Author: Ouyang Miguo.
In recent years, Chinese culture has gradually emerged, and in order to keep up with the trend, I also want to study it. I found the Tianya [Guoxue Treatise] page, went in to take a look, and unexpectedly found that there was a sword discussion inside. The three schools of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism fought in the dark, and occasionally a few Western swords appeared, which was really lively. What happened? Has the national study changed the national war?
In order to prevent the cold gun from being injured by the arrow, I hurriedly left the forum and started to study Chinese culture from elsewhere.
If you want to understand Chinese culture, you must grasp a root, which is called the unity of heaven and man. It is also strange to say that the belief in the unity of heaven and man was not formed and developed in Chinese history, but was passed down from prehistory. The legend of Pangu opening the world is the most primitive and best interpretation of the idea of the unity of heaven and man.
The legend of Pangu is well known, but no one realizes the unusualness of this legend. Unusual? We will show it later, and first go down the line of thought of the unity of heaven and man.
What does it mean to be one between man and nature? No one can tell. Some people say that the unity of man and nature is the unity of man and nature. Digging a pit and burying oneself in the soil is considered unity, isn't it? Intentions to get along? Please, nature obeys the laws of physics, and your mind thinks according to the laws of physics? Can you use the formula to calculate what you want? One with the Origins of Nature? What is the origin? Atom? Wave? Grain? Field? Black? Empty?
It is not clear, the way is not clear, but the Chinese prefer to adhere to this belief and believe that there must be some mysterious relationship between heaven and man. Take the unity of nature and man as the guiding principle for everything.
There are several important stages in the history of Chinese studies, the first is the Zhou Dynasty, which is the era of the founding of the school.
When the idea of the unity of heaven and man developed to the Zhou Dynasty, heaven and man were studied and expressed separately, each into a system, Tianxue explored the laws of heaven, and anthropology explored how the human system was in harmony with the will of heaven, in order to achieve the unity of heaven and man, and the Chinese culture was formally established.
Tianxue was called Zhou Yi and belonged to the worldview, which later developed into Taoism. Renxue is known as Zhou Li, which belongs to Fang **, and later developed into Confucianism.
The world view is the same, but the party ** is not the same, in the Spring and Autumn Period, there was a situation of a hundred schools of thought, and finally Confucianism was dominant.
History is advancing, the principles of Chinese culture and law are becoming more and more abundant, and the interpretation of the relationship between heaven and man is becoming more and more complex. By the time of the Han Dynasty, Chinese culture had entered the second important stage: the era of learning.
Which dynasty was the greatest in Chinese history? Han dynasty. Only the Han Dynasty, not one. It's great because it's culturally great. During the Han Dynasty, Chinese Taoism completed the transformation to Taoism, Chinese Confucianism completed the transformation to Confucianism, and Western Buddhism was introduced to China.
China is culture, is the spirit, not just refers to this territory, in history, we have experienced many foreign invasions, sometimes the territory is fragmented, sometimes the territory is completely occupied by foreigners, in that case, China disappeared? No, our nation is still there, our ideas are still there, our cultural heritage is still there, then, China is there.
Why did the Han Dynasty complete the finalization of national studies? There are two main reasons for this.
First, the Han Dynasty ended its long-term decentralization and began to centralize power. Centralized governance must have a unified guiding ideology, and in order to maintain the rule, the official must maintain the absolute authority of this ideology, that is, the state needs a religion. Although the Qin Dynasty completed the unification, the Qin Dynasty's rapid demise with Legalism taught the Han Dynasty a lesson, and the Han Emperor was ready to find another idea of governing the country.
Second, the emperors of the Han Dynasty were not bound by traditional ideas. The people in power before the Han Dynasty were all royal nobles, and they would inherit some ancestral traditions, but Liu Bang, the ancestor of the Han Dynasty, only inherited some skills in farming, which can be said to be a blank slate in terms of governing the country. Because of this, the Han Emperor was able to choose ideas fairly without prejudice and without burden.
