A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy
Page 71
35. [In answer to Li Po-mien the Teacher said], “Students of today only pay attention to details and do not search for what is concrete. Mencius said, ‘He who exerts his mind to the utmost knows his nature. He who knows his nature knows Heaven (Nature).’58 There is only one mind. My mind, my friends’ mind, the mind of the sages thousands of years ago, and the mind of sages thousands of years to come are all the same. The substance of the mind is infinite. If one can completely develop his mind, he will become identified with Heaven. To acquire learning is to appreciate this fact. This is what is meant by the saying, ‘Sincerity means the completion of the self, and the Way is self-directing.’59 When is it necessary to depend on words?”
Po-mien asked, “What is meant by exerting the mind to the utmost? What is the difference between mind, capacity, the nature, and feeling?”
The Teacher said, “What you say is also details. However, this is not your fault, my friend; it is the defect of the entire world. When scholars read today, they only try to understand words and do not go further to find out what is vital. As to feeling, the nature, mind, and capacity, they are all one thing in general and simply happen to be expressed differently.”
Po-mien said, “Is it that they ‘are the same, but after they are produced, they have different names’?”60
The Teacher said, “You do not have to talk about them. If you do, you will be wrong, and in the future you will only depend on words, and study not for your own sake but to impress others. If you pay attention to what is concrete to yourself, you will eventually understand. But if you insist on talking about them, you may say that with respect to Heaven, it is the nature, and with respect to man, it is the mind.” (35:-10a-b)
36. Principle exists in the universe without any obstruction. It is only that you sink from it, hide yourself in darkness as in the trap, and lose all sense of what is high and far beyond. It is imperative that this trap be decisively broken and the confining net be penetrated and destroyed. (35:15b-16a)
37. Collect your spirit. Be your own master. “All things are already complete in oneself.”61 What is it that is lacking? When I should be commiserative, I am naturally commiserative. When I should be ashamed, liberal, generous, affectionate, tender, or strong and firm, I am naturally so. (35:18a)
38. Establish yourself in life and respect yourself. Don’t follow other people’s footsteps nor repeat their words. (35:22a)
39. The Four Beginnings (of humanity, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom) are all originally present in the self. Nothing need be added from the outside. (35:22a)
40. It is wrong to say that the human mind is identical with human artificiality whereas the moral mind is identical with the Principle of Nature [as suggested in the saying, “The human mind is precarious (liable to make mistakes), and the moral mind is subtle”].62 By the human mind is meant the mind of everyone. To be subtle means [for the mind] to be refined, and that if it is coarse to any extent, it will not be refined. To say that one is human desires and the other the Principle of Nature is wrong. There are good and evil in man, and there are also good and evil in Nature [such as eclipses and evil stars].63 How can it be correct to ascribe all good to Nature and all evil to man? (35:23a)
41. The theory of the distinction between the Principle of Nature and human desires is extremely defective. Since it was enunciated in the Book of Rites people have repeated it. In the “Record of Music” it is said that “By nature man is tranquil at birth. When influenced by external things, he begins to be active, which is desire.”64 If all this is good, then both activity and tranquillity are good. Is there any distinction between the Principle of Nature and human desires in this respect? If it is not good, then tranquillity is also not good. What is there between tranquillity and activity? (35:31b)
42. The Way refers to existence before physical form [and is without it], whereas concrete things refer to existence after physical form [and is with it]. Both heaven and earth are concrete things. What they produce and support necessarily have principle in them. (35:32b)
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THE GREAT SYNTHESIS IN CHU HSI
No one has exercised greater influence on Chinese thought than Chu Hsi (Chu Yüan-hui, 1130-1200), except Confucius, Mencius, Lao Tzu, and Chuang Tzu. He gave Confucianism new meaning and for centuries dominated not only Chinese thought but the thought of Korea and Japan as well.
