Feng Youlan

The position of philosophy in China culture can always be compared with that of religion in other cultures. In China, philosophy is related to all intellectuals. In the old society, as long as one was educated, he was confused by philosophy. When children enter school, they should first be taught to read four books, namely, The Analects of Confucius, Mencius, University and The Doctrine of the Mean. "Four Books" is the most important textbook of Neo-Confucian philosophy. Sometimes, children just start reading and learn a textbook called Sanyujing. Each sentence has three Yu, even the sentences rhyme, so it is easy to remember by reciting. This book is actually a literacy textbook. That's it. The first two sentences are also "at the beginning of life, human nature is good". This is one of the basic concepts of Mencius' philosophy.

The position of philosophy in China culture

Westerners think that Confucianism is a kind of religion when they see it permeating people's lives in China. But realistically speaking, Confucianism is no more like religion than Plato or Aristotle. It is true that the Four Books used to be the bibles of China people, but there is no Genesis in the Four Books, nor does it talk about heaven and hell. Of course, philosophy and religion are both polysemous nouns. For different people, philosophy and religion may have completely different meanings. When people talk about philosophy or religion, they may have very different ideas. For me, the philosophy I am talking about is the idea of systematic reflection on life. Everyone lives as long as he is not dead. But not many people have the idea of reflection on life, and not many people have systematic reflection. Philosophers must be philosophized; In other words, he must reflect on life and then express his thoughts systematically.

This kind of thinking is called reflection, because it takes life as the object. Life theory, cosmology and epistemology all come from this type of thought. Cosmology comes into being because the universe is the background of life and the stage of life drama performance. The emergence of epistemology is because thought itself is knowledge. According to some western philosophers, in order to think, we must first understand what we can think; In other words, before we start thinking about life, we must first "think about our thoughts". All these "theories" are the products of reflective thinking. Even the concepts of life itself, the universe itself and knowledge itself are the products of reflective thinking. Whether we think about life or talk about it, we are all living. Whether we think about the universe or talk about it, we are all part of it. However, philosophers say the universe, physicists also say the universe, and they have different meanings in their hearts. Philosophers say that the universe is the sum of all existence, which is equivalent to the "freshman" called by Hui Shi, an ancient philosopher in China, and its definition is "the biggest without transcendence". So everyone and everything should be regarded as a part of the universe. When a person thinks about the universe, he is reflecting.

When we think or talk about knowledge, this kind of thinking and talking is knowledge itself. In the words of Alex Dodd, it is "thought"; Thought and thought are reflective thoughts. If a philosopher insists that we must think of our thoughts before thinking, he will fall into an evil cycle here; It's as if we have another ability to think with it! In fact, our ability to think, that is, our ability to think, is the same ability. If we doubt our ability to think about life and the universe, we have the same reason to doubt our thinking ability.

Religion is also related to life. There is a philosophy at the core of every great religion. In fact, every major religion is a philosophy plus a certain superstructure, including superstition, dogma, ceremony and organization. This is what I call religion. Defining the word religion in this way is actually no different from the usual usage. If we understand it in this way, we can see that Confucianism cannot be considered as a religion. People used to say that there are three religions in China: Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism. As we have seen, Confucianism is not a religion. As for Taoism, it is a school of philosophy; Taoism is a religion, and there are differences between them. Taoism and Taoism are not only different, but even antagonistic. Taoism teaches people to follow nature, and Taoism teaches people to follow nature. For example, Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi said that birth, old age, illness and death are a natural process, and people should follow this natural process calmly. But the main teaching of Taoism is the principle and magic of how to avoid death, which is obviously against nature. Taoism has the scientific spirit of conquering nature. People who are interested in the history of Chinese science can find a lot of information from Taoist works.

Buddhism as a philosophy and Buddhism as a religion are also different. Educated people in China are much more interested in Buddhism than in Buddhism. It is common for monks and Taoists to attend China's funeral. Even if China people believe in religion, it is philosophical.

Now many westerners know that compared with people in other countries, China people have always been the least concerned about religion. For example, Professor DerkBodde has an article "The Leading Thought in the Formation of China Culture", in which he wrote: "China people do not regard religious thoughts and activities as the most important and fascinating part of their lives. ..... The spiritual foundation of China culture is ethics (especially Confucian ethics), not religion (at least not a formal and organized religion). ..... All this naturally shows that China culture is fundamentally different from most other major cultures, which are dominated by monasteries and monks. "

(1) The Leading Thought in the Formation of China Culture, Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 62, No.4, pp. 293-294. Income China, edited by H.F.MacNair, 18-28 pages, University of California Press, 1946 edition.

