Discuss The Inner Convergence Of Tung Chung-shu And Wang Chung's Philosophy From "Nature And Human"

Tung Chung-shu and Wang Chung are the two most outstanding and controversial philosophers on the history of Chinese philosophy development. The research about their philosophy ideas mainly focus on their opposite points over a considerable period of time. They were once called as "totally idealism" and "the great materialism thinker", "atheist fighter" which are vastly different. Undeniable, Tung Chung-shu and Wang Chung's thoughts have obvious conflict, but if the conflict was absolutized, their inner convergence in the ideological characteristics would be ignored for a long time with abstract amplifier of their ideological differences. But if putting Tung Chung-shu and Wang Chung under the whole context of Han culture, we will find their convergence always go through the inner part of their ideological system, and have a considerable internal inheritance between the former and the later. This inheritance with Chinesephilosophy' s main contents -- "nature and human" ideology as the main point,present specifically in several important aspects like triple meanings of nature, relationship between human and nature, humanity, the education theory, the theory of ghosts and sacrifice and so on.1. Nature is one of the core concepts of Chinese philosophy. The early understanding about nature is mainly concentrated on three levels: God, moral, and natural nature. Dong took nature as the king of all Gods, and said that nature is in the position of the supreme god. Wang Chung proposed that "nature is the master of the Gods". Both of them believe the dominating position of God relative to every other thing in the nature; Tung Chung-shu thought that when human beings were ruled by God, they got kindheartedness form nature, and the political system in reality was got from nature too. Wang Chung thought morals and righteousness is embodied in the nature itself, human should warn against fear, and act in accordance with morality. They affirmed commonly that moral exist reasonably, and then established a solid foundation for the political and moral order of the society; Tung Chung-shu thought natural movement manifest specifically as the flow of the air of Yin and Yang, four seasons, and the five element, and the actual content of natural nature showed as regularly change of Yin and Yang, four seasons, and the five element. Wang Chung thought "air" is the existence of heaven and earth; Heaven runs naturally, Wind, rain and lightning are the result of Yin and Yang's natural running. Their observations to the natural nature are both with an eye to the prevalent of the air of Yin and Yang.2. In the problem how human beings created, Tung-Chung-shu's answer is "nature generates human beings". The nature not only gives human beings materials to maintain their life, and also gives virtue and morality to maintain their spirit. Wang Chung thought human born from Yin and Yang. Yin constitutes the body of the human, and Yang mainly acts as human spirit. No matter the visible body or the invisible spirit, the nature turn into the sources that why human can be produce or existence. Tung Chung-shu' s "Human is the most valuable creature in the nature", and Wang Chung' s" Human spirit is most precious in nature", both of which come to a conclusion that human beings' high states in nature. "Supervision as nature" is Tung Chung-shu' s academic construction in order to establish foundation for legalized the world' s political order. Wang Chung's "rule as nature" match the world's penal system with nature's execute justice, the foothold of which is also the establishment of world's political order. Wang Chung' s theory of "happiness awardness" and Tung Chung-shu' s theory of "disaster condemn" set against each other on the surface, essentially both of them are theory of induction between man and nature which bring color of Theological teleology. These two supplement each other, and represent the idealistic standard of The Han Dynasty.3. Tung Chung-shu explained "human nature" as "natural endowment"; Wang Chung proposed that "human nature is nature; goodness and evil come into being later. Their explanations to human nature are keep an eye to "nature", defined nature is the original state beginning from birth. Tung Chung-shu explain goodness and evil according to difference of air of Yin and Yang. Wang Chung explain goodness and evil according to difference of air of thickness and thinness, which is different in approach but equally satisfactory in result. In ancient china, Tung Chung-shu first created human nature trisection theory, which divided human nature into sainted, common, and short-sighted. Wang Chung directly inherited Tung Chung-shu' s thought, dividing human nature into better than common, common, and humbler than common. Tung Chung-shu and Wang Chung admit that sainted nature which is the better than common nature, and short-sighted nature which is the humbler nature can not be changed, only the prevalent common nature can change. And enlightenment is one of the most important ways to make people avoid evil and inclined to charity.4. Tung Chung-shu advocated trusting and serving ghosts and gods with awestruck attitude. Wang Chung demonstrated repeatedly that the gods, ghosts,monster-- " best feature of all the existence " - formed by the energy of sun. Dongand he are theists in essence. Tung Chung-shu regard sacrifice as the affairs of state, advocated that "royalty offer a sacrifice to Heaven" to payback gods' kindness. Choosing proper time during spring, summer, autumn, and winter to sacrifice predecessor and parents in order to try one's best to do filiety. Wang Chung pointed out the dual meaning of sacrifice: One, payback the nature, which is payback the nature for its producing and nurturing. Two, thanks to the ancestor, which is returning ancestors' kind act of producing and nurturing. This matched up to Tung Chung-shu' s original intention to advocate and practice sacrifice.Tung Chung-shu and Wang Chung are two most representative thinkers in Han dynasty. In "nature and human" ideological background of Han dynasty, it's not difficult to find Tung's influence to Wang Chung's thoughts, and Wang Chung's inheriting from Tung, which logically included the internal consistency. Therefore, exploring the inner convergence of their thoughts is not only the unavoidable way to excavate their ideological trait, but also an important opportunity to grasp inner ideological reasoning and feature of Han Dynasty. And what's more important, it has an enlightening significance for breakthrough the rigid mode of Tung Chung-shu and Wang Chung's comparative study, and returning back to the objective and reasonable investigate attitude and method.