Lecture 12: Traditional Chinese Theory and Western Philosophy

Before talking about the eight characters, it is necessary to talk about the problems of Eastern science and Western philosophy. If you want to be a good and knowledgeable fortune teller, then you just keep reading, and if you just want to be a fortune teller, then you skip these chapters and go straight to the next level.

When it comes to Eastern science and Western philosophy, we must mention two people, one is Confucius in ancient China, and the other is Socrates in ancient Greece. Confucius was born in 551 BC in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty during the Spring and Autumn Period of the Lu State (present-day Qufu City, Shandong Province). Confucius was a teacher, started the practice of private school, and was the founder of Confucianism. Socrates was born in Athens, ancient Greece, in 469 BC and was also a teacher. Confucius preceded Socrates by more than eighty years. The birth of these two people divided the cross-section of Eastern and Western cultural thought and opened the ship of Eastern and Western thought and culture.

Before Confucius and Socrates, both Eastern science and Western philosophy explored fundamental issues such as natural science, theology, and the origin of species, which lasted for thousands of years. Both the Eastern and Western ideological circles are in the stage of a hundred schools of thought, and ideology is confused with natural science, theology, and so on. However, since the birth of Confucius and Socrates, there has been a cross-section between Eastern and Western thought and culture, and they have begun to develop into two completely different cultures.

Like Confucius, Socrates was a teacher who advocated teaching and educating people, and devoted his life to education, propagating his ideas until he was executed.

Socrates did not leave a single book in his lifetime, but his students recorded his remarks and passed them on, lighting an unquenchable lamp of thought for Western philosophy, which has since illuminated the West and gradually illuminated the world. To this day, whether in the West or in the East, no matter how great a thinker you are, you are still following the line of Socrates' thought, and you cannot go beyond his thought.

Western philosophy continued to develop, progress, and improve over the next 2,000 years, thanks to Socrates.

Most of the world's greatest thinkers have spent their lives in education and are not financially wealthy. This is related to the extraordinary exuberance of the Indian Silk Star in their eight characters. Yin Xing is in the absolute leader position in the eight characters, the mind is extremely active, the understanding is extraordinarily powerful, but there is no excessive pursuit of wealth, if the wealth star in the eight characters is very vigorous, it will not be able to achieve great thinkers, because the wealth star is the Yin star.

Confucius and Socrates were both such people, and at the same time, they both came from the bottom of society, from common people's backgrounds. The time in which Confucius and Socrates lived was the period when human thought was formed. Before them, human thought and culture were in a period of disorganization, and the ideological circles were full of flowers and miscellaneous discussions, each with its own reasoning, until the emergence of Confucius and Socrates, and the miscellaneous sayings of the ideological circles were compiled.

Confucius compiled Chinese philosophical thought, and Socrates compiled Western philosophical concepts, basically unifying the tone of Eastern and Western thought and culture. For more than 2,000 years, whether in the East or in the West, thinkers could only follow the path of thought they created, and no thinker went beyond the cross-section of thought they created, and could only extend and develop their own ideas under them.

Confucius laid the cornerstone of Chinese post-Han civilization, and Socrates laid a solid foundation for Western European culture. It can be said that the ideas of these two people have influenced the development of human ideology and culture, and have found an ideological foundation for human political, humanistic, and religious civilizations.

Confucianism because of the Han Dynasty into the superstructure, become the metaphysics of the ruling class, so Confucianism can be said to be the cornerstone of ancient Chinese feudal ideology and culture, of course, this also includes Buddhism, Taoism, etc., although Buddhism is a foreign product, but since coming to the Middle Earth, due to the Confucianism, Taoist thought rendering is no longer the original appearance of Buddhism. Taoism is the same as Confucianism, but because its ideological principles are different from the origin of Confucianism, Taoism and Confucianism are fundamentally different.

Since the advent of Socrates, Western culture has begun to change its direction in ideology and culture, and has begun to abandon the study of nature, theology, the origin of heaven and earth, and so on, and has instead focused on the study of human nature, and has begun to study the value of human existence, the rationality of the existence of things, and the study of why human beings exist in the state, society, self, and so on. Gradually, he developed a study that specialized in the study of human "spirit" and "matter".

In ancient Chinese culture, since the birth of Confucius, Confucius has adhered to: "It is easy to have Taiji, which is to give birth to two rituals, two rituals to give birth to four elephants, and four elephants to give birth to gossip." Therefore, since the Han Dynasty, the ancient Chinese culture has turned to the development of Confucius's advocacy of "heaven and man induction, and the divine right of the monarch"; politically, it has developed to "heaven bestows the rules of the king, and people follow its rule", abides by "benevolence and righteousness", worships "heaven and earth", respects "monarchs and ministers", respects "father and son", and recognizes the "mandate of heaven"; and humanistic thought turns to the development of "benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom, and faith".