Our philosopher early distinguished himself as a patriot-scholar, having repeatedly petitioned the emperor to practice the Confucian principles of “the investigation of things” and “the extension of knowledge,” to impeach inefficient officials, and not to make peace with the invading enemy. But he preferred a life of peace and poverty. From 1163 to 1178, he declined official positions and devoted his time to scholarship. Eventually he spent nine years in public service, and gave an excellent account of himself in promoting education and agriculture. He revived the intellectual center at the White Deer Grotto in present Kiangsi Province, and his lectures there attracted all prominent scholars of the time. But his philosophical views were too radical for the rulers to accept. He was repeatedly dismissed from office. In 1196, his teachings were prohibited, and someone even demanded his execution. He continued to write after his dismissal from government service, and in so doing made tremendous contributions.1
His contributions were by no means confined to philosophy, although that is the most important. He synthesized Confucius’ concept of jen (humanity), Mencius’ doctrines of humanity and righteousness, the idea of the investigation of things in the Great Learning, the teaching of sincerity in the Doctrine of the Mean, the yin yang (passive and active cosmic forces) and the Five Agents (Water, Fire, Wood, Metal, Earth) doctrines of Han times (206 b.c.–a.d. 220), and practically all the important ideas of the Neo-Confucianists of early Sung (960-1279), as we shall point out later on. His breadth of insight and his scholarship are equalled by few men in Chinese history. Rightly or wrongly, he was the one who established the orthodox line of transmission of the Confucian School from Confucius through Mencius, Chou Tun-i (Chou Lien-hsi, 1017-1073), Chang Tsai (Chang Heng-ch’ü, 1020-1077), Ch’eng Hao (Ch’eng Ming-tao, 1032-1085), and his brother Ch’eng I (Ch’eng I-ch’uan, 1033-1107).2 He inaugurated new tendencies in textual criticisms. Among other things, he considered the Book of Changes as a book primarily for divination, thus radically differing from other Neo-Confucianists who depended on it for much of their philosophical inspiration. His most radical innovation was to select and group the Analects, the Book of Mencius, the Great Learning, and the Doctrine of the Mean (both of which are chapters of the Book of Rites), as the Four Books, wrote commentaries on them, interpreted them in new lights, and made them the foundation of his social and ethical philosophy. From 1313 to 1905 the Four Books were the basis of the civil service examinations. As a result, they have exercised far greater influence on Chinese life and thought in the last six hundred years than any other Classic. Through his interpretations of the Four Books, he made Neo-Confucianism truly Confucian, stripped of the Buddhist and Taoist influence which had been conspicuous in previous Neo-Confucianists.
Generally speaking, while he reaffirmed the basic doctrines of Confucianism, he brought its development over the centuries, especially during the Sung period, into a harmonious whole and gave it a new complexion.
Up to this time, Neo-Confucianism was characterized by six major concepts advocated by the different philosophers, namely, the Great Ultimate, principle (li), material force (ch’i),3 the nature, the investigation of things, and humanity. All of these were developed, systematized, and synthesized in the greatest of Neo-Confucianists, Master Chu.
Assimilating the concepts of the Great Ultimate advocated by Chou Tun-i and combining it with the concept of principle of Ch’eng Hao and his brother Ch’eng I, Chu Hsi held that the Great Ultimate has no physical form but consists of principle in its totality. All actual and potential principles are contained in the Great Ultimate, which is comp
lete in all things as a whole and in each thing individually. The relationship between the Great Ultimate in the universe and the Great Ultimate in each individual thing is not one of whole and part, but one similar to moonlight shining on objects. Each object has its own moonlight but this moonlight is moonlight as a whole.
It is the principle of things to be actualized, and actualization requires principle as its substance and material force as its actuality. Thus the Great Ultimate involves both principle and material force. The former is necessary to explain the reality and universality of things. It is incorporeal, one, eternal and unchanging, uniform, constituting the essence of things, always good, but it does not contain a dichotomy of good and evil, does not create things. The latter is necessary to explain physical form, individuality, and the transformation of things. It is physical, many, transitory and changeable, unequal in things, constituting their physical substance, involving both good and evil (depending on whether its endowment in things is balanced or partial), and is the agent of creation.
