Ceaseless Tao And Sages' Style: A Study On Wuzi's Theory Of One Body In The Northern Song Dynasty

Theory of one body (Wanwuyiti万物一体),which not only indicates a unity of heaven, earth and myriad things (Tiandiwanwu天地万物)in dimension of nature (Tiantao天道),but also implies one sort of value ideal of love for human beings and all things (Renminaiwu仁民爱物)in dimension of morality (Rentao人道),is a key subject in the philosophy of Wuzi (five great thinkers五子)who lived in the Northern Song dynasty (Beisong北宋).Theoretically speaking, Wuzi's theory of one body can be considered as a continuation of Pre-Qin (Xianqin先秦) Confucian doctrine of unity of heaven and man (Tianrenheyi天人合一).The doctrine is based on a correlated meditation on heave and man, but on account of different interest in theory, it can be divided into the unity in dimension of nature and the harmony in dimension of morality. As far as the two different dimensions are concerned, the former is founded on a process description of natural phenomena, in order to reveal the necessity and the unity of ceaselessness (Shengshengbuyi生生不已)of heaven, earth and myriad things, and the later is on the premise of a pan-moral speculation on natural phenomena, to express the aspect of love for him or it. Influenced by the above dual character, Wuzi's theory of one body can be divided into dimension of nature and dimension of morality.Theory of one body in dimension of nature manifests a natural combination among heaven, earth and myriad things, but the combination was described as a unification of progress in Wuzi's opinion. In other word, it is Wuzi's meditation on the ceaseless phenomena of heaven, earth and myriad things that made understanding of theory of one body in dimension of nature possible, and in this dimension, the universal and necessary ceaselessness of heaven, earth and myriad things is reduced to a ceaseless Tao (Shengshengzhidao生生之道)in theory of Benti (本体论).In the sense of ceaseless Tao serving as Benti, Wuzi began their thinking on the unity of ceaselessness of heaven, earth and myriad things. From the view of modern philosophy, we can find that it is only an abstract inclination to law of nature for Wuzi to demonstrate the connatural existence of ceaseless Tao, which was thought to be the root cause of the ceaseless phenomena of heaven, earth and myriad things, and in theory it can't represent a great whole which contains all things, except for disclosing a unity of the progress among them in a speculative way.Although it is limited in theory that Wuzi proposed a concept of ceaseless Tao based on ceaseless phenomena of heaven, earth and myriad things, that is not to say, their attention to theory of one body have nothing to do with the realities. On the one hand, under the situation that Buddhism and Taoism are widely acclaimed, Wuzi refuted Buddhist and Taoist excessively exaggerating the idea of rebirth (Zaisheng再生)and immortality (Busi不死)in theory of Benti, and thereby they ensured the legitimacy of Confucian active life style on the foundation; on the other hand, by considering the universality and the necessity model based on views of nature, Wuzi shown the possibility of constructing the universality of moral law. It is just in this sense that they put forward the doctrine of Taiji(太极)-Renji(人极),the doctrine of the combination between the one and the many(Yiduoguanxi—多关系),the doctrine of transformative Tao (Qihuazhidao气化之道)-life concern (Cunmoguanqie存没关切)and the doctrine of Tianli(天理)-Renli(人理).Wuzi's theory of one body in dimension of morality firstly implies a value concern of love for the other, in which oneself acquires a virtue of love for the other by his moral heart, and it is Confucian value principles of love for close relatives, human beings and things (Qinqin-Renmin-Aiwu亲亲-仁民-爱物)that impenetrate in that concern. According to Wuzi's viewpoint, the concern of love for the other was both an abstract value idea and a sort of sages'moral character in reality. As an abstract value idea, it was from value programming, and as a sort of sages'moral character in reality, it was thought to be embodied in sages'concrete words and deeds. in the sense of sages'Tao (Shengrenzhidao圣人之道)serving as the highest standard to all the people (Renzhijize人之极则),realizing what sages had said or done for the other became one part for Wuzi to understand Confucian moral ideal.Apart from the concern of love for the other, theory of one body in dimension of morality also denotes one sort of ideal realm of life (Renshengjingjie人生境界).Corresponding to the expansion of theory of one body in dimension of morality, understanding Confucian moral ideal is no longer limited to the level of love for the other. Because of the intervention of the realm (Jingjielun境界论),how to unify love for the other and satisfying self became another part for Wuzi to understand Confucian moral ideal, too, and that is the only reason why Wuzi were interested in chewing over sages'style (Shengrenqixiang圣人气象).On the premise of theory of one body serving as life ideal, Wuzi thought that practicing the value idea of love for human beings and all things could met spiritual need for sages, and with such a practice done, they also thought that sages themselves had achieved a realm in which they were very satisfied as well as very happy. By the means of pondering over sages'style, Wuzi enlarged their own spiritual world, and namely they eventually developed their life mission into a love for all in the world (Jianjitianxia兼济天下)from a love only for themselves (Dushanqishen独善其身).In this sense, practicing the value ideal of love for human beings and all things became necessary for Wuzi to meet their own spiritual demand.For Wuzi, the above two dimensions of theory of one body were both very important and very indispensable. By deeply thinking on theory of one body in dimension of morality, Wuzi not only constructed a sort of value ideal of relieving the people with liberal aids (Boshijizhong博施济众)and holding all things with great virtue (Houdezaiwu厚德载物)for man in the field of moral philosophy, but also endowed this sort of value ideal with an implication of meeting the demand of self-spirit in the sense of realm. On the basis of theory of one body in natural dimension, Wuzi also endowed Confucian value ideal of love for human beings and all things with universality in form, and what'more, they made it become a necessary choice to think over the meaning of their own life in reality.