Because Western culture starts from the "three points", the definition is very vague, very general, and very open, but in looking at the development of things, it starts from a clear and definite perspective, and only looks at the problem in terms of existence and non-existence. Western culture has clear logic, accurate concepts, and leads the world trend in terms of objective idealism and materialism, which is a beacon of human civilization, and there is no doubt that it does not need to be refined. Everyone in the world today is learning about Western culture, and from the time you enter the school, what you learn is objective, idealistic and materialistic worldview and values. No matter what kind of person you are, you can't transcend the philosophical worldview and values, and even if you have the intention to create a new theory, it is just some personal miscellaneous thoughts, which are lost with meteors and cease to exist in the passage of time. However, the correct philosophical worldview and values are still the beacon of human civilization, shining brightly.

Due to the influence of the Book of Changes, the ancient Chinese culture is very complete, unified and standardized, but it is very vague and general in looking at the development of things. The logic of ancient Chinese culture is vague, the concept is vague, and there is no objective idealistic and materialist worldview and values, only intuitive materialist worldview and values. There is no doubt that traditional Chinese culture does not have an objective idealistic worldview and values, and there is no objective idealistic logical thinking. The sky and the earth are falling apart and the sea is flowing backwards, and there is no objective idealistic thinking in the traditional oriental culture. If there is objective idealistic thinking in the traditional oriental culture, there is no need to do the Xinhai Revolution, and it will directly enter a new era.

To give a simple example, before the 20th century, all the Eastern countries did not have a constitution, and all the Eastern countries did not have the theory of "spiritual civilization" in the upper-level political ideology. Anyone who recognizes the existence of "spiritual civilization" and writes it into the constitution means that the objective idealist thinking method is recognized and applied in practice.

The cultural difference between Easterners and Westerners lies in the difference in the root system of ideology and culture.

Western philosophers are generally all-rounders, and they apply the knowledge gained from the study of natural sciences, mathematics, and physics and chemistry to philosophy, thus enhancing the scientific nature of philosophical concepts. As early as the ancient Roman period, Plotinus used the principle of the triangular cube conjecture to mix politics, humanities and religion to express themselves, and unified the three ontologies of the One, the intellect and the soul into one supreme god. He philosophically believed that there was only one God in the universe, believed in monotheism, and believed that three ontologies were the same God. Later Christianity transformed the "ontology" into the "person" of God, regarded God as a single entity, and extended the person of God's "Trinity", which made a big step forward in Christian thought. Politically, he advocates "separation of powers" and compromises development. In the humanities, it advocates the "spiritual" self and free development.

Later, in his Lectures on the History of Philosophy, Hegel said: "It is only in the doctrine of Christianity that the personality of the individual and the gods are recognized for the first time as having infinite absolute value, and it is God's will that all men should be saved." There is a doctrine in Christianity that all men are free before God, that all men are equal, and that Jesus Christ has delivered the world to Christian freedom. These principles make the freedom of the human person independent of his birth, status and level of education. This is indeed a great step forward, but it still falls short of the notion that freedom constitutes the concept of what makes man human. This is the contribution of Western philosophy to humanity.

On the other hand, if you look at what Confucius said, Confucius said in the "Yi Chuan and the Upload of Dictionaries" that "one yin and one yang is the Tao", in the "Book of Rites and Commentary on the Scriptures", "the upper and lower blind dates are benevolent", and when teaching students, he said: "The benevolent person loves others, and there is a difference in love." Where is the Jesus-like heart of Confucius's so-called benevolence, "all men are free before God, and all men are equal." In front of Confucius, everyone is inferior in class, and he is the emperor. He is a privileged nobleman, the. You're a pariah, deserve. Heavenly. Therefore, all the common people should not expect to go back, there was no equality under Confucius, and they should never think that "all people are free and all people are equal." If Confucius Thought is really enough to support China's giant sky-high building, will it still use the Xinhai Revolution? Will it still use the blood of countless martyrs to win the new modern society?

From the perspective of the development process of Eastern and Western ideological and cultural history, in this slow ancient era, both the East and the West are looking for the dialectical relationship between the development of opposites and the unity of things, that is, the unity of world outlook and values.

Western philosophy believes that there are three stages of "opposition and unity" in the movement, change and development of things, and describes "opposite" and "unity" separately. Through the different decompositions of "opposite" and "unity", the unity of worldview and values is dialectical.

Oriental science believes that things are divided into yin and yang, yin and yang are divided into two poles, and the two poles are mutually exclusive, and the relationship between change and development is mutually exclusive. The world is a world where yin and yang are one, and the fundamental movement, change, and development of things is the result of "opposition and unity".

Both Western philosophy and Eastern science preach that everyone "loves." wisdom", Western philosophy advocates that everyone "loves." Wisdom", equality and love. Wisdom", using wisdom to enhance the love between all equals, and using wisdom to enhance human political, religious, and humanistic civilization.

On the other hand, Oriental science teaches everyone everywhere that heaven is fixed and things are fixed, "the upper and lower blind dates are called benevolence", "benevolent, love others, love is poor, etc.", "self-denial and retribution are benevolence". One day of self-denial and revenge, the world will return to benevolence!