Interpretation Of Zhu Zi's Theory Of Mind And Nature From The View Of Movement And Static

This essay chooses the Good and Evil problem of Zhu Xi’s Xin(mind),Xing(nature)and Qing(feelings)as its theme,particularly following the ideas of Dong(activity)and Jing(tranquility)as the clues.First,this essay explores the basic meanings of the concepts Dong and Jing,as well as their relationships.After that,through analyzing Zhu Xi’s thoughts on Xin,Xing and Qing,this essay explains the relationships between these three concepts.Finally,this essay focuses on Zhu Xi’s discussion of Good and Evil referring to Dong and Jing,with respective analyses on the Good and Evil problem of Xin,Xing and Qing.To be more precise,there are three clues referring to the concepts of Dong and Jing in this essay: First,this essay is going to explore how the concepts of Dong and Jing affect the discussion of Xing and Qing in the Chinese philosophy tradition through analyzing the different understandings of the subjects of Dong and Jing,as well as their relationships of different philosophers.Second,this essay will discuss the relationships among Xin,Xing and Qing in Song-Ming Neo-Confucian philosophy with two ideas,“the state of absolute quiet and inactivity” and “when acted on,it immediately penetrates all things” from I Zhuan(1).Third,this essay will discuss the Good and Evil problem of Xin,Xing and Qing with two views,“before the birth of human it is quiet” and “being active after perceiving things” in Yue Ji.The first chapter talks about the history of the discussion of Dong and Jing which relating to Xing and Qing.The first thing this chapter does is explaining the change of the relationship between Dong and Jing from Wang Bi to Zhu Xi.Several philosophical problems are involved in this chapter,for example,Wang Bi’s ideal of You and Wu,the idea of backing to the nature-mind in the Book of Change,and how Zhou Dunyi,Zhang Zai,the Chen brothers and Zhu Xi interpret the relationship between Dong and Jing.This chapter will show the connection of these problems with the clue of Dong and Jing and explain how the relationship between Dong and Jing develops.This essay also talks about the beginning and development of the discussion of Xing,Qing,Dong,Jing in the age of pre-Qin and middle Tang dynasty.This part of the chapter will present a philosophical tradition and history backgrounds for the theme of this essay.The second chapter focuses on the relationships among Zhu Xi’s Xin,Xing and Qing.This Chapter explains the meanings of “the state of absolute quiet and inactivity” and “when acted on,it immediately penetrates all things” from I Zhuan,and “before the birth of human it is quiet” and “being active after perceiving things” in Yue Ji.Regarding Zhu Xi’s thoughts on the conditions before and after feelings are aroused,this chapter explains the Dong Jing problem of Xin,Xing and Qing,and thus distinguishes the differences among these three concepts.The third chapter focuses on the Good and Evil problem of Xin,Xing and Qing.With the premise that nature is good,this essay argues that the goodness of nature descends from Tian-Li to the course of creativity,the goodness of Xing,the goodness of Xin,and the goodness of Qing are just the same one,the one which is endowed from nature.Besides,there is no absolute correspondence between Good and Jing,Evil and Dong.If there could be preserving quiet and tranquility in the state of activity,then it will be good though feelings are aroused after perceiving empirical things.However,if there being no tranquility in the state of activity,then the desire will break the principle and there is evil.