22 Xu Guang was a scholar-official of the Jin dynasty (265—420 C.E.). Pei Yin was a scholar-official of the Southern Song dynasty (1127—1280). Among his works is the “Collected Commentaries on the Records of the Grand Historian” (Shiji jijie ). Fu Qian was a scholar-official of the Later Han dynasty and author of a commentary on the Zhuozhuan. Ying Shao was a scholar-official of the Later Han dynasty who was renowned for his successful suppression of bandits during the reign of Emperor Ling.
23 Bo Ya was a famous lute player of the Spring and Autumn Period. His friend and fellow master, Zhong Ziqi, appreciated his music so completely that he could tell what was on Bo Ya’s mind whenever he was plucking his lute. When Zhong Ziqi died, Bo Ya smashed his lute and never played again, saying that there was no longer anyone in the world who could really appreciate his music. For Bo Ya and his relationship to Zhong Ziqi, see chapter 5 of the Liezi. For a translation, see Angus C. Graham, tr., The Book of Lieh Tzu, reprint (London: John Murray, 1973), 109—10. For a discussion of the legend of Bo Ya, see Knoblock, Xunzi, 132—33.
24 Bian He was a man from the late Warring States Period who came upon a stone containing a rare piece of jade. However, when he presented it to King Li of Chu, it was judged to be a fake, and he was punished by having his left foot cut off. Not deterred, Bian He presented the stone again when King Wu took the throne. It was again judged to be a fake, and Bian He suffered the loss of his right foot. He was so distraught that he withdrew to the foot of a mountain, clutching his jade, and cried until he wept blood. This so moved King Wu that he ordered the stone reexamined. When cut and polished it was shown to be a rare treasure. For this story, see chapter 13 of the Han Feizi. For a translation, see Burton Watson, Han Fei Tzu: Basic Writings, p. 80.
25 The phoenix (feng ) was an auspicious mythical bird. The tong or wutong tree, common name Dryandra (Sterculia Platanifolia), is said to be the only tree upon which a phoenix will alight—a theory no one ever has disproved.
26 This is a paraphrase, with some modification, of Analects, 7.19.
27 Zhang’s language here is highly reminiscent of the opening section of chapter 3 of the Zhuangzi.
Notes to Essay 6
1 Zhang’s language here echoes ideas that are most characteristic of Daoism. The main point is that Heaven is an undifferentiated, nameless unity. Any human effort to rigidly divide, tie down, and name Heaven results in the adulteration and misunderstanding of Heaven.
2 The “three celestial fields” refers to separate regions of the sky containing different groups of stars. The first or “upper” field is called the Taiwei , and consists of ten stars. The second or “middle” field is the Ziwei , and consists of fifteen northern circumpolar stars. The third or “lower” field is the Tianshi , and consists of twenty-two stars.
3 The “seven luminous objects,” also known as the “seven directors,” are the sun, moon, and five planets (Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn).
4 The “twenty-eight lunar lodges” or “mansions” are equatorial divisions or slices of the celestial sphere, named after the constellations that provide determinative stars for each division.
5 The “twelve divisions” refer to the signs of the Chinese zodiac.
6 The “three hundred and sixty-five degrees” of the equator, used as one measure of celestial location.
7 The idea is that naming at best only approximates and to some degree distorts the Heavenly or natural state of things. Such a view is most characteristic of Daoism. For example, see the Daodejing, chapter 25.
8 For the importance of balancing “embellishment” and “native substance,” see Analects 6.18 and 12.8.
9 For the idea of acting only out of necessity, see Section one, part 4 and Section Three, part 2 of Zhang’s “On the Dao.”
10 “Han Learning” refers to the Qing-dynasty movement aimed at getting back to the original meanings of the classics by skipping later interpretations in favor of the earlier commentaries of the Han. “Song Learning” refers to the more speculative, metaphysically laden approach to the classics employed by later neo-Confucians.
