It is also said that people have selfless emotions, which exist in their innate self-awareness. This self-awareness is called "conscience" in the language of ancient China, such as the concept of conscience discussed by Mencius, the concept of exclusive knowledge discussed by Ming Confucians, and the concept of true heart discussed by Lu Xiangshan, all of which express this kind of idea. Conscience is something that everyone already has, but it is often difficult to see and not a ready-made thing. He said that the study of Confucius is a kind of learning that is becoming increasingly clear. This is why Confucianism talks about the essence, which needs to be achieved through effort. Westerners talk about the essence, which corresponds to phenomena, and entities correspond to attributes. That is a cognitive approach.
According to Confucianism, this set of ontology corresponds to kung fu, which needs to be gradually purified through practice before the ontology can be presented. And this process of kung fu is also a manifestation of the creativity of the essence itself. So, Confucianism emphasizes that the essence must be presented in terms of effort.
The early intuition theory of Mr. Liang that we have discussed above, as well as the rational theory in his later years, actually refer to a Confucian concept of the ontology of mind and nature. So this concept of the ontological nature of the mind has been reinterpreted by Mr. Liang using modern philosophy.
It not only embodies the inherent essence of the traditional Confucian nature of mind, but also brings about a modern transformation. So, Mr. Liang's ethical theory is not floating in the air. Some people believe that Mr. Liang's Confucianism is manifested in an ethical concept, and he does not have a description of the ontology of mind and nature. This statement is problematic.
So, Mr. Liang's ideological system has a set of metaphysical and ontological foundations for its own nature. So, Mr. Liang's new Confucianism is a thorough Confucianism, not a half cut Confucianism.
Now let's talk about the fourth question, cultural philosophy.
Cultural philosophy is generally discussed more, which is also easier to understand. Let's briefly explain, first of all, culture. What is culture?
Mr. Liang has a definition that culture is just a way of national life. What is life? Life is just an endless desire (Will)... and the constant satisfaction of not being satisfied. (East West Culture and Its Philosophy)
So, when it comes to philosophy of life, it is often mentioned that it should be a system. Culture is the style or pattern of life. What is the essence of life? It's just intention. Intention, question and answer, driving life is a continuous and creative process. From the perspective of satisfying intention, Mr. Liang divides it into three levels.
These three levels give rise to the three major problems faced in life.
The first issue is the problem of people versus things.
Human life must rely on certain material resources, so people need to solve the problem of the relationship between people and things, that is, the problem of the relationship between people and the surrounding world. The current me, the current me, is going to overcome the already formed me in order to fulfill the desires and requirements of this person. This level of problem, that is, the problem of people versus things, can be satisfied.
The second issue is the problem of people to people.
People are the existence of a group, and if they want to engage in production and life, it will lead to the problem of relationships between people. According to Mr. Liang, this relationship is manifested as the satisfaction of one's desires and other emotions. Emotions include a wide range, but here it mainly refers to people, and I and other emotions are the hearts of others, "other hearts". The relationship between my satisfaction and his heart. So, it's hard to say whether the desire of the Manchu people at this level can be realized. I can't force it. I like a girl, but I can't force others to like me too. Therefore, whether the relationship between people can be satisfied is an uncertain question.
He is different from the first level, which has a good relationship between people and things and is easier to solve.
The third layer is about people's own problems.
The first and second level issues are both external problems. After solving external problems, people will realize that their troubles do not come from the outside, but from themselves. This involves a relationship between people and themselves, which is related to human freedom, such as the demand for one's own life. This problem makes it difficult or impossible to solve. For example, if a person wants to live forever, this problem cannot be solved. Now when we turn on the TV channel, the hottest topic is about health preservation. Preventing longevity is not a problem that can be solved by exercising and maintaining good health.
Some people pay great attention to health preservation, but their lifespan is very short. One of my classmates suddenly passed away in his 40s. Health preservation is very focused on exercise, and once he wears a leather jacket, he has money to drive a car and go up mountains, climb mountains, swim and exercise. He is very energetic in all aspects, but suddenly he disappeared in his 40s. This is not a problem that we can solve alone.
These are the issues in these three aspects.
