Humanism Humanism Religion

If Chinese thought can be analyzed in terms of the concepts of religion and humanism, it is not difficult to find that both religious and humanist traditions have a long history in China, and that religion and humanism in the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties are the ideological backgrounds from which Confucianism emerged. In my opinion, Confucius' choice between them has basically determined the nature of Confucianism. Therefore, to judge whether Confucianism is a religion, or humanism, or humanist religion, etc., we must first explore traditional Chinese religion and humanism.

When people think of traditional Chinese religions, they naturally associate them with Taoism and Buddhism. However, Prof. Mou Zhongjian found that, in addition to this, there is "one major religion that has been universally accepted as the authentic faith of the whole society and has continued to exist for thousands of years", which is the Chinese patriarchal traditional religion, or the original type of religion. Prof. Mou pointed out that "Chinese patriarchal traditional religion, with the worship of heavenly deities and ancestors as its core, the worship of nature such as the gods of the earth and grain, the sun, the moon, mountains and rivers as its wings, and the worship of other kinds of ghosts and deities as its supplement, has formed a relatively stable system of suburb societies, clan temples and other sacrificial systems, which has become an important part of the rites of China's patriarchal hierarchical society and a spiritual force for maintaining the social order and the family system, and a means of comforting the Chinese people and their families. spiritual power, and a spiritual source that comforts the Chinese mind." [1] I believe that the discovery and presentation of Chinese patriarchal traditional religion is an important contribution to the study of Chinese intellectual history.

As early as the beginning of China's crossing over into the age of civilization, during the period of the Three Emperors and the Five Emperors, the Chinese patriarchal traditional religion had already been formed and became the state religion of the later Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties. After the unification of China by Emperor Qin Shi Huang, although this religion underwent certain changes in its form, its basic characteristics remained unchanged, as did the nature of its state religion. It can be said that it remained the mainstream religion of the Chinese until the overthrow of the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

Comparatively speaking, the formation of traditional Chinese humanism came much later, at the time of the Yin and Zhou dynasties.

Mr. Wang Guowei was the first to suggest that there was a great change in Chinese culture at the time of the Yin and Zhou dynasties, which has since been widely regarded by scholars as a religious reform movement. I, on the other hand, think that it was first a movement of religious criticism and humanism, and then a movement of religious reform.

The cultural elites of the early Zhou Dynasty, represented by the King of Wen and the Duke of Zhou, conducted a deep and thorough reflection on traditional religions, and finally realized that it was not "the order of heaven that was not unauthorized" but "the order of heaven that was not always the case," and that "the order of heaven was not always the case," and that "the order of heaven was not always the case. It was finally realized that it was not "Heaven's order is not unauthorized", but "Heaven's order is not always the same" and "Heaven's order is not always the same", and even "Heaven is not trustworthy". As for the abolition of the Xia and Yin dynasties, all because "but do not respect the virtue, is the early fall of the fate." Originally, the ultimate basis for social development and change is not the mysterious and unpredictable fate of heaven, but human virtue. The abandonment of the Mandate of Heaven and the focus on human affairs is obviously a fundamental negation and thorough criticism of traditional religion, marking the formation of Chinese humanism.

However, at the same time, the cultural elites skillfully incorporated these humanist achievements into the system of religion. The Duke of Zhou put forward the idea that "Heaven has no relatives, but is supported by virtue" and advocated "matching virtue with heaven". Here, heaven is still a personal god, but it is only capable of promoting good and punishing evil on the basis of human virtues. In addition, the Duke of Zhou also formulated a whole set of sacrificial rites and ceremonies, and used the fruits of humanism to strengthen the patriarchal traditional religion. All this meant religious reform.

The reason why the cultural elites, such as the Duke of Zhou, on the one hand criticized religion and pioneered humanism, and on the other hand incorporated humanism into religion and carried out religious reforms was probably due to the fact that patriarchal traditional religions had always had a great influence and indoctrination function as the state religions, that is to say, they were motivated by social, political, and faith considerations.

This created a peculiar phenomenon, in the ideological world after the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty, religion and humanism were merged into a single entity, ****composed of the dominant ideology together; or religion and humanism were two sides of the same coin, each playing a different role. Regarding this characteristic, the book "Zhou Yi", which is said to have been written by King Wen, is the most obvious. From the Mawangdui Palindrome "Essentials", we know that Confucius had long ago realized that the content of the Zhouyi contained three dimensions, namely, Zan, Numerology, and Virtue. Among them, Zan and Numerology belong to religion, and Virtue belongs to humanism.

In my opinion, formality is the lifeblood of philosophy, or the idea of formality can be called philosophy, and the formality of the pre-Qin period is what Zigong called "nature and the way of heaven". From this point of view, the core of humanism in the Western Zhou period was the word "virtue". The word "virtue" was not the later term "virtue", but "virtue", which is a concept under the form. Therefore, the humanism of that time was not a philosophy if it was not a form of study.

It is worth noting that, from the Shijing and Zuozhuan, humanism made substantial progress during the Western Zhou, Spring and Autumn Periods, and this was the introduction of the question of sex and the way of heaven, or the formation of the theory of human nature and the corresponding theory of righteousness of heaven. The reason why people have "virtue" is because they have "virtue," and "virtue" is endowed by heaven, which is the heaven of righteousness. This "heaven" is the heaven of righteousness, which was the highest concept of humanism at that time. When the heaven of righteousness of humanism and the heaven of dominion of religion were counteracted, the distance between humanism and religion was gradually pulled apart, and the one body composed of the two gradually evolved into two bodies, and finally they both became relatively independent.

Nevertheless, due to historical and other reasons, humanism and religion, as two ideologies of different natures, are still inextricably linked. The two support each other, complement each other, influence each other, interpenetrate each other, and lead to you have me and I have you. That is, this humanism contains elements and properties of religion, and this religion contains elements and properties of humanism. In this sense, this religion can be called "humanist religion" and this humanism can be called "religious humanism". However, it would be inappropriate for us to treat this humanism as a religion and label it as "humanist religion" or to treat this religion as humanism and label it as "religious humanism", because the religious element in humanism and the humanist element in religion are the same as the humanist element in religion. Humanist factors in religion, are in a rather secondary position, not the mainstream, so it can not be qualitatively named.

The two traditions of religion and humanism mentioned above are the historical background of Confucianism. So, does Confucianism belong to the tradition of religion or humanism? The emergence of Confucianism certainly marks a new stage in the development of pre-Qin humanism, which is already very clear from Confucius' choice of the three dimensions of the content of the Zhouyi. He said: "Yi", I after its Zhu Bu carry on, I view the virtue and righteousness of the ear also. ...... I seek its virtues only, I and Shi Wu the same way but different people." [2] If you further observe the whole history of Confucianism, it is not difficult to find that Confucianism is undoubtedly the mainstream of the great wave of humanism in China since more than two thousand years.

In short, Confucianism is humanism, not religion. It has religious elements, or religiousness, and can therefore be called religious humanism, but not humanist religion. It is not only a theory about philosophy, ethics, society, politics, etc., but also a doctrine of life, a system of beliefs, and thus a substitute for religion in daily life.