Research On The Idea Of "Destiny" In The Pre-Qin Period

"Destiny" is a significant category in philosiphy of the Pre-Qin Period,which always attracted many researchers’attention. But there is no consistent answer to the question of "what is the’Destiny’?". More studies,more controversies. In some degree, the way to understand the "Destiny" represent a basic perspective to undersand ancient Chinese philosophy.The important status has an inseparable connection with the complexity of the idea of "Destiny". From the perspective of linguistics, in earliest the word of "Destiny" is a verb,which suggests that "Destiny" is a way. But in the context of ancient Chinese philosophy, the word of "Destiny" more often indicates an entity. The construction including entity and way gives "Destiny" a more extensive connotation. And because of this, the idea of "Destiny" becomes a hub to connect metaphysics and physics. The study about nature and humanity in Confucianism is expressed by the connection of "Destiny" in some degree.By the discussion about "Destiny",this paper makes some thinking about Chinese philosophy and this work is finished by answerring the question that "what is the ’Destiny’?". The paper is made up of two parts. The frist part summarizes three forms of the idea of "Destiny" in the Pre-Qin Period by analyzing istorical materials, in this way, answerring the question of "What is the form of’Destiny’?". The three forms are "Celestial Will"、"Fate"、"Nature", which is the most common use in the Pre-Qin Period.The second part answers the question "why does’Destiny’ be this?",in this part, the author makes a discussion for the way in which the forms of "Destiny" are connected. First, through the discussion of the "life" of the dynamic, paper has been clear about some meaning and characteristics of "life" as ontology. Second, there are two conditions in the meaning of "life" as ontology:"human condition"and"nature condition". Which is contributed to the effect of "heart". Then, the contradiction of "Fate" and "Nature" is happened. Last, how to go beyond the opposition between two states to "life" then to the natural state is the last question this article to solve. Based on the example of "life", this paper expounds the nature of unity of the body and the characteristics of "Destiny", pointing out that "Destiny" at the highest level performance for a unity of the body and the characteristics. In this way, a understanding for the question "what is the’Destiny’?" is showed.Through the discussion of the two parts,the paper made a distinguished interpretation for "Destiny". For this problem, there are three levels to understand. First,"Destiny" as a specific semantics, mainly has three aspects of meaning:as a supreme purpose, as a front inevitability, as in according to the people. Second, as the ontology, the essence of "Destiny" embodied in a kind of natural biological sense. Third,"Destiny" performance for a unity of the body and the characteristics.There are some things to supplement that in this paper many analyses are finished by reinterpretting some philosophy categories which have important significance in the history of Chinese philosophy but have no consistant meaning, such as "Celestial Will""Heart"、"Fate"、"Nature"、"Life".To this categories, the paper try to make a new interpretation which just represent a personal view and a immature try in understanding the idea of "Destiny".