华人的审美秩序The Chinese Aesthetic order

在西方，再解释宇宙秩序时，他们设想有存在者的存在或普世原理之类的一般特性，这些特性告示我们事务是如何形成秩序的。这些设想的依据是那些有关混乱如何被秩序克服的神话。

在另一方面，中国传统文化很少受到以非理性的混乱与有秩序的宇宙相对比的神话的影响。他们对以理性推理来解释混乱如何被宇宙秩序克服的兴趣不大。反而，中国思想家通过艺术性地处置事务来了解秩序，这是一种参与式的过程，并不假设具有重要特色、事先决定好的原理来当作秩序的超越来源。

传统的中国思想家在自然世界中寻找转化与变动的气之所在，发现周围个体成员差不多是和谐地联系在一起，由此而成为事务的自然状态，因而不需要借助于一个秩序原理或代理人来解释秩序。宇宙被当成是是自发性自我生成的生命过程。

所以事务的秩序并不是神灵安排，也不是一个依据自然科学规律来安排好了的关联性模式。恰恰相反，它是由各自成员自我组织而成的审美秩序。审美秩序并不是事先决定好的，而是由独特与自发性的成员在自然形成的复杂模式中协作。

自然（万物）与社会都是审美产物，它们的秩序是成员们在其境域中的创造物。审美感悟意味着人类犹如艺术家，在不断的演变中的新奇环境的内外有创意地构筑我们的生命。

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In the West, in interpreting the order of the cosmos, it is supposed that there are general characteristics – the being of beings, or universal principles – which tell us how things are ordered. They are grounded upon cosmogonic myths that celebrate the victory of an ordered cosmos over chaos.

The classical Chinese culture, on the other hand, was little influenced by myths which contrasted an irrational Chaos with an ordered Cosmos. There is therefore lack of interest in using rational reasoning to explain how the Chaos was overcome by ordered Cosmos. Instead, the Chinese thinkers sought the understanding of order through the artful disposition of things, a participatory process which does not presume that there are essential features, or antecedent-determining principles, serving as transcendent sources of order.

Classical Chinese thinkers located the energy of transformation and change within a world that is ziran, literally ‘so-of-itself’, and found the more or less harmonious interrelations among the particular things around them to be the natural condition of things, requiring no appeal to an ordering principle or agency for explanation. The universe is seen as a spontaneously self generating life process.

So the order of things is not a rational order based on a divine plan or on scientific laws of nature, a ‘pre-assigned pattern of relatedness’. Rather it is an aesthetic order arising from the self-organization of particular elements. An aesthetic order is in no way predetermined but arises from the uniqueness and spontaneity of particulars in collaboration in an emergent complex pattern.

Nature (‘the ten thousand things’) and society are both aesthetic products whose order is a creation of the elements of the contexts. An aesthetic sensibility implies that human beings, like artists, creatively construct our lives both within and out of always evolving novel situations.

理性秩序：客观的理论基础 Rational Order: The Theoretical Basis for Objectivity

在西方传统里，理性秩序基于世界是一个整体的秩序的这样假设；同时，为了要达到他们四周环境的社会稳定，西方人崇尚和谐、秩序及统一性，而不是不调和、混乱与无主宰。

对西方人来说，事物的秩序的思考始于这类的问题：‘那是什么样的东西？’‘这些东西的本质是什么？’为提供对这些事物的解释提供途径时，罗各斯，就是说理性解释，开始扮演重要角色。在理性思维中，罗各斯所要寻找的是事物中的永恒真理。

只要认为事物的本性是流动的是对的，那么世上所有事物应被自然法规所指导也是对的。只要认为法规是客观的、永恒的与不变的，理论本身就应当被看成是超越的。这里，古典希腊的两个世界观给传统西方的客观主义一个理论依据，那就是我们可以置身事外并谈事务的整个外观。

