“Heaven”and“Man”under the Reconstitution of the Confucianism —— from“Heaven and Man Being Related”to“Heaven and Man Being in One”〔*〕

Lin Haitao，Ma Ling

(1.School of Humanities Yunnan University，Kunming Yunnan 650091;2.Yunnan Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine，Kunming Yunnan 650200;3.School of Foreign Languages Yunnan University，Kunming Yunnan 650091)

Ⅰ.Introduction

In the Yin Dynasty，“heaven”and“greatness”share the common usage when they are not used to refer to the sky.The Zhou Dynasty，with contrary culture to the Yin Dynasty，introduced the concept of“emperor”into that of“heaven”after it defeated the Yin Dynasty and incorporated the idea of dominant god in universe into“heaven”.The“mandate of heaven”made the right of Zhou’s replacement of the Yin Dynasty orthodox.In the opinion of the Zhou Dynasty，it is the“heaven”that decides the existence of society，and the existence of society，nation or royal system is not dependent on the emperor on the earth，but the“dominator”in heaven.

Ⅱ.Confucianism of the pre-Qin Period and the Eastern and Western Han dynasties:the temperament theory and the cosmology Confucianism

Confucianism of the pre-Qin period with the representative of Confucius tries to expand the individual moral norm into family and society and gradually develops into the“philosophy of morality”by interpreting and inspiring human ethics and morality，which hardly involves the order of universe，thus keeping distance from“heaven”and can be deemed as the“philosophy of life”.Mencius is the first one to advocate abolishing emperors without moral standards.Xuncius maintains that the heaven and man are irrelevant and that moral rule has nothing to do with universe.This paper holds that Confucianism of the pre-Qin period is the philosophy of“the temperament theory”.Emperor Qin(700BC-221BC)of the Spring and Autumn Period，depending on the policy of making the country rich and its military force efficient，unified the other six states and founded the Qin Dynasty under the guidance of legalist thought.Emperor Qin Shi Huang，who gave a higher status of royal power over theocracy in governing the state，failed to learn from and integrate thoughts of various schools and kept propelling the state’s development to the extreme，thus leading to the demise of the dynasty.

The early period of the Han Dynasty advocated the school of Huang Di and Lao Zi，which brought great opportunities for the economic recovery and social development and embraced a prime time of the“rule of Wen and Jing”.The social system and moral norm in the boarder sense cannot be separated and the order of universe is the extension of moral norm.“Heaven and man being in one”and“monism of moral value”are the first macro feature of Chinese culture，which make the social system and universe order indispensable to morality.Cosmology put up with a theory of the external heaven and internal man，namely the unity of heaven and man.On the other hand，he proposed a theory of calamity to restrict the royal power，hoping that the authority of heaven can be safeguarded so as to refrain the unlimited swelling of monarchical power by warning brutal emperors with natural disasters.

However，the worsening climate resulted in the collapse of the Han Dynasty.The faith of divine right of kings finally began to shake and the theory of the unity of heaven and man was broken by the natural catastrophe，which is the end of the cosmology Confucianism.Accordingly，the end of the cosmology Confucianism weakened the social integrating function of Confucianism ideology.The Three Kingdom Period after the demise of the East Han Dynasty witnessed serious social unrest and population loss.The plummeting of the population of the Han nationality and minorities’moving to the south rapidly changed the proportion of the Han nationality and other minorities.And Confucianism had to be faced up with the double impact of the immigration of minorities and the introduction of Indian Buddhism.

Ⅲ.Confucianism of the Period of Wei，Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties:maturity of rationality

In the Wei，Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties，literati and officialdom lost their interest in cosmology of the Han Dynasty Confucianism，and scholars generally regarded“nonparticipation”as“morality”when it comes to politics.Instead，they paid their attention to metaphysics concepts belonging to transcending experience，and practiced the transformation from cosmology to ontology by considering“l(fā)etting things take their own course”as new moral ideal.At that time，literati and officialdom entered the realm of Buddhism by Ge Yi，namely stipulating the Buddhism concepts as the inherit concepts of China，so as to complete the goal of cultivating one’s moral character.They developed the mind of“desire-lessness”and “l(fā)etting things take their own course”in learning classical works and meditation.By reinterpreting works of Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi，literati and officialdom developed their unique political and cultural concept centering around“l(fā)etting things take their own course”and bred a peculiar thinking pattern of Chinese culture:common sense and reasonable spirit.First，don’t ask the reason behind natural phenomenon.Second，consider emotional sense to be natural and reasonable.That is to say，regard human nature as the ultimate source of reason.Human’s ultimate concern once again attached great importance to human relations and reality to dispel superstition and delusion.The Northern Zhou Dynasty，trying to revive the spirit of the Western Zhou Dynasty，considered Rites of Zhou as the theoretical ground for social system ideal and the great unity.In the Sui Dynasty，human nature and spirit of sense and reason were separated from metaphysics and turned into rational common sense.The maturity of rational common sense is the major fruit of the integration of Chinese culture with foreign culture for the very first time.When it comes to natural phenomenon，rational common sense deems that common sense is ultimately reasonable and the natural order needs neither further study nor transformation.

