Introduction Richard Leakey writes in The Origin of Humankind,: The future of the human species depends crucially on two things: our relationships with one another, and our relationship to the world around us. The study of human origins can offer important emphasis in the way we view the two issues. 1 The man-nature relationship is defined in the East by Taoism and in the West by Judaism. And the man-man relationship is defined in the East by Confucianism and in the West by Christianity. What makes it difficult to examine the man-man relationship is that this question is inextricably related to the man-nature relationship. With its characteristic syncretism, Confucianism shares with or relies on Taoism in defining the cosmology and man s place in nature. Thus the Confucian central teaching, namely,, ren ( 仁 ) is in harmony with the central theme of Taoism, namely, Tao. Confucius widely used the concept of Tao, and Laozi, the presumed author of the Taoteking, freely referred to ren. In the West, although Christianity shares with and relies on Judaism when defining the cosmology with God at its center creating man and nature, unlike Judaism it places critical emphasis on the man-man relationship ( love your neighbor ) as much as man s relationship with God ( obey your God ). And unlike the Eastern harmony between ren ren and Tao, the record shows that the history of the West is full of conflicts between the two cardinal principles of love your neighbor and obey your God. The reason for the conflict can be found in that the man-god relationship is directly reflected in the manman relationship. Both the Eastern Confucianism/Taoism and the Western Judaism/Christianity were already the fruits of a long process of maturing. In this respect, Tthey were less the progenitors of their respective cultures than the products. Whereas psychologists have assumed universality, many scholars in other fields believe that Westerners (primarily Europeans, Americans, and citizens of the British Commonwealth) and East Asians (principally the people of China, Korea, and Japan) have maintained very different systems of thought for thousands of years. 2 The best way to reconcile the claim of the psychologists universality and the existence of two different thought systems, East and West, is to recognize that both Easterners and Westerners share the same universal human nature that works for self-preservation and to acknowledge that two systems of thought, East and West, have developed as the manifestations of this fundamental principle of self-preservation. The reason why East and West come to have two contrasting thought systems can be found, in the final analysis, in the difference of the environmental contexts, namely, the Western expansive versus the Eastern circumscribed environment. The East remained virtually circumscribed within the East Asian landmass from the Xia dynasty around three millennia3000 BC until the 19th nineteenth century, when it was forced to expand its Comment [CE1]: Will leave to layout team to define heading style and font size. Comment [CE2]: A colon should nearly always follow a complete sentence. Use commas to introduce dialogue, or nothing at all. As here: Richard Leakey writes in The Origin of Humankind that the future of the Comment [CE3]: Per CMoS comma before conjunction that precedes independent clause. Comment [CE4]: Leaving Taoism and Tao capitalized throughout as concepts. Comment [CE5]: Per CMoS expressions of the type that is are traditionally followed by a comma. They may be preceded by an em dash or a semicolon, or the entire phrase they introduce may be enclosed in parentheses or em dashes. Comment [CE6]: There appears to be a formatting bug in between the comma and ren in that it won t hold a single space but... Comment [CE7]: Per your usage of lowercase... Comment [CE8]: Per CMoS commas with... Comment [CE9]: Per CMoS italicizing book... Comment [CE10]: Adding quotes (per your... Comment [CE11]: Slash required for contrast... Comment [CE12]: Is this quote part of your... Comment [CE13]: Capitalize first word of... Comment [CE14]: Leaving spelled out in text... Comment [CE15]: Leaving as open compound... Comment [CE16]: Years are in numerals. Comment [CE17]: Per CMoS numbers from... Comment [CE18]: Comma needed before... Formatted: Not Superscript/ Subscript 1
