The Religious Approach to Heaven-human Relationship

In religion, the heaven-human relationship was originally that between God and human, which traced back to as early as Liangzhu Culture (about 5,000 years ago). A large number of jade wares like Yu Bi and Yu Cong were unearthed in the ruins of Liangzhu Culture. As the line in Rites of Zhou Dynasty (Zhou Li) suggested, "The white jade (Yu Bi) is presented to worship the Heaven, while the yellow jade (Yu Cong) to worship the Earth," they were used to worship the Heaven and Earth. Zhang Guangzhi notes that the visual image of Yu Cong looks round and square. More significantly, while connecting the round and square, Yu Cong symbolically associates the Earth with the Heaven. The symbolic meaning of Yu Cong can be demonstrated in Chinese characters. For instance, Guo Moruo observes that shen (申) pictographically looks like a thread that unites two things14. Yang Xiangkui further indicates that the two things are actually the Heaven and Earth, and that Shen here functions as a medium15. In fact, the character shen (申) was presumably created based on the shape of Yu Cong. The heaven-human relationship largely relies on the idea Heaven-Human Harmony.

In the civilized society, the idea Heaven-Human Harmony was presented by the Divine-right Theory of Kingship. For example, Book of Documents (Shang Shu) recorded the Heaven's punishment on human:

Youhu insulted the Five Elements and abandoned the calendar in Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties. Heaven deprived him of life. (King Qi's Address at Gan)

Xia committed a crime. He feared the Heaven and corrected his mistake. (King Qi s Address)

Now we were starting off. We must respect the Heaven and accept his punishment. (King Wu s Address)

The idea Heaven-Human Harmony had a great impact on Chinese philosophers. The most representative was the theories Heaven-Human Response, Heaven-Human Connection, and Heaven-Human Affinity proposed by Dong Zhongshu, a Han-Dynasty philosopher. To Dong Zhongshu,

What made human to be human was the Heaven. Heaven was the great-grandfather of human. That was the reason why human looked like the Heaven. Human's body formed by following the Heaven's predestination, human's blood became benevolent by obeying the Heaven's will, and human's virtue improved by transforming the Heaven's law. Human's like or dislike suggested the warm or cold of the Heaven, human's joy or anger indicated the winter or summer of the Heaven, and human's fate materialized the four seasons of the Heaven. Human's joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness accorded with spring, autumn, winter, and summer. Joy, the symbol of spring; anger, the symbol of autumn; happiness, the symbol of summer; and sorrow, the symbol of winter. Human was the accessory of the Heaven. (Luxuriant Dew of the Spring and Autumn Annals [Chun Qiu Fan Lu], The Heaven and Human)

The Heaven created human based on the numbers in a year. There were 366 small condyles and 12 big condyles in human's body, referring to the numbers of day and month in a year. There were five internal organs, according with the Five Elements; there were four limbs, conforming to the four seasons. The visibleness and blindness embodied day and night; the hardness and softness presented winter and summer; and the sorrow and joy indicated Tin and Yang. Human's plan and consideration resembled the Z)«-measure; and human's action and morality simulated the Heaven and Earth. (Heaven-Human Affinity)

Undoubtedly, Dong Zhongshu's views seemed nonsensical. Later, Dong's theories were harshly criticized by Wang Chong. In Critical Essays (Lun Heng), Wang Chong refuted, "Confucian said the Heaven and Earth created human consciously. This sounded groundless. The airflow in the Heaven and Earth assembled, and human was born occasionally. A man and woman satisfied their lust, and the child was born." (The Law of Creatures) He furthered declared that human could not affect the heaven with their actions, neither did the Heaven. (On the Pray for Rain)

It must be noticed that in the religious heaven-human relationship, the idea Fate really mattered. To be specific, Fate included God's Will and Destiny, both of which concerned the heaven-human relationship.