对古典希腊哲学家而言，知识就是对不断变化的现象后面的本质、形式与功能的发掘与掌握。所以知识的语言包括‘概念’、‘意想’及‘理解’。永恒才是实在，实在的常态是惰性。知识的范式是数学，或者更具体地说是几何学。柏拉图学院的门口就贴了‘没有学过几何学者不得进入’这几个字。一般倾向于以表象词汇来理解知识，而这些表象词汇是同构与清晰的，把外面客观的事物真实地反映于心中。

但是，对永恒而不是流动的崇尚却产生了各种各样的二元论来理解他们对世界的体验：实在/现象、知识/意见、真理/虚假、存在/非存在、造物者/万物、灵魂/肉体，等等。

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In the Western tradition, rational order lies in the assumption of the world as ‘a single-ordered whole’ and in order to achieve social stability in their surroundings, the Westerners favour harmony, cosmos (order) and unity rather the discord, chaos and anarchy.

For them, thinking about the order of things begins with questions such as ‘What kinds of things are there?’ and ‘What is the nature of things?’ In providing the means of explaining the way things are, logos meaning rational account begin to play a significant role. In rational way of thinking, logos seeks permanent truth in the way things are.

As far as it is true that the nature of things is in flux, it is also true that all events in the world must be guided by necessary laws. And as far as the laws can be said to be objective, permanent and unchanging, reason itself should be regarded as transcendent. Here, it is the two-world worldview of classical Greece that gives the Western tradition a theoretical basis for objectivity – the possibility of standing outside and talking a wholly external view of things.

For the classical Greece philosophers, knowledge entails the discovery and grasping of defining essence, forms, or functions behind elusively changing appearance. Hence the language of knowing includes ‘concept’, ‘conceive’, and ‘comprehend’. Reality is what is permanent, and hence its natural state is inertia. The paradigm for knowledge, then, is mathematics, and more specifically, geometry. Over the door of Plato’s Academy was written: ‘Let none who have studied geometry entered here.’ Knowledge tends to be understood in representational terms that are isomorphic and unambiguous – a true impressed on the mind of that which exists externally and objectively.

However, the preference for permanence over flux has produced many kinds of dualism in order to organise their experience of the world: reality/appearance, knowledge/opinion, truth/falsity, Being/Non-being, Creator/creature, soul/body, and so on.

理性秩序与审美秩序 The Rational and Aesthetic Orders

东西以不同眼光来看世界，他们对秩序的概念也是不同的。西方称理性或逻辑性秩序，而东方则是审美秩序。

西方的两个世界学说区分实在世界与变化世界，这个区分就促进以二元思维来看世界。他们寻找永恒与不变的第一原理来克服最初的混乱，欲把变化世界达成统一、有序与设计的世界。他们寻找变化背后的‘实在’建构；这个‘实在’一经理解后，生命就会变得可预测与安全了。

为了要在他们的四周围达到社会和谐，西方人钟情于和谐、秩序、统一，而不喜欢不一致、混乱、无主宰（无政府状态）。所以，西方对秩序的理解所最熟悉是与统一性、模式规则性相联系的。这些所谓理性或逻辑性秩序牵涉到宇宙的设想；这个设想以由因果定律及形式模式形成的宇宙的罗各斯为特征。它也同时反映了一个假设，那就是这个秩序有一个原初及独立的源头；这个秩序源头一经被发掘与理解，就能够对人类经验给予一个贯通性的解释。

在审美秩序式的思维中，由个别个体所界定的世界秩序是独特的。这是因为在这个秩序中，个体成员的世界中并没有一个能够称为统一的超越原理。古代中国人相信我们所看到的世界秩序并不是来自一个独立的、激活的力量所给予的。世界与世界任何时刻的秩序都是自我造化，自发的自然。每样事务都是按每样事务之意。

所以，华人对秩序的意识以具体特殊性为特征，而这些特殊性对秩序本身很重要。在这个观点中，最后的统一是不可能的；因为如果是这样，整体的秩序会压倒各部分的秩序，取消了各个体成员的特殊性。因此，审美秩序最终是非秩序（非宇宙）的，因为没有一个压倒性的秩序。

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The West and East see the world differently, and they also have different concepts of order, which can be called rational or logical order and aesthetic order respectively.