environment from East Asia to the global dimension by the West. On the other hand, the West, from the Aegean civilization around three millennia3000 BC until its conquest of the world in the 19th nineteenth century, evolved in an open and expansive environment. Both Confucianism and Christianity should be considered not so much a product of a single individual as but instead an accretion of wisdoms and traditions that had have been accumulated over centuries among similar- minded thinkers and teachers. And they did not invent their thoughts out of the blue. Their thoughts represent, in their turn, the result of the accumulation of preexisting, seminal ideas. Such central concepts of Confucianism as ren, junzijunzi, and Tao had been in the making over millennia and bore fruit with Confucius. It is the same with Christianity. Such central concepts as Ggod and love had been in the making over millennia with Judaism and Greek civilization before it and bore fruit with Jesus Christ. As such, Confucianism and Christianity represent not only their respective legacies for the last two millennia but also the respective traditions, wisdoms, and rules of the East and West stretching back over millennia prior to their birth. Regarding the man-man relationship, history shows that Western Christianity demonstrates a dynamic ambivalence between deed and faith. Quite often the man-god relationship between man and God took precedence over the man-man relationship. Contrary to this Western dualism, the East exhibits unitarianism based on deed only. There is no divine intervention in the Eastern man-man relationship. The dualism vs.versus unitarianism contrast between the East and West underscores their respective cultures in terms of the man-man relationship. Western ambivalence on toward the manman relationship in turn produced a conflictual conflicting relationship between Christians and heathens, or us vs.versus them. The Eastern civilization also established two categories of men, Junzi vs.versus Xiaoren. Yet this division is based solely on the degree of ethical attainment of each individual, not on faith, race, blood, or wealth. And renren is the most critical element distinguishing Junzi from Xiaoren. As such, the concepts of Junzi ( 君子, literally noble man ) and Xiaoren ( 小人, literally petty person ) are essential to the understanding of Eastern civilization in terms of the manman relationship. The contrast between the Western Christian and the -heathen and the Eastern Junzi- and the Xiaoren is key to an understanding of how differently the East and West defined the man-man relationship. This is at the crux of many civilizational differences between the East and West: natural philosophy vs. versus supernatural religion that governs society; Eastern syncretism arguing that religions and ideologies are at the service of man vs.versus Western monotheism insisting that man must serve religion or ideology; Eastern transformationism vs. versus Western teleology with religions, metaphysics, and ideologies; and Eastern ethics vs.versus Western law. Formatted: Not Superscript/ Subscript Comment [CE19]: This is definitional, so a present tense version is correct. Comment [CE20]: Per CMoS compound modifiers that function as a unit to modify a noun are generally hyphenated before the noun to avoid misdirecting the reader. Comment [CE21]: A coordinate adjective is one that appears in a sequence with one or more related adjectives to modify the same noun. Per CMoS coordinate adjectives should be separated by commas (e.g., a skilled, experienced chess player ). Comment [CE22]: Per CMoS when a conjunction joins the last two elements in a series of three or more, a comma should appear before the conjunction. Comment [CE23]: Setting off introductory as such with comma to avoid misreading. Comment [CE24]: Edited for parallelism. Edit ok? Comment [CE25]: Removing quotation marks since capitalization indicates these are concepts. Comment [CE26]: Per CMoS definitions of foreign words in quotation marks. Comment [CE27]: Hyphens are less clear than textual explanation (made here) to contrast each of the two concepts. Edit ok? Comment [CE28]: Is it still critical to how they define it? If so, use present tense ( define ). This book aims at elucidating the genesis, manifestations, and evolution of these two contrasting approaches between East and West regarding the man-man relationship. 2
This book is the last of the trilogy of East and West. The first volume is East and West: Taoism versus Judaism (Man-Nature Relationship); the second volume, East and West: Man versus Spirit (Mind-Body Relationship). This trilogy has a precursor. That is East and West: Understanding the Rise of China, published in 2010. They share a basic orientation, which is a comparison of the Eastern and Western civilizations on an equal footing. But they are different books in terms of structure as much as in substance. Note: There are a few Eastern concepts that do not have comparable counterparts in Western terminology. However, without referencing such key elements of Eastern civilization, it is impossible to compare Eastern and Western civilizations. Consequently, these concepts are used as they are in Eastern terminology:. Tao ( 道 ), Taoteking ( 道德經 ), Yin-Yang ( 陰陽 ), Yi ( 易 ), I-Ching ( 易經 ), Wuwei ( 無爲 ), Junzi ( 君子 ), Xiaoren ( 小人 ), Ren ( 仁 ), Shen ( 神 ), Li-Ki ( 理氣 ), Laozi ( 老子 ), Xunzi ( 荀子 ), Sunzi ( 孫子 ), and Han Fei ( 韓非 ) are those terms. Comment [CE29]: Suggest removing. Comment [CE30]: Leaving capitalized concepts. 3
