"The harmony and unity between nature and human being" in Chinese culture has become a popular subject recently. At a time when the world's ecological crisis is becoming more and more serious, this philosophy attracts great attention and some sinologists even take this philosophy as a good way to solve today's ecological crisis. In their views, "tian ren he yi" is interpreted as the pursuit of harmony between man and nature. However, I do not think this interpretation is really in line with the original intention of the ancient Chinese. In my opinion, this philosophy is more of a kind of political pursuit than an environmental proposition, for the reason that the word "tian" in ancient Chinese culture is always related to the emperor. "Tian ren he yi" may reflect the ancient worship of "tian", or in other words, the gods. Some sinologists misread it as the pursuit of harmony between man and nature . Such misinterpretation may not provide a realistic way to solve the current environmental problems.
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问 Share your view on the sinologists' interpretation of "the harmony and unity between nature and human being" and its implification.
According to Professor Cecile Chu-chin Sun, in Chinese culture, human beings and the physical world are all indivisibly bonded by a primordial organicity through the all pervasive and equalizing power of qi. In Chinese culture, it is precisely this idea of organicity that gives birth to the notion of harmony and unity between man and nature known as —tian ren he yi, 天人合一 (literally, nature and people are one). And Professor Ye Weilian compares Wang Wei's poetry and that of Wordsworth, implicating a similar Chinese mind-set, saying that in Chinese art, the artist's self or human ego rarely goes into the art work, thus leaving a passive and non-intellectual presentation of nature as it is. How do you look at these sinologists' idea and interpretation of Tian Ren He Yi? Is it possibly suggesting some negative implications of Chinese culture?
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From my understanding, the “harmony and unity between man and nature” means that human beings are a part of the whole universe, and it is impossible to separate human beings from other things in the nature. Therefore, there is no distinct contrast between the artist’s self and the art work, because the artist’s human ego is integrated into the art work insensibly. In Poetic Remarks on the Human World, Wang Guowei proposes that “all words of scenes are all words of sensations (一切景语皆情语)”. Therefore, there is no need for the human part to show up on purpose in the art work.
Besides, I think that the character “tian” in “tian ren he yi” not only represents the nature in the physical sense, but also the overall rules of the whole universe. Human beings, along with anything else, are subject to those rules. Therefore, instead of suggesting some negative implications, it actually suggests a sense of the transcendence of worldliness in Chinese culture. For example, death may seem terrifying if you regard life as an independent part of the whole world. But if you understand the fact that human beings and the nature are an indivisible whole, which death cannot change, you might accept it more peacefully.
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In Chinese history, Tian Ren He Yi was a political issue first and a scientific one second. Its emergence and existence mainly serve for politics and belong to the study of ideology. In Chinese culture, harmony is the basis. Life comes from "harmony", people should live in harmony with nature, people should live in harmony with each other, and people should pursue social harmony. However, excessive pursuit of harmony will inevitably lead to individual compromise to the collective and loss of personal interests. The same is true of art. Through the history, we can see that the turbulent times are conducive to the integration and development of art, such as the Wei and Jin dynasties. Therefore, I think these views imply the negative influence of Chinese culture.
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I think that Tian Ren He Yi is peculiar to Chinese traditional culture, and it takes on the charms of our culture. I do not agree with Ye Weilian that it suggests negative implications of Chinese culture. Tian Ren He Yi means to let nature just be nature. Writers or poets or other artists do not go into the objects or the scenery themselves. It is the natural beauty that implies the authors' states of mind. It seems that human ego is absent, but it exists everywhere.
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I don't agree with Ye Weilian. I think "the artist's self or human ego rarely goes into the art work" is wrong. Chinese art work is veiled where a little thing may be the artist himself.Some artists regard himself as the tree,the wind, the bird and so on. I think it's a represent that the artist's self go into the art work and the nature.So Chinese art work didn't suggest the native implications of Chinese culture.
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In my opinion, “the harmony and unity between nature and the human being” represent a kind of thinking we need to follow the exterior nature , also the interior nature. On the one side, we need to conform to natural world. Natural world is conducted by time and space. Neither of them can be changed. So we, human being like migrating animals, need to find a circumstance where we can fit into it. Also we need to follow our heart
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As a Chinese, tian ren he yi is something we heard from a very young age. The combination of heaven and human, the ultimate goal of many sages, is to get to the point that the world’s knowledge is in ones hand. To feel what the world feels, and to understand the meaning of existence. Cooperating with nature, letting things be, and giving oneself to the universe would be the method of achieving this purpose.
