The Traditional Chinese View of Ecological Culture

By XIN XIN

An ideal place to live should be a scenic spot with hills and streams, where man and nature coexist in harmony.

    Renowed environmental historian Donald Worster once pointed out that the ecological crisis the world faces today is not attributable to its ecosystem, but to humanity’s ethical systems. To overcome that crisis, he argued, civilization must recognize those exploitative ethical systems for what they are, and apply that recognition to reforming them. While past economic and social models have been prepared to sacrifice the environment in pursuit of development, in transitioning to a more environmentally friendly society modern ecological civilization can draw inspiration from traditional Chinese ecological culture.

    In the earliest known collection of Chinese poetry, The Book of Songs (21st century-221 B.C.), some 132 plant species belonging to 59 families were described. Expressing emotion through descriptions of nature is an ancient tradition, and the earliest poets often personified the natural world while depicting human beings as integral parts of it. “He nourishes the myriad things, and they grow together without harming each other. They follow their courses simultaneously without interfering with each other,” as an ancient Confucian scholar said. The concept of a unity between heaven and man is a fundamental tenet of traditional Chinese culture, and nature is the eternal spiritual home of traditional Chinese intellectuals.

Leaving Three Sides of the Net Open

Releasing fry of cold-water fish into the Ertix River, in Altay Prefecture, Xinjiang.

    In one Chinese legend, for example, the founding emperor of the Shang Dynasty, Tang, who was famous for his love of all living things, once witnessed a man setting nets on all four sides of a field to catch birds, praying all the while that all the birds would fly into his net. Emperor Tang rebuked him, saying, “You are too cruel. All the birds will be caught by you.” He ordered the bird catcher to leave three sides of the net open, and prayed, “Birds, I wish you fly freely. If any bird does not want to live, then it may fly into this net.” When the heads of various vassal states heard this story, they all came to regard Tang as a kind-hearted emperor and consented to be ruled by him.