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The Zhongguo Trademark in Modern East Asia
Kirill Ole THOMPSON*

Thinking about the fall of the Tang (618 907) and the horrors of the Five
Dynasties period (907 960), Confucian thinkers of the Song (960 1279)
noted the socio-cultural resilience of Han peoples during the drawn out
horrific Five Dynasties period1 and reflected on the significance of“Zhongguo” ― in effect changing it from a purely geo-political term to anappellation infused with the Confucian Dao 道 (Way) of an intellectualcultural-ethical tradition. They effected this change by recasting the Dao as a
Daotong 道統 (succession of the Way) that set conditions on the sort ofpolitico-socio-familial conditions that would constitute a Zhongguo 中國
worthy of the name.2
In working out their new notion of the Confucian Daotong 道統, i.e.,
philosophy, practices, virtues, rites, arts, etc., Song Confucians were thinkingof educated Han peoples who would cultivate the Confucian Dao ― whether
or not they still dwelt in the nostalgia laden “Central Plains” of Chinese
civilization.3 At the same time, the resulting new Confucian Dao was generalenough that other peoples could master and apply it even if they weren’t Han
peoples themselves. Hence, the Mongols could be Sinicized by mastering the* Kirill Ole Thompson is an Associate Dean of Institute for Advanced Studies in
Humanities and Social Sciences, National Taiwan University
1 James T.C. Liu comments, “[During the Five Dynasties, c]hronic disorder andinvasions notwithstanding, [ethnic] Han China, by virtue of a large population, wide
geographic area, and long tradition, held its own. In fact, vigorous economic growthsprang up in parts of the Yangtze River valley and farther south. As soon as peace
returned, Han culture flourished once again with new and greater strength under theSung (960 1276)” (Liu 1988, 1).
2 “Modern China” commences with the Song. As James T.C. Liu comments, “Sung
China cannot be described as ‘early modern,’ for there was no later modern afterwards…. In the Chinese path of evolution, the Sung pattern was a most developed
and advanced bureaucratic society” (Liu 1988, viii).
3 Interestingly, “Zhongguo” in pre-Qin texts did not name or refer uniquely to a single
country or a whole empire; rather, it was a description that referred collectively toseveral states or principalities (“the central states”) in the context of Eastern Zhou
territory. Zhongguo vis-à-vis the outer world would come later.

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Daotong and “adopt[ing]Han ways” (Liu 1988, 2) during the Yuan (1271
1368), as could the Manchus in the Qing (1644 1912). In fact, Zhu Xi’s
account of the Confucian Daotong was canonized and made official by the
Mongols during the Yuan and remained so until 1908 when the imperial
examination system was terminated. By the same token, regionally, Japanese
Tokugawa Confucians (1603 1868) immersed themselves in the Confuciancanon, and sincerely asked whether Japan wasn’t better qualified ― by
Confucian Daotong standards ― to be called “Zhongguo” than was geographic
Imperial China (Huang 2014). Moreover, Chosen Koreans (1392 1897), who
had striven to master and even improve upon the classics associated with the
new Confucian Daotong, asked whether any country, especially Korea, wasn’t
Zhongguo ― in its own perspective (Huang 2014).4 Interestingly, Confuciansin both Korea and Japan were utterly shocked when the celestial Chinese
Ming Empire fell to the “barbarian” Manchus in 1644; that is, they wondered
how grand old “Zhongguo” could so easily fall while at the same time they
took considerable pride in their own Confucian cultivation, culture, and relative stability.
What was the genesis of this new Confucian Dao? Initially, during theTang dynasty, Han Yu (768 824) and Li Ao (fl. 798) circulated the idea of an“orthodox succession” of early Confucianism. In this effort, they elevated theposition of the Mencius, the Great Learning, the Mean, and the Book of Change,and demoted that of the Xunzi (fl. 298 238 B.C.E.), Yang Xiong (53 B.C.E.
18 C.E.) and the Han Confucians in the Confucian pantheon. They presented
the “orthodox succession” as running from the early sage kings throughConfucius (551 479 B.C.E.) and Mencius (371 289 B.C.E.). As Qian Mu
points out, Han Yu emulated the writing style of the pre-Qin Confucian
masters, especially Mencius, and thus differed markedly from the Han
Confucian predilection for plodding commentary and their realist “art ofstatecraft.” Moreover, Han Yu promoted the ancient literary style, whichstressed clarity and basic truth in sharp contrast to the baroque rococo of
Tang literary traditions (Qian 1971, I: 9). Three of Han Yu’s essays wereparticularly influential in breathing fresh life into Confucian values andculture: “Offerings to the Alligators,” a critique of the negative impact of
Buddhism on family relationships and Chinese society, “Inquiry into Human
Nature,” and “Inquiry into the Way” (Chan 1963, 450 456, Hartman 1986).5
Drawing on the Mean and creatively adapting early Confucian concepts, Li
4 This study was inspired by Chun-chieh Huang’s broad, civilizational conception of“East Asian Confucianisms” and his notion of “Confucianism in East Asian
perspective,” stressing indigenous appreciations of Confucianianism.
5 Ironically, this idea of succession was inspired, at least in part, by the Chan Buddhist
notion of succession.

