Extremely Wise And The Golden Mean

The article was for the purpose of studying the question about the Chinese philosophy spirit which illustrated in Feng Youlan"Xin Yuandao"."Extremely wise and the golden mean"was the fining summary of the Chinese philosophy spirit. It was a state which was in the mortal world but surmounting the mortal world. The people in it might realize the extraordinary character ideal in the ordinary life. The entire article launched revolving this core question"extremely wise and the golden mean". The introduction explained its concept and its significance and initiated its glorious history origin. Then it made the integrity annotation for the highest philosophy state which expressed in the article. Feng Youlan inherited and developed the former philosophers' understanding and proposed his own viewpoint. He thought"extremely wise"was obtainting the highest life state-the universe state."The golden mean"was that when engaged in the activities in the world, the people should follow the standard of human relationship .Their behaviors should conform to the middle road."Extremely wise and the golden mean"was the experience of the eternal significance of life in the daily life. That would obtain the highest spirit to enjoy and realize the unification of in the mortal world and surmounting the mortal world.Feng Youlan believed that the philosophy couldn't give the people the positive actual knowledge, but might make them obtain the highest spiritual state and change their own life manner. They would manifest the character, the mind and the meteorology from the understanding of world and provided themselves the spiritual enjoyment. Because"extremely wise and the golden mean"was the Chinese philosophy tradition, various factions in Chinese philosophy history all attempted to achieve this kind of the highest life state through unifing"wise"and"the golden mean". With"extremely wise and the golden mean"for standard, Feng Youlan evaluated the viewpoints and the states of the important philosophers in the Confucian, the Taoist and the Buddha. The early Confucian and the Confucian in Han Dynasty hadn't achieved the standard of "extremely wise". To the Confucianism time in Song and Ming Dynasty,"wise"and"the golden mean"obtained the unification. Early Taoism was"extremely wise"but not"the golden mean". Metaphysics in Wei Jin Dynasty unified"wise"and"the golden mean", but two were two lines but not a line. When the Buddhist spread to China in later Wei Jin Dynasty,"wise"and"the golden mean"had unified, but they were still two lines. Afterwards the zen Buddhism unified the opposition.Through researching the Confucian, the Taoist, the Buddha, Feng Youlan developed his own"Xin Lixue". His"Xin Lixue"followed the Neo-Confucianism school of the Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynast. It had broken through the limit which three factions formerly received. It had inherited the best tradition of Chinese philosophy's various aspects. It was the philosophy which was most according with"extremely wise and the golden mean". The methodology of Xin Lixue divided into the positive method and the negative method. The positive method was one kind of logic analysis methods, but the negative method was a kind of intuition realizing methods. The positive method was one kind of western philosophy methods, but the negative method originated from Chinese philosophy Taoism and the zen Buddhism. The methodology application started from the positive method and concluded to the negative method. Two methods not only mutually related but also mutually supplied. The process from the positive method to the negative method was the manifesting of"extremely wise and the golden mean"in methodology. It made the people surmount the reason and words so as to achieve the highest state of harmony of the heaven and man.The surmounting thought was the core which the life philosophy of"Xin Lixue"established. Feng Youlan believed that the people which realized surmounting could intrinsically have a world of significance in spirit. Although he obtained a superego state, not leaving the human ethics and daily rules, but realized the highest life state in the daily affairs. It precisely presented the highest life ideal of"Xin Lixue"——"extremely wise and the golden mean". Precisely the surmounting viewpoint unified"extremely wise"and"the golden mean", also precisely the surmounting viewpoint unifies the positive method and the negative method in"Xin Lixue". It made it become comparatively characteristic philosophy system. Feng Youlan believed that the Chinese philosophy needed to pursue intrinsic but non-external surmounting so as to seek for the place to settle down and get on with life, not need to be separated from the common custom society of the present world. He inherited the Chinese traditional spirit that positively entering the mortal world and striving for surmounting in the mortal world. He removed the way which transcended the mortal world by the religious way and provided a path on which the ideal and the reality unified. He pointed out that"extremely wise and the golden mean"was the highest state that the Chinese philosophy pursued. It was the highest philosophy wisdom. This was precisely the main goal and the primary mission of the Chinese philosophy, and also the main contribution that the Chinese philosophy to the human spirit.