Abstract
A Confucian understanding of the proper character for an environmental ethics is as different from that dominant in the West, as is a Confucian business ethics from that affirmed in the Occident. To appreciate the differences requires attending to the ways in which Confucian morality structures the relationship between humans and nature. In this chapter, a reconstructionist Confucian account is brought to bear on the ethics, epistemology, and metaphysics of environmentalism. The view defended is in many regards anthropocosmic, rather than anthropocentric (Tu, 1989: 102; Tu, 1998). However, the adjective “anthropocosmic” is too obscure, ambiguous, and imprecise to describe an environmental ethics with substantive, specific, normative implications for how humans should treat animals and other objects in nature. On the other hand, ethical anthropocentrism is relevant to the intrinsic values of humans vis-à-vis other
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- 1.
The classic Yijing (
) is divided into texts and commentaries. The texts, consisting of 64 hexagrams and judgments on them, were compiled long before Confucius. The commentaries (Yi Zhuan, 
or “ten wings” 
) were supposedly written by Confucius. However, the dominant view today is that the commentaries were a product of many hands over a long period of time, probably from 5th or 6th century BCE to the 3rd or 4th century BCE See Chan, 1963: 262. For our purposes, the crucial issue is not about who wrote them and at what time. At stake is which message they basically convey: Confucian or Daoist? This chapter argues that they convey the Confucian instruction (see note 2). - 2.
Whether the Xici (
) is primarily a Confucian or Daoist text has been a matter of considerable controversy. However, both sides agree that the Xici synthesizes doctrines from several different schools, including the Yin-Yang, Daoist, and Confucian schools. Even the most enthusiastic contemporary defender of the Daoist interpretation of the commentaries, Chen Guying, acknowledges that the ethical view contained in the Xici is primarily Confucian (Chen, 1994: 105). But many seem to believe that the metaphysics and cosmology in the commentaries of the Yijing (the Xici included) are primarily Daoist. For this chapter’s purposes, the most important issue is as follows: if Confucians regard the character of the commentaries as basically Confucian (as I do), can they still accept a Daoist metaphysics and cosmology? This chapter holds that they cannot, because Daoist metaphysics and cosmology are in tension with Confucian moral assumptions. This position is elaborated below. - 3.
Unless otherwise explained, the English translation of the chapter is adapted from the work by De Bary et al. (1960: 197–199). I have divided the whole chapter into five paragraphs for separate citations.
- 4.
The phrase “the suitabilities of the soil” appears in Legge’s translation (1973: 382).
- 5.
The phrase “to classify the qualities of the myriads of things” appears in Legge’s translation (1973: 383).
- 6.
This view has been developed in a series of works by Chung-ying Cheng, who used the thought from the Yijing and the Yizhuang to lay out the traditional Chinese vision of the environment. See, for instance, his 1994 and 1998.
- 7.
The notion of natural law is multivalent in the West. One strand of natural law has its roots in the Western Christian 13th-century synthesis of Aristotelian and Stoic assumptions, which regarded nature as structured by intrinsic normative teleologies that not only shape the usual course of events, but in the case of humans, also mark out normatively constraining goals ingredient in their very biological character. An example of this can be found in the position developed by Thomas Aquinas (1224–1274). Other concepts emerged in the Western philosophical tradition that saw moral-normative ingredient in the very character of rationality itself. Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) is an example of such a position. Anticipations of Kant’s position can already be found in the Second Scholasticism, as with Francisco de Vitoria (1480–1546), for whom the rationalistic, non-biological account of natural law predominates. I appreciate the instruction of H. T. Engelhardt, Jr. regarding the Western notion of natural law.
- 8.
The following image is sometimes used to convey the nature of the cosmos in the Daoist thought: “the web that knows no weaver.” See Kinsley (1995: 68).
- 9.
My view expressed here is in tension with a relevant view held by many Neo-Confucians since the Song dynasty, especially contemporary Neo-Confucians. Many contemporary Neo-Confucians are keen to give an atheist interpretation to the Confucian conception of Heaven in order for Confucianism to sound more “secular” and “scientific.” I take their view to distort the essential character of Confucianism. For an excellent explication of Heaven as a supernatural, quasi-personal God in early Confucianism, see Ivanhoe (2007). I use the word “quasi-personal” in order to distinguish the Confucian notion of Heaven from the Judeo-Christian notion of God.
