Comparative Study Between Xiong Yang And Chung Wang’s Thought Of Heaven And Man

Xiong Yang, which Fuguan Xu called "The key figure of thought in the evolution of Han dynasty", and has long been known as the "the Great Materialism thinker" "The Fighting atheist" of Chung Wang are both controversial in history. Xiong Yang, and Chung Wang lived in Han dynasty and they only differ for hundreds of years. Under the background of the thought of Han dynasty, their theoretical source has a certain commonality and also some extent of inheritance and convergence in the theory of nature and man. Therefore, their thoughts have great comparability. When we compere the thought of relationship between nature and man’s differences between Xiong Yang and Chung Wang, it is helpful for us to inquiry the commonness and individuality about their theory and their inheritance, and then our understanding of Han dynasty’s philosophy will deepen than before. Refine the view of the thinkers about their comparable analysis of their view of nature and man, will be more helpful to us to know the development the thought of nature and man of ancient China, and what this question is going to talk is:what is nature, what is the human and what is the relation between nature and man."Heaven" is the most original and fundamental topics in Chinese philosophy. About "What is the nature", thinkers of Han dynasty give three answers "religious heaven" "nature heaven" and "philosophical heaven". Due to "philosophical heaven" "throughout" religious heaven" and "nature heaven ", therefore the view of Heaven and man formed two ideas:Mystification and natural. Xiong Yang see the Heavenly Way as "Xuan", and it is all things primitive and the highest root, thus affirmation of the supremacy of Xuan. Chung Wang see Heaven as the Lord God, they both set the existence of a supreme, no matter what Heaven do or not do, all he hopes is people can follow the certain natural laws and his supremacy of dominance could be obtained affirmation. Xiong Yang considered "Xuan" derived the universe through Yin and Yang, Chung Wang at The beginning of his Lun Heng·Natural paper said: "Heaven and Earth together, then everything will born.It just likes the relationship between the couples harmony can smooth gave birth to the child." They both affirmed "Heaven" through "Qi" creative the universe."Human" is the direct purpose of ancient philosophers exploring the heaven. What is human? What can human realize? Traditionally thinker concerns the inner self-consciousness and external moral practice. Among them, the human nature of goodness and evil is also a controversial problem in the history. Thinkers exploring human nature is a process from simplification to diversification and complication. Xiong Yang and Chung Wang both have the judgment about human nature. Yang believe that human nature is the mixture of goodness and evil, and have the tendency of theory of original goodness in human nature. However, Wang divided human nature into three categories, someone is good and someone is evil. Therefore, Wang’s thought contains inequality of human nature. On the issue of human nature, Yang and Wang both talk about the "Qi", but the interpretation of "Qi" is completely different. In addition, Chung Wang links human nature with "Gu Xiang", while Xiong Yang is not. Although Yang and Wang have different theory of human nature, both of them believe nature can be changed through the effort of future, for example, changing the living environment or learning. So the human nature must go to one end. In some case, the thought of Chung Wang is affect by Xiong Yang.On the relationship between Heaven and man problems, Xiong Yang and Chung Wang both believe "the union of man and nature", the only difference is their expression, however, both of them carried on the intense criticism about divination and the existence of ghosts, which made them have the different reason of relations between nature and human from Tung Chung-shu. Xiong Yang emphasized the true destiny was not to breach, but more things are decided by man, he highlighted humans factors. Chung Wang view Heaven as nature, he negated Heaven’s personality power and against the irrelevant matter "Heaven-Human Induction". However, he links "nature" and "fate" together, this made his thought of heaven and man has his lack of thoroughness and paradox. Xiong Yang and Chung Wang’s thought not only have their own bright spots, but also have their own shortcomings, so they have different influence on the later generations. There is no denying that, they can stand out in theologization of Confucianism even decay’s Han dynasty, their criticism consciousness and innovation spirit is enough to make people respect.