Cultural Nationalist Confucian ideas of the assimilation

had a place in the natural revelation, but his view is different from that of Ye Xianggao. Yang was clearly aware that Jesus Christ was different from the Chinese sages, since He is God and the Savior of human beings.³⁰⁷ However, Ye collocates Christ and Chinese sages such as Yao, Shun and Confucius on the same level.³⁰⁸

Yang Tingyun and other Chinese converts cannot be called Christians only by appearance. It is important to note that among Neo-Confucians there were both positive and negative responses to the assimilation of the Christian concept of God and the Chinese concepts of Shangdi (Sovereign on High) and Tian (Heaven). The affirmative arguments are mainly based on two ideas: 1) Tian as the replacement of the ancient personal Deity Shangdi and 2) Zhang Zai's understanding of Tianli (Heavenly Principle) that Heaven is the giver of Principle. The negative arguments are mainly based on the monistic idea of the Neo-Confucian, Cheng-Zhu School that there is no division between material and spiritual worlds, which are of the same substance.

It was Ancient Confucianism that led people to affirm their assimilation, since there are considerable similarities between Christianity and Ancient Confucianism. It was Neo-Confucianism that led people to reject the assimilation, since there are many differences between Christianity and Neo-Confucianism.

3.2 Cultural Nationalist Confucian ideas of the assimilation

Cultural Nationalist Confucians have extensively discussed the assimilation of particular Christian and Chinese concepts. For example, the unity between Heaven and humanity (Tianren heyi 天人合一)³⁰⁹ was stressed not only by those Neo-Confucians in the 16th and 17th centuries, but also by the Cultural Nationalist Confucians, such as Tang Junyi 唐 君 毅(1909-1978). The Cultural Nationalist

307 Concerning this Standaert said, “For Yang Tingyun, Jesus Christ, who was born to redeem sin, was a revelation of Grace by the Master [Lord] of Heaven, in succession of the earlier transmitters of the Orthodoxy, such as other prophets in the West, and Yao, Shun, the Duke of Zhou and Confucius in the East.” See Standaert 1988, 201.

308 Cf., Criveller 1997, 368. Please see also Yang Tingyun's Daiyi xupian (Treatise to supplant doubts), quoted and translated by Standaert 1988, 129-130.

309 This concept does not only mean that Heaven and humanity are related and united, but, in fact, means that they are monisticly identical. This issue will be analyzed in more detail later.

The assimilation of God to the Chinese concepts of Shangdi and Tian

Confucians made an effort to revive the genuine spirit of Confucianism, but this effort was damaged by the May Fourth movement tradition in 1919.

In 1958 "A manifesto for the reappraisal of sinology and reconstruction of Chinese culture" was published in Hong Kong. In this manifesto, the signatories emphasized the harmony between the "way of Heaven" (Tiandao 天道) and the "way of man" (rendao 人 道) as the central legacy of Confucianism.310 The Cultural Nationalist Confucians challenged Western sinologists to pay closer attention to Confucian spirituality as the core of Chinese culture. This core of Chinese thought exists especially in what was called the 'conformity of Heaven and man in virtue', which is the traditional doctrine of xing 性 (nature). They said that if people realized that this doctrine is the core of Chinese culture, then they must not allow the misunderstanding that Chinese culture limits itself to external relations between people, with neither inner spiritual life nor religious or metaphysical sentiment. 311

The attitude which Cultural Nationalist Confucians have towards the idea of assimilation of the Christian concept of God and the Chinese concepts of Shangdi and Tian was particularly indicated in an article of Cai Renhou 蔡仁厚, who was a student of Mou Zongsan 牟中三. Even though the issue of Heaven and God was not much discussed in this article,312 it became evident that these Cultural Nationalist Confucians are monists and deny the distinction between God and the world. They reject the existence of God because of the Confucian doctrine of the unity between Heaven and humanity. According to their ideas, Confucians argue that the Christian concept of God and the Confucian concepts of Heaven and the Sovereign on High are heterogeneous.313

310 MANIFESTO.

311 Chang [Zhang], Carsun 1963, vol. 2, 461, 464. The attitude of these Neo-Confucians to the Christian God was negative, and Christianity was treated as a foreign threat to Confucianism and Chinese culture. Hans Kung has commented on the attitude towards Christianity in this manifesto as

"not always completely fair". See Kung & Ching 1993, 98.

