I realized that Chuang Tzu is more acceptable clinically, which is similar to psychoanalysis from inter-subjective perspectives. Bion (1996) enhanced that one shall have no memory no desire at the beginning of each session, this concept is clearly a Chuang Tzu definition towards Wu Wei (trying not to try).
To conclude, the Confucius theory sets frames for educate people, those structures had influenced China for over 2000 years, thus, it impacts the way a person think, behave, and understand oneself. Confucianism encourages people to fulfill moral standards and become ‘advanced’ person, with the responsibility of helping create a harmonious society. Taoism can be complementary to Confucianism.
While Confucianism advises people to try hard, Chuang Tzu as the key character of Taoism, suggested people shall trying not to try, that they shall accept things as the way they were and keep balance by viewing life as a journey, and be part of the great nature. Both theories of Oriental philosophy enhance the process over the result, none of those theories would limit a person just as an isolated individual, but to see a person as part of the ever-changing system. Furthermore, those theories all mentioned seeking balance inside instead of reaching out.
The Oriental Mindset: Characters and Names
In the science fiction novel Story of your Life, Chiang (1998) created a character Louise who is a linguistic professor, by getting in contact with the aliens and trying to find out their purpose on earth, Louise internalized the alien’s language. As Louise began to understand the language more and more, she herself starts to see things from an alien perspective, which is beyond linear narratives. In a way, it seems that Louise has the capability of predicting the future, but the novel actually indicated that when you start to learn a new language, your ways of thinking will change as you’re learning.
This language shift assumption was originality discussed by Sapir (1949), in his paper he described how different languages influence mindset, it was called Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. Later on, the argument toward this hypothesis had been divided into two main opinions: Language determinism and Language Relativity.
The language determinism theory gave examples such as the Hopis see time totally different than Europeans; or the Inuit only speak number one, two, and many, thus they could not count on the same number as other language speakers do. The theory also developed a concept which is Language Relativity. That is to say the language influence our cognition thus differentiate the culture. Scholars had given several examples, the number and the type of the basic color words of a language determine how a person sees the rainbow.
