The Studying Of The Thought "Integration Of Heaven And Human Beings"

The question about relations of heaven and human beings is one of the important philosophies thought not only in the Chinese ancient times but also in the whole Chinese history of philosophy. In pre-Qin, the Confucianism persistent on the ethical doctrine, so Confucius and Menzi define the meaning of "tian" as moral phase such as the "Ren ai". By this way they integral human's heart, humanity and heaven as one. The Taoist emphasizes naturalism principle, so Lao tze and Zhuangzi take naturalism principle as foundation to define the meaning of humanity, and then set up the relation between the nature and human beings under the natural principles. Those two all regard heaven and human beings as one, which called "integration of heaven and human-beings". Based on this theory they all put forward philosophy thoughts about the view of heaven and human beings. But they developed their theories just in two different directions because of different theories foundation. Xunzi gets advantages from those two viewpoints. At first he points out the difference between heaven and human-beings based onthe naturalism principle, and then put forward the theory that human-beings come from nature and as the nature's product. No matter how mankinds develop their activity, at last they will have to follow the rules and couldn't go outside of the way of heaven. Everything made with great effort by mankinds is just the embodying of the way of heaven. After profound and reasonable thinking about the value of heaven, Xunzi pointed out that the uniting between heaven and humanity not only because they have the same regulation but also because they have the same essence. This kind of essence however, to heaven, we called it the "Dao"; to human beings, we called it the "Li". The "Li" of human is established accordance with the same essence of heaven. Based on these theories, Xunzi builds up the relationship between heaven and human beings.The most aggressive part in Xunzi's theories about heaven and human beings gained from the Confucianism and the Taoist is that, he neither bases the "Li" on the morals of heaven and humanity, nor cancel the human's corpus and makes it obedient to the natural rules. Maybe just because of this, the "Li" has no place to be emplaced. The original purpose of Xunzi may want to clean up the mysterious existed in heaven and to give human beings corpus a position in the cosmos. After Xunzi, his theory had been developed to two side: on the one hand is the highlighting about human's corpus position, which developed into extremity by "Wangchong", a person of Han Dynasty. On the other hand is the consistency between heaven and the "Li" of mankinds, the regulations of heaven and humanity, which developed to the theory that heaven and human beings have the same structure in Dongzhongshu of Han Dymasty. But to Xunzi, the intergration about heaven and human beings is in the undirect way. It is the dialectical intergration though and based on the "separation" .This is not the uniting originated from the inside to the outside of the human's body, but the intergration of the same essence between heaven and human beings.The important value of Xunzi view of the "intergration of heaven and human being" is not only to the pre-Qin but also to the posterity. Now days, especially after the western philosophy displaying its ineluctable blemish, there are more and more scholars began to aware of the value of the theory that "integration of heaven and human beings" of Chinese traditional culture, and try to take some benefits from it. Certainly, phrase and concept are developing and enriching accompany with the progressing of the thoughts. The analyzing about the philosophical term "tian" is more and more precise. Under this situation, it is obviously impossible to request people returning to the traditional culture which think the reason of uniting heaven and human beings is they have the similarity on the moralism. Nowadays the integration is that mankind relates with the cosmos by surmounting their limits, by controlling the most intelligence entity, by introspecting themselves. Xunzi's special theory is highlighted day after day. Of course, many scholars have already begun to publicize the theory of "heaven" of Zunzi. If we want to take some benefits from this theory, we will not only put it back into the special environment of the pre-Qin, but also put it into contemporary, and give it deeper understanding. By this way we can have a better understanding than the author himself. There are various kinds of thoughts which debating with each other in the academic circles these days. So it will be more valuable of re-clarifying the theory of heaven and human being of Xunzi and giving it new explaining.