The Useless Tree

Ancient Greens

    The Western Confucian links to a couple of articles by Pan Yue, the deputy director of China’s State Environmental Protection Agency.  Pan makes various statements about how ancient Chinese philosophy is especially good on environmental protection.  I’m not quite so sure.  Confucianism, with its focus on humanity, certainly plays down the status of animals in relation to man; and, I suspect, if push came to shove, would support human control and domination of the environment, if such behavior was done in the name of supporting social relationships.  Taoism, of course, seems green but would shy away from making the "environment" a conscious policy objective.  If people followed Way the environment would, quite naturally, be preserved; but if we make environmental protection an explicit goal, we are likely to get it wrong.

      More could be said here, but I am rushing to get ready to leave town for a few days.  Let me just mark this one sentence for consideration.  Pan says:

The success of the Asia’s “Four Little Dragons”
has shown that Confucianism is a tool exclusively owned by the east,
and can be a corrective to the flaws of capitalism.

 Without elaboration, let me just assert that it is neither: it is not "exclusively owned by the east" (Confucius must be turning in his grave at this denial of the universality of his teaching…); and it is not "a corrective for the flaws of capitalism."  Or, at least, the experience of the "little dragons" does not demonstrate that latter point.  They are capitalist success stories, whatever we might think of capitalism.  They bent residual Confucian social practices to capitalist ends, and they have experienced many of the "flaws" of capitalism.  They are not Confucian utopias.  They are variants of modernism. 

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5 responses to “Ancient Greens”

  1. JustSomeGuy Avatar
    JustSomeGuy

    “The Master fished with a line but not with a net; when shooting he did not aim at a resting bird.”
    “The Master said: ‘To conduct the government of a state of a thousand chariots there must be religious attention to business and good faith, economy in expenditure and love of the people, and their employment on public works at the proper seasons.’”
    Not to mention the “Confucianism and Ecology” series that Mary Evelyn Tucker edited . . .

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  2. Sam Avatar
    Sam

    Yes, but he did not ask about the horses and said that he cared for Ritual, not the sheep (was it sheep? Don’t have my book here with me…)

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  3. Zoomzan Avatar
    Zoomzan

    Zhang Zai expounded the sympathy of all things, on account of the identity of their underlying basis. Confucianist metaphysics is animist. The great emptiness gives rise to qi, which compose all things. Consciousness is a function of the mind. Because the mind is changeable, it necessarily arose from qi. Therefore we know that qi is responsible for consciousness. This doctrine is confirmed by Zhuzi when he said that gods and ghosts arise from qi. It is also because the all things are conscious, that sincerity can move heaven and earth.
    The basis of Confucianism is its ritual science. The ancients communed with mountains and valleys, rivers and lakes, and all terrestrial spirits.
    Actually, the best way to protect the environment is to curb desires. This is what the Cheng brothers taught when they recommended the extinction of human desires and the preservation of the heavenly principle. All things partake of the heavenly principle. How should I then injure them for my own pleasure!
    Concerning Taoism, it seems you make a distinction between daojia and daojiao, which in my view is untenable. If you don’t make this distinction, the obvious Taoist approach toward environmentalism would be their study of metaphysics and fengshui.
    Because the modern academia is influenced by Enlightenment rationalism, it anachronistically imposes the distinction between philosophy and religion in its study of ancient things. An unbiased approach toward Confucianism and Taoism would reveal their common basis in shamanism and archaic Chinese religion. The relationship between shamanism and environmental protection has been explored by many others, some better than others.

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  4. Sam Avatar
    Sam

    Zoomzan,
    I should have read this comment before I commented on you other comment – then I would have realized that the taojia v. taojiao distinction is not tenable for you. I suspect Chuang Tzu would agree, since all distinctions are untenable for him. But I still find something helpful in it, especially since I tend to accept a more definite notion of death suggested in Chuang Tzu – no after life, no reincarnation as such, just wandering beyond the dust of this world…

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  5. Zoomzan Avatar
    Zoomzan

    Dear Sam:
    I thought of more ideas relevant to Confucianism and environmentalism. The two classical narratives are of course Great Yu and water-management, and Tang and the birds. In both instances, there are clear references to sustainability, the dangers of going too far, and the need to balance men and nature’s interests.
    The other thing is the Confucianist view of tiandao. Heaven is active, whereas men are passive. The world of man is the microcosm, which is ultimately subjected to the macrocosm of heaven. Therefore, men must adjust themselves according to the days and the seasons, as well as astrological influences. It follows that wise men curb their excesses by observing the signs of heaven, before they are stricken by the wrath of nature.
    In addition, heaven, earth, and men reflect each other. A vigorous natural environment is a sign of the favour of heaven, whereas pollution indicates moral corruption in the government. Because what is corrupt must be removed in order that good may flourish – pollution is sufficient cause for revolution.

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