The progress of the history is the extension of the culture thus originated, to the south, and the beginning of a state and a government. The same intelligence – the power of altering the form of individual existences, and that steadfast thoughtfulness which can rise above mere phenomena – shows itself in their police and the mechanism of the State, in agricultural economy, etc. Even in Herodotus’s time it was in a state of dilapidation. From them we learn that their institutions were the same at that early period as they are now: Santaracottus (Chandragupta) is marked out as a distinguished ruler in the northern part of India, to which the Bactrian kingdom extended. If the Brahmin meets a man of an inferior caste, he must turn back and purify himself. Their education is conducted under the Emperor’s superintendence, and they are early taught that the Emperor is the head of the State and therefore must appear as the first and best in everything. Inaugural Address Prefatory Note Introduction A. Nevertheless, he was not turned away from his purpose, but betook himself once more to the Emperor to renew his remonstrances. With the Empire of China History has to begin, for it is the oldest, as far as history gives us any information ; and its principle has such substantiality, that for the empire in question it is at once the oldest and the newest. Thus the existence of the Egyptian does not depend on the brightness of the sun, or the quantity of rain. However pusillanimous and effeminate the Hindoos may be in other respects, it is evident how little they hesitate to sacrifice themselves to the Highest – to Annihilation. This presents itself to men first as the empire of death – to the Egyptians as the Realm of the Dead. While these two realms have remained to the present day, of the empires of the Tigris and Euphrates on the contrary nothing remains, except, at most, a heap of bricks; for the Persian Kingdom, as that of Transition, is by nature perishable, and the Kingdoms of the Caspian Sea are given up to the ancient struggle of Iran and Turan. Each had its own order of march and mode of warfare. Colebrooke has indeed translated a part, but this itself is perhaps taken from a commentary, of which there are very many. Those wishes have been realized; this Land of Desire has been attained ; there is scarcely any great nation of the East, nor of the Modern European West, that has not gained for itself a smaller or larger portion of it. They exercise a strict surveillance over everything that concerns the government, and the public and private conduct of the Mandarins, and make their report immediately to the Emperor. – One of the principal representations on the sarcophagi is this judicial process in the realm of the dead. They are therefore only terrific, frightful and negative; they keep watch – as among the Greeks do the River-Gods, the Nymphs, and Dryads – over single elements and natural objects. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, German philosopher who developed a dialectical scheme that emphasized the progress of history and of ideas from thesis to antithesis and thence to a synthesis. Its distinguishing feature is, that everything which belongs to Spirit – unconstrained morality, in practice and theory, Heart, inward Religion, Science and Art properly socalled – is alien to it. The contest of Iran and Turan is described in this heroic poem. He doesn’t paint a system of how our society should look. The Egyptian Spirit has shown itself to us as in all respects shut up within the limits of particular conceptions, and, as it were, imbruted in them; but likewise stirring itself within these limits – passing restlessly from one particular form into another. When the entire Persian host, to which this division belonged, was to engage in an expedition, a summons was first issued to all the Asiatic populations. In the Shu-King, e.g., we have two eclipses of the sun mentioned in the space of 1,500 years. The Brahmins have no conscience in respect to truth. [9] The fundamental principle recognized is Reason – Tao; that essence lying at the basis of the whole, which effects everything. The Brahmins, to please their employer, produced statements of the kind required; but there was nothing of the sort in the manuscripts. Where the soul is supposed to enjoy continued existence, the body must also be considered to have some kind of connection with this continuance. – Among the legal relations of the Chinese we have also to notice changes in the rights of possession and the introduction of slavery, which is connected there with it. Not only was there a worship of natural objects, but also of the Universal Power of Nature – Astarte, Cybele, Diana of Ephesus. In Media and Persia the religion of Zoroaster prevailed, and Xenophon relates that Cyrus adopted it: but none of these countries was the proper habitat of the Zend