Keqian Xu

This book aims to present the origin and the historical evolution of the philosophical tradition known as the “Way of Zhong”, or as I term it, “zhongdaology”, which I believe embodies not just the basic characteristic of Confucian philosophical ideology, but also the intrinsic essence of Chinese culture at large. Additionally, the book also seeks to delve into the contemporary significance of this long-standing tradition, offering an insider’s view into numerous phenomena relevant to China today.

Even if the legends of those legendary wise monarchs found in the classics may have historically inspired the concept of “zhong”, the zhongdaological philosophy was ultimately formed and developed by Confucius and his great successors. The idea of “zhong” was taken up by Confucius and his disciples, who expanded on it to create a complex theory known as “Zhong Dao中道” (the Way of Zhong) or “Zhong Yong中庸”. In the lengthy heritage of Confucianism, the study and discussion of “zhong,” “zhongdao,” and “zhongyong” has since grown to be a crucial philosophical subject. Confucian philosophers use the concept and principle of zhong as a general philosophical approach in the areas of literature, art, social politics, ethics, human relationships, and personal development. The pre-Qin writings of Confucius, Mencius, and Xun Zi as well as the lectures and teachings of the following generations of Confucian masters demonstrate a distinct and continuing history of zhongdaology.

In contrast to the Western ontological tradition, which primarily focuses on asking questions about the “being” of things, traditional Confucian philosophy in China placed greater emphasis on asking questions about the “zhong” of situations. Numerous fundamental ideas in early Confucian philosophy can be understood as embodiments of the principle of “zhong”: the “Dao” is a “zhong” (unity) between Heaven and man, “xing性” is a “zhong” (integration) of nature and nurture, “ren仁” is a “zhong” (bond) between self and others, “yi义” represents a “zhong” (suitable degree) of behavior in society, as well as a combination of emotion and reason; “li礼” presents the “zhong” (balance) between personal desire and social constraint, “zhi 知” is a “zhong” (combination) between knowing and doing. Therefore, Confucian philosophy is hence referred to as “zhongdaology”.

As I’ve covered in the earlier chapters, “zhongdaology” is a philosophical school of thought that sprang out of the rich cultural and linguistic heritage of ancient China. Throughout the lengthy history of ancient China, Confucius and his followers have developed it both theoretically and practically. As a result, it exhibits several distinctively Chinese cultural traits. Even though it may appear a little strange and foreign to people who are only familiar with the Western tradition of philosophy, it can also be regarded as a general philosophy, much as some Western philosophical theories and propositions may also appear strange to some traditional Chinese scholars. Being a type of broad philosophy, the philosophical significance ought to be universal and consistent with the human race's shared rationale. Consequently, it is both necessary and desirable for there to be a conversation between zhongdaology and Western philosophy. In fact, there are a variety of ways in which non-Western philosophical traditions address the central philosophical questions if we can effectively overcome the prejudice of Western- or Euro-centrism, which is still pervasive in philosophical studies today. The Zhongdaological method is among them. It may be shown via discussion and comparison of many philosophical traditions that there are various ways for human intelligence to reach the highest wisdom. These methods may not be mutually exclusive, but rather they may complement one another.

Similar to Western ontological metaphysics, where complex and nuanced concepts like “being” and “existence” are derived frequently used terms in natural language, Confucian’s philosophy’s central idea, “zhong中,” also has its roots in a widely used word. The character “zhong” is one of the few most often used Chinese words, whether in modern or ancient Chinese. It is a polysemous word with multiple parts of speech and has undergone a long history of evolution as a sophisticated philosophical concept in Confucianism.

The various meanings gathered around the character “zhong” are not unrelated, as mentioned previously; rather, they are rooted in the same basic relationship. The deep and profound philosophical importance of Zhongdaology has been substantially enhanced by the primal and inherent linkages of these meanings. Zhongdaology offers an interpretation of the Confucian philosophical theories of fairness and equilibrium, centrality and inclusivity, self and others, human and Heaven, and subjective and objective relationships.