The first few Han emperors chose Taoism, Taoism pays attention to the rule of inaction, the Han Emperor took a look, great, I like this, I just don't know what to do. Fortunately, in the early Han Dynasty, the people at that time really couldn't afford to toss, and then toss must be extinction, and at that time, Chinese culture had not yet taken shape, and this death was completely deleted by history, maybe like other dead civilizations, it was sent to the museum for future generations to guess and play. On this point, it is not an exaggeration to say that the Han Dynasty was the greatest.
Of course, Taoism believes in the unity of heaven and man, and this concept was put forward by the Taoist Zhuangzi. However, Taoism's way of integrating heaven and man is a bit unreliable, and he thinks about how to make people go to the sky all day long, and the emperor feels that the difficulty coefficient is a bit high. Later, after recuperation, the national strength became stronger, the emperor did not want to do nothing, but thought about it, and needed new ideas to cooperate, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty opened the road of dedication, Confucianism saw the opportunity, and there was a smart Confucian genius: Isn't it the unity of heaven and man? Since it is difficult to get people to heaven, why not get heaven to people? So based on the principle of heaven and man induction, it was said that the emperor was ordered by heaven to exercise power on behalf of heaven, and the emperor gladly accepted it and began to govern the country with Confucianism.
The so-called "depose the hundred schools" is not correct, the theory of heaven and man induction is actually a synthesis of the unity of heaven and man in each family, and Taoism can not be dismissed, after all, it is not the era of Gaozu's blank paper, and Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty can not depose the ancestral law from the perspective of filial piety, so the two Han Dynasty still have a permanent Huang Lao worship, and Confucianism is not really "exclusive".
Speaking of the turn of the Han Dynasty and the Han Dynasty, there were many merchants from the Western Regions who wore strange costumes and sold exotic goods in the market, and they also brought a kind of strange theory, which was later called Buddhism. Normally, it is difficult for a new idea, especially a religious one, to be integrated with a mature local culture, but even the Buddha could not have imagined that his ideas and his followers would take root and flourish in China after hundreds of years of wandering.
Isn't it strange? It is not surprising that Buddhism is so compatible with China's idea of the unity of heaven and man that it is rare in the world. Both emphasize self-improvement rather than dishonesty to God.
Buddhism talks about emptiness, Taoism talks about mysteries, and emptiness and mysteries have the same taste.
Buddhism stresses kindness, Confucianism stresses benevolence, and benevolence and goodness are interconnected.
The most amazing thing is that Buddhism and the study of the unity of heaven and man are the same way of observation, both of which are seen from the inside out. This is the opposite of the observation method of Western philosophy, they pay attention to the essence from the outside to the inside, from the phenomenon to see the essence, to perceive the existence of the evidence, and we are seeking the outside from the inside, "if you want to know the external reason of the body, you need to seek from the heart", "the universe is my heart, my heart is the universe", even Chinese medicine to see a doctor, but also from the internal adjustment of the external symptoms, why? Heaven and man are one, and the reason for the existence of all things in the world should be in harmony with people. Okay, what do you think of Buddhism? For example: If the wind blows the flags, ask whether it is the wind or the flags? Buddhism answers: It's heartbeat. - Woohoo! Fate! It seems that Buddhism is integrated into Chinese civilization, a match made in heaven.
In addition, Buddhism gives a simple and clear explanation for the unity of heaven and man: heaven is empty, man is empty, and heaven and man are empty, so unity is emptiness.
For the explanation of Buddhism, Chinese scholars and Taoist priests looked at each other, is this okay? You seem to be saying that heaven and man are the same! This is also empty, that is also empty, what is not empty? Good is empty and evil is empty, so why do you still do good? Do you just talk empty words and do empty things? No, I can't stand the same essence of everything, I can't stand it every day, I can't live this day by saying that rice and dung are the same! We Chinese still have to adhere to the ancestral world view of yin and yang opposites and unity, and we will keep your empty words to relieve boredom.
