The Study On The Xingqing Thought Of Confucianism In Pre-Qin Period

Guodian slips(郭店楚简)Xing Zi Ming Chu(《性自命出》)says:"Human nature comes from the Mandate, and Mandate is descended from the Heaven. The Way originates from qing, and qing comes out of the human nature."(2-3th slips)These sentences demonstrate a thinking mode that goes through among the concepts from up to down. The thinking mode developed in the Doctrine of the Mean (Zhongyong《中庸》) and Mencius (Mengzi《孟子》).First, The Tian is not only the model of human way (Rendao人道)but also the origin of virtues, and because of this reason, human nature contains the essence of the good. If one can keep and make it grow, he will ascend to the highest spiritual level that is beautiful, great, sagelike and godlike. And in fact it built the theoretical grounds for the independent personality of liberal intellectuals and the benevolent government, which is a human right endowed by God. Second, these propositions in Xing Zi Ming Chu were refined as"The Mandate of Heaven is rightly the human nature, the abidance of the human nature is rightly the way, and the cultivation of the way is rightly the education"in the Doctrine of Mean, which activates the propositions in Xing Zi Ming Chu and reconstructs a back and forth reaction of a thinking mode among the concepts such as Heaven, human nature, way and education. In addition, the refined statements strengthen the subjective activity going up to the Mandate of Heaven. Third, the notion of qing means not only emotions (passions) but also the demarcation of human nature and the Mandate. Therefore, qing is a category which goes through the statement above in Xing Zi Ming Chu. The authors of the Doctrine of the Mean and Mencius must have deeply understood the repeating ideas concerning yun(允),cheng (诚),dan(亶),chen(忱),fu (孚)in the Six Classes and the Analects of Confucius, and refined it as"sincerity"(cheng诚). The Doctrine of Mean says:"Sincerity is the heaven way, while pursuing the sincere state is the human way."Without qing(情), it is very difficult to decode the motifs of Xing Zi Ming Chu, etc. Both"qing'and"sincerity"are not only the human and heaven spirits but also the spirits of Pre-Qin Confucian thought of xing-qing.Based on the above statements, the first chapter of this dissertation probes four categories, namely Heaven, mandate, human nature and qing. We cannot definitely claim whether or not the Heaven as the highest god existed in Shang Dynasty, but we can infer that the idea of"shangdi"(High God上帝) as the natural highest god should have existed at that time. At last the idea of"shangdi"unified with that of"heaven"in the mid-Western Zhou Dynasty, and became an abstract and philosophical idea of heaven. The transitional process of heaven idea is also that of Chinese religion from the natural state to the ethical state, and the key to it is the self-enlightenment of virtue.This paper not only inherits Feng Youlan's (冯友兰)definitions and demarcations of Heaven, but also modifies and reinterprets the idea of heaven from a new perspective of view, and makes a clear differentiation of it in terms of Pre-Qin(先秦) literatures. The notion of"ming"(命)appeared in oracle bone inscriptions, yet it was written as"ling"(令). The Chinese character"ming"first appeared in the medial age of Western Zhou Dynasty(西周). Moreover, Fu Sinian(傅斯年) thought there were five categories about the implications of"ming", which are similar to Feng Youlan's idea. We should emphasize the Confucian doctrine of awaiting the Mandate of the Heaven among the five theories concerning"ming", because it is a theory about the cultivation of xing and qing. The mandate is not only the demonstration of the meaning of the heaven, but also the media connecting the heaven with human nature. Without the religious realm unified with the heaven and mandate, no one can reach a good level in the cultivation of xing and qing, and no one can live a rich, wide-minded or firm life.There is not the Chinese character"xing("性) but"sheng("生) in the oracle bone and bronze inscriptions, however the transition of the implication from"sheng"to"xing"began in the bronze inscriptions. There are 5 Chinese character"xing"in Book of Documents(《尚书》), whose integrate meaning, which is the natures endowed by the heaven, includes the ones in Zuo's Commentaries on Spring and Autumn Annals(《左传》) and Documents of State(s《国语》). There are two capabilities in the development of human nature: one is good, the other is bad. Therefore, it needs to exercise and regularize the human nature to the constant state in which one is harmonious with the natures of the heaven and the earth. The character"xing"was written as"sheng"(眚), while"qing"was written as either"qing"(青) or"qing"(情). Xu Fuguan(徐复观)holds that human nature is the root, and"qing"is the trunk and branches of the same tree. The root and trunk and branches constitute the whole tree, therefore the human nature has the same essence as"qing"in Pre-Qin, although they are different parts of human life. What is more, Xu holds that the doctrine of human nature implies the metaphysical aspect. Xu's statements have actually summarized the essence that makes a human being become a real one. Zhuang Zi (《庄子》)says that human nature is the original material of human life. Xun Zi (《荀子》)says that human nature comes from and is made by the Nature, while qing is the contents that make up the human nature. In light of their views, I insist