Chapter 1: Traditional Chinese Theory and Western Philosophy

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The title of this book is Jinglun Theory, and before expounding on Jinglun Theory, we will first talk about the problems of Eastern and Western philosophy, and demonstrate what is Jinglun from the source of philosophy, so that readers can better understand why I wrote this Jinglun Theory. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

When it comes to Eastern and Western philosophical thought, we must mention two people, one is Confucius in ancient China, and the other is Socrates in ancient Greece.

Confucius was born in 551 B.C. in the Spring and Autumn Period of the Eastern Tong Dynasty in Lu (present-day Qufu City, Shandong Province), Confucius was born as a teacher, founded a private college, opened the trend of private school, and was the founder of Confucianism. Socrates was born in Athens, ancient Greece, in 469 BC. Confucius preceded Socrates by more than eighty years. The birth of these two people divided the philosophical cross-section of Eastern and Western cultures, and opened the ****** of Eastern and Western cultural thought.

Before Confucius and Socrates, both Eastern and Western philosophies explored fundamental questions such as natural science, theology, and the origin of species for thousands of years.

Before Confucius and Socrates, the ideological world was in a period of contention, and philosophy was confused with natural science, theology, and other studies.

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 a never-ending ideological lamp for Western philosophy, which has since illuminated the West and gradually illuminated the world. To this day, no matter how great a thinker is, he still walks along the line of Socrates' thought, and cannot go beyond his state of thought.

Western philosophy continued to develop, progress, and improve over the next 2,000 years, thanks to Socrates, who was almost the same time as Confucius.

Socrates is the founder of Western philosophy, born more than eighty years after Confucius, in the heyday of Pericles in ancient Greece. At that time, Greece was in a period of pan-democratic consciousness, and political democracy was rampant to the point of drawing lots to determine political opinions, and slave-owning democracy dominated the superstructure.

It was under this form of politics that Socrates propagated his neotheism, his theory of rules, his theory of wisdom, and his view of the universe.

Most of the world's greatest and extraordinary minds have spent their lives in education, educating others, and are not financially wealthy. This is related to the extraordinarily vigorous Yin Xing in their eight characters. Yin Xing is in the absolute leadership position of the eight characters, the mind is extremely active, and the understanding is extraordinarily high, but there is no excessive pursuit of wealth. If the wealth star is prosperous, it will not be able to achieve great thinkers, because of the wealth and the seal.

Confucius and Socrates were such transcendent saints, and at the same time, they both came from the bottom of society, from commoner backgrounds. The time in which Confucius and Socrates lived was the period when human thought was formed. Before them, the natural sciences, humanities, and philosophy were all in a period of disorganization, and the ideological circles were full of 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 thought. It basically unifies the tone of Eastern and Western ideology and culture. For more than 2,000 years, whether in China or in the West, thinkers could only move forward along the path of thought they created, and no thinker could go beyond the cross-section of the ideas they created, but could only extend and develop their own ideas and propositions under them.

Confucius laid the foundation for Eastern civilization, and Socrates laid a solid foundation for Western culture. It can be said that these two people are the originators of today's world ideology and culture, and they have not only influenced the philosophical and ideological circles, but also found an ideological foundation for the religious circles.

Confucianism can be said to be the cornerstone of China's Three Religions and Nine Streams of Thought, which also includes Buddhism and Taoism. Although Buddhism is a foreign product, after coming to Middle-earth, due to the rendering of Confucian and Taoist thoughts, Buddhism is no longer what Buddhism was original. Taoism is the same as Confucianism, and its ideas naturally have the same ideology, and many of the teachings of Taoism come from Confucianism, such as the "Book of Filial Piety", which is directly moved for their own use.

Western religions have also absorbed the ideas of philosophers. For example, after the separation of Christianity from Judaism, it improved the three-edged cubic conjecture theory created by philosophers and applied it to Christian doctrine, making Christianity a big step forward. The difference is that Western thinkers are all all-rounders in cultural disciplines, while Western thinkers are generally philosophers, scientists, natural scientists, mathematicians, and physical chemists. Such as Thales, Aristotle, Hegel, and so on.