In a sense, this statement is completely correct. But some people will ask: Why? If the pursuit of surpassing this world is not one of the innate desires of human beings, why do most ethnic groups regard religious concepts and activities as the most important and fascinating part of their lives? If this pursuit is one of the basic human desires, why are China people an exception? If the spiritual foundation of China culture is ethics, not religion, does this mean that China people don't understand the value higher than moral value? Values higher than moral values can be called "super-moral" values. Love is a moral value; Loving God is a super moral value. Some people will tend to call transcendental moral values religious values. But in my opinion, this value is not limited to religion, unless the religious meaning here is different from that mentioned above. For example, loving God is a religious value in Christianity, but it is not a religious value in Spinoza's philosophy, because what Spinoza said about God is actually the universe. Strictly speaking, Christians' love for God is not super-moral. This is because the Christian God has personality, so people can love God instead of their father's son, which is a moral value. Therefore, it is very problematic to say that Christians' love for God is a super-moral value. It is a quasi-transcendental moral value. And the love of God in Spinoza's philosophy is the real super moral value.

To the above questions, I want to answer that the pursuit of transcendence is one of the innate desires of human beings, and China people are no exception. They don't care much about religion because they are extremely concerned about philosophy. They are not religious, because they are all philosophical. They satisfied the pursuit of transcendence in philosophy. They also express and appreciate the super-moral values in philosophy, and they also experience these super-moral values according to their philosophical life. According to the tradition of China's philosophy, its function is not to increase positive knowledge. I mean about the actual information), but to enhance the realm of the mind-to reach the realm beyond this world and gain value higher than moral value. Laozi said: "Learning to be excellent is to be an official, but not proficient." (Chapter 48) Aside from this profit-loss difference for the time being, I don't fully agree with Lao Tzu. Quoting now just shows that there is a distinction between learning Tao and being Tao in China's philosophical tradition. The purpose of learning is what I call increasing positive knowledge, and the purpose of becoming a Tao is what I call improving the realm of the mind. Philosophy belongs to the category of Tao. The function of philosophy, especially metaphysics, is not to increase positive knowledge. The Vienna school of contemporary western philosophy also holds this view, but with different angles and different purposes. I don't agree with this school: the function of philosophy is only to clarify ideas; The essence of metaphysics is only conceptual poetry. Moreover, it can be clearly seen from their arguments that philosophy, especially metaphysics, will become nonsense if it tries to give practical information.

Religion can really provide practical information. However, the information given by religion is not consistent with that given by science. So in the west, religion and science have always been in conflict. Science takes a step forward, religion takes a step back; In the face of scientific progress, the authority of religion has decreased. People who keep the tradition feel sad about it, feel sorry for those who become unbelievers and think they have fallen. If there is no other way with higher value than religion, we really should feel sorry for them. People who give up religion will lose higher value if there is nothing to replace them. They have to confine themselves to secular affairs and isolate themselves from spiritual affairs. Fortunately, besides religion, there is also philosophy, which provides a more direct way for human beings to obtain higher value than that provided by religion, because in philosophy, in order to be familiar with higher value, there is no need to take circuitous roads such as prayer and worship. The higher value known through philosophy is even purer than that obtained through religion, because the latter is mixed with imagination and superstition. In the future world, mankind will replace religion with philosophy. This is in line with the tradition of China. People don't have to be religious, but they must be philosophical. Once he has philosophy, he has the blessing of religion.

Problems and Spirit of China's Philosophy

The above is a general discussion on the nature and function of philosophy. The following is devoted to China's philosophy. There is a mainstream in the history of China's philosophy, which can be called China's philosophical spirit. In order to understand this spirit, we must first understand the problems that most China philosophers try to solve. There are all kinds of people. For every kind of person, there is the highest achievement that any kind of person can have. For example, for a person engaged in practical politics, the highest possible achievement is to become a great politician. The highest achievement an artist can achieve is to become a great artist. There are all kinds of people, but all kinds of people are human. What is the highest possible achievement of a person? According to China's philosopher, that is to be a saint, and the highest achievement of a saint is the identity of the individual and the universe. The question is, if people want this identity, will they be divorced from society or even deny "life"?

