SanHeChuan
03-06-2009, 02:53 PM
We know that the ancient world was not as isolated as it would be easier to believe. Trade crossed the globe even during the bronze age. The global connection was greater than most are willing to admit. The Mystery of the Cocaine Mummies being a prime example. (Enter Uki) :p
It is well documented that Rome and China traded from the 1st century BCE.
The Seres (Chinese), are famous for the woolen substance obtained from their forests; after a soaking in water they comb off the white down of the leaves… So manifold is the labour employed, and so distant is the region of the globe drawn upon, to enable the Roman maiden to flaunt transparent clothing in public.
—Pliny the Elder, The Natural History VI, 54
Alexander the Great 356 BC–323 BC reached as far as India in his conquest of the world.
Would the leap be so great to think that they east and west had contact even earlier.
Comparative Philosophy would suggest great minds think alike, but What if the two cultures actually trade ideas?
Reincarnation
Gautama Buddha 563 BCE to 483 BCE
Pythagoras of Samos 580 to 490 BC
Pythagoras was a believer of metempsychosis. He believed in transmigration, or the reincarnation of the soul again and again into the bodies of humans, animals, or vegetables until it became moral.
Chi - breath
Anaximenes 585 BC–c. 525 BC
"As our souls, being air, hold us together, so breath and air embrace the entire universe."
Dong Zhongshu 179–104 BC
Not only human beings and animals were believed to have "qi". Zhuang Zhou (also known as Zhuang Zi or Master Zhuang) indicated that wind is the "qi" of the earth. Moreover, cosmic Yin and Yang "are the greatest of 'qi'." He describes qi as "issuing forth" and creating profound effects.
Tao
Neoplatonism 3rd century AD
The One
The primeval Source of Being is the One and the Infinite, as opposed to the many and the finite. It is the source of all life, and therefore absolute causality and the only real existence. However, the important feature of it is that it is beyond all Being, although the source of it. Therefore, it cannot be known through reasoning or understanding, since only what is part of Being can be thus known according to Plato. Being beyond existence, it is the most real reality, source of less real things. It is, moreover, the Good, insofar as all finite things have their purpose in it, and ought to flow back to it. But one cannot attach moral attributes to the original Source of Being itself, because these would imply limitation. It has no attributes of any kind; it is being without magnitude, without life, without thought; in strict propriety, indeed, we ought not to speak of it as existing; it is "above existence," "above goodness." It is also active force without a substratum; as active force the primeval Source of Being is perpetually producing something else, without alteration, or motion, or diminution of itself.
Tao both precedes and encompasses the universe. As with other nondualistic philosophies, all the observable objects in the world - referred to in the Tao Te Ching as 'the named' or 'the ten thousand things' - are considered to be manifestations of Tao, and can only operate within the boundaries of Tao. Tao is, by contrast, often referred to as 'the nameless', because neither it nor its principles can ever be adequately expressed in words. It is conceived, for example, with neither shape nor form, as simultaneously perfectly still and constantly moving, as both larger than the largest thing and smaller than the smallest, because the words that describe shape, movement, size, or other qualities always create dichotomies, and Tao is always a unity.
It is well documented that Rome and China traded from the 1st century BCE.
The Seres (Chinese), are famous for the woolen substance obtained from their forests; after a soaking in water they comb off the white down of the leaves… So manifold is the labour employed, and so distant is the region of the globe drawn upon, to enable the Roman maiden to flaunt transparent clothing in public.
—Pliny the Elder, The Natural History VI, 54
Alexander the Great 356 BC–323 BC reached as far as India in his conquest of the world.
Would the leap be so great to think that they east and west had contact even earlier.
Comparative Philosophy would suggest great minds think alike, but What if the two cultures actually trade ideas?
Reincarnation
Gautama Buddha 563 BCE to 483 BCE
Pythagoras of Samos 580 to 490 BC
Pythagoras was a believer of metempsychosis. He believed in transmigration, or the reincarnation of the soul again and again into the bodies of humans, animals, or vegetables until it became moral.
Chi - breath
Anaximenes 585 BC–c. 525 BC
"As our souls, being air, hold us together, so breath and air embrace the entire universe."
Dong Zhongshu 179–104 BC
Not only human beings and animals were believed to have "qi". Zhuang Zhou (also known as Zhuang Zi or Master Zhuang) indicated that wind is the "qi" of the earth. Moreover, cosmic Yin and Yang "are the greatest of 'qi'." He describes qi as "issuing forth" and creating profound effects.
Tao
Neoplatonism 3rd century AD
The One
The primeval Source of Being is the One and the Infinite, as opposed to the many and the finite. It is the source of all life, and therefore absolute causality and the only real existence. However, the important feature of it is that it is beyond all Being, although the source of it. Therefore, it cannot be known through reasoning or understanding, since only what is part of Being can be thus known according to Plato. Being beyond existence, it is the most real reality, source of less real things. It is, moreover, the Good, insofar as all finite things have their purpose in it, and ought to flow back to it. But one cannot attach moral attributes to the original Source of Being itself, because these would imply limitation. It has no attributes of any kind; it is being without magnitude, without life, without thought; in strict propriety, indeed, we ought not to speak of it as existing; it is "above existence," "above goodness." It is also active force without a substratum; as active force the primeval Source of Being is perpetually producing something else, without alteration, or motion, or diminution of itself.
Tao both precedes and encompasses the universe. As with other nondualistic philosophies, all the observable objects in the world - referred to in the Tao Te Ching as 'the named' or 'the ten thousand things' - are considered to be manifestations of Tao, and can only operate within the boundaries of Tao. Tao is, by contrast, often referred to as 'the nameless', because neither it nor its principles can ever be adequately expressed in words. It is conceived, for example, with neither shape nor form, as simultaneously perfectly still and constantly moving, as both larger than the largest thing and smaller than the smallest, because the words that describe shape, movement, size, or other qualities always create dichotomies, and Tao is always a unity.