people. Their vast edifices – such as no other nation has to exhibit, and which excel all others in solidity and size – sufficiently prove their artistic skill; to whose cultivation they could largely devote themselves, because the inferior castes did not trouble themselves with political matters. Every one has the power of selling himself and his children; every Chinese buys his wife. In this all Englishmen agree. The sciences, an acquaintance with which is especially required, are the History of the Empire, Jurisprudence, and the science of customs and usages, and of the organization and administration of government. This idea is first found among the Egyptians. This basis of the life of the Egyptians determines moreover the particular tenor of their religious views. The Jewish people succumbed to superior force; the Jews were carried captive to Babylon, and from them we have accurate information respecting the condition of this Empire. Of the mode of life among the Egyptians, Herodotus supplies a very detailed account, giving prominence to everything which appears to him to deviate from Greek manners. The prince receives half the income from the lands of others; the remainder has to suffice for the cost of cultivation and the support of the laborers. A man cannot by imagination or conception enter into the nature of a dog, whatever resemblance he himself might have to it; it remains something altogether alien to him. All that is now required is to posit that particular existence – which contains the germ of ideality – as ideal, and to comprehend Universality itself, which is already potentially liberated from the particulars involving it. Babylon had to contribute the third part of the supplies in question, and consequently appears to have been by far the richest district. “There were nine pearls at the court of Vicramaditya,” say the Brahmins: but we cannot discover the date of this brilliant epoch. He is the excellent, the good, the positive in all natural and spiritual existence. It was he who first divided the day into twelve hours: he was moreover the first lawgiver, the first instructor in religious observances and objects, and in gymnastics and orchestics; and it was he who discovered the olive. This One, Universal Being, is indeed not yet recognized as the free Unity of Thought; not yet “worshipped in Spirit and in Truth”; but is still clothed with a form – that of Light. The other deities are therefore things of sense: Mountains, Streams, Beasts, the Sun, the Moon, the Ganges. The persecuted husband does nothing that can be brought against him, until at last he is so incautious as to step on his urine. From these are chosen the presidents of the other colleges. Philosophic History iii. The consciousness of external definite existence only arises in connection with the power to form abstract distinctions and assign abstract predicates; and in proportion as a capacity for expressing Laws (of natural or social life) is acquired, in the same proportion does the ability manifest itself to comprehend objects in an unpoetical form. With the Persian Empire we first enter on continuous History. The Europeans are treated as beggars, because they are compelled to leave their home, and seek for support elsewhere than in their own country. There are besides those already mentioned, infinite modifications of the same principle of conduct, all pointing to annihilation. Only particular human arts and inventions are associated with him. We may reconcile ourselves to the adoration of the material heaven, but the worship of brutes is alien to us; for the abstract natural element seems to us more generic, and therefore more worthy of veneration. One class necessarily supposes another, and the rise of castes generally, is only a result of the united life of a nation. When they take any part in public life they show themselves avaricious, deceitful, voluptuous. But besides the four despised divinities there are two malevolent ones, whom her choice had not favored, and who on that account wish for revenge. However erroneous a religion may be, it possesses truth, although in a mutilated phase. In the episode Nala, in the poem of Mahabharata, we have a story of a virgin who in her 21st year – the age in which the maidens themselves have a right to choose a husband – makes a selection from among her wooers. All astrological and sympathetic superstition may be traced to Egypt. For Philosophy aims at understanding what is … At that point in history at which we have now arrived, the form of Spirit is not advanced beyond Immediateness (the idea of it is not yet refined by reflection and abstraction). Life here regains its value. Brahma (neuter) is the Supreme in Religion, but there are besides chief divinities Brahmâ (masc.) In his ancestral land the King was a friend among friends, and as if surrounded by equals. But such a union could