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Ao argued for the deep ontological and practical roots of the Confucian
human nature in “Restoring the Original Nature” (Chan 1963, 456 459).
By and large, Han Yu and Li Ao’s Confucian movement languished in
the Tang and Five Dynasties period; however, their ideas about human nature,
the Way, ancient literary style, Dao succession, etc. were noticed and taken up
in the early Northern Song by thinkers like Ouyang Xiu (1007 1072), Zeng
Gong (1019 1083), and others.6 Ouyang Xiu also wrote a critique of
Buddhism in the spirit of Han Yu titled, “Inquiry into Fundamentals”(Lunben 論本) (Qian 1971, I:19, Eagan 1984). Notably, Northern Song
Confucians took a renewed interest in the pre-Qin masters― after which
Mencius’ standing in the Confucian pantheon rose markedly. Qian Mu
remarks that these Northern Song scholars honored Confucius by elucidating
the Confucian succession in order to “restore stability in the realm and dispel
the pervasive lingering disorder” (Qian 1971, I:14). We needn’t go into
further detail about these scholars at present. Soon after this generation of
innovative Confucian scholars, six seminal thinkers arose who contributed
directly to the formation of the new Confucian Daotong and
Neo-Confucianism: Zhou Dunyi (1017 1073), Shao Yong (1011 1077),
Zhang Zai (1020 1077), Cheng Hao (1032 1085), Cheng Yi (1033 1107), andthe Chengs’ disciples.7 Fundamentally, these thinkers honored Confucius,
Mencius, the Great Learning, and the Mean and grounded and connected theirideals and virtues under several binding concepts, such as the Dao 道 (theWay), tian 天 (heaven, nature), taiji 太極 (supreme polarity), li 理 (principle,
pattern), qi 氣(vital vapor), xing 性 (natural propensities), qing 情 (emotions),
etc. Zhou Dunyi stressed cultivation and integrated all of the constituent
concepts under the dynamic Supreme Polarity (taiji) and brought them into
daily experience with yin, yang, and the five phases: earth wood, fire, water,
metal (Adler 2014).8 A student of the Book of Change, Shao Yong stressed theideals of governance and the probabilities of evolving phenomena(Birdwhistle 1989). Following Mencius, Zhang Zai was alert to the vital
vapor giving rise to sensitivity, vitality, sentience, and order, the cultivation ofwhich he deemed necessary to moral perspicacity and efficacy (Kasoff 1984).
Cheng Hao had a deep personal insight into the single root of the original
mind and the moral compass that it provides for human propensities, particu6 In Tokugawa Japan, scholars like Ito Jinsai and Ogyu Sorai preferred Han Yu’s accountof the Confucian succession as associated with the ancient literary style (Tucker
2002, 2006).
7 For extensive readings with commentaries, see (Chan 1963, 1965), pp.460 571.
8 Zhou Dunyi’s ideas had immediate existential relevance because they apply simultaneously to the cosmos (macrocosm) and to human person (microcosm). Adler’s
account of Zhu Xi’s adoption of Zhou Dunyi’s ideas is compelling (2014).

