Series of Tang Junyi's Works · Continuation of Life's Experience

Author: Tang Junyi
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2005-09-01
Features: This book consists of seven chapters, which are the works of the author over the past seven years, serving as a continuation of his earlier work, Experiences of Life. In terms of the core ideas, there has been no change compared to the previous book. The differences lie, as mentioned in the introduction to the seventh chapter of this book, that the earlier work Experiences of Life was solely based on the affirmation of the upward nature of life to seek transcendence beyond one's current worldly troubles. However, over the past decade, the author has had deeper experiences of the difficulties, sins, and tragedies of life. Therefore, in comparison, the earlier book tends to focus more on the positive aspects of life, with simpler thoughts, primarily aimed at self-motivation rather than preaching, and the writing style is more fresh and lively. Although it occasionally expresses reflections on life, it still resonates with the youthful mindset. This book, on the other hand, more openly addresses the negative aspects of life, such as difficulties, sins, and tragedies, and all the words are intended to transform these obstacles into positive forces that lead to the right path of life. The thoughts are more intricate and winding, serving both as self-motivation and as encouragement to others, with a stronger sense of preaching. The writing style is inevitably more somber and heavy, like autumn winds and rains, differing greatly from the freshness of late spring. Nevertheless, this book faces these negative aspects without evasion, reflecting deeply on life's challenges to cut through the vines blocking the path. Once the thorns are cleared, the landscape becomes picturesque. The gains and losses of spring and autumn are indeed difficult to judge. However, one must experience spring to reach autumn. This book resonates more with the mindset of those who have endured life's hardships yet remain committed to upward aspirations; readers of this book should first read the earlier work, Experiences of Life, making this book merely a continuation.
The above remarks compare the earlier and later works of the author, reflecting on the mindset during the writing process. As for the value of this book in the realm of literature, it is difficult to say. The author wrote this book, much like the earlier one, without comparing it to any ancient or modern life philosophies, nor did he have a systematic plan beforehand. Initially, he did not envision a body of literature and did not aim to complete a work; he simply spoke from his own real feelings and observations in this era and this world, gradually forming these seven chapters. They were compiled in the order of writing. However, after compiling them, the author reflected and found that the essence of these chapters, though similar, each has a specific topic, and there is an order in their writing sequence. Moreover, from the perspective of the main principles of these seven chapters, what each chapter presents has advanced beyond what the ancient sages spoke of, offering resources to open up a new realm of thought. These will be elaborated below. However, these descriptions are not tied to the exact wording of the seven chapters but rather require readers to grasp the essence after reading the chapters to align with what is described.
Regarding the essence of these seven chapters, it is not different from what was mentioned above—transforming the negative aspects of life into positive forces that lead to the right path. This so-called upward path of life lies in continuously seeking to transcend the current state of life. This transcendence, externally, means extracting one's life from the mundane world. This extraction is a separation from the mundane world. This separation is not the endpoint of the upward path but an indispensable starting point. This is also the core idea the seven chapters of this book, which is emphasized throughout. The inability to transcend the mundane world primarily stems from the inability to detach from the praise and criticism of the world. Therefore, one must have a true understanding of the phenomenon of praise and criticism to transform the mundane into the true, to rise from the mundane world to the true world, and to achieve the rise of one's subjective personality. This is the topic of the chapter. As for the second chapter, it shifts to discuss the cohesion and development of the individual's mind and the way it connects with the world. The intention here is to ensure that the mind does not drift with the world nor becomes (closed off) to itself, but instead engages in deep discussions with teachers and friends on the path of and steadfast truth. The third chapter discusses the difficulties and joys of life, where there is neither the world nor teachers and friends, only a solitary individual who, in pursuit of life's upward path, faces its difficulties to reach the "emotional realm of joy and sorrow." The mention of the world here is integrated into the individual's experiences of difficulties and the coexistence of joy and sorrow, and the truth lies within this emotional realm, thus differing slightly from the purpose of the first two chapters. Among the chapters in this book, this one is also written with a more poignant emotional tone. The fourth chapter discusses the way of establishing aspirations and the relationship between oneself and the world, where aspirations encompass emotions. The establishment of aspirations lies in transcending the mundane world while also placing oneself within it, and encompassing the world within oneself. The fifth chapter discusses the theory of life and death and the boundary between the visible and invisible. It speaks of death from life, the invisible from the visible, and