chapter 7 the ethical ideals of early chinese philosophy

8/3/2019 Chapter 7 the Ethical Ideals of Early Chinese Philosophy

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The Spiritual Value of Chinese Cultureby Tang Junyi

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own translation and direct reader to PUBLISHED translation.

Chapter 7 The ethical ideals of early Chinese philosophy

Section 1 Comparing western and Chinese ethical ideals

In what follows, I would like to provisionally identify six kinds of Western ethical ideals.

Section 2 Confucian thinking about human life: Respect for nature and the

cherishing of things

Compared to Western thinking about human life, Confucian thought places greater

emphasis on solemnity or gravitas. In what follows I will adumbrate this claim. Firstly, Iwant to discuss the reverence towards the natural world present in Confucian thinking

about human life and also its spirit of cherishing and valuing things (xiwu guiwu).This

spirit that originates from Confucian thinking about human life does not proceed from

reflections on epistemology or metaphysics to discussions of human life; instead, itsdiscussions of human life proceed by directly affirming that humans exist in the natural

world and the objective reality of that natural world. The Confucian affirmation of the

objective reality of the natural world can be described as a common sense faith and not amatter of philosophy.

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Section 3 The ethical problem of caring for things (aiwu)

Cherishing things, valuing things and caring for things are mutually interconnected;however, they are also distinct.

Section 4 Reverence in the family: the significance of filial and brotherly feeling

In Confucian thinking about human life, respect for nature is expressed not only

as a way of thinking that cherishes, values and loves the things of the physical world(wu), but also as respect for natural biological connections; and it is through such respect

that the most valuable forms of cultural consciousness and a society of ethical human

relationships are realised. This is why Confucians think so highly of the feelings andregard (qingyi) that arise within the family between father and son, younger and elder

brother, and also kin.

In the earliest times, the establishment of family did rely on biologicalrelationships, but these did not spring directly from peoples spiritual needs. This is why

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the Plato of Western philosophy could advocate the abolition of the family, and in Greek

tragedy we even find a case of killing ones father and marrying ones mother. Although

Jesus taught people to honour their father and mother, he also once proclaimed that ifpeople did not leave their fathers, mothers and wives then they would be unable to truly

follow him.

Many great Western philosophers, scientists and literary figures do not marry, andonly Aristotle and Hegel viewed the family as being rather important, with Hegel

regarding the family as the first stage in the manifestation of objective spirit. However, in

his Phenomenology of Spirit, Hegel explains Sophocles Greek tragedy Antigone as aconflict between being orientated towards family and being orientated towards state, and

suggests that family consciousness must yield before conscious of the state, which results

in the tragic disintegration of the family. In the 19th century, novelists who dealt with

social issues, including Henrik Ibsens account of Noras departure in A Dolls House,also described a conflict between the family and wider society, and hinted that the latter

was more important than the former.

Among early Chinese sage-thinkers, however, the family is almost universally

respected. In the Book of Rites, priority is given to the capping and marriage rites; in theBook of Changes, thexian (conjoining or mutual feeling) and heng(enduring) hexagrams

are pre-eminent; and in the Book of Odes the poem Osprey is foremost. Those who arehumane are fully human; to treat kin as true kin is a great good. Furthermore, Chinese

thought holds that family and society cannot, as a matter of their fundamental natures,

give rise to mutual conflict. On rare occasions when there is conflict, such as when filial

piety and loyalty cannot both be fully instantiated at the same time, then one simplyneeds to examine the situation and either act by subsuming filial piety within loyal action

or subsume loyalty within filial conduct. There is, however, no fixed and principled way

of acting here.Everyone knows that the ethical structure of the family is the core of Chinese

peoples moral life. The Ming thinker Luo Jinxi is right when he writes Every home

relies on filial piety, brotherly regard and parental kindness to live their lives. Thatfamily ethics forms the core of the moral life of the Chinese was, in the beginning, due to

certain objective social factors, such as those created by agrarian social life. However, the

meaning and value of the ethical structure of the family was clarified and developed byConfucian thought. The establishment of the family did indeed at first depend upon

mens and womens biological instincts. But the value of the family that was realised and

set in place by Confucian thought was purely social and cultural, even metaphysical and

religious.In the West, Aristotle and Hegel also recognized that family feelings and practices

included social and cultural meaning, and that the sense of congeniality cultivated by the

family formed the foundation around which society coalesced. They knew only, however,to promote the social significance of a broad or horizontal family structure, and did not

recognize the significance of the deep or vertical structure of the family, much less its

metaphysical religious significance.By noting the Chinese peoples focus on filial conduct within an ethical family

life, it is possible to see the social and cultural significance of a vertical family structure.

