Human Beings and Nature in Traditional Chinese Thought

This essay explores a variety of important Chinese conceptions of the actual and ideal relationship between human beings and the rest of the natural world. It presents views from the earliest period of historical China, the latter part of the Shang dynasty (ca. 1200-1050 bce), and from representative thinkers of other periods, extending down to the last imperial era, the Qing dynasty (1644-1911 ce). There is a fairly clear line of development from the earliest period, when the Chinese saw the natural realm as chaotic, dangerous and largely inscrutable, to a later view of the world as well ordered, inclined toward human good and more open to understanding. This later view was first expressed during the "Eastern Zhou" (770-221 bce), and reached a mature and systematic form in the following Han dynasty (206 bce-220 ce). Subsequent periods saw remarkable variation in the specific features of this view but its general form - a belief in a well ordered and manageable world, inclined toward human good and open to human understanding - remained dominant throughout subsequent Chinese history.