In the Sui and Tang Dynasties，it was the official Confucianism ideology that contributed to the integration of the empire unity.Despite that the emperors of the Tang Dynasty must self-proclaimed that they were“the son of the heaven”，rational common sense prevented the irrational link between“heaven”and“royal morality”.For instance，Liu Zongyuan，a presentative of Confucianism of the Tang Dynasty，holds that“heaven and man should not intervened each other”.The application of rule by morality was the only criterion to judge the emperor after the weakening status of“heaven and man being in one”，leading to the alienation between royal power and heaven，thus weakening the royalty basis.After the An Lushan Rebellion，China once again suffered the separatist regime for half a century in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms.

Ⅳ.Reconstruction of Confucianism:the Confucian School of idealist philosophy of the Song and Ming dynasties

Confucianism which argues for the active going to society and safeguards the great unity was once again faced up with challenges.Due to the rational common sense，the structure of“heaven and man being in one”had to be rebuilt.Morality should be deduced from the universe order，but the deduction cannot be empirical.Therefore，the deduction of morality could only depend on the non-empirical，metaphysic moral basis featuring abstract，modal and metaphorical intellectual analysis.That is to say，a metaphysic moral system had to be built to restore the structure of“heaven and man being in one”in the following two ways:first，moral value is just the internalization of ethnic relations，which can be deemed as a universal relation and part of universe order.The universe order can be deduced from reasonable knowledge，which is the same as ethics relations，thus confirming the authority of morality;second，based on the human nature，such as“fealty”and“benevolence”，regard ethic norms as the externalization of moral value.The rational human nature could prove the reasonableness of moral ethics.And the Confucian morality can be deduced from rational common sense.

The development of idealist philosophy of the Song and Ming dynasties first was first embodied in the school of Qi，which challenged the ontology and outlook on life of Buddhism and Taoism and built a substantive philosophy.Besides the school of Qi，the universal law of how universe works should also be taken into consideration，thus giving rise to the idealist philosophy.The idealist philosophy aims at grasping the law of the world，including the law of nature and that of society，history and life.Zhou Dunyi，Zhang Zai，Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi are renowned idealist of the North Song Dynasty as well as the founder of idealist philosophy.The further development of idealist philosophy resulted in the philosophy of the mind.Lu Jiuyuan and Wang Yangming held that human mind is the source of idealist philosophy as well as the root of moral law.They argued that“mind is philosophy”and that one’s inner value was more powerful than external authority，which contributed to the further development of the moral subjectivity of humans.The above is a logical development course of idealist philosophy in the Song and Ming Dynasties.

The appearance of the Confucian School of idealist philosophy shoulders the function of rebuilding value system.It is justifiable to say that the Confucian School of idealist philosophy of the Song and Ming dynasties helps China to retrospect on the development of Chinese culture after the Han Dynasty.The Confucian School of idealist philosophy of the Song and Ming dynasties is a revival of Confucianism of the pre-Qin period as well as that of the local mainstream tradition.The reconstruction of Confucianism realized three aims:first，the moral system of metaphysics has been built to strengthen the theory of“heaven and man being in one”and push the morality out of the universe order;second，the belief system has been rationalized，and moral authority has been proved on the basis of common sense and human nature;third，moral realm different from behavior norms has been established and the process of how the“ideal”world in philosophy could be turned into reality has been described.The appearance of the Confucian School of idealist philosophy shows us the establishment of metaphysics and the system of“heaven and man being in one”，which marked the rationalization of Chinese culture.And the maturity of the Confucian School of idealist philosophy represents the second creative peak of Chinese culture after the philosophy of the pre-Qin period.

Ⅴ.Conclusion

Confucianism has always contributed to the spirit of“going to society actively”and tolerant attitude and the construction and improvement of the theoretical system in the social integration process and each social unrest，political collapse and foreign culture intrusion over 1，000 years from the Qin and Han Dynasty to the Song Dynasty.Confucianism coordinates and stabilizes the change of political and economic system，thus enabling the ideology to be free from the impact of social change and keep independent.The evolution of the relation between“heaven”and“man”in terms of Confucianism is also a self-renewal development of Chinese culture represented by the Confucianism thought and a most important and excellent part of integrating foreign culture in the log course of history.

Notes:

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