aims to understand the interconnectedness of life and death and the one heart that permeates the minds of people across time and space. This is the most profound meaning among the chapters of this book and is also the most difficult for contemporary people to fully believe. This requires one to first believe in the eternal existence of truth, understand the coexistence of joy and sorrow, and the aspiration to connect with the minds of people across time and space, to truly grasp this meaning. The sixth chapter discusses the illusory and real aspects of life, which addresses how to remove the illusory elements in life—these illusions stem from the misuse of the dignity of being human—and argues that a person's knowledge, emotions, and intentions in dealing with the world must be fully genuine, making their entire personality a genuine existence. This aligns with the teaching of establishing sincerity in the Doctrine of the Mean. The seventh chapter discusses the upside-down and repositioning of life, where it extensively explains how the upside-down aspects of life—such as decline, obsession, pollution, and sin—arise from the upside-down nature of the individual's infinite and transcendent life force, which is not their true nature. The intention here is to understand this upside-down nature to reveal the straight path of life's proper position. Based on this, the descent of life into decline is also a means to help it transcend and ascend, and the religious perspective on the pollution and sin of life aligns with Confucian teachings without contradiction.
Following the above discussion, it is clear that these seven chapters, though sharing the same core idea, each has a specific topic, yet they are connected in sequence, roughly following the order of transcending the mundane world to achieve the transcendence of the individual's mind, emotions, and aspirations, and connecting with the minds of people across time and space to make life's existence a genuine existence in the right position. This order was only discovered by the author after compiling these chapters unintentionally. The author spent seven years writing these seven chapters, with an average of one year between each chapter, and each chapter took only a few days to complete. In a year, there are more than 360 days, with other matters taking up the time. According to physiologists, after seven years, a person's body has completely renewed its cells. Yet, these seven chapters seem to have an order within them, revealing the hidden currents of the human heart. Even with towering mountains and rocks blocking the way, they do not prevent the heart from moving forward silently. These are all things that leave the author in awe and reflection.
Regarding the main principles of these seven chapters, the author reflects today and summarizes them as follows: All these chapters aim to point out that for those who seek the upward path of life, the ideal environment they aspire to and their journey upward, as well as the nature of their heart that supports this upward path, are always accompanied by a downward tendency and a risk of falling. They are often easily deceived by the appearance of being right but actually being misleading. Therefore, if one truly seeks the upward path of life, they must have a true understanding and genuine awareness of this downward tendency and the misleading appearances. They must also experience and bear the heavy burden of these emotions, only then can they transcend them to achieve the upward path of life. This was something the author did not fully grasp when writing Experiences of Life, nor did the ancient Confucians or Western idealists pay close attention to this. The ancient Confucians spoke of benevolence, the connection between the human heart and mind, and seeing the divine heart through benevolence and this connection. Western idealists spoke of the metaphysical unity of the human mind and saw the heart of God through this. These are the ultimate meanings of Chinese and Western thought, which the author has long believed in and cherished, and enjoys extending and elaborating on them. The ultimate meaning of these seven chapters also lies in this. However, few people understand that the desire for fame, reputation, and the love of power and position all stem from the human heart's desire for connection with others, and their root lies in the desire to achieve unity between oneself and others. Only by acting in accordance with benevolence can one aspire to be a sage. To chase fame and position is to sink into the mundane world. A single thought can change the situation from above to below, and few people are aware of the danger and the misleading appearances. This is one of the key points the author emphasizes throughout the book, and its essence is presented in the chapter.
The ancient Confucians spoke of the opening and closing, as well as the movement and stillness of the universe and the human heart, which all belong to the great principles of the universe and life. These are the foundations for manifesting the Great Ultimate and establishing the human ultimate. Western idealists also spoke of the interplay of opposites and the mutual use of the negative and positive, combining them to reveal the absolute truth of the universe. However, they did not work on the opening and closing, movement, and stillness of the human heart to establish the human ultimate, differing from the urgent emphasis of Chinese Confucian learning in this regard. Although Chinese Confucian learning is deeply concerned with this, its teachings are concise and difficult to address the complexities of the modern world. The ancient sages spoke primarily from the positive side, leaving unaddressed the risks of being blocked or deviated, leading people into traps and whirlpools. This was something the author overlooked when writing Experiences of Life and other works.