However, most of the thinkers in ancient China were pure literati and scholars, which is related to the orthodoxy of the Chinese and the idea of learning and excelling. In modern times Chinese is still the most stubborn group of people in the world who hold the ideology of learning and excellence.

Ancient Chinese scientists were generally influenced by Zhou Yi, mathematicians studied mathematical prediction, chemists sought elixir for elixir, and physicists were limited by their level of knowledge, so there were almost no outstanding figures.

In fact, both Chinese philosophy and Western philosophy are exploring the same question, that is, what is the root of human existence, what is the value of existence, why is there a rational and irrational phenomenon in society, why is there a difference between the rich and the poor, why is there a state, society, the self, and so on, what is the state, what is the self, and so on.

Since the emergence of Socrates, the direction of philosophical thought in the West has begun to shift, and it has begun to abandon the study of nature, theology, the origin of heaven and earth, human existence, and so on, and instead focus on the role of philosophy in society, its specific contribution to mankind, its actual impact on politics, and self-worth.

Socrates began to focus on the study of human values, why people live, for whom they live, and so on. Socrates said, "Do you live to eat, or do you eat to survive?", "Bad people live to eat and drink, but good people eat and drink to live", "Others live for food, I eat for survival", "There are two kinds of people in this world, one is a happy pig and the other is a miserable person." Be a miserable person, not a happy pig", "Wisdom means self-knowledge and ignorance. "The greatest happiness of mankind is to be able to talk about moral things every day. A life without a soul loses the value of human life. "A truly wise person is one who is able to use the wisdom of others to keep himself from being blinded. ”……

These ideas of his originate from the ancient Greeks' understanding of existence and non-existence.

Western philosophy has been exploring the existence and non-existence of the development of things since its inception, and Westerners combine existence with reality, and combine non-existence with spirit and gods, believing that there are only two phenomena in the development of things, that is, the existence and non-existence. Since Socrates, he has separated the appearance of existence and non-existence in the development of things, repositioned the philosophical definition of existence and non-existence, distinguished the practical significance of existence and non-existence, separated idealism from materialism, explored the essential tendencies of idealism and materialism, and formed their respective theoretical frameworks.

From this point it is also understandable why the value orientation of Chinese is different from that of the West. Westerners distinguish between existence and non-existence, in the eyes of Westerners, what is black is black, what is white is white, existence is existence, and non-existence is non-existence, which is very direct and clear. The Chinese believe that things are not divided between you and me, but the whole of the contract between you and me. You have me, I have you, complement each other, and exclude each other. Therefore, the Chinese think that what is yours is mine, mine is yours, you have me, I have you, the mean, seek justice, and mutual benefit is one. This is the Confucian idea of the unity of heaven and man, which is also the fundamental reason why the gods in the hearts of the Chinese are anthropomorphic.

From here we can see the essential difference between Western philosophy and Chinese philosophy.

Since Socrates, Western philosophy has distinguished the essence of the development of things, focusing on the study of the true meaning of existence and non-existence, reality and unreality, rationality and irrationality, distinguishing the relationship between natural science and philosophy, distinguishing the relationship between philosophy and theology, and beginning to bring philosophy back to the world, re-understanding the relationship between philosophy and natural science, philosophy and theology, philosophy and reality, philosophy and politics, focusing on how philosophy guides the practical significance of politics, and innovating neotheism, rule theory, wisdom theory, cosmology and other ideological systems. Putting philosophy on influencing politics in the first place to propagandize for the benefit of mankind.

The same is true of ancient Chinese philosophy. Since the birth of Confucius, ancient Chinese philosophy began to develop in the direction of philosophy influencing politics, and began to practice the ideological proposition that politics affects people's livelihood in a down-to-earth manner. Confucius traveled around the world to promote his political ideas, and like Westerners, it was also to make people abandon their dependence on the natural science theory of the I Ching, pay attention to the concepts of politics, humanities, state, and unity, unify the ideas of the unity of heaven and man, and realize the ******** of the unity of heaven and man, and use political means to benefit mankind.

