Abstract:The relationship between man and heaven is the basic issues of ancient Chinese philosophy. It includes two aspects: the relationship between the mandate of heaven (law of nature) and human affairs, and that between rationality and erotic feeling. Accordingly, the ancient Chinese philosophy can be divided into two parts : "the doctrine of human affairs" and" the doctrine of human heart". The philosophy of the Qin and Han Dynasties was mainly "the doctrine of human affairs", focusing on the relationship between the mandate of heaven (law of nature) and human affairs; the philosophy of Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties was mainly "the doctrine of human heart" , focusing on the relationship between rationality and erotic feeling; in between, the ancient Chinese philosophy focused on both of "the doctrine of human affairs " and "the doctrine of human heart". Obviously, the ancient Chinese philosophy was essentially a philosophy of life that studied the nature of and the relationship between man' s material activities and spiritual activities. This philosophy, the basic spirit of which was a pursuit of ideal self-controlled life, should be able to be integrated with the Western philosophy that stresses that life should be subject to external constraint, and thus form a new view of life, that is an ideal way of life is the unification of self-control and external constraint.
周可真 . 理想的生活之道:自制与外制的统一——基于对中国古典哲学重新审视所获得的新生活观[J]. 江苏大学学报(社会科学版), 2009, 11(01): 8-16.
Zhou Kezhen . An Ideal Way of Life: the Unification of Self-control and External Constraint. Journal of Jiangsu University(Social Science Editi, 2009, 11(01): 8-16.