According to some philosophers, this is necessary. Buddhists say that life is the root of human suffering. Plato also said that the body is the prison of the soul. Some Taoist priests "attach warts to life and decide to die." All this is to get the highest achievement, we must get rid of the dust net, society and even life. Only in this way can we get the final relief. This kind of philosophy is called "natural philosophy". There is also a philosophy that pays attention to interpersonal relationships and world affairs in society. This kind of philosophy only talks about moral value, and will not and will not talk about super moral value. This kind of philosophy is the so-called "philosophy of joining WTO". From the philosophical point of view of China's entry into WTO, the philosophy born is too idealistic, unrealistic and negative. From the perspective of philosophy of life, the philosophy of joining WTO is too realistic and superficial. It may be positive, but it's like the fast running of people who go the wrong way: the faster they run, the more mistakes they make.

Many people say that China's philosophy is the philosophy after China's entry into WTO. It's hard to say whether these people are completely right or completely wrong. On the surface, China's philosophy can't say that these people are wrong, because on the surface, China's philosophy, no matter which school, is directly or indirectly about politics and morality. On the surface, China's philosophy focuses on society, not the universe; It is the daily use of interpersonal relationships, not a hell paradise; It's a person's life, not an afterlife. A student of Confucius asked the meaning of death, and Confucius replied, "If you don't know life, how do you know death?" Mencius said, "The sage is the most important person." (Mencius on Li Lou) Literally, this sentence means that a saint is a morally perfect person in society. On the surface, the ideal personality of China's philosophy has also entered the WTO. The so-called saints in China's philosophy are not in the same category as the so-called buddhas in Buddhism and the so-called saints in Christianity. On the surface, the so-called saints in Confucianism seem to be especially so. In ancient times, Confucius and Confucian people were laughed at by Taoist people, which is why. However, this is only superficial, and China's philosophy cannot be understood so simply. As for the main tradition in China's philosophy, if we understand it, we can't say that it entered the WTO, and of course we can't say that it was born. It entered the WTO and was born again. A philosopher in the Song Dynasty described him like this when he talked about Neo-Confucianism. "Never leave the routine until it is not drawn." This is exactly what the philosophy of small countries tries to do. With this spirit, it is the most ideal and realistic; Very practical, but not superficial. Entering WTO and being born are opposites, just as realism and idealism are opposites. The task of China's philosophy is to unify these counter-propositions into a compound proposition. This is not to say that these counter-propositions have been cancelled. They are still there, but they have been unified into a whole proposition. How to unify? This is the problem that China's philosophy seeks to solve. Seeking to solve this problem is the spirit of China's philosophy. China's philosophy holds that a person who completes this unity not only in theory but also in action is a saint. He was born after China's entry into WTO. The spiritual achievements of China saints are equivalent to those of Buddhists and saints in western religions. But the saints in China are not people who don't do things. His personality is the so-called "inner sage and outer king" personality. Inner holiness refers to his cultivation; A foreign king means its role in society. A saint may not have a chance to become a leader in real politics. As far as practical politics is concerned, he probably won't have a chance. The so-called "sage inside and king outside" only means that the person with the highest spiritual achievement can be king according to the truth and is most suitable to be king. Whether he actually has a chance to become king is another matter and it doesn't matter. According to the tradition of China, the personality of a saint is not only the personality of an inner saint, but also the personality of a foreign king, so the task of philosophy is to make people have this personality. Therefore, what philosophy talks about is what China philosophers call the way of being sage inside and king outside. This statement is very similar to Plato's "philosopher king". Photography latour said that in an ideal country, philosophers should be kings, or kings should be philosophers; If a person wants to become a philosopher, he must undergo long-term philosophical training so that his mind can "turn" from the changing world of things to the eternal rational world. What Plato said, and what China philosophers said, is that the task of philosophy is to make people have the personality of inner saints and outer kings. But according to Plato, once a philosopher is king, he goes against his will, in other words, he is forced to make great sacrifices for it. That's what the ancient Taoists said. It is said that a saint was invited by a certain country to be king. He fled to a cave and hid. Someone found the hole, smoked him out with smoke, and forced him to take on the hard work (see Lv Chunqiu Guisheng). This is the similarity between Plato and ancient Taoism, and it also shows the birth character of pioneer philosophy. In the third century, the neo-Taoist Guo Xiang, following the main tradition of China's philosophy, revised this point. Confucianism believes that dealing with daily human affairs is not a saint's business. Dealing with world affairs. This is the essence of the complete development of his personality. He carried out this task not only as a social citizen, but also as a "universal citizen", that is, as Mencius said, "a heavenly citizen." He must realize that he is a citizen of the universe, otherwise his behavior will not have super moral value. If he really has a chance to be king. He will also be happy to serve the people and perform his duties as a citizen of society and the universe.