Filial feelings towards parents were extended to ancestors, and also towards those of the

same lineage, and established a consciousness of Chinese patriarchal clan. Further, filial

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reverence (xiao) towards parents and ancestors produces a heart that extends ones

parents wishes and engages with the august learning of ancient sages, and thereby

creates an awareness of history and culture.Western philosophy has failed to consider filial reverence in terms of its vertical

social and cultural meanings. Hegel, for example, took connections within the family to

be immediate and direct, and so to extend no further than what is perceived; only whenfamily life evolves into society and the state can people have a rational and integrated

mode of collective living. But in china, extending filial piety and respect from parents to

ancestors, and to all members of the same clan, does itself provide a rational way ofextending the scope of benevolent concern. This transcends the sense of congeniality

between people that arises from the direct perception of each other.

Filial piety has a metaphysical and religious dimension. This is because filialpiety expresses a part of the human condition that consists of a spiritual life which seeks

to return to its roots and to repay ancestors. In this way, a divine consciousness is

attained. We addressed this point earlier in chapter three, in the discussions of the essence

of Zhou culture. Later Confucians like Dong Zhongshus describe tian (heaven) as thegreat grandfather of the people, while Zhang Hengqu said heaven and earth are father and

mother, giving people their forms and fulfilling their nature. This is how there come to befilial sons in the world and it also shows how a heart filled with filial reverence can pass

beyond ones parents, and result in a life that is spontaneous and cosmic in scope.

That a man can love his wife is due to a biological disposition to preserve the

species. But the capacity for filial reverence is not due to a biological disposition topreserve the species. Such a disposition flows downwards only; but contrary to this, filial

piety reaches upwards (to earlier generations). As parents age so they become frail and

proceed towards the grave. But it is precisely because this happens that filial reverencegrows stronger.

Mencius said of filial piety Keeping ones parents when they are alive is not to

be treated as a major achievement; only treating them decently when they die is to betreated as such. (4B13) Xunzi said, Affection for family is not exhausted even by death

(chapter 19, On Ritual). Parents die, are buried and sacrificial offerings are made to them;

the heart that serves ones parents goes with them even after their parting. It enters intothe netherworld and is never separated from them. This is what enables a person to

overcome his or her everyday self and is the most direct way to access the metaphysical

and religious aspects of human life.

As for cases of excessive grieving, and even the sacrifice of ones life in order tojoin ones parents, the Confucians do not permit this since it offends against parents and

their love for oneself.

The greatest filial piety means lifelong yearning for parents, such that onesmarriage is not simply for oneself; one can think only that if one has no heirs then there

will be no one to maintain and make sacrifices at the ancestral shrine. In this way, the

biological dispositions of men and women and the disposition to love ones offspring areall drawn into a way of thinking based on filial reverence; these dispositions are

transformed so as to transcend their natural and empirical meaning, and come to possess

a purely metaphysical meaning.

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benevolently (as Cheng Yi said). Peoples ethical life must start from filial reverence and

brotherly affection. This is a necessary natural order and cannot be disrupted. But this has

nothing at all to do with Chinese society being an agrarian or feudal society.

5. The scope of ethical responsibility

In Confucian thinking about human life, ethical living starts with the family and

ones life within it. This is how the highest spiritual life is attained. But this does not

mean that social interaction between people ought to be restricted by the family, nor thathuman ethics is limited to an ethics of the family. As a humane outlook (renxin) gains

strength, a person should extend his affective responses to every person encountered.