The reason why Buddhism can maintain its independence and not be integrated into the Taoism and Confucianism like the hundred schools of thought is because Buddhism has a unique secret tradition: the theory of reincarnation. This is a big highlight and an important supplement to Chinese culture, and Chinese people are beginning to think about the meaning of life. Yes, it is true to have a heart in harmony with the sky, but it only makes sense to let this heart grow and improve in continuous reincarnation! Good theory, good theory! However, to the dismay of the monks, the foolish accounts such as the hollow theory of Buddhism were thrown aside.
After the addition of Buddhism, the situation of the three religions of Chinese culture was officially formed, and since then the three religions have exchanged and infiltrated each other, and the Chinese culture has generated the main body in the Han Dynasty, therefore, the main ethnic group of China is not called the Zhou nationality before, and the Tang nationality is not called the Tang nationality, but the Han nationality, which is well deserved. In the eyes of foreigners, Han people are people who have the concept of Han family in their hearts. What is Han? "Book of Songs" cloud: "There is Han in the sky, and there is light in the prison", Han refers to the Tianhe and the Milky Way of the universe, that is, we are the people of the Heavenly Race, and the people of Heaven and Man are one.
After the Chinese students became adults, after nearly 2,000 years of development, they branched out, blossomed and bore fruit, and occasionally flashed with essence. Regardless of whether Yahism or Islam entered China later, it never shook the foundation of Chinese studies. Of course, mathematically speaking, there will be three times as much dross associated with the establishment of the three religions, but it is impossible to count how much dross there is and which is dross. How do you know that when it came to the New Culture Movement, a great liquidation began, this time it was even the monks and the Buddha to settle accounts together (this wind has been poisoned to this day), and the Chinese culture has entered the era of booming and rumbling, also called the era of dismantling the school.
Why is it called the era of school demolition? This starts with the causes of the New Culture Movement. A group of emerging Chinese bourgeoisie planned to build commercial buildings, but a large number of ancient buildings occupied the land, so they drew the word "demolition" everywhere with a stroke of their pen. At this time, the homeowners were also alarmed by the foreign powers, and began to be angry that the old houses were not strong. Originally, I wanted to clean up some broken bricks and rubbles, but under the encouragement of the bourgeoisie's gorgeous slogans such as "compensation for demolition and relocation" and "stronger concrete", the main structure of the girder gables of the ancient building was not pleasing to the eye. As a result, all over the country, walls collapsed and houses collapsed, and the era of cultural demolition came.
If you lose, you complain that your ancestors are not good at learning? Is this logical?
What do you say about your ancestors? There is a saying in heaven: Tianxingjian, a gentleman is constantly striving for self-improvement. Are we self-reliant? Just arrogant and self-contained, how many years have you not had the heart to improve yourself? There is a saying about humanity: kings, ministers, fathers, sons, fathers, sons. If the king has the king, the minister has the minister, the father has the father, the son has the son, my heavenly clan is united, the courage to sacrifice life for righteousness, and the wisdom of the soldier, why let the family be like a grandson? Not to mention anything else, there were only two Lin Zexu back then, and it was never ** that decided the outcome of the war, but people.
We are not saying that we must resist Western learning, but we should take Chinese culture as the foundation, embrace all rivers, be inclusive, learn from things, and apply what we have learned. Gentlemen, the so-called sea is tolerant of all rivers, the premise is that we have to be the sea! The Chinese culture has been demolished into a muddy pond, and a flood peak will be gone? If there is no warp and weft in my heart, what can I do? But then again, the trendsetters of the New Culture Movement are all social elites who have studied both Chinese and Western, and unlike today's immigration fever, it was a return fever, knowing that the country was in danger, but the students who traveled far away did not hesitate to return to China to die. Alas, in the era of people's minds changing, the death of Chinese culture, don't say anything, the way of heaven is constant, and luck dictates.
The building is tilting, Chinese sinology, a hundred years of loneliness.
Today, our guiding ideology is Marxism-Leninism, and although this is not a national culture, we will also talk about it in the spirit of respecting history and reality. The ideological basis of Marxism-Leninism is to abolish private ownership and realize public ownership. Well, it looks beautiful, but it's embarrassing to do. Marx overlooked an important thing: private property comes from selfishness, and in order to eliminate private property, selfishness must be eliminated first. But if selfishness is eliminated, we will all become robots or psychos, because selfishness comes from self-consciousness, and self-consciousness is not extinguished?
