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Only Heaven is the Great: A Brief Discussion on Confucius’ “Celestial Teaching”
Author: Huang Yusong
Source: Author Author Author Authorized by Confucian Network, Original “Southeast Major” (Philosophy and Social Science Edition) 2023 Issue 2
[Abstract] In Confucius’ mind, heaven has divine nature, that is, intelligence, emotion and will; heaven has the ultimate creative nature, and people and all things are “generated”, and the method of creation is “destiny”. Therefore, heaven is the god of all existence and all gods. The saint is the intermediary that connects heaven and man, but the saint is still an infinite person, not a heaven with all powers. Confucius pointed out that “only heaven is the great one”, and intended to emphasize that heaven is a unique and extraordinary person who is born and unified, superior to and superior to all beings. Human emotions or virtues can transcend experience and can never transcend this mundane world; therefore, “man” can never replace “heaven”. The attitude of man towards heaven should be awe. Therefore, Confucius’ thinking is definitely not a “human-centered theory”, but a “heaven-centered theory” based on heaven; as “Confucianism”, Confucius’ teaching is “heaven-centered theory”.
Recently, the Confucian “transcendence” conception problem has become a cutting-edge subject in humanities research. Confucianism transcends its view and was initiated by Confucius, the founder of Confucianism. However, there have been serious misreading in the academic world for a long time, believing that Confucius broke through the “external transcendence” and turned to the “immanent transcendence”. What’s more, he even described Confucius as a godless person. This article aims to restore Confucius’ true nature beyond his view through a special discussion on Confucius’ concept of “heaven”.
1. The extraordinary nature of heaven
Confucius pointed out: “Only heaven is the great, only it is to do it.”[1] The traditional annotation here has not been fully developed. It is actually a very serious task, meaning that “Heaven” as a unique and absolute being is a transcendent who is born and unified, superior to and superior to all beings. Therefore, the mission of “only heaven is the Great” is the general idea of Confucius beyond his view. Obviously, in Confucius’ mind, heaven is extraordinary, that is, it transcends not only human experience, even human existence, but also the secular world.
(I) The difference between the super-experienced subject and the extraordinary subject: “Inner beyond” and “Inner beyond”
To truly understand Confucius’ transcendental concepts, firstly, the two distinct subjects that are strictly divided into transcendental subjects, namely “transcendental” and “transcendental” [2]: “transcendental” refers to the transcendental nature of “human”, that is, the boundary line where sensibility or virtue transcends rational experience,But it will never be able to transcend human beings, let alone transcend this mundane world; and “transcendent” refers to the transcendence of “heaven”, that is, the boundary line that transcends the entire mundane world. [3] Only such a clear distinction can prevent the concepts in the academic world from being confused.
However, since the 1970s of the 20th century, some Confucian scholars have proposed that Chinese philosophy and civilization are “inner beyond”, while Eastern philosophy and religion are “inner beyond”. [4] Mou Zongsan took the lead in proposing “inner beyond” and said: “The way of heaven is high and has a meaning of transcendence. When the way of heaven is focused on the human body, it is also in the human nature. At this time, the way of heaven is internal. Therefore, we can long-term cultivation the word Kant likes to say that the way of heaven is beyond, on the one hand, and on the other hand, it is internal. The way of heaven is both beyond and intrinsic, so at this time we can 博官网 is a meaning of both religion and morality. Religion emphasizes transcendence, while morality emphasizes internal meaning. “[5] Later, Yu Ying changed “inward transcendence” to “inward transcendence” and compared Chinese and Western thinking: Plata advocated that “sensibility is an unchanging and eternal existence, and it is completely different from the flow of sensory things at any time. …The theory is justified博官网 is better to be an expression of “inner-oriented beyond”, because the rational type is completely outside the humanity as the source of existence and value”; and “Confucius created the “博官网博官网博官网博官网博官网博官网博官网博官网博官网博官网博官网博官网博官网博官网博官网博官网博官网博官网博官网博官网博官网博官网博官网博官网博官网博官网博官网博官网博官网博官网博官网博官网博官网博官网� [6]
This “inner beyond” statement has received many comments from scholars, but there are also many opposing voices. [7] Indeed, the statement of “inner beyond” is not in line with the actuality of Confucius’ thinking; in fact, Confucius “also preserves the “heaven” that is beyond the inner; it is like the “heaven” or “God” in the Western Zhou Dynasty, not only internal, beyond, but also sacred”[8]. Even Mou Zongsan, who proposed the “inner transcendence”, once pointed out: “In the state of spiritual harmony between him and heaven, Confucius did not simply pull the sky down, and pushed the sky farther away. In his own destiny, he could be with heaven, but heaven still maintained its transcendence, and was respected by people.” [9] Obviously, the term “inner transcendence” confused the transcendence of the two different subjects mentioned above: in Confucius, “virtue” is of course “superexperience”, that is, beyond experience, but it is actually internal, that is,It lies in the mind and consciousness of man; and “Heaven” is “extraordinary”, that is, it lies in man and the mundane world. Otherwise, many of Confucius’s words will be unaware of (details).
(II)Baocai Sweetheart NetworkDifferent from existence and realm: “The two parts of heaven and man” and “harmony of nature and man”
The “inner transcendence” of Chinese philosophy is compatible with the “harmony of nature and man”. Many students disagree that one of the basic characteristics of Chinese philosophy is “harmony of nature and man”. Zhang Xu first clearly proposed “harmony between man and nature” [10], and thus gained wide recognition. The two Chengs even said that the word “六” is redundant: “The heaven and man are originally in different ways, and there is no need to say “六”.” [11] However, according to the separation of “super experience” and “extraordinary”, it is obvious that Confucius’s international view of heaven and man is not “the unity of heaven and man”, but “the two divisions of heaven and man”. Man is man and heaven is heaven, and the two are not a unity.
Where does the problem come out? In fact, Teacher Meng Peiyuan has long solved this confusion, that is, “the difference between physical discussion and realm discussion” [12], or perhaps the difference between existence discussion and realm discussion. As long as the concept of state theory is expressed, the concept of “harmony between man and nature” can be established. The “harmony between man and nature” mentioned by the Chief of Meng Teachers [13] means that people can reach the state of “harmony between man and nature” through “work”. However, in terms of the meaning of physical or existence, the concept of “harmony between man and nature” is the most basic and unreasonable. Teacher Meng pointed out: “It is not just Confucius’ ‘generating virtue in me’, or Mencius’ ‘intellectuality’, ‘intellectuality’, ‘knowing nature’, ‘knowing nature’, ‘knowing nature’, ‘telling nature’, ‘telling nature’, ‘heaven’, ‘heaven’, ‘heaven’, ‘heaven’, ‘heaven’, ‘heaven’, ‘heaven’ is the highest existence, and ‘heaven’ is the source of mind and nature.”[14] This means that the transcendent concept of Confucius, Mencius and Confucianism is the two divisions of heaven and man; “Otherwise it is absurd, as if ‘heaven’ was originally a reality, ‘man’ was another One entity, and now the two are merged into one entity. In fact, the ‘unification’ here cannot be understood as ‘merge’, but can only understand ‘perfect’, that is, the human mind and nature have reached the state of ‘heaven’ or ‘heaven will’ through cultivation; but even so, human beings are still humans, heaven or heaven, and the two a TC: