China’s Sacred LiteratureResonance with the Writings of the Baha’i Faith

“China has the most great capability. The Chinese people are most simple-hearted and truth-seeking…Truly, I say, the Chinese are free from any deceit and hypocrisies and are prompted with ideal motives. China is the country of the future. …must first be imbued with their spirit, know their sacred literature, study their national customs and speak to them from their own standpoint and their own terminologies.”Abdu’l-Baha, Reported in "Star of the West", vol. 8, April 28, 1917, No.3, p.37

Abdu’l-Baha

1950 – Establishment of the United Nations

“China, a land which has its own world and civilization, whose people (in 1923) constitute one-fourth of the population of the globe, which ranks foremost among all nations in material, cultural, and spiritual resources and potentialities, and whose future is assuredly bright.Letter from Shoghi Effendi to the Baha'is of the East, 23 January 1923.

China Pop: 1.3 billion (2007)World Pop: 6.6 billion (2007)China = 19.7%

Shoghi Effendi

"The Age of Nations is past. The task before us now,

if we would not perish, is to build the Earth.”

T. de Chardin

The Great Unity, All Under Heaven is One Family (China)Maturation of Humanity (Baha’i)All-inclusive Family (Toynbee)Omega Point (de Chardin)Grand Synthesis (Lazlo)Majestic House (Du Fu)Global Village (McLuhan) New World Order

India

Chi

na

Indigenous North America

Jew

ish

/ Chr

istia

n / W

este

rn

IslamA

frica

A Shared DreamA Common History

A Common HeritageA Common HomeA Common Future

Evolution has a purpose

"Heaven is my father and earth is my mother..all people are my brothers and sisters, and all things are my companions...“Zhang Zai (1020-77)

McGill Poet, Frank Scott “The world is my country

The human race is my race”

Map of Human Maturation

Robert Temple, The Genius of China, 1998.

Robert Temple, The Genius of China, 1998.

Prince Chu Cai Yu invented the tempered scale in 1584.Johann Sebastian Bach, used it for The Well-tempered Clavier, 1722.Twelve fifths = (1.0136) Seven octaves

Some Examples: The Decimal System, the compass, paper, explosives, wheelbarrow,….

Columbus and Zheng He Sailing into the wind

Voyages of exploration and exchange not conquest.

China was the leader of our collective

development until about AD1300.

Development continued with Islam, from about 600

to 1500, building a civilization, a knowledge

bridge, that stretched from Fuzhou to Seville. The fruits of the Chinese,

Hindu, Jewish, and Greek worlds – and everything in between – was absorbed

and shared across all that same territory.

Islam’s turn to lead exactly corresponded with the

Dark Ages of the West. Islamic civilization caused

the Renaissance in Europe. The west has led

us into the 20th century.Its materialistic consumer

paradigm currently dominates the globalization

process.

The world is challenged to build a civilization that is

both materially and spiritually advanced, and

that draws on our collective heritage.

China’s Development Pattern as found in its Sacred Literature

1. The Goal of Development2. Society-Building Spiritual Principles 3. Method of Development4. Protagonists of Development

Science, Religion and Development; Some Initial ConsiderationsInstitute for Studies in Global Prosperity

The Great UnityVision and Goal

The Great LearningMethod of Implementation

Selections from China’s traditional sacred literature concerning the Great Unity as a goal of development and the Great Learning as the path to achieve it.

China’s Sacred LiteratureResonance with the Writings of the Baha’i Faith

Confucius孔子 551 - 479 BC

The Great Unity begins with Social-Spiritual Goals and Principles

“The period of the Great Unity (Da Tong) is characterized by: • Universal openness and fairness; • All the world will be a common possession; • The whole world is bent upon the common good.• Leaders of society will combine talent, virtue, and ability. • The wise and able are elected (selected).• The cultivation of sincerity and harmony; and • Love extends beyond the family to the society at large. • All men will be bound by equal ties of intimacy.”

What is the vision of development?What are the goals of development?

The Great Unity

Ta T’ungShu, The One World Philosophy of Kang You Wei, Translated by LaurenceThompson, George Allen and Unwin, 1958, p. 49. Kang You Wei 康有爲(1858-1927)

The passage continues by describing the practical implementation and indicators of the above goals and principles.

• Sufficient provision shall be secured for the aged till their death and competent employment for the able-bodied and

• Adequate means of upbringing for the young.

• Kindness and compassion shall be shown to widows, orphans, childless people, and those who are disabled by disease, so that they will have the wherewithal for support.

