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Taiyang·Yinyang·Life: Discussing Tang Junyi’s “Life” philosophy

Author: Wang Zhenxiu

Source: “Zhouyi Research” Issue 1, 2025

Abstract: Tang Junyi’s philosophy of life can be understood from three aspects: Pacific view, yin view, and life theory. First of all, young Tang Junyi integrated the process theory, new realism and gastronomy, and regarded “Taiyang” as “the principle of change.” After thirty years old, Tang Junyi defined “Taiyang” based on the “principle of life” that was beyond the inner world, and regarded it as the source of life. Secondly, the yin-yang phase and the yin-yang phase are two forms of reproduction. The yin and yang phase refers to the change of energy and change of “born and transformed, and is based on the way of the universe. Yinyang induced by yin refers to the induced and inducing performance, and its basis is the principle of induction. The continuity of yin and yang can be explained by the model of “generated by the transformation and effect”. Finally, all things “have their lives” in the water of life, and in the process of interacting with other things, they determine their own life, and at the same time respond to the call of destiny. In short, Tang Junyi’s philosophy of life takes physical theory as the subject, sensory theory as the final word, and life theory as the end.

Keywords: Life is a sensation of the sun and the life Tang Junyi

Author introduction: Wang Zhenxiu, a doctoral student in the Department of Philosophy in Qinghua, and the purpose of the important topic is: Confucian philosophy and Yi philosophy.

 

“Shengsheng” is one of the focus concepts of Tang Junyi’s philosophy. In “Philosophical Overview”, Tang Junyi combined the Confucian theory of the way of heaven into “the theory of the way of heaven in life” [1]. In the “Original Thoughts of Chinese Philosophy”, Tang Junyi also defined the focus concepts of Confucianism such as “reason”, “game”, and “nature” as “the principle of life”, “game of life”, and “nature of life”. [2] In a certain meaning, “life” has become an area that understands that Tang Junyi’s philosophical learning is indispensable. Today, some students have paid attention to Tang Junyi’s philosophy of life. Li Chengqi pointed out that “nature reason” has “birth meaning” in Tang Junyi’s philosophy. The principle of life is the uneconomic realm of the creation of all things in the universe, and is an unrestrained principle and biochemical principle. [3] The Love Country further explored the relationship between the vitality and the principle of life in Tang Junyi and Zhu Zi’s study, and pointed out that the important point of Tang’s family is that “the principle is mainly based on the atmosphere of this life, and the principle of life can be seen from the atmosphere of life” [4]. Liu LeBaoqing.com always focused on Tang Junyi’s “metaphysics of sensory communication” in his late years, and believed that the “one yin and one yang” generation mechanism was the basic thread of emotional communication. [5] The above discussion has certain inspiration for the discussion in this article. However, influenced by the subjective sexual paradigm, students’ exploration of Tang Junyi’s life philosophy is not very profound. The so-called subjectivity paradigm, refers to the subjective philosophical system that develops the “heart” as the basis. For example, Wang Yixin and Zhang Qian both believed that Tang Junyi’s middle-level thinking experience had undergone a change from “moral self” to “moral sentimentality” to “spiritual realm”. [6] Single wave doubles directly view the “mind-centered theory” as the middle of Tang Junyi’s philosophical learning. [7] In recent years, Liu Leheng, Huang Guanting, Cai Xiangyuan and other students have specifically emphasized the basic position of “mood-emotional communication” in Tang’s philosophy, and called their old philosophy “metaphysics of sensory communication” or “metaphysics of sensory communication”. [8] These research highlight the subjective dimension of Down’s philosophy as the “study of mind and nature” from a divergent perspective, and has certain theoretical value. However, if the paradigm of subjectivity is overemphasized, the position of “birth” in Tang Junyi’s philosophy will inevitably weaken. Chen Zhenkun once criticized Tang Junyi for “although the lonely moral subject stands up, he also forgot the opening of the power of the way of heaven that hides and never stops” [9]. In fact, it was not that Tang Junyi forgot the endless way of heaven, but that under the influence of the subjective paradigm, the researchers forgot Tang Junyi’s “the way of heaven”.

 

Because of the lack of research in the academic world, we need to conduct a topical discussion on Tang Junyi’s philosophy of life. Tang Junyi’s philosophy of life focuses on the following three focus questions: What is the origin and foundation of the existence of all things? What is the operating mechanism of all living things? Can all living things have a value-oriented direction? When thinking about these three problems, Tang Junyi took advantage of Yi Xue’s thinking resources. He pointed out that the origin of the existence of all things is the ultimate truth, and its operating mechanism is the relationship between the yang and the yang, and its value direction is the “each life” of all things and the “to make life as possible” of human beings. Compared with the Taiyang, Yinyang and life discussion of traditional Yixue, Tang Junyi’s philosophy of life was completed under the framework of modern philosophy and is a modern version of Chinese classical philosophy of life.

 

1. The origin of the existence of life: Tang Junyi’s extreme view

Ding Sixin pointed out when he reviewed “Yi Ji”: “Birth is birth again and again, the continuity of life, the process of life, the renewal of life, and the creation of life.” [10] Why do thousands of things continue to grow? This is a problem that Confucian metaphysics must explore. For Tang Junyi, as the foundation of existence, it is extremely guaranteed to be the continuity and permanence of life.

 

(I) From “indefinite view” to “the body of the change of the elixir”

Before the age of thirty, young Tang Junyi had already gained an in-depth understanding of the meaning of “the change of the natural universe is indecisive and reversal”, and believed that the natural universe is a “transformed existence of endless and endless life” and “a life existence that is endless and endless” [11]. Tang Junyi’s insight into the universe comes from the inheritance of the classical and gasified universe theory in China, and on the other hand, it comes from the reception of the philosophy of the process of the special sea. Tang Junyi’s teacher Fang Dongmei once used the works of “Scientific Philosophy and Life” in a large number of ways.He criticized the modern scientific universe in the East, and taught the course of “Yi Ji” and “Ying Hai Philosophy” at Nanjing Center. [12] Influenced by Fang Dongmei, Tang Junyi was also keen on using process philosophy to read Chinese cosmic theory. Based on the phrase “The God is inconsistent but easy to be without body” in “Yi Ji”, he summarized the characteristics of the Chinese cosmic theory as “undetermined view”: “The universe in the minds of the Chinese people always only acts and movements; all things in the universe are only one process, and there are no fixed bodies outside this process to serve as its support (Substratum). All the reality in “Yi Ji” is to explain the universe as a process of going forward, so it is said that “the God is inconsistent but easy to be without body.” “(“Chinese and Western”) Comparative Essays of Philosophical Thoughts, Volume 2, Page 2)

 

As An Lezhe understood, Tang Junyi rejected any fundamental basis, “meaning that experience is not composed of natural types of ‘objects’ that can be dissected as indistinguishable, but a flow of flow formed by the unique movement of the focal point of ‘gas’ and the interaction between each other – that is, ‘all things’ and ‘all things’” [13]. In short, everything is a process-based and dynamic behavior, and there is no essence. Therefore, in Tang Junyi’s late period of cultivation, the process theory and atmosphere theory completed a preliminary domain integration. To further develop, Tang Junyi derived the “continuous view of life and restless view” from “unfixed view”: “The flow of all images and unchanging body and restless body is maintained, that is, those without restrictions, those without restrictions can change without destruction, and those without restrictions can be transformed without destruction and restless.” (“Chinese and Western Philosophy” Comparative Thoughts Collection, Volume 2, Page 13) In Tang Junyi’s opinion, rejection of the existence of the actual situation means a double