Open letter for the leaders of WWF to bring Chinese traditional philosophy into wildlife protection | Teen Ink

Open letter for the leaders of WWF to bring Chinese traditional philosophy into wildlife protection

May 16, 2023
By DonJun BRONZE, Haining, Other
DonJun BRONZE, Haining, Other
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

Open letter for the leaders of WWF to bring Chinese traditional philosophy into wildlife protection 
Dear leaders, 
How do you do? I’m a college student from China who are interested in both wildlife protection and Chinese traditional philosophy. In the current world, although there are many wildlife protection organizations which have make huge efforts to protect wildlife for years, but the effectiveness of protection is still not obvious. With so many advanced technologies, why we still cannot effectively protect those lives? I think we all ignore the amazing power of philosophy guidance. I know our society is advocating the protection of wild animals now. However, advocacy cannot solve the problem from the root, we must introduce a philosophy system into wildlife protection education system. Only that can make people love nature from the heart, seriously use advanced technology to protect wildlife. Chinses traditional philosophy, which led Chinse people to make great contribution in the past 5000 years, is the most fit for today’s wildlife protection. I think it is time to introduce traditional Chinese philosophy into the global wildlife protection to inject new vitality into it. If we truly bring it into wildlife protection education system, it will guide people how to live in harmony with nature, and completely reverse the current decline in wildlife conservation. If we don't do this, people will never realize the importance of protecting wildlife from the bottom of their hearts, and animal protection will still be difficult. The future of our humanity and the future of the world will be at stake.  
Because many of you are not native Chinese and do not know how Chinses traditional philosophy really like. You may mistakenly think that all kinds of philosophies are boring, very abstract things, only for getting answers for life and the universe by logical reasoning. However, with little or no logical reasoning, traditional Chinese philosophy’s goal is to find the connection between the universe and nature and keep it harmony. Such idea, in different forms, run through the Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism that make up traditional Chinese philosophy. 
Many great Confucius philosophers in Chinese history have made such related statements. Mencius, one of the most famous Confucius philosophers. Once present something like that: When a “Junzi” sees live wildlife, he cannot bear to see them dead (Thomas-Walters et al. 64–71). They believe that human beings, animals are one, and people should have great love like heaven and protect the lives of wild animals. Only in this way can we maintain the harmony of the world and become a true “Junzi” (gentleman). Under the influence of this idea, ancient China has begun to understand the importance of protecting wild animals and take corresponding protection measures since 2000 years ago. According to《the history of Song》(one of Chinese most authoritative history books), the Song Dynasty established a special wildlife protection department and issued decrees on wildlife protection for 200 consecutive years(Rohaha) I think WWF can vigorously promote such ideas, the realization of human values and animal protection together, so that people realize that if they cannot protect animals, they will lose their qualifications to become an ideal person. The greatest need in the heart of man is the realization of self-worth, in other words, to be an ideal person is the highest spiritual goal of a person. So many people will protect animals from the bottom of their hearts. 
Buddhism, which is equally influential in China, also advocate the care of wildlife. Its great ideological feelings of equal respect for all life, as well as the philosophy of life attitude of cause-and-effect cycle, have made protecting lives from ancient times to the present, as one of the most important Buddhist laws. Deeply influenced by Buddhism, the Tibetan people still maintain the ancient custom of releasing animals, in their view, releasing animals can bring them good luck and make their life smooth. Such thinking has played a huge role in maintaining a positive balance between humans and wildlife (Sanji Tashi 18-23). WWF can work with Buddhism to promote this idea of protecting wildlife and winning blessings. Let people have a kind of concept that protection of wildlife and harmonious coexistence with nature, is to achieve the state of bliss, the future life will be blessing. So that many people will also protect wildlife for self-interest. No one can resist the temptation of Buddha’s blessing.   
However, like all philosophies, traditional Chinese philosophy is not perfect. A historical fact, in the feudal society of ancient China under the guidance of Confucianism, there was no corresponding advanced science. As Professor Zhang Weiping said, because the Confucian philosophy pay more attention to the strict hierarchical order. So, it is not concerned with the development of science.  
In general, the traditional Chinese philosophy encourages the protection of wildlife with its core concept of harmonious coexistence between man and nature. I think WWF maybe can build a huge ecological philosophy system of animal protection based on traditional Chinese philosophy and strengthen its publicity. As a result, more people can understand the benefits of traditional Chinese philosophy for wildlife protection and under the guidance of the Buddha's blessing and self-realization, sincerely make the greatest contribution to animal protection. Finally, we can build a harmony relationship between humanity and nature.  
 


The author's comments:

Dear Sir/Madam, 

It's my pleasure to send an email to you to submit my work. I am a undergraduate student from Zhejiang university, major in civil and environmental engineering, who is interested in wildlife protection. Although the popularity of wildlife protectors is increasing, the efficiency of wildlife protection is still not so high. In order to deal with this question, I write this open letter for the leaders of WWF, hoping that you can take a look and I wish it can help. 

In this open letter, to improve its authority, I also cite from 4 sources. I will list all of them below to make sure my article does not involve plagiarism. 

Work Cited 
 
Rohaha. "Prescient Ancients: Thousands of years ago, there were acts of wildlife conservation." Zhihu column, zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/149946223. Accessed 10 Apr. 2023. 

Sanji Tashi." Tibetan Buddhist practices of releasing and protecting life and environmental protection concepts." Fayin No.368.04(2015):18-23. doi:10.16805/j.cnki.11-1671/b.2015.04.005. Accessed 13 Apr. 2023. 

Thomas-Walters, Laura, et al. “Targeted Values: The Relevance of Classical Chinese Philosophy for Illegal Wildlife Demand Reduction Campaigns.” People and Nature, vol. 2, no. 4, Wiley, 1 Dec. 2020, pp. 964–71. doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10127. Accessed 10 Apr. 2023. 

Zhang Weiping." A brief discussion on the shortcomings of the development of science and technology in ancient China." Journal of Yunnan Normal University (Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition) .05(1997). Accessed 10 Apr. 2023. 
 


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