©2006 WC Tan
The word "philosophy" in Greek means the love of wisdom. But according to the Hebrew tradition, "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." In the Chinese tradition, this fear of the Lord involves respect and obedience to do the will of God. The Chinese call this "the Mandate of Heaven." The Mandate of Heaven in plain language means the Will of God. Chinese philosophy actually begins with the desire to do the will of God. In order to do the Will of God, one has to try to determine what the Will of God is. Therefore, the art of divination began in China in order to understand that revelation from above. Once that has been ascertained, it is regarded as the Oracles. And that Will of God, now known as the Oracles, is recorded on animal bones, hence, the Oracle Bones (discussed in Chapter 1 in detail).
The Chinese belief is that that which is from above is collectively known as heaven. In the Oracle Bones, the symbol of heaven is recorded as the figure of a person. The early Chinese regarded heaven as nature personified, which we would call a personal God. But increasingly, this heaven has been interpreted as nature in general. The Kingdom of God has a personified king, while the Kingdom of Heaven has a personal God which created nature. We may repeat here once more that in the New Testament of the Christian Bible, in the Gospel according to St Matthew, Jesus mentioned the Kingdom of Heaven. Whereas in the other three gospels, St Mark, St Luke and St John's, Jesus mentioned the Kingdom of God. For Jesus and the Church, heaven is equated with God. This has already been done in the Oracle Bones in China several thousand years ago before Christianity came into being.
What is man and what is the meaning of life on earth? Philosopher Dong Zhong Shu of Han Dynasty says that the essence of man is heaven. Confucius said that the meaning of life on earth is to do the Will of God. Before the Oracle Bones period, the ancient Chinese believed that God was on earth ruling China in person. Later, he delegated that authority to a man to rule on his behalf and God went back to heaven. Now this man rules China with instructions from God. His job is to carry out the Mandate of Heaven and he is known as the "Son of Heaven." In short, the Son of Heaven is to carry out the Mandate of Heaven. In plain language, the king's job is to do the Will of God. The Chinese philosopher Mencius (3rd century BC) called the people of China citizens of heaven. He insisted that all the citizens of heaven are begotten of the heaven. On several occasions, ancient Chinese poetry mentioned that the multitudes of sons and daughters on earth are begotten of heaven. If we are all children of heaven, we share a common ancestry; therefore, Han dynasty philosopher Dong Zhong Shu wrote in his book that God is our first ancestor. Therefore, whenever we show reverence to our ancestors, we are in effect worshiping our very first ancestor who is God as our Heavenly Father.
Many people thought that such a Chinese philosophy was pagan in nature until Jesus came along and vindicated the ancient Chinese by openly referring to God as "our Father who art in Heaven." So Jesus openly regarded God as a Father in conformity with Chinese tradition.
If we are all children of God, we are all brothers and sisters. In the Analects of Confucius, the great master said that "within the four oceans we are all brothers and sisters." This all derived from the original concept of heaven passed down to us from the Oracle Bones.
I may say that the origin of Chinese culture is derived primarily from the concept of heaven which permeates all the Chinese classics, literature, and philosophy. And the message, explicitly or implicitly, is to do the Will of God on earth as in heaven. In the narrow sense, it is to carry out the mandate of God and to transform China into a kingdom of heaven. But the world is bigger than China alone! In the broader sense today, we are to do the Will of God and practise loving our neighbours as brothers and sisters, thus making the kingdom of earth into the Kingdom of Heaven.
The Oracle Bones also mention that God comes down from heaven to earth whenever and wherever the people on earth offer sacrifices to Him. In the days of the Oracle Bones, God would come down in our midst when he smelled the fragrance of sacrifices offered to him. This fragrance is from burnt offerings of animal parts, particularly the burning of animal fat. In my modern interpretation, this fragrance of sacrifices is when we love our neighbours as ourselves, especially when we love our neighbours of different races, languages, religions, and nationalities. This may seem too idealistic to achieve, but at least we could refrain from bullying our neighbours and practice fairness and mutual respect as much as possible. This, I am quite sure, is pleasing to the Mandate of Heaven and in a small way, is doing the Will of God.
The I-Ching is perhaps the oldest book in the world. As we have just mentioned above, the purpose of the Oracle Bones is to seek the Will of God and to practise it in life. In the same way the I-Ching is also to seek the will of God and to practise it both on a large scale for the nation and down to the personal scale for the individual. This is a book designed for consultation or divination to know what to do and when to do it to be in line with the Mandate of Heaven (Tien-Ming). According to some scholars, the whole book is intended to seek the Will of God. It is alleged that the legendary Emperor Fu Xi designed the eight trigrams consisting of three lines of interchanges between the yin and the yang. The yin is represented by a broken line, "- -", while the yang is represented by a solid line, "?". They represent the elements of nature.
