Chapter 29 Section 5 Reflection on the Thought of "Harmony between Man and Nature"

Chinese characters also directly and indirectly express the ideological characteristics and ways of thinking of ancient Chinese to a certain extent. One of the essences of ancient Chinese philosophy is "the unity of man and nature".There are many possible interpretations of this proposition.In its original meaning, "heaven" is nature, and "man" is human beings themselves.Between nature and human beings, there is so much in common that they can even be united.This is the simple meaning of "harmony between man and nature", which is the simple understanding of the ancestors on the relationship between human beings and nature.

This kind of understanding is directly reflected in the creation of Chinese characters, that is, in the early Chinese characters, the word "Heaven" was actually represented by the image of a person, the big head written in oracle bone inscriptions.Xu Shen explained in "Shuowen Jiezi": "The sky is the top." (Part 1) The sky is the boundless space above the head of a person.The image of heaven is reflected in the image of man.On the other hand, it is not difficult for us to see that in the eyes of the ancients, heaven has a human character.Therefore, in ancient China, mountains, forests, rivers, lakes, seas, wind, rain, thunder and lightning, all important objects in nature, were endowed with personality, respected as gods and worshiped and sacrificed by the ancestors.

In addition, the Chinese nation has always advocated ethics and morality.Lun is human relations, which refers to the harmonious relationship between people.Where did the word "Lun" come from?It turns out that it has the same pronunciation and the same origin as the word "沉" next to the word water.The "recession" of Sandianshui means "little ripples of water".When the breeze is blowing on the water surface, the slow ripples are dynamic but calm and harmonious. The ancestors then thought of the world, and the relationship between people should also be dynamic and harmonious, so they created the homonym The word "Lun".Needless to say, the character next to it means that it is dedicated to interpersonal communication.

Related to "water", there is also a "tide" of tide, which was written as "(氵(上十下早))" earlier, and the explanation given to it in "Shuowen" is: "Shui Dynasty belongs to the sea." (Ministry of Water ) The ancients regarded the regular rise and fall of seawater due to the gravitational pull of the sun and the moon as the same as the regular meeting of courtiers with the emperor in the world. How deep-rooted is the concept of hierarchy in society. Chinese ancestors had the characteristics of intuitive thinking and were good at accepting the enlightenment of nature.This enlightenment is reflected indirectly through Chinese characters.From the point of view that the relationship between man and nature should be harmonious, the ancient Chinese idea and way of thinking of "harmony between man and nature", as the representative and essence of oriental philosophy, has received increasing attention and attention from the international community in today's real world. focus on.