Because philosophy talks about the way of being sage inside and king outside, philosophy must be inseparable from political thought. Although China's philosophy is different, they all put forward their political thoughts at the same time. This is not to say that there are no metaphysics, ethics and logic in various philosophies. This just means that all these philosophies are related to political thoughts in one way or another, just like Plato's Republic represents his whole philosophy and his political thoughts at the same time. For example, famous artists are famous for indulging in the argument that "white horses are not horses", which seems to have nothing to do with politics. And the famous GongSunLong, "want to argue, the world is different" ("GongSunLong Ji Zi Fu"). We often see every politician in the world say how much his country wants peace, but in fact, when he talks about peace, he is often preparing for war. There is also the problem of improper relationship between name and reality. Gong Sunlong believes that this unhealthy relationship must be corrected. This is indeed the first step in "transforming the world". Because the theme of philosophy is the way of being sage inside and king outside, learning philosophy is not only to acquire this knowledge, but also to cultivate this personality. Philosophy is not only to know it, but also to experience it. This is not just an intellectual game, but something much more serious than this. As my colleague Professor Jin pointed out in an unpublished manuscript, "China's philosophers are Socrates to varying degrees. This is because morality, politics, reflective thinking and knowledge are all unified in a philosopher; Knowledge and virtue are unified and inseparable in him. His philosophy needs him to live in it; He set an example. Living according to his philosophical beliefs is an integral part of his philosophy. What he has to do is to cultivate himself and continuously maintain the pure experience of no self, so as to be one with the universe. Obviously, this cultivation process cannot be interrupted, because an interruption means self-rejuvenation, which means losing his universe. Therefore, he is always groping in knowledge, always acting or trying to act in practice. These are inseparable, so there is a philosopher's joint proposition in him, which is the original meaning of the word joint proposition. He is like Socrates, and his philosophy is not used for bureaucratic jargon. He is not a stale philosopher who lives in his study and sits in an armchair. For him, philosophy has never been just a conceptual model of human understanding, but an inherent proverb system in his actions; In extreme cases, his philosophy can be said to be his biography. "

China Philosopher's Way of Expressing Thought Western students who are beginners of China's philosophy often encounter two difficulties. One, of course, is the language barrier; The second is the special way for China philosophers to express their thoughts. Let me talk about the latter difficulty first. When people start reading China's philosophical works, their first impression may be that these remarks and articles are short and irrelevant. Open the Analects of Confucius, and you will see that each chapter has only Liao Liao numerals, and there is almost no connection between the upper and lower chapters. Open Laozi, and you will see that the whole book is only about 5 thousand, no longer than an article in a magazine; But we can see the whole philosophy of Laozi. Accustomed to precise reasoning and detailed argumentation, students are at a loss about what these China philosophies are saying. He will tend to think that these ideas are not intrinsically related. If so, there would be no China's philosophy. Because the idea of no connection is not worth calling philosophy. It can be said that there is no obvious connection between the speeches and articles of China philosophers, because they are not formal philosophical works. According to the tradition of China, studying philosophy is not a profession. Everyone should study philosophy, just as westerners should go to church. The purpose of learning philosophy is to enable people to be human, not to be certain people. Other learning (not learning philosophy) is to make people become a certain person, that is, a certain professional person. So there were no professional philosophers in the past; Non-professional philosophers do not have to have formal philosophical works. In China, there are far more philosophers without formal philosophical works than those with formal philosophical works. If you want to study the philosophy of these people, you can only read their quotations or letters to students and friends. These letters were written in various periods of his life, and quotations were not written by only one person. So they are not related or even contradictory, which is predictable. The above can explain why some philosophers' speeches have nothing to do with articles: they can't explain why they are short. Some philosophical works, such as those of Mencius and Xunzi, still have systematic reasoning and argumentation. But compared with western philosophical works, it is still not clear enough. This is because China philosophers are used to expressing their thoughts in the form of famous sayings, metaphors and examples. The whole book of Laozi is full of famous sayings and aphorisms, and most of the articles in Zhuangzi are examples of metaphor. This is obvious. However, even in the above works of Mencius and Xunzi, there are still too many famous sayings and metaphors compared with western philosophical works. Famous sayings must be short; Metaphors and examples must be irrelevant. So the famous sayings and metaphors are not clear enough. They lack clarity and imply more, and the former is compensated by the latter. Of course, you can't be both explicit and implicit. The clearer the expression, the less the hint; Like an expression, the more prosaic it is, the less poetic it is. It is precisely because the speeches and articles of China philosophers are not very clear that what they imply is almost infinite.

