中国：中庸之国 Middle Kingdom: The Middle Way Kingdom

在中国，中庸之道为儒家与道家的中心思想。它的意思很简单。每一种事物皆有两个极端。中庸就是两个极端之间的自然平衡、均衡与和谐。在这个和谐点达成善与美。儒家在《中庸》这部经典中阐述了这个观点。道家则言，‘反者，道之动也。’就是说，当事物达到极端时，它就开始返回另一个极端。

中庸传达了和谐地整合对立事物的动态观点，而不是通常西方所理解的妥协对立。我们可以说，‘中国’这个传统用词其实是指一个以平衡极端来维护完整生活方式的国家，而不是理解为一个把自己当成是居于世界中心的国家的这种含有霸道的潜在意识。

华人相信世界里的事物皆有竞争倾向，应该加以平衡。这些对立的元素形成一个完整个体。这种哲学包含两个既对立而又相互依赖的观念：整体主义与悖论。

整体主义是指所有的事物都是相互联系相互依赖的，把东西当成是孤立的事件是没有意义的，而我们并不能在孤立中了解事物现象。所以，‘我’与‘他人’的相互依赖，在华人的哲学中是很自然的‘自我’观念。就是说，华人倾向于把他们看成是团体中的一分子。

阴阳学说的中庸哲学接纳悖论，并使它成为这个哲学中的不可分隔的元素。华人把对立的种子包含在事物中，使对立的双方面融合为一个有活力的整体。这个世界观反映了华人把两个互依单位当成整体的这种悖论的观点。道家认为互相对立的个体如果没有对方就不能生存。‘阳极阴生，阴极阳生。’阴与阳的结合是自然的规律与事物变动的因素。这也反映了华人哲学避免把两个对立简单地偏极化。每一个事物内都包含它的对立的种子，两者一起形成一个完整个体。华人采取辩证方式把对立的元素保留起来，而不是西方那种把矛盾偏极化的思维。

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In China, the idea of the Middle Way or Golden Mean is central to both the Confucianists and Daoists. The idea is simple. Everything has extremes at both ends. The Golden Mean is the natural balance, equilibrium and harmony between these extremes. At this harmonious point goodness and beauty are achieved. The Confucianists elaborated the idea in one of their classics The Doctrine of Mean. For the Doaists, the saying that ‘reversal is the movement of Dao’ means when anything comes to its extreme, a reversal to the other extreme takes place.

Middle way conveys a dynamic concept of harmonious integration of opposites rather than a compromise between them as often understood in the West. One may therefore say that the Middle Kingdom, the traditional term for China, actually calls for a country maintaining an integrated lifestyle by balancing the extremes, rather than, as is often understood, a hegemonic undertone of a country that considers itself to be at the centre of the world.

The Chinese believe that all things in the universe contain competing tendencies that must be balanced, opposite elements constitute an integrated whole. The philosophy embraces two opposing but interdependent ideas: holism and paradox.

Holism means that all things are interconnected and interdependent so that looking at things in isolation does not make sense and that one cannot understand a phenomenon in isolation. Therefore, the idea of the self versus the other as interdependent is natural in traditional Chinese self-perception, meaning that the Chinese tend to see themselves as part of a group.

The embrace of paradoxes is an integral component of the middle way philosophy of yingyang. The Chinese see opposites containing within themselves the seed of the other, yet forming a dynamic unity. This world view captures the Chinese view of a paradox as an interdependent unity constituting a whole. In Daoism neither opposite can exist without the other. ‘The extreme of yin is yang and the extreme of yang is yin’. The combination of yin and yang is the way of nature and the seed of change. It signifies how Chinese philosophy seeks to avoid simple polarizing of contradictions. Each force contains the seed of its opposition and together they form an integrated whole. The Chinese take a dialectical approach that retains basic elements of opposing perspectives rather than polarizing contradictions as in Western thought.