志异 Draft by Drama box December 2014 (english) | Page 25

While there is nothing wrong with this answer, it is not
representative of the diverse views of harmony that were
conceptualised and taught by philosophers throughout China’s
very long history.

At first glance, it would seem that this problem could be easily
solved if everybody were forced to think the same way, or to

Jonathan Sim

Since ancient times, specifically, during the Warring States
period of the Zhou Dynasty, the early Chinese philosophers
were preoccupied with ideas about harmony as they lived in an
era of constant war. While they had different ideas of achieving
harmony, their diagnosis as to the cause of such war and conflict
was the same: while people were indeed fighting because of a
scarcity of resources, the root cause of such discord was due
to the fact that there were diverse groups of people, each with
their own system of values, and ideas of right and wrong. And
because people could not agree on a common value system
for interaction and for the distribution of (scarce) goods, they
perceived each other as enemies competing fiercely for the same
thing.

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Early Chinese Conceptions of Harmony

People often regard harmony as a central idea in Chinese
culture and thought. Yet, if you were to ask people what is
Chinese harmony, you often receive an answer similar to
this: ’harmony is about the balance of Yin and Yang.’