农夫与商人 Farmer and Merchant

从历史上看，中国人是农夫，而西方人是商人。就是说自古以来，中国人与西方人不但生活在不同的地理环境，而且经济环境也不同。现在的情况可能有所改变，可是不同的历史背景很大的影响了他们的文化与哲学思想，直到今日。

中国是个大陆国家，很自然的中国人主要以农为生。在中国的哲学思想里，有所谓的‘本末’之分。本就是指农业，末为商业。这是因为农业有关生产，而商业却只管交易。必须有了生产才能有交易。

所以在中国历史中，社会与经济的学说及政策倾向‘重农轻商’，那就不足为奇了。

另一方面，希腊人居住于海洋国家，主要通过商业来维持国家的繁荣。就是说，他们基本上是商人。商人应用数字，也居住在城镇。所以他们的社会组织并不是基于家庭的共同利益，而主要是基于城镇利益。他们也有很好的机会会见具有不同风俗的人与不同的语言。所以，他们习惯变动，不畏惧新奇的东西。

所以海洋经济有助于防止狭隘的地方主义。相反地，中国的农业社区给予人们的世界观是较偏狭的。此外，贸易产生了一群有能力提供他们孩子教育的商人，因而为专业教育制造了需求。

据说农夫倾向于单纯与率直，所以他们的思考依赖他们目光所见，因此中国哲学是‘提示性的而不是明述性’，缺少指出我们所见到的桌子是否真实或只是我们脑里的理念这类的抽象思维。另一方面，商人在商业账目依赖抽象数字，所以他们具有很好的抽象推理与演绎逻辑的应用。

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Historically speaking, Chinese are farmers and Westerners are merchants. This is to say that since ancient time, the Chinese and Westerners not only live under different geographic conditions, but economic as well. Things might have changed nowadays, but the different historical backgrounds have greatly influenced their culture philosophical thinking till today.

As China is a continental country, it is natural that the Chinese people make their living mainly by agriculture. The Chinese philosophical thinking has made a distinction between what the philosophers called ‘The Root’ and ‘The Branch’. The Root refers to the agriculture and the Branch to commerce. This is because agriculture is concerned with production, while commerce is mainly concerned with exchange. One must have production before one can exchange.

It is not surprising that throughout Chinese history, social and economic theories and policies have attempted to ‘emphasise the root and slight the branch’.

On their hand, the Greeks lived in a maritime country and maintained their prosperity mainly through commerce. In other words, they were primarily merchants. While merchants deal with numbers, they also live together in towns. Hence they have a form of social organisation not based on the common interest of the family but so much on that of a town. They also have great opportunity to see different people with different customs and different languages. Therefore, they are accustomed to change and are not afraid of novelty.

A maritime economy therefore helps to prevent parochialism. In contrast, the farming community in China gave the people a more insular view of the world. In addition the trade produced a merchant class that could afford to educate their children, creating the need for a teaching profession.

It is said that farmers tend to be simple and straightforward, hence their thinking often relies on what they could see, and Chinese philosophy is therefore ‘suggestive but not articulate’ with no room for such abstract reasoning such as whether a table one sees is real or just an idea in one's mind. On the contrary, merchants rely on abstract numbers in their commercial accounts, hence their abstract reasoning and extensive use of deduction.