The concept of interactions between the yin and the yang is the "I" (pronounced yi). The word "I" (pronounced yi) in the Chinese language has several meanings. It could mean easy, it is easy to understand the interaction of yin and yang. Whatever is natural is easy. It could also mean changes. What seems natural and is easy actually undergoes constant changes at any moment. The word "I" (yi) also could mean simplicity. Easy to know and easy to follow lead to the relationship of intimacy. Therefore, "I" could also mean intimacy. Since "I" is constant changes, everything in the universe is constantly changing. The only thing that remains unchanging in the universe is change. The driving force behind such a change is the relationship between yin and yang which gives rise to a binary system in use in our computer system today. Without yin and yang, there is no "I". But isn't there a grand absolute? The grand absolute of all changes is the Tao. The limit of change is the tai chi. And the ultimate of the Tao is the union between heaven, man, and earth. The complementarity between yin and yang interactions should continuously provide transformation unto harmony. In other words, the yin and the yang are the birth and rebirth and produce all things.
After the legendary Emperor Fu Xi invented the trigrams, King Wen of Zhou Dynasty developed them further by doubling the trigrams into hexagrams, that is, sixty- four different hexagrams.
Biologically speaking, they become the sixty-four genetic codes in the DNA and RNA into protein synthesis as the final expressions of life. The sixty-four hexagrams have also been exhibited as a circle with a square block in the centre, see the next diagram below.
The commentaries of judgment and image were added later by the brother of King Wen and by Confucius and his disciples. The complete Book of I-Ching became officially known as Zhou-I, literally meaning the Book of Changes associated with the Zhou Dynasty. We shall illustrate the Book of I-Ching by explaining the working mechanism of the hexagrams. Take the very first hexagram, Chien, which consists of six yang lines or six solid lines.
______6 ______5 ______4 ______3 ______2 ______1
We interpret the lines from the bottom up and each solid line is assigned a value of nine. So the very bottom line is known as the nine-first line. The nine-first line has the interpretation of just being the potential only which is concept and self-consciousness. The nine-second line is considered to be the concept of becoming a seedling or sprouts and is ready for development. Development needs man. This man is the moral man. Nine-third line means the success of the moral man. Nine-fourth line means that the success of the moral man has reached a certain height, perhaps that height is his ultimate limit. He has reached it yet without knowing it. Perhaps he is becoming a little careless now. Nine-fifth line, having reached the ultimate limit and after awhile, this so-called successful moral man is becoming forgetful and is becoming greedy. The final line, the nine-sixth line, is the last stage. We find this man regretting and repenting. His development has stopped, he has no friends, and he is going downhill. He finds himself where he started at the stage of potential and self-consciousness.
Another example of the exact opposite nature is the hexagram Kun consisting of six yin lines.
___ ___ 6 ___ ___ 5 ___ ___ 4 ___ ___ 3 ___ ___ 2 ___ ___ 1
Again, the lines are interpreted from bottom to top. Each broken yin line is assigned a value of six. The meaning of the six-first line is ice, which means it is very yin here. The six-second line says that she is at an advantageous stage and she attracts the King's attention. The six-third line says that suddenly she finds herself in the service of the King. Six-fourth line says that her service in the court receives no blame nor praise. Six-fifth line says that suddenly she is wearing a yellow lower garment which indicates that she has a special and secret relationship with the King. The final line, the sixth-six line, means that there are dragons fighting in the wilderness and blood is spilling purple and yellow everywhere. Here we find bloody struggles among the yangs.
According to a historian of the Han Dynasty, Lao Zi was born in the 7th century BC at the time known as the Spring and Autumn Period. In real life he was an archives' officer. The Confucian classics mention a brief meeting between Confucius and Lao Zi. Legend has it that Lao Zi decided to leave the world when there was chaos under the heaven. Riding upon a water buffalo he reached the city gate of today's Xian. The gatekeeper noticed something unusual about this man and inquired about him. Then the gatekeeper persuaded Lao Zi to remain to write a message for posterity and he complied. Therefore, we have what is known today as the Tao Te Ching consisting of about five thousand words in Chinese divided into eighty-one short chapters.