While seemingly dualistic, principle and material force are never separate. Principle needs material force in order to have something to adhere to, and material force needs principle as its own law of being. The fact that they always work together is due to the direction of the mind of the universe, which is the universe itself. In man this mind becomes, on the one hand, the moral mind, which is the principle of his original nature, and on the other, the human mind, which is the principle of original nature mixed with physical endowment and human desires. The principle of a thing or man is his very nature, real and concrete, unlike the nature in Buddhism, which is Emptiness. Original mind is principle in itself, unmoved, and perfectly good, while physical nature, on the other hand, is principle mixed with material force; it is the aroused state, involving both good and evil. The two natures, however, are always interfused, one the substance and the other, function. As substance, it is the nature, and as function, it is the feelings. That which unites and commands both human nature and feelings, according to Chang Tsai, is the mind. By unifying and commanding is meant the mind unifying itself by harmonizing man’s nature and his feelings and by transforming the human mind into the moral mind. Hence the possibility of morality. Moreover, all human beings and things have a mind, and this mind is in essence identical with the mind of the universe. Therefore there is the possibility of knowledge and the mutual influence and response among things and human beings, whether living or dead. Hence the investigation of things and religious sacrificial rites.
In his doctrine of the investigation of things, Chu Hsi follows closely Ch’eng I, as he does in the doctrine of principle. Indeed he was a fourth-generation pupil of the two Ch’eng brothers; and of the two, Ch’eng I was his main source of ideas. But he did not merely follow him or elaborate on him. He differs from him at many points. For example, while to Ch’eng I physical nature is outside principle, to Chu Hsi they are intermingled. Like Ch’eng, he taught seriousness (ching)4 as the psychological prerequisite for true knowledge and exhaustive investigation as the method. But he was careful to emphasize equally both the deductive and inductive methods and both objective observation and intuitive understanding.
The greatest understanding to be achieved is that of jen,5 an idea close to the hearts of all Confucianists. It was one of the most persistent subjects in the history of Chinese philosophy, and its long evaluation finally culminated in Chu Hsi’s famous description that it is “the character of man’s mind and the principle of love.” The significance and implications of this idea as well as of other ideas of his will be elaborated in the comments. Suffice it to say here that virtually every cardinal Confucian concept was brought to a higher peak by Chu Hsi.
Such a well organized and freshly envigorated philosophy could not but overwhelm the Chinese. Although not without opposition from such outstanding Neo-Confucianists as Lu Hsiang-shan (Lu Chiu-yüan, 1139-1192), his philosophy and that of Ch’eng I, that is, the Ch’eng-Chu School of Principle, dominated the intellectual life of the Southern Sung period (1127-1279). In the Yüan dynasty (1271-1368) that followed, the supremacy of the Ch’eng-Chu School remained unchallenged. With a few exceptions, great scholars were all exponents of Chu Hsi’s rationalism. Even those who attempted to reconcile the conflicts between him and Lu Hsiang-shan were essentially faithful disciples of his. In the Ming period (1318-1644), before the idealism of Wang Yang-ming (Wang Shou-jen, 1472-1529) emerged as the leading philosophy, his rationalism was the strongest intellectual current. Even during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries when Wang overshadowed him, it did not entirely disappear. There were philosophers like members of the Tung-lin School who defended it and others like Liu Tsung-chou (1578-1645) who tried to synthesize it with the idealism of Wang. Consequently as opposition against idealism grew in the seventeenth century, Chu’s philosophy was revived in strength. This period was one of independent and critical thinking, but some of the most outstanding scholars of the time, notably Ku Yen-wu (1613-1682) and Wang Fu-chih (1619-1692) were greatly influenced by and strongly inclined toward Chu Hsi. While eventually the critical spirit overthrew the speculative philosophies of both Wang and Chu, the latter had left a permanent imprint on the philosophical life of China. From the beginning of the fourteenth century on, his and Ch’eng I’s interpretation of the Confucian Classics were officially held as the orthodox doctrines, and as already mentioned they formed the basis of civil service examinations and were therefore the intellectual standards for the Chinese literati until 1905 when the examination system was abolished. His philosophy survived the Intellectual Revolution of 1917 and became in the thirties the foundation of Professor Fung Yu-lan’s new rationalism. His influence was not limited to China. It became an orthodoxy in Korea and the outstanding school of thought in the history of Japan.
