On the Differences and Similarities between the Ancient Chinese and Western Views of Nature

1 Differences in the Historical Origins of the Western and Eastern Views of Nature

1.1 Oriental "unity of man and nature" and Western dichotomy

There is no doubt that the Eastern and Western views of nature are undoubtedly based on the above two points of view.

China has been a traditional agricultural country since ancient times, so-called "relying on the sky for food". Agriculture and land are closely related to people's livelihoods, which has led to the formation of the "unity of heaven and mankind", the essence of Chinese culture. That is, man and nature as a harmonious and unified whole, human culture and the natural unity of heaven. "Heaven" refers to the objective world external to human beings, i.e., the natural world. "Man" refers to human beings or human society. The so-called "between heaven and man" takes this as its original meaning. The understanding of the relationship between man and nature, i.e., the relationship between man and nature, has different orientations in China and the West. If the West emphasizes on the aspect of antagonism, on the transformation and conquest of nature by man, Chinese philosophy emphasizes on the aspect of unity between heaven and man, on the reverence and coordination of nature by man. Typical here are the ideas of Taoism and Confucianism.

The main idea of Taoism's unity of heaven and man is to revere nature, oppose interference in nature, and pursue obedience to natural nature. Lao Tzu said, "Man is lawful to the earth, the earth is lawful to the sky, the sky is lawful to the Tao, and the Tao is lawful to nature." He believed that man, earth and heaven are all unified in "Tao", which is natural, and that man should follow nature and not act intentionally. Lao Zi is against artificiality, so he is not interested in intellectual skills. The center of Laozi's view of nature is "embracing simplicity", and returning to simplicity is his ideal state. Zhuang Zi, on the other hand, puts heaven and man against each other, and praises the greatness of nature and pities the smallness of human beings. Zhuangzi - outside the book" cloud: "there is the way of heaven, the way of man. Nothing and honors, the Tao of Heaven; something and tired, humanity." The way of heaven is honored, the way of mankind is tired, Zhuang Zi advocates "not to donate to the way of the heart, not to help the sky", that is, not to change the nature by human power, which is very different from the European modern view of nature. Zhuangzi believes that the truly cultivated sages are not involved in the process of nature's creation, but rather peacefully follow nature, let change and end, which is the human and the sky for one, if you want to do something, there will be bad results. Taoist doctrine of the unity of man and heaven is negative inaction, in the relationship between man and heaven, only see in the sky and no see in the people, respect for the sky and suppressing the people is obvious, but, Zhuang Zi clearly put forward the sky and people should be united, and advocate for the harmony of mankind and nature, which shows that the negative inaction of the idea is not lacking in the reasonable factors.

Confucianism's idea of the unity of heaven and man is much more positive than that of Taoism. The Taoist theory of the unity of heaven and man completely abolished human initiative, and did nothing in accordance with nature. Confucianism's theory of the unity of heaven and man, although also based on heaven, but does not negate the independent existence of man, but advocates a positive and active, "heaven walks healthy, gentleman self-improvement," in order to actively enter the world attitude to trace the interconnectedness of the sky and man, in order to seek coordination between heaven and man, harmony and consistency. Mencius puts forward: "the heart of the person who knows his nature; know his nature is to know the sky." He believed that man and heaven are connected, that man's goodness is innate, and that by recognizing one's own goodness, one can recognize heaven, and that man and all things in heaven and earth are a unified whole. He demanded that through the exploration of the subject's heart and nature, the unity of heaven and man could be achieved by "flowing up and down with heaven and earth". In the Northern Song Dynasty, Zhang Zai put forward the idea of gas monism, and in the Song Dynasty, Cheng Mingdao believed that human beings and the world are one and the same, and that there is no need to talk about the unity of man and heaven, and Zhu Xi, the representative of the school of rationality in the Sung and Ming philosophies, said: "Reason is also the metaphysical way, and the basis of the living creatures". Wang Yangming, a representative of the school of science in the center, believes that: "cover all things in heaven and earth and man is one, the most exquisite place of its hair, is a little bit of the human heart spirit Ming." The idea of the unity of heaven and man is interpreted from the meaning of human ethics and morality, as a philosophy of life, pursuing a kind of moral inner transcendence, and realizing the harmony and unity of heaven's way, heaven's reason and human nature. However, from this human moral sense of the doctrine of heaven and man, we can still see its advocate of man and nature to treat each other, unity and harmony of the reasonable point of view. Of course, this harmony between man and nature is not yet achieved through scientific knowledge of nature.