In the second chapter of this book, the author discusses the cohesion and development of the mind, constantly referring to the mind being trapped in traps and flowing like whirlpools as a counterpoint. This is actually to highlight the ancient sages' idea that the opening and closing, movement, and stillness of the human heart all have the potential to lead to illness and pain. The opening and closing, movement, and stillness of the human heart are what the ancient sages called the continuous generation and transformation of the Great Ultimate, and how could the root of human desires also be within this flow? The flow of human desires into traps and whirlpools also seems like the movement and stillness of the Great Ultimate, but they are worlds apart. This is the subtle meaning hidden in the second chapter of this book, though there is still more to be explored.
For example, in the journey of life, the author once discussed in Experiences of Life how one progresses from seeking survival, love, fame, and achieving success to the path of truth, beauty, goodness, and sanctity. The reason for this step-by-step progression is that each step is never enough, something the author saw and which Western idealists and all those seeking the upward path of life also recognized. However, the ancient sages did not like to divide the path of life's upward journey into separate categories, stages, steps, or levels. They always saw it as a continuous journey leading directly to the realm of truth, beauty, goodness, and sanctity, governing this life. Confucius spoke of aspiring to the way, relying on virtue, and following benevolence while engaging in arts—there are no distinct levels in this. From this perspective, Western science and philosophy seeking truth, literature and arts seeking beauty, as well as rituals, education, politics, and economics in religion, and all practical skills, are all arts. The key to self-cultivation lies in constantly reflecting on whether one's engagement in these arts is based on benevolence and whether their external actions are grounded in internal virtue. Their aspirations should align with the great path of life. This method of self-cultivation requires constant reflection and close inquiry into each matter, and it does not necessarily need to divide life into categories or systematically discuss the process of self-cultivation. However, in the modern world, all social, cultural, academic, and professional endeavors have clearly become specialized fields. The human heart, passing through these fields one by one to experience the world, forms a journey. When dealing with the world, the benevolence one relies on and the virtue one stands on also have distinctions, so it is not impossible to discuss the changes and progress of one's mindset and the levels of the path one has traveled through. This is the way the author speaks today, which is vastly different from the past.
However, dividing life into categories and discussing the changes and progress of one's mindset and the levels of the path one has traveled through may have good intentions, but simply discussing these levels from the lowest to the highest can create the illusion that life's journey naturally progresses upward. The author's discussion in the second and third chapters of Experiences of Life, as well as Hegel's discussion in his Phenomenology of Spirit, can both lead people to this illusion. This is because we overlook the fact that the journey and steps of life can also stagnate at every step. Each step of upward progress can regress into decline; even if there is no stagnation and progress, each step is filled with difficulties. From this perspective, life may seem as if it can never progress. The differences in mindset are ultimately equal, and life in this world is entirely unreliable, and one must always be cautious of falling into the abyss. This is the limitation of viewing life's journey as a process of upward transformation and progress. The reason for this is discussed in the third chapter of this book, which addresses the difficulties of life. This chapter highlights the difficulties in every step of life's journey and progress, seeing the potential for regression within the progress, and making people realize that all progress is fraught with the appearance of being right but actually being misleading.
