Eco-awareness in traditional Chinese Culture
3 min readProtection of the eco-environment is capturing wider international attention today. Eco-ethics and eco-philosophy have arisen in the face of the increasingly serious ecological crisis facing the whole world. Scholars in the field point out that human damage to the natural environment has accelerated to such an extent as to threaten the very existence of human beings themselves.
The main idea of eco-ethics and eco-philosophy is to replace”human-centrism”with”eco-holism,”which means that all living things in the earth’s biosphere are entitled to equal rights similar to those of human beings, or the rights to survival and development.
When we examine traditional Chinese culture, we also find from ancient times a strong eco-consciousness that is at one with eco-ethics and eco-philosophy.
The Philosophy of “Life”
Traditional Chinese philosophy is a philosophy of “life.”To Confucius, Heaven is the source of all living things. He regards the “creation of life”as the “Heavenly Way”and the “Heavenly Destination.”The Book of Changes(Yijing), following Confucius’ viewpoint, explains,”The continuous creation of life is change,”and”The great virtue of Heaven and Earth is creating life.”Mencius(c.372-289 BC),a great Confucian scholar who lived just over 100 years after Confucius, said,”(One should) love one’s family, love the people, and love all living things in the world.”Confucian thinkers of later generations carried on the idea of”Heaven and Earth giving birth to all life,”and thus emphasized love for and kindness toward all living things. For example, many prominent Confucian scholars of the Song Dynasty(960-1279) echoed their master’s view on life. Zhou Dunyi(1017-1073) said,”Heaven creates life through yang and nurtures life through yin.”Cheng Yi(1033-1107) said,”The nature of life is love.”Zhang Zai(1020-1077)said,”All people in the world are my brothers and all beings in the world are my companions.”Cheng Hao(1032-1085) said,”Those with love regard themselves as the same as other living things in the world.”We can see from their thoughts that Confucian love starts from loving one’s family and other people, to loving all living things in the world. Humans and other living things are of the same kind and are equal with each other.
In a letter to his family, Zheng Banqiao(1693-1765),a great painter of the Qing Dynasty(1616-1911), wrote that he loved all living things in the world, be it an ant or an insect. This, he said, was the”will of Heaven,”and that human beings should understand Heaven’s will. He was strongly opposed to”keeping birds in a cage,”saying,”It is unreasonable to keep them in a cage just to please myself, to oppress their nature to suit my nature!”Even ferocious animals like wolves and tigers should only be driven away so they cannot harm people. People have no right to kill them at will. He went on to say that, if people really love birds, they should plant more trees as their home. When people rise in the morning and hear the birds singing, both would be happy. He described such a happy scene as,”(All living things) each live by their respective nature.”Only in this way could human beings share real happiness with their fellow beings.
