Affective Communication and World: Tang Junyi's Cosmopolitan Conception of Inter-Religious Dialogue

感通與世界：唐君毅哲學中的跨宗教對話與世界公民論

Affective communication (gan-tong), as a quasi-synonym of benevolence, derived mainly from the Book of Changes, requires a mentality sensitive to the variation of human reactions and to the human interaction with the environment. Tang Junyi considers the affective communication as a key concept to construct a contemporary New Confucian worldview in response to the challenge of Western modernity, because Chinese culture has suffered from its impact since the middle 19th century. By way of a model of callingresponding, the different cultural systems are put in a process of listeninganswering, i.e. a process of dialogue. Tang's conception extends then to a level of inter-religious dialogue, in which an evaluation is inscribed in order to offer a diagnostic of the elements of Asian cultures, especially of Chinese one. There are two steps in forming the response to the Western modernity: one is to adopt two main elements in a modern regime, science and democracy, another is to put the traditional faiths (Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism) among the other foreign faiths (Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Hinduism). It is undeniable that Tang's cosmopolitan idea of the coexistence of different religious values has two aspects: one is intra-East Asian, by elevating the common heritage of Confucianism and Buddhism, another is trans-Asian, by contrasting East Asian values with Euro-American, Indian, and Muslim values. The second aspect is seen in a constant reference to the world. It is easy to raise question about the boundary among those values and even about their conflict. The method to dissolve the conflicts is to offer a reevaluation of the different values. For Tang, the spiritual space is constructed for an aim of reevaluation, in which, according to a model of affective communication, an incessant contact of the living being with the world can take place. An implicit concern of perpetual peace is thus interwoven in the assumed encounter of the polyphony of values systems. on the coexistence of different religious values among world citizens has two facets: the first, something internal to East Asia, elevates the common legacy of Confucianism and Buddhism; the other, something trans-Asian, causes East Asian values to be contrasted with Euro-American, Indian, and Muslim value systems. The second facet involves the world. The question lies in whether there are pronounced boundaries, and even whether there are conflicts among these value systems. The method to dissolve such conflicts rests in offering a reevaluation of the different values. For the purpose of reevaluating these values, Tang constructs a kind of spiritual space, in which, according to a model of gantong, continuous contact between living beings and the world takes place. Each value system works in concert with one another, and in these polyphonic encounters with each other, there is an imagination of perpetual peace hidden deep within.

感通幾乎可視為「仁」的同義詞，源自《易經》，此概念呈現出一種敏銳的心靈能力，能面對各種人類反應的變化以及人們與環境的互動。唐君毅將感通當作是一個核心概念，用以建構當代新儒家的世界觀，回應西方現代性的挑戰；這是因為中國文化自十九世紀以來便蒙受此現代性的衝擊。以感通為核心，藉著一種「呼喚－回應」的模式，不同的文化體系被置於一種聆聽與回答的過程中，亦即，對話過程中。唐君毅的感通概念可因此推展到跨宗教對話上，價值評估也安置在這樣的對話中，以便於診斷亞洲文化（特別是中國文化）的諸種要素。有兩個步驟回應西方現代性：一是接受西方體制中的兩個主要因素，科學與民主政治，二是讓傳統信仰（儒家、佛教、道家）插入其他的外來信仰（基督宗教、回教、猶太教、印度教）之中。無可避免地，唐君毅有關不同宗教價值共存的世界公民觀就有兩個面向：一是在東亞內部的，舉出儒家與佛教以作為共通遺產，另一則是超越亞洲的，使得東亞的價值觀得以對比於歐美價值觀、印度價值觀、回教價值觀。第二種面向就涉及到世界，因為問題就在於，這些價值觀之間是否有斷然的邊界、乃至是否起衝突。解消衝突的方法在於提供一種對不同價值的重新評估。為此價值重估的目的，唐君毅建構一種精神空間，使得生物與世界依照彼此感通的模式而不斷地彼此接觸。各種價值體系彼此呼應，這樣多音的彼此遭遇中，有一個永久和平的設想深藏其中。