命与天命:儒家天人关系的双重视角

As a pair of important categories in traditional Chinese culture, “ming 命 (destiny or decrees)” and “tian ming 天命 (heavenly ordinances)” mainly refer to the constraints placed on human beings. Both originated from “ling 令 (decrees),” which evolved from “wang ling 王令 (royal decrees)” into “tian ling 天令 (heavenly decrees),” and then became “ming” from a throne because of the decisive role of “heavenly decrees” over a throne. “Ming” and “tian ming” have different definitions: “Ming” represented the limits Heaven placed on the natural lives of human beings and was an objective force that men could not direct, but was embodied in human beings as their “destiny”; “Tian ming” reflected the moral ideals of human beings in their self-identification; It originated in man but had to be verified by Heaven, and it was therefore the true ordinance that Heaven placed on human beings. “Ming” and “tian ming” are two perspectives on the traditional relationship between Heaven and human beings, and at the same time Confucians and Daoists placed different emphasis on them. Translated by Huang Deyuan from Zhongguo zhexueshi 中国哲学史 (History of Chinese Philosophy), 2007, (4): 11–21     

THE WAY, THE RIGHT, AND THE GOOD

This article argues that Kongzi's religious ethics suggests an alternative way of understanding the relationship between the right and the good, in which neither takes clear precedence in terms of being more foundational for ethics. The religious underpinnings of Kongzi's understanding of the Way are examined, including the close relationship between tian ("Heaven") and the Way. It is shown that following the Way is defined primarily by the extent to which one's actions express certain virtues, and not whether one's actions are conducive to the best overall outcome or whether they are inherently right irrespective of consequences. It is then argued that the Way is seen as constitutive of both the right and the good, and that this understanding of the right and the good has important implications for contemporary virtue ethics, religious ethics, and political philosophy.     

SCIENCE AND CONFUCIANISM IN RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT

In contrast to Western science and religion, a topic which has been studied very much since the twentieth century, less research has been done on science and Confucianism. By way of a comparative viewpoint within the history of science, this article will deal with some aspects of science and Confucianism in retrospect, for instance, the Confucian origin of the idea of tian yuan di fang 天圓地方, the natural philosophy of qi, and the wu xing li tian zhi qi 五行沴天之氣 bringing abnormal astrological phenomena and reflecting a negative Confucian relation between politics, ethics, and nature. In the late Ming, Xiong Mingyu found that abnormal astrological phenomena, as atmospheric events, happened in the sublunar region rather than in the stars, and in the present time we can reinterpret the crisis of air pollution or global climate change as reflecting a negative Confucian relation between politics, ethics, and nature and as a warning of collective misbehavior in our use of modern scientific technologies.     

读玄释中——试论《太玄》所本的宇宙说

本文认为《太玄》不仅拟卦气说之易,亦拟《易传》所传之易,由准《文言》之《玄文》,认定《中》首在《太玄》中。地位最为重要。《中》首兼具水、土二行。是扬雄的有意安排,这是由其所本的宇宙思想决定的。本文认为《太玄》浑盖兼采。在对几种盖天说与浑天说分析的基础上．认为只有一种盖天说及一种浑天说为《太玄)所本。以此为基础,对《中》首为何兼准二行做了解释。     

Identity,legitimacy, and chaste widows

I will sketch an evolutionary map of the four versions of Chineseness and explore the corresponding changes in the ideologies of the Chinese culture. A focal point is to diagram the shifting currents of moral realism vs. nihilism, cultural universalism vs. particularism and to explain how political legitimacy becomes entangled with personal identity and, as an example, how chaste widows can constitute a potent political rhetoric.     

论儒家伦理道德的普遍性与特殊性——以北宋理学家吕大临的思想的个案分析为例

本文试图以北宋理学家吕大临的思想的个案分析为例,探讨儒家伦理道德的普遍性与特殊性。文章通过对吕大临思想中的“性”、“仁”、“理义”、“天理”、“时中”等观念的解析,讨论了吕大临对儒家“道德法则”的普遍性和特殊性的看法以及他在处理两者之间关系方面的观点。     

Three sources of wisdom of Chinese traditional virtue and a contemporary examination

There are three explanations of the sources of virtue in the history of Chinese traditional ethical thoughts. The first source is tian Dao (the Dao of Heaven) (natural), the second is xing Dao (the Dao of nature) (mind-nature), and the third is ren Dao (the Dao of human) (social). These explanations not only demonstrate the unique wisdom of ancient Chinese thinkers in constructing mortality, but also have special revelations for us to comprehend more accurately the Chinese traditional morality, to clear up the wrong ideas about morality that have formed since modern times, to make virtue ‘present’ instead of ‘latent’, and to construct a moral society. __________ Translated from Fujian Luntan 福建论坛 (Fujian Forum) (Humanities and Social Sciences Edition), 2005 (2) by Xi Liuqin & Peng Hua     

DESIGNING CONFUCIAN CONSCIENCE INTO SOCIAL NETWORKS

Several scholars have argued that Internet use might be fundamentally incompatible with Confucian ethics, because the values that are embedded in the Internet might be in conflict with Confucian values. In addition, the design of various social network services (SNS) considers very little of non‐Western values in its engineering. Against this background, this article explores the philosophical question of whether Internet use, particularly social network services, is compatible with the fundamental values and norms of Confucian ethics. In addition, the article discusses the Confucian notion of tian xia (under heaven), and argues that tian xia, as a basic structuring principle of Confucian philosophy, helps to innovate a different social media.     

莱布尼茨发明二进制前没有见过先天图吗--对欧洲现存17世纪中西交流文献的考证

本文通过对欧洲现存17世纪中西交流文献的研究考证,否定了莱布尼茨在发明二进制以后才见到先天图的说法.先天图在莱布尼茨发明二进制之前,已被斯比塞尔称之为二进制.从莱布尼茨的信中,可见先天图传入欧洲早于17世纪.     

甲骨文"下上若"祈祷占辞与天地相交观念

殷墟甲骨占辞中屡次出现“下上若,授我佑”祈祷套语,其“下上”应非指某具体的自然神或祖先,而是将充满百神百祇之“天地”当作祈祷对象。不过商王祈祷“下上若”的重点不在笼括祭祀上下所有的神祇,而在祈求天地交互,以上下共同授佑,来保障王事的成功。从字体的书写来看,早期的“下上”写法明显构成互相交接闭合的图案,若换次序作“上下”。则明显可见上下互相分隔的图案,这其中有着重要的象形意义之差别。在中国先民核心的传统中,《周易·泰卦》的结构正好用下上般的逆序来表达天地交通。除此之外,传说殷人的易法《归藏》,其卦序也为坤乾或可谓“下上”。甲骨文所用的“下上若,授我佑”祈祷套语之意义就是商王祈求获得“泰”之状态,因而刻辞中采用下者在上而上者在下的排位。