论中国古代宇宙起源“星云说”

On “the View of Nebula” with Respect to the Origin of the Universe in Ancient China

佛教传入之前 ,中国古代有一种关于宇宙起源的学说 ,此说与近代康德等太阳系起源“星云说”相似而不完全相同。中国古代宇宙起源说认为天地产生之前为星云混沌状时期 ,后来变为天地阴阳分离的二分式结构状态时期 ,而世界万事万物都是由天地阴阳二气会合分离而形成的。我国古代还认为这种宇宙天地 ,是在不断在扩大膨胀 ,在有朝一日会崩塌消散而宇宙崩溃灭亡 ,这种思想又与现代宇宙大爆炸学说相近。我国古代的祖先对宇宙起源的解释是没有科学根据的假说 ,但这对探讨中国古代宇宙论思想却是很有价值和意义的。

In the pre-Buddhist time, China had developed a theory concerning the origin of the universe of her own, which was a similar counterpart to Kant’s “view of nebula” with respect to the origin of the solar system in modern times but not exactly the same. According to the ancient Chinese view of the origin of the universe, there had been a period when the nebula was all in turbidity before heaven and land came into being. Later heaven or the Yang and land or the Yin got separated into a dichotomous condition and the world was shaped through the separation and combination of the Yang/heaven and the Yin/land. Furthermore, the ancient Chinese also believed that this world was expanding and swelling all the time till it ended in ruin, which was next to the view of space explosion in modern times. Our forefathers’ explanation about the origin of the universe was simply some hypothesis without scientific bases, but it is valuable and meaningful for our exploration of the ancient Chinese thinking with regard to the origin of the universe.