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larly those of humaneness and appropriateness. And finally, Cheng Yi’s new
formulation that human nature is a manifestation of principle/pattern laid thesolid groundwork for the Confucian naturalized theory of ethical relationshipand sensitive interaction (Graham 1958, esp. 1986).
In the 12th century, Zhu Xi (1130 1200) of the Southern Song redefinedand remolded the new Dao succession by viewing the Confucian teachings ofantiquity through the spectacles of the Northern Song masters, and picking
out the best lines of insight and thought that they had channeled. Notably,
Zhu Xi saw the early sage kings as nurturing and transmitting not only
institutions and regulations but harmony- engendering rites and music. He
saw them as acting on a keen sense of zhong 中 (utmost propriety) throughwhich they were tolerant and always tried to strike a balance and create
harmony among the nobles and their subject people. He saw them as manifesting humaneness and appropriateness and applying the Golden Rule
through their choices and practices of the rites and music, and exercises of
discretion. He saw Confucius as teaching and manifesting the way ofhumaneness and appropriateness in light of Heaven, the Golden Rule, andsensitivity to others in their own perspective (shu 恕). He saw Yan Hui as a
devotee the Way and master of filial piety and ritual propriety. He saw
Confucius’ disciple Zisi as articulating the way of utmost propriety (zhong 中;
the mean) as the path to achieving tranquility, equilibrium, balance, andharmony in the empire, and Zengzi as teaching the purpose and steps ofConfucian education and cultivation in realizing and sustaining the great
Way.9 Zhu Xi saw Mencius as bringing Confucius’ virtues back to their roots
in authentic human emotions, here and now. Indeed, he saw Mencius as
recovering the sensitivity and compassion as well as the great spiritedness
that lay at the heart of Confucius’ Way. Finally, he fused and re-articulated
the contributions of the various Northern Song masters from Zhou Dunyi to
the Cheng brothers and their followers.
Zhu Xi articulated his notion of the new Dao succession several times,
each time with subtle variations.10 In recent decades, scholars have ponderedthese articulations of the Confucian succession (Wilson 1995, Adler 2014),
particularly in regard to Zhu’s selection of which Northern Masters to uphold.
According to my analysis, Zhu Xi was attempting to construct the most well
9 Looking to accounts of zhong in the Mean, some traditional scholars liked tounderstand “Zhongguo” as signifying not “the Middle Kingdom,” but rather the“Kingdom of Tranquility” or “Equilibrium” if not that of “Utmost Propriety.”Stressing the martial (wu 武) over the cultural (wen 文), the PRC has turned decisively away from these “soft, civilized” conceptions and viewed itself as something
like the “Central Super Power” in recent decades.
10 See Wing-tsit Chan’s detailed discussion: “The New Tao-t’ung” (1989: 320 335).

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integrated and compelling system of ideas he could work out, and ultimately
found that he was able to bind the leading ideas of these particular five
Northern Song masters in a tight yet balanced and dynamic system ofcomplementary ideas (Adler 2009, 2014, Thompson 2015).11 For present
purposes, suffice it to say that Zhu Xi constructed a notion of new Dao
succession which bore every appearance of applying to universal humanity
and not just to Han or even just to regional peoples. The early sage kings,
Confucius’ and Mencius’ schools, and the Northern Song masters, all lived in
ethnic Han communities in geographic China. Nonetheless, their ideas bore
lessons which people everywhere could learn and draw inspiration from, andin many instances did. Their “upright” Dao transmission of ideals, cultivations, arts, and associated institutions could be adopted (and adapted) to otherpeoples and cultures not only within geographic China but regionally; on amuch broader, more intellectual level, they could be learned and adapted byintellectuals around the world. In either case, the people and intellectuals
could imagine and possibly realize the living spirit of this refined China/
Zhongguo in their life, cultivation, and relationships as defined in the new
Confucian Dao succession.
While the new Confucian Dao succession perhaps had a civilizing effectin geographic China and regionally, at the same time within China it can besaid to have overly sanctified Han traditions and cast an ice-cold eye on the
traditions and values of other peoples who were equally indigenous togeographic China.12 Moreover, representing agrarian continental traditions,this Dao was conservative, static, inward looking, and distrustful of difference, otherness, and change. This set of limitations came to fore in the early
Ming (1368 1644) when outward looking leaders initiated overland andmaritime contacts and interactions, epitomized in the expeditions of Zheng He(1371 1433) (Dryer 2007), and culminating in the exploits of Zheng
Chenggong (1624 1662) and his lineage (Clements 2014). Unfortunately, themain lesson of Zheng He’s voyages to conservative Confucian officialdom
was that the outer world was inferior to the Middle Kingdom; hence, the court
eunuchs and ministers henceforth kept external contacts, mercantilism, andtrade to a minimum, and cast Zheng Chenggong as a mere sea pirate. Their
11 See the Appendix below.
12 Dieter Kuhn relates, “During the 319 years of Song rule, no ‘China’… existed, butrather a territory divided among different… peoples… and states…. A Song history
is a study in regionalism…. In the view of many Song intellectuals [however], thebarbarians on their borders differed greatly from the Han…. [Importantly, because]they lacked the rituals of status differentiation… between prince and subject, father
and son, man and woman…. They were despised as the cultural inferiors of theHan” (Kuhn 2008, 5).