Mr. Liang Shuming said so, but there's actually nothing mysterious about it.
For these three major problems, different solutions give rise to three directions in life. These three directions are summarized in "East West Culture and Philosophy".
The first type is called the original path.
It is the way of life where people strive to obtain what they demand and try to meet their needs.
The approach he adopts towards this path is a fighting attitude, which is to always move forward when encountering problems, demand action from the front, and seek solutions. The result of this approach is to transform the situation, so that the surrounding environment and world can satisfy my desires and requirements. This is the original direction of life, and the direction of this direction is to move forward.
The second approach is not to demand solutions or changes to the situation when encountering problems, but to seek my own satisfaction in this landscape.
This way of coping, his hands are not in front, and his eyes are not looking forward, but sideways. He doesn't want to struggle to change the situation, but rather to adapt to the situation through recollection. His method of dealing with this problem is only his own attempt to reconcile it. So he gave an example, for example, the house I live in is very small and leaking. The first way, his way is to demolish the house, rebuild it, and build a new house. And the second path, he is not going to change houses, not to solve the problem of this house, but to solve his own problems, to adapt to the situation, to adjust his attitude, to adjust his will. This can also be satisfied. The characteristic of this approach is to emphasize a transformation, harmony, and persistence in one's own beliefs.
The third approach is to fundamentally eliminate the problem when encountering it. It is neither to solve the situation and transform it, nor to debug oneself, but to fundamentally eliminate the problem.
So, this is also a way to deal with corresponding difficulties. So, for all desires, there is an attitude of abstinence, and the characteristic of this path is to turn back. If we take the example of a house, it is not like the first way to build a new house, nor is it to go back and adjust one's own ideas and attitude. But fundamentally canceling the desire for a house, this is an attitude of abstinence, and the characteristic of this path is to turn back and demand.
So the three directions of life are the fundamental theoretical basis for Mr. Liang's examination of cultural issues. Mr. Liang's understanding of culture adopts a holistic approach. He opposes viewing cultural issues as dead faces, abstracting them into abstract elements, and then combining them together.
So, when he talks about understanding the characteristics of culture, he first needs to grasp the direction of a way of life. His approach is to grasp the fundamental direction and spirit of a culture, rather than seeing it as some abstract faces, that is, some abstract things in the West, and then I take it over and integrate it. We now have a saying that we need to absorb the excellent achievements of human civilization and then establish our new socialist contemporary culture. This is different from Mr. Liang's statement. You first need to address your own fundamental attitude, grasp the fundamental spirit of a culture, and then establish a living system of such a culture. It cannot be said that all kinds of cultures are shattered, broken into pieces, and then reassembled.
So, Mr. Liang's three images, according to this cultural approach, when grasping a culture, one must grasp its fundamental attitude, and thus grasp its fundamental spirit, in order to truly solve the problem. According to Mr. Liang's own statement, this idea is that the essence of life lies in intention, and culture is just the way and variety of life. Therefore, the different styles of culture are due to the different interpretations of intention.
This is his fundamental view on culture. According to the three attitudes and three directions of life, he summarizes the Chinese and Western Indian cultures into three spirits.
Firstly, Westernization is fundamentally driven by the desire to move forward. Or, in other words, Westernization is the emergence of two distinct cultures, "Sainz" (science) and "Democles" (democracy), driven by a desire to move forward.
So, the fundamental spirit of Chinese culture is that it is based on the intention to harmonize and maintain the center, which is a summary of Chinese culture.
The summary of Indian culture is that it is based on the fundamental spirit of the desire to reverse oneself and demand backward.
This is just a simple explanation. Specifically speaking, the fundamental spirit of Western culture is the desire to move forward. In the era of ancient Greece and Rome, the West took the first path. But after the Middle Ages, we shifted to the second direction, which was to use religion as a fundamental guide for social life. Starting from the Renaissance, Westerners turned their gaze towards the heavens back into the human world. The Renaissance marked the awakening of Western self-awareness, and Westerners had self-awareness and self-awareness. Therefore, they had to demand for themselves and solve the problem of human beings' perception of things. This required them to seek from nature, and therefore, they had to conquer nature. Conquering nature required the use of science, which gave rise to the scientific strangeness.
