The Huainanzi

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The Huainanzi Page 118

by An Liu


  Shi is also used verbally, meaning “to work at,” “to manage,” or “to put forth effort,” and even occasionally as a modifier meaning “effortful.” In this context, shi denotes a mode of activity that is the converse of wu wei (non-action or effortless action), and when it appears as such, we have translated it accordingly.

  shi propensity, trajectory, positional advantage, force, power

  Shi is a very rich term that has no close equivalent in English. Its origin seems to have been in the military literature of the Warring States period, when it was devised as a conceptual gauge by which conditions on the battlefield could be measured and compared. The shi of a unit, position, or formation is derived from all the intrinsic (for example, the soldiers’ weapons and training) and extrinsic (for example, the possession of the high ground, the achievement of surprise) factors, taken together, that contribute to its combat effectiveness. For example, all else being equal, well-trained archers have more shi than do poorly trained archers. The difference might be reversed, however, if the former were positioned in a defile and the latter were perched on a high hill. We have thus chosen to translate shi as “force” when it is used in the discussion of military affairs, as it combines two different dimensions of calculation in the same way that, in physics, “force” is a function of intrinsic (mass) and extrinsic (acceleration) factors.

  From this military usage, shi was later imported into other realms of discourse such as politics, cosmology, and logic. One of the most common of these expanded meanings comes into the Huainanzi from early statecraft theory. In a political or social structure, an individual is said to have shi contingent on the systemic powers of the office or station that he or she occupies and the actual functioning of the system as a whole. Ideally, the shi of the prime minister, for example, should be less than that of the sovereign and more than that of the palace eunuchs, but this ideal situation could (and often was) distorted when individuals were able to accrue and exercise powers beyond the normative parameters of their station. When shi appears in these contexts, we have rendered it as “positional advantage.”

  From its seminal applications in military and statecraft theory, shi acquired a versatile general utility for discussing cosmic processes and human affairs. In its original usages, shi always implies both potency and directionality, never indiscriminate power but power tending toward specific effects. Thus it ultimately became common for ancient authors to write of the shi of a given situation or set of conditions, meaning its intrinsic tendency to evolve along a particular course. For example, it is the shi of a round object to roll; it is the shi of a poorly led state to become chaotic. When shi occurs in this context, we have translated it as “propensity” or “trajectory.”

  shi poetry; the Odes

  Poetry, like music, was celebrated by Confucians as one of the defining excellences of humanity and seminal to our capacity for ethical self-improvement. In this regard, an entire text, the Shijing (Classic of Odes), composed of the collected poetry of the ancient sages, was included in the Five Classics. When the character shi appears in the Huainanzi, it sometimes refers to the generic phenomenon of poetry, but more often it refers specifically to the text of the Odes. The Huainanzi generally rejects the Confucian position on the ultimate importance of poetry but grants canonical status to the Odes.

  The Huainanzi quotes the Odes as a source of wisdom but consistently regards it as a lesser manifestation characteristic of the latter age that does not channel the Potency of the ineffable Way. Likewise, the Huainanzi denigrates poetry as a pursuit that cannot lead to the highest levels of human perfectibility. Nonetheless, the Huainanzi evinces appreciation for the composers of lyrical verse. The text periodically shifts into verse for stylistic effect, even though it tends to express a heretical (from the Confucian perspective) preference for the baroque adornment of the Chuci (Elegies of Chu) over the more spartan style of the Odes. The Huainanzi authors were literati and aesthetes, and at several points the text admits that even though poetry may be a lesser attainment, it is an indispensable skill for leaders in the latter ages.

