Research On Taoism's Ecology Wisdom And Its Enlightenment

Worsening ecology crisis has made humanity's survival a harsher problem, which is leading people to pay more attention to the relations between humans and nature, as well as to reconsider our role in the nature. Meanwhile, facing such crisis, humanity is bound to seek a way of absolution, out of both instinct and rational thinking. Just in the process of solving such crisis, the solicitude of moral or the power of justice was brought into the relation system between humanity and the nature, thus comes a new form of ethics .called ecology ethics.The construction of any new theory would require certain foundations for its idea and cultural basis; finding such basis for ecology ethics is to track its history or to find support in tradition. In such query, it is obvious that the fundamental spirit and value orientation of traditional Chinese culture, especially Taoism are compatible with present day's ecology ethics and deserve surther research. This essay tries to sum up the ecology wisdoms in Taoism, maybe superficially, to gain some implications on the construction of modern ethics.The article forms into three parts:Part 1: Wisdom of ecology in Taoism culture. This section deals mainly with the wisdom of ecology in the classic literatures of Taoism, forms a general idea of it which serves as the foundation for extracting its "modern implications". After summing up all these, the wisdom of ecology in Taoism will be generalized in four aspects: 1. The highest principle of the wisdom of ecology in Taoism is "Tao is ruled by the nature". 2. The basic concept of such wisdom is "The nature lives with me in symbiosis, and everything is with me as a whole." 3. The practical application of the wisdom of ecology in Taoism is "To be content with one's lot brings no humiliation", and "To stop at certain places makes one free of errors". 4. The aesthetic pursuit of this wisdom is "Those compatible with the nature are enjoying heavenly pleasure".Part 2: The value and flaws inherent in the wisdom of ecology in Taoism. In virtually all cultures, to be free of contradictions to be of excellent soundness cannot be achieved simultaneously. Consequently, it is inappropriate either to depreciate it or to overrate it. The appropriate approach is to treat it dialecticly while holding a scientific attitude. It is only in this way that we can get its implications on our modern society. This section on one hand sums up the unique merits of the wisdom of ecology in Taoism, while on the other points out its historical limitations as an offspring of the agricultural civilization in China, which may help us objectively absorb nourishment from it, attaining the essence while discarding the scum.Part 3: The implications of ecology wisdom in Taoism on the construction of modern ecology ethics. Such construction is not only establishing a new ethics theory system but also remodeling the humanity's traditional view of ecology ethics. This section generalizes the implications in three aspects: 1. Establishing the world view of a co-evolution of humanity and the nature. 2. Establishing the concept of the correspondence between value reason and tool reason. 3. Establishing the practical view that combines spiritual perfection and environmental concerns.