Output:
Title : A Short History of Chinese Philosophy
Author: Yu-lan Fung [Yu-lan Fung],chenjin5.com
ASIN  : a0bbd9f2-6219-4419-91ae-c39c22423e32

AUTHOR'S PREFACE

A SHORT history of any subject should not simply be an abridgement of a larger one. It should be a picture complete in itself, rather than a mere inventory of names and "isms.' To achieve this, the author should, as a Chinese expression says, "have the whole history in his mind. Only then can he give the reader an adequate and well-rounded account within his chosen limited scope.


Output:
According to Chinese historiography, a good historian must have wide scholarship in order to master all his materials, sound judgment to make proper selection of them, and literary talent in order to tell his story in an interesting way. In writing a short history, intended for a general public, the author certainly has less chance to display his scholarship, but he needs more selective judgment and literary talent than he would for writing a longer and strictly scholarly work.

In preparing this work, I have tried to use my best judgment in selecting what I consider important and relevant from materials which I have mastered. I was very fortunate, however, to have as editor Dr. Derk Bodde, who has used his literary talent to make the style of the book interesting, readable, and comprehensible to the Western reader. He has also made suggestions regarding the selection and arrangement of the material.


Output:
Being a short history, this book serves as no more than an introduction to the study of Chinese philosophy. If the reader wishes to know more about the subject, I would refer him to my larger work, A History of Chinese Philosophy.
 The first volume of this has been translated by Dr.

Bodde, and he is now translating the second one; also to my more recent work, The Spirit of
 Chinese Philosophy,
 translated by Mr. E. R. Hughes of Oxford University. Both works are mentioned in the bibliography compiled by Dr. Bodde at the end of the present book.

Acknowledgements are due to both Dr. Bodde and Mr.Hughes, from whose books I have borrowed some translations of the Chinese texts appearing herein.


Output:
In publishing this book, I welcome the opportunity of expressing my thanks to the Rockefeller Foundation for the grant which made it possible for me to come from China to the University of Pennsylvania as Visiting Professor during the year 1946-47, and which resulted in the writing of this book. Also, I wish to thank my colleagues and students in the Department of Oriental Studies for their cooperation and encouragement, and especially Dr. Bodde, Associate Professor of Chinese. I am likewise grateful to Dr. A. W. Hummel,Chief of the Asiatic Division, Library of Congress, for his encouragement and help in making arrangements for the publication of the book.

FUNC.YU-LAN

 June, 1947

 University of Pennsylvania

O04

 CHAPTER 1

 PIRIT OF CHINESE PHILOSOPHY


Output:
1 HE place which philosophy has occupied in Chinese civilization has been comparable to that of religion in other civilizations. In China, philosophy has been every educated person s concern. In the old days, if a man were educated at all, the first education he received was in philosophy. When children went to school, the Four Books,
 which consist of the Confucian Analects,
 the Book of Mencius,
 the Great Learning,
 and the Doctrine of the Mean,
 were the first ones they were taught to read. The Four
 Books
 were the most important texts of Neo -Confucianist philosophy. Sometimes when the children were just begining to learn the characters, they were given a sort of textbook to read. This was known as the Three Characters Classic,


Output: and was so called because each sentence in the book consisted of three characters arranged so that when recited they produced a rhythmic effect, and thus helped the children to memorize them more easily. This book was in reality a primer, and the very first statement in it is that "the nature of man is originally good." This is one of the fundamental ideas of Mencius'


Output:
philosophy.

 Place of Philosophy in Chinese Civilization

To the Westerner, who sees that the life of the Chinese people is permeated with Confucianism, it appears that Confucianism is a religion. As a matter of fact, however, Confucianism is no more a religion than, say, Platonism or Aristotelianism. It is true that the Four Books
 have been the Bible of the Chinese people, but in the Four Books
 there is no story of creation, and no mention of a heaven or hell.

Of course, the terms philosophy and religion are both ambiguous, Philosophy and religion may have entirely different meanings for different people. When men talk about philosophy or religion, they may have quite different ideas in their minds concerning them. For my part, what I call philosophy is systematic, reflective thinking on life. Every man, who has not yet died, is in life. But there are not many who think reflectively on life, and still fewer

OO2 THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILOSOPHY


Output:
OO2 THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILOSOPHY

whose reflective thinking is systematic. A philosopher must philosophize; that is to say, he must think reflectively on life, and then express his thoughts systematically.

This kind of thinking is called reflective because it takes life as its object. The theory of life, the theory of the universe, and the theory of knowledge all emerge from this type of thinking. The theory of the universe arises because the universe is the background of life—the stage on which the drama of life takes place. The theory of knowledge emerges because thinking is itself knowledge. According to some philosophers of the West, in order to think, we must first find out what we can think; that is to say, before we start to think about life, we must first think our thinking.


Output:
Such theories are all the products of reflective thinking. The very concept of life, the very concept of the universe, and the very concept of knowledge are also the products of reflective thinking. No matter whether we think about life or whether we talk about it, we are all in the midst of it. And no matter whether we think or speak about the universe, we are all a part of it. Now, what the philosophers call the universe is not the same as what the physicists have in mind when they refer to it. What the philosophers call the universe is the totality of all that is.
 It is equivalent to what the ancient Chinese philosopher, Hui Shih, called "The Great One," which is defined as that which has nothing beyond. So everyone and everything must be considered part of the universe. When one thinks about the universe, one is thinking reflectively.


Output:
When we think about knowledge or speak about knowledge, this thinking and speaking are themselves knowledge. To use an expression of Aristotle, it is "thinking on thinking"; and this is reflective thinking. Here is the vicious circle which those philosophers follow who insist that before we think we must first think about our thinking; just as if we had another faculty with which we could think about thinking! As a matter of fact, the faculty with which we think about thinking is the very same faculty with which we think. If we are skeptical about the capacity of our thinking in regard to life and the universe, we have the same reason to be skeptical about the capacity of our thinking in regard to thinking.

Religion also has something to do with life. In the heart of every great religion there is a philosophy.

In fact, every great religion is a philosophy with a certain amount of superstructure, which consists of superstitions, dogmas, rituals, and institutions. This is what 1 call religion.


Output:
If one understands the term religion in this sense, which does not really differ very much from common usage, one sees that Confucianism cannot be considered a religion. People have been accustomed to say that there were three religions in China: Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. But Confucianism, as we have seen, is not a religion. As to Taoism, there is a distinction between Taoism as a philosophy, which is called Too chia
 (the Taoist school), and the Taoist religion {Too chiao).
 Their teachings are not only dif—

OP4 THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILOSOPHY

God is really the universe. Strictly speaking, the love of God in Christianity is not really super-moral.