11 “Philologists” refers primarily to Qing scholars who sought to understand the classics through a careful analysis of terms and language. “Literary people” were those who argued that literary style was of primary importance for self-cultivation and an understanding of the dao and could be found in texts outside the classics. For this idea see my “Literature and Ethics in the Chinese Confucian Tradition.”
12 These two phrases are from chapter 27 of the Doctrine of the Mean and describe complementary aspects of moral self-cultivation. For an explanation of Zhu Xi’s interpretation of their relationship, see my Confucian Moral Self Cultivation, p. 49.
13 For these ideas, see Section One, part 3 of Zhang’s “On the Dao.” The basic idea is that the dao describes that by which things are as they are but people focus on how things are or how they ought to be (in a given context) and mistake these for the dao itself.
14 As will be clear, much of what Zhang describes as “astronomy” included a scheme of correlated beliefs about human beings and earthly phenomena that is much closer to what we would call “astrology.”
15 The “Monthly Orders” (Yueling ) is now a chapter of the Book of Rites. See the translation by Legge, The Li Ki, vol. 1, pp. 249—310. The “Canon of Yao” (Yaodian ) refers to a chapter in the Book of History. The specific passage Zhang has in mind is among the opening sections. For an English translation, see Legge, The Shoo King, p. 22. The “Grand Beginning” (Taichu ) refers to the calendrical reform of 104 B.C.E. devised by Hong Dengping and initiating the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han.
16 For this idea, see Essay 1, note 26.
17 See Analects 7.1.
18 See Mengzi 3B9. See also 7A26 and 7B26.
19 See Han Yu’s essay On the Dao in the Appendix to this volume.
20 For the Cheng brothers, see Essay 1, note 51; for Zhu Xi, see notes 51 and 118. Zhang cites these examples to illustrate the idea that each thinker responded differently but properly to the demands of his particular age. Zhang’s point is that there was and is no single, ahistorical, fixed, proper response.
21 These are two brothers to whom Emperor Yao delegated the responsibility of devising the calendar. See the Book of History. For an English translation, see Legge, The Shoo King, pp. 18—22.
22 Zhang here is adapting some lines from chapter 66 of the Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian. The original lines can be found in Wu Zixu’s biography: “I have heard that when many people unite together, they can overcome Heaven. But when Heaven stands firm it is capable of destroying men.” For a full translation of Wu’s biography, see Yang Hsien-yi and Gladys Yang, trs., Records of the Historian (Hong Kong: Commercial Press, 1985) 36—46.
23 Each Heavenly division and object was thought to command or serve as a standard and model for some earthly location or phenomenon.
24 Xu Ziping , of the Song dynasty, was famous for his ability at astrological prognostication based on the Twelve Heavenly Stems and Ten Earthly Branches (a system of dating based on combinations of these two sets yielding a set of sixty pairs) and the five phases (metal, wood, water, fire, earth).
25 Quoting the supplementary explanation of the qian hexagram in the Yijing.
26 The “limitless” (wuji ) and the “supreme ultimate” (taiji ) were terms of art in neo-Confucian metaphysics. For a brief description, see Wing-tsit Chan, A Sourcebook in Chinese Philosophy (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1963), 463—65. Chan translates these terms “Ultimate of Non-being” and “Great Ultimate” respectively.
27 “What precedes Heaven” (xiantian ) and “what follows Heaven” (houtian ) are terms in metaphysics. The first is roughly the state of the world before physical things take shape; the latter is the world of manifested forms and patterns. The terms appear in the complete passage quoted from the Book of Changes identified in note 25 above.
28 The River Chart and Lo
Diagram are two cosmological charts referred to in various ancient texts. See the Great Appendix 1.1 and Analects 9.8.
29 “Moral” or “original” nature and “material” nature refer to a pristine innate nature and its adulterated, embodied expression, respectively For a brief discussion, see my Confucian Moral Self Cultivation, pp. 46—48.