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view continued to prevail even as the Western powers competed to pry open
the gates of Chinese markets and trade in the 19th century.13
China was ill-prepared to face the onslaught of the Western Powers in the
19th century largely because the inward Chinese thinking in accord with the
new Dao succession had, on one hand, cut China off from the technologicaldevelopments going on in the rest of the world, and gridlocked China inenervating dynastic cycles, which reached a nadir precisely during the hightide of European imperialism in the 19th century, on the other.14 At the sametime, Tokugawa Japan ― which had illustrious academic opponents as well as
supporters of Zhu Xi’s philosophy (Tucker 2002, 2006) ― was very inward
looking and fell to the more outward and forward looking Meiji regime soonafter Admiral Perry landed at Kurihama in 1853. And, Chosen Korea, theHermit Kingdom, remained defensive and inward looking for centuries,
nested uneasily between China and Japan (Chung 1995, Deuchler 1992).15
Nonetheless, the learning and cultivation deployed in mastering the new Dao
succession did pave the way for these lands in the Far East to begin toreceive modern learning and to establish modern institutions and universities
to modernize their infrastructures and economies, and thus improve the13 On the maritime side of Chinese history, see (Dreyer 2007, Li 2010, Lo 2013, Tsai
1996, Zheng 2012). Maritime China developed somewhat independently of theagrarian-based, continental Chinese civilization. Despite that proponents of the new
Confucian Dao succession tended to fiercely oppose China’s maritime and frontier
mercantilism and trade, nowadays the PRC is both 1) embracing the new Confucian
Dao succession as laden with wisdom for harmonizing society and 2) celebrating
the exploits of old maritime China as the PRC, for example, expands its navy andgets involved in the wider world. Regarding frontier mercantilism, China’s interest
in moving Han Chinese to the“autonomous” minority regions of Tibet and Xinjiang,
springs more from the capitalistic imperative to exploit the natural resources andcheap minority labor of those regions than from ethno-nationalist ideology. China’s
crackdowns on those regions are more to protect capital investments and bolster
ethnic Han support than in building inter-ethnic harmony and security. (American
history similarly features the influx of “Americans” into the Dakota territories after
the discovery of silver there and into the Cherokee territory of Oklahoma with freeland and the possibility of oil. Nixon’s FBI persecuted AIM (the American Indian
Movement) to choke off Indian claims to oil, gas, and mineral rights on Indianlands (Matthiessen 1983). Still, this influx was not state-sponsored, as in China’scase.)
14 Liu notes, “When the age of exploration in the West began the expansion of Europe,
the course of world history was altered, but the Chinese continued evolving theirown separate culture in their own separate way. The most characteristic features of
Han Chinese life in the Sung remained recognizable in China until the twentiethcentury” (Liu 1988, 2).
15 Many Korean scholars dedicated themselves to elaborating, refining, and evenperfecting Zhu Xi’s new Confucian Dao succession; see Kalton’s 1988 masterpiece.
See also (Oh 2005).