Output:
This is because God, in Christianity, is a personality, and consequently the love of God by man is comparable to the love of a father by his son, which is a moral value. Therefore, the love of God in Christianity is open to question as a super-moral value. It is a quasi super-moral value, while the love of God in the philosophy of Spinoza is a real super-moral value.

To answer the above queslions, I would say that the craving for something beyond the present actual world is one of the innate desires of mankind, and the Chinese people are no exception to this rule. They have not had much concern with religion because they have had so much concern with philosophy. They are not religious because they are philosophical. In philosophy they satisfy their craving for what is beyond the present actual world. In philosophy also they have the super-moral values expressed and appreciated, and in living according to philosophy these super-moral values are experienced.


Output:
According to the tradition of Chinese philosophy, its function is not the increase of positive knowledge (by positive knowledge I mean information regarding matters of fact), but the elevation of the mind—a reaching out for what is beyond the present actual world, and for the values that are higher than the moral ones. It was said by the Lao-tzu:
 To work on learning is to increase day by day; to work on Tao
 (the Way, the Truth) is to decrease day by day." (See ch. 48.) I am not concerned with the difference between increasing and decreasing, nor do I quite agree with this saying of Lao-tzu.
 I quote it only to show that in the tradition of Chinese philosophy there is a distinction between working on learning and working on Tao
 (the Way). The purpose of the former is what I call the increase of positive knowledge, that of the latter is the elevation of the mind. Philosophy belongs to the latter category.


Output:
The view that the function of philosophy, especially metaphysics, is not the increase of positive knowledge, is expounded by the Viennese school in contemporary Western philosophy, though from a different angle and for a different purpose. I do not agree with this school that the function of philosophy is only the clarification of ideas, and that the nature of metaphysics is only a lyric of concepts.

Nevertheless, in their arguments one can see quite clearly that philosophy, especially metaphysics, would become nonsense if it did attempt to give information regarding matters of fact.


Output:
Religion does give information in regard to matters of fact. But the information given by religion is not in harmony with that given by science. So in the West there has been the conflict between religion and science. Where science advances, religion retreats; and the authority of religion recedes before the advancement of science. The traditionalists regretted this fact and pitied the people who had become irreligious, considering them as having degenerated. They ought indeed to be pitied, if, besides religion, they had no

OO8 THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILOSOPHY


Output: other access to the higher values. When people get rid of religion and have no substitute, they also lose the higher values. They have to confine themselves to mundane affairs and have nothing to do with the spiritual ones. Fortunately, however, besides religion there is philosophy,which provides man with an access to the higher values—an access which is more direct than that provided by religion, because in philosophy, in order to be acquainted with the higher values, man need not take the roundabout way provided by prayers and rituals. The higher values with which man has become acquainted through philosophy are even purer than those acquired through religion, because they are not mixed with imagination and superstition. In the world of the future, man will have philosophy in the place of religion. This is consistent with Chinese tradition. It is not necessary that man should be religious, but it is necessary that he should be philosophical. When he is philosophical, he has the very best of the blessings


Output: he has the very best of the blessings of religion.


Output:
Problem and Spirit of Chinese Philosophy

The above is a general discussion of the nature and function of philosophy. In the following remarks I shall speak more specifically about Chinese philosophy. There is a main current in the history of Chinese philosophy, which may be called the spirit of Chinese philosophy. In order to understand this spirit, we must first make clear the problem that most Chinese philosophers have tried to solve.

There are all kinds and conditions of men. With regard to any one of these kinds, there is the highest form of achievement of which any one kind of man is capable. For instance, there are the men engaged in practical politics. The highest form of achievement in that class of men is that of the great statesman.


Output: So also in the field of art, the highest form of achievement of which artists are capable is that of the great artist. Although there are these different classes of men, yet all of them are men. What is the highest form of achievement of which a man as a man is capable? According to the Chinese philosophers, it is nothing less than being a sage, and the highest achievement of a sage is the identification of the individual with the universe. The problem is, if men want to achieve this identification, do they necessarily have to abandon society or even to negate life?


Output:
According to some philosophers, this is necessary. The Buddha said that life itself is the root and fountainhead of the misery of life. Likewise, Plato said that the body is the prison of the soul. And some of the Taoists said that life is an excrescence, a tumor, and death is to be taken as the breaking of the tumor. All these ideas represent a view which entails separation from what may be called the entangling net of the matter-corrupted world; and therefore, if the highest achievement of a sage is to be realized, the sage has to abandon society and even life itself. Only thus can the final liberation be attained. This kind of philosophy is what is generally known as "other-OIO THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILOSOPHY

worldly philosophy.'


Output:
worldly philosophy.'

There is another kind of philosophy which emphasizes what is in society, such as human relations and human affairs. This kind of philosophy speaks only about moral values, and is unable to or does not wish to speak of the super-moral ones. This kind of philosophy is generally described as "this— worldly. From the point of view of a this—worldly philosophy, an other — world philosophy is too idealistic, is of no practical use and is negative. From the point of view of an other-worldly philosophy, a thisworld philosophy is too realistic, too superficial. It may be positive, but it is like the quick walking of a man who has taken the wrong road: the more quickly he walks the further he goes astray.


Output:
There are many people who say that Chinese philosophy is a thisworld philosophy. It is difficult to state that these people are entirely right or entirely wrong. Taking a merely superficial view, people who hold this opinion cannot be said to be wrong, because according to their view, Chinese philosophy, regardless of its different schools of thought, is directly or indirectly concerned with government and ethics. On the surface, therefore, it is concerned chiefly with society, and not with the universe; with the daily functions of human relations, not hell and heaven; with man's present life, but not his life in a world to come. When he was once asked by a disciple about the meaning of death, Confucius replied:"Not yet understanding life, how can you understand death? (Analects,
 XI, II.) And Mencius said: The sage is the acme of human relations" (Mencius,


Output: IVa, 2.), which, taken literally, means that the sage is the morally perfect man in society. From a surface point of view, with the ideal man being of this world, it seems that what Chinese philosophy calls a sage is a person of a very different order from the Buddha of Buddhism and the saints of the Christian religion. Superficially, this would seem to be especially true of the Confucian sage. That is why, in ancient times, Confucius and the Confucianists were so greatly ridiculed by the Taoists.