- 10.
See the Analects 7:17; 13:22. Although these two references might be the only direct discussions of the Yijing in the Analects, they demonstrate clearly that Confucius’ view in line with that of the Yizhuan.
- 11.
For a brilliant exploration of this issue, see Nivision (1996).
- 12.
For a more detailed explanation, see De Bary et al. (1960: 192).
- 13.
For instance, the most influential contemporary Neo-Confucian, Tu Wei-ming, says: “it is more difficult to believe in an omnipotent God who violates rules of nature for mysterious reasons than in enduring cosmic patterns discoverable by human rationality” (1989: 95). According to his view, “the idea of theistic God… is totally absent from the symbolic resources of the Confucian tradition” (1989: 116). In his earlier work, he already claims that “[u]nlike the Christian’s relationship to his personal God and the Pure Land Buddhist’s relationship to Amida Buddha, but like the Taoist’s [Daoist’s] attitude toward Tao [Dao], …Confucianist tries to embody jen [ren, humanity]” (1978: 10; emphasis added). Tu is right that the Confucian notion of Heaven is not the same as the Christian notion of an omnipotent God. But this does not mean that, as he believes, the Confucian notion is a Daosit notion. Interestingly, the Daoist naturalistic distortion of Confucian religious attitudes even affected the European Enlightenment and its secularist agenda. For an excellent essay on this fact as well as its misinterpretation of Confucianism, see Louden (2002).
- 14.
See, for instance, Zuozhuan (
): Zhao Gong Yuan Nian (
) and Liji (
): Jifa (
). - 15.
The Han Confucian, Dong Zhongshu, understood this well: “Heaven is the lord of the myriads of gods” (1992: 402).
- 16.
Some commentaries (such as the Tuan,
), it might be argued, seem to bear witness to a Daoist, naturalistic view. This, I argue, is not the case. Taking the text seriously, the Tuan still holds the Confucian conception of Heaven as identified as a supernatural, quasi-personal power. For instance, the first section of the Tuan about the hexagram qian (
) reads: “Vast is the great and originating power indicated by qian! All things owe to it their beginning, and it governs the heavens” (Legge, 1973: 213). “The great and originating power” (yuan, 
) used here may seem to be tantamount to the Daoist concept of Great Beginning, Great Oneness, or Great Ultimate. But is it a material thing or energy as the Daoist naturalistic understanding would take, or is it a supernatural, quasi-personal power, manifested as the Confucian conception of Heaven in the Analects? The latter interpretation, I argue, is more consistent with the Confucian tradition taken as a whole. Also see Legge (1973: 50–54) for a useful discussion of the view of Heaven as expressed in the other commentaries of the Yijing. - 17.
This chapter will not offer technical interpretations regarding how the hexagram li (
) can offer the idea of making cords and nets for hunting and fishing, as well as how the other hexagrams mentioned in the subsequent paragraphs can inspire the respective ideas for human activities. Readers can easily find such explanations from any explanatory book of the Yijing. - 18.
Deep ecological understandings of environmentalism enshrine a particular, romantic vision of wilderness as the untouched earth. At least three appreciations of wilderness are at stake. The first is a sense of wilderness as untouched by humans and without humans, an ecological impossibility on an earth where there is also an industrialized human civilization. The second is a sense of wilderness recognized as altered by humans but not explicitly recognized as a garden (even if it is a disordered garden), though all such wilderness is dependent on humans for its maintenance up to a certain point within a particular set of ecological systems in a particular condition (i.e., a form of gardening is required). One begins to depart from deep ecological understandings when one recognizes a third sense of wilderness that appreciates that wilderness must always be explicitly recognized as a special form of garden.
- 19.
