道德就是天神 China: From Divination to Dao & Virtue

在原始社会，人们为了生存，必须永无止境地对来自大自然，疾病，死亡，和无处不在并含有恶意和魔力的精灵的威胁，进行持续挣扎。为了对付这些威胁，古人想尽法宝。这些法宝中，很多是和原始宗教、精灵、巫术有关。在中国，到了西周末期，隐含在中国人的巫术态度和习俗已经形成。‘易经’就是一本巫术之书。
有人说，老子所说的道其实源自天道和天命，这两个观念原本都和原始巫术有关联。老子以‘道’取代了中国古人所崇拜的超自然存在者。
亦有人说，孔子把‘易经’的巫术内容传变为哲学名作，而作为儒学的导创者，他把原始文化，礼仪和音乐带入了理性实践。在这个过程中，伦理之善与行为取代了至上力量，人的德行和努力取代了个人力量。换句话说，道德就是天神。
所以，孔子把原本用来服侍天神的礼节转换为服侍人类。
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People in primal societies frequently view as an unending series of terrifying encounters on a constant struggle for survival against threats from nature, diseases, death, and above all else, malicious or demonic spirits that pervade everything. To overcome these threats, ancient people developed a wide range of strategies. Most of these strategies were closely associated with primal religions, animism and shamanism. In China, towards the end of the Western Zhou period, ideas implicit in the Chinese attitudes and practices of Shamanism were articulated. Yijing is one of those classical books on Chinese divination.
It is said that Laozi’s notion of Dao may have been derived from two pre-existing terms known as tiandao (the Way of Heaven) and tianming (the Decree of Heaven), which seem to be associated with primitive shamanism. Laozi’s concept of the Dao may have been a substitution for a supernatural being worshiped by the ancient Chinese.
It is also said that Confucius transformed the Yijing from a divination text into a philosophical masterpiece, and as a progenitor of Confucianism, he redefined primitive culture, rites and music by bringing them into the domain of ‘practical rationality’. In doing so, the supreme power was replaced with the notion of moral good and deeds, the personal power was supplanted by human virtue and human effort, and moral was the god in another sense.
Thus, Confucius turned the rites, which formally served and were subordinate to gods, to the service of human being.

物极必反 No Extreme will Hold Long

华人看世界，‘变动’是个重要的观念。所以，华人哲学习惯于万物‘变易’的观念，而西方则一直为‘存在’这个概念所牵制。
万物变动的最基本规律就是‘物极必反’的观念。
易经中对自然现象变动的观察就隐含了物极必反的观念：“日往则月来，月往则日来，日月相推而明生焉。寒往则暑来，暑往则寒来，寒暑相推而岁成焉。”
易经乾卦上九所说‘亢龙有悔’就是警告个人自我膨胀到极点，会险峻摔倒。就是说，人要知道自己的极限。
老子在‘道德经’说：‘反者道之动’和‘大曰逝，逝曰远，远曰反’，都是表示东西发展到极点，它不可避免的会回头走。
这个观念对华人影响重大，所谓居安思危，天无绝人之路。它也为儒家一个重要观念‘中庸之道’提供了依据。
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The notion of change is at the very heart of the Chinese world-view. As such, Chinese philosophy is always more comfortable with the notion of ‘becoming’ than is its Western counterpart, which frequently finds itself bogged down in the problems associated with ‘being’.
The most fundamental law that governs the change of things is the notion of wu ji bi fan (物极必反) which can be translated as ‘When a thing reaches its extreme or limit, it reverses its course’ or ‘No extreme will hold long’.
The concept had its root in Yijing when the following observation of change in nature was made: ‘The sun goes and the moon comes; the moon goes and the sun comes; the sun and moon thus take the place each of the other and their shining is the result. The cold goes and the heat comes; the heat goes and the cold comes; it is by this mutual succession of the cold and heat that the year is completed.’
This was further elaborated when Yijing said ‘Nine at the top of Qian hexagram means arrogant dragon will have cause to repent.’ This line warns against titanic aspirations that exceed one's power. A precipitous fall would follow. That means one must always observe one’s limit.
Laozi said in Dao De Jing that ‘Reversal is the movement of Dao’ (chapter 40) and that ‘To go further and further means to revert again’ or ‘Great, it passes on (in constant flow). Passing on, it becomes remote. Having become remote, it returns.’ (chapter 25). That means if something develops certain extreme qualities, these qualities invariably revert to become their opposites.
This notion has great effect on the Chinese people so that they will always remain cautious even in time of prosperity, and hopeful in time of extreme difficulty. It also provides the basis for the argument of doctrine of the golden Mean, which is advocated by Confucianists.

中文的提示性 The Suggestiveness of Chinese Language

中文是一种提示性的语言和文字。中国的哲学自然也就是用提示性的方式来说和写的。这个形而上学里的许多概念如道，德，自然，阴阳，气，都是提示性的字词。
可以这么说，提示，而不是明述，向来是中国哲学，诗歌，绘画，等等的典型表述。
提示就是有非直觉和示意的意思，所谓字简意深。提示性的文字和叙述不容易被翻译成另一种文字。在翻译的过程中，提示性的部分不可避免的会被遗漏。翻译只能表达一个观念或想法；可是，原本叙述和书写可能包含的其他意思和想法。
西方老子道德经有不少翻译版本，可是每个版本都有不足之处。因为这本书原本句子的提示太多，要以明述来了解它的意思，实难胜任，翻译就更不用说了。原书字句简练，学者对它们的注解已经意见分歧，要翻译，自然问题多多。
要了解原书的风貌，需要把所有译本，加上将来的各种译本一齐读才可。如果不会中文，西方读者要进一步了解中国哲学和艺术，简直是件不可能的事。
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It is well recognised that the Chinese language is suggestive and it is therefore expected that many Chinese philosophical writings follow the grammar of suggestiveness. For instance the whole idea of metaphysical conception of Chinese philosophy dao(道)，de(德)，ziran(自然），yin-yang（阴阳）, qi（气）all stands for some suggestive meanings.
It can be said that suggestiveness, not articulateness, is the ideal of all Chinese writings, whether it be philosophy, poetry, painting, or anything else.
Suggestiveness means to show something by indirectly hinting in it. The suggestiveness of the writings and sayings of the Chinese philosophers is something that can hardly be translated into other languages. The translation would inevitably miss the suggestiveness which can mean a great deal in the original writings. Translation usually conveys only one idea, one interpretation, while the original saying or writing may contain many other meanings and ideas besides the one given by the translator.
There have been many translations of Laozi’s Dao De Jing, but each is only partially successful. This is because many of its sentences are so suggestive that definitive interpretation, much less translation, has been proved unattainable. Translating into another language a work that says so much in so few words, and about whose meanings scholars differ greatly, can only be problematic.
It needs a combination of all the translations already made and many others not yet made, to reveal the richness of the Chinese classics in their original form. This makes it almost impossible for Western readers who do not read Chinese, to have a better understanding of Chinese philosophy and arts.

华人重伦理而淡宗教 Generally Speaking, Chinese People are Not Religious

中文宗教一词，由‘宗’与‘教’二字组成。宗有‘祖宗和宗派’的意思。教有‘教化，从学入道’的意思。所以宗教较有祖宗和宗派教义的意味。而儒释道三教的三教应该是指这三流派的教义多过把它们当作宗教来看待。
中国本身思想文化传统中，没有‘宗教’。佛教传入，成为佛教用语，指的是佛陀及其弟子的教诲。其中‘宗’为佛陀弟子所传，‘教’为佛陀所说，‘宗’是‘教’的分派，共合为佛教的教理。
把‘宗教’与西方宗教概念联系起来，是基督教传入中国后的事。
很多西方人其实已经注意到华人对宗教并不注重。法国汉学家Granet观察透彻：‘以中国人的智慧，他们无须上帝的概念。’
美国著名的汉学家和中国历史家Derk Bodde (1909 - 2003)在1942年说：‘宗教理念和活动，并不是中国人生活中最重要和最令他们注目的部分。中国本身并没有产生过可以被称为宗教领袖的人物。中国文明中提供给他们精神主要粮食 的是伦理（尤其是儒家伦理），而不是宗教，至少不是那些正规，有组织的宗教。’
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Religion is known as zongjiao in Chinese. It is a compound term consists of zong, which is derived from a pictogram of an ancestral altar and most commonly denotes a "sect," and jiao, meaning "teaching." Zongjiao thus carries the connotation of "ancestral" or sectarian teachings. The term sanjiao that refers to Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism, should be interpreted as ‘Three Teachings’ rather than ‘Three Religions’.
Before the late 19th Centry, Zongjiao was used as Chinese Buddhist term to mean simply the teachings of Buddha and his disciples. After the arrival of Christianity in China, the word Zongjiao was used in late 19th-century to mean Religion.
Many Westerners in fact have noticed that the Chinese people have been less concerned with religion. French sinologist Marcel Granet observed rather starkly that ‘Chinese wisdom has no need of the idea of God’.
Derk Bodde (1909 - 2003), a prominent American Sinologist and historian of China, wrote in his article ‘Dominant Ideas in the Formation of Chinese Culture’ in 1942 that the Chinese people ‘are not a people from whom religious ideas and activities constitute an all-important and absorbing part of life….China itself produced no thinker…. who could be classified as a religious leader. It is ethics (especially Confucian ethics), and not religion (at least not religion of a formal, organized type), that provided the spiritual basis in Chinese Civilization.’

大象与盲人 The Elephant and the Blind Men

从前，有六个谦逊的盲人，完全不知道大象是什么样子的。他们觉得，虽然没法子看到大象，能够触摸也好。
第一个盲人摸了大象的腿：‘嘿，大象是根柱子。’
第二个盲人摸了大象的尾：‘大象像根绳子。’
第三个盲人摸了大象的鼻：‘大象像树干。’
第四个盲人摸了大象的耳：‘大象是把扇。’
第五个盲人摸了大象的腹：‘大象像大墙。’
第六个盲人摸了大象的牙：‘大象是硬管。’
因为他们都信任他们的朋友的话，结论是大象包含了所有他们所说的特征。虽然还是没法知道大象到底是什么的样子，但是能够这样体验大象，已经心满意足。
有一个盲人智者也在现场，他不满意这个结论。
他冷静地说：‘亲爱的朋友，你们相信你们的手掌，那就犯了大错。手掌不能够触摸整个大象。只指出特征并不能说明什么。还有，绳子不可能同时又是大墙。因为我们都是盲人，真正和实在的大象是超越我们的 ，而你们所触摸的都不是真实的。我劝告各位，我们唯一能做的是用我们的推论能力和想象力，把这些组合为一个较为真实的大象图像。’
不幸的是，当时并没有一个视力正常的智者在场来开导我们这群可怜的盲者。
提议：把上面的故事再读一遍。这次以中国哲学家取代那六名谦逊的盲人，以西方大哲学家，如柏拉图取代那位盲人智者。
问题：能找到智者吗？
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Once upon a time, there lived six humble blind men who had no idea what an elephant was. They decided, "Even though we would not be able to see it, let us go and feel it anyway."
"Hey, the elephant is a pillar," said the first man who touched the elephant’s leg.
"It is like a rope," said the second man who touched the tail.
"It is like a thick branch of a tree," said the third man who touched the trunk of the elephant.
"It is a big hand fan" said the fourth man who touched the ear of the elephant.
"It is like a huge wall," said the fifth man who touched the belly of the elephant.
"It is a solid pipe," Said the sixth man who touched the tusk of the elephant.
Since they all trusted their friend’s words, they therefore concluded that actually the elephant had all those features of what they all said. Although they still did not know what exactly an elephant was, they were quite happy to experience the elephant as it was.
A wise blind man was there, and he found the conclusion unsatisfactory.
He calmly explained to them, "My dear friends, all of you make a serious mistake of believing your palms. The palm has not the means of covering the whole of the beast. You have said nothing by just pointing out those features. Surely, a rope cannot be a huge wall at the same time. Since all of us are blind, and the real and actual beast is transcendent to us, what you have touched is unreal. My advice to all of you is that, the only thing we can do is to make full use of your reasoning power and imagination to put all pieces together to form a realistic image of the beast. "
It was unfortunate in this case that there was no wise man with normal eyesight there to enlighten these poor blind men…..
Suggestion: Read the story again. This time imagine the six humble blind men are any six Chinese philosophers and the wise blind man is a great western philosopher, say Plato.
Question: Is there any wise man around?

子曰：五十而知天命 Confucius said: At fifty, I knew the Decree of Heaven

英文把天命翻译为Decree of Heaven，再译为中文是天堂的意旨。这天堂一字，显然是有误导性。这里的天并不是指上帝居住的地方，而是命运，就是那些我们完全无法控制的东西。孟子所说‘若夫成功，则天也’中的天，就是这个意思吧。
什么是命呢？子曰：‘道之将行也与，命也；道之将废也与，命也。’对孔子而言，这就是天命，或者说是一种宇宙中果断的力量。
我们需要天命的协助，才能办好事。可是，这种协助完全不是我们所能左右的。我们所能做的，就是尽力而为，不计成败。行为的价值在过程，而不是成果。所以孔子说：‘不怨天，不尤人，下学而上达，知我者其天乎。’
这样的行为就是知命。对孔子来说，知命对君子很重要，所谓‘不知命，无以为君子也。不知礼，无以立也。不知言，无以知人也。’
于丹教授的解说：知命，知礼，知言三个境界，其实与人生的成长是相反的。我们是最先知言，在与人语言和读书中，了解这个社会，进而做到知人。知道他人如何，但知人后并不担保你不尤人，你也会抱怨别人。这是因为每个人都是尺有所短，寸有所长，长短之间，就会出现磕磕碰碰。下一个层次是知礼节，能够充分尊重别人。知礼以后，人就能做到立了。也就是说，人自我建立以后，这种抱怨就会少得多。更高的一个层次是知天命。这个知天命就是建立一个自循环的系统。他内心会有一种淡定的力量去对抗外界。
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Confucius said: At fifty, I knew the Decree of Heaven.
The Chinese term for Decree of Heaven is Tian Ming, or just Ming. Western readers should be careful not to interpret the word Heaven as a place or state of existence of the blessed after the mortal life. The Chinese word Tian can also be used to mean Fate, a term applied to all those events in human life over which man himself has no control. This is the Tian Mencius referred to when he said: "As to the accomplishment of a great deed, that is with Tian".
What is Ming? Confucius said: ‘If my principles are to prevail in the world, it is Ming. If they are to fall to the ground, it is also Ming.” To Confucius, Ming meant the Decree of Heaven, or a purposeful force of the universe.
For the success of our activity, we need the cooperation of Ming, or the decree of heaven. However, this cooperation is totally beyond our control. The best thing for us to do is therefore simply to try to carry out what we know we ought to carry out, without caring whether in the process we succeed or fail. The value of doing what we need to do lies in the doing itself, and not in the result. That’s why Confucius also said: 'I do not murmur against Heaven. I do not grumble against men. My studies lie low, and my penetration rises high. But there is Heaven that knows me!'
To act in this way is to know Ming. To know Ming is important requirement for being a superior man in the Confucian sense of the term, so that Confucius said: “He who does not know Ming cannot be a superior man.”

理性主义：从混乱到宇宙秩序 Rationalism: From Chaos to Cosmos Order

我们注意到在西方，很多人相信单一世界秩序而不相信多元世界秩序。西文宇宙来自希腊字kosmos，原意为‘有秩序地排列’。Pythagoras首先把这个字用来指称宇宙，后来这个字被伸延泛指整个物质世界，包括世界。
在单一世界秩序之前，那里是一片混乱。
单一世界秩序的概念，导致西方理性主义的发展。为了要知道混乱到秩序的过程，必须找出秩序的来由。Heraclitus就首先提出了，从混乱到秩序不是个偶然事件，它来自上帝的普世理智，logos。这个logos不好译，也指理性解释，音译就是逻各斯。从此，逻各斯就扮演一个重要角色，所有事物的本质都要由它来解释。
而逻各斯是超越自然的，因为它要寻找事物永恒的本质。而我们说过，在西方思维里，永恒的本质只存在于超越自然的世界里。
所以逻各斯就导致西方哲学偏爱永恒而不是过程和变动，和相信人类理性拥有超越自然的力量。
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We noted that in the west, many believe that our world is “a single-ordered whole” and deny that there are many world orders. The word Cosmos is from a Greek word kosmos which means "orderly arrangement". Pythagoras is said to have been the first to apply this word to "the universe". It was later extended to the whole physical world, including the earth.
Before this single-ordered world, there was Chaos.
It is the notion of a single-ordered world that leads to the development of rationalism in the west. In order to find a cosmos i.e. order out of the vagueness of chaos, it is natural that the source of order must be determined. Heraclitus (540 BC – 480 BC) started the search when he said that the process of change from chaos to order is not a haphazard movement but the product of God’s universal Reason (logos). Since then, logos meaning rational account began to play a significant role and the nature of things was to be accounted for by recourse to logos.

And logos belongs to the region of Transcendence because logos seeks permanent truth in the way things are, and this, as we have noted, can be found only in the transcendent realm.
The notion of logos also leads to the philosophical preference of permanence over process and changes in the west, and believe that human rationality possesses a transcendent power.

超越 Transcendence

在西方哲学中，‘超越’是个很重要的概念。它反映的是一个超越我们可见的世界。可是，这个概念在中国哲学中几乎不存在，以致要用‘超越’这样一个新名词。

日常用语中，超越指在我们物质经验以外的东西。

西方哲学由于超越概念而生二元论，二元论则成为西方哲学之特徵。

柏拉图之理念王国绝对是超越性的。柏拉图认为身体不是真实的物质，而形式/理念才是永恒不变的，身体只是形式/理念的不完美复本。理念世界里有三角形的形式，我们所看到的三角形都只是复本。相同的，你和我都不过是人这个形式的复本而已。

柏拉图的二元论正好是西方哲学的主流。

当代超越世界已经从柏拉图的理念王国转为理性世界。理性世界有超越之特徵，是因为它和知觉世界是不同的。

超越概念之兴起，和西方追求普世知识是相连的。柏拉图寻找形式/理念的目的，是要把我们的意识转换为概念思维，以便可以领悟普世性的东西。在他看来，越是普世的知识，它的价值越高。真正的和普世的知识只能在超越的世界里找到。

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The notion of transcendence is very important in the western philosophy. It reveals a realm beyond our perceivable world. However, such notion is almost unfound in the Chinese philosophy, such that a new Chinese term ‘超越’ has to be created.

In everyday language, transcendence is defined as a state of being or existence above and beyond the limits of material experience.

The notion of transcendence makes dualism the basic characteristics of the western philosophy.

Plato's idea world is absolutely transcendent. Plato believed that the true substances are not physical bodies, but the changeless and eternal Forms/Ideas of which bodies are imperfect copies. There is the Form/Idea of the Triangle, and all the triangles we see are mere copies of that Form. There is the Form of Human Being, and you and I are mere copies of that Form.

The direction of dualism advocated by Plato turned out to be the main trend in the west. However, the modern day transcendent world has changed from Plato's idea world to the rational world. Rational world has the characteristics of transcendence because of its separation from the world of sensation.

The rise of notion of transcendence is related to the motivation of pursuing the universal knowledge. When Plato searched for Forms/Ideas, his aim was to turn our conscious into conceptual thinking so as to grasp something universal. In his mind, it was clear that the more universal the knowledge was, the more valuable it would become. The real and universal knowledge can only be found in the transcendent realm.

谈风流 Feng Liu: Romantic, the Chinese Way

华人讲到风流，自然而然想到流连于妇女间，和她们有亲密关系的男人。

风流不易讲清楚，因为它的含义丰富。

风流本来主要和道家思想相连。据说源自魏晋期间道家的清谈。清谈被认为是一种高水平的智力活动，只能在智力较高，或旗鼓相当的人之间进行。

‘世说新语’就记载了很多的清谈。这本书用语精简含蓄，渊博奥秘，意味深长和发人深省，成为了解‘风流’最好的资料。

就如西文的romanticism一样，风流现在用法含有性的元素。可是，原本这个词用于审美感多过官感。‘世说新语’记载阮籍的一个故事足以说明。

阮公临家妇，有美色，当垆酤酒。阮与王安丰常从妇饮酒。阮醉，便眠其妇侧。夫始殊疑之，伺察，终无他意。

在古代，醉后睡在美妇旁的这种行为，是不拘小节，也是所谓风流快活。

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In Chinese, when one mentions the term Feng Liu, it come almost immediately to mind a man who likes many women and has short sexual relationships with them.

But, what actually is the meaning of Feng Liu? It is one of those terms that conveys a wealth of ideas, but is very difficult to define exactly.

In China, Feng Liu is originally mainly connected to Daoism. The idea is said to have started during the Wei Jin dynasties by the Neo-Daoists who were famous for the art of Qing Tan (清谈), or plain conversation. Such conversation could be held only between people of a comparable or high intellectual level, and was therefore regarded as one of the most refined intellectual activities.

Many of these plain conversations were compiled in a book entitled Shi Shuo Xin Yu, A New Account of Tales of the World. The language of the book is concise and implicit, profound and mysterious, meaningful and thought-provoking and it has become a major source of Feng Liu tradition.

Today, like romanticism in the West, the term Feng Liu often has in it the element of sex. However, originally the term was used more aesthetically rather than sensuously.

As illustration, it is recorded in the Shi Shuo Xin Yu that Ruan Ji's neighbour, who was a wine merchant, had a beautiful wife. Ruan Ji used to go the merchant's house to drink with his wife. Ruan Ji would sleep beside her when he became drunk. The merchant was naturally suspicious. But after paying careful attention, the merchant found that Ruan Ji did nothing more than sleeping beside there.

In the ancient time, such behavour of sleeping beside a beautiful lady, even it was done after became drunk, was really something very unconventioanl, or being happily Feng Liu.

曹植: 七步诗 Cao Zhi: Seven-Step Poem

曹植(192-232)，字子建，是曹操之妻卞氏所生第三子。曹操是末汉强人，挟诸侯而令天下。后天下三分，北方为曹操之魏，西为刘备之蜀，东为孙权之吴。

曹植自幼颖慧，深得曹操的宠信。然而曹植行为放任，屡犯法禁，又好喝酒。而他的兄长曹丕则颇能矫情自饰。曹丕终于在建安二十二年(217)被曹操立为太子。这更加深了曹植的自我放纵的行为。

由于嫉妒曹植的才智，曹丕想杀掉曹植。他决定以测验曹植的才华为借口来处死他。

他把曹植传召进宫来，要他在七步内写一首诗来表达他们兄弟之情，但是不许犯著‘兄弟’字样。

曹植遵命，走了七步，诗也写好了。这首诗令曹丕羞愧不已。

煮豆燃豆萁，豆在釜中泣，

本是同根生，相煎何太急！

.

Born in 192, Cao Zhi was the third son of Cao Cao, the powerful warlord during the End Han Dynasty(AD 25 - 220). Cao Cao was very powerful, and he made use of the Han Emperor as his puppet to command the feudal princes and ministers. Later, China was divided into 3 major parts : Wei Kingdom in the North under the rule of Cao Cao, Shu Kingdom in the West under Liu Bei and Wu Kingdom in the East under Sun Quan.

Cao Zhi's literary talent made him a favorite son of Cao Cao in the early stage of his life. However, Cao Zhi was an impetuous man with little self-discipline. He was also a heavy drinker.

On the other hand, his elder brother Cao Pi was a shrewd man who knew how to feign emotions at the right times. In 217, Cao Cao eventually picked Cao Pi to succeed himself. This aggravated Cao Zhi's eccentric behavior.

Envy of Cao Zhi's talent, his brother Cao Pi, King of Wei wanted to kill him. He decided to put Cao Zhi's literary talent to a test. If Cao Zhi failed the test, it would be a good excuse enough to put him to death.

He held audience with Cao Zhi, and told his brother to make a poem based on their fraternal relationship, without using the word "brother", within seven paces (steps).

Cao Zhi took seven steps as instructed, and the poem was already formulated in his heart. He made the following poem which put his brother to shame.

There were boiling beans on a beanstalk fire;

Came a plaintive voice from the pot,

"Oh, why, since we sprang from the selfsame root,

Should you kill me with anger hot?"