The Characteristics of Confucianist Culture: Confucianist Thinking Mode and Holistic Thinking

A characteristic of Confucian culture, "between the lines"-Confucian way of thinking, holistic thinking

Alvin toffler, a famous American futurist, summed up the characteristics of westerners' way of thinking in this passage in the preface to his book From Chaos to Order, written for the famous Belgian scientist and Nobel Prize winner I.llyaPrigogine. He said: "One of the most highly developed skills of contemporary western civilization is to break down problems into as small parts as possible. We are so good at this technology that we often forget to put these details back together. This technique is perhaps the most carefully honed in science. In science, we are not only used to dividing problems into many details, but also often use a useful technology to isolate each of these details from their surroundings. " Here, the characteristic of toffler's accurately summarized western thoughts is that westerners are used to using analytical methods in philosophical terms. It is a key reason for the rapid development of taxonomic science to separate the research object from the related complex overall background and study it in isolation. Without this method, classified scientific research is impossible.

Different from this technique that westerners are good at, Confucianism shows a distinct overall thinking. It is hard to say that the technology of disassembling parts has disappeared in Confucianism, but Confucian scholars never seem to realize the necessity of using and further developing this technology.

Unified thinking of knowledge, emotion and meaning

What are the characteristics of Confucianism as a whole? Confucian holistic thinking should include two levels in content. First of all, the thinking subject does not enter the thinking process as a simple cognitive subject, but functions as an organic unity of reason, will and emotion. Secondly, the result of the subject's spiritual activity is not simply to acquire some specific knowledge about the object world, but also to feel beauty, experience goodness and moral practice. The subject's knowledge, emotion and will are objectified into truth, goodness and beauty, which is manifested in the overall spiritual realm of the unity of heaven and man, the integration of scene and knowledge. This is a modern interpretation of China's traditional Confucian holistic thinking. This process of interpretation is based on modern philosophy, especially the basic philosophical position of the dichotomy of subject and object in western philosophy. Such an interpretation seems to be difficult to accurately reveal the characteristics of Confucianism.

Generally speaking, the thinking subject is an organic unity of knowledge, emotion and meaning at any time. This can be fully and effectively exemplified in the history of thought at all times and in all countries. The characteristic of western philosophical thinking is to consciously use epistemology, ethics, aesthetics and other categories and concepts to reflect and express all aspects of the subject's knowledge, feelings and intentions, because westerners have a strong sense of division or skills of breaking zero for a long time. The Confucian way of thinking never classifies the outside world and human beings themselves. From the current standpoint, this feature of Confucianism shows that in the Confucian ideological system, man and nature are unified, or subject and object, subjective and objective, mind and matter, and psychology and physics are unified. Furthermore, it can be said that thinking and existence are unified, and theory and practice are unified. Strictly speaking, there is no dichotomy between man and nature, subject and object, subjective and objective, mind and matter, psychology and physics, thinking and existence, theory and practice in traditional Confucianism. Therefore, to accurately understand the integrity of Confucianism, we must start with its inherent fuzziness. The fuzziness of Confucianism leads to its integrity.

Conceptual analytical thinking is a kind of discrete thinking, aiming at the pursuit of deterministic knowledge. This way of thinking is essentially the concrete embodiment of separatist consciousness. On the contrary, fuzzy thinking does not aim at accurate knowledge. The fuzziness of thinking is the uncertainty of people's thinking activities on the nature of thinking objects and the generic boundaries between them. It pursues the overall understanding, not the partial and limited knowledge. Therefore, it is neither analytical nor synthesis based on analysis. Because fuzzy thinking does not pursue the certainty of the nature of objects and the certainty of generic boundaries between objects, it naturally gets rid of the inevitable limitations of conceptual analysis thinking. In this thinking process, objects do not have eternal and specific attributes, so the boundaries between objects are not fixed, but fluid and changeable. Each object has its own title for easy identification. This title or name is relatively stable, but the object it refers to is not permanent, but fluid. So there are two systems, one is the naming system, and the other is the physical system referred to by the naming system. The former is certain and the latter is uncertain. The former is out of necessity, because there must be tools to express it. But the naming system is very different from the objects it expresses. It can be seen that fuzzy thinking is manifested as the whole intuitive thinking in the realistic ideological process.