  shouyi to preserve/to guard the One, to hold fast to the One

  Shouyi signifies an aspect of the program of personal cultivation advocated throughout the Huainanzi, and “guarding the One” is often a metaphor for the process of personal cultivation itself. The ultimate goal of cultivation is to perfectly embody the Way in one’s person. Just as “the One” is often a metaphor for the Way, “guarding the One” is used for the orientation of personal cultivation toward the Way. “Guarding the One” also expresses the Huainanzi’s conception of both the Way and the process of personal cultivation as possessing a physical substrate. The Way is most pristinely manifest in the phenomenal realm in the most rarefied and dynamic forms of qi, and the personal experience of the Way entails and arises from suffusion of the mind–body system with those same forms of qi. “Guarding the One” thus implies the actual psychophysiological process of nurturing and preserving the mind–body system’s funds of highly rarefied qi through meditation and yogic exercise, a course that, if maintained to its ultimate end, may lead to sagehood.

  shu (cf. shu ), enumerate, norms

  The basic meaning of shu is “number.” The Huainanzi frequently uses this term in reference to various forms of human and cosmic order, and throughout the text shu works in tandem with the concept of “pattern” (see li ). Various mathematical properties and relationships are cited as intrinsic to the fundamental “pattern” of objects, organisms, or processes (for example, the division of the calendar year into twelve months). In human beings’ interaction with the larger cosmos, counting and ordering things may be indispensable to the realization of their potential inherent pattern or harmony. From this sense comes the related meaning of “norm,” as we have translated the character when used in this context. This character shu is often used in the Huainanzi as a loan for the character shu , “technique.”

  shu writing, prose; the Documents

  Shu denotes the act of writing in general. As a verb it means “to write,” in the sense of literally picking up a brush and beginning to write characters on a solid medium. Nominally shu signifies prose writing. In this sense, it forms the name of the Shujing (or Shang shu ; Classic of Documents), which was one of the Five Classics of the Confucian canon. For Confucians, the Documents was both a source of binding ethical principles and normative political injunctions and a timeless model for the correct composition of elegant prose. The Huainanzi cites the Documents as a source of ancient wisdom but does not accord it the ultimate authority that Confucians ascribe to it. Nor does it accept that prose composition is as important as Confucians view it to be or, if it were, that the Documents could stand as a particularly good model for how to do it. That being the case, the authors of the Huainanzi nevertheless are engaged with the concerns of prose composition. In chapter 21 and elsewhere, they note that parts of the text were designed as models for aspiring prose stylists of the age.

  shu techniques, arts

  Shu denotes any set of routines, protocols, or procedures that may be used to a particular effect. The craft of a carpenter, the assessment protocols that a ruler may use to survey and control his ministers, and the forms of breath-control meditation that may lead to higher states of consciousness (and that are among the special procedures known as dao shu , “techniques of the Way”) are examples of what the Huainanzi refers to as “techniques.” “Techniques” are an especially urgent concern in the Huainanzi. In many respects, the text conceptualizes the central task of rulership as identifying those techniques indispensable to the production of harmony and order, and deploying and integrating them in a hierarchical system that will realize these effects.

  shuo (shui) to speak, to describe, to persuade, persuasion

  Shuo is the most common word used for the act of speaking in modern vernacular Chinese, and in the Huainanzi it occasionally appears in this or related contexts. Most often, however, shuo has th
e connotation of “persuasion,” and the term is frequently used to denote specifically persuasive instances of speech or the rhetorical aspects of speech more generally. As a matter of word choice, lun refers to speech more grounded in logic, whereas shuo usually refers to speech that is more grounded in rhetoric. Shuo (often pronounced shui in this context) in fact became the name for a genre of persuasive speech/oral performance that sometimes combined rhetorical formulas with anecdotal illustrations, and where it is used in this way we have translated it as “persuasion.” The Huainanzi ’s most detailed treatment of this form of speech is found in chapters 16 and 17.

  su) customs, conventions, vulgar

  Su is a general term that encompasses all the constituent elements of “culture.” All modes of dress, speech, behavior, or religious observance may be denoted as “customs.” The most salient connotation of su is something that is widely shared or common; thus classical usage frequently distinguished between those forms of culture that were ya (refined, elegant), implying elite exclusivity, and those that were su (common, vulgar). (Unlike su, ya cannot be used nominally to refer to “customs” generically.) This sense of the term is generally confined to its use as a modifier, although su is occasionally used nominally to refer to the “vulgar (people)” (that is, the masses). The authors of the Huainanzi followed colloquial convention in occasionally using su in this way, and where it appears in this context, we have translated it accordingly. It is a hallmark of the Huainanzi, however, that it generally embraces the term su to mean any and all customs, expressing its conviction that conventional distinctions between “refined” and “vulgar” or “barbarian” and “civilized” are ultimately arbitrary. This point of view is found throughout the work but is argued most cogently in chapter 11.