not be realized among cities which were animated by the bitterest jealousy of each other, and who lived in continual quarrel: while in the intoxication of affluence they were not capable of forming the heroic resolve to leave their homes for the sake of freedom. This Universal principle is as much a regulative one for the monarch as for each of his subjects, and the Persian Spirit is accordingly clear, illuminated – the idea of a people living in pure morality, as in a sacred community. It is said that a Mandarin who had become a Christian, having ceased to honor his ancestors in this way, exposed himself to great persecutions on the part of his relatives. The wearers of the yellow caps – at whose head is the Dalai-Lama, and among whose adherents is the Emperor of China – have introduced celibacy among the priests, while the red sect allow their marriage. Other Englishmen, who have devoted themselves to investigating the conception of Brahm, have thought Brahm to be an unmeaning epithet, applied to all gods: so that Vishnu says, “I am Brahm”; and the Sun, the Air, the Seas are called Brahm. It is the struggle of an energetic will on the part of this or that prince against a feebler one; the history of reigning dynasties, but not of peoples; a series of perpetually varying intrigues and revolts – not indeed of subjects against their rulers, but of a prince’s son, for instance, against his father; of brothers, uncles and nephews in contest with each other; and of functionaries against their master. This urging, powerful Spirit, however, was not able to rest in the subjective conception of that view of things which we have now been considering, but was impelled to present it to external consciousness and outward vision by means of Art. Introduction. Chapter II. In the state of dreaming, on the contrary, this separation is suspended. For we have not the dreaming of an actual Individual, possessing distinct personality, and simply unfettering the latter from limitation, but we have the dreaming of the unlimited absolute Spirit. That elevated territory is bounded on the east by the Soliman mountains, which are continued in a northerly direction by the Hindoo Koosh and Belur Tag. Many mummies have been found with a roll of papyrus under their arm, and this was formerly regarded as a remarkable treasure. Every one that fell into the Emperor’s hands experienced the same fate as the books. China Proper is over- populated. In a free state also, such diversities give rise to particular classes, so combined, however, that their members can maintain their individuality. It was peculiarly important to the Persian Empire; for when Continental Persia set out on one of its great expeditions, it was accompanied by Phoenician as well as by Greek navies. For though we find the organization of the State no longer, as in China, determined and arranged by the one all-absorbing personality (the head of the State) the distinctions that exist are attributed to Nature, and so become differences of Caste. For the History of Philosophy, both Hegel and his students thought these were vitally important lectures, and he lectured in Jena, Heidelberg, and Berlin several times on it. In like manner the human soul has its peculiar organs, and the body of a brute cannot be its domicile. The idea of a man being worshipped as God – especially a living man – has in it something paradoxical and revolting; but the following considerations must be examined before we pronounce judgment respecting it. In every Ministry, and in various parts of the Empire, there is a Censor (Ko-tao), who has to give the Emperor an account of everything. But judgment was passed on the dead by the living themselves; and that not merely in the case of private persons, but even of kings. As there was only one tribe of Levites and one Temple – i.e., in Jerusalem – idolatry was immediately introduced. has been contended for; others adopt the year 50 B.C., and this is the commonly received opinion. He himself wrote much, but became far more remarkable by publishing the principal works that China has produced. The Egyptians were, like the Hindoos, divided into castes, and the children always continued the trade and business of their parents. Psammitichus was followed by Necho, who began to dig a canal, which was to unite the Nile with the Red Sea, but which was not completed until the reign of Darius Nothus. First, historians are interested in providing conceptualizations andfactual descriptions of events and circumstances in the past. Two ministers constantly in attendance on the Emperor, are commissioned to keep a journal of everything the Emperor does, commands, and says, and their notes are then worked up and made use of by the Historians. The God of the Jewish People is the God only of Abraham and of his seed: National individuality and a special local worship are involved in such a conception