Confucius believed that "morality and righteousness are not indecent; teaching righteousness and customs, indecent and incivil, dividing disputes and litigates, indecent and indecided; monarchs and ministers, upper and lower levels, fathers and sons, and brothers, indecent and indefensible; eunuch scholars, indecent and indecent; class dynasty governing the army, officials and practicing the law, indecent and majestic is not good; praying for shrines, sacrifices, and offering to ghosts and gods, indecent and insincere", "for the government to be virtuous, such as Beichen, live in its place, and all the stars are together", "the king makes the ministers courteous, and the ministers are loyal", "the people can make it happen, but not make it known", "since ancient times, there have been deaths, and the people have no faith and do not stand" Confucius's ideological proposition is basically based on the idea that the king is determined by heaven, the people are established by man, and the unity of heaven and man. He also believes that there is God in man, there are people in God, and there is no distinction between man and God. This is the core content of Confucius's ideological ideas and political ideas.

In resolving internal contradictions, the normative rules and etiquette and morality were applied to the people, and the nobles were given "punishment is not inferior to the doctor, and the courtesy is not inferior to the common people", and the hierarchical system was strictly divided, and the nobles and the common people were completely divided into the relationship between the ruler and the ruled, and the class system was defined.

He advocated "virtue for government", applied metaphysics and learning and excellence to political principles, and advocated the use of very broad and general governance policies and political means to govern the world. This kind of thinking has laid a hidden danger for the lack of clarity of the sense of responsibility of Chinese in the later period.

The definition of Western philosophy is very vague, very general, and very open, but it is very clear and clear in looking at the development of things, and only looking at the problem in terms of existence and non-existence.

Due to the influence of the Book of Changes, Chinese philosophy has a very complete definition, a very unified and standardized definition, but it is very vague and general in looking at the development of things.

This is the reason why Westerners meet to talk about the weather, and Chinese meet and ask for food.

Westerners bluntly say that today's eyes are sunny, and yin is yin.

The Chinese implicitly ask if they have eaten today, whether they have eaten, and whether they have not eaten. There are people who eat, and there are people who don't eat. It feels very tongue-twisting, in fact, it is just a sentence, you have me, I have you, there is no, there is no also, you and I contract, heaven and man are one.

The difference between Chinese and the West lies in the root part of the 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. In this way, the cognitive interface of existence and non-existence, materialism and idealism is gradually separated, and the dialectical philosophical thinking of existence and non-existence, change and immutability, reason and soul is transcended and perfected.

Plotinus used the principle of the triangular cube conjecture to express philosophy and religion together, 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 and believed in monotheism. The three ontologies are considered to be 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.

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.

From the perspective of the development process of the history of Eastern and Western philosophy, in this slow ancient period, both Eastern philosophy and Western philosophy are looking for the dialectical relationship between the development of opposites and the unity of things, that is, there are always opposite opposing forces within things, and there is a unified force that attracts each other, that is, the Chinese believe that the world has the problem of why there are yin and yang poles, yin and yang opposites make no progress in things, and the unity of yin and yang is the renewal of everything.

Western philosophy believes that the root of the movement, change and development of things is the result of "opposition and unity", opposition is the inevitable result of contradictions and struggles in the internal development of things, and unity is the result of forming a complete unified mechanism through movement and change, but no matter how it develops, all things only have the relationship between existence and non-existence, and the relationship and consequences of internal contradictions, struggles and dependence and unity that determine the development process of things between existence and non-existence.

Eastern philosophy, on the other hand, believes that things are divided into yin and yang, and yin and yang are divided into two poles, and the two poles are mutually exclusive, and the relationship between change and development is mutual. The world is a yin and yang contract, the world of the unity of heaven and man, with modern knowledge to understand that the movement, change, and development of things are the result of "opposition and unity", as long as things exist, only you have me, I have your relationship, no matter whether things exist or not, heaven and man are mixed into one relationship.

Western philosophy believes that things are open, only transforming between being and not being, which is the beginning of the enlightenment of Western democratic thought.

Eastern philosophy believes that things are predetermined, and there is an established law that yin and yang are mutually repulsive, which is the beginning of the enlightenment of Oriental centralized thought.

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