Ch. 22. Principle, Human Nature, and Destiny
Only the intelligent can understand the manifestations and concealments (of the operations of yin and yang). Strength may be good or it may be evil. The same is true of weakness. The ideal is the Mean.
The myriad things are created and transformed out of the two material forces and the Five Agents. These Five Agents are the basis of their differentiation while the two material forces constitute their actuality. The two forces are fundamentally one. Consequently, the many are [ultimately] one and the one is actually differentiated in the many. The one and the many each has its own correct state of being. The great and the small each has its definite function.
Comment. This is the most important chapter, because, as the title indicates, it deals with the three basic subjects in Neo-Confucianism: human nature, principle, and destiny. Strangely enough, none of the words appears in the chapter. According to Chu Hsi, the first sentence deals with principle, the next three deal with nature, and the rest deals with destiny.59 But as Sun Ch’i-feng pointed out, destiny refers to the endowment by Heaven and nature refers to what is inherent in man and things, and both are principle.60 Chu Hsi identifies the one with the Great Ultimate. The fundamental Neo-Confucian tenet, that substance is one but its manifestations are many, is here succinctly stated. As Chu Hsi said, “The one and the many each having its own correct state of being means that principle is one but its manifestations are many.”61 Thus in this chapter are found the three major subjects of Neo-Confucianism and one of its most fundamental tenets.
Ch. 23. Yen Tzu
Yen Tzu (Yen Yüan) had only a single bamboo dish of rice, a single gourd dish of drink, and lived in his mean narrow lane. Others could not have endured this distress but he did not allow his joy to be affected by it.62 Now, wealth and honor are what people love. Yen Tzu did not love or seek them but instead enjoyed poverty. What is the idea? There are the highest honor and the greatest [wealth to]63 love and seek. But he acted differently because he saw what was great and ignored what was small. Since he saw the great, his mind was at peace. His mind being at peace, he had no discontent. Having no discontent, he treated wealth, honor, poverty, or humble station in the same way. As he treated them in the same way, he could transform them and equalize them.64 This is why Yen Tzu has been regarded as second to the Sage.
Ch. 24. Teachers and Friends, Pt. 1
The most honorable thing in the world is moral principle, and the most valuable thing is virtue. Man is most precious. What makes him most precious is his possession of moral principles and virtue. Without the help of teachers and friends, it is impossible for one to possess in his person what makes man the most precious.
Ch. 25. Teachers and Friends, Pt. 2
Moral principles are honorable and valuable only when they are possessed by man. At birth man is ignorant. He remains stupid when he grows up if he has no teachers or friends to help him. Thus moral principles become valuable and honorable when they are possessed by man through the help of teachers and friends. Is the meaning not important? Is man’s possession not enjoyable?
Ch. 26. Mistakes
Tzu-lu65 was happy to hear about his mistakes66 and his good reputation was unlimited. Nowadays when people have faults they do not like others to correct them. It is as though a man should hide his illness and avoid a physician. He would rather destroy his life than awake. How lamentable!
Ch. 27. Tendencies
The most important things in the world [with regard to the subtle, incipient activation of things]67 are tendencies. Tendencies may be strong or weak. If a tendency is extremely strong, it cannot be controlled.68 But it is possible to control it quickly if one realizes that it is strong. To control it requires effort. If one does not realize early enough, it will not be easy to apply effort. If one has exerted his effort and does not succeed, that is due to Heaven, but if one either does not realize or does not apply effort, that is due to man. Is it due to Heaven? No, it is due to man. Why complain?
Ch. 28. Literary Expressions
Literature is a vehicle of moral principles. If wheels and shafts of carriages are decorated but are not used, they would have been decorated for nothing. How much less useful would an undecorated carriage be!
Literary expressions are art and moral principles are substance. If one is earnest about substance and writes it down with art, it will be beautiful and loved. As it is loved, it will be transmitted to posterity. The worthy can then learn it and achieve its object. This is education. This is why it is said, “Words without literary quality will not go very far.”69 But unworthy people will not learn even if their parents supervise them or if teachers and tutors exhort them. They will not obey even if they are forced to. They do not know to devote themselves to moral principles and virtue and merely apply their ability to literary expressions. This is no more than art. Alas! This defect has existed for a long time.
Ch. 29. The All-Embracing Depth of the Sage
[Confucius said,] “I do not enlighten those who are not eager to learn, nor arouse those who are not anxious to give an explanation themselves. If I have presented one corner of the square and they cannot come back to me with the other three, I should not go over the points again.”70 He also said, “I do not wish to say anything. . . . Does Heaven say anything? The four seasons run their course and all things are produced.”71 Thus the all-embracing depth of Confucius could be seen only by Yen Tzu. He was the one who discovered the all-embracing depth of the Sage and taught the ten thousand generations without end. A sage is equal to Heaven. Is he not profound? When an ordinary person hears or knows anything, he is afraid that others will not quickly know that he has it. How superficial it is to make haste to let people know and to seek a name!
Ch. 30. The Refinement and All-Embracing Depth of the Sage
The refinement of the Sage is revealed in the hexagrams, and the all-embracing depth of the Sage is expressed through them. If the hexagrams had not been drawn, it could not have been possible to reveal the refinement of the Sage. And if there were no hexagrams, it would almost be impossible to know all about the all-embracing depth of the Sage. The Book of Changes is not only the source of the Five Classics;72 it is the deep and dark abode of Heaven, Earth, and spiritual beings.
Ch. 31. The Hexagrams of Ch’ien (Heaven), Sun (Decrease) I (Increase),73 and Activity
“The superior man is active and vigilant and is unceasing in his sincerity.” But he must “restrain his wrath and repress his desires,” “move toward good,” and “correct his mistakes”74 before he can achieve his objective. Among the functions of ch’ien, none is better than to achieve this, and the greatness of sun and i does not go beyond this.75 It is the greatness of sun and i, and there is nothing superior. The thought of the Sage is deep indeed! “Good fortune, evil fortune, occasion for repentance, and reason for regret all arise from activity.”76 Alas! good fortune is only one out of four. Should we not be careful about activity?
Ch. 32. The Hexagrams of Chia-jen (Family), K’uei (To Part), Fu (To Return), and Wu-wang (Absence from Falsehood)77
There is a foundation for the government of the world. It is the ruler’s person. There is a model for the government of the world. It is the family. The foundation must be correct. To make the foundation correct, there is no other way than to make the heart sincere. The model must be good. In order for the model to be good, there is no other way than to maintain harmony among kin. It is difficult to govern a family whereas it is easy to govern the world, for the family is near while the world is distant. If members of the family are separated, the cause surely lies with women. This is why k’uei follows chia-jen, for “when two women live together, their wills move in different directions.”78 This was why (sage-emperor) Yao, having put his empire in order, gave his two daughters in marriage to Shun in order to test him and see whether the throne should be given to him. Thus it is that, in order to see how a ruler governs his empire, we observe the government of his family. In order t
o see how he governs his family, we observe how he governs himself. To be correct in one’s person means to be sincere in one’s heart. And to be sincere in one’s heart means to return from (turn away from) evil activities. Evil activities represent falsehood. When it has been turned away, there will be none. Being free from it, one is sincere. This is the reason why wu-wang comes after fu. And it is said, “The ancient kings made their regulations in complete accordance with the seasons, thereby nourishing all things.”79 How profound!
Ch. 33. Wealth and Honor
The superior man considers a rich possession of moral principles to be honor and peace in his person to be wealth. Therefore he is always at peace and is never discontented. To him carriages and ceremonial caps (symbols of honor) are as light as a cash, and gold and jade are as tiny as a speck of dust. Nothing can be added to the great value [of rich possession of moral principle and peace in the person].
Ch. 34. Vulgarity
The way of the Sage is to be heard through the ear, to be preserved in the heart, to be deeply embraced there and to become one’s moral character, and to become one’s activities and undertakings when it is put into practice. Those who are engaged purely in literary expressions are vulgar people.
Ch. 35. Consideration and Deliberation
Perfect sincerity leads to activity. Activity leads to change. And change leads to transformation. Hence it is said, “One will consider before he speaks and deliberate before he acts. By such consideration and deliberations he undertakes to complete all changes and transformations.”80
Ch. 36. Punishment
Heaven produces all things in the spring and stops producing in the autumn. All things have been produced and matured and it would be a mistake not to stop. Therefore there is the autumn to complete the process. The sage models after Heaven in governing and nourishing all people. So he regulates them with punishment. As people have abundance, their desires are aroused. Their feelings become dominant and they are guided by advantages and disadvantages. Consequently they would attack one another without cease. They would destroy themselves and human relations would be ruined. Therefore they receive punishment [from the sage] so that they may become regulated.
Feelings are not genuine but are obscure. They change in a thousand ways. They cannot be regulated except by a person who is characterized by the Mean, correctness, intelligence, penetration, courage, and firmness. The explanation of the hexagram sung (contention) says, “It will be advantageous to see the great man”. . . for the strong has occupied the central position.81 The explanation of the hexagram shih-ho (biting and uniting) says, “It will be advantageous to use legal restraint”82 for it is an activity with intelligence. Ah! Those who administer punishment control the lives of the people throughout the empire. Should their appointment not be careful?
Ch. 37. Impartiality
The way of the sage is nothing other than absolute impartiality.
Someone asked, “What does that mean?”
I said, “Heaven and Earth are nothing other than absolute impartiality.”
Ch. 38. Confucius, Pt. 1
The Spring and Autumn Annals83 is to set the kingly way correct and to make clear the fundamental principles of government. Confucius wrote it for the benefit of kings of later generations, and, by recording the capital punishments of rebellious ministers and villainous sons in the past, to warn ministers and sons that were to come. It is fitting that for ten thousand generations without end kings have offered sacrifice to Confucius to repay his infinite kindness and contributions.
Ch. 39. Confucius, Pt. 2
Confucius was the only one who possessed virtue in abundance, who exercised an unlimited amount of civilizing influence, and who could really form a trinity with Heaven and Earth and be equal to the four seasons.
Ch. 40. The Hexagrams of Meng (Obscure) and Ken (To Stop)84
“The youthful and ignorant comes and seeks me.”85 I follow the correct way and determine his conduct as in the case of divination. Divination is to seek advice from spirits. “To ask for the second or third time [thus showing lack of concentration] would be to indicate doubt. In that case, the spirits would not give him any advice.”86 [The hexagram represents] a spring issuing forth beneath a mountain.87 It will be clear if it is still, but if it is disturbed, it will be confused. Being confused, it loses its destination. One must be careful. The only right thing to do is to be timely and to follow the Mean.
“Stop in the back of a thing.”88 The back is not seen. If one is tranquil, one will stop [at the right point]. To stop means not to do anything [deliberate], for if one does anything [deliberate], one will not be able to stop [at the right point]. The truth [in these hexagrams] is deep indeed!
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THE NUMERICAL AND OBJECTIVE TENDENCIES IN SHAO YUNG
In spite of its metaphysics, Neo-Confucianism as a whole is homocentric. It proceeds from man to embrace the whole universe. In the case of Shao Yung (Shao K’ang-chieh, Shao Yao-fu, 1011-1077), however, the direction is reversed. To him, man is only one of many creatures, though the most important one, and he is only part of an extensive process of universal operation. This is clear from his major concepts.
Shao’s fundamental concepts are three. First, there are the supreme principles governing the universe. Second, these principles can be discerned in terms of numbers. And third, the best knowledge of them is the objective, that is, viewing things from the viewpoint of things. In holding that all things have principles in them, he is not different from other Neo-Confucianists. To this concept, he devoted his major work, the Huang-chi ching-shih shu (Supreme Principles Governing the World). However, while he followed the same pattern of cosmic evolution in the Book of Changes as most other Neo-Confucianists did, that is, the evolution from the Great Ultimate through yin and yang or negative and positive cosmic force, to the myriad things, he added the element of number. To him universal operation, or Change, is due to spirit, which gives rise to number, number to form, and form to concrete things. The whole process works according to principle and is natural. Man is the most intelligent of the products of natural evolution, but like all other things he is governed by numbers.