Output:
This, however, is only a surface view of the matter. Chinese philosophy cannot be understood by oversimplification of this kind. So far as the main tenet of its tradition is concerned, if we understand it aright, it cannot be said to be wholly thisworldly, just as, of course, it cannot be said to be wholly other-worldly. Tt is both of this world and of the other world. Speaking about the Neo-Confucianism of the Sung Dynasty, one philosopher described it this way: It is not divorced from daily ordinary activities, yet it goes straight to what antedated Heaven." This is what Chinese philosophy has striven for. Having this kind of spirit, it is at one and the same time both extremely idealistic and extremely realistic, and very practical, though not in a superficial way.

This-worldliness and other-worldliness stand in contrast to each other as do realism and idealism. The task of Chinese philosophy is to accomplish a synthesis out of these antitheses. That does not mean that they are to be

Oil


Output:
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THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILOSOPHY

abolished. They are still there, but they have been made into a synthetic whole. How can this be done?

This is the problem which Chinese philosophy attempts to solve.


Output: According to Chinese philosophy, the man who accomplishes this synthesis, not only in theory but also in deed, is the sage. He is both thisworldly and other-worldly. The spiritual achievement of the Chinese sage corresponds to the saint s achievement in Buddhism, and in Western religion. But the Chinese sage is not one who does not concern himself with the business of the world. His character is described as one of sageliness within and kingliness without.' That is to say, in his inner sageliness, he accomplishes spiritual cultivation; in his kingliness without, he functions in society. It is not necessary that the sage should be the actual head of the government in his society. From the standpoint of practical politics, for the most part, the sage certainly has no chance of being the head of the state. The saying "sageliness within and kingliness without" means only that he who has the noblest spirit should, theoretically, be king. As to whether he actually has or has not the chance of being king, that is


Output: has or has not the chance of being king, that is immaterial.


Output:
Since the character of the sage is, according to Chinese tradition, one of sageliness within and kingliness without, the task of philosophy is to enable man to develop this kind of character. Therefore, what philosophy discusses is what the Chinese philosophers describe as the Tao
 (Way, or basic principles) of sageliness within and kingliness without.


Output: This sounds like the Platonic theory of the philosopher-king. According to Plato, in an ideal state, the philosopher should be the king or the king should be a philosopher; and in order to become a philosopher, a man must undergo a long period of philosophical training before his mind can be converted from the world of changing things to the world of eternal ideas. Thus according to Plato, as according to the Chinese philosophers, the task of philosophy is to enable man to have the character of sageliness within and kingliness without. But according to Plato, when a philosopher becomes a king, he does so against his will—in other words, it is something forced on him, and entails a great sacrifice on his part. This is what was also held by the ancient Taoists. There is the story of a sage who, being asked by the people of a certain state to become their king, escaped and hid himself in a mountain cave.


Output:
But the people found the cave, smoked him out and compelled him to assume the difficult task. (Lii shih
 Ch'un-ch'iu,
 I, l.) This is one similarity between Plato and the ancient Taoists, and it also shows the character of other-worldliness in Taoist philosophy. Following the main tradition of Chinese philosophy, the Neo—Taoist, Kuo Hsiang of the third century A.D., revised this point.

According to Confucianism, the daily task of dealing with social affairs in human relations is not something alien to the sage. Carrying on this task is the very essence of the development of the perfection of his personality. He performs it not only as a citizen of society, but also as a citizen of the uni—

O14 THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILOSOPHY


Output:
O14 THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILOSOPHY

verse, t ien min,
 as Mencius called it. He must be conscious of his being a citizen of the universe, otherwise his deeds would not have super—moral value. If he had the chance to become a king he would gladly serve the people, thus performing his duty both as a citizen of society, and as a citizen of the universe.

Since what is discussed in philosophy is the Tao
 (Way) of sageliness within and kingliness without, it follows that philosophy must be inseparable from political thought. Regardless of the differences between the schools of Chinese philosophy, the philosophy of every school represents, at the same time, its political thought. This does not mean that in the various schools of philosophy there are no metaphysics, no ethics, no logic. It means only that all these factors are connected with political thought in one way or another, just as Plato s Republic
 represents his whole philosophy and at the same time is his political thought.


Output: For instance, the School of Names was known to indulge in such arguments as a white horse is nol a horse, which seems to have very little connection with politics. Yet the leader of this school, Kung -sun Lung, wished to extend this kind of argument to rectify the relationship between names and facts in order to transform the world. We have seen in our world today how every statesman says his country wants only peace, but in fact, when he is talking about peace, he is often preparing for war. Here, then, there is a wrong relationship between names and facts. According to Kung-sun Lung, this kind of wrong relationship should be rectified. This is really the first step towards the transformation of the world.


Output:
Since the subject matter of philosophy is the Tao of sageliness within and kingliness without, the study of philosophy is not simply an attempt to acquire this kind of knowledge, but is also an attempt to develop this kind of character. Philosophy is not simply something to be known,
 but is also something to be experienced.


Output: It is not simply a sort of intellectual game, but something far more serious. As my colleague, Professor Y. L. Chin, has pointed out in an unpublished manuscript: "Chinese philosophers were all of them different grades of Socrates. This was so because ethics, politics, reflective thinking, and knowledge were unified in the philosopher; in him, knowledge and virtue were one and inseparable. His philosophy required that he live it; he was himself its vehicle. To live in accordance with his philosophical convictions was part of his philosophy. It was his business to school himself continually and persistently to that pure experience in which selfishness and egocentricity were transcended, so that he would be one with the universe. Obviously this process of schooling could not be stopped, for stopping it would mean llic emergence of his ego and the loss of his universe. Hence cognitively he was eternally groping, and conatively he was eternally behaving or trying to behave.


Output:
Since these could not be separated, in him there was the synthesis of the philosopher in the original sense of that term. Like Socrates, he did not keep office hours with his philosophy. Neither was he a Ol6 THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILOSOPHY

dusty, musty philosopher, closeted in his study, sitting in a chair on the periphery of life. With him, philosophy was hardly ever merely a pattern of ideas exhibited for human understanding, but was a system of precepts internal to the conduct of the philosopher; and in extreme cases his philosophy might even be said to be his biography."

 The Way in which Chinese Philosophers Expressed Themselves

A Western student beginning the study of Chinese philosophy is instantly confronted with two obstacles. One, of course, is the language barrier; the other is the peculiar way in which the Chinese philosophers have expressed themselves. I will speak about the latter first.


Output:
When one begins to read Chinese philosophical works, the first impression one gets is perhaps the briefness and disconnectedness of the sayings and writings of their authors. Open the Confucian
 Analects
 and you will see that each paragraph consists of only a few words, and there is hardly any connection between one paragraph and the next. Open a book containing the philosophy of Lao Tzu, and you will find that the whole book consists of about five thousand words—no longer than a magazine article; yet in it one will find the whole of his philosophy. A student accustomed to elaborate reasoning and detailed argument would be at a loss to understand what these Chinese philosophers were saying.