I was a visiting scholar at Oxford University, Biochemistry Department during 1980-81. Aware of the fame of Professor Joseph Needham who wrote monumental volumes on science and civilization in China, I made frequent visits to Gonville and Caius College in Cambridge to sit at his feet. Each time he would invite me to sit at the High Table with him for college dinner, an honour that I will always cherish in my memory.
Before the meal, I would first accompany him to the cloak room where he put on his academic gown for entry into the dining room. On one occasion, as he was putting on his robe, he turned to me and asked, "Nowadays China is constantly emphasizing socialism with Chinese characteristics. What then really are Chinese characteristics?" I confessed that I had come across this phrase "socialism with Chinese characteristics", but that I really did not know what Chinese characteristics actually were. In his presence, I was afraid to show off with easy answers, so I asked him, "What then, in your opinion, is a Chinese characteristic?" He replied, "A Chinese characteristic is something that only China has and nobody else does." Then I asked, "Is it Confucius or Mencius or the Legalists?" Needham shook his head, saying, "No, many civilizations have similar philosophy." Then I asked again, "Then what is that something that China has and nobody else does?" Needham replied, "China has Lao Zi and his philosophy which is not found in other civilizations."
On another occasion, also in the cloak room before the college dinner he turned to me and said, "The philosophy of Lao Zi is the future philosophy of the world". I was a bit bewildered and asked him to repeat himself, and this time with emphasis. He reiterated that the philosophy of Lao Zi, namely the Tao Te Ching, is the future philosophy of the world.
Quite a few years ago, when the situation between mainland China and Taiwan was very tense, I received a delegation from China headed by the Vice-Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. The purpose of their visit was to seek my opinion on China's policy toward Taiwan. I hated to voice my own opinion alone so I invited a few local Chinese scholars to attend the meeting. Some scholars strongly advocated for a direct attack on Taiwan with force. Another advocated the firing of long distance missiles over Taiwan to scare them. Then the Chairman of the delegation asked me for my opinion and I quoted Chapter 37 of Lao Zi's Tao Te Ching: "The way of the Tao is always inaction." In other words, do nothing. In Chinese, it is called "wu wei". The Chinese delegation asked, "What do you mean do nothing? We can't just do nothing!" I quoted other passages saying, "The earth follows the heaven and the heaven follows the Tao. And the Tao follows what is natural." So, regarding the policy on Taiwan, I said do nothing and let nature take its own course. In another fifty or one hundred years the problem will be resolved of its own accord. There was a long pause, and in the end the leader of the delegation said, "Dr Tan, you have a point. Let nature determine the future."
In the year 2000, I went to China and spent the year travelling through twenty- seven provinces and lecturing at close to fifty universities and colleges. Wherever I went, I lectured on the way of the Tao and on the wisdom of wu wei which is inaction and following the course of nature. Most of my audience seemed to agree with me. This little book of Lao Zi, entitled Tao Te Ching, should be a lifelong companion and be read repeatedly. During the Vietnam War, many young people left the church saying that Christianity did not offer them any moral values. But many of them, years later, returned to the church saying that they went back to God after having read this book. The word "Tao" appears in the everyday vocabulary of the Chinese language. For example, "to understand" in Chinese is the knowledge of the Tao; "to be reasonable" is called the principle of the Tao; to be humanitarian is the Tao of man; the "road" is the path of the Tao; morality is the ethics of the Tao; and "incarnation" means the Tao became flesh.
In the original Greek translation of the first chapter of the Gospel of St John, it says "In the beginning was the word, and the word was God." In the Chinese translation, the word God has been replaced with the Tao. Later in the same chapter, it says that "The Tao became flesh and dwelt among us."
This transcends logic and definitions. Chapter 2 of Tao Te Ching states that "Being and Nothingness produce each other". "Being" is the substance or in physics, it is called the mass. Nothingness is not just nothing but is the energy. The only way for mass to equal energy is to follow Einstein's theory of relativity. Energy is equal to mass multiplied by a constant which is the square of the speed of light (E = mc2). Chapter 40 reads as follows:
Reversal is the movement of the Tao, and meekness its function. All things under heaven are originated from being. The origin of being is nothingness.
This is cosmology. In Christian theology, God created all things out of nothing. Here Lao Zi states that the origin of the universe is nothing. Mathematicians call this nothing "a point of singularity." This is the mystery of the material world. I will not elaborate any more than is necessary. I will leave it to the readers to explore at their own contemplation the book of the Tao.
The height of wu wei is not just to do nothing, but it is not to be a super power in the world; and not to revenge other people's wrong doings, but rather to do good to others who do you wrong. "Repay evil with good." (63) "Not daring to become the first in the world" (67).