• Men will have their proper works and women will have their homes.

• They shall hate to see the wealth of natural resources under-developed, but also dislike to see the hoarding of wealth for their own pleasures.

• They shall regret of not exerting themselves (of their given talents) but also hate to exert themselves only for their own benefit. Thus, the selfish schemes shall be repressed and found no development.

• Robbers, filchers, and the rebellious traitors shall not appear, and hence the outer doors shall be left open.”

Ta T’ungShu, The One World Philosophy of Kang You Wei, Translated by LaurenceThompson, George Allen and Unwin, 1958, p. 49. Kang You Wei 康有爲(1858-1927)

The Great Unity

Confucius孔子 551 - 479 BC

同一个世界 同一个梦想 Beijing 2008 Olympic Theme: One World One Dream

The Great Unity

The Method of the Great Learning (Black is “outer”, social order; Red is “inner” spiritual order. Outer depends on inner.Spirituality is based on knowledge.)

“The ancients who wished to illustrate illustrious virtue throughout the kingdom, first ordered well their own states. Wishing to order well their states, they first regulated their families. Wishing to regulate their families, they first cultivated their persons. Wishing to cultivate their persons, they first rectified their hearts. Wishing to rectify their hearts, they first sought to be sincere in their thoughts. Wishing to be sincere in their thoughts, they first extended to the utmost their knowledge. Such extension of knowledge lay in the investigation of things. Things being investigated, knowledge became complete. Their knowledge being complete, their thoughts were sincere. Their thoughts being sincere, their hearts were then rectified. Their hearts being rectified, their persons were cultivated. Their persons being cultivated, their families were regulated. Their families being regulated, their states were rightly governed. Their states being rightly governed, the whole kingdom was made tranquil and happy.” Confucianism, LiJi, DaXue 2:

The Great Learning

The Great Learning

The process relates the accomplishment of peaceful development with the internal life of the nation, the well-being of society to the spiritual health of the individual.

"From the son of Heaven down to the mass of the people, all must consider the cultivation of their person as the root of everything besides."

The investigation of reality by the individual is the fulcrum upon which the inner and outer balance depends.

The Great Learning puts the individual, the family, the state, and the kingdom,

all on the same Path, the establishment of the Great Unity. Individual transformation is achieved through

investigation, learning, and self-cultivation, and by participation in the transformation of society.

“Desiring to maintain one, one sustains others; desiring to develop oneself, one develops others”.

Doctrine of the Mean (Zhong Yong), 22

“The virtuous man wants others to succeed”. The Analects 15:23

There is a reciprocal relationship between

individual transformation and social transformation.

Twofold Purpose: 1. Develop Individual spiritual and intellectual capacity2. Transform Society

The Great Learning

Heaven Authority

The Great Unity is Heaven’s Plan

The Individual, The Family, The Community, RulersThe Great Unity is the protagonist’s goal

“He who obeys the will of Heaven, loving universally and benefiting others, will obtain rewards. He who opposes the will of Heaven, by being partial and unfriendly and harming others, will incur punishment.” Confucianism, Li Ji, Li Yun.

“Therefore when the principle of obeying the will of Heaven is understood and widely practiced in the world, then justice and government will be orderly, the multitudes will be harmonious, the country will be wealthy, the supplies will be plenteous, and the people will be warmly clothed and sufficiently fed, peaceful and without worry”. Mozi

Co

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Relatio

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The protagonists of social development must follow the Will of Heaven to achieve the Great Unity.

“If voices are the same no one will listen; if things are alike none have decoration; If tastes are the same there is no fruit; if things are the same there is nothing to talk about. [1]

“The Master said, "If the people be led by laws, and uniformity sought to be given them by punishments, they will try to avoid the punishment, but have no sense of shame. If they be led by virtue, and uniformity sought to be given them by the rules of propriety, they will have the sense of shame, and moreover will become good."[2]

“Behind the red-painted doors wine and meat are stinking.On the wild roads lie corpses of people frozen to death.A hair breadth divides wealth and poverty.This strange contrast fills me with unappeasable anguish.”[3]

[1] Sayings of the States 16, Sayings of Zheng, pp. 515-516,[2] The Analects, Wei Zheng 3.[3] 朱门酒肉臭，路有冻死骨。荣枯咫尺异，惆怅难再述。

“Zi Gong asked, saying, ‘Is there one word which may serve as a rule of practice for all one's life?’The Master said, ‘Is not reciprocity such a word? What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.’“