Notes to Essay 7
1 The theme of this essay is how to harmonize breadth of study with an economical grasp of what is essential—a perennial theme in Confucian writings. The locus classicus for this topic is Analects 6.27.
2 For an English translation of this letter, see Letter 3 later in this volume.
3 “Establishing oneself” means cultivating a proper character. Zhang almost certainly had in mind the “Conduct of a Scholar” (Ruxing ) chapter of the Book of Rites. For a translation, see Legge, The Li Ki, vol. 2, p. 403.
4 For Su Shi, see Essay 1, note 99. For his views on literature, see Richard John Lynn, “Chu Hsi as a Literary Theorist and Critic,” in Wing-tsit Chan, ed., Chu Hsi and Neo-Confucianism (Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press, 1986), 337—54; and my “Literature and Ethics in the Chinese Confucian Tradition.” The History of the Han Dynasty was the first dynastic history, written by Ban Gu. For Ban Gu, see Essay 5, note 21.
5 Taozhu or Taozhu Gong , also known as Fan Li , was a fabulously wealthy and famous statesman who helped the state of Yue conquer Wu during the Spring and Autumn Period (722—481 B.C.E.). Yi Dun was a man from the state of Lu. He admired Taozhu and sought to emulate him by making a fortune as a salt merchant during the Spring and Autumn Period.
6 Zhang refers here to the “eight-legged essay” (baguwen ) style, a clearly structured form of essay used for the official examinations. For a lucid and revealing discussion of this form of composition and its context, see chapter of Benjamin A. Elman, A Cultural History of Civil Examinations in Late Imperial China (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2000), 371—420.
7 The quote is from Han Yu’s essay “An Explication of Progress in Learning” (Jinxue jie ).
8 The quote merges lines from two different sections of the Book of Rites. See the “Minor Rituals” (Quli ) chapter and the “Conduct of a Scholar” chapter; Legge, The Li Ki, vol. 1, pages 86 and 403 respectively.
9 The idea is that not even sages seek or can know everything. Compare Analects 9.6 on the idea that sages need not have comprehensive knowledge.
10 Wang Yinglin (1223—96) was the author of many works, including an encyclopedia called the Jade Sea (Yuhai ). He was famous for his mastery of classical texts and is said to have made a comprehensive study of all the Six Classics by the age of eight. Wang was a pioneer and precursor of the “evidential learning school” (kaozheng xue ) of scholarship; roughly what Zhang refers to as philology. See Elman, From Philosophy to Philology, pp. 45, 60, 174, and 198.
11 That is to say, he sought understanding by collecting, collating, and analyzing classical texts.
12 The idea being that he sought to express his understanding of the Way through the writing of literature.
13 See the penultimate paragraph of Zhang’s essay “On Teachers” (Essay 2 in this volume) for an example of this kind of response.
14 Analects 7.19.
15 Analects 7.20.
16 According to tradition, Kongzi is credited with editing this classic as well as having a hand in shaping the received form of the other classics.
17 The “Sacrificial Odes of Shang” constitute the final short section of the Book of Odes. These odes purportedly describe the royal sacrifices of the Shang court. Only five appear in the current edition of the Book of Odes, but many more are thought to have existed and been lost. The Duke of Dai (798—65 B.C.E.) had a minister by the name of Zheng Kaofu , who is said to have received twelve of these odes from the Music Master of the royal Zhou court. The seven lost odes referred to by Zhang were from this group, leaving the five found in the current edition of the Book of Odes.
18 For “pure knowing,” see the Introduction, note 19.
19 These are identified as proper topics of study in the “Regulations for the Family” chapter of the Book of Rites. According to this text, children study numbers and the names of the cardinal directions at age six and the odes and dance at age thirteen. For an English translation, see Legge, The Li Ki, vol. 1, p. 478.