© 2015 Macmillan Publishers Limited All rights reserved. Genome-wide gene expression measurements have enabled comprehensive studies that integrate the changes of gene expression and phenotypic information to uncover their novel associations. Here we reported the association analysis between psychophysical phenotypes and genome-wide gene expression changes in human adaptation to one of the most extreme climates on Earth, the Antarctic Dome Argus. Dome A is the highest ice feature in Antarctica, and may be the coldest, driest and windiest location on earth. It is considered unapproachable due to its hostile environment. In 2007, a Chinese team of 17 male explorers made the expedition to Dome A for scientific investigation. Overall, 133 psychophysical phenotypes were recorded, and genome-wide gene expression profiles from the blood samples of the explorers were measured before their departure and upon their arrival at Dome A. We found that mood disturbances, including tension, depression, anger and fatigue, had a strong, positive, linear relationship with the level of a male sex hormone, testosterone, using the Pearson correlation coefficient analysis. We also demonstrated that significantly lowest-level Gene Ontology groups in changes of gene expression in blood cells with erythrocyte removal were consistent with the adaptation of the psychophysical characteristics. Interestingly, we discovered a list of genes that were strongly related to significant phenotypes using phenotype and gene expression PCC analysis. Importantly, among the 70 genes that were identified, most were significantly related to mood disturbances, where 42 genes have been reported in the literature mining, suggesting that the other 28 genes were likely novel genes involved in the mood disturbance mechanism. Taken together, our association analysis provides a reliable method to uncover novel genes and mechanisms related to phenotypes, although further studies are needed.

Zhongdaology is the core of Chinese traditional Confucian philosophy. The zhongdaological way of thinking represents the Chinese philosophical thinking mode, with Confucianism as the main body, and has deeply influenced many aspects of Chinese culture. It is different from the traditional ontological thinking in the West. However, for a long time, due to the influence of the dominant position of Western ontological thinking in the field of philosophical research, the characteristics of zhongdaological thinking have not been fully elaborated and promoted. This essay briefly exposes the historical origin of the doctrine of zhongdaology and its significance in Confucianism. Like the situation of traditional Chinese philosophy, African philosophy also has long been overshadowed and ignored by western philosophy to some extent. To this end, it can be safely stated that the dominance of western tradition is why the interaction between Chinese philosophy and African philosophy and otherunderrepresented philosophical traditions in the south have not taken firm roots. This essay makes some preliminary comparisons betweenChinese Confucian zhongdaology with some African philosophical ideas such as Ezumezu and Ubuntu, to show, first, the significance of broader dialogue and exchange among different philosophical traditions in the south, second how zhongdaology itself could serve as a veritable framework for doing philosophy across borders.

Due to the differences of languages, “ontology” in its original Western sense has not been conceptualized in ancient China. The most prominent and unique feature of Confucian philosophy in early ancient China is “Zhongdaology” instead of “ontology”. Zhongdaology is the philosophical inquiring for the way of “Zhong”, which is based on all the primordially related semantic meanings embodied in the Chinese character “zhong”. Zhongdaological philosophy indicates an association between human beings and their world, a coincidence between subjectivity and objectivity, a harmony of internal world and external world, an intersubjective perspective between self and others, an equilibrium among different ideas and divergences. Zhongdaology advocates inclusiveness and harmony when dealing with conflicts and contradictions. The rich historical and cultural background of Zhongdaology enriches it with profound philosophic significance, and makes it a general philosophy of Confucianism. Zhongdaology not only provides a Confucian approach to some fundamental ontological and epistemological issues, a philosophical methodology for establishing ethical norms, moral standards, social justice and political principles, but also provides an angle to understand certain aspects of Chinese way of life.

Whether Confucianism is a religion or not has been a controversial issue for many years. Recently, along with the “national revitalization” movement in China, Confucianism has been valued and advocated again in China at both official and civil levels. This trend sometimes has been perceived by some observers as a kind of religious revival movement. This paper analysis some key components in the thought of Confucius, such as his idea and attitude towards “Gods”, “Tian” and other divine or supernatural beings, in order to prove that, although Confucius does not exclude religious faith, and has accepted some traditional religious rituals, the basic Confucian doctrines are not constructed on any religious foundation. The essence of Confucianism is humanism and rationalism characterized with the practical reason of “zhongdaology”. It provides a rational base for constructing the secular ideology in ancient China. In today’s Chinese society, Confucianism can still play a role in constructing the modern secular ideology, which may accommodate cultural diversity yet maintain a harmonious social political environment.