that on the one side human nature sprouts itself, as a result it becomes qing; on the other hand, qing is the consequence of the activity of human nature. Furthermore, the inseparable relationship between them decides qing which was referred to'zhishi"(质实),'qingshi"(情实) or"qingli"(情理) in the most of situations of Pre-Qin literatures. Comparing with different kinds of particular emotions such as joy, anger, sadness and happiness, qing which includes all kinds of emotions is much more abstract, but apparently it is not the emotions themselves. Pre-Qin scholars paid full attention to the positive and negative effects of qing in the thought of xing-qing, and posed many methods to regulate it. The Confucian method is to refine qing by virtue, to restrain qing by music, to raise qing by religious spirit, at last to unify a human being with the heaven.Confucius said:"Each person's human nature is very similar, but exercises make it differentiate from each other."This proclaim broke the confined understanding human beings through the demarcation of classes, therefore the differences among human beings were based on the idea to exercise themselves. Moreover,"exercise"(习)not only makes"to learn"become the way by which the heaven gives birth to human nature and human being makes himself be as he is, but also becomes the existential mode of noble men. Confucius regarded the pure qing and true human nature as the grounds of rites and music, and realized the great leap from the moral psychology to the esthetical personality.Xing Zi Ming Chu inherited the thought of Confucius, and at the same time stressed the idea that one should cultivate his human nature by"exercise"(习). After this unearthed paper digested the relative Confucian thought, it defined the notions such as the heaven, mandate and human nature by qing; furthermore, qing was viewed as an absolute religious sanctification. The statement,"the way originates from qing", means the way Implies both heaven way and human way, and this idea was transformed as the notion of"sincerity". We can easily understand this connection and transformation from"qing"to"cheng"between the texts of Xing Zi Ming Chu and the Doctrine of the Mean.As a Chinese word, the doctrine of the mean was created by Confucius probably, but as a growth of thought, it appeared remote antiquity. The mean is the fundament of everything under heaven, and harmony the universal law. The former is the human nature, and the latter is the sentiment. The realm of the mean and harmony is a process of spiritual promotion and a harmony between the man and Heaven. Yizhuan(《易传》)is the theoretical premise of the Doctrine of mean. The Mandate of Heaven is the source of xingqing and the destination of the dao(道) and jiao(教). The essence of the theory that was an integral part of nature is the sincerity(诚). Sincerity is the way of Heaven, to be sincere is the way of man. With the law existing in and outside of the universe, the subject of man is so mighty that it may make all things flourish, and as sublime as the heaven.Mencius's theory that human nature is good inherits the spirit of heaven mandate of Book of Poetry, Book of Documents and Confucius, and develops a series of such emotions as the sentiment of compassion, the sentiment of shame, a kind of innate sense of courtesy and of deference, and a kind of intuitive judgment of what is right and wrong in given life situations(ceyin恻隐, xiu'e羞恶,gongjing恭敬,shifei是非) from the human nature of humanity, righteousness, appropriation and wisdom. In order to complete his personality as a great man, one person should cultivate his human nature and commit to the heavy burden governing the world and sharing the happiness with the people, the latter of which is called benevolent governance. Therefore, Mencius's theory that human nature is good actually includes the thought of the benevolent governance, which naturally developed from the idea of the reciprocal mind. In addition, this dissertation makes a brand-new discussion on the benevolent governance from the doctrine of xing-qing's point of view, and holds that the consciousness committing to the providence also is an important constituent of Mencius's spirit of liberty.Under the thinking mode that the heaven gives birth to his human nature and a human being completes it, Xun Zi's theory concerning the relationship between the heaven and human beings developed the natural aspects of Confucian thought, but the main bulk of his theoretical system didn't deviate from the sphere of Confucian thought. It can be asserted that the ideas that the heaven isn't contradict to human beings and human being can be unified with the heaven are still the essence of Xun Zi's thought. Why did Xun Zi post the theory that human nature was bad? One reason is that he intently brought out the proposition contrary to Mencius's, the other one is that the contemporary historical conditions forced him do that. Both to upheaval the rites and to strengthen the laws are the effect of historical inertia, through which Xun Zi strengthened the function of the theory of Confucian education and transformation. From this point, we see that transforming the human nature by human activities still contains the Confucian quality of the communication between the heaven way and human way, while the his supreme lodging is still the deep, great, high and bright realm demonstrated by the doctrine of xing-qing whose religiousness is very incense.