Public ownership is a matter of no law in primitive society, at that time there was material poverty, there was no food if you didn't work, and besides, they were all your own family, and you couldn't do more than a few scolds, and it would be over after two beatings, how can it be compared with modern society? Since selfishness cannot be eliminated, and all products under public ownership are publicly owned, this is a contradiction, and the producer finds that labor and income cannot be linked, and it is all a big pot of rice, so what are you doing! After a long time, everyone has seen the doorway, and there have been strange things such as "doing more and doing less, doing and not doing the same", what kind of productivity does this develop?
What should I do if productivity doesn't go up? It doesn't matter, develop mental power! As a result, the "power of the heart" exerted its might, claiming how bold people are, how productive the land is, not afraid that they can't do it, they are afraid that they can't think of it, and the revolutionary spirit is omnipotent, and so on. This is 100% pure idealism, that is, we have a little bit of Chinese culture to be so neat, but I don't know why the revolutionary spirit is called materialistic, but instead smashes Chinese culture as the four olds again, what is this called.
Fortunately, there are wise leaders who have discovered this problem, starting from the contract system of joint production and developing the private economy, so that the value of the products has been re-realized. However, it is easy to return material values to their places, but it is difficult to return people's hearts. The spirit of public ownership has failed, the idea of Chinese culture has been smashed, and we are unwilling to worship the gods of the West.
Sure enough, with the abundance of materials, we have entered an era of rampant materialism, and seeing all kinds of bad things in society, Chinese have begun to reflect. After all, the human heart is not the heart of a beast, and material desire is not the whole of life! This heart is boundless, what is the basis for life? Where does death go?
In desperation, we thought of our ancestors. As a Chinese, it's almost instinctive. On the land of China, the "Three Character Classic" was read, the "* Rules" was memorized, the statue of Confucius was erected, and the masters of Chinese culture ......Fights began.
Why fight? It is estimated that there are three reasons.
First, the Chinese culture has been destroyed for a long time, and the masters of Chinese culture have no teacher, they are halfway monks, and they still wear materialistic foreign glasses, so they can't see the essence and roots of Chinese culture, so they agree with this theory but oppose it.
To be clear here, Chinese culture is pure idealism, and only the heart of China. Compared with the idealism of Chinese culture, the accurate translation of Western idealism should be "theory of ideas", which can barely be called "idealism". What is the heart of China? We take the human heart as the body, explore the law of all things and apply it, and finally reach the state of thought of the unity of heaven and heart, and seek the eternity of the heart. This kind of idealism that integrates subjectivity and objectivity, will Westerners be the only one?
Therefore, I advise materialists, you bunch of walking atoms, it is better to walk away from Chinese studies. Parting Message: The new discoveries of the times continue to prove the ignorance and backwardness of materialism, and the end of materialism is not far away. - Yo, are you still angry? Don't worry, which atom in you is angry? How does the atom understand Chinese characters? Did you stop spinning or did you spin faster?
Let the atoms be entangled first, let's talk about the second reason for the national war, this is very simple, some masters of Chinese culture do business with Chinese culture, and their peers are enemies, so they fight.
The third reason is the contradiction between the enemy and ourselves, and the anti-China forces at home and abroad deliberately split the Chinese culture, provoke cultural infighting, and obstruct the great rejuvenation of Chinese civilization.
However, no matter how you fight, there are two things that must be understood, one is the historical fact, the formation of Chinese culture is the result of the joint promotion of the three religions, and it is impossible not to admit it. The second is reality, if one side really wins the battle of Chinese culture, Chinese culture will not be able to go out, culture is not a broken arm Venus, and it will be really useless if it is crippled.
Okay, are you tired of fighting? If you're tired, let's take a break, sit down, have a cup of tea, and catch your breath.
Exhale exhale
Now, let's calm our hearts, change our perspective, and look at our Chinese culture from the beginning.
There is a tradition of Chinese culture, a very strange tradition, why doesn't anyone feel strange? This tradition is called Zungu.
