| Tian lun(theory on heaven) of Confucianism contains two parts incontent: philosophy thoughts in which Tian serves as ultimatenoumenon, and religious thoughts in which Tian serves as a god. Justlike the whole Confucianism is integral, the two parts actually arebraches from one root. And the root is Tian's ability of giving birth.Make a general view of the history of religious part of Tian lun, thereare three major threads lies in them. One, emperors should serveTian(the heaven) as father and Di(the earth) mother. Giving sacrificesto heaven is the duty and obigation to emperors who are sons and whoare supposed to be filial in the face of tian. Two, repay the merits andvirtues of Tian's giving birth to and nurturing lives. The two points havethe same connotation with ancestor worship. Heaven worship isactually adore the heaven as father and ancestor. Its meaning entirelycome from ancestor worship, and another expression of it. And three,stress on conforming to Tiandao(the ways of heaven or the divine ordersof nature). Imitating and conforming to Tiandao indicates that Tiandaois not pure natural laws, but with some kind of sacred meaning. Andmore importantly, in ancient filial duties, obedience and complianceare key qualities and virtues. After considering heaven to be the fatherand ancestor of man, the attitude toward Tiandao just identify with theprinciple of filial piety, which fully illustrates that the core spirits and ideasof worship heaven is entirely from worship ancestor. The worship ofancestry is a product of combining the worship of ghost with theconcept of consanguinity, the connotation of Revering the Heaven is,after constructing a suppositional kinship between heaven and man,transplanting and injecting the attitude and emotion toward theparents and ancestors into heaven. So the generation of revering andworshiping heaven basically reflects and comes from the patriarchal clan social basis and culture.The heaven who gives birth to lives is also the foundation and startpoint to form and build philosophy systems. As far as the period duringthe pre-Qin and the Eastern and Western Han Dynasties, The Xin-xingphilosophy of Mencius and the predestinarianism of Wong Chong areboth based on the heaven's giving birth and endow Xing and Ming atthe same time, with different emphasis, their philosophies have greatdifferent appears. Dong Zhongshu believes in things of same sort canmove each other. The human and the telepathy between heaven andman are real because human is given birth by heaven and heaven ishuman's grandfather. Li should conform to the ways of Heaven is thesoul of the book Liji, because conforming to and imtimating Tiandao isthe most important expression of filial piety toward Tian, who is regardedas father by ancient people. Devoting Much Attention to Li is the corethought of Xun zi, according to Xun zi, Li has the function of nurturingpeople, and only in the orders of Li, the society and human can surviveand thrive.Different periods and philosophies of Confician Tian lun, withdifferent focus and outer forms, have the same essence. Namely,they're all worship and offer sacrifices to the heaven in the meaning ofregarding the heaven as ancestor; they're all stress on conforming toTiandao(the ways of heaven or the divine orders of nature); they're allbuild their philosophy based on the heaven's giving birth to andnurturing lives. And from this, we can perfectly merge the two parts ofTian lun (religious part and philosophy part). So, giving birth to lives is thetruly essence and soul of Confucian Tian lun, which is not only theultimate reason of why Tian is worshiped in the sense of religion, but thecommon foundation of every Confucian philosophy. In conclusion,Confician Tian lun ultimately reflects patriarchal clan culture and thepatriarchal system. |
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