First, under the Confucian cosmic-principle-oriented view, humans are as much a part of nature as any other animal, and to abstract humans from nature is in a very important sense to affirm an unnatural human view of nature. Second, nature changes over time, so that to attempt to render any particular pattern in nature canonical is a human choice. Nothing in nature itself is enduring, for all things change, organisms die, and species themselves are transient. On the other hand, the environment always survives, and, under anything but truly disastrous circumstances, ecological systems will continue to exist. For instance, the asteroid that struck the earth, ending the dinosaurs and the Mesozoic Age, did not destroy the environment, although it radically changed it, ushering in the environment of the Cenozoic Age. The Confucian view is that humans should comprehend and follow the cosmic principles in transforming and changing things in nature for human good and flourishing.
- 20.
De Bary et al. admitted that the original Chinese sentence would seem to be a description of the invention of traditional Chinese dress. Nevertheless, they followed an interpretation in conformity with the Daoist ideal of “nonaction” in their translation, avoiding using a word such as “invent” or “design” (1960: 197). I interpret the sentence to mean the invention of traditional Chinese dress. First, this interpretation is consistent with the Chinese legend that the Yellow Emperor invented clothes. Second, the next sentence points out that this was done by following the hexagram qian and kun, suggesting that different styles of clothes were invented for men and women.
- 21.
The translation of this sentence by De Bary et al. is “the officials were kept in order and the people had a clear idea of their duties.” I think the translation is problematic and have therefore changed it.
) is divided into texts and commentaries. The texts, consisting of 64 hexagrams and judgments on them, were compiled long before Confucius. The commentaries (Yi Zhuan, 
or “ten wings” 
) were supposedly written by Confucius. However, the dominant view today is that the commentaries were a product of many hands over a long period of time, probably from 5th or 6th century BCE to the 3rd or 4th century BCE See Chan, 1963: 262. For our purposes, the crucial issue is not about who wrote them and at what time. At stake is which message they basically convey: Confucian or Daoist? This chapter argues that they convey the Confucian instruction (see note 2).
) is primarily a Confucian or Daoist text has been a matter of considerable controversy. However, both sides agree that the Xici synthesizes doctrines from several different schools, including the Yin-Yang, Daoist, and Confucian schools. Even the most enthusiastic contemporary defender of the Daoist interpretation of the commentaries, Chen Guying, acknowledges that the ethical view contained in the Xici is primarily Confucian (Chen, 1994: 105). But many seem to believe that the metaphysics and cosmology in the commentaries of the Yijing (the Xici included) are primarily Daoist. For this chapter’s purposes, the most important issue is as follows: if Confucians regard the character of the commentaries as basically Confucian (as I do), can they still accept a Daoist metaphysics and cosmology? This chapter holds that they cannot, because Daoist metaphysics and cosmology are in tension with Confucian moral assumptions. This position is elaborated below.
): Zhao Gong Yuan Nian (
) and Liji (
): Jifa (
).
), it might be argued, seem to bear witness to a Daoist, naturalistic view. This, I argue, is not the case. Taking the text seriously, the Tuan still holds the Confucian conception of Heaven as identified as a supernatural, quasi-personal power. For instance, the first section of the Tuan about the hexagram qian (
) reads: “Vast is the great and originating power indicated by qian! All things owe to it their beginning, and it governs the heavens” (Legge, 1973: 213). “The great and originating power” (yuan, 
) used here may seem to be tantamount to the Daoist concept of Great Beginning, Great Oneness, or Great Ultimate. But is it a material thing or energy as the Daoist naturalistic understanding would take, or is it a supernatural, quasi-personal power, manifested as the Confucian conception of Heaven in the Analects? The latter interpretation, I argue, is more consistent with the Confucian tradition taken as a whole. Also see Legge (1973: 50–54) for a useful discussion of the view of Heaven as expressed in the other commentaries of the Yijing.
) can offer the idea of making cords and nets for hunting and fishing, as well as how the other hexagrams mentioned in the subsequent paragraphs can inspire the respective ideas for human activities. Readers can easily find such explanations from any explanatory book of the Yijing.Author information
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Fan, R. (2010). Human Dominion Over Nature: Following the Sages. In: Reconstructionist Confucianism. Philosophical Studies in Contemporary Culture, vol 17. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3156-3_10
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