A Study Of The Principles Of Heaven And Human Desire In Song And Ming Confucianism

The relationship between Heavenly Principle and human desire is an important problem of Neo-Confucianism,throughout the ontology,nature-mind theory and work theory,and embodies the unity of noumenon,effort and state.The connotation of Heavenly Principle and human desire,must clarify from the specific context and unique perspective of Neo-Confucianism.Neo-Confucianism responsible for Confucianism to construct the moral noumenon,its ideological point is the realization of "the unity of heaven and man",the ontological paradigm of is "the unity of noumenon and function",the unique visual angle is transcendence.The thought of"the unity of heaven and man" determines the Heavenly Principle,which Neo-Confucianism constructed,is the performance of heavenly order,heavenly morality,heavenly law and heavenly mind in human life.The moral noumenon is heavenly reason why man is man,and internal basis why human moral personality and moral cultivation is possible also.In the process of the heavenly principle reveals,due to Qi,in the heart settle is not good,hence emergence of "human desire".From the view of mind,“Heavenly Principle" is the unselfish,good and impartiality intention;"human desire" is the private,evil,and partial intention.Heavenly Principle can arrange for human life,stand firm individual moral personality,enhance individual moral cultivation and moral state."human desire" hinders the improvement and transcendence of individual life.The relationship of heaven principle and human desire include noumenon-appearance,source-flow and being three dimensions.In the noumenon-appearance,heavenly principle and human desires the same in noumenon,not the same in appearance;in the source-flow,the source only justice,human desire is heavenly principle deviation appeared;in the being,heavenly principle and human desires not compatible,conflict each other.Ontologically,the understanding of heavenly principle in Neo-Confucianism has two ways:subjective ontology and objective ontology.The two paradigms is the "unity of noumenon and appearance" different annotation model.of a subjective object of ontology and ontology two paradigms.The Northern Song Dynasty Neo-Confucianism is the stage of standing firm heavenly principle,the different understanding of "nature is principle" between Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi contains the differentiation of direction on heavenly principle understanding.In the Southern Song Dynasty,is the stage of establish the way of heavenly principle understanding.As successor of Yi Luo study,Hu Hong and Zhu Xi represent the two different way of subjectivity ontology and objective ontology.Lu Xiangshan is the most complete representative of subject ontology.By the Ming Dynasty,Wang Yangming's study can be said to be two kinds of ontology merging,but Wang is based on subject ontology and absorbs the object ontology.From the nature-mind point of view,subject ontology is mainly represented by Hu Hong's theory model of "highlight nature by mind",while the object ontology is represented by Zhu Xi's "nature-mind-feeling" decomposition model.From the work theory,the theory of "save heavenly principle to remove human desires",also include subjectivity ontology and objective ontology two different work orientation.The former advanced the subjectivity and initiative of moral cultivation,but reduced the certainty and stability;the latter strengthened the certainty and stability,but weakened the autonomy and initiative.The two ways are mutually complementary.From the state perspective,the ideal state of "save heavenly principle to remove human desires" to pursue,is the“selfish intention utterly dissolved,heavenly principle appearing",is the sage realm.This is the so-called "universal love","to look on the universe as a whole" which Zhang Zai and Cheng Hao advocated.This state is the thought of "the unity of heaven and man" to achieve in life.Obviously,this is only a moral ideal orientation,is the inner belief of self-transcendence and moral realm,and not the external constraint to the moral behavior.Moral is not equal to the code of ethics.Therefore,"keeping heavenly principle to remove human desires" is neither asceticism,nor moral strict doctrine,but the moral idealism and moral optimism.The distinguish between heavenly principle and human desires,embodied the transcendence pursuit to undertake the responsibility of the national culture of Neo-Confucianism thinker.Of course,also contains profound concern of "against power by moral"."keeping heavenly principle to remove human desires" contains the remonstrate the intention and thought of the potentate."Since the Qing Dynasty thinker Dai Zhen's criticism of "heavenly principle kills people",seems it has become the main conclusion on this problem.By twentieth Century,the criticism of "eat people feudal ethical code" thought tide,"keeping heavenly principle to remove human desires" becomes representative of "eat people feudal ethical code",and become a target for all.Coupled with the impact of western philosophy thinking paradigm,until today,people's understanding on the relationship of heavenly principle and human desires seems to still remain in 1920s.Therefore,the research on the question once and now there has been misread and misunderstood,such as that of "keeping heavenly principle to remove human desires" is a kind of asceticism,or ethical rigorism etc.All kinds of problem above are not accurately grasp the specific context and unique perspective of Neo-Confucianism.Nowadays,The distinguish between heavenly principle and human desires is still of great significance.With the development of market economy,China's social moral problems have become increasingly prominent.The human heart losing the awe to Heaven,moral collapse,conscience closed hidden,forget justice when see the profits.It is urgent to awaken people's awe to heavenly principle,save the crisis of faith,rebuild conscience homes,and enhance the sympathetic understanding of the excellent Chinese traditional philosophical wisdom,chanting the humanistic spirit,cultivate moral personality and moral realm.Awe heavenly principle,restraint the selfish,evil idea and greed,is the inevitable course to promote the personal moral accomplishment and reconstruction national culture.