The Research Of He Concept Of Ancient Chinese Confucian

Following Confucian classics of generations, the thesis conducts combing and theoretical analysis for the inner development path of the origin, connotation and idea related to Confucian’s He Concept so as to explore the unique connotation and character of He Concept in Chinese philosophy culture form, as well as aim to demonstrate the unique Chinese Philosophy of the problem, theoretical thought mode and value concern behind Confucian’s He Concept. The thesis theme is to comb and illustrate the inner development path of reason Confucian’s Harmoniousness Concept from pre-Qin period to Song-Ming dynasties in order to understand Confucian’s He Concept fully, completely and systematically, which is the key, difficult and innovative points. Confucian’s He Concept shows different thought paradigm and theoretic features in different historical periods. Based on exploring "He" from etymological analysis, the thesis analyzes theoretical characteristic of different Confucian’s He Concept in different historical periods from three aspects of the He, namely He Concept of ritual and music, He Concept of Yin Yang QiGan and He Concept of TianMing Xin-Xing.Chapter One demonstrates the origin of He Concept. Firstly, with inscribed bones and inscribed bronzes this chapter conducts some exploration of He from relevant aspect of etymology, revealing the original and extended meanings of He so as to understand the connotation of harmoniousness from the root. Based on those, with the development of social history and culture, this chapter conducts relevant explanation of He Concept in three dynasties when was the origin of He Concept. Finally, around He Concept this chapter conducts relevant exploration of the relation between the most important concepts in Confucianism, namely He, "Zhong-He", moderation, loyalty-forgiveness, righteousness and sincerity.Chapter Two explains the He Concept of ritual music enlightenment in Confucianism. Confucian in pre-qin period explained He mainly from ritual and music enlightenment on the level of humanity. The key point which was focused by Confucian in pre-qin period was Harmonious orderliness. When demonstrated the connotation and thought of He, they strongly brought He into the scope of ritual music system to explore. According to "Zhong-He" nature as human nature theory, they assert that ritual and music could reach He and by the manner of ritual music enlightenment, "Zhong-He" personality can be adjusted, nourished and the relation between people and people as well as society can also be adjusted, which can promote the social group to be wholly unified, coordinated and harmonious. The connotation, thought pattern and theoretical characteristic in that time could be summarized as the He of ritual music.Chapter Three mainly elaborates on the concept of the He in Yin Yang QiGan. From YiZhuan, the Confucian school starts to explore the concept of He in YinYangQiGan and the thought patterns of He from the point of cosmology. The Pre-Qin Confucians believe humanism and try to achieve the enlightenment of He through rites and music, but they lack in the metaphysical construction for the concept of He. While the Confucians hold that "veiled by the secular world, and so know nothing about the Tian", YiZhuan corrects and supplements this point of view after its absorbing and learning of the Taoist cosmology. As a result, the thought of he in Confucianism begins to reveal a metaphysical dimension of cosmology. YiZhuan regards "tai chi" as the origin of the whole universe, and because "tai chi" is a blend of Yin and Yang, so it is a kind of He in YinYangQiGan. The He of the origin produces the whole universe according to ways of harmorizing Yin and Yang.The producing of the universe and the overall harmony of the dynamic relations among all the things can only be realized through the communicating and changing between Yin and Yang. Therefore, ways of harmorzing Yin and Yang becomes the fundamental principles which sustain the harmony of the whole universe and all lives. The thought of He in YinYangQiGan which initiates in YinZhuan becomes the main characteristics and thought patterns in the Confucian concept of He. It prevails in the middle and late period of ZhanGuo and Han Dynasty, and until the early of Song Dynasty and the appearance of ZhangZai, the concept of He in YinYangQiGan reaches the summit on theoretical building.Chapter Four explains the concept of He in the Confucian thought of TianMing and XinXing. The Neo-Confucianism of Song and Ming Dynasty expounds the concept of He in detail. In light of the first chapter in ZhongYong, the Neo-Confucianists center their discussion on the categories such as non-germination versus germination, TianMing and XinXing, temperament, substance and function, and discuss He on the metaphysical level of TianMing and XinXing. Through exploring the original documents of Confucianism, such as Zhong Yong, Yi Zhuan and Da Xue, integrating some ideas of Buddhism and Taoism, and basing on its own mental experience and theory construction, the Neo-Confucianism finds the metaphysical arguments in thoughts of TianMing and XinXing that favor for "Zhong-He", so that the connotations of "Zhong-He" in TianMing and XinXing has been explained in great detail. As the concepts of "Zhong-He", non-germination versus germination have not been clearly and exactly defined in "Zhong-He", it still demands further explanation and elaboration theoretically. The concept of "Zhong-He"in this period appears to be systematic, deep and highly intellectual. "Zhong-He" has been put on the highest position metaphysically, and tinged with strong color of XinXing. Therefore, we generalize the concept of "Zhong-He"and its main theoretical characters in this period into "Zhong-He"thought of TianMing and XinXing.