Aesthetic and Moral Appreciation of Nature in Philosophical Traditions of China - Earth Stewardship: Linking Ecology and Ethics in Theory and Practice - page 45

Chuang Tzu best illustrates the relationship between emptiness of the mind and its
realization of biological power by using the opposite words silence and thunder .
Like emptiness, sincerity is also the cherished value in Confucianism. It can help
people achieve self-realization. For the Chinese philosophers, sincerity is a process
of transformation and nourishment. This process can help Confucians achieve self-
realization through fully developing emotions. The defi ning nature in Confucianism
is emotions. In terms of emotion, I will examine three questions. (1) What is
emotion? (2) Why is emotion considered as a valued element of mind? (3) What is
the highest development of emotion?
First, emotion in Confucianism mainly refers to our innate feelings to show
sympathetic bonding with other human beings and other creatures. The natural
affections toward our parents and brothers and sisters are the defi ning nature of a
human being. It gives human beings dignity. Confucianism has a high respect for
this affection. Second, for Confucianism, our sympathetic bonding toward parents
and others needs to be developed so that it can be extended to the parents and
children in other people's families. However, it is still not the fulfi llment of emotion.
For Mencius, we also need to extend these affections to animals, trees, and every-
thing in nature. He articulates his ideal in the following passage:
In regard to inferior creatures, the superior man is kind to them, but not loving. In regard to
people generally, he is loving to them, but not affectionate. He is affectionate to his parents.
And loving disposed to people generally. He is loving disposed to people generally, and
kind to creatures. (Chan 1963 , pp. 80-81)
This passage shows Mencius' understanding of love is graded instead of being
impartial. For him, we can be affectionate toward our parents, but it would be wrong
if we show much more affection to strangers and other creatures. However, love and
kindness are still based on the natural affections we have toward our parents instead
of reason. It is the extension of familial love. The neo-Confucians Chuang Tsai
expresses a similar view in the famous Confucian ideal, “Forming one body with
nature.”
Heaven is my father and Earth is my mother, and even such a small creature as I fi nds an
intimate place in their midst. Therefore that which fi lls the universe I regard as my body and
that which directs the universe I consider as my nature. All people are my brothers and
sisters, and all things are my companions. (Chan 1963 , p. 497)
In this passage, Chang Tsai identifi es himself with the entire universe. His iden-
tifi cation is based on affectionate belongings that can be seen from his analogy of
parents, brothers, and companions. The emotions of love toward all people and
creatures in the entire universe are based on the metaphysical foundation of nature,
which I have discussed above. Based on the concept of ch'i , we know that everything
in nature is full of vitality and life. Therefore, the emotions of love for all things in
nature are also the emotions of love of life. Our capability to emotionally identify
ourselves with all things in nature represents the highest development of emotion,
which is also the state of self-realization, which is called Jen in Confucianism. For
Confucianism, achieving the highest development of emotion is a long transforma-
tion process, which is expressed in Confucianism as cheng.