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people’s lives.
Above it was mentioned that, on an intellectual level, the transmission ofideals, cultivation, and institutions associated with Zhu’s new account of the
Confucian Dao succession could be studied, cultivated, and adopted by intellectuals around the world. In the early to mid-19th century, several prominent
American Transcendentalists celebrated and embraced this body of Confucian
teachings. Henry David Thoreau (1817 1862) not only published selections
from the Four Books in the Transcendentalist literary journal The Dial but
quoted from this text several times in Walden (1849) in “extolling the vitalsphere between heaven and earth, the cultivation of virtue and integrity, andthe possibility of daily self-renewal” (Thompson 1993, 2). Thoreau’s mentor
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 1882) stressed the sociability, ritual civility, andharmony engendering civic virtues of the Confucian Way. Thoreau andEmerson both envisioned a revival of the Celestial Empire (i.e. China/
Zhongguo) in New England as a place of, at once, Emerson’s celebrated
public civility and grace and Thoreau’s sense of at oneness with nature andliving in the present moment (Thompson 1993, Versluis, 1994). Over a
century later, an intellectual-ethical movement called “Boston Confucianism”
arose under the leadership of Tu Wei-ming, formerly of the HarvardYenching Institute, and Robert Neville and John Berthrong of Boston
University. Tu Wei-ming espouses both Thoreau’s sense of at oneness withnature and Emerson’s sense of civility and grace while promoting their idealof the committed public intellectual as society’s conscience.16 In many
publications, Neville and Berthrong elaborate on the Neo-Confucian metaphysics of creativity, natural and moral, as well as its notion of cultivationand ethics as a living philosophy.17 Finally, Roger Ames and David Hall havedevised a unique Hawai’i Confucianism in harness with the American
Pragmatism of William James and John Dewey to inculcate a vital, holistic
conception of nature and society through which to view human life ascontextual, interactive and based on role modeling in relational contexts(Ames 1987, 2001, 2011). Taking their cue from the Confucian Dao succession, they admire, study, and teach the relational connectivity and mutual
responsibility of all people ― across classes, cultures, and ethnicities ― so as
to promote the formation of a richly diverse yet harmonious and intimatelyinteractive humanized world, one which equally respects the sanctity anddiversity of the natural world – from which humanity draws not only suste16 Tu often cites the moral courage of Mencius as public intellectual and voice of
conscience. See Tu (1985, 1993).
17 Regarding Neville, see Neville (2000) and Van Norden (2003); on Berthrong, see(Berthrong 1998, 2001, & 2008).

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nance but ceaseless inspiration.18
The new Confucian Dao and notion of orthodox succession were harshly
criticized in China for nearly a century, starting with the May 4th Movementof 1919 at Peking University, which promoted Science and Democracy, andculminating with Chairman Mao’s radical Marxist call to “Close Confucius’Shop” and the moral and cultural devastation wreaked during the Great
Proletarian Cultural Revolution of 1966 1976. In the 21st century, however,
the rebirth of prosperity and free economic and social life without value
underpinnings in China now leads people to feel an acute sense of meaninglessness, and existential crisis. As the Chinese have financial security andmaterial comfort, they increasingly seek deep and sustainable life values andethical guidance. Consequently, they display renewed interest in the
Confucian Dao succession ― throughout China and across all sectors ofsociety, including officialdom and academia. High schools and universities all
across China now offer “National Studies” programs, which stress Confucian
thought and values. Moreover, expensive private Confucian academies teachtraditional values, cultivations, as embodied in the Six Arts, and respectful
conduct, to children of the affluent and well-heeled. Meanwhile, Taiwan ―where Confucian values have flourished uninterruptedly in family and society
and scholars study the classics and practice the cultivations ― is actively
exporting the learning, values, and virtues of the Confucian Dao succession
back to the leadership, society, and academia in the PRC, particularly
Mencius’ liberal notions of inborn sense of commiseration, heart that cannot
bear to see the suffering of others, virtues of humaneness and appropriateness, inborn knowledge of the good, inborn capacity to carry out the good,and kingly Way, all of which will contribute to the development of a morecompassionate and humane polity and society there.19

18 While seeking to master, express, and communicate this spirit of the “Celestial
Empire,” this spirit of “China/Zhongguo,” Boston Confucianism and Hawai’i
Confucianism alike espouse mainly cultural and socio-ethical concerns and have no
explicit official or political aims or pretenses. In this sense, while they do aspire tohave authentic beneficial intellectual, spiritual, and ethical import and impact, they
aim more at what Chun-chieh Huang calls “Cultural China” than geographic or“political China,” which itself stands in great need of the socio-political wisdom of
the new Confucian Dao succession (Huang 2014).
19 For instance, every summer this IHS hosts a two-day Camp on East Asian
Confucianisms for Young Scholars. Young scholars (i.e., Ph.D. students and candidates) from the PRC are always the most numerous and enthusiastic participants.
This summer, participants also came from Japan and South Korea as well as fromaround Taiwan, stressing such themes as Mencius’ benevolent, kingly way.