Confucius, in his own words, said that he was never an originator, but a transmitter of teachings. What then did he transmit? He was transmitting the principles of the early Zhou Dynasty before him which is five hundred years earlier. The feudalistic society of the early Zhou Dynasty operated according to two principles. The first, Li, consists of rituals, ceremonies, and rules of conduct. The second, Hsing, consists of penal codes and penalties. Li is for upper classes and aristocrats to enhance honours for governing; Hsing is for common people to inspire fear and obedience to the law.
The Zhou Dynasty lasted over eight hundred years and in the latter part of this Dynasty, the breakdown of this system resulted in the Spring and Autumn Period (770 - 476 BC) and the Warring State (475 221 BC). During these times of chaos and disorder, often sages and philosophers arose to provide solutions and restore stability towards the ideal state.
Under a democratic system, whenever a ruling party is not satisfactory to the people, there would be an election to change the ruling party and elect another party. Therefore, people would put their hope in changing a corrupt government through an election. Such democratic elections do not allow sages and philosophers to appear to answer the needs of their time. Since China had long dynastic rules, government was changed by the mechanism of Imperial Exams and by the appearance of sages and philosophers to provide political philosophy and moral guidance.
Confucius was actually transmitting the original Chinese concept of divinity which is heaven. Confucius' concept of heaven is to bring down the divine into man's heart to teach people that the meaning of life is to do the Will of God on earth as it is in heaven. Human relationships and the practice of moral values in society are the highest values in life. The law of the universe is without but the moral law is within. In the book of Zhong Yung, Confucius said that the Will of God is what constitutes human nature and to follow such a nature to do the Will of God is what we call the Tao. The cultivation of the Tao is what we call culture. It is in our nature to automatically do what God wills us to do.
The Chinese concept of Deity is Tian. In Christianity there is "Our Father who art in Heaven". The divine is not on earth but in heaven. It is where He is, who He is and what His name is. Western philosophy is a logical system with knowledge of reasoning to prove God's existence. In contrast, Chinese philosophy is about human relationships and values of morality to relate man in society. Confucius' approach to the unknown is one of openness and tolerance. It is ancestral with sacrifice and family-based with sacrifice to the spirit of ancestors respecting the invisible spirit of the ancients as if they do exist. The standard of human goodness is not obtained from Heaven but in fellow man. The moral law exists within the law of the universe. There is oneness between within and without. For example, from the Book of Zhong Yung, what is heaven is given what we call human nature. To follow the law of human nature is what we call the Tao. The cultivation of the Tao is what we call education. Therefore from the Book of Great Learning, cultivation of the Tao of human nature would lead to the sustainability of the family. The sustainability of the family is a prerequisite for governing the nation. This is the fundamental basis of world peace. Family is a very important component in the Confucian philosophy. Plato's Republic puts emphasis on the ideal, but Chinese philosophy puts emphasis on the family.
For Confucius, world peace has a moral reality and it has to be practiced. To love others is not empty talk. Confucius said, "Within the four seas all are brothers and sisters"; this is benevolence. A moral man is one who practices benevolence; a petty man is one who is selfish. The word benevolence in Chinese is "Ren" which is written in two parts: it is two persons. For Confucius, the ideal is real. Through the correctness of the Names, here the Platonic Ideal or Aristotelian Form are united in the Reality of the Names. So the abstract names must conform to the concrete reality. The Tao is inseparable from man. The height of benevolence is to love those who do not love you. How do you love people? Confucius said, "Do not do to others what you do not want others to do to you."
The life story of Confucius is recalled in length by the Han historian Sima Qian in his book, Records of History (Shi Ji). The book states that Confucius had three thousand disciples and that he traveled through many feudal States during the Spring and Autumn Period, but his teaching was rejected by all the power brokers in his time. He died without any official appointment and ended his life without material success, but he left behind a great school of values for China and the world.
Mo Tzu was a native of the feudal state of Sung. Sung rulers were not direct descendants from the House of Zhou which was the ruling Dynasty of the time. Mo Tzu came from descendants of the previous Xia Dynasty whose first emperor was Yu and who tamed the flood. Confucius was a native of the feudal state of Lu. Lu rulers were direct descendants from the ruling house of the Zhou Dynasty. So the Lu people follow the customs of the Zhou. At that time, Sung people and customs were regarded as simple and nave. There were "Sung Jokes" like the ethnic jokes of today. For example, Mencius joked about the Sung farmers who pulled up the corn to help it grow faster. Hanfei also joked about Sung farmers who saw a rabbit kill itself because it accidentally hit a tree. The Sung farmers waited around the tree for the same thing to happen. Being a native of Sung, Mo Tzu considered the simplicity of life such as self-suffering, toil through life, and a bare funeral at death as an ideal life. Mo means ink. Mo Tzu may have come from a slave background in making ink.