Overall, the ancient Chinese thinkers have always held a sense of mystery about nature, rarely mentioning the understanding of nature, transformation of nature, and most of them are based on the exploration of the human self within the subject. By promoting the subject's inner masculinity, the sages believed that they could realize their unity with heaven and earth.

The so-called subject-object dichotomy, which refers to the dichotomy between subject and object, thought and existence, and man and nature, has long dominated Western thought. In ancient Greek philosophy, subject and object, mind and nature are one. Descartes pioneered the "subject-object dichotomy" as the dominant principle of philosophy, and created a new philosophical system completely different from that of ancient Greece. In Descartes' view, there are two kinds of entities: one is the soul or mind, spirit, and ego (these concepts are synonymous with each other in his view), whose nature is to be able to think without extension, and the other is the material entity, including the human body, whose nature is to have extension but not to be able to think. These two kinds of entities are not only different in nature, but also have different functions and attributes. In this way, Descartes opposed subjectivity and objectivity, spirit and matter, and the dualistic thought of Western philosophy began from then on.

When the subject and the object, the spirit and the matter are divided into two, in the relationship between human beings and the world, a question inevitably arises, that is, how can the subject enter into the object, recognize the object? How can the spirit grasp or recognize that nature which is essentially non-spiritual?

Francis Bacon strongly advocated the development of natural science. He proposed that "human knowledge and human power are one"; "the road to human power and the road to human knowledge are next to each other, and almost the same", and encouraged people to develop science and technology, to improve the ability of human beings to conquer nature, and to establish the dominion of human beings over nature. The way to the knowledge of man is next to the way to the knowledge of man, and it is almost the same". In Kant's philosophy, the relationship between man and nature, between subject and object is regarded as a legislative relationship: "man legislates for nature", "the supreme legislation of nature must exist in our hearts, i.e., in our reason, and we do not have to search for the universal laws of nature from nature with the help of our experience, but on the contrary, we must search for the universal laws of nature according to the laws of nature. On the contrary, we must seek nature according to its universal laws from the conditions of empirical possibility which exist in our sensibility and reason". He saw man's relation to external nature as autonomous and dynamic, despite the fact that materialist theorists believe that consciousness is incapable of determining matter. Hegel, on the other hand, writes with great optimism: "Whatever forces nature exerts and uses against man - cold, ferocious beasts, fire, water - man will always find the means to counteract them, and will obtain them from nature itself, utilizing nature against nature itself. " . Feuerbach dissolves theology in anthropology, in his view, man can conquer everything and is able to obtain any wealth that man needs. From a historical point of view, what was desired in the past can be obtained now; what is not obtained now can always be obtained in the future.

In summary, the modern Western concept of nature has the following characteristics of the understanding of the relationship between man and nature: First, the subject-object dichotomy. First, the subject-object dichotomy. It is believed that spirit and matter, subject and object, and man and nature are fundamentally different fields, which leads to the question of how the subject recognizes the object, and how mankind can conquer the nature that is different from itself. Secondly, it advocates the supremacy of human reason or the omnipotence of natural science. That human beings rely on science and rationality, in the conquest of nature, transformation of nature has unlimited ability, nature is only the object of human conquest and transformation, although the specific individual power is limited, but the power of human beings is infinite, people in the process of changing nature, today can not overcome the difficulties will be able to overcome in the future.