The proposition of "harmony between man and nature"

The whole thought of Confucianism focuses on the proposition of "the unity of man and nature", and Mencius can be said to be the first philosopher to put forward the idea of "the unity of man and nature" in a complete sense. For example, he said, "He who tries his best knows his own nature; If you know its nature, you will know its sky. " This means that as long as people give full play to their detached moral heart, they can know their own nature and then know the sky. "Dedication" is the so-called "sincerity". Mencius believed that "honesty is heaven", "honesty" is the fundamental law of heaven, while "thinking honesty is the way of being a man", and faithfully implementing "honesty" is the fundamental law of being a man. The central content of "sincerity" is "goodness", and the central content of "thinking sincerity" is "knowing goodness". He said: "I don't know what is good, but I am not sincere." Can achieve "wholeheartedly" and "honestly", and can also achieve "everything is ready, only the east wind." Reflexive and sincere, great joy "("Mencius with all my heart "). In Mencius' view, heaven and man are a unified whole. As long as "concentration" and "sincerity", there is no barrier between heaven and man, but they can be combined into one. So he added: "What a gentleman does is transformed, and what he saves is God, which rises and falls with the world." (ditto) Mencius' thought of "harmony between man and nature" is based on the theoretical presupposition that man and nature are one source, but he himself did not explicitly state this theoretical presupposition. This left room for Zhu to play. Zhu believes that the theoretical basis of the unity of man and nature is rationality, and rationality is the source of all things. Since reason is the source of all things, there should be no gap between heaven and man, and the boundary between them is not absolute.

Dong Zhongshu inherited the holistic thinking framework of the pre-Qin Confucianism, and he often discussed and dealt with all issues related to the universe, society and life from the holistic cosmic model of the "harmony between man and nature". The theoretical basis of Dong Zhongshu's "Heaven-Man Induction" is the heaven with will and personality. He said: "Heaven is also the ancestor of many things, so there is no difference in replying to it, but the sum of the sun and the moon is achieved through the cold and heat of Yin and Yang." Therefore, in his view, not only the appearance of human beings is the same as that of heaven, but also the emotional will and moral quality of human beings. There is no qualitative difference and boundary between heaven and man, and the unity of heaven and man can make appreciate each other.

Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties took the cosmological schema of "the unity of man and nature" as their theoretical framework. Zhou Dunyi clearly said: "Saint heaven and earth and its virtue", "Saint looks up to heaven". Therefore, Wang Fuzhi said: "Since the Han Dynasty, everyone has dabbled in the old things, but they don't know that sage is the foundation of human nature. Zhou Zishou of Suixi is the Taiji Map, which is the source of the integration of the poor and nature. " Zhang Zai believes that heaven, earth, people and things are all products of gasification and popularity, and are the result of the accumulation and dissipation of too empty qi, so there is no clear boundary between them. Phenomenologically, heaven, earth, people and things are different, but they are essentially the same, and all are a kind of spirit at work. Therefore, "Mingxi" said: "The plug of heaven and earth is my body; The handsomeness of heaven and earth is my nature. " "Dongming" said that "Confucians are sincere and enlightened, so heaven and man are integrated, and they learn to become saints, and they can gain heaven without leaving people". He believes that heaven and earth are like parents, and all people and things are born from heaven and earth. All men are brothers and all things are companions. We should love everyone and everything. This is called "people's things and". Cheng believes that the origin of the world is "reason". "Reason" is the "reason" of everything. They think that everything has its own reason, but fundamentally speaking, the reason for everything is just a "reason" because "life is in heaven, human nature is in sex, and heart is the main thing, which is actually the same thing." They believe that "there is no division between heaven and man, and there is no need to combine words; There is no inner and outer essence, so you can't speak alone. " The saint's heart and heaven are one. "In their view, there is no need to combine words. Zhu also said: "Heaven is man, and man is heaven. People fall from the sky. Since this man was born, the sky is still there. "Although both' man' and human society began to exist from' heaven', there are both' man' and human society, and' heaven' will be embodied by them, and the only person who can fully realize' heaven' is a saint, so Zhu said:" A saint ... is one with heaven. "

Although Lu Wang's theory of mind and nature is different from Zhu Cheng's Neo-Confucianism, it is also his responsibility to clarify the truth of "the unity of man and nature". Lu Jiuyuan said: "The internal affairs of the universe are internal affairs and the internal affairs of the universe are internal affairs." Wang Shouren said: "The mind has no body, and it is integrated with all things in the world, covering all things in the world and integrating with people. Its enlightenment essence is that people have a little light. Rain, wind, thunder and lightning, sun, moon and stars, animals and plants, mountains and rivers, trees and stones are all integrated with people, so grains and animals can support people and medicinal stones can cure diseases. Just for the same purpose, we can communicate with each other. " In Wang Yangming's view, everything in the world and people are one, so there is no separation or boundary between them. Heaven and man are one. Therefore, "the ability of adults to integrate everything in heaven and earth is unintentional. What is the benevolence of their hearts?" When he explained "people-friendly" and "mingde" in the university, he used the viewpoint of "integration of body and function". He said: "Mingde, the integration of heaven and earth; Those who are close to the people can achieve the integration of heaven and earth; Therefore, Mingde must be close to the people, and being close to the people will understand why. "