Two aspects of Mo Tzu's philosophy stand out. He promoted obedience to the Will of Heaven (Tian Zhi). The Will of Heaven is like the compass to a wagon, a square to a carpenter. To obey the Will of Heaven is to live and to disobey the Will of Heaven is to perish. The second aspect of philosophy is Universal Love (Jian Ai). To be exact, Jian Ai should be translated as "inclusive love". For example, I love my own parents, but I must also love other people's parents in the same way I love my own parents. People would question by asking, "If you love other people's parents the same way as your own parents, how do you have the time and energy to love your own parents?" Mo Tzu replied, "If I love other people's parents, other people will also love my parents." This kind of love will be called inclusive.
Mo Tzu said "inclusiveness" (Jian) will lead to love (Jian Xiang Ai). Exclusiveness (bie) will lead to evil (Bie Xiang E). If you exclude others, you are making a distinction which is an action of exclusion. An action of exclusion would lead to conflict. In plain language we call that prejudice. To apply this principle to our present day, inclusive love is to love two opposites equally and the same. Examples of inclusive love are to love Yin and Yang equally and the same, to love father and mother equally and the same, to love the material and spiritual equally and the same, or one step further, to love the East and the West equally and the same. But to distinguish the two opposites and emphasise their differences would led to hate and conflict. So Jian, or inclusiveness, is a dialectic of universality or catholicity, combining and reconciling for complementarity.
Mencius is a self proclaimed disciple of Confucius. Mencius was about a hundred years later than Confucius. He could not have had a chance to meet Confucius at all, yet he was a self-proclaimed, faithful disciple of Confucius. The writing of Mencius is one of four classics that are necessary reading for the Empirical examinations throughout Chinese dynasties. Like Confucius, Mencius also advocated benevolence and righteousness. In the Confucian classics of Great Learning, Confucius concluded the book by saying, "A Kingdom should not regard profit as profit, but Righteousness as profit". In the Book of Mencius, when Mencius visited the Kingdom of Liang, the King, seeing Mencius, asked, "Master you have made a journey of thousands of miles to see me. You must have brought something to profit my kingdom." Mencius replied, "Why should the king mention profit? There is something more valuable than profit and that is benevolence and righteousness." For Mencius, the way to cure the ills of his time was the practice of benevolence and righteousness.
Mencius is most famous for his philosophy on human nature. He insisted that human nature is originally born good. As we mentioned before, Mencius obtained the doctrine of original goodness of human nature based on a poem in the Canon of Poetry entitled "Tian Sheng.
Heaven begets sons and daughters; with material substance and principle, in that order. Thus all people are eternally endowed, By nature to love beauty and the Tao.
We will have a separate section to deal with human nature. It is in his book that Mencius described the people of the country as Citizens of Heaven and benevolence as the Heart of the Heaven. In ancient times, only the king, the Son of Heaven, was qualified to perform the rituals of sacrifice to the God of Heaven and Earth. Mencius, similarly to the reformer Martin Luther after him, declared, "Even a sinner, if he conducts himself in purification and repentance, is qualified to perform sacrifice to the God of Heaven and Earth." Mencius said, "To do your best is to obey the Will of Heaven, for the Kingdom of God is in your heart."
Like Mencius who had never seen Confucius yet claimed to be a direct successor of his philosophy, Chuang Tzu never saw Lao Tzu yet claimed to be a direct successor of his writings. In his writing, he is remembered for his philosophy of scepticism. As stated earlier, Chuang Tzu dreamed of a butterfly. He woke up and asked, "Was it I who dreamed of the butterfly or the butterfly who dreamed of me." In other word, he doubted his own existence.
Chinese writer Lin Yu Tang said that "Chuang Tzu is a humorist with a wide fantasy; he is frivolous when he is profound and profound when he is frivolous." Lin also said, "When a Chinese succeeds, he is always a Confucianist and when he fails, he is always a Taoist." Even before the arrival of Buddhism in China, Chuang Tzu gave to China metaphysics and mysticism. His philosophy transcended logic and reason. He gave the Chinese thoughts of relativity with freedom of metaphysics. For Chuang Tzu, the Tao of Love is loving without being conscious that one is loving.
Other Chinese philosophers will be discussed in the following chapters on the philosophy of history and philosophy of human nature and dialectics.