The Western thinkers’ two-world theory distinguishes the world of reality from the world of change, a distinction that fosters a dualistic way of thinking about it. They seek that permanent and unchanging first principle that has overcome initial chaos to give unity, order and design to a changing world. They seek the ‘real’ structure behind change that, when understood, made life predictable and secure.

In order to achieve social stability in their surroundings, the Westerners favour harmony, order, unity rather than discord, chaos and anarchy. Therefore, the most familiar understanding of order in the West is associated with uniformity and pattern regularity. This ‘logical’ or ‘rational’ ordering is an implication of the cosmological assumptions which characterize the logos of a cosmos in terms of causal laws and formal patterns. It also reflects a presumption that there is some originative and independent source of order that, once discovered and understood, will provide a coherent explanation for human experience.

In the aesthetic way of thinking, the particular individuals defining the world order are said to be unique. This is because in this order, there is no transcendent principle by which its constituent particulars in the world can be called to be unified. The classical Chinese believe that the order this world evidences is not derived from or imposed upon it by some independent, activating power, but inheres in the world as a source of reconstrual. The world and its order at any particular time are self-causing – spontaneously ‘so-of-itself’ (ziren). Everything is what it is at the pleasure of everything else.

Therefore, the Chinese sense of order is characterized by concrete particularities whose uniqueness is essential to the order itself. No final unity is possible in this view since, were this so, the order of the whole would dominate the order of the parts, cancelling the uniqueness of its constituent particulars. Thus, ‘aesthetic’ order is ultimately acosmological in the sense that no single order dominates.

双语推迟痴呆病情的发作 Bilingualism: Delay the Onset of Alzheimer’s Symptoms

加拿大多伦多贝克列斯特老人护理中心罗特曼研究所，一所研究人类脑功能的国际中心，的一项研究显示讲两种语言可把老年老年痴呆症（学名为阿兹罕默症）发作时间推迟五年。研究员是检查了211名老年失智症患者的医疗报告后才得出这个结论的。目前，还没有药物可以推迟老年痴呆症的发作。

这项研究重新证明了2007年约克大学比亚韦斯托克教授所领导的一项研究。该项研究发现讲两者语言的痴呆病人比起只讲一种语言的病人，病情发作推迟。比起单语病人，双语病人的发作推迟了四年。

无论他们的语言能力如何，痴呆病人的脑还是会继续恶化；但是双语病人在遗失记忆、混淆、难以解决问题与计划事务等症状方面，看来推迟。

约克大学心理学教授兼罗特曼研究所科学家比亚韦斯托克教授说：‘所有参与这项研究的病人都被诊断为痴呆症病患者，所以很明显的，应有双语并不能避免痴呆病的发作。而是说，我们研究的结果显示，一生使用双语者累积了一种大脑认知贮备，帮助他们在病症发作之前，可以较长的时间来对抗病情。’

虽然双语病人的病情亦会恶化，研究员相信应用超过一种语言会为他们装备了补偿性能力，把遗失记忆、混淆等等病状控制。

这两项研究指明必须把双语使用当作是健康地老化的一种重要工具，和其他活动如运动、饮食、生活习惯等等一起应用。现在，我们有很好理由鼓励生活在多元文化社会里的人们继续讲母语，并传授给他们的孩子。

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A study conducted by researchers at the Toronto based Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care’s Rotman Research Institute, a premier international centre for the study of human brain function, suggests that speaking two languages can help delay the onset of Alzheimer's symptoms by as long as five years. The researchers came to the conclusion after examined clinical records of 211 patients diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. There are currently no drug treatments that can delay the symptoms of Alzheimer's.