Both Huang Zongxi and Wang Fuzhi were important thinkers in Ming and Qing Dynasties, and they demonstrated the idea of "harmony between man and nature" from different aspects. Huang Zongxi criticized the separation of "reason" and "heart" from the perspective of "heaven and earth are all hearts". He said, "A person who comes to Confucianism by himself does not return to rationality, and has a clear sense of belonging to one of himself, which is different from the other because he is invincible. Yin Ming means that conscience is justice, and justice is clear. This is just one thing, so it is worthy of sacred study. Therefore, "the heart has no noumenon, and time is its noumenon", that is, the traditional thought of "body and use are two different things" is used to explain the view of "the unity of man and nature". Wang Fuzhi explained the truth of "the unity of heaven and man" by the gasification of "heaven" and "man". He said: "If my parents are born with the virtue of Gankun, then heaven and earth will travel far and the heart of life will be there. And my nature is the same as my parents, that is, it is the same as heaven and earth. It is precisely because' Heaven and Man are only in one breath' that' the Tao is the same, the sky is the sky, and man is benevolent', and there is only one' heaven' and' man', so they can be combined into one' and' only different, so they must be combined into one'. Wang Fuzhi thinks that "heaven" is a vigorous fashion, and people accept it as "the heart of benevolence and righteousness", so it is called "the winner, the person also; Successors, the time between heaven and man is also ","Heaven and man are interlinked, and life is prosperous with people ",and" Heaven and man are the same as the original "is also covered.

Chenghua Monument was erected in the fourth year of Chenghua in Ming Dynasty (1468), and the inscription praised Confucius' way.

"Unity of Heaven and Man" is the central idea of Confucianism, which most clearly shows the characteristics of Confucian holistic thinking. It observes and thinks about things from the whole of heaven, earth, people and things, without making too much analysis or emphasizing the isolation of a certain part from its overall background. From the above concrete analysis, it can be seen that the overall idea of "harmony between man and nature" of Confucianism does not pay attention to the differences between categories of things, but deliberately blurs the boundaries between man and nature and things, and emphasizes the unity and harmony of the universe.

Communication mode between heaven and earth

The holistic thinking mode of Confucianism has also been fully reflected in its Yi-ology system. When explaining the origin of gossip, the author of Cohesive Biography pointed out: "The ancients embraced the world with the king of Xi family, looking up at the sky and looking down at the earth. Watching birds and beasts, in their proper places, close to their bodies, far from everything, so they started gossip to clarify the virtues of the gods and the feelings of all things. " In the author's view, heaven, earth, people and things are different in form, but they are interlinked and all in a whole model. This model is a symbol system derived from rumors. Therefore, the Book of Changes expresses the universal principles applicable to the universe and life obtained by observing nature, society and life from top to bottom. So Cohesion Biography went on to say: "It is easy to fit in with heaven and earth, so you can learn the way of heaven and earth. Looking up at astronomy and looking down at geography is the reason why you know the secret. Originally opposed to the end, so I know the statement of life and death. Essence is a thing, wandering soul is a change, and it is the realm of knowing ghosts and gods. Similar to heaven and earth, not against. I know everything around me, but the Tao is the world, so there is no such thing. " It can be seen that the way of thinking expressed in Zhouyi is a whole way of thinking including heaven, earth and people. It is this holistic way of thinking covering the whole universe that constitutes the starting point of systematic thinking and problem solving in Yi-ology. According to this overall model, we can naturally achieve "harmony with heaven and earth, harmony with the sun and the moon, harmony with the four seasons, and harmony with ghosts and gods." The sage realm of "nature is born and acquired".

Not only does the whole system of hexagrams in Zhouyi reflect the whole mode of communication between heaven and earth, but each hexagram in it reflects the same whole thinking mode. This is manifested in the following two points: first, each hexagram consists of six hexagrams, and the positions of the six hexagrams symbolize heaven, earth and people respectively. From bottom to top, the first and second is status, the third and fourth is human position, and the fifth and last is heaven position. A divination covers heaven, earth and people. Second, although the position of orientation, human position and sky position in each province is fixed, the position of the province is not fixed, but "changing without staying, being weak in six aspects, ups and downs are impermanent, rigid and flexible, unchangeable, and changeable only" (under the copula). It is precisely because of the connection between heaven and earth that the position of six hexagrams can constantly flow and change.

This holistic way of thinking, which attaches importance to the universal connection between the universe, shown in Zhouyi has had a great influence on later generations. It can be said that the cosmic schema of Song Confucianism is mainly taken from the overall thinking mode of Zhouyi.

The holistic thinking mode of Confucianism has its theoretical and practical significance. It attaches great importance to man's position in the universe, thinks that man can connect with heaven and earth, and points out that man is the heart of heaven and earth, and can carry forward heaven, which has played a positive role in shaping the enterprising spirit of the Chinese nation. The holistic thinking mode of Confucianism attaches great importance to the unity of the universe and emphasizes the maintenance of the balanced relationship among heaven, earth, people and things, which still has great enlightenment to the vigorous development of industrial civilization today. However, the overall thinking mode of Confucianism does not attach importance to analysis and does not emphasize the in-depth and detailed study of all parts in a unified relationship, which is not conducive to the birth and development of empirical science characterized by classified research. Therefore, we should emphasize the importance of scientific analysis methods while inheriting the traditional holistic thinking mode of Confucianism.