However, within a context of myriad different human relationships intimate and

cordial, close and distant ones ethical conduct towards another person differs for eachrelationship. Thus it is said that a son is filial (xiao) towards his father, and a father

cherishes (ci) his son. An older brother has a friendly or brotherly love (you) towards a

younger brother, while the younger has respect (jing) for the older brother. In a husbands

relation to his wife, harmony (he) is valued; conversely, the wife values going along(xun) with the husband. Outside the family, friends find mutual esteem by being

trustworthy (xin), while rulers and those in their service are united through a sense ofobligation (yi). Teachers and students uphold their responsibilities by being adept or able

(shan), while neighbours maintain shared concern through affection (qing), and

encounters with others on the street are structured by ritual (li). Towards the old one

should seek to make them secure, while one should cherish the young. All within the fourseas should be treated as ones brother, all of China should be treated as a single person

and the whole world seen as one family.

This way of acting approaches what is distant from what is close at hand. It is byan immediate connection with another person, or by occupying some social position, or

by responding to what the situation requires or permits, that one does what one ought to

do. Ones relationships with other people thus vary greatly and lack uniformity.As the Zhongyong notes, There are three hundred categories of ritual conduct,

and three thousands standards of refined action. Each has its appropriate use. Within this

matrix of ordered human relationships, peoples ethical responsibilities are onerous.Further, and aside from the issue of ethical conduct between individuals, an individual

also has responsibilities towards the collectives of family, the clan, the nation, all the

peoples of the world and even towards all the things of the world. Beyond this, a person

also has responsibilities towards social life and culture; this includes the preservation ofthe sublime words and insights of scholars, and maintaining an upright heart, good social

customs and appropriate music and rituals. For every person, thing or event in the

universe, we ought to seek the best way to respond, guided by a humane heart, andexperiencing a sense of ethical responsibility towards them. As Zengzi says in the

Analects, To take acting humanely as ones responsibility, is this not a heavy burden?

Mencius says, The ten thousand things of the world are brought to completion by us. Asthe Neo-Confucian scholar Lu Xiangshan noted, The way fills the heavens and earth,

leaving no gaps and The events of the world find reflection in what is allotted to me,

and what is allotted to me finds reflection in the world. Thus, in Confucian thought

about human life, a person should not abandon anything, has no place to hide and his

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responsibility is indeed great and without limit. There is never a day when he can rest,

and he stops only with death.

The sense of ethical responsibility towards all things and events described here iscertainly within the range of human dispositions and temperament. However, it is not

possible for all things and events to present themselves to us at any single time; this

means that not all of our ethical responsibilities will be apparent to us at a single moment.If they were, the responsibility would be too great for any person.

Acquiring a durable sense of ethical responsibility involves bringing our potential

to fruition and fully developing our natures, thereby achieving a certain character. Thishappens without all things and events needing representation at a single time. At any

given moment or place, what appears before one is merely one particular thing or event;

and this can only incite a particular sense of ethical responsibility, which is the

responsibility one should attend to first.Thus, although the capacity of our hearts is without limit and so is our capacity to

develop virtuous character, the arena in which we deploy our emotions and exhaust our

hearts is restricted to the things and events we encounter in the present or in the locale.

When mothers and fathers are what is immediately encountered, we respond with filialpiety; when it is friends, we respond with trustworthiness. When it is the affairs of the

state, we respond with loyalty. In discussions concerning more academic matters weshould, as the Rectification of Names (zhengming) chapter of the Xunzi states, Speak

with a humane heart (renxin), listen with a heart set on learning (xuexin) and debate in a

fair-minded spirit.

Our hearts intrinsically possess the determination to bear unlimited ethicalresponsibility and they also have the capacity. But we need only do that which we ought

to do in the present. When we do what is presently required, our hearts are immersed in

what we are doing; but this relies on the determination and ability to take on unlimitedethical responsibility and so rise above and accommodate the matter at hand. Through a

heart that can take on unlimited ethical responsibility and which can uphold its immediate

and limited responsibilities, ones immediate responsibilities seem to be exceedingly lightand ones strength becomes abundant and overflowing.

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chapter 7 the ethical ideals of early chinese philosophy

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