cosmology and environment
Chinese understandings of both nature and religion can be quite different from Western conceptions of the environment, and continue to shape China’s lived environment today, even after a century of globalization. This chapter offers a brief overview of Chinese ideas about the relations between humans and their environment as seen through the various religious traditions. It then moves on to more recent times to show how those ideas have interacted with broadly influential and very different concepts of ecology coming in from the West.
Article presented
the Pavilion of harmony (天人合一亭)
In the campus of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), a steady pool of water lies in quietude on a hill where you can enjoy a bird's eye view over the harbor and mountains nearby. In solitude, staring at the reflection on the water surface, you may start wondering how the magnificent blue sky falls into the tiny little pond. Just stand in front of the still and ask a passerby to take a photo of you, you shall find yourself blended in with the mountains, sky and water.
Visit CUHK's website for more details:
http://www.na.cuhk.edu.hk/en-us/aboutnewasia/ourcampus/buildingsandfacilities.aspx
http://www.na.cuhk.edu.hk/en-us/aboutnewasia/ourcampus/buildingsandfacilities.aspx
terraces
Some mountainous provinces in the western part of China are laid with stairs of rice paddies, which are submerged in irrigation in Spring and Summer, and burst out waves of yellow in Autumn. Farmers on the hills may tell you that these terraces have been developed long ago by their ancestors, dating back in the imperial times. These levels of agricultural lands have nurtured lives of the mountain villagers for more than hundreds of years, while allowing streams of water flowing down slowly from the top; in this way of overcoming the dry and cold climate in the hilly regions, an unique ecological system has been subtly sustained.
classical gardens of suzhou
In a documentary "China World Heritage List" produced by CCTV (the official TV channel of the State) in 2013, you may find strange rocks, long and winding corridors, and gnarled trees being placed in the gardens of Suzhou city (蘇州). These gardens in the past belonged to the elites and served as the private venues for close friends to meet. While walking through the long and winding paths in the gardens, encountering those artificial mountains and caves, one may wonder whether the owners were Daoist hermits or not.
Anthropocosmism (天人合一)
There is an interesting connection between the above examples, where boundary seems not exist between the nature and the artificial designs. This reflects a Chinese cosmological view known as "Anthropocosmism (天人合一)", which literally means achieving "unity of heaven and humanity" in the Chinese context. But is this simply equivalent to the Western concept of environmental friendly? In his article, Robert P. Weller thinks not, but explains that the traditional cosmology of Chines has been altered more and more by global values. Under the Western advocacy of environmental protection, people in modern China separate the nature from humans, instead of viewing the two as a holistic whole. This current change even affects some of the religious practices from which Anthropocosmism originally derived.
Innovation in Burning Paper Money
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Burning incenses and paper money has been the crucial ritual that symbolizes respect paid to gods, ancestors and ghosts. But being influenced by the world-wide environmental protection discourses, Taiwanese have begun to innovate the worship processes so as to mitigate the extent of air pollution brought by excessive combustion of paper sacrifices. Rather than burning incenses and money, some people now in Taiwan would eat and consume them after the rituals end. How? Indeed, the sacrifices are made of amalgams of flour and eggs.
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