He would be inclined to think that there was disconnectedness in the thought itself. If this were so, ihere would be no Chinese philosophy. For disconnected thought is hardly worthy of the name of philosophy.


Output: It may be said that the apparent disconnectedness of the sayings and writings of the Chinese philosophers is due to the fact that ihese sayings and writings are not formal philosophical works.


Output:
According to Chinese tradition, the study of philosophy is not a profession. Everyone should study philosophy just as in the West every one should go to church. The purpose of the study of philosophy is to enable a man, as a man,
 to be a man, not some particular kind of man. Other studies—not the study of philosophy—enable a man to be some special kind of man. So there were no professional philosophers; and non-professional philosophers did not have to produce formal philosophical writings. In China, there were far more philosophers who produced no formal philosophical writings than those who did. If one wishes to study the philosophy of these men, one has to go to the records of their sayings or the letters they wrote to disciples and friends. These letters did not belong to just one period in the life of the person who wrote them, nor were the records written only by a single person. Disconnectedness or even inconsistency between them is, therefore, to be expected.


Output:
The foregoing may explain why the writings and saying of some philosophers are disconnected; but it does not explain why they are brief. In some philosophic writings, such as those of Mencius and Hstin Tzu, one does find

Ol8 TIIE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILOSOPHY

systematic reasoning and arguments. But in comparison with the philosophic writings of the West, they are still not articulate enough. The fact is that Chinese philosophers were accustomed to express themselves in the form of aphorisms, apothegms, or allusions, and illustrations. The whole book of Lao-tzu
 consists of aphorisms, and most of the chapters of the Chuang-tzu
 are full of allusions and illustrations. This is very obvious. But even in writings such as those of Mencius and Hsiin Tzu, mentioned above, when compared with the philosophical writings of the West, there are still too many aphorisms, allusions, and illustrations. Aphorisms must be very brief; allusions and illustrations must be disconnected.


Output: Aphorisms, allusions, and illustrations are thus not articulate enough. Their insufficiency in articulateness is compensated for, however, by their suggestiveness. Articulateness and suggestiveness are, of course, incompatible. The more an expression is articulate, the less it is suggestive—just as ihe more an expression is prosaic, the less it is poetic. The sayings and writings of the Chinese philosophers are so inarticulate that their suggestiveness is almost boundless.


Output: Suggestiveness, not articulateness, is the ideal of all Chinese art, whether it be poetry, painting, or anything else. In poetry, what the poet intends to communicate is often not what is directly said in the poetry, but what is not said in it. According to Chinese literary tradition, in good poetry the number of words is limited, but the ideas it suggests are limitless. So an intelligent reader of poetry reads what is outside the poem; and a good reader of books reads what is between the lines. Such is the ideal of Chinese art, and this ideal is reflected in the way in which Chinese philosophers have expressed themselves.


Output:
The ideal of Chinese art is not without its philosophical background. In the twenty-sixth chapter of the Chuang-tzu
 it is said: "A basket-trap is for catching fish, but when one has got the fish, one need think no more about the basket. A foot—trap is for catching hares; but when one has got the hare, one need think no more about the trap. Words are for holding ideas, but when one has got the idea, one need no longer think about the words. If only I could find someone who had stopped thinking about words and could have him with me to talk to! " To talk with someone who has stopped thinking about words is not to talk with words. In the Chuang-tzu
 the statement is made that two sages met without speaking a single word, because "when their eyes met, the Too
 was there. According to Taoism, the Too
 (the Way) cannot be told, but only suggested. So when words are used, it is the sugges— tiveness of the words, and not their fixed denotations or connotations, that reveals the Too.


Output: Words are something that should be forgotten when they have achieved their purpose. Why should we trouble ourselves with them any more than is necessary? This is true of the words and rhymes in poetry, and the lines and colors in painting.


Output: During the third and fourth centuries A.D., the most influential philosophy 0 2 0 THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILOSOPHY


Output:
was the Neo —Taoist School, which was known in Chinese history as the hsiian hstteh
 (the dark or mystic learning). At that time there was a book entitled Shih-shuo Hsin-yil,


Output: which is a record of the clever sayings and romantic activities of the famous men of the age. Most of the sayings are very brief, some consisting of only a few words. It is stated in that book (ch. 4) that a very high official once asked a philosopher (the high official was himself a philosopher), what was the difference and similarity between Lao-Chuang (i.e., Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu) and Confucius. The philosopher answered: "Are they not the same?" The high official was very much pleased with this answer, and instantly appointed the philosopher as his secretary. Since the answer consists of only three words in the Chinese language, this philosopher has been known as the three-word secretary. He could not say that Lao-Chuang and Confucius had nothing in common, nor could he say that they had everything in common. So he put his answer in the form of a question, which was really a good answer.


Output:
The brief sayings in the Confucian Analects
 and in the philosophy of the Lao-tzu
 are not simply conclusions from certain premises which have been lost. They are aphorisms full of suggestiveness. It is the suggestiveness that is attractive. One may gather together all the ideas one finds in the Lao-tzu
 and write them out in a new book consisting of fifty thousand or even five hundred thousand words. No matter how well this is done, however, it is just a new book. It may be read side by side with the original Lao-tzu,
 and may help people a great deal to understand the original, but it can never be a substitute for the original.

Kuo Hsiang, to whom I have already referred, was one of the great commentators on Chuang Tzu.


Output:
His commentary was itself a classic of Taoist literature. He turned the allusions and metaphors of Chuang Tzu into a form of reasoning and argument, and translated his poems into prose of his own. His writing is much more articulate than that of Chuang Tzu. But between the suggestiveness of Chuang Tzu's original and the articulateness of Kuo Hsiang s commentary, people may still ask: Which is better? A monk of the Buddhist Ch an or Zen school of a later period once said: Everyone says that it was Kuo Hsiang who wrote a commentary on Chuang Tzu; I would say it was Chuang Tzu who wrote a commentary on Kuo Hsiang.

 The Language Barrier

It is true of all philosophical writings that it is difficult for one to have a complete understanding and full appreciation of them if one cannot read them in the original. This is due to the language barrier.


Output:
Because of the suggestive character of Chinese philosophical writings, the language barrier becomes even more formidable. The suggestiveness of the sayings and writings of the Chinese philosophers is something that can hardly be translated. When one reads them in translation, one misses the suggestiveness; and this

O22. THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILOSOPHY

means that one misses a great deal.