of deity. Early torn from the arms of his parents the Lama is generally a well- formed and beautiful child. In the morning he held his court of judicature, and listened to the complaints of the people; but in the afternoon, feasted and surrendered himself to pleasure. The body of a deceased father is often kept three or four months in the house, and during this time no one may sit down on a chair or sleep in a bed. The Phoenician coast is but a very narrow border – often only two leagues broad – which has the high mountains of Lebanon on the East. The great Empire which had thus gradually been formed, was soon broken up into many provinces, which carried on long wars with each other, and were then reunited into a Whole. Chapter II. In this Spiritual Empire no secular political life can be developed. To him is ascribed the invention of writing, and of science generally – of , grammar, astronomy, mensuration, music, and medicine. Ker Porter, an Englishman, about twelve years ago (his whole tour occupied from 1817 to 1820) traversed the countries where ancient Babylon lay: on an elevation he thought he could discover remains still existing of the old tower of Babel; and supposed that he had found traces of the numerous roads that wound around the tower, and in whose loftiest story the image of Bel was set up. Yet, as these peoples were so unequally disciplined – so diverse in strength and bravery – it is easy to understand how the small but well-trained armies of the Greeks, animated by the same spirit, and under matchless leadership, could withstand those innumerable but disorderly hosts of the Persians. An Englishman states that he also saw a woman burn herself because she had lost her child. The Political Work of Art, The Wars with the Persians Four classes are mentioned : Priests, Warriors, Agriculturists, and Craftsmen. The English exhibited plays at Calcutta: this led to a representation of dramas on the part of the Brahmins, e.g., the Sacontala of Calidasa, etc. In the Family itself they are not personalities, for the consolidated unity in which they exist as members of it is consanguinity and natural obligation. Of Husband and Wife. Later on, kings were chosen, and it was they who first rendered the Jews independent. The sphere of subjectivity does not then, attain to maturity here, since moral laws are treated as legislative enactments, and law on its part has an ethical aspect. The Emperor, as crown of all – the embodiment of power – alone approaches heaven; individuals, as such, enjoy no such privilege. The soil of China, in which the chief possessions of the Chinese consist, was regarded only at a late epoch as essentially the property of the State. At the beginning of the eighth century after Christ, the first Christians are reputed to have gone to China, of which visit later visitors assert that they found traces and monuments. It therefore remains closely bound to the observance of ceremonies and of the Law, the basis of which latter is pure freedom in its abstract form. Such power must assert itself, in order that the whole may stand its ground, and retain its integrity against other such totalities or states. The long wall built by Shi-hoang-ti – and which has always been regarded as a most astounding achievement – was raised as a barrier against the inroads of the northern Nomades. At the head of the Persians and Medes, Cyrus made war upon Lydia and its king Croesus. All this diversity coexists harmoniously under the impartial dominion of Light. The Hindoo is incapable of holding fast an object in his mind by means of rational predicates assigned to it, for this requires reflection. The Objective Work of Art They are a powerful nation, and have reduced to subjection Cabul and Cashmere. Besides these there dwell along the Indus genuine Indian tribes of the Warrior-Caste. As regards Assyria, we must observe, that it is a rather indeterminate designation. • Introduction to the “History of Philosophy” • Introduction to the “Philosophy of History” • “The Master-Slave Dialectic” from “The Phenomenology” • “The Philosophical Propadeutic” Hegel’s lecture notes, 1808-1811 • Hegel’s Critics – a collection of 60 critiques of Hegel from 1841 - 2001 Light is the body of Ormusd; thence the worship of Fire, because Ormuzd is present in all Light; but he is not the Sun or Moon itself. To us Zoolatry is repulsive. They have not yet succeeded in representing the beautiful, as beautiful; for in their painting, perspective and shadow are wanting. That which does not accord with it, … Wise men, such as Bias, and still earlier, Thales, advised them to unite themselves in a firm league, or to quit their cities and possessions, and to seek out for themselves other habitations; (Bias meant Sardinia). First, the Uplands of Persia and Media; next, the Valley-plains of the Euphrates and Tigris, whose inhabitants are found united