Chapter 13 struggle and kindness

struggle and kindness If we talk about Western history from the outside, we should naturally talk about it directly from Greece and Rome.But if we talk about it from the heart of Western history, it should start from the Middle Ages.In other words, the spiritual development of modern Europeans obviously started from Christianity.Later, they turned a corner and escaped from the medieval theological tradition. Only with their so-called Renaissance, the hearts of the ancient Greeks and Romans were revived in the hearts of modern Europeans.But in their ideological tradition, they still retain a God, the concept of God.After that, they turned around again and again, and conjured up their philosophical idealism, turning into an absolute spirit that transcends matter.It was not until Hegel's dialectics and his philosophy of history that the focus of idealist philosophy fell to personnel.But the bottom of his cosmology is always a disguised form of medieval theology.If we see from Spinoza's pantheism and Feuerbach's atheism to Marx's historical materialism, we can see that the modern West wants to take the mysterious concepts of God and God and the absolute spirit as far as possible from human affairs. Expelling is a labor-intensive thing.But atheism and materialism are not acceptable to ordinary Western thinkers.It is precisely because Christianity is the first light of the dawn of the heart in modern Europe.

Not so in China.The Chinese have never established a specific, positive, and too serious monotheism from the beginning, so they will not react to extreme atheism and materialism.Confucianism does not start from God and gods, but still retains gods and gods, and has not clearly abandoned them.Zhuangzi's thought may be classified as atheism, but Zhuangzi is not advocating materialism.It would be better to say that the current Chinese ideological circle mainly wants to integrate the gods and things as the periphery of the humanistic center.Recently, the Chinese intellectual circles, infected with the trend of the West, believe that the Chinese ideological tradition has always been idealism, and want to extol Hegel’s absolute spirit to worship and worship, thinking that this is the only way to exorcise the materialism of the Marxist school. It would be boring to scare ghosts.

As far as China is concerned, the Chinese have their own set of Chinese historical philosophies.Hegel and Marx also paid attention to explaining history, seeking to discover laws in history, and then use them to guide life.It’s just that Hegel deduced history inevitably to the absolute spirit, which is absurd again.Moreover, the great responsibility for the development of history is placed exclusively on the shoulders of the Germanic nation, which is too narrow.Marx, on the other hand, went against Hei’s actions and pushed history to the dictatorship of the proletariat, which seemed to be more specific and close. Moreover, he placed the great responsibility for the development of history on the shoulders of the proletariat all over the world. It's no wonder that many people have heard about it.As for the Chinese philosophy of history, it does not focus exclusively on explaining history, but rather on guiding history, not on discovering the inevitability of future historical events, but on discovering the inevitability of current events. The dark horses are quite different from each other.

History is man-made, and the foundation of life cannot completely obliterate the material and economic living conditions.Chinese historians all admit this.But at least the problems of life cannot be led or solved entirely by the material and economic living conditions.There is at least one matter of course in life, and Chinese thought is neither materialistic nor idealistic.Therefore, from the perspective of traditional Chinese thought, Marx is at least not in-depth, and it is not appropriate.If we also admit that Marx's historical materialism also has its truth, at most we can only say that all upper-level spiritual activities in the history of life, whether political, social, moral, religious, literary, or artistic, will be determined by Marxism. It is determined by the basic material and economic living conditions of the lower class. If so, Marx's historical materialism cannot deny the existence of a batch of upper-class spiritual activities in history.And we can also say that the reason why material and economic living conditions are important and valuable is that they can subsidize all spiritual activities of the upper class.If all the spiritual activities at the upper level lose their value, the importance of the value of the material conditions at the lower level will also be shaken and lost.If so, how human beings should choose their material life should be judged by seeing how it can affect the differences in the spiritual life of all the upper layers.To put it plainly, we approve of such material conditions precisely because we welcome such spiritual life.From the standpoint of the purely natural world, even if material life determines the spirit, (speaking carefully, it can only be said to be a regulation, not a decision.) But if you look at it from the standpoint of the humanities, it should still be the spiritual leader. with substance.Historical materialism only played the previous section, while ignoring the next section.From this, let's talk about Darwin's theory of biological evolution.

Darwin's theory of biological evolution naturally has similarities with Marx's philosophy of history.Marx himself said that Darwin's book gave him a natural scientific basis for his discussion of historical class struggle.But in the eyes of the Chinese, Darwin's original idea does not seem to have any kind of novelty.Because China has never seriously advocated the theory of God's creation of the world.That's why the Chinese suddenly read Darwin's theory of evolution, and they didn't think it was revolutionary, but they just thought it was true.But there is still one difference.The Chinese only say that the great virtue of heaven and earth is life, or they say that heaven and earth are not benevolent, and they regard everything as a humble dog.No matter Confucianism or Taoism, they don't talk about God's creation, and they don't have Darwin's idea of ​​natural elimination of the superior and the inferior.On the positive side, life is the virtue of heaven and earth.On the contrary, life is like a humble dog.You are born and I die, going around in circles with the inhumanity and innocence of the world.Therefore, nature in Darwin's mind is a powerful struggle.Even Kropotkin's theory of mutual aid still focuses on strength and struggle.The nature in the minds of Chinese people dilutes this image of force and struggle, and only feels relaxed and undisciplined, even lively and comfortable.This level can also be used to distinguish the historical views of the East and the West.Marx's historical materialism takes class struggle as the main backbone of its historical development.And the Chinese look at history as they look at nature, always looking down on strength and struggle.Although Chinese people don't hold beliefs such as God's one God, fraternity and salvation, etc., the Lord is always peaceful, the Lord is obedient, and the counselors are reverent and respectful.Walking on a bad road is easy and loose, but walking on a good road is lively and comfortable.Confucianism has added another guiding spirit to this, which is the benevolence between human beings.That kind of benevolence may not necessarily be God's love, it is only between people, pointing out that kind of compassion and sincerity.It is not the absolute spirit of the universe, but just a kind of mutual understanding and sympathy in the material and economic life of daily life.Confucianism puts forward this point that people with the heart and those who know and can lead the development of history.Why insist on deducing a set of idealistic philosophy.

In fact, this difference can also be explained by external material conditions.The geographical environment, climate, products, living conditions, and economic status of the West are mostly in a state of division, which leads them to look at the universe and history and always focus on strength and struggle.China's geographical environment, climate and products, living conditions, and economic conditions are often in a state of confusion, which leads them to look at the universe and history, always focusing on peace and benevolence.At most, it can only be said that both sides have their own side.In biological evolution, in the development of human history, there is inherent strength and struggle, and it cannot be said that there is no kindness and peace.In terms of traditional Chinese thinking, peace and benevolence are ultimately positive, while strength and struggle are only the opposite.Even though force and struggle are inevitable, there should be a chance in the inevitable, and there should be a kind of kindness in the struggle.But it shouldn't be said that there must be struggle in kindness!