Spiritual Value of Chinese Culture

Author: Tang Junyi
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-01-01
Features: The spirit of Chinese culture, at least in one aspect, is truly of the highest value. This is the recognition that "benevolence is the foundation of humanity," through which the universe is connected, character is cultivated, human relationships are rectified, and human culture is revealed. Therefore, Chinese culture, in its essence, is fundamentally pure and tranquil, based on the extremely profound and sincere virtue of "standing on the earth to inherit the heavens, inheriting the heavenly way to elevate humanity." If we use metaphorical language, we can say that the spirit of Chinese culture, in its origin, is straight up and down, ensuring that neither the heavens nor any person, nor any human cultural activity, nor all things on the earth are wronged. Because it does not wrong heaven, people, things, or human cultural activities, the spirit of Chinese culture also has a side that is extensive and extremely broad, calm, and expansive.
Chapter 1: External Factors in the Formation of Eastern and Western Cultural Spirits (1) The Sources of Western Culture Are Multifaceted, While Those of Chinese Culture Are Unitary (2) Contact Between Different Cultural Nations—War and Commerce and Their Relationship to the Formation of Western Cultural Spirit (3) The Relationship Between Agriculture and Peace and the Formation of Chinese Cultural Spirit (4) The Differences in the Faces of Eastern and Western Cultures—Emphasizing Cultural Categories and Cultural Unity
Chapter 2: The Origin of Chinese Culture and Religion (1) The Labor Spirit in Ancient China and Its Relationship to Social and Political Affairs (2) The Interdependence of Social and Political Affairs and Literature and Art (3) The Characteristics of Ancient Chinese Religious Spirit
Chapter 3: The Original Spirit of Chinese Philosophy (1) The Problem of the Origin of Chinese Philosophy and Its Alignment with the Clan Feudal System of the Zhou Dynasty, Integrating Family, Society, Politics, and Morality as One (2) The Origin of Chinese Philosophical Wisdom as the Ascendancy of Ancient Religious and Moral Spirit, Not as Doubt or Criticism of It (3) Confucius’s Role in Bridging the Past and the Future and Establishing Humanity Through the Heavenly Way (4) Confucius’s Comprehensive Harmony with Heaven and Comprehensive Humanistic Spirit, and the Humanistic Spirit and Philosophy He Unveiled (5) The Formation of Chinese Cultural Spirit and Its Differences from the West
Chapter 4: The Academic and Cultural Spirit of China After Confucius (1) The Nine Schools and the Six Arts and the Spirit of Confucius (2) A Comprehensive Explanation of the Cultural Spirit of the Qin, Han, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties
Chapter 5: The Natural and Cosmic Views of Chinese Sages (1) The Natural and Cosmic Views in Western Philosophy and Science (2) The Lack of a Concept of Transcendent Necessary Laws in Chinese Natural and Cosmic Views, While Natural Laws Are Seen as Inherent in Natural Things (3) In Chinese Natural and Cosmic Views, Universals Are Not Reason. The fundamental principle of the existence of things is their vitality, which is their nature. The nature of things manifests in their moral qualities in communication with other things. Nature or vitality is a principle of freedom and generation, not a principle of necessity (4) In Chinese Natural and Cosmic Views, all things are seen as having emptiness to contain reality, forming a process of generation and transformation, hence no concept of purely material entities, and no perpetual contradiction or conflict among all things, but rather a principle of returning to harmony through mutual influence (5) In Chinese Cosmology, matter and energy, matter and space, and time and space are not opposed to each other. Space and time are explained in terms of order, without the concept of "infinite time and space" (6) Chinese Natural and Cosmic Views emphasize the unity of truth, image, and number without separation (7) A Cosmological View Where Value Lies Within Natural Things (8) Comparisons of the Natural and Cosmic Views of Confucianism, Taoism, Yin-Yang, and Other Schools
Chapter 6: The Views of Chinese Sages on the Human Mind (1) The Differences in Views on the Human Mind Between Eastern and Western Philosophies (2) The Indivisibility, Spirituality, Comprehensiveness, and Dominance of the Mind (3) The Mind’s Knowledge and Spirit as Its Yin and Yang Aspects (4) The Mind’s Spirit and Will and Qi (5) The Mind’s Nature and Temperament (6) The Goodness or Badness of Nature and Temperament and the Nature and Principle