From Religious “Unity of Heaven and Humanity” to Philosophical “Unity of Heaven and Humanity”——“Dividing Heaven and Earth” and the Breakthrough in Early Heaven-Human Relations

The concept of “unity of heaven and humanity” was formed on the basis of the “dividing heaven and earth”.The heaven-human relationship reflected in the latter is still religious in nature:the “heaven” it refers to is not the heaven in the natural sense,but the Heaven as a divine sovereign.The “dividing heaven and earth” is not a doctrine of separation between heaven and humanity,but a religious form of the “unity of heaven and humanity”.Later,Confucianism and Daoism made philosophical breakthroughs,thus shaping the dominant conception of the “unity of heaven and humanity” in later ages.For pre-Qin Confucianism,the “unity of heaven and humanity” is achieved through moral cultivation:every individual can attain the “way of heaven” through acquired moral self-cultivation.In contrast to Confucianism,which mainly expounds the “unity of heaven and humanity” from the perspective of virtue,pre-Qin Daoism focuses on the unity of heaven and humanity from the perspective of the “Dao”.In essence,it advocates the “unity of heaven and humanity” under the overarching Dao,since both heaven and humanity are subordinate to the Dao.The philosophical breakthroughs made by early Confucianism and Daoism with regard to the previously religion-dominated heaven-human relationship not only redirected the development of the “unity of heaven and humanity” but also exerted a profound influence on the formation of the characteristics of Chinese culture.