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15.7 184mm 184mm mm F r o m D Examines the Classical Chinese Thinkers in the e s t Pre-Qin Era i n y T This book surveys the prominent schools of thought in Pre-Qin China — Daoism, o Confucianism, Mohism, and Legalism. Author Huang Kejian explores the development of D thought from the primitive concept of destiny to the philosophical “Dao” and offers a a discussion of the major philosophical themes in each school of thought with a unique o collection of insights from commentators. The book also offers readers a holistic : understanding of their philosophies through their historical place, existential concerns, and A impact on future philosophers. S u r v The major themes explored in each school of thought include: e y Daoism: Non-Being in Being, Return to Simplicity, and Carefree Wandering o m f m Confucianism: Benevolence, Propriety, and Political Conduct from Intrinsic Sentiments P r 0 Mohism: Impartial Care and the Pragmatic Opposition to Confucianism e - 6 Legalism: Rule of Law as “Dao” and the Gradual Demise of Humanist Optimism Q 2 i n P AUTHOR HUANG Kejian is Professor of the School of Chinese Classics of the Renmin h i From l University of China. Prior to this, he taught at the university’s School of Arts o s and the Research Institute of Philosophy under the Huazhong University of o p Science and Technology. He is the author of Struggling Confucianism (1995), 100 h Destiny y Years of New Confucianism (2000), and Beauty As Reality of Illusion: An i n Interpretation of German Classical Aesthetics (2004), among other works. He has C also published a Chinese translation of Plato’s Political Philosophy, a modern h Chinese edition of the Gongsun Longzi, and an annotated Analects of Confucius. i n a Dao H to u a n g K e j i A Survey of Pre-Qin Philosophy Chinese Historial Studies a n in China Huang Kejian SILKROAD P R E S S From Destiny to Dao From Destiny to Dao: A Survey of Pre-Qin Philosophy in China Huang Kejian Published by Enrich Professional Publishing, Inc. Suite 208 Davies Pacific Center 841 Bishop Street Honolulu, HI, 96813 Website: www.enrichprofessional.com A Member of Enrich Culture Group Limited Hong Kong Head Office: 11/F, Benson Tower, 74 Hung To Road, Kwun Tong, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China China Office: Rm 309, Building A, Central Valley, 16 Hai Dian Middle Street, Haidian District, Beijing, China Singapore Office: 16L, Enterprise Road, Singapore 627660 Trademarks: SILKROAD PRESS and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of Enrich Professional Publishing, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Chinese original edition © 2010 China Renmin University Press By Huang Kejian English edition © 2016 by Enrich Professional Publishing, Inc. With the title From Destiny to Dao: A Survey of Pre-Qin Philosophy in China All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without prior written permission from the Publisher. ISBN (Hardback) 978-1-62320-023-7 ISBN (pdf) 978-1-62320-070-1 This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional service. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. Contents Chapter 1 Overview: Chinese Philosophy in the Axial Period .................. 1 Chapter 2 Lao Zi ................................................................................................ 25 Chapter 3 Confucius ......................................................................................... 43 Chapter 4 Mo Zi ................................................................................................. 69 Chapter 5 Zhuang Zi ......................................................................................... 91 Chapter 6 Mencius ............................................................................................ 115 Chapter 7 Xun Zi ............................................................................................... 135 Chapter 8 The Legalists .................................................................................... 165 Bibliography ............................................................................................................. 193 Glossary .................................................................................................................... 195 Index ......................................................................................................................... 215 1 Chapter Overview: Chinese Philosophy in the Axial Period FROM DESTINY TO DAO: A SURVEY OF PRE-QIN PHILOSOPHY IN CHINA The major civilizations that have existed since early human history, and which still continue to contribute substantially to human knowledge and culture today, all went through a golden age that coincided in what the modern philosopher Karl Jaspers termed the “Axial” period, between 800 BC and 200 BC. During this period, a number of remarkable thinkers and religious figures appeared in various different parts of the world: Confucius in China, Siddartha Gautama in India, Zarathustra in Persia, the Prophets in the Levant, Plato in Greece, and so on. Whether through original thought or the collection of the wisdom and spirit of their time, they managed to build a philosophical and cultural