Furthermore, the path of life begins with establishing aspirations. The essence of life lies in the heart, and aspirations are the direction of the heart and the place where the heart's essence resides. The ancient sages certainly emphasized establishing aspirations, and the Buddhist vow and the Christian return to the Lord are both forms of establishing aspirations. However, the ancient sages spoke of establishing aspirations primarily from the positive side. Where aspirations are, the path is. If aspirations are truly established, they remain inseparable from the path. When they are full and radiant, the realm of the Great Ultimate and sanctity is not far off. This principle, the author deeply believes and dare not oppose. However, if aspirations are not transcendent or only focused on personal achievement, then this path is not entirely straight but rather curved. Only by achieving this curve can sincerity be attained. However, the meaning of achieving sincerity through this curve has not been fully explored by the ancient sages and awaits our deep understanding of why it is curved. The reason for this curve lies in the fact that when one aspires to achieve others, one must gain something in the world, and this gain blocks the upward path of aspirations, making one forget the original aspiration to achieve others. If one turns to seek nothing, they can only return to transcendent self-achievement, no longer being the aspiration of Confucianism, making the words of achieving oneself and others merely empty talk. All of this is inevitable, and it shows that in the process of establishing and achieving aspirations and career goals, there is a risk of losing aspirations and failing to achieve them, creating a large curve. The meaning of achieving sincerity through this curve and accomplishing the straight path of life lies in the fact that one must transcend the mundane world while maintaining a transcendent intention within, and must also be based on the two principles of placing oneself in the world and placing the world within oneself to view the relationship between oneself and the world. More importantly, one must seek to overcome the suffering of this division to establish a foundation for aspiring to career goals.
From this perspective, the ancient sages' statement that "the self and the universe are one" can be described as the mindset and essence of the realm of the Great Ultimate and sanctity of the sages. If one aspires to this, it is enough to establish aspirations. However, this is not acceptable. The meaning of oneness must first be understood from three perspectives, and experiencing the suffering of this division is actually a return to sincerity, and there is no greater joy than this. The learning of the Song Confucians began with seeking the joy of Confucius and Yan Hui and emphasized that one must first seek transcendence and self-contentment. However, when discussing achieving aspirations and career goals, they also said that one must endure hardship. In this era of divided techniques, we should enter the path through the suffering of this division. If one can experience the suffering of this division and see the harmony sought by the human heart and its original harmony, then joy is present. Therefore, joy should come from the suffering of division. If one lives in the modern world and remains indifferent to all divisions and suffering, merely imitating the early learning of the two brothers in admiring the wind and moon with Zhou Moushu and the joy of Zhu Xi by passing by the river with flowers and willows, seeing the same life force of the universe and the human being, and stopping there, it would also be an illusionary Confucianism.
Moreover, when discussing life, people often overlook the fact that one has died. However, in the modern era, we are more aware that one can die at any moment. Nuclear war today can destroy us at any time. Therefore, living by the side of death has become more acute in this era. The tragedy of death is something only religious people can truly understand. The author once participated in a Buddhist ceremony for crossing over the spirits of the living, moved beyond himself, and thus knew that there is much to do in connecting the visible and invisible. Western philosophers, however, are numb to the problem of human death, merely discussing it as a philosophical issue. The ancient sages of China emphasized sacrifices, purely to connect the visible and invisible, and this has been taken seriously from ancient times to the present. Today, few people understand its meaning. One must treat the end of life as the beginning, as if serving the dead as if serving the living, and then one can reach the extreme. When one's emotions overflow beyond the world of the living and extend to the world of the dead, penetrating the invisible, then the world of the living is also within one's embrace, and one's benevolence to the living can then reach the extreme. However, the problem with religious people is that their emotions may fall into the invisible and even become lost in it. If they do not sincerely respect the sages, heroes, ancestors, and parents, the hidden virtues and radiance of the dead may not be captured by them to return to the visible. This is why the meaning of sacrifices in Confucianism is so sincere. As for religious people, such as Christians who pray for the dead and Buddhists who seek to cross over the spirits of the living, they also have an inexplicable effect that cannot be measured by ordinary people. These are all ways to show that the deepest emotions of the human heart must penetrate the invisible, and they should coexist with Confucian sacrifices without contradiction. However, these are not only things that Western philosophers overlook but also the meaning that all scholars in the secular world overlook. Those who cling to the saying of Confucius that "one does not know life without knowing death" also often exclude this topic from the broader questions of life. In reality, life and death are two sides of a human being, and they must be combined to see the whole person. Since they are two sides, they can be connected. The author's fifth chapter aims to speak of death from life, the invisible from the