The concept of "harmony" has a long history, which is different from its modern meaning and broader and deeper than its modern meaning. In Ci Yuan, there are multiple interpretations of "harmony" such as "tone", "harmony" and "harmony", which shows that "harmony" is a very important but often neglected category in traditional thinking.
As early as the end of the Western Zhou Dynasty (about the seventh century BC), Shi Bo, the Zhou Taishi, put forward the famous proposition of "Harmony with real creatures, the same but not the same" (Guoyu Zhengyu), and pointed out the systematic harmonious thought. He said, "If we make him equal to what he calls the sum, we can be rich and return to things. If you use the same benefits, it will be abandoned. " "equating others with others" is based on the premise of difference and correlation, and different things can develop harmoniously; "Taking the same as the same" is the superposition of the same thing, and the result can only be suffocation. "Harmony without difference" means the unity of diversity or the harmony of opposites, such as "Harmony with Five Flavors" and "Harmony with Six Rhythms" (the official language in Mandarin).
In the ancient ideological debate, there was a debate about "harmony and identity", which marked the beginning of the traditional "harmony" thought. Later, Yan Ying further put forward the ideas of "harmony without difference" and "whether we can help each other in the same boat" (Zuo Zhuan was published for 20 years). Laozi pointed out: "The Tao gives birth to one, two, three and everything." Everything is negative and holds yang, thinking that it is harmonious. "
In its evolution, it can have the following four meanings:
(1) Harmony, unity of opposites of Yin and Yang, promoting unity of diversity or harmony of opposites;
(2) Harmony, which makes different factors in harmony and maintains the orderly operation of things;
(3) Neutralization, emphasizing "moderate restraint" and "balancing others", has a dynamic effect of checks and balances;
(4) Harmony, emphasizing "the unity of heaven and man" and "the order of yin and yang", is the goal and destination of the movement transformation of both sides of changeable contradictions, and the results of mutual competition are combined into a new unity.
The excavation of the above meanings makes us have a more comprehensive understanding of the connotation of "harmony". Through the harmonious system schema of Taiji diagram, we have a more intuitive understanding of the original meaning of "harmony": "harmony" is the circle of Taiji diagram and the contradictory combination of maintaining the unity of opposites of Yin and Yang fish. The thoughts of "harmony", "harmony", "neutralization" and "harmony" can be said to grasp the essence of "harmony" and form the essence of China's traditional thinking-the contradictory integration view of "harmony" thinking.
(Chapter 42 of Tao Te Ching) His thoughts of "combining rigidity with softness" and "complementary opposites" are also the purpose of "harmony". Zhuangzi pointed out: "If the husband is virtuous tomorrow, this is called a big book, and it is also with heaven and earth;" So, it's all about the world, and it's also about people. Harmony with others is fun, and harmony with heaven is fun. " (Zhuangzi Tiandao) Xun Kuang put forward the view that "Yin and Yang are enlarged, the wind and rain are generous, and everything has its own harmony" (Xun Tian Zi's Theory), and that "the old meaning is divided into one." ("Xunzi Wang Zhi") Mencius thought: "The weather is not as good as the geographical position, and the geographical position is not as good as human harmony." (Mencius) The second slogan in the Book of Changes is "harmony and auspiciousness"; Yi Zhuan further put forward the idea of "keeping harmony, and harmony will benefit chastity". In The Analects of Confucius, Confucius distinguished people by "harmony": "Gentlemen are harmonious but different, while villains are identical but not harmonious" (The Analects of Lutz); Moreover, a kind of "neutralization" thought is advocated by "not expressing ambition, but expressing in the middle": "the middle is also the foundation of the world; And also, the world is also; Be neutral, heaven is in an awkward position, and everything breeds. "
In the chapter of The Doctrine of the Mean, it can be said that "harmony" is promoted as an extremely important category of thinking, which promotes the spirit of "harmony is precious" (The Book of Rites, Zhong Ni Yan Ju) and emphasizes the great use of "harmony". Its essence lies in emphasizing the integration function of "harmony", mediating contradictions and making them tend to dynamic balance, thus realizing the realm of "harmony between man and nature" including natural personnel. Since the pre-Qin period, Confucianism has concentrated on this thought along the path of Confucius and Mencius, and it has been fixed by Dong Zhongshu as a unified system of "the sense of heaven and man".
In the dispute between nature and Ming Jiao in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Guo Xiang used the theory of "individualization" to solve the contradiction between nature and Ming Jiao, and realized the "harmony" between Ming Jiao and nature. In the prosperous Tang Dynasty, he paid great attention to the social function of "harmony". In the whole Neo-Confucianism and psychology of Song and Ming Dynasties, the thought of "harmony" reached the solution of "harmony" through the opposition of Tao, Qi, mind and matter, and then through metaphysical rational thinking or conscience practice. Based on the need of peaceful governance of the world in feudal society, we should strengthen the enlightenment of "harmony and joy" in ethics, stipulate the grade of birthright, perform our duties in the proper position, and do not exceed the etiquette and rules.
Even in the Ming and Qing dynasties, the word "harmony" was so respected that even the palace halls should be named after "Taihe", "Zhonghe" and "Baohe". Most countries to be established by modern revolution are called "* * * and countries" (the classical meaning of "* * * and" is "politically friendly things", and the modern meaning refers to political democracy), which is to reflect the democratic equality and universal harmony of all ethnic groups and all walks of life. Needless to say, the purport of the upper class is that ordinary people value harmony, and they should abide by it and even rebel. As a result, this contradictory integration view of traditional "harmony" thought penetrated into the depths of social life. China people use this concept of contradiction and integration to understand and grasp things, and consciously or unconsciously act with the thinking of "harmony".
The traditional idea of "harmony" has a long history. In addition to the source of ideological understanding, there is also the specific social, political and economic environment in China. Just like the formation of Yin-Yang transformation theory of Yi thinking, the contradictory integration view of Harmony thinking is rooted in China's self-sufficient and adaptable agricultural economy and patriarchal politics. It is this profound understanding of small farmers and patriarchal clan system that has also contributed to the establishment of the idea of "harmony". Geographically, China's ancient agricultural civilization centered on the Yellow River Basin formed a stable, conservative and self-evolving circle of Chinese civilization. Isn't this the realistic mode of "harmonious" thinking? The feudal political economy consolidated the productive position of men plowing and women weaving and the hierarchical order of monarch, minister and father, and introduced a series of daily ethical norms with family as the core, paving the way for the formation of "harmony" thought in real life.
Since then, China people have followed the thinking logic of "harmony" to integrate the world, intuitively and generally defined the object of knowledge and practice, regarded it as a whole system, and grasped and created new things with the thinking mode of "harmony" of the contradictory integration view. In turn, this has contributed to the unified political model, the self-sufficient economic framework and the harmonious aesthetic cultural form of China's traditional society, thus forming a self-sufficient Chinese civilization system independent of the West. With the invasion of modern capitalism, the collision of two civilizations objectively brought China society into a state of disharmony. Therefore, generations of China people have been encouraged to look around the world and absorb and digest new civilizations different from China's tradition, thus changing the fate of old China and realizing a new "harmonious" state of China society-people and country. Even in the modern and contemporary era when western thoughts are prevalent, that is, today when Marxist dialectical system view is established, China's traditional thought of "harmony" is as deep-rooted as "Yi", which has penetrated into the blood of every Chinese descendant and become China's truly unique view of contradiction integration.