1.2 Reasons for the Difference in the View of Nature between China and the West

1.2.1 Geographic Environment Influences the View of Nature

Central China is a plain irrigated by the Yangtze River and the Yellow River, which is fertile and has a mild climate, and is suitable for agricultural cultivation. Humans who settled in China gradually formed an agrarian nation. As long as they respected the seasonal climatic changes and sowed and harvested their seeds on time, they were well fed and clothed. The surrounding environment, however, was not conducive to the proliferation of heterogeneous populations, which could not counterbalance the "demographic hegemony" of the Central Plains, and even in the event of a change of dynasty or an invasion of foreigners, there was no need to worry about being assimilated into the heterogeneous populations and cultures of the surrounding area. The Chinese were quite content with this natural environment, and thus developed the concept of worshipping and submitting to nature. In China, when there is an occasional natural disaster, the first thing that comes to mind is to pray to the gods, not to fight against it. The gods here are the representatives of nature in people's minds. Since China generally has good weather, a disaster usually passes quickly, and people think that their prayers have been rewarded, which encourages the formation of this view of nature. It is out of this worship of nature that the Chinese imitate it in every way.

Europe's natural environment is much harsher. First, it was less plain and more mountainous. Secondly, Europe's climate is cold, and until the Quaternary glacial period began to warm up 20,000 years ago, the continent was covered with snow and ice. In such an environment, not to mention farming, even animal husbandry is very difficult. Therefore, the human beings who settled in Europe mainly hunted for democracy. In their minds, nature was easily crystallized into every sheep, deer, wolf or leopard. Their relationship with nature was one of eating and being eaten. To survive, one must fight nature and win. Any prayers to nature will not be returned. Thirdly, the climate of Europe is mostly temperate oceanic, Mediterranean and temperate continental, while the temperate oceanic climate is confined to Britain and Northern Europe, which in a sense do not serve as the birthplace of European cultural thought. The Mediterranean climate of Greece and the temperate continental climate of Germany, the representatives of European philosophical thought, make these regions hot in summer but extremely arid, and rainy and lacking in heat in winter. These countries were never predominantly agrarian in the traditional sense. The fourth is that although the plains are the majority of Europe, but its more mountainous, whether it is the Balkan Peninsula's high mountains or the Alps, Europe is divided into a piece of a small plain, these lead to the various city-states can use the surrounding mountains for self-defense, but due to the hinterland and the population of the limitations of the rapid rise of none of them can be. The failure of Napoleon and the difficulty of the Italian unification undoubtedly illustrate the great difficulty of European unification. Such a different objective nature also creates a completely different view of nature. In the European view of nature there existed some contradictory concepts. On the one hand, there was the fear of nature. This conception was expressed through the form of religion. The religious believed that everything in nature was created by God. It is something that human beings can never change or even cognize. On the other hand, the harsh natural environment is also planted in the hearts of Europeans with the concept of man and nature are incompatible, and raised the desire of Europeans to fight and win. Since the natural world is powerful and horrible, and human confrontation, then, all human transformation of nature is noblest honor.

1.2.2 Containment and Flair

To some extent, geography has caused differences in people's thoughts, but more also in their character, and very often thoughts are slowly precipitated by character and expression, so the character of a people may be more indicative of a civilization.

The BBC has a documentary "How art made the world" about the development of sculpture in ancient Greece, as the originator of European civilization, the ancient Greeks believe that the gods have a perfect body, so they are always in the carving of statues in pursuit of realistic reproduction of the perfect human body. Chinese people are pursuing a kind of tacit understanding, the famous Chinese painter Qi Baishi introduced what is a good painting, said: "like and like not like, like is charming, not like is deceiving the world." It means that a good painting must be between like and unlike, too like and too unlike. Compared with ancient Greece, China has less of a fine way of describing natural things. Similarly, in terms of the articulable nature of the laws of nature, ancient China was not clear and pursued ambiguity; the Tao can be very Tao is the best example, and the description of the laws of nature tended to emphasize their mysteriousness and less objectivity. Ancient Greece, on the other hand, was clearer in this regard, pursuing the articulable nature of the laws of nature with a sense of certainty. Philosophers like Archimedes and Aristotle wanted to describe those broad laws in short language.