This is the ideal of all China arts, including poetry, painting and others. Take poetry for example, what the poet wants to convey is often not what the poem directly says, but what the poem does not say. According to the tradition of China, a good poem "has endless words and endless meanings." Therefore, a clever reader can read between the lines of a poem and a book. China's artistic ideal is also reflected in the way China philosophers express their thoughts.

China's artistic ideal is not without philosophical background. The article "Foreign Things" in Zhuangzi says: "The person who weaves the basket is caught in the fish and forgets it. The hoof was on the rabbit, so he got the rabbit and forgot the hoof. The speaker was so concerned that he forgot his words proudly. I am confident that my husband will forget what he said and talk to him! " If you talk to someone who forgets your words, you don't talk. In Zhuangzi, it is said that two saints meet each other without saying anything, because "Tao survives after witnessing" (Tian Zifang). According to Taoism, Tao can't be Tao, but only a hint. The revelation of words depends on the hint of words, not the fixed extension and connotation of words. Once you have achieved your goal, you should forget it. Since it is no longer needed, why bother with words? The words and phonology of poetry are the same, as are the lines and colors of painting.

In the 3rd and 4th centuries, China's most influential philosophy was "Neo-Taoism", which was called metaphysics in history. At that time, there was a book called Shi Shuo Xin Yu, which recorded the anecdotes and affairs of celebrities since the Han and Jin Dynasties. Most of the words are very short, and some are only a few words. The book Literature says that a great official asked a philosopher (the great official himself is also a philosopher) about the similarities and differences among Laozi, Zhuangzi and Confucius. The philosopher replied, "Will there be no difference?" It means: Isn't it the same? The official liked this answer very much and immediately appointed the philosopher as his secretary, which was called "Sanyan" at that time. Because this answer has only three words, it is called "three words". He can't say that Laozi, Zhuangzi and Confucius are completely different, nor can he say that they are all the same. So he answered by asking questions, which was really a wonderful answer. The brief comments in The Analects of Confucius and Laozi are not only some conclusions, but the premise of reaching these conclusions has been lost. Are all famous sayings full of hints. The hint is intriguing. You can collect all the ideas you found in Laozi and write a new book of 50,000 words or even 50 words by Wan Yu. No matter how well written, it is just a new book. It can be compared with the original work of Laozi, and it can also be very helpful for people to understand the original work, but it can never replace the original work. I have already mentioned Guo Xiang, who is one of the great annotators of Zhuangzi. His annotation itself is a classic of Taoist literature. He turned the metaphors and metaphors in Zhuangzi into reasoning and argumentation, and translated the language of Zhuangzi's poems into his own prose language. His article is much clearer than Zhuangzi's. However, which is better, the implication in Zhuangzi's original text or the clarity in Guo Xiang's annotation? People still ask this question. Later, a Zen master said, "I once saw Guo Xiang note Zhuangzi, but it was Zhuangzi who noted Guo Xiang" (Quotations from Zen Master Dahui Pujue, Volume 22).

language barrier

If a person can't read the original philosophy, it is difficult to fully understand and appreciate it, as is the case with all philosophical works. This is due to the language barrier. The suggestive features of China's philosophical works make the language barrier even more daunting. China philosophers' speeches and works are full of hints, which are almost untranslatable. People who read only the translation lose its hint; This means losing a lot. After all, translation is just an explanation. For example, when someone translates a sentence "Laozi", he gives his own explanation of the meaning of this sentence. But this kind of translation can only convey one meaning. In fact, the original text may contain many other meanings besides the meaning conveyed by the translator. The original text is suggestive, and the translation is not and cannot be. Therefore, the translation has lost many inherent rich contents of the original text. There are many versions of Laozi and The Analects of Confucius. Every translator feels that others' translation is not satisfactory. But no matter how good the translation is, the translation must be worse than the original. It is necessary to combine all translated versions, including those that have been translated and others that have not yet been translated, in order to show the rich content of Laozi and the original text of The Analects. Kumarajiva in the 5th century was one of the biggest translators who translated Buddhist scriptures into Chinese. He said that translation work is like chewing rice to feed people. If a person can't chew his own food, he has to eat the food chewed by others. However, after such chewing, the taste and fragrance of rice must be much more boring than before.

Source: Public Law Review.

China Academic City March 30, 2006 5438+0

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