“水火”范畴与中华文明论纲

The Categories of “Fire and Water” and Chinese Civilizaion

"水火"范畴居于中华文化的轴心位置。《易传·系辞上》所称"百姓日用而不知"者,可以论证即为"水火",明代哲人佚语曰"造化之机,水火而已"。由于黄土地洪旱灾害频仍,出于粟食烹饪的实践,华夏先民独有"水火"互动的认识,并进而形成"和"的理念。"天人合一"精神的由来也在于"水火"是天、人内涵中的同一要素。"水火相济"堪作中华的"科学理论","冰炭"的对应至今为西方所未至。中华特有的"阴阳—水火"两个层次,介于大跨度的哲学、科学之间,恰好中西互补。

The pair of categories "fire and water"is the axis of Chinese civilization.In the chapter "Commentary on the Relationship of the Hexagrams"of The Book of Changes,what is called "people using everyday without knowing the Tao within"can be demonstrated as "fire and water."One philosopher of the Ming dynasty once said that "the secret of nature just lies in fire and water,"Because of frequent floods and droughts on the Yellow Land,as well as the practice for cooking millet food,the Huaxia ancestors held an unique understanding of the interaction between fire and water,and then formed the idea of "harmony,"which also formed the origin of the "unification between Heaven and Man."The idea of "interdependence between fire and water"can be regarded as China's scientific theory,and the West has not reached the cognition on the ice-coal correspondence.The speicfic two-level structure of yin-yang and fire-water in Chinese culture lies in generalized philosophy and science,which can just act as complementation to the Western idea.