A Study On Chuan-shan's Taoism System

The fundamental ideas of Neo-Confucianism is to find the ultimate universe ontology for the ethics and morality of our humanities world,in order to compete with the Buddhism and Taoism thoughts with precision huge universe ontology system.Wang Chuan-shan is also the same idea,he interpreted "Tao" as the concept of the ultimate ontological meaning of the universe.Moreover,Tao,also can be called Tai Chi,is composed of two elements of Yin and Yang.Yin and Yang,can be called Qi(?),are not isolated from each other.In the process of the interaction of Yin and Yang,the universe has been being created.Therefore,everything in the universe is actually the result of the movement of the Tao(Yin and Yang).The Yin and Yang in the process of movement must follow certain laws,these certain laws can be called Li(?).This is the basic idea of the ontology of Wang Chuan-shan.How is the Tao,the highest noumenon of the universe,connected with the moral ethics of human society and the political and historical civilization derived from it?We therefore investigated the concept of Xing(?),and thus leads to the Chuang-shan's thoughts on self-cultivation.Tao produces all things in the universe,mankind is also one of all things.But mankind is not the same as everything else,for the reason that mankind shares the best parts of Tao.Therefore,mankind has a special status in the universe.Human nature(Ren-xing)thus inherently contains moral laws,such as Ren(?),Yi(?),Li(?)and Zhi(?).One man's human nature must be constantly developed and expanded,otherwise his life will end.If a person wants to develop and expand his human nature continually,then he must get Li and Qi from the outside.This action has its tendencies and trends,and we call these tendencies and trends Qing(?),which is emotion.Without Qing,one man cannot develop and expand his human nature.But,one man's emotion(Qing)can frequently be attracted by material desire,which leads Qing to violate the moral laws in the human nature.How can we ensure that Qing follow the moral laws in the human nature?The answer is to keep our heart play its role.Our heart,also can be called Xin(?),consists of two parts:Xing and Qing.So,only our heart can detect whether our emotion is consistent with the moral laws in the human nature.If it is not,our heart can also correct it.This is the basic idea of Chuan-shan's thoughts on self-cultivation.This is actually a three layer structure of "Tao,Xing(?)and Xin(?)".Through this structure,Chuan-shan open up the relationship between "Tao" ontology and humanistic world.We can also called this structure Inside Saint Studies(???).But this is not enough,Inside Saint Studies must be expanded to the Outside King Studies(???).This also means that the political philosophy and historical philosophy of Chuan-shan is extended from this structure.According to this three layer structure of "Tao,Xing(?)and Xin(?)",the noumenon of Tao is not intentional,but the mankind is.That is to say,the will of Heaven must be expressed by the will of man,for man is the heart of Heaven.The common desire of the people reflects the principle of heaven.However,we must be careful to identify the will of man,because the will of man can represent the general will,may also represent the private egoistic intentions.The emperor is the agent of heaven,he represents the Heaven to manage the people.Therefore,the emperor must respect the will of the people,as he must respect the Heaven.Because the people are numerous,the emperor is too busy to manage all the people,so he must set up various officials and assign his power to them.Under these circumstances,the people are ruled by officials,officials ruled by the emperor,the emperor constrained by the people,the whole political system is thus like a ring.Chuan-shan think this is the ideal state of politics.In addition,since the emperor is just the agent of the Heaven,then he can not put the people,land and wealth as his personal property.This is the basic idea of Chuan-shan's thoughts on political philosophy.Chuan-shan's historical philosophy is also extended from this structure.Because the noumenon of Tao is not intentional,but the mankind is,so mankind can transform the nature into human culture and human civilization.this means the humanity is the logic starting point of history.If a historical era conforms to the principles of humanity,then this era is stability;otherwise,this era is turbulence.In Chuan-shan's opinion,the notion of the difference between Chinese and barbarians has a eternal value,just because Chinese conforms to the humanity and barbarians violates it.The fundamental driving force of history is human emotions and desires.The history does not necessarily conform to the principle of humanity for the reason that human emotions and desires does not necessarily conform to the moral laws in human nature.Therefore,the history is a circulation between the times of stability and turbulence.One cannot determine for himself to live in a era of stability or a era of turbulence.But for a Confucianist,when he lives in a era of turbulence,his mission is to preserve humanity in his academic endeavors.Because humanity is still here,there will be a day in the future,sages and heros will bring order out of chaos.This is the basic idea of Chuan-shan's thoughts on historical philosophy.To make a long story short,the whole Chuan-shan's philosophy regards Tao as the highest noumenon.Also,through the mediating role of Xing(?),he found the ontological basis for our humanities world.Moreover,he expanded the Inside Saint Studies into Outside King Studies.For all of this,we can call the whole Chuan-shan's philosophy a Taoism system.