A translation, after all, is only an interpretation. When one translates a sentence from, say, the Lao-tzu,
 one gives one's own interpretation of its meaning. But the translation may convey only one idea, while as a matter of fact, the original may contain many other ideas besides the one given by the translator. The original is suggestive, but the translation is not, and cannot be. So it loses much of the richness inherent in the original.


Output:
There have been many translations of the Lao -tzu
 and the Confucian Analects.
 Each translator has considered the translations of others unsatisfactory. But no matter how well a translation is done, it is bound to be poorer than the original. It needs a combination of all the translations already-made and many others not yet made, to reveal the richness of the Lao-tzu
 and the Confucian Analects
 in their original form.

Kumarajiva, of the fifth century A.D., one of the greatest translators of the Buddhist texts into Chinese, said that the work of translation is just like chewing food that is to be fed to others. If one cannot chew the food oneself, one has to be given food that has already been chewed. After such an operation, however, the food is bound to be poorer in taste and flavor than the original.

02.4

THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILOSOPHY

 L

 CHAPTER 2

 KGROUND OF CHINESE PHILOSOPHY


Output:
KGROUND OF CHINESE PHILOSOPHY

IN the last chapter I said that philosophy is systematic reflective thinking on life. In thinking, the thinker is usually conditioned by the surroundings in which he lives. Being in certain surroundings, he feels life in a certain way, and there are therefore in his philosophy certain emphases or omissions, which constitute the characteristics of that philosophy.

This is true of an individual, as it is also true of a people. In this chapter I shall try to say something about the geographic and economic background of the Chinese people in order to show how and why Chinese civilization in general, and Chinese philosophy in particular, are what they are.

 Geographic Background of the Chinese People

In the Confucian Analects
 Confucius said: The wise man delights in water; the good man delights in mountains. The wise move; the good stay still. The wise are happy; the good endure."


Output:
(VI, 2.1.) In reading this saying, I feel there is in it something which suggests a difference between the people of ancient China and those of ancient Greece.

China is a continental country. To the ancient Chinese their land was the world. There are two expressions in the Chinese language which can both he translat ed as the worl d. One is all b eneat h the sk y and the other is all within the four seas. To the people of a ma ritime countiy such a s the Greeks, it would be inconceivable that expressions such as these could be synonymous. Bui that is what happens in the Chinese language, and it is not without reason.


Output:
From the time of Confucius until the end of the last century, no Chinese thinkers had the experience of venturing out upon the high seas. Confucius and Mencius lived not far from the sea, if we think in modern terms of distance, yet in the Analects,
 Confucius mentions the sea only once. He is recorded as saying: If my way is not to prevail, 1 shall get upon a raft and 026 THE BACKGROUND OF HINESE PHILOSOPHY

float out to the sea. He who will go with me will be [Chung] Yu." (V, 6.) Chung Yu was a disciple of Confucius known for his courage and bravery. It is said in the same work that when Chung Yu heard this statement, he was much pleased. Confucius, however, was not so pleased by Chung Yu s overenthusiasm, and remarked: Yu is more brave than myself. I do not know what to do with him."

 (Ibid.)


Output:
(Ibid.)

Mencius s reference to the sea is likewise brief. He who has seen the sea," he says, "finds it difficult to think anything about other waters; and he who has wandered to the gate of the sage, finds it difficult to think anything about the words of others. (Vila, 24-) Mencius is no better than Confucius, who thought only of "floating out to sea. How different were Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, who lived in a maritime country and wandered from island to island!

 Economic Background of the Chinese People


Output:
Economic Background of the Chinese People

The ancient Chinese and Greek philosophers not only lived under different geographic conditions, but different economic ones as well. Since China is a continental country, the Chinese people have to make their living by agriculture. Even today the portion of the Chinese population engaged in farming is estimated at 75 to 80 percent. Tn an agrarian country, land is the primary basis of wealth. Hence, throughout Chinese history, social and economic thinking and policy have centered around the utilization and distribution of land.

Agriculture in such an economy is equally important not only in peacetime but in wartime as well.


Output: During the period of the Warring States (48O-2.2.O B. C), a period in many ways similar to our own, in which China was divided into many feudal kingdoms, every state devoted its greater attention to what were then called the arts of agriculture and war. Finally the state of Ch in, one of the seven leading states of the time, gained supremacy both in agriculture and war, and as a result succeeded in conquering the other states and thus bringing a unification to China for the first time in her history.


Output:
In the social and economic thinking of Chinese philosophers, there is a distinction between what they call "the root and "the branch. "The root" refers to agriculture and the branch to commerce. The reason for this is that agriculture is concerned with production, while commerce is merely concerned with exchange. One must have production before one can have exchange. In an agrarian country, agriculture is the maior form of production, and therefore throughout Chinese history, social and economic theories and policies have all attempted to emphasize the root and slight the branch.

The people who deal with the branch, that is, the merchants, were therefore looked down upon. They were the last and lowest of the four traditional classes of society, the other three being scholars, farmers, and

018

THE BACKGROUND OF HINESE PHILOSOPHY


Output:
018

THE BACKGROUND OF HINESE PHILOSOPHY

artisans. The scholars were usually landlords, and the farmers were the peasants who actually cultivated the land. These were the two honorable professions in China. A family having "a tradition of studying and farming was something of which to be proud.

Although the scholars did not actually cultivate the land themselves, yet since they were usually landlords, their fortunes were tied up with agriculture. A good or bad harvest meant their good or bad fortune, and therefore their reaction to the universe and their outlook on life were essentially those of the farmer. In addition their education gave them the power to express what an actual farmer felt but was incapable of expressing himself. This expression took the form of Chinese philosophy, literature, and art.

 Value of Agriculture


Output:
In the Lil -shih Ch
 ' un -ch' iu,


Output: a compendium of various schools of philosophy written in the third century B.C., there is a chapter titled "The Value of Agriculture." Tn this chapter a contrast is made between the mode of life of people who are engaged in the root occupation—the fanners, and that of those who are engaged in the "branch" occupation—the merchants. The farmers are primitive and simple and therefore always ready to accepi commands. They are childlike and innocent and therefore unselfish. Their material properties are complex and difficult to move, and therefove they do not abandon their country when it is in danger. Merchants, on the other hand, are corrupt and therefore not obedient. They are treacherous and therefore selfish. They have simple properties which are easy to transport, and therefore they usually abandon their country when it is in danger. Hence this chapter asserts that not only is agriculture economically more important than commerce, but the mode of life of the fanners is also superior to that of the


Output: of the fanners is also superior to that of the merchants. Herein lies the value of agriculture. (XXVI, 3-) The author of this chapter found that the mode of life of people is conditioned by their economic background, and his evaluation of agriculture again shows that he was himself conditioned by the economic background of his time.