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Appendix“Zhu Xi’s Daotong” by Joseph Adler

Notes on the Reconstruction of Zhou Dunyi’s Library in Jiangzhou(Jiangzhou chongjian Lianxi xiansheng shutang ji 江州重建濂溪先生書堂記)1

Zhu Xi 朱熹 (1177) Translated by Joseph A. Adler © 2009[This piece is Zhu Xi’s fullest discussion of what he would later call the
daotong 道統, or “succession of the Way” – the series of sages, beginningwith the primordial sage Fuxi, who transmitted the Confucian dao 道 – and inparticular the problematic gap between Mencius (4th c. BCE) and theNorthern Song period, when Zhou Dunyi 周敦頤 (1017 1073) recovered it.
Since the Chan school of Buddhism claimed to have a direct, unbroken lineof succession – from the Buddha through Bodhidharma and the Sixth
Patriarch to the current lineage holders – Zhu was particularly concerned withthe metaphysical status of the dao during the periods when it was not beingtaught and how it could be revived after such gaps, as this question underlay
the claim that Song Confucians had real access to the dao. His explanation of
those gaps is the same as his explanation of the problem of evil in individuals: the clouding effect of the mind’s qi 氣, which obscures the innate moral
nature (xing 性).] The dao has never been lost from the world. It is only thatits being entrusted to man [to carry out] has sometimes been interrupted andsometimes been continuous. Thus, in its practice in the world there have been
periods of clarity and periods of obscurity. This is all the result of the Decreeof Heaven (tianming 天命); it is not something that the power of human
wisdom is capable of achieving. Of the variety of individual things produced
and supported by the two [modes of] qi [i.e. yin 陰 and yang 陽] and the Five
Phases (wuxing 五行), in their mixed and confused rising and falling andcoming and going throughout Heaven above and earth below, not one lacks adefinite pattern/order/principle (li 理). The greatest of these are the humannature [consisting] of humanity, rightness, propriety and wisdom,2 and the1 Hui’an xiansheng Zhu wengong wenji wenji 晦庵先生朱文公文集 (Zhu Xi’s Collected
Papers) 78, in Zhu Jieren, Yan Zuozhi, Liu Yongxiang, eds., Zhuzi quanshu 朱子全
書 (Zhu Xi’s Complete Works), 27 vols. (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chuban she,2002), vol.24: 3739 3741. I have omitted two short sections in which Zhu Xi
discusses the local officials responsible for the rebuilding of the library.
2 The “four constant virutes” in Mencius 2A.6 and 6A.6.

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human relations of master and servant, father and son, brothers, husband andwife, and friends.3 2This being the case, the cyclical flow [of the dao] is completely full,leaving out nothing.4 So how can we think that the [alternation of] order anddisorder from ancient times to the present is [evidence for] the existence andperishing [of the dao]?5 In the circulation of qi there are inequalities [in terms]of homogeneity and heterogeneity and discontinuity and unity, so in thehuman endowment there are differences [in terms] of purity and turbidity,
dullness and clarity. Therefore, how the dao is entrusted to man and carriedout in the world is only due to what Heaven confers and humans receive.6 It
is certainly not due to the clever and presumptious individual’s ability to
speculate and conjecture. [For example] the River Chart (Hetu 河圖) came out[of the Yellow River] and the Eight Trigrams were drawn; the Luo Writing(Luoshu 洛書) appeared and the Nine Regions were arranged.7 Confucius, inreference to the flourishing and decline of “this culture” (siwen 斯文),8 never
3 The “five human relations,” in Mencius 3A.4 and Zhongyong 20.
4 That is, the dao is the dynamic flow of cosmic order (li), which is immanent throughout
the natural and social worlds.
5 Although social and political order can break down, it is nevertheless the case thatthings happen for reasons. Thus the presence of disorder in society does not meanthat the natural and moral order (li) has ceased to exist.
6 This is the answer to the question of the dao’s metaphysical status during periods
when it is not being taught: it still resides in human nature, although that nature is
obscured by the impure physical natures (qizhi zhi xing 氣質之性) with which people
are endowed at birth. The variations in physical endowments are due to factors
beyond human control – i.e. they are due to Heaven – such as the position of thefive planets (see below).
7 The River Chart was a numerological diagram that appeared to the mythical sage
Fuxi on the back of a dragon horse coming out of the Yellow River, and was usedby him in his creation of the hexagrams and divination system of the Zhou Yi 周易(or Yijing 易經, Scripture of Change). The Luo Writing was a similar drawing thatappeared to the mythical Yu the Great (founder of the Xia dynasty) on the shell ofa spirit-tortoise as he was controlling the flooding of the Yellow River, and figured
into his laying out of the Nine Regions of ancient China. See Chu Hsi [Zhu Xi],
Introduction to the Study of the Classic of Change (I-hsüeh ch’i-meng), trans. Joseph
A. Adler (Provo: Global Scholarly Publications, 2002): 1 14. Zhu Xi’s point here isthat Fuxi and Yu were able to do what they did only because they happened to be
exposed to the River Chart and Luo Writing. Similarly, the chance allotment of qi ineach person’s physical endowment determines “how the dao is entrusted to man andcarried out in the world.” Factors such as these, occurring either by chance or forunknowable reasons – i.e. factors beyond human control – are typically attributed to
Heaven.
8 See Analects 9:5: “If Heaven intended this culture to perish, it would not have given
it to those of us who live after King Wen’s death” (trans. Edward Slingerland,
Confucius: Analects, with Selections from Traditional Commentaries [Indianapolis:
Hackett, 2003]: 87). 3

