The Transition Of The Thought Of Heaven And Human In Tang And Song China

The thought of separation of heaven and human of Liu Zongyuan(柳宗元,773-819)and Liu Yuxi(刘禹锡,772-842),as a bright color of the thoughts in the Tang dynasty,has always been praised.However,from the perspective of intellectual history,their idea seems to be only an isolated point in the timeline.As for the background of the trend of thought in the middle period of the Tang Dynasty and its influence toward the following generations,the existing research has not given a detailed explanation.In fact,from the Tang Dynasty to the Song Dynasty,there was indeed a great change in the thoughts of heaven and human.Generally speaking,the thought that considering catastrophes are the warning of heaven in Han Dynasty became unsustainable in the Tang Dynasty,while it was replaced by a new idea of heaven and human in the Northern Song Dynasty.To be specific,at the beginning of the Tang Dynasty,there were some signs of new changes in the thoughts of heaven and human.In the field of Confucian classics studies,Kong Yingda(孔颖达,574-648)’s annotation of the relationship between heaven and human was a little different from that of Confucian Scholars in Han dynasty,and revealed the essence of the theory of heaven-human induction by Du Yu(杜预,222-285)’s thought of"expostulating with the emperor by the will of Heaven"(神道助教).In historiography,Liu Zhiji(刘知几,661-721)also criticized the thoughts of Confucian Scholars in Han dynasty,although his criticism was relatively limited.In addition,with the deepening of the understanding of nature,the traditional view of heaven and human faced the challenge.For example,solar eclipses were not regarded as calamity absolutely as the past.At the same time,the campaign against the locusts which was strongly advocated by the Prime Minister Yao Chong(姚崇,651-721)in 716 A.D.also laid the foundation in practice(but not in theory)for the thought of separation of heaven and human in the middle period of the Tang Dynasty.Stimulated by the Rebellion of An(安禄山,703-757)and Shi(史思明,703-761),these signs in the early Tang dynasty developed rapidly in the middle period of the Tang Dynasty,and the thought of separation of heaven and human emerged.In theory,in the middle and late of the Tang Dynasty,the annotations of the relationship between heaven and human were more objective,which were quite different from the annotations in the Han Dynasty.In practice,the influence of the thought of separation of heaven and human was more and more obvious,and a theory of the separation of heaven and human under the framework of the heaven-human induction had been preliminarily formed.However,it should also be noted that Liu Zongyuan and Liu Yuxi did not emphasize the dichotomy between heaven and human.Liu Zongyuan’s attention to practical problems and Liu Yuxi’s understanding of the limitation of human determined that they must ensure a certain continuity between heaven and human.Therefore,Bai Juyi(白居易,772-846)’s view of heaven and human could predict the direction of the thought of heaven and human in the future,because it had two aspects of the heaven-human induction and the separation of heaven and human.In the Northern Song Dynasty,the two ideas of the heaven-human induction and the separation of heaven and human were moving toward integration,while there were also some struggles between each other.On the one hand,the thought that considering catastrophes are the warning of heaven,which matched calamities to human affairs mechanically,could not adapt to the level of knowledge in Song China.On the other hand,in order to restrict the monarchical power,the scholar-officials in Song Dynasty had to maintain a certain relationship between heaven and human.Therefore,a new thought of heaven and human,which represented by the concept of "heavenly principles",emerged at the right moment.The main feature of this new thought is that it related heaven to human generally,but not matched calamities to human affairs mechanically as the scholars did in the Han Dynasty.This new thought formed in the middle and later period of the Northern Song Dynasty,and dominated the following generations in China until the end of the nineteenth century.Taking a look at the transition of the thought of heaven and human between Tang and Song China,a "limit attitude" dominated the process behind.In fact,the human power has two dimensions: cognition and morality.On the one hand,with the understanding of nature deepened,the thought in the Han Dynasty got unsustainable.On the other hand,human beings cannot understand the nature fully because of human’s own limits.Where human cognition is out of reach,morality is needed to ensure the continuity of heaven and human.From this point of view,the transition of the thought of heaven and human between Tang and Song China actually has a certain logical necessity.In modern society,no matter how the development of science,the limits of human beings are always with us.Human beings cannot cross the boundary of heaven and human forever.Therefore,we still need to maintain our faith in Heaven and respond to it in a moral way.In the face of an uncertain future,it may be the best way for us today to live with reverence all the time.