Traditional Ecological Awareness in Confucianism
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had to take materials from nature for survival, the Confucian ecological ideology
contained many precepts on protecting nature. This view on natural protection has
made immense contributions to the continuity and inheritance of Chinese civilization.
Engels also wrote in his Dialectics of Nature that “The people who, in Mesopotamia,
Greece, Asia Minor, and elsewhere, destroyed the forests to obtain cultivable land,
never dreamed that they were laying the basis for the present devastated condition
of these countries, by removing along with the forests the collecting centers and
reservoirs of moisture. When, on the southern slopes of the mountains, the Italians
of the Alps used up the pine forests so carefully cherished on the northern slopes,
they had no inkling that by doing so they were cutting at the roots of the dairy
industry in their region; they had still less inkling that they were thereby depriving
their mountain springs of water for the greater part of the year, with the effect that
these would be able to pour still more furious flood torrents on the plains during
the rainy seasons.” Although the Chinese civilization had once in a while made
excessive use of natural resources during its long development, the consciousness
to protect and moderately utilize nature has always been dominant thanks to the
mainstream position of Confucianism. In Confucius’ opinion, destroying nature and
ecology through excessive felling, fishing and hunting is also a breach of filial piety.
His student Gao Chai proposed to not “kill emerging insects from hibernation or
break growing plants,” and Zeng Shen advocated “logging trees and killing beasts in
the right season.” These ideas, being prevalent in ancient Chinese society, could be
found in large volumes of imperial edicts, village rules and pacts, and family precepts.
Even today, environmental damage, unbridled forest logging, and air, water and land
pollution remain the most detested behaviors. General Secretary Xi Jinping’s remark
that “man can utilize and reform nature, but more importantly, it should take care of
it and never put itself above it as humanity is essentially part of nature” is consistent
with the Confucian ecological philosophy.
3 Planting Trees and Exercising Restraint
There is a juniper at the Temple of Confucius in Qufu, Shandong province that is
allegedly planted by Confucius himself and is taken as a symbol of the ancient sage’s
advocacy for afforestation. Red Star over China describes how Chairman Mao felt
when he visited this tree in Qufu during a trip in the spring of 1920. “I stopped at Qufu
and visited Confucius’ grave, I saw the small stream where Confucius’ disciplines
bathed their feet and the little town where the sage lived as a child. He is supposed
to have planted a famous tree near the historic temple dedicated to him, and I saw
that. I also stopped by the river where Yan Hui, one of Confucius’ famous disciples,
had once lived, and I saw the birthplace of Mencius.” The Forest of Confucius is
the most enduring forest on a family cemetery in the world, which houses more than
100,000 valuable trees and 342 types of herbaceous plants today, becoming a treasure
house of ancient and peculiar plants. It is recorded in Li Daoyuan’s Commentary on
the Waterways Classic that “after Confucius passed away, his disciplines planted
411
had to take materials from nature for survival, the Confucian ecological ideology
contained many precepts on protecting nature. This view on natural protection has
made immense contributions to the continuity and inheritance of Chinese civilization.
Engels also wrote in his Dialectics of Nature that “The people who, in Mesopotamia,
Greece, Asia Minor, and elsewhere, destroyed the forests to obtain cultivable land,
never dreamed that they were laying the basis for the present devastated condition
of these countries, by removing along with the forests the collecting centers and
reservoirs of moisture. When, on the southern slopes of the mountains, the Italians
of the Alps used up the pine forests so carefully cherished on the northern slopes,
they had no inkling that by doing so they were cutting at the roots of the dairy
industry in their region; they had still less inkling that they were thereby depriving
their mountain springs of water for the greater part of the year, with the effect that
these would be able to pour still more furious flood torrents on the plains during
the rainy seasons.” Although the Chinese civilization had once in a while made
excessive use of natural resources during its long development, the consciousness
to protect and moderately utilize nature has always been dominant thanks to the
mainstream position of Confucianism. In Confucius’ opinion, destroying nature and
ecology through excessive felling, fishing and hunting is also a breach of filial piety.
His student Gao Chai proposed to not “kill emerging insects from hibernation or
break growing plants,” and Zeng Shen advocated “logging trees and killing beasts in
the right season.” These ideas, being prevalent in ancient Chinese society, could be
found in large volumes of imperial edicts, village rules and pacts, and family precepts.
Even today, environmental damage, unbridled forest logging, and air, water and land
pollution remain the most detested behaviors. General Secretary Xi Jinping’s remark
that “man can utilize and reform nature, but more importantly, it should take care of
it and never put itself above it as humanity is essentially part of nature” is consistent
with the Confucian ecological philosophy.
3 Planting Trees and Exercising Restraint
There is a juniper at the Temple of Confucius in Qufu, Shandong province that is
allegedly planted by Confucius himself and is taken as a symbol of the ancient sage’s
advocacy for afforestation. Red Star over China describes how Chairman Mao felt
when he visited this tree in Qufu during a trip in the spring of 1920. “I stopped at Qufu
and visited Confucius’ grave, I saw the small stream where Confucius’ disciplines
bathed their feet and the little town where the sage lived as a child. He is supposed
to have planted a famous tree near the historic temple dedicated to him, and I saw
that. I also stopped by the river where Yan Hui, one of Confucius’ famous disciples,
had once lived, and I saw the birthplace of Mencius.” The Forest of Confucius is
the most enduring forest on a family cemetery in the world, which houses more than
100,000 valuable trees and 342 types of herbaceous plants today, becoming a treasure
house of ancient and peculiar plants. It is recorded in Li Daoyuan’s Commentary on
the Waterways Classic that “after Confucius passed away, his disciplines planted