European Journal of Social Sciences Studies issn 2501-8590
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2. Human origin
In Eastern philosophy, the explanation of the origin of man has been proposed since the beginning of society's division into classes and continues to be debated throughout its development history. Human origin is the basic issue to explain many other human problems, so philosophical and religious doctrines have focused on expressing different viewpoints, even the opposing ones, richly and deeply. Both Indian philosophy and Chinese philosophy have a fierce debate between religious idealism and materialism on the origin of human formation. If religious idealism holds that man is created by a supreme god, materialism holds that man is created by material factors. The view of religious idealism is clearly expressed in the Indian system of Vedata and Upanisads; The Book of Poetry (( 詩經 Shī Jīng) and The Book of Scripture ( 書經 Shū Jīng): in China. The Vedata believes that human beings and all things are created by a creator. The Upanisad says that the soul (atman) of man is only the product and manifestation of the soul of the world (brahman), “ The Atman is likened to infinite space, the individual like the space contained in a vessel. The vessel is the body...that example demonstrates how one must understand birth. When vessel breaks, where does the space contained in the vessel go? It disappears into infinite space. In the same way the living individual disappears into the supreme Atman .” Meanwhile, The Book of Poetry and The Book of Scripture assert that people are influenced by the destiny of heaven; Typical is the view of Confucius (the founder of Confucianism) that “ all human beings have destiny and fate ”. In ancient Chinese philosophy, Confucius was the pioneer. Later, more and more other thinkers joined, thus making the arguments about the origin of man more and more extensive. From the point of view of Confucius, idealism is based on that to expand. During the Han Dynasty, Dong Zhong Qiu (a representative of the Confucianists of the Han Dynasty) said that humans have the following origins: Heaven gives birth to people in their own shape, Heaven gives birth to people to fulfill their will. Heaven gave birth to animals to feed people, Heaven gave birth to righteousness to teach people, Heaven gave birth to kings to rule people. It can be clearly seen that the ultimate goal of the view of heaven's destiny is “ Heaven gave birth to a king to rule people ”. He exalted Heaven just to absolutize the role of the King. The king was called “ Son of Heaven ” to replace Heaven to practice religion. Thus, this point of view aimed to strengthen the centralized feudal system and became an excellent tool to dominate the majority of labors at that time. In contrast to religious idealism, the views of materialism and atheism in both India and China are very progressive. Buddhism does not recognize the world soul as Le Anh Dung THE PERSPECTIVE ON HUMANS IN EASTERN PHILOSOPHY European Journal of Social Sciences Studies - Volume 6 │ Issue 5 │ 2021 130 the source of the human soul and Buddhism say that man is his own cause; in which, the past man is the cause of the present man, and the present man is the cause of the future man. This is clearly demonstrated in the doctrine of the Interdependent Origination. With the use of material factors as the basis to explain the birth and existence of human beings, Buddhism has had a positive meaning in opposing the idea of destiny and fate; However, Buddhism still cannot escape the vicious circle of mystical idealism when it believes that human beings are caused by the law of cause and effect, due to “karma”; birth and death is in the cycle of retribution. In the Upanisad, the materialist view says that the original of the human world consists of four elements: earth, water, fire and wind. This view is similar to the Chinese “Five Elements” view. The “Five Elements” includes five elem ents: metal, wood, water, fire, earth. They both have supportive relations and have a reciprocal relationship with each other. They are the origin of human beings and all things. This view has laid a solid ideological foundation for the later stages. By the Song Dynasty, Zhou Xi and other physicists made the point: Humans are born from "li" according to a process: “li” generates “qi” (ie, yin and yang, five elements) - “qi” gives birth to “people” and “things”. It is the point of view of “li” and “qi” became the instrument of domination of the feudal classes in China. Therefore, it can be seen that for the philosophers of ancient Chinese philosophy, even though they come from different worldviews to give different explanations about the origin of man, in the end, all aim at the same goal of supporting and justifying the caste order of the contemporary feudal system. Criticizing the view of heaven's destiny, XunZi continued the view of Sun Jian and Yuanwen, when he said that “qi” is the source of all things an d people. Later, Zhang Tai in the Song dynasty conceived of “ the great vacuum ” (the basic form of existence of “qi”) as the source of all things and people. During the Qing Dynasty, materialist Dai Zhen believed that the origin of man was in the movement of primitive matter, which he called “circulating qi”. Besides, Lao Tzu said: “ Morality ” is “ the origin of all things ”. Its process is “ Morality gives birth to 1, 1 gives birth to 2, 2 gives birth to 3, 3 gives birth to all things ”. After “Morality”, there are factors that help things form: “ Morality is born, virtue is nurtured, objects manifest and the body helps to grow ”. We can understand Lao Tzu's the word “ morality ” to refer to the absolute principle that existed before the creation of heaven and earth, no birth, no death, no increase or decrease. Morality can be understood in two ways: Wu and Huu. Wu is the principle of heaven and earth, the principle of the invisible. Huu is the visible principle, the mother of giving birth to all things. Later, Chuang Tzu affirmed, “ Morality is infinite and invisible ”, “from the root, there is no heaven and earth”, “ from the ancient times, there was a Morality, and from the Morality, heaven and earth were born...”. This shows that the essence of Lao Tzu-Chuang Tzu's thought on Morality is an expression of objective idealism. From opposing the mystic idealism (specifically, Confucianism's view of heaven's destiny) falls into another mystical trend that makes people's perception more ambiguous and confusing. Le Anh Dung THE PERSPECTIVE ON HUMANS IN EASTERN PHILOSOPHY European Journal of Social Sciences Studies - Volume 6 │ Issue 5 │ 2021 131 Yüklə 121,12 Kb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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