visible, and the interconnectedness of life and death and the one heart that permeates the minds of people across time and space, to show that it is possible to connect the visible and invisible through sacrifices. Therefore, the truth of life is that death is also life, and the emotions of ghosts and spirits also remain in this world. If readers can deeply understand what is said in this chapter, then there will be a horizontal and vertical path between the visible and invisible, as well as between the visible and visible, and between the invisible and invisible, allowing the human heart to move back and forth. Moreover, the human mind itself cannot make the dead truly die, so nuclear war cannot truly kill people, and it is truly nothing to fear, only that the evil it creates cannot be reversed. However, to deeply understand what is said in this chapter, one must first deeply understand that one is born from death and that one's emotions must first penetrate the invisible to enter the invisible. Being born from death means that life force exists above death force. Without death force, there is no life force. Those who do not understand death force also do not understand life force. One's emotions must penetrate the invisible to enter the invisible because only through this can one fully exhaust their benevolence, and only by fully exhausting their benevolence can others truly live. Then, those who only know life and do not know death are harmful to life and do not know life and life force. As the saying goes, "one does not see the true face of Mount Lu because one is in the middle of it." One is born but not truly born. This is the harm of not knowing death. Not knowing death not only makes life not truly life but also makes life an illusory life. The world that values life often teaches not to seek knowledge of death, and ordinary people are also afraid to face death and its truth, and they often suppress their emotions of penetrating the invisible to enter the invisible, viewing ancestor worship as unnecessary, and seeing the prayers of religious people for the dead and the crossing over of the spirits of the living as useless. They do not know that all of these prove that life is not truly life. In the vast sea of people, who is truly alive? Unless it is the great sages, who can know?
Regarding the sixth chapter of this book, which speaks of the realness of life, one of the key principles is to point out that the intrinsic transcendence of a person, among other things, can also be misused and become one of the reasons for the illusory components in one's existence. The seventh chapter, on the upside-down and repositioning of life, points out that the self of a person's transcendent and infinite life force can be upside-down and may appear detached from it or disconnected from it in the finite, leading to countless stains and sins of life. This transcendence and infiniteness of a person are originally tied to the endless dignity of being human, which the author has often discussed and which Western idealist philosophers also highly value. However, this chapter explains that it is also a source of the illusory and countless stains and sins of life. Therefore, this transcendence and infiniteness, tied to the dignity of being human, are like not being able to maintain their transcendence or infiniteness, and have a tendency to sink downward, leading to illusory and detachment. The illusory and misleading manifestations of a person's transcendence and infiniteness also show that the degree of genuineness in a person's existence may be lower than that of other natural objects. This also shows that the depth of human sin is far beyond that of beasts. Therefore, the dignity tied to being human is also the root of human humiliation; the place where a person becomes higher than all things and wiser than beasts is also the place where a person is lower than all things and more sinful than beasts. From this perspective, all praise can be given to humans, and all curses can also be given to humans. Humans can rise to heaven, and they can also sink into hell. Being born into the universe is truly a place where the illusory and the real intersect, and it is also a field where God and demons compete. The descent and ascent of life are both () and uncertain. The author's recent feelings about this have not failed to coincide with those of Western existentialism. They are all reflections of this divided world, and the journey of human spiritual life has encountered the same problems over thousands of years until today. The difference lies in that the existentialists, in speaking of this, all hope to expose the crisis of humanity and further seek to exhaust the principles of philosophy to speak, and their brilliant arguments are enough to shock the heart and move the soul. The author's words in this book are indeed inferior to this, and he has no intention of imitating them. As for the division of this world and the crisis of humanity, one can only know that it is roughly like this. If one must discuss it in detail, it is like drawing ghosts and demons to seek pleasure, and once they are vividly drawn, they may be eaten by the ghosts and demons. It is better to briefly describe its appearance and keep the rest hidden in silence. The path of life's upward journey still lies in transforming illusion into truth, expelling demons and preserving the way, moving from decline to ascent, and restoring harmony to a divided world. Therefore，for this human crisis of entering illusion and (), one should only point it out on the journey of life's upward path. This is the reason why this book, although it points out the negative aspects that people encounter on the path of their upward journey, is quite different from the earlier works of the sages and Western idealists, as well as the book Experiences of Life, which primarily speaks from the positive side. It is also far from the work of the existentialists, who excel at describing and exposing. Yet，it still inherits the spirit of practical emphasis of the sages and speaks，hoping to clearly present and establish the positive ideals of life. And this book is merely a continuation of the earlier work Experiences of Life, and its intention lies in this.