Confucius And Lao Tzu Heaven And Man 'study

The ideas of nature and human is an important issue in the history of Chinese philosophy thought. As early as the pre-Qin period, some outstanding thinkers started trying to define "nature", "human"—the most basic category in Chinese philosophy history, then building a corresponding system about nature and human in order to solve many basic issues of the natural world and human society. Confucius and Lao-tzu, the most representative pioneers among the numerous attempts on the matter of nature and human, initiated Confucianism and Taoism separately. So far, despite the study on their concept of nature and human in the academics has made notable achievements, but there remained great differences and disputes in its nature and value. Therefore, I believe that it is necessary to analyze and explain further about Confucius and Lao-tzu's ideas of nature and human.In this thesis, the text is divides into six parts. The first part is the introduction of the thesis. First, it starts the significance of the selected topic and the present research situation about the issue of the ideas of nature and human. Then by combining the shortcomings of the previous studies, and analyzing the comparability of Confucius and Lao-tzu's the concept of nature and human, it establishes the writing principles and purposes, the research methods, and the brief introduction of the structure in the thesis.The second part is to discuss the original thoughts about the concept of nature and human before Confucius and Lao-tzu. The first two sections of this chapter respectively deal with the reasons, the developing processes as well as the ideological limitations about the theological and natural ideas of nature and human since the Shang and Zhou dynasty. The third section is divided into two levels; on the first level, it analyzes the dialectical relations of shift and intermingle in the developing process of the above two ideas since the Shang and Zhou dynasty. On the second, it details the influence of Confucius and Lao-tzu's ideas of nature and human under the interaction of the two ideas.The third part is a comparative study on the areas of Confucius and Lao-tzu's "nature" and "human". The first two parts of this chapter is to give a specific comparison between Confucius' "nature" and "human" and Lao-tzu's "nature" and "human", the exploration of which is the basic source of the caused difference on the ideas of nature and human. The third section is to have a comparative exposition on the basis of the body and the application limits of Confucius and Lao-tzu's "nature" and "human" areas; then explore internal differences of "nature" and "human" areas.The fourth part is a comparative study on the nature about Confucius and Lao-tzu's ideas of "nature" and "human". The first section of this chapter is to comment on the basis of different definitions of Confucius and Lao-tzu's "nature" in order to deeply analysis the intrinsic meanings of Confucius and Lao-tzu's "nature". The second section is to emphasize the different definitions Confucius and Lao-tzu's "human" status, and compare the similarities and differences of subjectivity of the "human" in the two ideas. The third section is to expose the relation models of characteristics and structures, and explain the similarities and differences between the relationship of nature and man, which is mainly through analyzing the connotations of Confucius and Lao-tzu's their "nature" and "human".The fifth part is a comparative study about the value of Confucius and Lao-tzu's ideas of nature and man. The first section of this chapter is to objectively grasp the understanding and interpretation of Confucius and Lao-tzu's human nature through the deep and comparative analysis on the direct value of their nature and human ideas. The second section does a comparative exposition for the ultimate value of Confucius and Lao-tzu's ideas of nature and human in order to reveal Confucius and Lao-tzu's the ideological core of moral doctrines. The third section does a comparative study on the two life pursuits and their history and epoch values under different visions of "nature" and "human" concept, which is based on Confucius and Lao-tzu's moral doctrines.The sixth part, a summary and the deepening part, echoes with the above contents and sums up the main idea of the thesis.