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failed to attribute it to Heaven. It is clear that the Sage did not deceive us inregard to this.
As for Teacher [Zhou] Lianxi, if he did not receive the propagation ofthis dao conferred by Heaven, how did he continue it so easily after such along interruption, and bring it to light so abruptly after such extreme darkness?
With the decline of the Zhou and the death of Mencius, the propagationof this dao was not continued; even less so from the Qin through the Han, Jin,
Sui and Tang, until our Song. Then the Sage-ancestor [Taizu, founding fatherof the Song] received the Mandate. The Five Planets were in conjunction,
marking a turning point in culture. Only then did the heterogeneous qi
homogenize and the divided [qi] coalesce; a clear and bright endowment wasreceived in its entirety by one man, and the Teacher [Zhou Dunyi] appeared.
Without following a teacher (shifu 師傅), he silently registered the substanceof the Way, constructed the Diagram and attached a text to it,9 to give anultimate foundation to the essentials.
At that time, the Chengs10 were among those who saw and knew him,
and they subsequently expanded and clarified his teaching. They caused thesubtlety of Heavenly principle, the manifest human relations, the multitude ofphenomenal things, and the mystery of ghosts and spirits all to be fully
joined together into one [system]. Thus the tradition of the Duke of Zhou,
Confucius, and Mencius was brilliantly illuminated again in that era. There
were determined scholars who managed to study it and respectfully practiceit, without losing its correctness. They were like those who appeared before
the Three Dynasties. Ah! Such grandeur! Were it not for what Heaven
conferred, how could we be part of this?
The Teacher was from the Zhou family. His taboo name was Dunyi,11 his
style name was Maoshu; his family was from Chongling.12 He retired to thefoot of Lushan, naming the river there after one from his old village, Lianxi(Lian Stream), took that as his honorific name, and built his library on its
bank. His grave is now ten li south, in Jiuzhiang district, and has been 4
overgrown for years. ... I have been fortunate to have heard the teachings of
the Chengs, and consequently read the Teachers writings and saw how he was
9 The “Explanation of the Supreme Polarity Diagram.” See Wm. Theodore de Baryand Irene Bloom, eds., Sources of Chinese Tradition, 2nd ed. (New York: Columbia
University Press, 1999), vol.1: 672 676.
10 Cheng Hao 程顥 (1032 1085) and Cheng Yi 程頤 (1033 1107).
11 He changed his given name, Dunshi 敦實, to Dunyi in 1063 to avoid the personalname of the new emperor, Zhao Zongshi 趙宗實 (Emperor Yingzong), even though
Zhao Zongshi had changed his name to Zhao Shu 曙in 1062.
12 In modern Hubei province.

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as a man. ... I have inquired into how the Teacher received the Way fromheaven and transmitted it to others, in order to likewise transmit the events of
his life, to enable later gentlemen to contemplate, examine, and promote it. ...