foundation, not just for their own respective civilizations, but also for the development of a new human consciousness: where the question of being had simply been of their “fate” — of the simple matters of birth and death — these sages of the Axial period brought to attention the problem of the human existential “state.” Such is their legacy that, in the aftermath of their work, any question of being — of one’s fate — cannot be meaningfully discussed without considering one’s existential direction. And it is in examining the existential question, in searching for ways to improve the “state” of the individual and society, that all other philosophical questions arise — ethics, politics, “natural science,” and so on, the working of which led to the existence of the impressive body of knowledge we have today. As an overview, there is much value in a comparative discussion on the development of thought in two regions, Greece and the Levant. The resulting developments in these two areas, Western philosophy and science as well as several major religions of the world, highlight the significance of philosophical development in the Axial period, and a brief discussion would help to illustrate the comparative significance of the pre-Qin philosophers in developing the Chinese 命道 consciousness from ming — destiny, or one’s fate, to dao — one’s Way of existence in the world. Greek Thought in the Axial Period: From “Destiny” to “Things-in-Themselves” The work of Socrates is commonly considered by historians to mark two distinct periods of Greek thought. Early Greek (or pre-Socratic) philosophy is said to be primarily interested in the “nature of things.” During this period, it was believed that humans were tied to their fate, over which they have no disposition, and so the works of the early thinkers are mostly hypotheses on the cosmology that “governs all things.” Thales of Miletus, considered by Aristotle to be the earliest thinker to espouse a cosmology underlain by a first material principle (archê), believed 2 Overview that water is the first principle underlying all things.1 After Thales, there was a succession of thinkers who, despite proposing different theories, merely reaffirmed this view of the world as consisting of a first principle of material: Anaximander postulated an infinite, indeterminable primordial substance (apeiron);2 Anaximenes, air;3 Heraclitus, fire;4 the Pythagoreans, number.5 Contemporaries of Socrates were still absorbed with this question: Democritus held “the Full” and “the Void” — atoms and empty space — as composing all things. There was little agreement as to which theory was correct, as the question continued to revolve around the idea of a first principle that the cosmos operates on. In traditional epistemology, it is common to see this study of first principles as a search for the unifying principle of the world, and later scholars would go on to classify these early Greek thinkers as either “materialists” or “idealists.” For example, since Thales said that all things are composed of water, he may be said to be a materialist, as water is of physical existence. Committed to this view of things, the early Greek thinkers were predisposed to undertaking a pursuit of true knowledge, and in doing so they assumed first principles as the primal explanation of the world. But if it is to be assumed that the investigation of first principles is an investigation of true knowledge, it remains to be explained why it is only this and not a different point of investigation that was undertaken. It seems more plausible that the works of the early Greek thinkers may be better explained simply by considering their concern about the fate of humans and the world that they inhabit. In talking about the apeiron, Anaximander is also attributed to have said that “the source of coming-to-be for existing things is that which destruction, too, happens, ‘according to necessity (χρεών), for they pay penalty and retribution to each other for their injustice according to the assessment of Time.’”6 Likewise, Pythagoras says that “fate is the cause of the arrangement of the world, both in general and in particular.”7 For Heraclitus, “there is one world, and … that 1. Aristotle, Metaphysics 1.3.983b 2. Simplicius, Commentary on Aristotle’s Physics 24.13–21 3. Aristotle, Metaphysics 1.3.984a 4. Theophrastus, quoted in Simplicius, Commentary on Aristotle’s Physics 24.26–25.1 5. Aristotle, Metaphysics 1.5.985b–986a 6. Theophrastus, quoted by Simplicius, Commentary on Aristotle’s Physics 24.26–25.1, in Kirk and Raven, The Presocratic Philosophers, p.117). The necessity of χρεών occasionally has a connotation of fate or destiny, as in “For nothing of this shall bend my will even to tell at whose hands he is fated to be hurled from his sovereignty” (Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound 995), and “And it is in the present time that the truth of these prophecies is coming to pass, so that they must be fulfilled” (Sophocles, Trachiniae 170). Kirk and Raven note that the term “retained a special poetic coloring…until the expression τὸ χρεών became popular in the Hellenistic period as a circumlocution for death.” — Ed. 7. Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 8.1.19 3