THE ANIMAL WORLD IN THE LIGHT OF ANCIENT CHINESE PHILOSOPHY

Abstract

Ancient Chinese philosophy has a deep ontological and culturological character. This philosophy is characterized by its symbolic and spiritual meaning, which consists in certain ways of understanding the essence of the world and the place of man in it. This world is inseparable from the feeling of being nature and its perception as one of the foundations of the existence of living things. The embodiment of the natural essence of the world is the flora and fauna, with which man has many relationships - from practical utilitarian to symbolic and cultural. The very cyclical existence of the world is measured in the Chinese socio-cultural space through the existence of the animal world - each year of existence of Chinese civilization, which is more than 5,000 years old, is marked by a certain animal symbol. These symbols have a deep meaning in the sense of human perception of natural attributive phenomena in their cyclicity and immutability. On the other hand, through dichotomous pairs - living - inanimate, light - dark, black - white, female - male, Chinese mythology, philosophy, in general, culture, express a specific vision of the world and human attitude to this world. Regarding the animal world, Chinese culture has its own specific vision, which is expressed through an understanding of its origins and course of life. Animals for the Chinese are not so much exotic at the level of zoos and tourism, as the practical plane of existence of Chinese society. From the domestication of wild animals and their transformation into the first helpers in the economy, Chinese civilization has come a long way, which today is embodied both at the level of people’s lives and everyday life, and at the level of the most thorough and meaningful gaps in cultural life.These gaps are realized through mythology, religion, philosophy, art, education and upbringing. From the point of view of the holistic perception of Chinese culture, it is difficult to separate scientific and non-scientific elements, especially in the field of attitude to the animal world - wild and domesticated. The traditional Chinese worldview is broad and diverse in terms of the ratio of rational and non-rational, mystical, elements. The cult of flora and fauna is for Chinese culture is perfectly embodied in Chinese culture at the level of mentality, emotional and cognitive perception. Recreational lacunae of Chinese life completely reproduce the life of nature - this is health practices, and cultural leisure areas, especially represented in mass forms - in the form of festivals “snakes”, “dragons”, tigers”, this is the cult of pandas, this is the daily economic occupations of the Chinese, in which animals and plants are present, it is also restaurant business, it is also ecological tourism, etc. These traditions, recorded at the level of cults, rites, rituals, also have a philosophical basis in certain philosophical disciplines: in ontology, in epistemology, in anthropology, social philosophy, especially philosophy of culture, art, literature and education.