The study replicated findings from a 2007 study led by Ellen Bialystok of York University that found bilingual dementia patients experienced a delayed onset of their symptoms compared to monolingual patients. It found that bilingual patients delayed the onset of their symptoms by four years compared to monolingual patients.

The subjects' brains still showed deterioration from Alzheimer's regardless of language skills, however bilingualism appeared to have delayed symptoms such as memory loss, confusion, and difficulties with problem-solving and planning.

Ellen Bialystok, professor of psychology in York’s Faculty of Health and associate scientist at the Rotman Research Institute, said, “All the patients in the study had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, so clearly bilingualism does not prevent the onset of dementia. Instead, our results show that people who have been lifelong bilinguals have built up a cognitive reserve that allows them to cope with the disease for a longer period of time before showing symptoms.”

While the brains of bilingual patients did show deterioration, researchers believe that the use of more than one language equips them with compensatory skills that keep symptoms like memory loss and confusion in check.

Both studies point to the need to treat bilingualism as an important tool for healthy aging, along with exercise, diet, and other lifestyle choices. Now, there is a good reason to encourage people in multicultural societies to keep speaking their native tongue and pass it along to their children.

台湾：枪杀与政治 Gunshot and Politics: The Taiwanese Style

Lien Sheng Wen

在民主制度中同时展示各种不同的面貌，台湾可能是世界上唯一的地方。正面与负面的趋势并存。台湾的选举活动，对于外人来说，可能会被其紧张气氛、杂声、参与者明显的热忱所震撼。

事实上，自二十世纪八十年代台湾从一党专政过渡到全面民主以来，在选举中的暴乱是少见的。台湾黑道的暴行也十分有限，虽然他们对台湾，尤其是对地方县市政府，有很大的政治影响。

可是，情况在去年的五都选举时好像转坏，当时发生了一宗令人窒息而神秘的企图谋杀事件。在11月26日选举前夕的造势大会上，一个抢手开枪，打死一人，还把台湾前副总统、现任中国国民党荣誉主席连战的儿子打成重伤。

一颗子弹从40岁的连胜文的左脸穿过右脸而伤了他，继续把一个在场者打死。

连胜文非常幸运，枪弹并没有被严重伤害到他的嘴巴与喉咙的肌肤。因此，经过医生鉴定他已经脱离危险，11月29日就从国立台湾大学医学院的重症监护病房转移到普通病房。

但是，他的快速的痊愈却引起谣言，有人就上网要求公开X光照片。反对党的支持者甚至质疑枪杀事件是不是自导自演。民进党立法委员叶宜津就在一个电视节目中公开提问：“各界大家都认为，连胜文的枪击案对‘五都’的选举有影响，那么这个枪击案是不是自导自演？”

把一个枪杀的悲剧政治化到这种地步，在台湾就可以发生。

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Perhaps Taiwan is the only place in the world whose democratic system exhibits multiple faces at the same time. Positive and negative trends coexist simultaneously. The observers of election campaigns in Taiwan will be struck by the excitement, the noise, and the obvious enthusiasm of the participants.

As a matter of fact, acts of violence are unusual in election campaigns in Taiwan, which began a gradual transition from one-party dictatorship to fully functioning democracy in the late 1980s. Violence carried out by Taiwan's gangs is also limited, though the gangs themselves exercise considerable political influence, particularly on Taiwanese county governments.

However, things seemed to have changed for the worst at last year’s five special municipal elections when an obligatory mysterious assassination was attempted. A gunman opened fire on a campaign rally on the eve of the elections on 26 November 2010, killing one man and critically wounding the son of Taiwan’s former vice president Lien Chan (Lian Zhan), now the honorary chairman of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).

A bullet pierced through from left to the right side of the face of the 40 year old Sean Lien Sheng Wen, wounding him and killing a bystander.

Lien was extremely lucky that major tissue in his mouth and throat was not damaged by the bullet. As such, he was moved from an intensive care unit to a regular ward at National Taiwan University Hospital on 29 November after doctors determined that he was out of danger.