Output:
In this observation of the Lil-shih Ch' un-ch'iu,
 we find the root and source of the two main trends of Chinese thought, Taoism and Confucianism. They are poles apart from one another, yet they are also the two poles of one and the same axis. They both express, in one way or another, the aspirations and inspirations of the farmer.

 Reversal, Is the Movement of Too

Before considering the difference between these two schools, let us first take up a theory which both of them maintained. This is that both in the

030

THE BACKGROUND OF HINESE PHILOSOPHY

sphere of nature and in that of man, when the development of anything brings it to one


Output:
extreme, a reversal to the other extreme takes place; that is, to borrow an expression from Hegel, everything involves its own negation. This is one of the main theses of Lao Tzu' s philosophy and also that of the Book of Changes
 as interpreted by ihe Confucianists. It was no doubt inspired by the movements of the sun and moon and the succession of the four seasons, to which farmers must pay particular heed in order to carry on their own work. In the Appendices of the Book of Changes,
 it is said: When the cold goes, the warmth comes, and when the warmth comes, the cold goes. (Appendix III.) And again: "When the sun has reached its meridian, it declines, and when the moon has become full, it wanes." (Appendix I.) Such movements are referred to in the Appendices as "returning. Thus Appendix I says: In returning we see the mind of Heaven and Earth. Similarly in the Lao-tzu
 we find the words: Reversal is the movement of the Too."
 (Ch. 40.)


Output: This theory has had a great effect upon the Chinese people and has contributed much to their success in overcoming the many difficulties which they have encountered in their long history. Convinced of this theory, they remain cautious even in time of prosperity, and hopeful even in time of extreme danger. In the late war, the concept provided the Chinese people with a sort of psychological weapon, so that even in its darkest period, most people lived on the hope which was expressed in the phrase: "The dawn will soon come." It was this "will to believe" that helped the Chinese people to go through the war.


Output:
This theory has also provided the principal argument for the doctrine of the golden mean, favored by Confucianist and Taoist alike. "Never too much has been the maxim of both. For according to it, it is better for one to be wrong by having too little, than to be wrong by having too much, and to be wrong by leaving things undone, than to be wrong by overdoing them. For by having too much and overdoing, one runs the risk of getting the opposite of what one wants.

 Idealization of Nalare


Output:
Idealization of Nalare

Taoism and Confucianism differ because they are the rationalization or theoretical expression of different aspects of the life of the farmers. The fanners are simple in their living and innocent in their thought. Seeing things from their point of view, the Taoists idealized the simplicity of primitive society and condemned civilization. They also idealized the innocence of children and despised knowledge. In the Lao-tzu
 it is said: Let us have a small country with few inhabitants....Let the people return to the use of knotted cords [for keeping records]. Let them obtain their food sweet, their clothing beautiful, their homes comfortable, their rustic tasks

032

IHE BACKGROUND OF HtNESE PHILOSOPHY

pleasurable. The neighbouring state might be so near at hand that one could hear the cocks crowing in it and dogs barking. But the people would grow old and die without ever having been there." (Ch. 80.) Is this not an idyllic picture of a farmer's country?


Output:
The farmers are always in contact with nature, so they admire and love nature. This admiration and love were developed by the Taoists to the fullest extent. They made a sharp distinction between what is of nature and what is of man, the natural and the artificial. According to them, what is of nature is the source of human happiness and what is of man is the root of all human suffering. They were, as the Confucianist Hstin Tzu puts it, "blinded by nature and had no knowledge of man." (Hsiin-tzu,
 ch. 21.) As the final development of this trend of thinking, the Taoists maintained that the highest achievement in the spiritual cultivation of a sage lies in the identification of himself with the whole of nature, i.e., the universe.

 Family System


Output:
Family System

The farmers have to live on their land, which is immovable, and the same is true of the scholar landlords. Unless one has special talent, or is especially lucky, one has to live where one s father or grandfather lived, and where one's children will continue to live. That is to say, the family in the wider sense must live together for economic reasons. Thus there developed the Chinese family system, which was no doubt one of the most complex and well—organized in the world. A great deal of Confucianism is the rational justification or theoretical expression of this social system.


Output:
The family system was the social system of China. Out of the five traditional social relationships, which are those between sovereign and subject, father and son, elder and younger brother, husband and wife, and friend and friend, three are family relationships. The remaining two, though not family relationships, can be conceived of in terms of the family. Thus the relationship between sovereign and subject can be conceived of in terms of that between father and son, and that between friend and friend in terms of the one between elder and younger brother. So, indeed, was the way in which they were usually conceived. But these are only the major family relationships, and there were many more. In the Erh Ya,
 which is the oldest dictionary of the Chinese language, dating from before the Christian era, there are more than one hundred terms for various family relationships, most of which have no equivalent in the English language.


Output:
For the same reason ancestor worship developed. In a family living in a particular place, the ancestor worshiped was usually the first of the family who had established himself and his descendants there on the land. He thus became the symbol of the unity of the family, and such a symbol was indispensable for a large and complex organization.

034

THE BACKGROUND OF HINESE PHILOSOPHY


Output:
034

THE BACKGROUND OF HINESE PHILOSOPHY

A great part of Confucianism is the rational justification of this social system, or its theoretical expression. Economic conditions prepared its basis, and Confucianism expressed its ethical significance. Since this social system was the outgrowth of certain economic conditions, and these conditions were again the product of their geographical surroundings, to the Chinese people, both the system and its theoretical expression were very natural. Because of this, Confucianism naturally became the orthodox philosophy and remained so until the invasion of industrialization from modern Europe and America changed the economic basis of Chinese life.

 This-worldliness and Other-worldliness

Confucianism is the philosophy of social organization, and is also the philosophy of daily life.


Output:
Confucianism emphasizes the social responsibilities of man, while Taoism emphasizes what is natural and spontaneous in him. In the Chuang-tzu,
 it is said that the Confucianists roam within the bounds of society, while the Taoists roam beyond it. In the third and fourth centuries A.D., when Taoism again became influential, people used to say that Confucius valued ming chiao
 (the teaching of names denoting the social relationships), while Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu valued tzu jan
 (spontaneity or naturalness). These two trends of Chinese philosophy correspond roughly to the traditions of classicism and romanticism in Western thought. Read the poems of Tu Fu and Li Fo, and one sees in them the difference between Confucianism and Taoism. These two great poets lived during the same period (eighth century A.D.), and concurrently expressed in their poems the two main traditions of Chinese thought.


