a political ideology of Confucianism and Taoism. It was only in the middle and late periods that Buddhism appeared, so the social phenomenon of the coexistence of the three religions appeared in the Tang Dynasty. In the Tang Dynasty, when the three religions coexisted, the Confucian ideology was not reused, but the two ideas of Buddhism and Taoism prevailed in the Tang Dynasty, which can be strongly proved from the freedom and moderation of women in the Tang Dynasty. The middle and late Tang Dynasty was a society that emphasized democracy, decentralization, and rule by inaction, with a high degree of political freedom. As in the late Han Dynasty, a high degree of liberal democracy eventually led to nearly 500 years of division and war in China.

After the Tang Dynasty was destroyed, nearly 500 years of national division and war followed.