exorcist_1699 Posted January 7, 2009 (edited) While Man in the modern world is always treated as a trivial and humble individual , in the Chinese culture, he/she is viewed as an indispensable element in the Heaven-Man-Earth framework . Without mankind , the world is still and colorless; the actions of mankind also change the Heaven and Earth, and provide them meaning . Â It may sound strange to many people that, before the Industrial Revolution , when our ability of changing the environment was so weak that , we were placed in such a significant location .Never can you find Man in such a position , no matter it is in western Humanism or Satre's Existentism . The reason is simple : " all things are just the various , different embodiments of qi " in this world . And, as the self-consciousness of qi, Man ,of course, gets his very privileged place . Â Such a privileged position also makes the becoming of an immortal nothing strange for he /she is the only living thing on this planet who can manipulate qi freely ; Because of such ability( strangely, not because of his /her ability in science ) , he/she is bestowed the possibility of living forever . Edited January 11, 2009 by exorcist_1699 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites