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Chinese Thought and Religion a Survey Olof G. Lidin ([email protected]

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Chinese Thought and Religion a Survey Olof G. Lidin (Lidin@Adr.Dk Chinese Thought and Religion A Survey Olof G. Lidin ([email protected]) [On a first inner page]: Dedicated to the memory of my three teachers of Chinese: Bernhard Karlgren Peter Boodberg Edward H. Schafer CONTENTS 1. Preface 5 2. Introduction 5-15 3. Religion in Early China. From Shang to Chou A. Ghosts and 15-21 B. Divination and the Oracle Bones 21-25 C. Heaven, Gods abd Kings 25-29 D. Man’s Mandate of Heaven 29-32 E. Ancestral Religion 32-35 F. Man and Nature 35-39 G. Yin and Yang Thought 39-45 H. Milfoil Stalk Divination 45-48 I. Numbers and the Five Elements 48-53 J. Omens and Portents; Shamanism 53-55 4. Taoism - the Gospel of Natural Virtue 55 A. Lao tzu 61 B. Tao Te Ching 63 C. Tao and Nature 65 D. Tao and the World 70 E. Tao and Man 72 F. Tao and Knowledge 77 G.The Tao life 78 H. Tao and Government 80 I. The Chuang Tzu 83 5. Confucius- The Middle Way 95 A. Confucian Social Morality 103 B. Confucian Thought in Basic Terms 104 C. The Five Classics 113 D. The Mean and the Virtues 115 E. The Five Social Relationships 116 6. Mencius 121 7. Hsün Tzu 131 8. Yang Chu and Mo Ti 141 A. Yang Chu 141 B. Mo Ti (also Mo Tzu) 144 9. The Legalist School 150 A. Shang Yang 151 B. Han Fei Tzu 157 10. Han Confucianism 164 A. Tung Chung-shu 172 B. The Han Confucian Synthesis 175 C. Confucian Social Thought 182 D. The Era of Wang Mang 185 E. Wang Ch'ung 190 F. The Confucian Classics 193 11. Buddhism 195 A. The Reaction against Buddhism 202 12. Han Yü and T'ang Confucianism 203 A. Chang Chieh and Li Ao 211 13. The Sung Neo-Confucian Thought 215 A. Chou Tun-i 219 B. Chang Tsai 226 C. Shao Yung 232 D. Ch'eng Hao and Ch'eng I 234 E. Ch'eng Hao 237 F. Ch'eng I 241 14. Chu Hsi 245 A. Chu-Hsi's Li-ch’i philosophy 248 B. Study, Learning and the Ta Hsüeh 257 C. Chu Hsi, in Sum 267 15. The Inner Mind School 268 A. Lu Hsian-shan 269 B. Wang Yang-ming 274 16. Late Sung, Yüan and Ming Thought 284 A. Chu Hsi and Lu Hsiang-shan Followers in Sung and Ming 289 17. The Ch'ing Rationalists 291 18. Tai Chen and Late Ch'ing Empiricism 301 A. Conclusion about Ch'ing Thought 304 19. Globalism in Late Ch'ing 305 20. China after 1911 314 21. Afterword 317 22. Bibliography 318 1. Preface A great many books and articles have been written about Chinese thought and religion, so many, in fact, that they fill libraries. So why another one? The reason is, however, an attempt at a new approach that is simple, practical and useful. A long story can be given in short chapters and simple terms, even the long story of Chinese religion and thought. The presentation is made in a threesome division: inner, central and outer thought and beliefs. Chinese thinking, like thinking generally, East and West, divides into religion, ethics and politics. When one has worked on a subject over decades rather than years, it is impossible to name all those who have helped and assisted. I will only name three people who meant everything during my studies. Professor Bernhard Karlgren under whom I began my Chinese studies in Stockholm in the 1950s and who supported my going to Berkeley in the late 1950s, Professor Peter Boodberg who inspired the style of my work, and Edward Schaffer who evaluated my doctoral work at Berkeley. My foremost gratitude goes, however, to my wife Gunvor who has patiently followed and assisted me in my work over some fifty years. 2. Introduction In China religion and philosophy formed a unity. This oneness was so natural and so seamless that no word was needed for either religion or philosophy. The reality of Heaven and earth was taken for granted and never doubted. Man lived in the midst of an inner-outer harmony, so natural and axiomatic that nobody questioned it. When the whole was self-evident, what need was there for differentiation and argument? A single whole is named but not divided. This truth was as natural as the belief that there was only one world and that China was the Central Kingdom of the Celestial Empire of “all under Heaven” ( 天下).1 1 Chinese philosophy can be divided into three periods: (1) The classical age from the sixth to the second century BC, (2) the middle age from the first to the tenth century and the ascendancy of Buddhism, and (3) the third period from the eleventh until modern times with the Confucian renaissance (the Neo-Confucian period). Modern thought afterwards can be seen as a mélange of earlier thought, to which Western thought is added. "While the modern mind divides, specializes and thinks in categories, the traditional Chinese tended to see things and ideas in terms of relations rather than in their isolation." This happened metaphysically in Taoism, Natural phenomena were always coupled with an immaterial world. Reality embraced the beyond that interfered with matters in the tangible world. Transcendence and immanence joined in the here and now inseparably and played a role in human life. Nothing was undertaken without being preceded with ceremonies, rites and offerings. Chinese thinkers did not profess any specific Creation. They seem in a sober way to have accepted the universe as it was. A great Way (Tao) was above things and this Eternal was accepted without further ado, just lived and taken as the beginning of things. Change was recognized as the orderly work of negative and positive forces. This view of the cosmos was later confirmed by Buddhism. When the Buddhists spoke about the Wheel of Law and Death, to which even the Gods were bound, their thinking ran parallel with Chinese thought. In the same manner as the Wheel of Law of the Buddhists were the eternally cyclical forces that were in eternal rotation. All was in harmony with the heavenly Tao (or Eternal). The Tao comprised life and death and permeated all natural harmonies and balances. It enclosed both rational mastery and divine mystery and constituted an all- comprehensive animism. Thinking was immersed in the symmetry of the whole without any division between the socially and morally in Confucianism, and politically in Legalism. divine and the profane and all religious perspectives aimed at the totality of being. Man was the loyal cooperator in its midst and served with appropriate rituals and ceremonies. The union of Heaven, earth and man ((t'ien-ti-jen 天地人) gave meaning to life. China seemed forever to follow the eternal Tao and its civilization to remain the same even though occasionally shaken by the arrival of "barbarians." It was continuous from dynasty to dynasty and spread all over the Asian East, first of all Korea and Japan. This refers also to the present age when the West has made China oscillate to the right and to the left as never before in its long history. This is happening now again, with new social, economic and political thinking being added to earlier thought. The Chinese can bend with the wind and absorb whatever storm breaks on them and rise again and recover their balance - with a new stance within the same eternal paradigm. Heaven is mentioned in Chinese discourse today just as it was in early times. By the middle of the Chou era (1154-256 BC) a new humanism demanded a virtuous life of both ruler and subjects. The paradigm was widened when philosophers, beginning with Lao Tzu and Confucius, presented morality that demanded both compassion and justice. An uninterrupted line of thinkers brought forth social and political rules which concerned not least the ruler. It has been a long process, ideas coming and going through the ages, modes of thought in constant change and as dynamic today as when prehistory ended and history began. It has shifted from left to right, from inner to outer, from above form to below form but never left its balanced world-view that linked the trinity of Heaven, earth and man. The thought from the Chou era onwards can be divided into inner (nei 内), central (chung 中) and outer (wai 外). It crystallized into the inner idealism of Lao Tzu, the central ethical world-view of Confucius, the outer sociopolitical realism of Hsün Tzu and the political pragmatism of Han Fei Tzu. Within one and the same paradigm the Chinese could move inwards and practise Taoism and outwards and practise Legalism, but whether inwards or outwards they never moved away from the central Confucian ethical principles. Even Legalism with its harsh laws had a common core of assumptions with both Taoism and Confucianism. A dialectic is registered which tends outwards as the empire grows and law and order demands regulations and institutions, and inwards when the land is in disorder and falling apart. People's hearts oscillated between private intuitive experience and collective morality, between Taoist inner freedom and outer social restraint, between inner feeling and inspiration and outer knowledge and action. No one was entirely a Taoist, a Confucian or a Legalist. Everyone was a bit of all three.2 2 “A passion for consistency has never been been one of the major Chinese passions. … It set the way for the Chinese among the great Early Greek and Chinese thought were much alike, and originated independently between the 6th and 3rd centuries BC.
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