1. Confucian Ren and Christian Love The Western Enlightenment thinkers admired the rationality of Confucianism compared to the irrational dogmas and metaphysical dichotomies imbedded in their civilization. Confucianism and Christianity, more than any other cultural elements, define the Eastern and Western civilizations, respectively. Confucius and Jesus taught the same ethics to mankind: love each other. Confucian rren and Christian llove are one and the same. However, the contrasting historical contexts within which the two great teachers formulated their thoughts for the benefit of humanity gave rise to contrasting consequences and legacies. Confucius s context was natural cosmology defining the man-nature relationship as embodied in Taoism. Comment [CE31]: Suggest adding Chapter before the number. Will let layout team design chapter heading format. Comment [CE32]: Presume that in running text ren can be lowercase? Comment [CE33]: Per CMoS possessive of proper nouns. Confucianism blended smoothly with Taoism. In particular, the deep appreciation of the contradictions and changes in human life, and the need to see things whole, that are integral to the notion of a yin-yang universe are also part of Confucian philosophy. 3 In contrast, Jesus Jesus s context was supernatural religion denoting the man-nature relationship as embodied in Judaism. Thus, one can assume that although Confucius and Jesus lived to impart the same fundamental message of love to humankind, Confucianism and Christianity in actual history marched towards contrasting directions, providing divergent frameworks to for the Eastern and Western civilizations. The divergent frameworks are provided, respectively, by Taoism and Judaism. The real difference between Confucianism and Christianity can be found not so much in their ethical teachings as in their man-nature context, namely, Tao and God. Confucianism with the Eastern Tao and Christianity with the Western God, respectively, produced mean of ethics in the East and mean of faith in the West. 1) Confucian Ren and Christian Love Confucianism focuses exclusively on the man-man relationship without any supernatural mediation, and, consequently, proposes ethics as the one and only principle governing the man-man relationship. By the sixth century BC, the entire Eastern thought system came to be founded on natural philosophy, completely devoid of any religious dogmas or metaphysical theories. By contrast, the teachings of Jesus found in the New Testament suggest two principles governing the man-man relationship: love your neighbor ethics and obey your God faith. The West consequently provides two principles regarding the man-man relationship, (i.e., ethics and faith). As the Judaic faith constituted the context within which Jesus conveyed to humanity his fundamental teachings of love, the historic raison d être of Jesus could be found in his message of Samaritan love. With this message, Jesus not only introduced the fundamental, universal ethics of love your neighbor, which was absent 4 Comment [CE34]: Per CMoS usage and CSP preference ( towards is British usage). Perhaps marched in contrasting directions? Comment [CE35]: Missing word Comment [CE36]: Italicizing per CMoS words used as words and also to emphasize the difference between the two types of men, which I pluralized, but which could also be a man of ethics. Comment [CE37]: Suggest giving chapter name and this subheading different names. Also will let layout team format subheadings. Comment [CE38]: Per CMoS Comment [CE39]: Can only be used in parentheticals. Means that is, which follows same rules as namely and for example (6.43). Comment [CE40]: Per CMoS coordinate adjectives (appear in a sequence with one or more related adjectives to modify the same noun) should be separated by commas.
Notes 1 Richard Leakey and Roger Lewin, Origins: What New Discoveries Reveal About Our Species and Its Possible Future (New York: E.P. Dutton, 1978), 256. 2 Nisbett, Richard (2010-10-26). The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently, Introduction and p. 29, Free Press, Kindle Edition 3 Ibid., p 16 5