It was not difficult to understand the heaven-human relationship in God's will, an essential idea in religious fatalism. In Zhou Dynasty, for example, the core of religious fatalism was the Give-Accept relationship between the Heaven and human, as the line in Book of Documents (Shang Shu) suggested, "Hopefully, the King and his citizens undertook forever God's will." (Duke Zhao s Memorial to the King) Besides, people in Zhou Dynasty developed the idea Being Obedient to God's will: "Now that it was God's will, we must not defy it." (Sages) Later, these ideas spread to Confucians. Confucius, for instance, viewed that a gentleman should fear and know God's will: "There were three things a gentleman must fear. The first one was God's will. A petty person showed no fear because he had no idea of God's will." (The Analects, Ji Shi) Confucius also commented on himself: "I understood God's Will at fifty." (Wei Zheng) In Doctrine of the Mean (Zhong Yong), God's will deal with human nature, morality, and education: "To respect human nature meant God's will, to follow human nature meant law, and to cultivate human nature meant education." Mysterious as these ideas on the heaven-human relationship seemed, they were commonly acknowledged by Confucians.

The heaven-human relationship in the idea Destiny will be mainly discussed, which also deals with the relationship between human and the external environment or the world. In the ancient times, human understood or controlled their destiny through divination. In the divination in Commentaries on Book of Change, for instance, the two divinatory symbols stood for the disaster and bless in human's life, from which the idea Destiny originated.

Confucians valued the idea Destiny:

Life and death were decreed by Destiny; fortune and honor were determined by Heaven. (The Analects, Yan Yuan)

The practice of law relied on Destiny; the abolition of law also relied on Destiny. (The Analects, Xian Wen)

Here Confucius held the view that human could not change things with their efforts, but entrust them to Destiny. Similarly, Mencius asserted:

A person did what he was not asked as Destiny did; a person came although he was not required as Destiny did. (Mencius, Wan Zhang IT)

What mouth meant to taste was what eyes to form, what ears to sound, what nose to smell, the limbs to comfort. It was human's nature to like them, but it was Destiny that determined. Therefore, a gentleman seldom overstated human nature. (Jin Xin II)

Mencius here pinpointed that liking comfort was human's nature, but to obtain or not depended on one's destiny. To Confucius and Mencius, Destiny was a kind of God's will.

Chuang Tzu, a Taoist, also discussed Destiny:

Life or death, poverty or fortune, virtue or meanness, praise or slander, hunger or satiety, cold or warm, were all the results of change and the expression of Destiny. (Chuang Tzu, Man's Spiritual World)

Animal's bone used to practice divination, in the reign of King Wuding of Shang Dynasty, unearthed in Anyang, Henan Province. In around 1500 BC, diviners used animal's bone to predict the future. When the bone was cauterized, its back would crack. Then, diviners told the disaster or bliss based on the crackles. The content and result of the divination were also inscribed on the animal's bone.

To Chuang Tzu, a person displayed the most commendable conduct on condition that he accepted the predestined things calmly (Conduct in Society) Chuang Tzu noticed that human could not forget themselves until died once their bodies were formed. No matter contradict with or conform to the external environment, human acted quickly like galloping horse. It was so pitiful that nothing could stop them. Human endured the misfortune with their lifetime, not knowing their destiny. Did that sound woeful? (On the Similarity between Things) Compared with Confucius and Mencius, Chuang Tzu took more obvious fatalist view.

The fatalist view exerted enormous influence on philosophers in Han Dynasty. Even Wang Chong, a great philosopher of critical spirit, displayed strong fatalist color. Wang Chong remarked,

A person's life or death, poverty or fortune, were all determined by destiny. (Critical Essays, On Fate and Fortune)

That a person encountered fortune meant he followed or disobeyed his destiny. He led a happy life if encountered the fortune, whereas ended in misery if the misfortune. (Life)

Wang Chong here discussed necessity and possibility; however, he failed to elaborate on the relationship between them. As a result, Wang Chong reduced the idea Destiny to temperament and phrenology, and drew the groundless conclusion: Human's destiny was decided by the Heaven and presented in the appearance, which was also called phrenology. {Shape of Bone) To be fair, Wang Chong's understanding of the idea Destiny was originally based on the principle "Following the heavenly law." However, due to the historical limit, he fell into the trap of mysticism.

To conclude, the concern of Destiny was a traditional issue in China.