From the point of view of knowledge structure, modern people are more learned than ancient people, and ancient people are more learned than primitive people, but our Chinese culture thought actually believes that the most beautiful time and the deepest knowledge in China are all in the prehistoric and distant era of the Three Emperors and Five Emperors, and even later compiled into the books of "Zhou Yi" and "Zhou Li", and no one dares to sign it. Confucius, a generation of sages, "said but did not do", only annotated the ancestral studies and did not dare to add personal thoughts.
Why is this happening? From the perspective of evolutionary theory, primitive people are illiterate, illiterate, simple in thinking, poor in language, and busy every day for food and warmth, what good theories can they come up with to be passed down through the ages? Is there any secret hidden in the ancient theory of the unity of heaven and man?
Walk! Go to the ancients! Leave aside all subjective prejudices, start with the legend of Pangu Kaitian, go back to the thinking of the ancestors, and see if you can find anything.
The legend of Pangu is very unusual, it has a long origin, it is widely spread, and it is depicted in the rock paintings of Cangyuan in Yunnan Province 20,000 years ago (see page 12 of Ma Huixin's "Enlightenment of Pangu Studies"). Is this really a story conceived by some primitive man? In ancient times, where transportation was inconvenient and language barriers, why did the Chinese ancestors in many places know this story? All pass down this story to future generations? Food for thought.
Secondly, the connotation of this legend is unusual, what is the identity of Pangu? Usually people see him as the creator god, but if you analyze it carefully, Pangu is not a god. First, he felt uncomfortable in the chaos, so he wanted to open up the world, and his motive was clear. Does God feel uncomfortable? What was God's motive for creating the world? Second, he used tools (axes) in the creation of the world, and God still needs tools to do things? Doesn't the Bible say that God has whatever he wants? Third, Pangu later died, incarnating all things—will God die? To sum up, Pangu's identity is not like a god, but it is very much like a human.
Stripped of the layers of exaggeration and fantasy in the legend, the truth restored turned out to be - man created all things?
But scientifically speaking, there is the universe first, then the earth, and then there are people!
No, no, let's sober up first......Still not working......Hey? Is it because we are too sober to see things so clearly? Now advocating the Chinese dream, we might as well try it from the dream. Dreams are bizarre, and the most bizarre thing is that if we want to truly understand the ancestors' belief in the unity of heaven and man, we must think outside the conventional thinking and firmly believe that the relationship between man and the universe is very close, and that the universe was created by man!
So we have to come up with this dream story: the consciousness of human beings (the souls of the ancestors?) It was produced in the chaotic state of the universe before it was formed, and it has super power energy (supernatural powers?). ）。
This is the first dream of China: all things are created by man - the dream of heaven.
With this first dream, we can know that the relationship between man and the Creator, who is the first father of man, is not only close, but also intimate. Therefore, we have an epiphany: no wonder Chinese culture attaches so much importance to filial piety, respecting ancestors as respecting heaven, and daring to love heaven and ancestors are the same thing! Is this the root of the idea of the unity of man and nature? If this is the case, the Three Emperors and the Five Emperors are not evolved orangutans at all, but the Heavenly Ancestor who was reincarnated and transformed into a heavenly machine. Is this the reason why the Chinese culture is so respectful of the ancients and insists on "telling but not doing"?
But why should we look at everything from the inside out, and realize the unity of things and self? This requires the second dream of China: the dream of humanity, which is created by man.
Well, the dream talk seems to be a little messy, add a note: the word "for" in the first dream of China, read the second tone, when the word "by", the word "for" in the second dream of China, read the fourth tone, is the meaning of "for", anyway, the Chinese dream as long as the Chinese understand, let foreigners wonder about it.
Let's continue to talk about dreams, why do people die? Biotechnology has discovered many incredible things in the microcosm, it turns out that the reason why the cells of human flesh and even all life will die is actually set in DNA! The number of cells is limited, and a thing called telomeres is the "countdown counter", and the number of times is full of cells, which stops ** and leads to aging and death. What's even more amazing is that there is a thing called telomerase in the cell that can repair telomeres, so that the number of times is not limited, but the activity of telomerase is quite tightly regulated! Believe it or not? OK.