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First, I do not agree with Professor Cecile Chu-chin Sun. He says that " tian ren he yi" from an organic conception of qi. And "tian ren he yi" has two meanings, one of which refers to the unity of "tian tao"（天道） and "ren dao"（人道）, and the other to man and nature. And “tian ren he yi” originated in the reverence and worship of “tian dao”. Both Confucianism and Taoism believe that the happiness of human society comes from “tian”, while the worries and miseries of human life come from man himself, and that the pursuit of the unity of “tian dao” and “ren dao” is the only way to achieve “dao”. That is why Chinese people pursue “tian ren he yi”
Second, Professor Ye Weilian says there is a passive, non-intellectual presentation of nature in Chinese art. But I disagree. The perspective he takes is that of a Western mindset of rational supremacy, thus considering Chinese art as a non-intellectual presentation. But in the Chinese mindset, this is precisely what gives Chinese art "artistic conception" that no other art can possess. From the Taoist perspective, it emphasizes “do nothing and everything is done”，“tian dao” and the reduction of the human element in the pursuit of “tian dao”. The Chinese artist pushes his own ego outside of his art, in line with the Taoist saying, "Practicing Tao results in daily decrease, Diminishing more and more"(为道日损，损之又损). The artwork thus produced is closer to the expression of “tian dao”, and "artistic conception" it conveys is unique. Confucianism, on the other hand, more emphasis on the role of man in the pursuit of “tian dao”. Humanity at its best is “tian dao”.“Tian dao” is to be sought in the life of man, thus achieving the unity of “tian” and man, which is exactly a positive presentation of nature.
However, the mindset of "tian ren he yi" has some negative effects. But technically, as opposed to the material world. The concept of "tian ren he yi" would give rise to the concept of man living in harmony with nature, and responding to “tian dao” with humanity, which means that the concept of "tian ren he yi" requires that the Chinese are unable to create something that is not found in nature. In other words, if Western ideas had not been introduced into China, China would not have been able to develop an industrial revolution from within itself for another 100 years. The West was able to develop the industrial revolution, starting with Plato, who believed that the real world was a poor imitation of the theoretical world and that the real world should therefore be transformed, and that the industrial revolution was an extension of Plato's ideas. Therefore, the Chinese concept of "tian ren he yi" had a negative impact on technological development.
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Spinoza, this dutch philosopher claims the pantheism. He believes the goodness is scattered among the whole natural world,. Therefore, to be liberal, one needs to study the necessity of the nature. And the more you learn, the more liberal you are. And his philosophy has something related to tian ren he yi under my comprehension. Chinese philosophers exclaim that people are born from the nature and so we are a part of it. However, we are bond to the subcelestial society. To get free, we have to study and cultivate ourselves and then get rid of all the shackles.
From Dao De Jing, you should renounce your sageness and discard our wisdom.
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Man is a part of nature. Nature and man are originally united, but because people have formulated various moral norms and social systems, people have lost their original nature and become out of harmony with nature. The purpose of human practice is to break the shackles imposed on people, liberate human nature and return to nature.
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I agree with Professor Cecile Chu-chin Sun's explanation of tian ren he yi, which shows the harmony and unity between man and nature related by qi. However, I have some different ideas from Professor Ye Weilian. In Chinsese art the artist's self or human ego indeed goes into the art work although in a more subtle more natural way. In ancient Chinese poetry, chinese poets usually express their emotions by a writing technique called 借景抒情. Unlike western poets who usually show their feelings directly, Chinese poets just describe these scenes but in their words you can feel their emotions, thoughts and egos.
In Chinese art, the integration of human and nature is so natural that you should be very careful to feel their emotions behind these scenes. It is the characteristic of China and there is nothing negative.
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I think Professor Sun’s interpretation of tian ren he yi does make a certain amount of sense, which reveals the strong connection between human and the world. The power of nature is beyond the range of human understanding. Human needs to compromise with natural power. At the same time, humans’ subjective activity can partly alter the world. And I don’t understand why Chinese artists’ rarely going into the work suggests negative implications of Chinese culture. It’s just a difference between Chinese artists and western artists. Participating in the work is good. So does letting the work just be work without human.
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From my perspective, Tian Ren He Yi refers to the harmonious unity of man and nature. This kind of thinking breaks the barriers imposed on people, liberates human nature, and urges people to return to nature. I think the core is "oneness". And actually I don't agree with the opinion from Ye Weilian, because in Wang Wei's poetry, you can still trace the sign of "Tian Ren He Yi". For instance, in his famous work Shan Ju Qiu Ming, in the poetic and picturesque atmosphere, the poet's noble feelings and pursuit of ideal realm are reposed. The perfect integration of man and nature forms an ideal realm of Tian Ren He Yi.
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I don’t agree with these sinologists.According to their reasoning, there’s a misconception that Chinese art detaches human ego from the nature negatively, which caused stereotype towards Chinese people that we lack subjective initiative or independent judgement. However, on the contrary, in Chinese art, nature is conceptualized in the human mind, a nature humanized one. What human think and understand of nature is represented in Chinese art actually.
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