Chinese Attitudes Toward Nature, Time, Good and Evil Essay

As for the attitude of Chinese spate toward genius, it is undisputed that it is marked by a strong feeling of consistency, for example, oneness of nature and bit. According to ring Zhongshu, who was the closely important philosopher of the Western Han, enlightenment had its willing and purpose. It was Heaven that do the sun, the moon, and the stars move, the quadruplet seasons change, and all animals and plants grow and die. Heaven was kindhearted, so it made things draw one an different Heaven was as well severe, so it made things smite one an early(a). Moreover, Heaven created a linguistic rule to rule over the tidy sum. This meant that Heaven wanted the mint to be ruled.When a ruler did something wrong, Heaven would be angry and would give the ruler warnings by causing strange inherent phenomena to happen, such as eclipses, earthquakes, floods and droughts. This theorythe inter attain between Heaven and manhad a clear purpose. On the one hand, it was intended to s how that the rulers position and power were given to him by Heaven, and should not be questioned on the other hand, the ruler should be virtuous and benevolent, and govern well, so as not to incur Heavens anger. Dong had a well-known theorizeing The Way is great beca usance it originates in Heaven. Heaven does not change nor does the Way. I would desire to explain the idea clearly by an example. That is Feng Shui. Feng Shui ( in like manner known as geomancy) is an ancient Chinese remains of aesthetics believed to use the laws of both Heaven (astronomy) and Earth (geography) to help one improve look by receiving positive qi. Maybe umteen people think it is superstition, unless I consider it bed reflect the pursuit of harmonious bearing of Chinese people. There atomic number 18 four purposes in Feng Shui, seeking the consent of compassionate body the harmony between people and people the harmony between people and society the harmony between people and nature.let me give a small example ab come forward placing a posterior. The bash shall be slightly higher than the knee and not near the door. And it shall event to the south and back to the north in order to ad good duxhlt, the aorta and cock-a-hoop veins direction of the blood circulatory system, so that people hobo patch up a sleep easily, and have a high quality sleep. The bed cant facet the west, because the rotation of the earth is from east to west, devising the blood rush toward the head, and people cant sleep soundly. publicize presses which mean air conditioners hang supra the pillow, or the lights suspend above the bed, bring roughly oppression, and cause adverse effect of body and mind. Mirrors cant face the bed, if not people may be blow out of the water easily in midnight, and cant be peace. It really can express the attitude toward nature, uniting of heaven and humanity. As for the attitude of Chinese people toward epoch, three features will be mentioned about. The first is rou nd- type clock outlook. In the oriental world, farming is the major way of carrying out solid and exchanging goods dominates all the economic life of the whole society.This agooral civilization treats human and the nature as interrelated and interacted,the world as an integer organically linked. So in oriental society the round-type time outlook is that nature and human is integrate. This kind of time outlook h hoars the view that time is like a circle and all the things in the world return to its origina1 land after a cycle of time, for example, the alternation of day and night, the come and go of the four seasons,the turning of the twelve months, the growth of the age and the growing of plants.This kind of time view makes the Orientals handle the time at their disposal and do things at ease. For instance, when a teacher has not finished an important point in his class,he can prolong his class. At the Chinese wedding feast, few people will come at the time which is written on the invitation card. Moreover, Chinese use time very casually and intangibly. Chinese prefer to say some un certain voice communication 1ike at once, sometimes, a short while, which a1ways confuse the westerners.Chinese students who be studying side tend to misuse the tense when communicate with outsiders. In a word, Chinese dont have clear differentiation concept of time. The puntly is polychromic time system. Polychromic time system means people be very casual in using time. In other words, being punctual is important, but not strict. Polychromic time system is the heritage of traditional agri pagan society. good deal are used to do severa1 different things at the same time and do things emphasizing undercoat time.Chinese think that all(prenominal)thing in the world develops with the cycling of time, so people catch the time that is ripe for acting, which means each step of our action is determined temporarily by our surroundings. So action is poorly mean by Chinese. In some occasions, people can do many things in the same time. A Chinese salesman can check out with the first customer on the one hand,and show the goods to a second one on the other hand, even greet a trine One at the same time. However, westerners can hardly accomplish them and also can not accept them. The third is past time predilection. m orientation is a relatively stable factor in cultural difference. It is connected to the historical background of the. Generally speaking, people who have too heavy tradition, look up to history and past, so their time orientation is past-oriented. Chinese belong to past-oriented. heap show great respect to the past. The past follow through and 1esson are important reference for todays mastery and failure. Chinese show respect to ancestors and teachers. They like to say things by referencing to the old books and stories. That is why Chinese call teachers lao shi. lao means old.People attach importance to age and experience, because they are symbols of power and wisdom, so words like lao and da always mean respect in Chinese. As for the attitude of Chinese people toward good and offensive, perhaps the most extreme view of commodity is found in the Buddhist tradition. Buddhism maintains that we are born pure and are closest to what is called loving kindness when we register this world. Hence, people are good, and our culture is what makes us shame. The view of goodness is also found in Confucianism. Meng Zi made the original goodness of human nature the keynote to his system.To him, the virtue of humanity together with the accompanying virtues of righteousness, rites and wisdom arises from the inside(a) springs of the human heart. These four cardinal virtues come in their seed nisusthe four beginnings, as the feeling of compassion, shame, modesty, and of the distinction between right and wrong. such(prenominal) feelings are universal among mankind and they come as naturally ad taste for food, and sight for beauty. This, Meng Zi argued, can be seen in the fact that a child naturally loves his parents and that a man will instinctively experience a feeling into a well.Therefore, human nature is originally good, and will be good if it is guided by its innate feelings, just as water is inclined to flow downward. In contrast to the concept of the goodness of human nature advocated by Meng Zi, Xun Zi declared that human nature is originally evil because human desires inevitably lead to greed and strife if remaining untrained. Believing that goodness can only be acquired, Xun Zi stressed the judge of education and environment. To him it is environment and authority that make the man, and it is obedience of the precepts of the sage-kings that produces the goodness that is in him.In the end, however, not only is the life of virtue a conjecture but even sage-hood is within reach. Therefore, Xun Zi said, Every man on the pass can become like the sage-king Yu, a perfect orthodox Confucian note. What mentioned about are viewpoints from the ancients. Nowadays Chinese attitudes toward good and evil are very wide and vague, not like Christianity which has a ten commandments, qualification the general public even those without much cultural literacy has some certain standards, ruling what can do and can not do, their attitudes toward good and evil are absolutely clear.But to Chinese, goose egg must been done and nothing can not be done. The boundary between good and evil is obscure, in some condition something is good but in other condition it may be bad. To Chinese the boundary is always about degree, whether it is excessive or not. For example, talking between Chinese friends sometimes contains opprobrious language, but it doesnt mean they hate each other, most of time, it is just joking. That behavior is not really evil, but if it is overdone, it will be.Chinese Peoples attitude toward nature, time, good and evil have been formed gradually, and they are relatively stable in a long time, but they are not without changes. The better living conditions, the development of the economy, the improvement of the society and the increase of the interaction of people from different cu1tural backgrounds will undoubtedly have cunning effects on their views, although it is also a long process. What I talking about is some basic attitude of Chinese, it will help foreigner to understand Chinese better, but not always apply to every Chinese at every time.