《英文随笔》金昔吖

6、回答：关于乌有之乡与各宗派的“天”

　　The Answer to the First Question
　　To some extent, a Confucian society is similar to the Nowhereville depicted by Joel Feinberg. From Confucian’s perspective of view, we need to build a society based on morality such as righteousness, benevolence, and ritual. In this highly ideal society—which can also be called Confucian’s utopia for it can hardly come true, where the common good is the most essential ingredient, all the people live harmoniously and the administrators are elected among the good and capable people who can do well in public service. Everyone does his or her best in the society to gain wealth and people feel sympathy to those miserable people, nourishing the infant as well as burying the dead without the slightest dissatisfaction. Thus, a Confucian society shares many of the same qualities with the Nowhereville where people are compassionate, sympathetic, honorable and are endowed with a strong sense of duty. However, although moral norms are highlighted in the Confucian society, the right can also be found in this valued-based morality, notwithstanding directly but being mentioned in a rather complicated way. For example, according to Mencius, the people are the most important element in a state and the spirits of land and grain are secondary while the sovereign is the least[1]. (Mencius, 74) It will no longer be a crime of regicide to kill the ruler, if the sovereign does not act ideally ought to do, for he morally ceases to be a sovereign and become a “mere fellow”, following Confucius’ theory of the rectification of names. That is to say, if a ruler lacks the ethical qualities that make a good leader, the people have the moral right of revolution, which resembles Rousseau’s theory of social contract though Mencius doesn’t pinpoint the behavior of overthrowing the government is called people’s “right”. So, the Confucian society is different from Joel Feinberg’s Nowhereville which lacks the notion of rights.
　　The shortcomings in the moral society are obviously with the absence of the notion of rights. In a right-absent value-based moral society, there is no foothold of individual interest since the only thing people care is the common good. Just as Joel Feinberg’s description of Nowhereville, since there is no conception of right, it is regarded as a kind of philanthropic work for a debtor to pay off his debt or a diner to pay for his meal[2]. Though nobody is harmed by this kind of social system, we can see clearly that the Nowhereville or any society with the absence of rights can’t last for long. Tracing back to the Campaign of People\'s Commune when collectivism was highly emphasized, we could see that people at that time create less value. Those examples tell us that our society cannot exist without rights and both rights and moralities are the very foundation of human society.
　　Bibliography:
　　[1] Feng, Youlan. A Short History of Chinese Philosophy. The Free Press, 1948:73-74.
　　[2] 李承焕, 梁涛, and 赵依. \"儒家基于美德的道德中存在权利观念吗.\" 现代哲学 3(2013):84-91.

　　The Answer to the Second Question
　　For Confucianism, “heaven” is conceived of as a purposeful force or the total existent conditions and the forces of the whole universe. For the external of our activity, the cooperation of these conditions is always needed [1]. (Feng Youlan, 83) But this cooperation is wholly beyond our control. When we are going to do something, apart from our unceasing efforts, we also rely on the external conditions, which can be understood as “heaven” or destiny, partly because we cannot grasp this part in our own hand and know little about what is going to happen the next second. Thus for Confucian scholars, the best things to do is simply to try to carry out what we know we ought to try out, without caring whether in the process we succeed or fail, which is similar to a Chinese saying: do your best and let others be decided by the heaven(尽人事，听天命).
　　As for the heaven mentioned in Daoism, heaven is nature or can be seen as a kind of principle by which all the things come to be. thus, it guilds all kinds of things in the world. Though things are ever changeable and changing, the laws, which is also called “Tao”, that govern this change of things are not themselves changeable[1]. (Feng Youlan, 179) According to the Taoism, we human beings, in the light of the principles of nature, should restrict our activities to what is necessary and what is natural and live up to the theory of “having-no-activity”.
　　The Buddhist heaven is subdivided by later sources(post-five century), into twenty-six different levels or “mansions”, so when the other five realms are included a total of thirty-one possible rebirth-destinations is arrived at. The higher realms you live, the more superior you will be. The notion of the six realms and thirty-one levels overlaps with another conception of the universe as divided three spheres which includes the sphere of sense-desires, sphere of pure form and sphere of formlessness. It is like a kind of building where people can move from one place to another through the function of karma.
　　Generally speaking, these three concepts are different from each other. For Confucianism, heaven is a kind of external condition or external cause which is beyond our control but have an influence on the result of our behaviors. Hence, we need to pay attention and show our respect to heaven. But as Xun Zi says, we can also take advantage of heaven(nature) through the use of subjective initiative(制天命而用之). For Daoism, heaven is the principle through which all things come to be, so it guilds ten thousand things. And we should obey heaven instead of doing against of it. However, heaven is unconscious. As Lao Zi says, heaven and earth are ruthless and they treat the myriad creatures as straw dogs(天地不仁，以万物为刍狗). The heaven in Buddhism is a certain place while for both Daoism and Confucianism，the heaven is an abstract concept. Buddhism’s heaven, influenced by the caste system in India, is just like other worlds where different kinds of creatures live, no matter they are inferior or superior to human beings. It is similar to heaven in Christianism and people can live in the heaven after-life if they behave themselves in this life.
　　Bibiliography：
　　[1] Feng, Youlan. A Short History of Chinese Philosophy. The Free Press, 1948:71-179.