Ancient Chinese Philosophy Final Synthesis Paper
I. Confucius
According to Brown (2002), values are “core beliefs that individuals experience as standards that guide how they ‘should’ function in order to attain a desired end state” and so a great deal of importance is stressed on the significance of values and virtues in the discipline of Chinese philosophy, may it be in the philosophy of Confucius or Lao Tzu. In order for man to be able to live according to the Way, he must live rightly and by this, the way is for him to achieve the end goal of both schools of philosophy by cultivating himself through virtues. The role of virtues in the development of man is to aid him attain social harmony and become the desirable end goal- the sage worthy of being a philosopher-king.
Now, we are presented with the philosophical problem- the Way has not prevailed for a long time. And this Way is the Great Way, the Tao, and because is has not prevailed for a long time, there is the absence of social harmony. The people of Ancient China had not been living their lives according to the Way. The Tao is lost and with it came all sorts of problem that have disrupted social harmony in the community and in the state. People have forgotten the right way to live- people have forgotten how to live according to the Tao. People are no longer cultivated and so they are no longer living in virtue, their values are but lost to them. The loss of virtues in the lives of the many have led them to an incorrect life and from this, mistakes begot mistakes. So Confucius presented philosophy as the guiding light back to the Tao and back to a life lived in virtues.
The loss of virtues in the lives of the many have led them to live carelessly and take things for granted and so people no longer care if names did not match according to their actualities nor if a guard becomes a minister. The non-correspondence of names toward their given actualities became the root cause of social disorder and because the people had been negligent in their ways and have forgotten the Tao, their awareness on this matter is lost to them.
In order to correct this problem and provide a solution for social disorder, Confucius presented that the people should rectify names. The scope of a rectified name is not only in their corresponding actualities but it extends to people’s ranks, duties, and function (Wing, 1963, p. 41). The rectification of names and actualities will turn the track switch to return the train back to the direction that it should head to. If names are properly used and people are properly seated in their places then this would mean that things are being done correctly. It means that the people are living correctly and according to the Tao. Becoming aware of this problem and aiding it with the solution of the rectification of names and actualities will gradually pave the way for a virtuous life. The cultivation of man is a way to restore back the values that the people have lost along the way and it will also allow them to acquire more. If people are properly cultivated then people will have values that will serve as guides for them to live a correct life that will direct and motivate their actions to use names correctly and become the people that they ought to be in the society. Now we can see the importance of virtues in the cultivation of man since they motivate action and serves as standards for them to pursue their goals (Schwartz, 2012). Through virtues, man will be able to think whether or not their actions are right or wrong and decide which is good and which is bad based on the values that they have nurtured within them. Through philosophising, the power of proper discernment will come to man.
Philosophising will foster one to acquire the virtues needed for proper self-cultivation and it is through establishing the root and grounding oneself to the Tao is the catalyst that will direct him to the supreme end. Man is born with uprightness and man should use this intrinsic advantage for him to emerge from the state of inferiority. If properly maintained, this goodness in him will be manifested through his actions and it will continue to grow, leading him to do good to others. Because he is upright and because the Tao is embedded in his being, he will grow into a person worthy of his name. Man should utilise his goodness and his “innate appetite for knowledge” (Rosen, 2000, xv) to help him understand and think correctly about what is happening around him. Active thinking will allow him to understand why it is important for him to cultivate himself and help him achieve social harmony. Nietzsche (1974) believes that “the strength of knowledge depends on the edge to which is that been incorporated, on its character as a condition of life”. Discipline the body and mind according to the Tao and promulgate virtues to strengthen the character will educate and prepare an individual to live a life directed towards social harmony and reach the utmost stage of the development of the superior man.
Moses Maimonides’ The Guide for the Perplexed laid down the qualities of the both the prophet and the wise men. He described the constitutions of such a man as: …he must in addition have studied and acquired wisdom, so that his rational faculty passes from a state of potentiality to that of actuality his intellect must be as developed and perfect as human intellect can be; his passions pure and equally balanced; all his desires must aim at obtaining a knowledge of the hidden laws and causes that are in for in the Universe; his thoughts must be engages in lofty matters and an absence of lower desires and appetites… In addition, Maimonides furthered the qualities of the prophet that is very much similar to qualities of the Confucian gentleman- the prophet’s mental faculty will only be within the boundary of having knowledge that is real and that his thoughts (and actions) should be directed to general principles that would lead to the cultivation of social human relations. Those above are said to be two of the three kinds of perfection: mental perfection acquired by training and moral perfection produced by the suppression of every though of bodily pleasures, and of every kind of foolish of evil ambition (Rosen, 2000, p. 139-140). In this context, what was written above described the ideal human being.