312 Cai, Zhou & Liang 1985, the section of "Guanyu zongjiao huitong de wenti" (The problems concerning the integration of religions).

313 See more discussions in this topic Chapter 4 of this study, where the issues of Transcendence and Immanence will be explored.

3. Confucian ideas of the Saviour in Christianity:

The assimilation of God to the Chinese concepts of Shangdi and Tian

I will present Tang Junyi 唐君毅 as an example of the Cultural Nationalist Confucian in this section. Tang did not accept the Christian concept of God, but believed in a concept of “heart-mind” (xinxing 心性). By this term Tang means a metaphysical reality which is immanent in everything of the universe; via immanence cosmic unity is achieved. This metaphysical reality is a union of the minds of individual persons which transcends the people themselves.314 For Tang Tian is the metaphysical reality of heart-mind rather than a personal God as in Ancient Confucianism; thus, he did not accept the assimilation of the Christian concept of God and the Chinese concept of Heaven.

Tang establishes the heart-mind as a transcendent and infinite metaphysical reality based on ontological and moral arguments. In his cosmological and teleological arguments concerning God's existence, Tang believes that it is wrong to attempt to go beyond the existence of empirical things. He also claims that empirical things are contingent and, thus, not necessary. While Tang first uses the term “heart-mind” and then he speaks about “God’s existence”, it is clear that, for him, the two terms refer to the same thing, though it is “the perfect thing” rather than “God”.

Clearly Tang is pantheist, and Luo Bingxiang has made a study on him.³¹⁵

In contrast to Tang, one may argue that ontologically a perfect being (God) must include all attributes, and existence is an attribute; thus, God must exist. Tang argues that, if one negates the imperfection of an existent being, one ends up with an

314 Tang Junyi 1977 (vol. 24, II), page 61 reads: "In our mutual moral conducts and moral lives, we have direct feeling (zhigan) of the existence of the moral minds and moral personalities of others ...

From our mutual direct feelings of the existence of each other's moral minds and personalities, there comes the expansion and enhancement of our moral minds and personalities. From this we can see that a person's moral mind and personality do not just belong to that person, but also belong to others.

Originally, this mind does 'belong to oneself'. Yet when it expresses itself before others, when it is directly felt by others, then it also belongs to others ... With regard to the reality of this unified spirit which results from mutual incorporation and mutual feelings, [we can] describe it as an Absolute Self, and Absolute Spiritual Reality."

Page 64 reads: "At those moments, each person subjectively has the feeling of sharing one mind with the multitudes. And objectively speaking, it can also be said that there is one mind genuinely existing among the multitudes. Simultaneously people can be conscious of the actions of this one mind existing between heaven and earth. ... Here we should not say that the one mind belongs separately to individual persons, or to us, or to heaven and earth ... For when we are facing heaven and earth, heaven and earth make us transcend our respective limitations, resulting in the manifestation and existence of this one mind."

315 Luo 2005a, 369-370.

The assimilation of God to the Chinese concepts of Shangdi and Tian

existent being with all attributes, that is, a perfection being.316 Does this supposition of infinite qualification establish a proof of the existence of a perfect being?

Tang has also employed ethical-religious experience in order to prove the existence of the infinite and perfect being.317 He says that our moral experience actually reveals its objective existence.318

Tang has made important contributions to the modernization of Confucianism, since his philosophical ideas are basically a modernized version of the idealistic wing of Neo-Confucianism represented by Lu Xiangshan 陆象山 and Wang Yangming 王 阳关明.319 Many of Tang's insights may not have broken much new ground, but, he has placed his ideas in the context of dialogue with Western philosophy, Christianity, and Buddhism. Tang did depart, however, from Neo-Confucianism in one important respect. In Neo-Confucianism the Principle (Li) or the Way (Dao) of "production and reproduction" is a metaphysical reality, but for Tang the prime metaphysical reality is the transcendent "heart-mind".320 Neo-Confucian Li or Dao does not necessarily indicate any sense of progress, but Tang's transcendence does connote progress.321

316 Tang Junyi 1977 (vol. 24, I), 28.

317 “In the beginning, people only believe in the spiritual existence of those they respect and love. This original affirmation stems from the emotions of their moral minds. Since this affirmation stems from the emotions, they will not bear to think that these spiritual beings are left lonely, without companionship and unattached. As these spiritual beings do not have the obstacles of possessing material forms as people and things in the world do, their transcendent mind should be able mutually to shed light on each other and form one body, hence forming an absolute spiritual existence ...