That is to say, it is entirely possible for the Heavenly Ancestor to create an immortal body for life, but his old man does not do that, and deliberately adds a countdown counter to let life have a process from birth to death, so what does Tianxin mean?
The more technology advances, the more fingerprints of wisdom can be found in life. From the emergence and movement of bacterial flagella to the formation of mammals, there are obvious traces of intelligent design. Let's just talk about mammals, are they really "evolved"? You must know that the life earlier than mammals, the children are full of skills after birth, but the children of mammals are unable to take care of themselves, what kind of evolution is this?
In order to evolve into a mammal, two conditions must be met at the same time: first, the mother beast completes the evolution of mammalian organs, and second, the young animal completes the loss of viability. If the organ of the mother animal is formed first, but the baby animal cannot use it, what is the use of this organ? If you don't use it, it will degenerate. If the baby loses its ability first, but the mother has no milk, the baby will starve to death. Is this something that nature can do randomly? If the Heavenly Ancestor did it intentionally, what did the Heavenly Heart mean?
This is to be explained by the second dream of China, the existence of all things is set up for human beings. With such belief, it is natural to look at things from the heart outward, to speculate on the intention of the heavens to arrange it in this way, and to guide the conduct of people in the world. That's why it will be Gewu - Zhizhi - Sincerity - Righteousness - Self-cultivation - Qi Family - Governing the Country - Leveling the World, do you understand? This is a complete set of mastery that understands the will of heaven, acts with a righteous heart, and is applied to the world.
For example, if God wants to make human beings selfish, then what kind of mammals are they doing, leaving only the reptiles who don't recognize their relatives to fight each other! Isn't it through the establishment of parent-child relationships to achieve the goal of human beings to establish families, clans, and societies? By creating mammals, the heavens are telling us that anyone must rely on others to grow up**! Without others, babies cannot survive or become wolf children. Heaven has given us human body, and it has also given us responsibility: to be responsible for others, to be responsible to heaven and earth.
Escaping from the world and avoiding responsibility, is it against the sky? Are unfilial people against the sky? Self-interested people, is it against the sky?
How can there be a future for those who rebel against the sky?
Heaven does not make you selfless, but makes you selfish. Harmony with others, harmony with society, harmony with nature, and finally harmony with the heart of heaven, everyone is cool and crooked together, isn't it the unity of things and me, the unity of heaven and man? Of course, this is only an ideal, and at any time, the lack of people's hearts and the unevenness of the people are obstacles to selfishness.
People don't want to be classified, but people must have levels, people don't want to be constrained, but people must not be unruly. If people rise and fall between various levels, but they can abide by their own rules, then the way of heaven is not far away.
How to go and? Loyalty, filial piety, benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom, faith, love, dedication, etc., there are many ways to go, as long as you have a heart, you don't have to worry about no way. To be able to understand the will of heaven, to obey the conscience of heaven, not to be confined to the words of sages, not to be confined to the theory of one religion, and not to live to seventy, can obtain naturalness and transcendence, and achieve the state of Confucius "doing whatever you want".
There are two dreams in your heart, and Chinese culture is a horse in front of you, although it is a dream, but try to believe that you will open a secret door and enter an incomparably wonderful world.
We are now, although we are in the era of broken school, the traditional culture has long been shattered, the teachers of Chinese culture picked up a few pieces of residue, and then found some new ideas as glue, and reluctantly glued together the "national culture", it is difficult to become a system, but don't forget, there is a saying called "broken and then standing", after those altars and jars are broken, the core essence of Chinese civilization - the unity of heaven and man is not revealed? In the end, the mysteries of heaven and earth will shine in the Chinese sinology, and the future sinology will become a world general science, and the ancient Chinese culture will enter a new era: the era of astronomy!
So why is it necessary to arrange the death of a life? What is the meaning of life? Can the Tai Chi Bagua handed down by the ancestors explain all things in the universe and unify physics and affairs? These are the contents of another article, interested friends, please take a look, peerless secret words: Lingtianji.