I finish reading the book 由巫到礼·释礼归仁 (By witch to release ceremony ritual) written by Zehou Li. In the book, Mr Li wrote, I quote,

与希腊古典社会和 Plato 、 Aristotle 着重区分家与国（城邦）、家庭事务与公民政治，强调二者不可混同而后者（政治）高于前者（家庭）恰好相反’，中国从上古到后世，甚至到今天，”家”、”国”总连在一起。从”迩之事父，远之事君”、”修身齐家治国平天下”，…… 以”家”为基础的伦理道德成了中国传统的主要标记.

In contrast to ancient Greek society and the emphasis of Plato and Aristotle on distinguishing between the family and the state (polis), as well as between household affairs and civic politics, emphasising the two cannot be confused and the latter (politics) is higher than the former (family), China from ancient times to the present day has always linked “family” and “state” together. From “serving fathers nearby, serving rulers afar” to “cultivating oneself, managing one’s family, governing the state, and bringing peace to the world”, … the ethical and moral principles based on “family” have become the main hallmark of Chinese tradition. 

I think Mr. Li raised a very important point of “家国情怀” which I prefer to translate into the family-state bond. The family-state bond emphasises a sense of attachment to one’s family and country with a sense of duty, sacrifice, and pride. This concept makes the practical rationality of Chinese culture different from the empirical theory and pragmatism of the West. The concept also makes China attach great importance to ethics and morality, which are the objective rules for shaping Chinese attitudes toward religion, gods, and deities.

The tremendous power of the shaman-historian tradition in ancient China looked for the common rules of homogeneity and mutual feedback between the collective and the individual. The family-state bond was able to give a deep emotional attachment to one’s family and country, which can be seen as establishing a general micro-macro correspondence. At the micro-level, the focus is on the personal experiences and emotions of the individual and their immediate relationships with others. At the macro level, namely the societal or global level, the focus is on the larger social, political, and economic forces that shape the surrounding environment.

The family-state bond involves a complex set of emotional and cultural associations that go beyond the patriotic sentiment. While the family-state bond conveys the sense of loyalty and emotional attachment to one’s country and homeland, it aims to harmonise every individual part of the state so that all its parts “vibrate” together, a harmonious whole.

Later, Mr. Li described such a harmonious whole by a more general micro-macro correspondence “天道即人道” (The Way of Heaven is the Way of Man). He wrote,

它(这个关系)强调的是天人同质、相互反馈的共同规则性，这规则性也就是主宰性’，这主宰也仍落实在人们的经验世界之中。这种”天道”即人道、人道即”天道的观念使中华文化的实用理性不同于西方的经验论和实用主义，因为实用理性认同和强调天人共有的”客观规则性同时也如上节所指明，它使中国特别重视伦理道德，因为伦理道德就是这种客观规则，就是宗教、上帝和神明。中华文化强调伦理道德体现着”天道”、神明，从而是至高无上的神圣。

It (the correspondence) emphasises the common rule of homogeneity and mutual feedback between nature and humans, and this rule is also the “dominance” that is still implemented in people’s experiential world. This concept of “The Way of Heaven is the Way of Man” makes the practical rationality of Chinese culture different from the empirical and pragmatic philosophy of the West, because practical rationality recognises and emphasises the common “objective regularity” of nature and humans. As mentioned in the previous section, it makes China particularly value ethical and moral principles because ethics and morals are these objective rules, they are religion, God, and deities. Chinese culture emphasises that ethical and moral principles embody “The Way of Heaven” and deities, thus they are supreme and sacred.

The ancient magical activities of harmonising with the heaven or connecting with the gods and ancestors turned into an individual emotional structure with a sense of historical destiny and social responsibility. The sanctity is not in the object of worship, but in the behaviour and emotional structure of these micro-macro correspondences. In the context of Chinese history, these micro-macro correspondences have been closely linked to ideas of filial piety, which emphasise the importance of respecting and honouring one’s parents and ancestors. Nowadays, the concepts have been combined with a strong sense of national identity and pride in Chinese culture. It remains an important cultural concept in China and is often invoked in discussions of patriotism, national identity, and social responsibility. It is seen as a source of inspiration and motivation for individuals to contribute to the greater good of their families, communities, and country.

Having said that, I would see these correspondences as the spontaneously moral-value construction because the correspondences completely depend on the perception of the primitive cosmographic structure: the meditation on cosmic harmony points of viewing the cosmos as a harmonious whole. Such traditional cosmological beliefs about the nature of the universe and humanity’s place within it can influence the way that individuals perceive their relationship with their families, communities, and the larger world around them. The construction allowed the citizens to be absorbed into the “cosmic vibrations” and partake of its harmony so that they could identify their soul with the “cosmos.” However, the moral-value correspondences would also attempt to conceal some realities beyond appearances: the discrepancies between microcosmos and macrocosmos.

We should bear in mind that the discrepancies of micro-macro correspondences in the physical world inspire the explorers to have a long journey in the understanding of the substances that make up the realm of the physical real. At the molecular level of organisation, one can see molecules consist of atoms of different elements bound together as a single unit, and each species has the same proportions of the same elements. Then we move to a relative micro-level. At the atomic level, each element possesses distinctive qualities. However, if one moves to a smaller scale, at the subatomic level, there are no solid pieces of matter, but rather points of energy and coherent force fields. Now scientists have observed that the nucleus of an atom consists of protons and neutrons, with quarks and gluons serving as the fundamental constituents of matter. But the search for more fundamental constituents of matter continues, with the possibility of levels continuing ad infinitum. Thus, the discrepancies in each layer of the micro-macro correspondences reveal new images, the hidden realities to the explorers.