The concept of number is not new. It is present in the Lao Tzu, the Book of Changes, the Five Agents School, the apocryphal literature of the Western Han period (206 b.c.–a.d. 8), and Yang Hsiung (53 b.c.–a.d. 18), but he was the first one to base his whole philosophy on it and build a system of numerical progression. Evidently under the influence of the Book of Changes in which the Great Ultimate engenders the four forms of major and minor cosmic forces yin and yang, he used the number 4 as the basis of classification of all phenomena. Thus there are the four heavenly bodies (sun, moon, stars, and zodiacal space), the four earthly substances (water, fire, earth, and stone), the four kinds of creatures (animals, birds, grass, and plants), the four sense organs (eye, ear, nose, and mouth), the four ways of transforming the world (by truth, virtue, work, and effort), the four kinds of rulers, the four kinds of Mandate of Heaven, and so forth. The whole scheme is neat and systematic but also mechanical and arbitrary. However, in its progression from 4 to 64, which is the number of hexagrams in the Book of Changes, it clearly indicates the evolutionary development from the one to the many. Furthermore, since the process is essentially the work of spirit, which expresses itself in interpenetrating activity and in the tranquillity of yin and yang, the universal operation is conceived of as opening (expansion) and closing (contraction) and thus the dynamic character of Change is dominant. What is new in the numerical approach is that things are definite and that by mathematical calculation they can be predicted. He applied this to history and equated it with the four seasons with calculable beginning and predictable end.
In this scheme of things, objective viewing of things is not only desirable but necessary. To view things this way meant not to be subjective but to follow principle which is inherent in things, and to maintain the mean in one’s emotions so th
ey would not lead one to partiality.
In such ideas as these, he comes close to other Neo-Confucianists. Generally speaking, however, he stands in a class by himself. Historians of Chinese philosophy usually refer to the “Five Masters of the early Sung period,” namely, Chou Tun-i (Chou Lien-hsi, 1017-1073), Shao Yung, Chang Tsai (Chang Heng-ch’ü, 1020-1077), Ch’eng Hao (Ch’eng Ming-tao, 1032-1085), and Ch’eng I (Ch’eng I-ch’uan, 1033-1107). They were contemporaries and friends. But in his anthology of early Sung philosophy, Chu Hsi (1130-1200) did not include Shao Yung. The other outstanding anthologies do include him but put him after Chang Tsai, although he was nine years senior to Chang and both died in the same year.1 The reason for this is that Chu Hsi fixed the line of the orthodox transmission of Neo-Confucianism from Chou Tun-i through the Ch’eng brothers to Chang Tsai. Later Neo-Confucianists included Chu Hsi but not Shao Yung.2
This belittling of Shao is partly due to the partisan spirit of Chu Hsi and other Neo-Confucianists. All records agree that Shao received his learning from a Taoist. But the more important reason for not considering him important is his failure to discuss such central Confucian problems as humanity and righteousness. As Hsieh Liang-tao (Hsieh Shang-ts’ai, 1050-1103) has remarked, “He had insight on the principle of progress and retrogression of the universe and the rise and fall of all things. . . but had not devoted himself to the task of studying things on the lower level (human affairs) before penetrating things on the higher level.”3 One may say in Shao’s defense that he does regard man as the most important creature, that for him as for other Neo-Confucianists the sage is the ideal man, and that nature, destiny, and principle are for him as for other Neo-Confucianists basic problems. There is no denial, however, that he was not as much concerned with social and moral problems as his fellow Neo-Confucianists. It was primarily because of this that he exercised little influence on his contemporaries and had no followers and that his doctrine has not been propagated by later Neo-Confucianists.
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