Analogous to this is how Confucius believes what a man should be and that in order for man to live in social harmony and become a sage is to cultivate himself by having the virtues of human-heartedness, filial piety and brotherly respect, propriety, wisdom, and righteousness. To do this is to set the will on the Way, have a first grasp on virtue, rely on humanity, and find recreation is the arts. Eastern schools of thoughts have always been directed at the improvement of the self, only varying in their end goals. The underlying thought of India’s Bhagavad-Gita enters on the idea that man should move out of Earth or the material world and transcend to the spiritual realm where the gods reside through the discipline of the self, especially the mind, from the influences of illusion and the desires brought upon by the material world. The significance in this is that Chen Lai, in her study on Studying Chinese Philosophy: Turn of the Century’s Challenges, she duly noted that the Eastern philosophical tradition were divided into Indian and Chinese Philosophy. Both have similarities in the cultivation of the person to achieve a desired end state. In the Indian context, this may entirely be religious only because the goal is directed to a Supreme Being instead of the elevation of the self as the ultimate end. Most of the early Japanese texts are usually headed as the “art of this” or the “way of that”. What “art” and what “way” mean are but methods- methods that when properly observe can bring about the desired result. The bottomline is that the Eastern discipline is a discipline about self-mastery and cultivation of the self. In order to become a full-pledged Japanese warrior you have to follow the way of the samurai. In order to triumph in the battlefield you have to master the art of war and so on and so forth. Same is true in the cultivation of the ideal human being.
In himself, he must be that very person who adheres to the way of the Tao and embody the virtues of humanity, filial piety, propriety, wisdom, and righteousness. However, this is not an easy feat. Juggling all these virtues at once do sound impossible and that is why the chun-tzu is a development and like the person, they grow and mature with one another through the course of time. It is also important to note that the motivation behind this cultivation of the self is not entirely limited to the benefit of the agent alone but also for the benefit of others simply because he is a man of humanity and his actions are directed towards the desire to achieve social harmony. What makes the chun-tzu superior is that he is able to transcend beyond the confines of inferior desires like greed, material things, profit, and whatnot. Instead, he is guided by the virtues of humanity (jen), righteousness (yi), propriety (li), and wisdom (chih).
As a social-moral philosophy, the cardinal virtue of benevolence is of primary importance in the development of the superior man. Without jen or the virtue of humanity, he cannot be what the the Analects purports him to be. As a social-relational being, he understands that he is not isolated- he understands that he is socially defined, first and foremost, by his family. He understands that the family, as the very basic unit of society, is the very first teacher that will establish the grounds and prepare him for self-development. It is in his family where man learns the meaning of family, how to love and respect his elders, brothers and sister, and it is where he learns how to relate with others in goodwill.
Benevolence is also very social and relational because there needs to be a person who does the action and a person who, in turns, receives the action. Schwartz (2012) coined benevolence as something that “emphasise voluntary concern for others’ welfare. In Confucianism, this can be seen as human-heartedness and it’s very definition can also be translated into altruism. To love man is jen and according to Mencius, “to have a heart that cannot bear to see others” is also jen (Nadeau, 2012). The implication of the Confucian jen and the common benevolence cannot be without an another.
Propriety is first learned in the family and what they basically are are shared experiences that can be manifested through rites and rituals. The richness and the value of tradition in Ancient China plays a major role in the creation and the development of the Chinese culture and society and it has very much influenced the Chinese identity. According to Lev Vygotsky, man, as a social being, cannot be separated from man and his environment. What a man should be is one who knows how to value propriety in his life and understand how important they are for the society. Along with the values of righteousness and wisdom, a man who have these cardinal values instilled in him will do right by himself and by others. Through his learnings, he will come to understand the importance, the worth of these values, and the role that they play in his continuous development. By living out these virtues in home, he will grow up and bring them outside, performing it out to a much larger field selflessly. Having been trained at home, he will carry all his learnings to his office and treat the people an extension of his primary family. He will treat the people equally and rightly, respect them and listen to them. He will do his obligations righteously and use all his wisdom for the benefit of the society. Anyone can be qualified in becoming a leader but only it is only the superior man who is fit and worthy to become one.
By being such, he will inspire others to do the same and so natural harmony in the society will be achieved if such a superior man will take seat in leading the people. His selfless devotion to everyone in the society will allow humanity to thrive and bring harmony to everyone. Therefore the key is for man to understand his position as a social-moral agent in leading the people and bringing about harmony in the society by cultivating and instilling the good virtues of humanity, propriety, righteousness, and wisdom in himself and allowing them to guide him and be one with the Tao.