However, his speedy recovery has fanned rumours, with an online petition calling for the release of his X-rays. The opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) supporters even question whether the shooting was staged. DPP Legislator Yeh Yi-chin (Ye Yijin) asked openly in a TV programme: ‘It is widely believed that the gunshot of Sean Lien has effect on the elections. Now, is the gunshot self staged?’

Such is the extent of politicization of a tragedy that can happen in Taiwan.

杜甫：月兔捣药 Du Fu: The Moon Rabbit Pounds the Bitter Herbs

根据华人的生肖，2011年是兔年。听说把兔子和月亮联系起来带到中国，那时受到了印度佛教的影响。中国把月里的兔子与其它源于佛教的有关观念引进，叫它做‘玉兔’。据说它在神奇的桂树下制作长生不老之药。

实际上，月亮，酒与美女一向是中国诗人的热门题材。由于唐宋时代拜月之风很盛，千年之前的唐宋诗词不少就与这些题材有关。八世纪时的传奇诗人李白据说就是为了捞水里月亮的影子而死的。
另一个唐代诗人杜甫则以写传记式、历史性与记录战乱任何影响他的生活的诗而著名。就算是他不常见的提到玉兔的诗里，他也不忘记在西部沙漠里保卫国家的战士。

月(杜甫)

天上秋期近，人间月影清。
入河蟾不没，捣药兔长生。
只益丹心苦，能添白发明。
干戈知满地，休照国西营。
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According to the Chinese Zodiac, the year of 2011 is the Year of the Rabbit. The rabbit's association with the moon is said to have been introduced to China with Indian Buddhist influence. Chinese adopted the rabbit in the moon along with many other concepts that originated in Buddhism: they called it the Jade Rabbit. It is said to stand under a magical cassia tree on the moon making pills of immortality.

As a matter of fact, the moon, along with fine wine and beautiful women, is a favourite topic for the Chinese poets. Since the worship of the moon was very prevalent in the Tang Dynasty, you‘ll find quite a few of the poems are from the Tang and Song Dynasties, which date back more than one thousand years. In fact, a legendary Chinese poet from the 8th century, Li Bai is said to have died while trying to catch the image of the moon reflected in the waters of a lake.

Du Fu, another poet who lived during the Tang Dynasty, was famous for poems that are autobiographical and historical, recording the effects of war on his own life. Even in the rare occasion that jade rabbit was mentioned in his poem, he just could not forget the soldiers who fought for the countries in the western deserts.

Du Fu: The Autumn Moon

The Autumn constellations begin to rise.

The brilliant Moonlight shines on the crowds.

The moon toad swims in the river and does not drown.

The moon rabbit pounds the bitter herbs and has an eternal life.

His drug only makes my heart more bitter.

The silver brilliance only makes my hair more white.

I know that the country is overrun with war.

The moonlight means nothing to the soldiers camped in the western deserts.

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字如其人 Writing is Like the Person

从古到今，华人把自然与人类当作个由众多形式多样相互连接的部件所形成的有机体。当其中的一个部件错位或者机能受到干扰，整体的和谐就被破坏。传统中国哲学特别注重社会和谐，艺术本意就是要反映这一点。

华人美学关注调整自己成为一个自我调整的人，这个情况就在吸取丰富的传统并寻找应用之法的同时，平衡个体与全体。

所以，在华人美学里自我修养就是艺术的首要任务；而在儒学中，自我修养传统在中华艺术有很深的人文根底。它把身体礼仪化，以有节奏的身体动作与呼吸技巧来制作艺术，当成是恢复精神与身体活力的一种形式。

就书法而言，由于毛笔与墨汁容易受到力度、速度与气息的变化的影响，笔画本身就会透露了书写的举止。所以，在书写文字的活跃过程中，某个姿态就会转化成为一个形式，就如一个形式相同的也会转化成为一个姿态。这个过程有视于并反映了身体的操作，而身体的操作有被心所‘控制’。