in a developed form of civilization, with Egypt – the Valley-plain of the Nile – where agriculture, industrial arts and sciences flourished; and lastly a third element, viz. was based primarily on lectures presented by Hegel in the winter of 1830-31. Here begins, therefore, the distinction between the spiritual consciousness and secular conditions; but as the separation implied in the above mentioned distinctions is the cardinal consideration, so also we find in the religion the principle of the isolation of the constituent elements of the Idea; – a principle which posits the harshest antithesis – the conception of the purely abstract unity of God, and of the purely sensual Powers of Nature. It appears from Herodotus, that the country had become impassable for cavalry in consequence of the canals; while, on the contrary, we see from the books of Moses, how celebrated Egypt once was in this respect. Thus only by such negation of his existence does anyone attain Brahminical power. The abstract principle of the Persians displayed its defectiveness as an unorganized, incompacted union of disparate contradictories; in which the Persian doctrine of Light stood side by side with Syrian voluptuousness and luxury, with the activity and courage of the sea-braving Phoenicians, the abstraction of pure Thought in the Jewish Religion, and the mental unrest of Egypt; – an aggregate of elements, which awaited their idealization, and could receive it only in free Individuality. Miracles, too, form a disturbing feature in this history – as history; for as far as concrete consciousness is not free, concrete perception is also not free; Nature is undeified, but not yet understood. But it must be added, that the soul was known to the Egyptians previously only as an atom – that is, as something concrete and particular. In respect to property the Brahmins have a great advantage, for they pay no taxes. Chapter I. In recent times attention has especially been recalled to them, and after many efforts something at least of the hieroglyphic writing has been deciphered. Thus Arabia gave frankincense, Syria purple, etc. a. In China the individual has no such life; – does not enjoy this independence: in any direction he is therefore dependent; in religion as well as in other things; that is, dependent on objects of nature, of which the most exalted is the material heaven. The greatest publicity prevails in the business of government. They are said to have built enormous pyramids and closed the temples of the priests. Comparing this with the history of the Old Testament, a space of 2400 years, according to the common acceptation, intervened between the Noachian Deluge and the Christian era. III. He thus reached Bombay, where he met with the Parsees, and entered on the study of their religious ideas. This Hindoo lawgiver has been compared with the Cretan Minos – a name which also occurs among the Egyptians; and certainly this extensive occurrence of the same name is noteworthy and cannot be ascribed to chance. – The merits of a son are ascribed not to him, but to his father. All political revolutions, therefore, are matters of indifference to the common Hindoo, for his lot is unchanged. A Rajah who thought himself injured by an English Governor sent two Brahmins to England to detail his grievances. Add to the above that in the whole of the poem no personage or narrative occurs that can be connected with Cyrus, and we have sufficient data for estimating its historical value. Brahm would on this supposition be substance in its simplicity, which by its very nature expands itself into the limitless variety of phenomenal diversities. But on the other hand it may be said, that if the soul is recognized as a permanent existence, honor should be shown to the body, as its former abode. By Herodotus he is depicted as a humorous monarch, who, however, did not always maintain the dignity of the throne. China, Persia, Turkey – in fact Asia generally, is the scene of despotism, and, in a bad sense, of tyranny; but it is regarded as contrary to the due order of things, and is disapproved by religion and the moral consciousness of individuals. The Genius has now an advantage over him; he afflicts him with a passion for gambling, and so plunges him into the abyss. For in the Dead, man conceives of man as stripped of all adventitious wrappages – as reduced to his essential nature. As far as Hegel goes, I'd suggest reading, at the very least, the Master-Slave Dialectic in the Phenomenology of Spirit. This Book- burning is a very important circumstance, for in spite of it the strictly canonical books were saved, as is generally the case. This almost unearthly beauty is perceived in women in those days which immediately succeed child-birth; when freedom from the burden of pregnancy and the pains of travail is added to the joy of soul that welcomes the gift of a beloved infant.