Philosophy is therefore that which guides an individual in cultivating himself and others through virtues to achieve a desirable end state that will promote harmony in humanity and in the world. In the context of this philosophy, what was forgotten (the Tao) should be remembered, through philosophising, and it is also through the cultivation of the self through the virtues that will align the self again with the Tao and cross out the problems that have caused the absence of social harmony in the society. It is also important to consider that philosophy is not limited to what is stated above. It’s a big world out there and this is only a part of it. However, what is important is that we should understand that Confucius wants us to grow in awareness that the absence of social harmony should be addressed and not by providing band-aid solutions only. What a man should be is the chun-tzu and if he can, the philosopher-king.
II. Lao Tzu
Desmond (Rosen, 2000) defined Nature as “an organisation of univocal, impersonal forces, not an ambiguous community of personalised powers” and the many chapters of the Tao Te Ching have described Nature as such- that it is not biased and cannot be owned. To fully explain how Nature works can only be so much as it is elusive and at times hard to understand because of its very nature. Man have tried to understand it and having done so, they were able to come up with natural laws and such that have explained, at the very least, parts and pieces of the whole picture. By understanding its qualities, one can somehow create a solid perception of what Nature really is. By differentiating what is natural and otherwise will lead the person to a deeper grasp of its nature.
One way of doing such is by being aware that opposites are natural. Realising that black implies white, that bad things are necessary and that they happen because they are a part of the whole process are the sure-steps that one can take in becoming aware of what Nature is. They happen because they are meant to do so- they are natural in the whole experience of the human life. By acknowledging these play of opposites, one will realise that the answer to the philosophical problem lies within the problem itself. There is an absence of natural harmony because people have failed to understand Nature itself and so a result, the people began to resist it, control it, and manipulate the world as they see fit. How can one fix a broken fan without understand its parts and pieces and their corresponding functions and such?
It is also essential that in order for Natural harmony to be achieved one must understand the Tao that which gives birth to the 10,000 things requires a necessary emptiness. Understand how it works and see in the the world. Allow the mind to dig deep into the roots of the Tao and free the thoughts from any form of discrimination. Look at others as if you are looking at the Tao. Speak to others as if you are speaking to Nature.
What better a man who can achieve natural harmony is one who understands Nature by not trying to understand it? What he should be is a person who does nothing, desires nothing, and knows nothing. He does not do things carelessly no overdo his work, and most especially he does not attach himself to the fruits of his labor. He avoids the fast life yet he allows Nature to sweep him away. He understands this and so that is why he does not resist and let things fall into place. He desires nothing from this material world and his mind is empty. He simply is simple. His only purpose in life is to live according to Nature and according to the Tao and so, as a result, he is able to realise that natural harmony is what should be in this world.
Such a man is a Sage. Such a man is one who embraces and accepts emptiness as essential is his life and knows that weakness can be a strength. He is open like a woman and full of unrealised potential like an infant. Translated, he is Tao-like. By philosophising, one can lead to a coherent and pure understanding of Nature. Additionally, he is able to embody the good virtues of the Tao and live out a life that is directed to achieving natural harmony. A person of this character is more than fit to become a ruler but what makes him remarkable is that he has no desire to hold such power and office. The qualities of a King is there in him, intrinsically. Such a person have transcended beyond the desires or even the mere want to have this kind of position in the society that will allow him to rule over others.
Such man is a Sage. A man who is, by all means, humble in his thoughts and ways, simple in his words, and content in his heart.
What philosophy is therefore a guide for the individual how to co-exist with complete understanding of Nature to achieve a desirable end state which, in this case, natural harmony. The lack of reflection in ones life will cause one to take life for granted and lead a humdrum existence. Understand the self. Know who you truly are. Know that you are like an infant, full of vitality and energy and that you need the Tao to harness this positive potential in you so that you can grow in virtue and learn how live according to the Tao.
Thus, it is shown that philosophy or Ancient Chinese Philosophy for this matter is all about the cultivation of the self- social and moral improvement for Confucianism and natural for Taoism, as a priming for ruling the state, for sagehood, or for being a philosopher-king. Through the method of cultivation and discipline of the self, these end-goals can become the motivating factors or the avenue to deal with the problem of the absence of social and natural harmony in the society.
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References:
Brown, D. (Ed.). (2002). Career choice and development. John Wiley & Sons.
Rosen, S. (2000). The Philosopher’s Handbook. New York: Random House, Inc.
Wing, T. C. (1963). A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Schwartz, S. H. (2012). An overview of the Schwartz theory of basic values. Online Readings in Psychology and Culture, 2(1), 11.
Nietzsche, F. (1974). The Gay Science. New York: Random House, Inc.
Nadeau, R. L. (2012). The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Chinese Religions. West Sussex, UK: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