Doubling the reality of this absolute spiritual existence and that of the spiritual beings whom we respect and love is to counter the moral minds.” Tang Junyi 1977 (vol. 24, II), 10.

318 “In our moral lives, so long as there are real common emotions and feelings between others and ourselves, and so long as we can genuinely reflect, we can see that our moral minds and those of others are united to form a spiritual existence”. Tang Junyi 1977 (vol. 24, II), 62.

319 Concerning Lu Xianshang, see Chan 1963, 572-587. “Impatient with the earlier advocacy of meditative quiet-sitting to gain clarity and contact with the inner expression of the principle in one's inmost heart, what he called "innate knowledge", in the actions of ordinary and extraordinary life”, see Chan 1963, chapter 23. Cf., Neville 2000, 156. Wang Yangming emphasized the transcendence of Principle even more than the Song Neo-Confucians. The Cheng-Zhu school has emphasized the goodness of principle, or ren. Wang holds a different view and says: "In the original substance of the mind there is no distinction between good and evil. When the will becomes active, however, such distinction exists. The faculty of innate knowledge is knowledge of good and evil. The investigation of things is to do good and remove evil." This translation is cited from Chan 1963, 686-687. Concerning Wang Yangming, see Chan 1963, 654-691. The Principle (li) Learning of Zhu Xi has been considered the realistic wing of Neo-Confucianism; see the discussion above in the same chapter and the Introduction of this study.

320 In this respect, Wang Yangming had an obvious influence on Tang. The idea of a genuine self, the claim that evil is a result of indulgence that can be overcome by thinking, and the doctrine of a

3. Confucian ideas of the Saviour in Christianity:

The assimilation of God to the Chinese concepts of Shangdi and Tian

Tang Junyi's ontological and moral arguments for the existence of an infinite reality seem inconsistent. His ontological argument begins with an existent being, negates its imperfections by supplementing it with all the attributes it lacked for perfection, and arrives at a perfect being. Such an argument rests on the presupposition that we can achieve the concept of a perfect being by supplementing perfect qualities for an imperfect being, which seems to imply again the possibility of conceiving perfection, a circumstance which the process of qualification was intended to avoid.

But Tang's argument could also be interpreted to mean that we are able to think only about the additional attributes needed to supplement the concept of an existing imperfect being, so that we might be able to transform it into a concept of an all-perfect being. The main problem with Tang’s moral argument is that it relies on his idealism, which overlooks the distinction between a mere idea and real existence.322 In order to understand Tang’s notion of the existence of God, we may refer to my discussion in the beginning of this chapter.³²³

Tang believes not only that heart-mind is the prime metaphysical reality but also believes in the supremacy of Confucianism to Christianity and Buddhism. He has identified a total of nine horizons (jingjie 境界) as the main content of his Confucianism. By the term “horizon” Tang seems to refer to the content level of Confucianism. They refer to: (1) individuals (things or persons); (2) classes to which individuals belong; (3) cause-effect relationships among individuals; (4) mutual perceptions by subjective minds; (5) concepts and pure meaning; (6) practicing morality; (7) unifying with a single deity; (8) realizing the illusion of the world and self; and (9) fulfilling human nature, which is the embodiment of Heavenly virtue.³²⁴

universal moral metaphysical reality that accounts for cosmic unity all have affinities to Wang's own views. See Wang Yangming's writings, which English translation can be found in Chan 1963, 654-691. Cf. also Sin Yee Chan's article in Cheng & Bunnin 2002, 308.