“At fifteen my heart was set on learning; at thirty, I stood firm in the society; at forty I had no more doubts; at fifty, I knew the Mandate of Heaven; at sixty, my ear can tell the good from the bad, my ear was an obedient organ for the reception of truth;at seventy I could follow my heart’s desire without transgressing the norm, I could follow the dictates of my own heart for what I desired no longer overstepped the boundaries of right.”[1]

“The man of virtue attends to his duties, while a man of no virtue attends to his rights.”[2]

[1] Confucius, Analects, Wei Zheng 4, James Legge translation.[2] Reference to Laozi, John C.H. Wu, Chinese Legal and Political Philosophy, The Chinese Mind, Edited by Charles A. Moore, University of Hawaii press, Honolulu, 1968, p. 227.

“Heaven’s plan in the production of mankind is this: - That they who are first informed should instruct those who are later in being

informed, and they who first apprehend principles should instruct those who are slower in doing

so. I am one of Heaven’s people who has first apprehended.”[1]

“If men do evil that is not the fault of their natural endowment.”[2]

“In the world there are many different roads but the destination is the same. There are a hundred deliberations but the result is one.”[3]

“The virtuous man wants others to succeed”.[4]

“O my Exemplar! Thou who destroyest all things, and dost not account it cruelty; thou who benefittest all time, and does not account it charity; thou who art older than antiquity and dost not account it age; thou who supportest the universe, shaping the many forms therein, and dost not account it skill - this is the happiness of God!” [5]

[1] From The Works of Mencius, II, A, 7.5, p. 804 and 813-14.[2] The Book of Mencius, VIA.2 James Legge translation[3] The Book of Changes, cited in Legge, The Four Books, pt. 2, ch. 5.[4] Analects 15:23论语 15： 23。[5] Giles, ZhuangZi, p.132

China’s Traditional Development Pattern

We find in China’s sacred literature, not just fragments of wisdom, but a whole vision or pattern of life - tested through millennia of experience - that recognizes:

1.The goal of social evolution is an era of global peace and justice called the Great Unity.

2.The spiritual nature and moral capacity of human beings,

3.The development of spiritual capacity through responsible and thoughtful responses to the will of Heaven. These responses are expressed as initiatives by individuals, families and government, carried out in service to society, and are contributions to social development.

4.The reciprocal relationship between the inner life of the individual and the welfare and prosperity of society.

Writing

POWER POINT PRESENTATIONS1. China's Sacred Literature (English)

http://www.slideshare.net/qiaokate/resonance-20131214-en-29594114

2a. China's Development Pattern as Found in its Sacred Literature (English)http://www.slideshare.net/qiaokate/chinas-development-pattern-as-found-in-its-sacred-literatureda-tong-conf-20130620-en

2b. China's Development Pattern as Found in its Sacred Literature (Chinese)http://www.slideshare.net/qiaokate/21-29593948

3a. The Great Harmony (English)http://www.slideshare.net/qiaokate/the-great-harmony

3b. The Great Harmony (Chinese)http://www.slideshare.net/qiaokate/the-great-harmony-chinese

4a. China's Resources and Potentialities (English)http://www.slideshare.net/qiaokate/china-r-p-en-201001231

4b. China's Resources and Potentialities (Chinese)http://www.slideshare.net/qiaokate/china-resources-and-potentialities-chinese

5. A Selection of Contemporary Design by Younger Mainland Chinese Architects, 2014 http://www.slideshare.net/qiaokate/chinas-younger-architects-2014

Prepared for the International Research Workshop: A Cross-Cultural Transfer of Building Environmental Information, March 14-16, 2002, at the Liu Center for the Study of Global Issues, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. The conference paper was published, July 2003, as a chapter in Buildings, Culture and Environment: Informing Local & Global Practices, edited by Raymond J Cole and Richard Lorch.

Contemporary Chinese Architectural and Planning Practice: Aspirations and Challenges

ARTICLESThe Maturation of Citieshttp://www.townsnet.cn/artWriting/writing/papers/theCity/theCity.htm

http://www.townsnet.cn/artWriting/writing/papers/chinasArchitectsAndPlanners/chinasArchitectsAndPlanners.htm

BOOKSome Thoughts on China and the New World OrderChina Worker’s Publication Company, Beijing, China, 2009 http://ebook.newlightbook.com/book_show.asp?id=139 (Downloading is a little slow. Patience!)

The Great Unity and China’s Development Pathhttp://www.slideshare.net/qiaokate/the-great-unity-da-tong-draft-2014-01-02bilingual

Thank you!