  tai chu Grand Beginning

  “Grand Beginning” and the closely related term “Grand Inception” (tai shi ) are metaphors for the Way, expressing its status as the cosmogonic root of the phenomenal universe. Although it obviously connotes the moment of the cosmic origin, this image does not fully encompass the term’s significance. The Way remains the “Grand Beginning” even during the time of differentiated cosmic maturity, as it is the root source from which all phenomenal transformations spring and to which all phenomena repeatedly return.

  tai qing Grand Purity

  “Grand Purity” appears at several points in the text. Most commonly, it is another sobriquet for the Way. As such, it expresses the idea that the Way began in pristine undifferentiated purity and that it remains pure despite any degree of differentiation. The Way is never diminished or blemished by decay or corruption in the phenomenal world, as its potential for dynamic transformation remains infinitely elastic.

  At other points in the text, Grand Purity is used figuratively, although its association with the Way is always implicit. In chapter 12, for example, Grand Purity is personified in dialogue with other anthropomorphized qualities of the Way, such as “Inexhaustible.” Chapter 8 discusses the “reign of Grand Purity,” an era in which none of the diverse techniques of rulership of latter ages were necessary and social harmony could be maintained by the ruler’s embodiment of the Way alone.

  tai yi Grand One

  “Grand One” is another metaphor for the Way. The Way suffuses and encompasses all things. No matter what level of individuation or seeming durability an object or a phenomenon achieves, it remains wholly integral to the Way and is indissolubly implicated in its dynamic transformation.

  Tai yi was also the name of a star, a stellar embodiment of a deity. Emperor Wu instituted the worship of Tai yi at the winter solstice of 113 B.C.E., barely a generation after the Huainanzi was written, as a major cult under the patronage of the imperial throne.

  tian Heaven, heavenly

  The Huainanzi follows a venerable tradition of ancient Chinese religious and political thought by identifying Heaven as the supreme power among those in the phenomenal world. The physical locus of Heaven was literally understood to be the sky, and all the grand transformations most closely associated with the sky were viewed as manifestations of Heaven’s power: the cyclical movement of the stars and planets, the tempestuous movements of wind and rain, the changing of the seasons. It is not difficult to imagine why a thoroughly agrarian society like that of ancient China would accord such primacy of place to Heaven thus conceived. Heaven’s agency was not reducible to celestial events, however. Phenomena like the innate instincts of a living organism are often identified by such terms as “Heaven[-born] nature” (tianxing ).

  In the Huainanzi’s cosmology, Heaven takes second place as a cosmic force after the all-encompassing Way. Heaven was generated from the Way and continues to be contained within and controlled by it. Nonetheless, Heaven occupies a significant place in the Huainanzi’s cosmogony and cosmology. Heaven is one of the first of the phenomena to emerge from the undifferentiated primal Way (preceded only by the polarities of yin and yang) and as such is one of the fundamental structures of the cosmos. In the “root–branch” schema according to which the text is laid out, Heaven is treated third (see chapter 3), before all the constituent elements of the human and political realms. Heaven is not a moral force for the Huainanzi, as it is in much of Confucian literature, but it is an essential model to which human sages must look when fashioning techniques and institutions that will harmonize the human community and bring it into alignment with the greater cosmic order.

  tianming decree of Heaven, Heaven’s decree (for nonruler), Mandate of Heaven (for ruler)

  Two meanings of “Heaven’s decree” were prevalent in the classical literature before the Huainanzi. In a more limited sense, tianming could refer to the Heaven-mandated life span that was an individual’s bequest. For Confucians, this had both biological and moral dimensions, as it could be an individual’s fate to die in fulfillment of a moral imperative before his or her biological life span had expired. The Huainanzi generally accepts this notion of tianming, although it almost always refers to the concept of a fated life span with the single character ming rather than the binome tianming. This reflects the tendency of the Huainanzi’s authors to deemphasize the moral dimensions of fate, contending that a truly illuminated individual will avoid entrapment in a fatal moral dilemma.