Output:
Because it roams within the bounds of society, Confucianism appears more this—worldly than Taoism, and because it roams beyond the bound of society, Taoism appears more other—worldly than Confucianism. These two trends of thought rivaled each other, but also complemented each other. They exercised a sort of balance of power. This gave the Chinese people a better sense of balance in regard to this-worldlincss and other-worldliness.

There were Taoists in the third and fourth centuries who attempted to make Taoism closer to Confucianism, and there were also Confucianists in the eleventh and twelfth centuries who attempted to make Confucianism closer to Taoism. We call these Taoists the Neo -Taoists and these Confucianists the Neo -Confucianists. It was these movements that made Chinese philosophy both of this world and of the other world, as I pointed out in the last chapter.

 Chinese A rt and Poetry

The Confucianists took art as an instrument for moral education/The

036


Output:
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THE BACKGROUND OF HINESE PHILOSOPHY

Taoists had no formal treatises on art, but their admiration of the free movement of the spirit and their idealization of nature gave profound inspiration to the great artists of China. This being the case, it is no wonder that most of the great artists of China took nature as their subject. Most of the masterpieces of Chinese painting are paintings of landscapes, animals and flowers, trees and bamboos. In a landscape painting, at the foot of a mounlain or the bank of a stream, one always finds a man sitting, appreciating the beauty of nature and contemplating the Too
 or Way that transcends both nature and man.

Likewise in Chinese poetry we find such poems as that by T'ao Ch ien (A.D. 372.-42-7): I built my hut in a zone of human habitation,

Yet near me there sounds no noise of horse or coach,

Would you know how that is possible?

A heart that is distant creates a wilderness round it.

I pluck chrysanthemums under the eastern hedge,


Output:
I pluck chrysanthemums under the eastern hedge,

Then gaze long at the distant summer hills.

The mountain air is fresh at the dusk of day;

The flying birds two by two return.

In these things there lies a deep meaning;

Yet when we would express it, words suddenly fail us.* Here we have Taoism at its best.

 The Methodology of Chinese Philosophy


Output:
The Methodology of Chinese Philosophy

In Chinese philosophy, the farmer's outlook not only conditioned its content, such as that reversal is the movement of the Tao, but, what is more important, it also conditioned its methodology. Professor Northrop has said that there are two major types of concepts, that achieved by intuition and that by postulation. "A concept by intuition," he says, "is one which denotes, and the complete meaning of which is given by, something which is immediately apprehended. 'Blue' in the sense of the sensed color is a concept by intuition....A concept by postulation is one the complete meaning of which is designated by the postulates of the deductive theory in which it occurs.... 'Blue' in ihe sense of the number of a wave-length in electromagnetic theory is a concept by postulation.' **


Output:
Northrop also says lhat there are three possible types of concepts by intuition: "The concept of the differentiated aesthetic continuum. The concept of the indefinite or undifferentiated aesthetic continuum.

The concept of the differentiation." (Ibid.,
 p. 187.) According lo him,

* Translated by Arthur Waley.

**Filmer S. C. Northrop, "The Complemeiiliiry Emphases of Eastern Intuition Philosophy and Western Scientific Philosophy," in Philosophy, East and West,
 C. A. Moore, ed., p. 187, Princeton University Press, 1946.

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THE BACKGROUND OF H1NESE PHILOSOPHY


Output:
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THE BACKGROUND OF H1NESE PHILOSOPHY

"Confucianism may be defined as the state of mind in which the concept of the indeterminate intuited manifold moves into the background of thought and the concrete differentiations in their relativistic, humanistic, transitory comings and goings form the content of philosophy. (Ibid.,
 p. 2.05.) But in Taoism, it is the concept of the indefinite or undifferenliated aesthetic continuum that forms the content of philosophy. (Ibid.)


Output: I do not quite agree with all Northrop has said in this essay, but I think he has here grasped the fundamental difference betwecen Chinese and Western philosophy. When a student of Chinese philosophy begins to study Western philosophy, he is glad to see that the Greek philosophers also made the distinction between Being and Non—being, the limited and the unlimited. But he feels rather surprised to find that the Greek philosophers held that Non -being and the unlimited are inferior to Being and the limited. In Chinese philosophy the case is just the reverse. The reason for this difference is that Being and the limited are the distinct, while Non-being and the unlimited are the indistinct. Those philosophers who start with concepts by postulation have a liking for the distinct, while those who start with intuition value the indistinct.


Output:
If we link what Northrop has pointed out here with what I mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, we see that the concept of the differentiated aesthetic continuum, from which come both the concept of the undifferentiated aesthetic continuum and that of differentiation (Ibid.,
 p. 187), is basically the concept of the farmers. What the farmers have to deal with, such as the farm and crops, are all things which they immediately apprehend. And in their primitivity and innocence, they value what they thus immediately appre -hend. It is no wonder then, that their philosophers likewise take the immediate apprehension of things as the starting point of their philosophy.


Output:
This also explains why epistemology has never developed in Chinese philosophy. Whether the table that I see before me is real or illusory, and whether it is only an idea in my mind or is occupying objective space, was never seriously considered by Chinese philosophers. No such epistemological problems are to be found in Chinese philosophy (save in Buddhism, which came from India), since epistemological problems arise only when u demarcation between the subject and the object is emphasized. And in the aesthetic continuum, there is no such demarcation. In it the knower and the known is one whole.

This also explains why the language used by Chinese philosophy is suggestive but not articulate.

It is not articulate, because it does not represent concepts in any deductive reasoning. The philosopher only tells us what he sees. And because of this, what he tells is rich in content, though terse in words. This is the reason why his words are suggestive rather than precise.

040


Output:
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THE BACKGROUND OF HINESE PHILOSOPHY

 Maritime Countries and Continental Countries

The Greeks lived in a maritime country and maintained their prosperity through commerce. They were primarily merchants. And what merchants have to deal with first are the abstract numbers used in their commercial accounts, and only then with concrete things that may be immediately apprehended through these numbers. Such numbers are what Northrop called concepts by postulation. Hence Greek philosophers likewise took the concept by postulation as their starting point. They developed mathematics and mathematical reasoning. That is why they had epistemological problems and why their language was so articulate.


Output:
But merchants are also townsmen. Their activities demand thai they live together in towns. Hence they have a form of social organization not based on the common interest of the family so much as on that of the town. This is the reason why the Greeks organized their society around the city
 state, in contrast with the Chinese social system, which may be called that of the family
 state, because under it the state is conceived of in terms of the family. In a city state the social organization is not autocratic, because among the same class of townsmen, there is no moral reason why one should be more important than, or superior to, another. But in a family state the social organization is autocratic and hierarchic, because in a family the authority of the father is naturally superior to that of the son.