China's geographic closure is destined to be in the "long time together will be divided, long time apart will be united" in the cycle of nirvana and rebirth of the fate of the long time down the line people formed a world is a big cycle of the view of nature, that the road is from ancient times to the present day has always existed, and it is "very road! "It is not necessary to discover and study it. The intermittent invasion of nomads in the north has also kept the Chinese civilization in a state of three steps forward and two steps back, and innovation could not be inherited as there was no innovation, as evidenced by the loss of the guide car technology. Over the millennia, the Central Plains, like the penetration of ink on rice paper, gradually opened up new frontiers and spread its population. The traditions, order, technology and experience that already existed in the Central Plains could be transplanted intact to the border territories, bound by blood and kinship. Old experience and knowledge could be adapted to new environments by simply adapting them on the frontier. This path has been well-trodden for thousands of years, and tradition and authority have been repeatedly reinforced, with few institutional innovations, as the saying goes: "When Heaven remains unchanged, so does the Way". The Chinese people are very particular about honor and inferiority, they are subtle in their speech and seldom argue, which is why they like to ask the ancients for advice, and in most people's minds as long as they can find a sentence in Confucius's words that proves their own point of view, then their point of view is correct.

European society takes the form of a city-state democracy, where citizens have the right to pursue truth, goodness, and beauty through open debate, with few constraints or off-limits areas. In the environment of advocating to convince people by reasoning, not to accept the unproven "absolute authority", European philosophers were able to freely give play to their innovative thinking (as for the later Bruno and Copernicus, Galileo and other people's suppression is more for the objective requirements of domination and mind control, and the emancipation of the mind does not have a lot of inevitable connection, it is worth mentioning that their doctrines are still being used, but they are also the most popular. (It is worth mentioning that their doctrines were still handed down, at least not by book burning). Unlike agrarian China, European society was based on crafts and commerce. Opportunities for foreign trade not only brought in the goods needed for survival, but also ensured the flow of information and knowledge. The inhabitants were sensitive and curious about new things in the outside world out of an inherent urge to make a profit, which made them knowledgeable and willing to be new and different. The lure of windfall profits from trade made Europeans rack their brains to invent new tools and find new ways to find new trade overseas, or to keep expanding their territories to find new trade markets. In the face of dangerous sea, strange land and heterogeneous civilization, Europeans were forced to face the reality of the pragmatic spirit, seeking new knowledge, new technology to conquer the unknown world.

1.2.3 The master of knowledge determines the democratic view of nature

Chinese emperors since ancient times have called themselves the Son of Heaven, and under the whole sky, there is no one who is not the king of the people, and under an inch of land, there is no one who is not the king of the land. The reason for the deep-rooted idea of enslavement in the people's consciousness is that the people are not in charge of knowledge, and herein lies the essential factor that gave rise to the imperial view of nature in China and the democratic view of nature in Europe. When modern China wanted to introduce simplified characters, it was strongly opposed by the old intellectuals, who were afraid of losing the privilege of writing. The difficulty of the traditional characters kept knowledge monopolized by a few in ancient China, and the existence of the Great Plains allowed the relatively ignorant population to multiply rapidly, so that a small elite was always able to manipulate the ignorant masses and maintain supreme imperial power as the steady state of society. This is the reason why almost all dynasties since ancient times have practiced the policy of ignorance, and it was not a bad strategy for ancient China to maintain stability in the absence of foreign enemies.

In ancient Europe, the adoption of pinyin made knowledge no longer a monopoly of the privileged. The confrontation of all citizens with knowledge and awareness with the kingship and aristocracy gave rise to a democratic view of nature in European society.

The democratic and imperial views of nature can be glimpsed in the interpretation of the starry sky by the two civilizations of the East and the West. Ancient China's starry sky was a reflection of the centralized social characteristics, and the centralized order was particularly strong in the system of celestial interpretations, including the twenty-eight star constellations and the Big Dipper's Ziwei Palace. Ancient Europe in the interpretation of the sky, a variety of constellations of myths and astronomical stories reflect the social nature of the Greek free city-state.