  The more expansive meaning of tianming is generally rendered in English as “the Mandate of Heaven.” This is a venerable concept dating back to the pre-Confucian political tradition, signifying the legitimating moral mandate that a ruling dynasty receives from Heaven, charging it to rule the world as Heaven’s proxy. The Mandate of Heaven was the central political principle of much preimperial and Han political thought, and it was the precept on which successive dynasties and dynastic pretenders based their claims to imperial power. In this context, the Huainanzi is remarkable for virtually eliminating this notion from its political lexicon. The sage of the Huainanzi does not rule on the basis of the Mandate of Heaven. Instead, his claim to authority is rooted in his perfect embodiment of the Way through personal cultivation, which empowers him not only to rule the human realm with perfect impartiality and efficiency but also to perceive how the human community may best be brought into alignment with the cosmos.

  tian xia the world, the empire; under Heaven

  Tianxia literally means “(all)-under-Heaven.” It denotes a geographic area, but precisely which area is somewhat ambiguous. The literal meaning of “all-under-Heaven” would include cosmographic realms assumed by the Huainanzi’s authors to lie beyond the scope of human habitation. In the contexts in which tianxia is used, however, it is clear that this is not what the term implies. Tianxia is almost always used for an implicit political geography to denote the domain within which the Son of Heaven holds sway or within which the question of who is to be the Son of Heaven is contested. Thus the salient meaning of “under Heaven” is political and does not literally refer to all spaces under the sky, but to all domains that are under the sovereign authority of Heaven’s Son. For this reason, we have usually tra
nslated tianxia as “the world” (as the Son of Heaven was theoretically ruler of the world) or occasionally, when its specific designation of a political entity is clear, “the empire.”

  wen patterns, culture, writings, civil (vs. military), text, decorative elegance

  Wen is an exceptionally multivalent term that was accorded profound and increasing significance in the writings of the classical and imperial eras. Its root meaning is “pattern,” but it is distinct from li in that when it is used as such, wen almost always denotes a visual pattern (such as those made by the stars in the sky or the embroidery on a garment), whereas li may include an array of nonvisual patterns (for example, a drumbeat).

  From this sense of visual pattern evolved the meanings “writing” and “text.” Every form of written expression may be described as wen, including the Huainanzi itself. The centrality of the written word to all forms of cultural production helped give wen the expanded meaning of “culture” more generally. Thus ritual, music, song, and dance all were considered examples of wen in this broader sense. On this basis, wen acquired the connotation of “civil” versus “military,” as ruling or effecting policy through cultural suasion was considered the complementary opposite of exercising power through military coercion. The Huainanzi uses wen in all these senses, as was universally conventional during the Former Han. We have translated the term variously as appropriate to the context of each use.

  Confucians revered wen as one of the highest expressions of human potential, and the production and appreciation of wen as one of the chief paths to human fulfillment and perfection. The Huainanzi is less radically exalting of wen. Here, the line between human and cosmic wen was highly permeable, as the most valid and efficacious forms of human culture were based on perceived cosmic patterns. Many early Confucian writers (for example, Xunzi) agreed with this concept. Where the Huainanzi parts ways with such Confucians was in its insistence that even the cosmic phenomena on which human wen was patterned (for example, Heaven and Earth) were lesser and contingent devolutions from the undifferentiated and ineffable (and therefore impossible to capture in wen) Way. Thus no wen could ever be a carrier of truly ultimate value in the way that Confucian thinkers proposed. It is striking that of the 166 instances of the word wen in the Huainanzi, only 18, slightly less than 11 percent, occur in the “root” portion of the book (chapters 1–8).

 

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