汉朝（公元前206年 – 公元220年）的赵壹在《非草书》中就说得很清楚：

凡人个殊气血，异筋骨，心有疏密，手有巧拙，书之好丑，在心与手。可强为哉？

这就是所谓的‘字如其人’。
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毛泽东：字如其人 Mao Zedong's Calligraphy

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The traditional Chinese of all ages view the nature and human as an organism made up of multitudinous interconnected parts. When one of the parts falls its place or is disrupted in its functioning, the harmony of the whole is impaired. A premium in traditional Chinese philosophy is placed on social harmony, and art is meant to reflect that.

Chinese aesthetics is concerned with tuning the self to become self-balancing human being, and in this a case of striking a balance between part and whole by simultaneously drawing upon the richness of tradition and finding a way to appropriate it.

Self-cultivation is therefore the main role of art in Chinese aesthetics and the Confucian self-cultivation tradition in Chinese art has deep humanistic roots. They ritualise the human body, using rhythmic bodily movements and breathing techniques in doing art, as a form of mental and physical rejuvenation of the person.

In the case of calligraphy, since the brush and ink are readily influenced by variations in force, speed, and breath, the strokes themselves reveal much about the physical act of writing. Therefore, in the dynamic process of writing a character, a particular gesture is converted into a form, just as a particular form is equally converted into gesture. This process is contingent upon and reflects the work of the body which is ‘controlled’ by the mind, or a cultivated mind.

A text from the Han dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD) makes this clear:

All men differ in their energy and blood, and vary in their sinew and bones; the heart-mind may be dispersed or dense; the hand may be skilled or clumsy. The beauty or ugliness of calligraphy is in the heart-mind and hand.

This culminates in the popular saying: ‘Writing is like the person.’

柏拉图：艺术是距离现实的第三重模仿 Plato: Art is Imitation That is Three Steps Removed from Reality

有人说西方哲学是对柏拉图的一系列的注解。柏拉图对西方文化的影响无疑是十分巨大，包括对艺术与艺术理论的巨大影响。

柏拉图发展了他的两个世界观的现实：不断改变的物质世界与永恒与不变的理念世界。理念世界是绝对、独立、理性与超越的。理念世界永远不变，是我们所看到的物质世界的主要自然事物的因。

美、公正与圆圈都是柏拉图的形式或理念的例子。很多个别的事物都具有圆圈、公正或美的形式。对柏拉图而言，这些形式是完美的理想，它们同时比客观物体更为真实。他称它们为‘真正的实在’。世界上的物质现象的实在只能限于它们对真实世界的模仿。

在柏拉图看来，不断变换的物质世界是完美、理性、永恒、不变的本质世界的劣等腐朽模仿本。美丽的花朵、夕阳、音乐或情爱都不过是美丽理念的不完美模仿品。在这个现象不断改变的世界，你可能有机会捕捉到醉人心弦的完美的短暂一刻，但是它必然会消失。它只是永恒的完美的线索。

艺术是模仿。但是，模仿什么？艺术模仿日常生活里的事与物。就是说，艺术作品是理念的模仿的模仿。所以它是距离现实的第三重模仿。以画一张床为例，它模仿物质世界里的床，而这物质世界床本身就是理念世界里的床的劣等模仿品，虽然它比艺术床较为好些。只有理念床才真正的存在。

所以，艺术作品比起日常经验更加虚幻。它们充其量不过是娱乐，而在最坏的情况下是危险的妄想。柏拉图关心艺术的认知方面，觉得既然它与真理有数重距离，它有歪曲知识的效果。他提议把诗人与剧作家驱赶出他的理想王国，或至少审查他们所写；同样的，他要求音乐与绘画经过严格的审查。他认为艺术强而有力地塑造个性。所以，为了保护理想社会里的理想公民，艺术应该受到严格的控制。

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It is said that all of Western philosophy is a series of footnotes to Plato. Plato's influence on western culture is undoubtedly a very strong one, and this includes a strong influence on the arts, and on theories of art.