20 This refers to a traditional scheme of six types or classes of Chinese characters and nine types or methods of mathematical computation. For more on the former, see Letter 4, note 7.
21 For a discussion of this idea, see Essay 6, “The Analogy of Heaven,” translated above.
22 This refers to ideas described in Analects 2.23. For the Three Dynasties, see Essay 1, note 43.
23 Zhang here appeals to the idea that Wang Yangming remained true to and further explicated Mengzi’s philosophy. For a different reading of the relationship between their respective views, see my Ethics in the Confucian Tradition.
24 Zhang is here defending Wang against the commonly leveled charge of quietism.
25 These are the four cardinal virtues, according to Mengzi, which are full expressions of four corresponding “sprouts” or incipient moral inclinations. One moves from the latter to the former through a process of “extending,” thereby “enlarging and filling out” the initial sprouts of virtue. For these ideas, see Mengzi 2A6. For a discussion of this aspect of Mengzi’s theory, see my “Confucian Self-Cultivation and Mengzi’s Notion of Extension,” in Xiusheng Liu and Philip J. Ivanhoe, eds., Essays on the Moral Philosophy of Mengzi (Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing Company, 2002), 221—41.
26 Traditional accounts claim that Kongzi had three thousand disciples but only seventy-two who qualified as “worthies.” See the “Prolegomena” to Legge’s translation of the Analects, pp. 112—27.
27 These were among Kongzi’s most distinguished disciples. For brief descriptions, see the reference cited in the note above.
Notes to Essay 8
1 Philosophers of history, such as Liu Zhiji (see note 2) argued that these are the three abilities that a good historian needs. Roughly, the good historian must write well, know facts, and see what is important about the facts. But Zhang argues that a good historian also needs “the Virtue of an historian” (see note 6 below for this idea). For a discussion of these ideas, see Nivison, Life and Thought, pp. 230—31 and 240—42.
2 For Liu Zhiji, see Essay 5, note 11. His view that an historian needs literary skill, learning, and insight is found in his biography, chapter 132 of the New History of the Tang Dynasty (Xin Tang Shu ).
3 Mengzi 4B21.
4 The quote is from his biography. See note 2 above.
5 These lines and the following combine direct quotation and paraphrase from his biography. See note 2 above.
6 For Zhang, the special Virtue of a historian is a kind of self-knowledge, an awareness of “how one’s heart-mind works” that prevents personal prejudices and emotions from interfering with proper historical understanding.
7 Wei Shou lived in the Nanbei Period, during the time of Emperor Beiqi (r. 550—77). Shen Yue lived during the same period, in the time of Emperor Liang Wu (r. 502—50).
8 Zhang’s language and thought here echoes the Zhuangzi. His ideal of a historian’s Virtue is like Zhuangzi’s notion of the state where our human abilities do not interfere with the Heavenly within us. Zhuangzi counsels us to avoid “helping [the process of] life along” and to find the right balance between the human and the Heavenly. For the former idea, see Watson, Complete Works, p. 76; for the latter, see pp. 77 and 182—83.
9 See the discussion of this idea in Zhang’s Conventional Convictions, translated as Essay 4 above.
10 Here, Zhang claims that the ideal state of mind he seeks is something that cannot be directly grasped by human intelligence—understood here roughly as rationality. Here we see another characteristically Daoist theme, though one that did get picked up and developed by other Confucians. It finds its clearest exp
ression in the “knack” stories of the Zhuangzi. For a discussion of this issue, see Karen L. Carr and Philip J. Ivanhoe, The Sense of Antirationalism, pp. 72—73.
11 The idea that writing well helps one to convey one’s message and move others led many Confucians, including Zhang, to see good writing as a moral obligation. For a discussion of this idea, see my “Literature and Ethics in the Chinese Confucian Tradition.”
12 Compare chapter 12 of the Daodejing.
13 See his “Letter in Reply to Li Yi,” which appears in the Appendix to this volume.
On Ethics and History Page 21