Northern And Southern Taoist Ecological Thoughts

The Ecological Ideas of Religious Daoism is a new academic field in which both the Chinese and foreign scholars have achieved a lot of exploratory fruits. It is a starting point for the scholars both at home and abroad to discuss, from the perspective of religions or Religious Daoism, how to propose a reasonable interpretation for the ecological environmental crisis. It is a theoretical base for the scholars to discuss ,from the perspective of religions or Religious Daoism, how to seek the theoretical principle in order to dispel the ecological environment crisis. It is a value base for the scholars to discuss, from the perspective of religions or Religious Daoism, how to seek the ethical base for ecological environment. It is the common aim for the scholars how to look after the sustainable and harmonious development between human beings and their ecological environment.As a whole, the study of Ecological Ideas of Religious Daoism, still in embryo, needs to be furthered. Therefore, the Ecological Ideas of Religious Daoism during the period of the Han, Wei, Jin, the Southern and Northern Dynasties are deeply studied in this paper. The creative research of this paper lies in the seven aspects as follows:â… . Defining the term of the Ecological Ideas of Religious Daoism. Firstly this paper analyses the definitions of Ecology and Ecological Ideas, and secondly clarify the basic dimensions of Ecological Ideas, and finally define the term of the Ecological Ideas of Religious Daoism. Ecology is a science focusing on the existence of the living things and their value realization. Ecological Ideas refer in particular to, in a metaphysical sense, the World View and Values and Technology View. All the ideas, existing in the theories and applications of Ecology, are the built-in scientific thoughts of Ecology. The Ecological Ideas of Religious Daoism refer to the Ecological World View, Values and Ecology-controlled Ideas, which exist in the tenets of Religious Daoism and are connected with the existence of living things (including the existence of human beings) .â…¡. Demonstrating the Nativeness of Ecological Ideas of Religious Daoism. This paper points out that the Ecological Ideas of Religious Daoism are the outcome of the interaction of the Chinese history, cultures and ecological environment before the Han, Wei, Jin, and the Southern and Northern Dynasties. According to the kernel of the Ecological Ideas of Religious Daoism, the cosmos has its own order and is full of complexity and uncertainty, and human beings should probe, follow and control thesimple and certain order of the universe, and deduce the social order which is necessary for the social existence of human beings from the holy order in the universe, thereby eliminate the complexity and uncertainty that exist in the human beings' environment, and make the social life of human beings simplified and ordered, and finally realize the ideal for saving the human beings' society and becoming an immortal. The Ecological Ideas of Religious Daoism originated from the traditional divine society in the earliest antiquity, the revolution of ration in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States provided a rational base for the theology of Religious Daoism, the theological atmosphere in the Han dynasties is the soil for the growth of the Ecological Ideas of Religious Daoism.III. Forming a theoretic frame of the Ecological Ideas of Religious Daoism during the period of the Han, Wei, Jin, and the Southern and Northern Dynasties. This theoretic system includes six parts, that is, the concept of the Ecological Ideas of Religious Daoism, the Nativeness of the Ecological Ideas of Religious Daoism, the Ecological World View of Religious Daoism, the Ecological Ideas of Ethics of Religious Daoism, the Ecology-controlled Ideas of Religious Daoism and the reasonable values of Religious Daoism.IV. Illuminating the basic contents and the evolutionary logic of the Ecological World View of Religious Daoism. According to the tenets of Religious Daoism, the universe is an organic system, Dao and Qi (vigour), or Dao, Qi (vigour), Deities and Scriptures are divine, and have their divine personality, and the organic cosmos is the offspring of the transformation and development of the Dao and Qi (vigour), or Dao, Qi (vigour), Deities and Scriptures. The cosmic system immanently has the multilayer divine orders. Human beings are an immanent element of the divine organic cosmos. The goodness and badness of human beings directly influence the cosmic order. If human beings violate the Dao and become vicious, the harmony of the cosmic orders will be disturbed. If human beings follow the Dao and behave morally, the divine orders in the universe will be resumed, and actually will be able to help the Dao to engender all the things in the world. Consequently, human beings play a very important role in the cosmic ecology. Actually, human beings are the value center of the cosmos. Human beings is able to cultivate himself according to the principle of Religious Daoism, that is, human beings follow the Dao and behave morally to control the whole cosmos and realize the ideal of Religious Daoism for saving the society and becoming an immortal. Meanwhile during the period of the Han and Wei Dynasties, the Dao, Qi (vigour) and deities were1 the thing-in-itself, while during the period of the Eastern Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties, owing to therenaissance of Religious Daoism and the emergence of the plentiful Scriptures of Religious Daoism, the Scriptures of Religious Daoism were exalted to the position of the neumenon. According to the Ecological World -View of Religious Daoism, human beings and society are brought into the organic cosmos, and the social and ethical orders are parts of the