321 See Cheng & Bunnin 2002, 323.

322 Cf., Sin Yee Chan's article "Tang Junyi: Moral idealism and Chinese culture" in Cheng & Bunnin 2002, 315.

323 For example, the a priori approach of ontological and moral arguments indicate that God should exist both in mind and in eality.

324 See Appendix V: “Nine Horizons of Tang Junyi’s Confucianism”.

The assimilation of God to the Chinese concepts of Shangdi and Tian

The first three horizons deal with the objective world as perceived by the heart-mind. The next three horizons are the product of the heart-mind reflecting upon itself. The final three horizons are the most important, because they constitute the different ways in which the heart-mind unifies the subjective and the objective. The last three Tang called the trans-subjective-objective horizons.325 Tang considered the last three horizons as representing, respectively, Christianity, Buddhism, and Confucianism. These three horizons all point to the same absolute metaphysical reality, but they give different names to this “reality”. The three horizons, as the representatives of the three religions, however, differ in the directions that they recommend people to follow in order to achieve unity with this metaphysical reality.³²⁶

Tang thought that Confucianism is superior to Christianity and Buddhism for three reasons. First, the other two religions require people to look beyond the present life and world. Christianity focuses on a transcendent God, and Buddhism believes that the world is an illusion. Tang says these different emphases will lead people to overlook the present for the sake of the future, and people will tend to employ a utilitarian mode of thinking to serve their interest in union with the infinite metaphysical reality.

Second, Buddhism is appropriate only for those who are so attached to the world that they require enlightenment about the illusion of the world, and Christianity is appropriate for those who are so dependent on others that they need help from an all-powerful God. These two religions are medicines only for the "sick".

325 Tang understands the human heart-mind as the key to understanding the world. The heart-mind knows the world through a function of feeling-penetration, which includes cognition, emotion and willing. In its ideal operation, we will respond to an object or a situation in correct ways and achieve an integration of reason and emotion. In knowing another human being, feeling-penetration is a kind of empathic response. Tang argues that through exercising this feeling-penetration one can achieve a vision or cognition of horizon (jing), which is a Buddhist concept for an object to which the mind is directed and implies a unification of the subjective understanding and the objective situation. Sin Yee Chan has compared Tang's horizon to the Kantian account of perception, according to which perception is also a product of the mind's unification of sensory data by means of categories supplied by the mind. See Cheng & Bunnin 2002, 308.

326 See Appendix V: “Nine Horizons of Tang Junyi’s Confucianism”.

3. Confucian ideas of the Saviour in Christianity:

The assimilation of God to the Chinese concepts of Shangdi and Tian

Third, Confucianism encompasses Buddhism and Christianity, but they do not encompass Confucianism. Confucianism can regard Jesus and Sakyamuni as sages, but Buddhism and Christianity will not see Confucius as enlightened or as divine.³²⁷

Tang's claim for the superiority of Confucianism is related to religious thinking in many cases.³²⁸ But this thinking suffers from some critical faults. First, Confucianism faces the same problem of requiring the same sort of utilitarian mode of thinking as do Buddhism and Christianity. For the affirmation of the value of the present life and the world does not mean that Confucian ideals are not directed to the future. Indeed, Tang himself believes that one should engage in moral cultivation and exhaust the resources of one's own nature before one can fully participate in the Heavenly virtue of transcendence.

Secondly, the Confucian belief in the goodness of human nature can still admit a general unwholeness pertaining to humanity by ascribing this unwholeness to external factors. Confucianism itself, then, must take into account the “sick”. Thus, one cannot say that Christianity and Buddhism are inferior to Confucianism based on the idea that they provide little more than penance for the "sick".

Finally, Tang's claim that Confucianism alone encompasses the other two religions can be challenged. If Jesus and Sakyamuni are recognized in Confucianism, they are in any case not recognized in the way in which they are understood in the context of their own religions. Similarly, Christians and Buddhists can recognize Confucius quite apart from his real meaning for Confucians. Indeed, outside the proper religious context of meaning, even God would not be identified as the omnipotent, omni-benevolent, and omniscient Creator that He is in Christianity.

Therefore, Christians need not accept the position which Confucians have given to Jesus.³²⁹