Plato developed a two-world view of reality, the changing physical world and the eternal and changeless world of Forms, which is absolute, independent, rational and transcendent. The world of Forms never changes and yet causes the essential nature of things we perceive in the physical world.

Beauty, Justice, and The Circle are all examples of what Plato called Forms or Ideas. Many particular things can have the form of a circle, or of justice, or beauty. For Plato, these Forms are perfect Ideals, but they are also more real than physical objects. He called them the ‘Really Real’. The world of physical appearances only has reality to the extent that it succeeds in imitating the Forms.

Plato saw the changing physical world as a poor, decaying copy of a perfect, rational, eternal, and changeless original. The beauty of a flower, or a sunset, a piece of music or a love affair, is an imperfect copy of the form Beauty itself. In this world of changing appearances, while you might catch a glimpse of that ravishing perfection, it will always fade. It’s just a pointer to the perfect beauty of the eternal.

Art is imitation. But what does it imitate? Art imitates the objects and events of ordinary life. In other words, a work of art is a copy of a copy of a Form. It is therefore three steps removed from reality. A painting of a bed, for example, is the imitation of a bed in the physical world that itself is an imperfect (though less so) imitation of the Form or Idea Bed, which is all that really exists.

Therefore, the works of art are even more of an illusion than are ordinary experience. They are at best entertainment and at worst a dangerous delusion. Plato was also concerned with the cognitive aspect of art, feeling that it has the effect of distorting knowledge since it is several steps removed from truth. He proposed sending the poets and playwrights out of his ideal Republic, or at least censoring what they wrote; and he wanted music and painting severely censored. The arts, he thought, are powerful shapers of character. Thus, to train and protect ideal citizens for an ideal society, the arts must be strictly controlled.

和实生物，同则不继 Harmony is Fecund, Sameness is Barren



Shi Bo 史伯

华人传统和谐的观念指向和而不同。西周末年的思想家史伯与郑国的桓公的一次交谈中谈到西周的衰败时，就很详细的解释了这个看法。这谈话记录在于公元前四世纪所编辑的历史叙事书《国语》中的《郑语》。

今日中国创造和谐社会的努力中，就广泛研究了史伯的看法。史伯的和谐观点强调异而不是同。

下面是史伯给予郑桓公的忠告：

夫和实生物，同则不继。以他平他谓之和，故能丰长而物归之。若以同裨同，尽乃弃矣。

故先王以土与金、木、水、火杂，以成百物。是以和五味以调口，刚四支以卫体，和六律以聪耳，正七体以役心，平八索以成人，建九纪以立纯德，合十数以训百体。出千品，具万方，计亿事，材兆物，收经入，行姟极。故王者居九畡之田以食兆民，取经入以食万官。周训而能用之，和乐如一。夫如是，和之至也。

于是乎先王聘后于异姓，求财于有方，择臣取谏，工而讲以多物，务和同也。声一无听，物一无文，味一无果，物一不讲。

王将弃是类也而与剸同。天夺之明，欲无弊，得乎？

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The Chinese traditional idea of harmony means unity in diversity. This idea was fully elaborated by Shi Bo, a thinker lived in the Western Zhou dynasty in a conversation he had with Duke Huan of the state of Zheng to explain the reason for the decline of Zhou dynasty. This was recorded in the classical book Discourses of States, a collection of historical narratives probably compiled around fourth century BC.

Shi Bo’s idea of harmony, which is extensively studied by China today in their effort to create a harmonious society, underscores the fertility of the kind of harmony that maximizes difference.

Below is the advice given by Shi Bo to Duke Huan:

While harmony is fecund, sameness is barren. Things accommodating each other on equal terms are called blending together in harmony, and in so doing they are able to flourish and grow, and other things are drawn to them. But when same is added to same, once it is used up, there is no more.