Individualism is not only a Western tradition. In the Zhuangzi we can also identify some elements which may be appropriately attributed to “individualism.” However, due to its particular cultural and philosophical background, Zhuangzian individualism has unique characteristics, which distinguish it from the variety of other individualist thoughts that have emerged in the West. Zhuangzi has a dynamic and open view on individual “self,” considering individuals as changing and unique beings rather than fixed and interchangeable “atoms”; he sets the unlimited Dao as the ultimate source for individuals to conform to, thus releasing individual mind into a realm of infinite openness and freedom. The Zhuangzian individualism is “inward” rather than “outward,” concentrating on individual spirit rather than material interests and rights in social reality. The individualism in the Zhuangzi provides a spiritual space for the development of individuality in ancient China. It also provides an alternative understanding of individual as an existence

The thorny problem, which we are confronted with in translating the term of “Sein”(Being) from western Philosophy into Chinese, highlights the ambiguity, paradoxy and vagueness of the issue of Sein from a specific viewpoint. Although there is no exact equivalent in Chinese for the word of “Sein”, we use several different words to express the meanings consisted in the issue of “Sein”. By comparison we may find that what is discussed by Zhuang Zi using the terms of “Shi” and “Fei” are just in a considerable degree the same issue discussed by Heidegger using the terms of “Sein” and “Dasein”. However, they gave different opinions to the issue, which show their divergence in their philosophic thinking.

Zhong 中 is a very important philosophical concept in early Confucianism. Both the received ancient Confucian classics and the newly discovered ancient bamboo manuscripts tell us that adhering to the principle of zhong was an important charge that had been transmitted and inherited by early ancient Chinese political leaders from generation to generation. Confucius and his followers adopted the concept of zhong and further developed it into a sophisticated doctrine, which is usually called zhongdao 中道 (the Way of zhong) or zhongyong 中庸. Being a polysemous word, zhong has several different but philosophically related meanings. However, for a long time, people usually understood zhong in the sense of only one of its meanings, and zhongdao or zhongyong has been commonly interpreted as “the doctrine of the mean.” My argument in this paper is that a synthetic interpretation, which includes all the semantic meanings of zhong is necessary in order to acquire a deep and well-rounded comprehension of the philosophical significance of the Way of zhong. The Way of zhong features a dialectal view of the relationship between heaven and human beings, mind and materials, subjective desire and the available objective conditions, self and others, centrality and diversity, and so on. The Way of zhong has become a widely applied philosophical methodology in Confucianism, as well as a political principle and a kind of personal moral merit in early Confucian doctrines. Today, it still has relevance in contemporary Chinese social and cultural contexts.

The netherworld marriage or the wedding for dead persons is a folk religious ritual in ancientChina. It is based on ancient Chinese folk belief of afterlife in the netherworld. Through a textual research and investigation based on relevant historical records and other ancient documents, as well as some archeological discoveries, this paper tries to give a brief account of the origin and development of netherworld marriage and its cultural and ideological background in ancient China. It finds that netherworld marriage might originate from human sacrifice in early ancient times, and its name varies in different periods. It has gone through its prevailing in the Tang Dynasty, declining in the Song and Yuan Dynasties, and reviving again in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. During the long history, this custom was generally criticized and condemned by orthodoxy Confucian intellectuals, yet it was practiced and sometimes even prevailed among both noble class and common people, due to its deep root in the folk belief. The paper also intends to clarify some misconceptions and misunderstandings concerning the study of this unique cultural phenomenon

The important feature of Dao as a philosophic category in early Confucian philosophy is its prominent practical and historical properties, which make it different from those western metaphysic categories. Confucianism emphasizes that the Dao can not be separated with the practice and the history of human being, thus the Tao should be explored in peoples’ social activities and history. They believe that the Tao only lives in the historical tradition and can only be demonstrated by the narrative of history. The historical and practical properties of Dao incarnated the unity of epistemology and axiology, and integrated the value of both “Dao” and “De”. It also spots the conjunction between Confucianism and the historical materialism that persists on the standpoint of dialectic and practice.

