Table of Content: HOW TO RAISE A RESILIENT KID: I AM NOT RIGHT BUT THAT’S OK
The Renaissance in European history marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity. It was a break from the past, when people started to question about their religious belief. The intellectual basis of the Renaissance was its version of humanism, and the rediscovery of classical Greek philosophy, in particular the theme of “Man is the measure of all things.” This new thinking became manifest in art, architecture, politics, science and literature.
The Age of Enlightenment (also known as the Age of Reason) was an intellectual and philosophical movement that dominated the world of ideas in Europe during the 18th century, the “Century of Philosophy”. Philosophers and scientists of the period widely circulated their ideas in printed books, journals, and pamphlets. The ideas of the Enlightenment undermined the authority of the monarchy and the Church and paved the way for political revolutions. The Enlightenment included a range of ideas centered on reason as the primary source of knowledge. The central doctrines of the Enlightenment philosophers were individual liberty and religious tolerance, in opposition to an absolute monarchy and the fixed dogmas of the Roman Catholic Church. The Enlightenment was marked by an emphasis on the scientific method and reductionism, along with increased questioning of religious orthodoxy.
Chinese had their age of Renaissance and Enlightenment 3000 years ago. It started at the beginning of Zhou Dynasty in 1046 BC after the toppling of Shang Dynasty, when Chinese Culture was founded. The rhetoric to topple the Shang Dynasty was: “human is the top most priority in the hierarchy of all things, including gods” (人是万物之灵). After the establishment of Zhou Dynasty, there was no more human sacrifice. Various schools of philosophy were founded, including Confucianism (儒家), Daoism (道家), Legalism (法家), Moism (墨家), and others. Many books were written by philosophers and scientists (阴阳家, 农家, 医家 · 兵家). All Chinese philosophies have one common trait: putting the happiness of human at the center of everything (以人为本). As you can see, the similarity to The Renaissance is humanism, and “Man is the measure of all things.” The similarity to The Age of Enlightenment is the focus on reason as the primary source of knowledge.
The Renaissance and The Age of Enlightenment paved the way to Industrial Revolutions. Similarly, Chinese philosophies contributed a lot to the various great inventions of Chinese. The Benefits of Chinese Philosophies 2 are rooted to the idea of Collectivism.
When a person believes that his success or failure is solely determined by the God, it has a great impact on his psychology. Although he may still work hard, he tends to believe that he cannot achieve success with his own effort alone. He needs the God to give him some helps. Therefore, he may not put in 100% effort to find the solutions but wait for miracles. This is not necessarily a bad thing, because he will then put less pressure on himself; it reduces his stress level and improves his mental health. However, it doesn’t help in maximizing scientific discoveries and inventions.
Yi Jing (易经) was revised by the first King of Zhou Dynasty. It was the mother philosophy which gave birth to a myriad of other philosophies. In the first and most important idea or 乾卦, it teaches people to poses the strength similar to the Heaven and never give up (天行健，君子以自强不息). Like the Heaven which will never collapse, the Sun never fail to rise every morning, a gentleman should also work hard to become self-reliant and resilient. In the second idea or 坤卦, it teaches people to poses the loving spirit like the Mother Earth and be benevolent to everything and everybody (地势坤；君子以厚德载物). Like the Mother Earth which never fail to support everything on Earth, providing unlimited benevolence, a gentleman should also have a sense of responsibility and sense of mission to become someone who provides rather than receiving helps from others. Chinese believe that the will of a person can do impossible things (人定胜天). This probably contributed to the various great inventions in the history.
Western economists are very sure Socialism can never work. The theory is based on certain assumptions about human behaviors. In particular, it assumes that humans are selfish and most people never think about doing charity, but wait for charity from others or the government. Individualists and Capitalists are openly selfish; they don’t think there is anything wrong for being selfish. Adam Smith said: “Every individual necessarily labours to render the annual revenue of the society as great as he can. He generally neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it … He intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention. Nor is it always the worse for society that it was no part of his intention. By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it. I have never known much good done by those who affected to trade for the public good.” Collectivists are brainwashed to love others, and some to the extend of sacrificing themselves for Collective good. True Confucian finds happiness in giving instead of taking; he/she loves being compassionate (仁) and lives up to it. True Confucian wishes to be known and remembered in the history as a gentleman (君子) more than anything else. Everybody thinks about his/her responsibility to the society first, before thinking about the benefits he/she stands to gain from peaceful social order. That is why China is different, and Socialism can work in China.
RESILIENT KID 