In his book, Mr. Li also pointed out some negative effects of maintaining these moral-value correspondences.

“天道即人道”和”天道的开放性”也带来巨大伤害。首先，由于自然与人事不分，强调”天人合一”，这便极大地阻碍了独立的自然律（ Law of nature ）观念的产生，极大地阻碍了自然科学和逻辑思考的独立发展。类比联想的思维习惯有助于发明创造，但毕竟不是逻辑，它不是演绎也不是归纳，更不是实验。这三者在中华文化中都没有得到发展。天人混同的把握方式使问题和对象产生了差异，使中国只有高度发展的技艺（医、农、兵、艺），而始终缺乏独立的科学。这也是使中国文化在与现代西方文明的交遇中显居劣势的重要原因。

其次，在社会层面，由于强调整体系统的稳定和谐抹杀或忽视了处在这个系统的个体的独立价值和生命意义。个体不过是天人系统、五伦系统、三纲六纪系统中的一个因素、成分、部件甚至螺丝钉。它缺乏现实物质生活领域内的独立个体和自由权利的重要观念。个体自由大多局限在纯粹。

再其次，因为’天道即人道’和’天道’解释的开放性容易产生过大的随意性，使实用理性陷人’有用即真理’的实用主义，即以一时人事上的利害、功过、得失、优劣来认定此即客观的’天道’或 ‘道’缺乏许多宗教及其教义由超验天主所规范和既定的明晰性、确凿性和执着性。”

“The Way of Heaven is the Way of Man” and “the openness of the Way of Heaven” have also brought great harm. Firstly, because nature and human affairs are not distinguished, emphasising the “unity of heaven and man” greatly hinders the development of an independent concept of the law of nature, and greatly hinders the independent development of natural science and logical thinking. Analogical thinking habits are helpful for invention and creation, but it is not logic. It is neither deduction nor induction, nor is it experimentation. None of these three have been developed in Chinese culture. The way of grasping the confusion of heaven and man causes differences in the problems and objects, making China only highly developed in skills (medicine, agriculture, military, and art), but always lacking independent science. This is also an important reason why Chinese culture has been at a disadvantage in the encounter with modern Western civilisation.

Secondly, at the social level, because of the emphasis on the stability and harmony of the overall system, the independent value and meaning of the individual in the system are ignored or overlooked. The individual is only a factor, component, part, or even a screw in the system of heaven and man, the system of five relationships, or the system of the three bonds and six codes. It lacks the important concept of independent individuals and freedom rights in the real material life domain. Individual freedom is mostly limited to pure “The Way of Heaven is the Way of Man.”

Thirdly, because of the openness of the interpretation of “The Way of Heaven is the Way of Man” and “The Way of Heaven”, it is easy to produce too much arbitrariness, which leads practical reason into utilitarianism that “usefulness is true”, that is, to determine this objective “The Way of Heaven” or “The Way” based on the interests, merits, faults, gains, losses, and superiority and inferiority of the momentary situation, lacking many religions and their doctrines that are governed and established by transcendental God, which have clarity, certainty, and persistence.

However, Mr. Li still advocates these correspondences as the core values of Chinese culture. Mr. Li suggests to reinterpret or recontextualise these cultural micro-macro correspondences in ways that are more compatible with modern values and social realities, hoping to mitigate some of the potential negative effects of these correspondences on individual autonomy and social progress.

While I agree with Mr. Li points to some degree, I am afraid that some conscious transmission and reinforcement through education and socialisation for such cultural values and beliefs may resist revealing new realities beyond appearances, for those realities, though they could be benevolent, more often were hostile and harmful. For example, the correspondences would depress the thought of individuals or groups having different levels of attachment or loyalty to the communities on larger scales, of having different ideas about what it means to be patriotic or what policies are in the best interests of the collective. In the realm of social and political change, the correspondences can make it difficult for individuals or communities to embrace political or social change that might disrupt the status quo. In the reluctance of some individuals or groups to support progressive social movements or political reforms that challenge traditional power structures or values.

There must be various realities embedded in the discrepancy in such moral-value correspondences. And I believe the discrepancies should be at least noted or informed, even if they are confidential, artistically. Only by doing these, the tensions and disagreements, the realities beyond appearances, embedded in the correspondences could have a chance of being resolved.

I have no doubt that these invisible realities would create interesting opportunities for artistic and philosophical exploration. Artists and thinkers can use the contrast between the micro and macro perspectives to explore the relationship between personal experience and broader social forces, and to reflect on the complex ways in which our emotional attachments to family and country intersect with the larger forces that shape our lives.

To end this discussion, I quote a paragraph in which Sir Arthur Eddington illustrates the difference between macrocosmic reality as we experience it and some of the “realities beyond appearances.”

The learned physicist and the man in the street were standing together on the threshold about to enter a room.

The man in the street moved forward without trouble, planted his foot on a solid unyielding plank at rest before him, and entered.

The physicist was faced with an intricate problem. To make any movement he must shove against the atmosphere, which presses with a force of fourteen pounds on every square inch of his body. He must land on a plank travelling at twenty miles a second round the sun—a fraction of a second earlier or later the plank would be miles away from the chosen spot. He must do this whilst hanging from a round planet head outward into space, and with a wind of ether blowing at no one knows how many miles a second through every interstice of his body. He reflects too that the plank is not what it appears to be—a continuous support for his weight. The plank is mostly emptiness; very sparsely scattered in that emptiness are myriads of electric charges dashing about at great speeds but occupying at any moment less than a billionth part of the volume which the plank seems to fill continuously. It is like stepping on a swarm of flies……