“Ren xing shan”, or “Human nature is good”, is a famous thesis of Mencius. But it is questionable whether the Mencian concept of “ren xing” is an exact equivalent of the western concept of “human nature”, and whether Mencius really thinks that all human beings are naturally moral. This paper suggests that when talking about “ren xing”, Mencius actually refers to both human being and human becoming. “Ren xing” may have a root in the nature of human being, which is a “mandate” endowed by “Heaven”. But the complete notion of “ren xing” should be construed in terms of the process towards full human becoming. “Human Nature is good” does not guarantee complete virtue for individual human beings. However, the human being has the capability of pursuing the moral direction along life’s path, and should take the responsibility of maintaining the right moral direction of human becoming, and thus should avoid veering from this moral path. This interpretation may provide a more consistent understanding of the metaphysical foundation, theoretic system, and self-cultivation practice of Mencian ethics.

The event that King Kuai of Yan demised the crown to his premier Zizhi, is a tentative way of political power transmission happened in the social transforming Warring States Period, which was influenced by the popular theory of Yao and Shun’s demise of that time. However, this tentative was obviously a failure, coming under attacks from all Confucian, Taoist and Legalist scholars. We may understand the development of the thinking concerning the issue of political legitimacy during the Warring States Period by analyzing the different commentaries by different schools on this unusual event, and get some beneficial inspirations.

Due to the differences of languages, “ontology” in its original Western sense had not been conceptualized in ancient China. The most prominent and unique feature of Confucian philosophy in early ancient China is “Zhongtaology” instead of “ontology”. Zhongtaology is the philosophical inquiring for the way of “Zhong”, which is based on all the primordially related semantic meanings embodied in the Chinese character “zhong”. Zhongtaological philosophy indicates an association between human beings and their world, a coincidence between subjectivity and objectivity, a harmony of internal world and external world, an intersubjective perspective between self and others, an equilibrium among different ideas and divergences. Zhongtaology advocates inclusiveness and harmony when dealing with conflicts and contradictions. The rich historical and cultural background of Zhongtaology enriches it with profound philosophic significance, and makes it a general philosophical methodology of Confucianism. Zhongtaology not only provides a Confucian approach to some fundamental ontological and epistemological issues, a philosophical foundation for establishing ethical norms, moral standards, social justice and political principles, but also provides an angle to understand certain aspects of Chinese way of life.

Hui Shi (370-310B.C.E.?) is a unique one among the pre-Qin scholars. The object and orientation of his scholarship emphasized on “chasing after the materials” or the research for objective knowledge of natural things. He shows a tendency of tolerating and advocating diversity and variety, and intentionally pursuing new and unusual ideas. In certain degree he judges the value of knowledge by its truthfulness rather than its usefulness. As pointed out by Wing-tsit Chan, Hui shi represents a “tendency in ancient China toward intellectualism for its own sake”.

Although being widely considered as only a Western tradition, individualism is not absent in traditional Chinese philosophy and culture. In some of the classic Chinese philosophic works such as Zhuangzi, we can clearly identify some elements which can be appropriately attributed to “individualism”, such as the awareness of individual “self” as an independent and unique existence, advocating individual freedom and liberty, emphasizing on the value and dignity of individual life, favoring individuals’ autonomy and privacy, pursuing unconstrained development in personality and spirituality. However, due to its particular pre-Qin social cultural background and its unique Daoist philosophic origin, this kind of individualism in Zhuangzi has its own unique characteristics, which has made it distinguishable from the variety of other individualist thoughts emerged in different times and places in the West. Zhuangzi has a dynamic and open view on individual or “self”, he does not consider individuals as fixed and interchangeable “atoms” but as dynamic, changing and unique beings, he set the unlimited and indefinable Dao as the only and ultimate source for individuals to conform to, thus to release individual mind into an realm of infinite openness and freedom. Zhuangzian individualism is “inward” rather than “outward”, which means while concentrating on individuals’ freedom of spirit and innate nature, it cares less about individuals’ outside material interests and rights in social reality, and does not encourage competition and rivalry among individuals. The special type of individualism in Zhuangzi has a profound influence on Chinese culture, providing a spiritual space for the development of individuality and personality in ancient China. It also provides an alternative understanding of individual as an existence.