cosmic order, revealing the cosmographic character of the social existence of human beings and social and ethical orders, the cosmographic and sociological roots for becoming an immortal and saving the society.V. Elucidating the contents of the Ecological Ideas of the Ethics of Religious Daoism. the Ecological Ideas of the Ethics of Religious Daoism include the ecological meaning of the Worldly Ethics, the Ethics of Religious Daoism and the Ethics of Ecology. The Worldly Ethics are the behavior norms, which serve to preserve the economic and political order in the patriarchal society; the patriarchal power is the base of the patriarchal society, the monarchical power is the core of the patriarchal society; these norms are the standard to judge what is goodness or badness. The Ethics of Religious Daoism refer in particular to series of ethic norms which are included in the tenets of Religious Daoism, these norms serve to set up and preserve the built-in order of Religious Daoism, and safeguard the orderly movement of Religious Daoism and promote the realization of the ideal for saving the society and becoming an immortal. The Ethics of Ecology generally refer to the ethic norms connected with the maintenance and protection of the stability, vitality and diversity of the ecosystem. The ecological meanings are that the three ethics originates from the divine orders and influence the cosmic orders. According to the Ecological Ethics of Religious Daoism, the Dao is the root of goodness and badness, which originates from the divine order of the Universe, but the value core is the realization of secular interests of human beings. According to the doctrines of Religious Daoism, the social action of human beings disobeys the Dao and disturbs the cosmic order and causes the cosmic vitality to wither. Human beings in their earthly society are faced with various difficulties. But if human beings follow the Dao and behave morally, the harmonious order of the Universe can be resumed, the ecological environment and the flourishing society in which human beings live happily and harmoniously.VI. Clarifying the Ecology-controlled Ideas of Religious Daoism. To follow the Dao and behave morally are all the time the principle of the Ecology-controlled Ideas of Religious Daoism. According to the tenets of Religious Daoism, as a result of the complexity and uncertainty, the real-life existence of human beings cannot always escape the obsession of the various tribulations, resulting from the disorders of the Universe and society. Therefore, to save the society and become immortals, thethinkers of Religions Daoism show the strongest desires to control the ecology of the body and the ecology of the Universe including the society, and develop many methods to control the ecology of the body and the ecology of the Universe, and make the cosmos the fitting environment for human beings and make ascetics of Religious Daoism longevity or immortality.VII. Reasonably appraising the Ecological Ideas of Religious Daoism. Religious Daoism is a kind of religion. Therefore the Ecological Ideas of Religious Daoism invariably include the theological and archaic mediumistic factors. If we shuck off these theological and archaic mediumistic factors, we can find the reasonable factors in the Ecological Ideas of Religious Daoism. From the perspective of the relationship between Religious Daoism and traditional cultures, the Ecological Ideas of Religious Daoism play a very important role in inheriting and developing the traditional cultures. The Ecological Ideas of Religious Daoism are the organic factors of the traditional cultures and an important form of the development of the traditional cultures. From the perspective of the relationship between human beings and nature, the Ecological Ideas of Religious Daoism develop the Ecological World View, claim to follow and maintain the ecological orders of the cosmos, and oppose destroying or disturbing the ecological orders of the cosmos. Because these viewpoints are propitious to human beings to understand the ecological characters of the Universe, and to recognize and settle the global environmental problems, these viewpoints have very important theoretic value and realistic significance. From the perspective of the relationship between human beings and society, the Ecological Ideas of Religious Daoism include various reasonable ethical factors, which is very necessary for the building and maintenance of the harmonious social order. From the perspective of the relationship between Religious Daoism and science, the Ecological Ideas of Religious Daoism include many scientific factors, and have internally an impetus to promote the development of science. Yet these contents are wrapped in the hull of theology and magic. If the hull was scrapped, many scientific ideas will be found.Religious Daoism has plenty of systemic ecological ideas, and the goal of this paper is to probe and find these ideas. This paper is a pioneer one in the Chinese and foreign study in the field of the Ecological Ideas of Religious Daoism. The scholarly value of this paper is very high for human beings to understand Religious Daoism, the relationship between Religious Daoism and the traditional cultures, and the relationship between Religious Daoism and the science in ancient China. At the same time, this paper is of important theoretic value and realistic significance for the modern people to recognize and settle the global environment crisis, and construct theharmonious relationship between human beings and nature.Religious Daoism is a complicated, historical and cultural phenomenon. To clarify the Ecological Ideas of Religious Daoism, this paper use synthetically methods as follows: the method to select the scriptures of Religious Daoism, historical method, philosophical method; the method of Cultural Ecology.