European Journal of Social Sciences Studies issn 2501-8590



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THE PERSPECTIVE ON HUMANS IN EASTERN PHILOSOPHY (1)

2. Human origin 
In Eastern philosophy, the explanation of the origin of man has been proposed since the 
beginning of society's division into classes and continues to be debated throughout its 
development history. Human origin is the basic issue to explain many other human 
problems, so philosophical and religious doctrines have focused on expressing different 
viewpoints, even the opposing ones, richly and deeply. 
Both Indian philosophy and Chinese philosophy have a fierce debate between 
religious idealism and materialism on the origin of human formation. If religious 
idealism holds that man is created by a supreme god, materialism holds that man is 
created by material factors. 
The view of religious idealism is clearly expressed in the Indian system of Vedata 
and Upanisads; The Book of Poetry ((
詩經
Shī Jīng) and The Book of Scripture (
書經
Shū 
Jīng): in China. The Vedata believes that human beings and all things are created by a 
creator. The Upanisad says that the soul (atman) of man is only the product and 
manifestation of the soul of the world (brahman), “
The Atman is likened to infinite space, the 
individual like the space contained in a vessel. The vessel is the body...that example demonstrates 
how one must understand birth. When vessel breaks, where does the space contained in the vessel 
go? It disappears into infinite space. In the same way the living individual disappears into the 
supreme Atman
.” 
Meanwhile, The Book of Poetry and The Book of Scripture assert that people are 
influenced by the destiny of heaven; Typical is the view of Confucius (the founder of 
Confucianism) that “
all human beings have destiny and fate
”. In ancient Chinese philosophy, 
Confucius was the pioneer. Later, more and more other thinkers joined, thus making the 
arguments about the origin of man more and more extensive. 
From the point of view of Confucius, idealism is based on that to expand. During 
the Han Dynasty, Dong Zhong Qiu (a representative of the Confucianists of the Han 
Dynasty) said that humans have the following origins: Heaven gives birth to people in 
their own shape, Heaven gives birth to people to fulfill their will. Heaven gave birth to 
animals to feed people, Heaven gave birth to righteousness to teach people, Heaven gave 
birth to kings to rule people. It can be clearly seen that the ultimate goal of the view of 
heaven's destiny is “
Heaven gave birth to a king to rule people
”. He exalted Heaven just to 
absolutize the role of the King. The 
king was called “
Son of Heaven
” to replace Heaven to 
practice religion. Thus, this point of view aimed to strengthen the centralized feudal 
system and became an excellent tool to dominate the majority of labors at that time. 
In contrast to religious idealism, the views of materialism and atheism in both 
India and China are very progressive. Buddhism does not recognize the world soul as 


 Le Anh Dung 
THE PERSPECTIVE ON HUMANS IN EASTERN PHILOSOPHY
European Journal of Social Sciences Studies - Volume 6 

 Issue 5 

 2021 130 
the source of the human soul and Buddhism say that man is his own cause; in which, the 
past man is the cause of the present man, and the present man is the cause of the future 
man. This is clearly demonstrated in the doctrine of the Interdependent Origination. With 
the use of material factors as the basis to explain the birth and existence of human beings, 
Buddhism has had a positive meaning in opposing the idea of destiny and fate; However, 
Buddhism still cannot escape the vicious circle of mystical idealism when it believes that 
human beings are caused by the law of cause and effect, due to “karma”; birth and death 
is in the cycle of retribution. 
In the Upanisad, the materialist view says that the original of the human world 
consists of four elements: earth, water, fire and wind. This view is similar to the Chinese 
“Five Elements” view. The “Five Elements” includes five elem
ents: metal, wood, water, 
fire, earth. They both have supportive relations and have a reciprocal relationship with 
each other. They are the origin of human beings and all things. This view has laid a solid 
ideological foundation for the later stages. By the Song Dynasty, Zhou Xi and other 
physicists made the point: Humans are born from "li" according to a process: “li” 
generates “qi” (ie, yin and yang, five elements)

“qi” gives birth to “people” and “things”. 
It is the point of view of “li” and “qi” became
the instrument of domination of the feudal 
classes in China. Therefore, it can be seen that for the philosophers of ancient Chinese 
philosophy, even though they come from different worldviews to give different 
explanations about the origin of man, in the end, all aim at the same goal of supporting 
and justifying the caste order of the contemporary feudal system. 
Criticizing the view of heaven's destiny, XunZi continued the view of Sun Jian and 
Yuanwen, when he said that “qi” is the source of all things an
d people. Later, Zhang Tai 
in the Song dynasty conceived of “
the great vacuum
” (the basic form of existence of “qi”) 
as the source of all things and people. During the Qing Dynasty, materialist Dai Zhen 
believed that the origin of man was in the movement of primitive matter, which he called 
“circulating qi”.
Besides, Lao Tzu said: “
Morality
” is “
the origin of all things
”. Its process is “
Morality 
gives birth to 1, 1 gives birth to 2, 2 gives birth to 3, 3 gives birth to all things
”. After “Morality”, 
there 
are factors that help things form: “
Morality is born, virtue is nurtured, objects manifest 
and the body helps to grow
”. We can understand Lao Tzu's the word “
morality
” to refer to 
the absolute principle that existed before the creation of heaven and earth, no birth, no 
death, no increase or decrease. Morality can be understood in two ways: Wu and Huu. 
Wu is the principle of heaven and earth, the principle of the invisible. 
Huu is the visible principle, the mother of giving birth to all things. 
Later, Chuang Tzu affirmed, “
Morality is infinite and invisible
”, “from the root, there 
is no heaven and earth”, “
from the ancient times, there was a Morality, and from the Morality, 
heaven and earth were born...”.
This shows that the essence of Lao Tzu-Chuang Tzu's 
thought on Morality is an expression of objective idealism. From opposing the mystic 
idealism (specifically, Confucianism's view of heaven's destiny) falls into another 
mystical trend that makes people's perception more ambiguous and confusing. 


 Le Anh Dung 
THE PERSPECTIVE ON HUMANS IN EASTERN PHILOSOPHY
European Journal of Social Sciences Studies - Volume 6 

 Issue 5 

 2021 131 

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