Chinese Philosophy - A Guide To Personal Excellence And Social Harmony

Chinese philosophy is highly unique in its profound sense of moral thinking. The fundamental thesis of Chinese thinking is interdependence and mutual relationships between entities, human and natural. For great thinkers like Confucius and Lao zi a human being is a relatively constituted and situated self. What is important in social living is correlative thinking and resonance, complementary approach to differences, action guiding nature of judgment and the effective appropriation of naturalness and spontaneity in the interrelations between individuals, human beings and nature. The book is a prelude to study the significance of personal excellence and social harmony embedded in Chinese philosophical tradition.

Dr R. Lekshmi is presently working as an Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy, University of Kerala. She has a good number of research articles published to her credit including a book on Humanism of Vivekananda and an edited work on the Philosophical Perspectives of Hermeneutics. She has produced several PhD's and currently she is undertaking a research project sponsored by the Indian Council of Philosophical Research, New Delhi.

IT GIVES me great pleasure to write a Foreword to the well thought out book entitled Chinese Philosophy: A Guide to Personal Excellence and Social Hormony, written by Dr R. Lekshmi, Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Kerala, Kariyavattom, Kerala. Ancient China has had one of the largest and best civilizations. The present work, which is mainly descriptive, gives yet an analytic account of Chinese philosophy in its historical perspective. It is divided into four chapters, each dealing with a particular branch of Chinese philosophy and the conclusion reached by the writer forming the fourth chapter. Each chapter is concise yet exhaustive. Chinese philosophy is essentially a treatise of ethics and socio-moral philosophy; attainment of personal excellence and social harmony is its goal. Chinese philosophy elevates the moral fulcrum of people; human relations are its main stimuli. It does not believe in knowledge for knowledge sake; in its view, knowledge should always end up in the cultivation of values leading to immense happiness and social harmony. Becoming human, thus, is its sole concern. The writer's explanation of the essence of Chinese philosophy as the "inner sage and outer king" is really noteworthy and mind-catching. The three philosophies that dominated China right from the beginning were Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism. Confucianism had its sway in China for nearly 2,500 years. In it the word li chiefly means propriety; it is propriety of personal excellence and self-articulation. It refers to codes of conduct. Confucianism depicts the excellence of man through another word ren. Ren means moral quality characteristic of harmony. It represents love, golden rule and ethical wisdom. Dao means the "way". It emphasizes on the harmony with nature of things. Dao, the founder, was a man of intuitive wandering. The Daoist principles of personal excellence are dealt with by the author in the second chapter. Here and there, debates and argumentations, and analyses that echo are all accommodated in the book.Buddhism, the third influential philosophy, took its roots in China around 60 BCE. It went hand in hand with Confucianism and Daoism that already existed in China, without an iota of conflict and confrontation. Buddhism is known as an ethicized religion and philosophy. Its message is itself the culture of Asia. The book explains the technical terms as found in the three major philosophies. Mahayana Buddhism was overwhelming in China which popularly came to be known as Zen Buddhism. The treatment of the subject is both historical and synthetic. In the preparation of the book, the writer seems to have freely consulted available material.

ITS profound sense of moral thinking, Chinese philosophy is highly unique. Unlike the other philosophical traditions, Chinese thinking does not capture one with abstract metaphysical concepts or epistemological truths. It is verily pragmatic in its content and approach which finds self and society as symbiotic rather than mutually exclusive. It tends to assume interdependence between entities which applies to relationships among human beings as well as natural environments. The contribution of Chinese thinkers in achieving the sustainable development goals discussed today is worth noticing. The principles and notions embedded in Chinese thinking act as moral proprieties for human excellence and social harmony. When man searches for ethical principles for a better social living he is to find Chinese philosophical traditions like Confucianism and Daoism acting like the guiding forces. The basic idea of the great seers like Confucius and Laozi is that a human being is a relatively constituted and situated self. Self-cultivation is the ethico-social realization of individuals within their network of relationships. What is important in social living is correlative thinking and resonance, complementary approach to differences, action- guiding nature of judgement and the effective appropriation of naturalness and spontaneity in the interrelations between entities or individuals. The Chinese seers could find that what is needed is not a detached moral individual in a religious pretext but an accomplished moral ruler. The necessity of ethics comes only when an individual seeks not "what I should do" rather "how I should live". Ethical norms must be invariably adapted to the particular contexts of application by individuals which make them relative and pragmatic. The above discussions are undertaken in this work at the backdrop of Chinese philosophical notions like li, ren, fa, wuwei and ziran. The study was originally undertaken as part of the University Grants Commission (UGC) minor research project done a couple of years ago. But because of the renewed interest in Chinese ethical concepts and the continuing relevance of the naturalistic tradition of Confucianism and Daoism it is decided to publish the revised work as a book which will act as a prelude to studies in Chinese philosophy.

**Contents and Sample Pages**