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The basic structure and effectiveness of the distinction between humans and birds
——Mencius, Zhu Zi and Chuanshan are the middle
Author: Yang Liuan (Doctor of Philosophy, Assistant Professor of Yuelu Bookstore, Hunan University of Science and Technology)
Source: “History of Chinese Philosophy”, 2020 Issue 3
Time: Confucius II5 19th year of Gengzi Puyue, Guichou
� The thinkers of the age of the country used this unconsciousness to emphasize the attribute characteristics of some aspects of their human career and give them value. Mencius combined human and bird problems with humanity and humanistic concepts to invent the unique characteristics of man; through the moral situation of “the child will enter the well”, he sets the unique characteristics of man as moral character, and thus initiates the Confucianism’s moral contemplation of distinguishing between man and bird in terms of nature. There are two ways of Confucian discussions on the unique characteristics of people and moral character. One is from the inner basis of value, and the other is from the scene of value. Zhu Zi is the representative of the first path, and he puts his value on the principle of nature as a general order law. This is the dissolution of Mencius’ “individuality” as human nature. Chuanshan took the second path to emphasize the occurrence of value, and believed that the essence of humans and birds lies in the fact that people can choose.
Keywords:Distinguish between man and bird; Mencius; Zhu Zi; Chuanshan; unique characteristics;
Distinguish between man and bird is based on the homogeneity of humans and animals (rather than interactive relationships) to discuss the question of “what is a man?”; born in his age, he has been living in the entire Chinese philosophical tradition; it is not only a problem in philosophical humans, but also a basic question of moral philosophy. Previous discussions focused on the pre-Qin period, and the distinction between humans and birds was a sensible breakthrough. It was a self-perception of humanity, humanity and humanity; 1 or believed that the distinction between humans and birds was a discovery of human value. 2. We have basically criticized these statements. This article will further improve the basic principles of future generations. One is to clarify the basic theoretical structure of humans and birds. The other is to focus on Mencius, Zhu Xi and Chuanshan to assess the color of humans and birds in Confucian philosophy.
1. The basic structure of Mencius’ distinction between humans and birds
The discussion on the distinction between humans and birds during the war of age was very rich, and it was widely discussed in a hundred schools of thought. You can see the public topics at that time: For example, “Mozi” uses “synonyms” (Shang Tongzhong) and “power” (Fei Le Shang”) as the difference between humans and birds; “Yan Zi’s Age” is why Short-term care Is there any gift (“Suans” and “Suans”) the difference between humans and birds; as well as the “distinguishing” (“Nothing”) and “exclusive” (“Royal System”), the “different” (“Royal System” of “The Year of the Lu Family” (“Previous View”), “establishing emperors”, “establishing marquises” and “establishing officials” (” Relying on the King’s Views), “Traveling and Integrity” in Guanzi (“Nine Disadvantages of the Legislative Political Affairs”), etc.
By evaluating the views of the above scholars, we have found that first, the basic discussion of the specific differences between humans and birds has not been rationalized. Second, the differences between humans and birds are all focused on human life, and have certain values in human life Or the specifications are not discussed by birds. In short, the distinction between humans and birds during the age of war has shown the following structure: the difference between humans and birds → the value and specifications in the reality of life. The former is a setting for the main differences between humans and birds; the latter is developed from the former and used as a reason to highlight the value and specifications in a certain aspect of human life emphasized by oneself. The explanation of the former is brief, and the discussion of the latter is detailed.
The difference between humans and birds is also discussed in a wider order of relationships. For example, “Zuo Ji·The Fourth Year of Xianggong”: “Rong is a bird, and it is impossible to win the Rong and destroy the Hua family?” This is to introduce the problems of the Huayi to the difference between humans and birds. For example, “Yan Zi Age·The Second”: “The wise ruler sets up state and establishes a government… does not harm the people for birds, does not harm the birds, does not harm the grass and seedlings for plants and trees, and does not harm the grass and seedlings for wild grass. “This reflects some related networks between others in the domain of specific value concepts. Using human and bird identification as theoretical model to illustrate other problems is inexplicable in the entire Chinese thinking history before modern times.
We believe that the information about human and bird identification in the pre-Qin period also reflects an unknown ideological characteristic, that is, the high character of human beings and birds. The convincing power of humans and birds comes from a common understanding that civilized society members have – humans are more valuable than birds. This kind of strategy of speaking is of course very critical and convincing, but it is not complete. Among them, for the thinking world at that time, the deepest theoretical problem is that if the assessment of humans and birds cannot be as profound as the pursuit of humans and birds, it will be difficult to avoid In the turmoil of “this is also short, and that is short.” Mencius’s distinction between humans and birds was born under this theoretical need. Mencius’s contribution is to include the element of “nature” in the old framework of distinguishing between humans and birds; in other words, with the help of humans and birds, humanitarian problems become a valuable problem.
In Mencius’ era, discussions about “nature” have become rich. The emergence of the concept of “nature” means that people are not satisfied with the accumulation of phenomena and hope to study the essence of humans and things. It is like Gaozi’s “nature of birth” (Mencius, Gaozi 1) and takes the state of the first birth of humans or animals as their nature. Xunzi’s “what is the reason for birth” (Xunzi, Zhengming) and itSimilarity; “Nature Becomes a Self-Destined” takes “happiness, anger, sorrow, sorrow, and sorrow” as its nature, and at the same time emphasizes “Nature Becomes a Self-Destined, and destined comes from heaven” 3, which also has similarities with Gaozi’s views; neither of them is related to humanity and “goodness”, but it is important to discuss the “internal and external” problems of various virtues. It was not until Mencius that nature appeared as the inner root of “good”. 4
Mencius sorted out the specific differences between humans and birds, and used how humanity was defined as the starting point of logic, which was a criticism of the “nature of life”. Mencius applied the lexicon method and published a seemingly absurd conclusion that “but the nature of a dog is the nature of a cow, and the nature of a cow is the nature of a human being” (Gaozi 1) . Later Confucians stood at Mencius’s position, and no one thought that Gaozi could see the difference between humanity and zodiac signs. 5 We believe that the real disagreement between Mencius and the “nature of life” lies in the differences in the definition of nature between the two. “The nature of life” discusses humanity and bird nature, and cannot realize the essence of human beings and birds. The humanity that Mencius wanted to establish is based on the unique characteristics of man, to explore the problems of why man is human, and to establish it as the value of human life.
Mencius borrowed the ideological resources of “Rubao Chuangzi” (“Shangshu·Kangxi”) and designed the moral situation of “Ruzi will enter the well”, pointing out that in some special situations, people will expose their true feelings that are blinded by acquired defilements – a hidden heart, and then release the four-end heart. This is the reason why people are human beings, that is, the boundary between others and “non-human” (“Pong Sun Chou”). This means that Mencius regards the internal mechanism behind these four mental states as humanity, which is the core of human beings’ unique characteristics6. On the other hand, although Mencius admitted that the four ends are “inherent” of humanity, at the same time, “seek
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