The following selections include three short essays and a letter from the Chu Tzu wen-chi (Collection of Literary Works by Chu Hsi),6 and a number of sayings from the Chu Tzu ch’üan-shu (Complete Works of Chu Hsi).7
A.--TREATISES
1. A Treatise on Jen
Original note: In the Chekiang edition, the “Treatise on Jen” by Chang Shih (Chang Nan-hsien, 1133-1180) is erroneously considered to be by Master Chu and Master Chu’s treatise is considered to be a preface to Chang’s essay. There is also a note saying that this treatise is perhaps a preface to Chang’s essay. This is a mistake and is here corrected.
“The mind of Heaven and Earth is to produce things.”8 In the production of man and things, they receive the mind of Heaven and Earth as their mind. Therefore, with reference to the character of the mind, although it embraces and penetrates all and leaves nothing to be desired, nevertheless, one word will cover all of it, namely, jen (humanity). Let me try to explain fully.
The moral qualities of the mind of Heaven and Earth are four: origination, flourish, advantages, and firmness.9 And the principle of origination unites and controls them all. In their operation they constitute the course of the four seasons, and the vital force of spring permeates all. Therefore in the mind of man there are also four moral qualities—namely, jen, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom—and jen embraces them all. In their emanation and function, they constitute the feeling of love, respect, being right, and discrimination between right and wrong—and the feeling of commiseration pervades them all. Therefore in discussing the mind of Heaven and Earth, it is said, “Great is ch’ien (Heaven), the originator!” and “Great is k’un (Earth), the originator.”10 Both substance and function of the four moral qualities are thus fully implied without enumerating them. In discussing the excellence of man’s mind, it is said, “Jen is man’s mind.”11 Both substance and function of the four moral qualities are thus fully presented without mentioning them. For jen as constituting the Way (Tao) consists of the fact that the mind of Heaven and Earth to produce things is present in everything. Before feelings are aroused this substance is already existent in its completeness. After feelings are aroused, its func
tion is infinite. If we can truly practice love and preserve it, then we have in it the spring of all virtues and the root of all good deeds. This is why in the teachings of the Confucian school, the student is always urged to exert anxious and unceasing effort in the pursuit of jen. In the teachings (of Confucius, it is said), “Master oneself and return to propriety.”12 This means that if we can overcome and eliminate selfishness and return to the Principle of Nature, (T’ien-li, Principle of Heaven), then the substance of this mind (that is, jen) will be present everywhere and its function will always be operative. It is also said, “Be respectful in private life, be serious in handling affairs, and be loyal in dealing with others.”13 These are also ways to preserve this mind. Again, it is said, “Be filial in serving parents,” “Be respectful in serving elder brothers.”14 and “Be loving in dealing with all things.”15 These are ways to put this mind into practice. It is again said, “They sought jen and found it,”16 for (Po-i) declined a kingdom and left the country (in favor of his younger brother, Shu-ch’i) and they both remonstrated their superior against a punitive expedition and chose retirement and hunger,17 and in doing so, they prevented losing this mind. Again it is said, “Sacrifice life in order to realize jen.”18 This means that we desire something more than life and hate something more than death, so as not to injure this mind. What mind is this? In Heaven and Earth it is the mind to produce things infinitely. In man it is the mind to love people gently and to benefit things. It includes the four virtues (of humanity, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom) and penetrates the Four Beginnings (of the sense of commiseration, the sense of shame, the sense of deference and compliance, and the sense of right and wrong).