The Series of Chinese Learning Spreading to The West (Edited by Daiyun Le)
Jung and Chinese Culture
Shen Heyong & Gao Lan
Capital Normal University Press
November 2018（1st Edition）
Capital Normal University Press
April 2020（2nd Edition）
Introduction
"Jung and Chinese Culture" is part of "The Series of Chinese Learning Spreading to The West " edited by Professor Daiyun Le of Peking University. Carl Jung was an eminent psychologist who, along with Freud, had the distinction of initiating and developing the Unconscious Psychology. While Freud constructed Psychoanalysis on the basis of “personal unconscious” and “complex”, Jung developed Analytical Psychology on the basis of “collective unconscious” and “Archetype”. Freud is often compared to Copernicus, while Jung is compared to Columbus. In the terms of the latter, it is to praise his pioneering and exploration of human mind. On the wall of Jung’s Birth House on Lake Constance in Switzerland, there is a stone stele with the following sentence inscribed on it: “In this house, Karl Gustav Jung, the explorer of the mystery of the human soul was born."
Carl Jung’s Red Book was first published in October 2009, and has been printed and translated into several languages nine times in a row. It was called “the most important event in the history of psychology in the last hundred years” by TIME magazine, and it also caused the worldwide “Carl Jung Boom”. Carl Jung’s influence extends beyond psychology, to philosophy, anthropology, literature, culture and the arts, including the New Age and Post Modern. Whatever is related to the psychology of man, to the human mind, has the shades of Carl Jung and his thoughts.
Of all the western theories of psychology and methods of clinical treatment, Carl Jung with his analytical psychology is the only one that has such a profound relationship with Chinese culture. Carl Jung, who studied Chinese characters and the I Ching, describes himself as a believer in Chinese culture and a follower of Taoism. The preface for Richard Wilhelm’s translation of the I Ching, a commentary for the The Secret of the Golden Flower (the secret of the Golden Flower), a special introduction for The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying... all these works he wrote still have far-reaching influence.
Foreword
Jung never traveled to China, but China traveled to him. It came to him in the form of myths and symbols and in the translations of Chinese classics by his friend, Richard Wilhelm. Jung was fascinated by such works as the I Ching, The Secret of the Golden Flower, and the Tao Te Ching. He had an enormous appreciation for the cultural depth of Chinese traditions and their wisdom, and he tried to learn from Chinese culture new and different ways of seeing and thinking that are profoundly other from those of his European education and background. He did his best to overcome Euro-centrism and to bring Chinese perspectives and forms of thinking into Western consciousness and to incorporate important aspects of Chinese modes of thought into his depth psychological theory. He was convinced that Chinese culture had important contributions to make to Western science and specifically to European approaches to psychotherapy.
Prof. Heyong Shen and Prof. Gao Lan have written a work that gives a full account of the influence and impact of Chinese culture on Jung’s life and work. Shen is a longtime student of analytical psychology, and he became the first fully trained and accredited Jungian psychoanalyst in China. His research into the roots of Chinese psychology (“the psychology of the heart”) has helped to build an important and sturdy bridge between Chinese culture and analytical psychology. The effort of building a bridge of significant understanding between Eastern and Western cultures is still in its early stages as far as the West is concerned, and I am sure much more will be contributed in years to come. We in the West are still learning and have barely scratched the surface of the ancient wisdom contained in the Chinese texts that Jung studied and commented on. Prof. Shen and Prof. Gao Lan are helping us to get a better picture of developments in the Chinese psyche that might be useful in increasing our understanding of commonalities and differences.
One of Jung’s most important insights was that European and Chinese culture stand in a complimentary relation to one another. For the West, Chinese culture is similar to the unconscious in its relation to ego-consciousness. When it remains obscure and unknown, the West is able to project its own shadow inferiority into it. When it becomes more known and a bridge is built between the two realms, they can assist each other in overcoming the one-sidedness of each and bringing both closer to approximating human wholeness. Each adds essential factors that contribute to the realization of the full potentials contained in the human psyche.
Jung was able to grasp this complimentary relationship and to use it in relating causality to synchronicity (“meaningful coincidence”) and in developing the theory of opposites inherent within the self (masculine-feminine, yang-yin). Moreover, Jung’s theory of individuation, conceived as a lifelong psychological and spiritual development, has its Eastern expression in such texts as Chinese Chan’s “Ten Ox-Herding Pictures,” and from Buddhist works such as this Jung added features to his understanding of the full potential for human development. It is apparent to Jungian thinkers today that the West and the East need each other for the project of human development in its full expression, and that neither side should seek to dominate the other. Respect for differences is essential, and only then can true dialogue take place and common ground emerge.
Prof. Shen and Prof. Gao Lan have promoted the dialogue between Jungian psychology and Chinese culture in their many writings, their lectures and teaching, and in the numerous conferences on this topic that they has sponsored over the past two decades. The book they present here on C.G. Jung and Chinese Culture is a further development of this important dialogue. Here they are introducing Chinese readers to the life and work of Jung and discussing how Jung integrated Chinese culture into his psychological works. They are laying the foundations for further dialogue in depth between Jungian thinkers from the West and the scholars of China. I am sure their book will also show readers in China that analytical psychology can also be useful for recovering their ancient Chinese cultural heritage and giving it a new contemporary relevance.
Accompanied by his friend, Richard Wilhelm, Jung engaged in this dialogue with the East some ninety years ago. In the years following, there was a long pause in this project due to world events. Today the windows between East and West are open once again, and the time is ripe for further advances. Prof. Shen’s leadership in this effort is exemplary. It is to be hoped, too, that more Jungian scholars from the West will seriously take up studies in the history of Chinese culture from a depth psychological perspective. The work still remains to go more deeply into shared archetypal patterns.
It is an honor to contribute this brief Foreword to Prof. Shen and Prof. Gao Lan’s book on C.G. Jung and Chinese culture. I look forward to more studies of this kind, works that will advance the dialogue and serve to unite the world into a global community of shared values and interests.
Murray Stein, Ph.D., Past President of the IAAP
Zurich, Switzerland.
March 2017
Contents
Preface
Foreword Jung and Chinese Culture: Fate and Mission
Chapter 1 Jung’s feelings of Chinese Culture
Chinese Culture meets with Jung
Chinese Ambience in Jung’s House
Chinses Images in Jung’s Heart
Chapter 2 Jung and Richard Wilhelm: Confucian Temperament
Richard Wilhelm: Meet Jung in China
Richard Wilhelm in Jung’s Heart
Jung and Wiley, Messenger and Mission
Chapter 3 Jung and I Ching
Jung Meets with I Ching
I Ching and Analytical Psychology
Synchronicity and the Mean of I Ching
Chapter 4 Jung and Taoism
Discussion on Tao: Method and Meaning
Self and Individuation, the Secret of Golden Flower
Tao, Alchemy and Active Imagination
Chapter 5 Jung and Buddhism
Duhkha: liberation and transcendence
Mandala Experience and Self Expression
Chan Zong, Enlightenment and Individuation
Chapter 6 Eranos with Post-Jungian Studies
Eranos with Its Effect
Post-Jungian Studies and Developments
Jungian Analysis in China
Epilogue Jung Comes into My Dream
