Chapter 15 5 Humanism in China
In order to understand the Chinese ideal of life, one should first understand Chinese humanism. The meaning of the term humanism is ambiguous.But Chinese humanism has its own definite definition, which includes: first, the correct concept of the ultimate purpose of life; second, the unchanging belief in these ends; Reasonable spirit to achieve these ends.Emotion and reason are the way of "the mean", and the meaning of the mean can be interpreted as the standard of ordinary sensibility.
What is the meaning and value of life? This question has exhausted Western philosophers a lot of thought, complicated disputes, and finally failed to give a comprehensive explanation-this is the natural result from the perspective of teleology. Everything in the universe, including mosquitoes and asphygmia, was created for the benefit of mankind.Because this life is too painful and miserable, it is almost impossible to create a perfect solution to satisfy human self-esteem.The teleological cause is transferred to the second life, and this earthly life is regarded as the preparation for the next life.This kind of theory is consistent with the logic of Socrates (Socrates), who regards a fierce wife as a natural preparation for training her husband's temperament.This method of dodging the dilemma in the argument sometimes gives us temporary peace of mind.But the perpetual question reappears: "What is the meaning of life?" Nietzsche resolutely and without hesitation refuses to assume that life should have a purpose, and is convinced that the course of human life is a cycle, and that human enterprise is The dance of purposeless savages is not a purposeful journey to and from the market place.But the question keeps coming up, like waves crashing on the shore: "What is the meaning of life?"
Chinese humanists are confident that they have realized the true purpose of life.From their enlightenment, the purpose of life does not exist in the life after death, because the ideal taught by Christ is that the idea of human beings living for sacrifice is inconceivable; it does not exist in the Nirvana taught by the Buddha, because This statement is too abstruse; nor in the achievement of merit, for the supposition is too pompous; nor in the process of progress for the sake of progress, for it is meaningless.The real purpose of life is determined by the Chinese with a simple and obvious attitude, which consists in enjoying a simple life by resigning oneself to fate.Especially family life and harmonious social relations.In the past, the first poem recited by the enlightened schoolchildren was the following one:
Cloudy and breezy near noon,
Along the flowers and willows across Qianchuan;
At that time, people didn't know Yuxinlei,
It will be called a young man who sneaks out to learn.
This little poem not only expresses the emotion of the poem, but also expresses the concept of "goodness and virtue" in life.The Chinese people's ideal of life is soaked in this kind of emotion.This kind of ideal of life is neither extremely ambitious, nor mysterious and inconceivable, it is the supreme truth, and I would say it is a simple and brilliant ideal, only the down-to-earth Chinese spirit can comprehend it .We really don't understand why Europeans and Americans can't understand that the purpose of life is to enjoy life purely and wholesomely.The essential difference between China and the West seems to be this: Westerners are better at making progress and working but are inferior to enjoying, while Chinese are good at enjoying a limited amount of material.This one characteristic, our consciousness centered on worldly pleasures, is the cause, that is, the effect of non-existence, of religion.Because if you don't believe that the end of this life in this world is the beginning of life in the next life, you will naturally want to enjoy everything before the drama of life in this world comes to an end.The non-existence of religion makes the condensation of such consciousness especially possible.
From this concentration of consciousness, a humanism developed, which frankly advocated an anthropocentric cosmology and established a rule: the purpose of all knowledge is to seek the happiness of human beings.Humanizing all knowledge is hardly an easy task, for the human mind may be so perverted that his intellect is driven by its logic to make him an instrument of his own knowledge.Therefore, only by grasping the real purpose of life with a keen eye and a firm mind, if it can be seen clearly, can humanism be able to maintain its existence.Humanism occupies a humble place between the religions of the afterlife and modern materialism.Buddhism can be said to control most of the popular thinking in China, but loyal Confucians often harbor inner anger to resist the power of Buddhism, because Buddhism in the eyes of humanists is no more than an escape or a denial of real life. .
On the other hand, the world of modern civilization is enslaved by the over-developed mechanical civilization, and it seems that it has no time to ensure that human beings can enjoy the materials he created.The development of lead pipe equipment in the United States makes people forget the fact that people who lack hot and cold water pipes can also enjoy happiness in human life. Like in France and Germany, many people enjoy a comfortable old age and contribute their important scientific inventions. Writing valuable tomes, and their daily lives, Gu Duo used kettles and old-fashioned water basins.The world seems to need a religion to spread the famous adage of Jesus' Day of Safety and proclaim a doctrine: machines are made to serve humans, not humans are created to serve machines.All in all, the pinnacle of all wisdom, the problem of all knowledge is how to make a "man" not be a "man" and how to enjoy his existence well.