Hence, the Former Kings blended earth with metal, wood, fire, and water to make their products. They thereby harmonised the five flavours to satisfy their palate, strengthened the four limbs to protect the body, attuned the six musical notes to please the ear, integrated their seven orifices (senses) to nourish their hearts and minds, coordinated the eight (various) sectors of the body to complete their persons, established the nine main visceral meridians to situate their pure potency, instituted the ten official ranks to organise and evaluate the bureaucracy. This has resulted in having thousand grades of things, producing tens of thousands of ways of doing things, operating billion events, managing tens of billions of financial matters, collecting thousands of billions of tax revenues, working on numerous actions. Therefore the King possesses vast area of land for his subjects to produce food, and collects tax revenue to pay the court officials their remunerations. And harmony and pleasure prevailed to make them as one. To be like this is to attain the utmost in harmony.

In all of this, the Former Kings took their consorts from other clans, required as tribute those products that distinguished each region, and selected ministers and counsellors who would express a variety of opinions on issues, and made every effort to bring things into harmony. There is no music in a single note, no decoration in a single item, no relish in a single taste, no comparison with single thing.

Now the King of Zhou does not accept diversity of ideas, and instead adopts autocratic leadership style that favours telling people what to do. This has led the heaven to deprive him of his intellectual ability (to understand the meaning of harmony). And he still thinks that Zhou will not decay. How is it possible?

子曰：君子和而不同 Confucius Said: The Exemplary Person pursues Harmony, Not Sameness

华人的一个世界的世界观意味着人与自然世界有着直接与紧接关联。人生经验的目的就是要在构成世界的各种不同元素这取得和谐。

和谐与耕耘和谐在古代中国哲学中占了重要的地位。和谐从最具体与眼前开始；就是说，从个人来透视。强调的是有个人之修身为出发点，达到家庭、社会、政治与世界的秩序。

和谐的本质可以烹饪艺术来解释。中国的烹饪要求好的烹饪必须把所有的原料调和，同时要保留每一种原料的颜色、质地与味道。要成为一个好厨师，一定要是个好的安排者。每一种原料的味道都要调和（和谐）。没有调和就没有味道。菜式的颜色与质地的展示要十分重要。

《吕氏春秋》对烹饪艺术如此描述: ‘调和之事，必以甘酸苦辛咸，先後多少，其齐甚微，皆有自起。鼎中之变，精妙微纤，口弗能言，志弗能喻，若射御之微，阴阳之化，四时之数。’

所以，子曰：‘君子和而不同；小人同而不和。’

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The Chinese one-world world view means there is a direct and immediate affinity between the human being and the natural world and the purpose of human experience is to get the most harmony out of the various ingredients that constitute the world.

Harmony and cultivation of harmony therefore occupy a prominent position in Chinese ancient philosophy. The harmony begins from what is most concrete and immediate, i.e. from the perspective of any particular human being. The emphasis is on personal cultivation as a starting point for familial, social, political, and cosmic order.

The nature of harmony is explained by relating it to the culinary arts. The art of Chinese cooking requires that good cooking depends on the blending of various ingredients and at the same time for each ingredient, retains its own colour, texture, and flavour. In order to become a good cook one must first be a good matchmaker. The flavours of the ingredients must be blended with harmony. Without this harmony there is no taste. The use of colour and texture in the presentation of the dish was also stressed.

In Spring and Autumn Annals of Master Lu, the art of cooking described as follows:

‘In combining your ingredients to achieve a harmony, you have to use sweet, sour, bitter, acrid and the salty, and you have to mix them in an appropriate sequence and proportion. Bringing the various ingredients together is an extremely subtle art in which each of them has its own expression. The variations within the cooking pot are so delicate and subtle that they cannot be captured in words or fairly conceptualise. It is much like the fine skill of archery, transformation of yin and yang, and changes of seasons.’

Therefore Confucius said: ‘The exemplary person pursues harmony, not sameness (uniformity).’