Output:
The fact that the Chinese were farmers also explains why China failed to have an industrial revolution, which is instrumental for the introduction of the modern world. In the Lieh—tzu
 there is a story which says that the Prince of the State of Sung once asked a clever artisan to carve a piece of jade into the leaf of a tree. After three years the artisan completed it, and when the artificial leaf was put upon the tree, it was made so wonderfully that no one could distinguish it from the real leaves.


Output:
Thereupon the Prince was much pleased. But when Lieh Tzu heard it, he said: "if nature took three years to produce one leaf, there would be few trees with leaves on them! (Lieh—tzu,
 ch. 8.) This is the view of one who admires the natural and condemns the artificial. The way of life of the farmers is to follow nature. They admire nature and condemn the artificial, and in their primitivity and innocence, they are easily made contcnt.They desire no change, nor can they conceive of any change. In China there have been not a few notable inventions or discoveries, but we often find that these were discouraged rather than encouraged.

With the merchants of a maritime country conditions are otherwise. They have greater opportunity to see different people with different customs and different languages; they are accustomed to change and are not afraid of novelty. Nay, in order to have a good sale for their goods, they have to

042

THE BACKGROUND OF HINESE PHILOSOPHY


Output:
042

THE BACKGROUND OF HINESE PHILOSOPHY

encourage novelty in the manufacture of what they are going to sell. It is no accident that in the West, the industrial revolution was first started in England, which is also a maritime country maintaining her prosperity through commerce.

What was quoted earlier in this chapter from the Lu—shih Ch un—ch iu
 about merchants can also be said of the people of marilime countries, provided that, instead of saying that they are corrupt and treacherous, we say that they are refined and intelligent. We can also paraphrase Confucius by saying that the people of maritime countries are the wise, while those of continental countries are the good.

And so we repeat what Confucius said: The wise delighl in water; the good delight in mountains. The wise move; the good stay still. The wise are happy; the good endure. "


Output:
It is beyond the scope of this chapter to enumerate evidences to prove the relationship between the geographic and economic conditions of Greece and England on the one hand, and the development of Western scientific thought and democratic institutions on the other. But the fact that the geographic and economic conditions of Greece and England are quite different from those of China suffices to constitute a negative proof for my thesis in regard to Chinese history as mentioned in this chapter.

 The Permanent and the Changeable in Chinese Philosophy

The advancement of science hus conquered geography, and China is no longer isolated within the four seas. She is having her industrialization too, and though much later than the Western world, it is better late than never. It is not correct to say that the East has been invaded by the West. Rather it is a case in which the medieval has been invaded by the modern. In order to live in a modern world, China has to be modern.


Output:
One question remains to be asked: If Chinese philosophy has been so linked with the economic conditions of the Chinese people, does what has been expressed in Chinese philosophy possess validity only for people living under those conditions?

The answer is yes and no. In the philosophy of any people or any time, there is always a part that possesses value only in relation to the economic conditions of that people or of that time, but there is always another part that is more than this. That which is not relative has lasting value. 1 hesitate to say that it is absolute truth, because to determine what is absolute truth is too great a task for any human being, and is reserved for God alone, if there be one.


Output:
Let us take an instance in Greek philosophy. The rational justification of the slave system by Aristotle must be considered as a theory that is relative to the economic conditions of Greek life. But to say this is not to say that there is nothing that is not relative in the social philosophy of Aristotle. The O44 THE BACKGROUND OF HINESE PHILOSOPHY

same holds true for Chinese thought. When China is industrialized, the old family syslem must go, and with it will go its Confucianistic rational justification. But to say this is not to say that there is nothing that is not relative in the social philosophy of Confucianism.


Output:
The reason for this is that the society of ancient Greece and ancient China, though different, both belong to the general category which we call society. Theories which are the theoretical expression of Greek or Chinese society, are thus also in part expressions of society in general. Though there is in them something that pertains only to Greek or Chinese societies per se,
 there must also be something more universal that pertains to society in general. It is this latter something that is not relative and possesses lasting value.

The same is true of Taoism. The Taoist theory is certainly wrong which says that the Utopia of mankind is the primitivity of a bygone age. With the idea of progress, we moderns think that the ideal state of human existence is something to be created in the future, not something that was lost in the past.

But what some moderns think of as the ideal slate of human existence, such as anarchism, is not wholly dissimilar from that thought of by the Taoists.


Output: Philosophy also gives us an ideal of life. A part of that ideal, as given by the philosophy of a certain people or a certain time, must pertain only to the kind of life resulting from the social conditions of that people or that time. But there must also be a part that pertains to life in general, and so is not relative but has lasting value. This seems to be illustrated in the case of the Confucianist theory of an ideal life.


Output: According to this theory, the ideal life is one which, though having a very high understanding of the universe, yet remains within the bounds of the five basic human relationships. The nature of these human relationships may change according to circumstances. But the ideal itself does not change. One is wrong, then, when one insists that since some of the five human relationships have to go, therefore the Confucianist ideal of life must go as well. And one is also wrong when one insists that since this ideal of life is desirable, therefore all the five human relationships must likewise be retained. One must make a logical analysis in order to distinguish between what is permanent and what is changeable in the history of philosophy. Every philosophy has that which is permanent, and all philosophies have something in common. This is why philosophies, though different, can yet be compared with one another and translated one in terms of the other.


Output:
Will the methodology of Chinese philosophy change? That is to say, will the new Chinese philosophy cease to confine itself to concept by intuition? Certainly it will, and there is no reason why it should not. In fact, it is already changing. In regard to this change, I shall have more to say in the last chapter of this book.

046

THE BACKGROUND OF IIINESE PHILOSOPHY

 CHAPTER 3

THE ORIGIN OF THE SCHOOLS

IN the last chapter I said that Confucianism and Taoism are the two main streams of Chinese thought.

They became so only after a long evolution, however, and from the fifth through the third centuries B.C.

they were only two among many other rival schools of thought. During that period the number of schools was so great that the Chinese referred to them as the "hundred schools.

 Ssu-ma T'an and the Six Schools


Output:
Ssu-ma T'an and the Six Schools

Later historians have attempted to make a classification of these"hundred schools." The first to do so was Ssu-ma T'an (died HO B.C.), father of Ssu-ma Ch'ien (I45~ca. 86 B.C.), and the author with him of China's first great dynastic history, the Shih Chi
 or Historical Records.
 In the last chapter of this work Ssu-ma Ch'ien quotes an essay by his father, titled "On the Essential Ideas of the Six Schools." In this essay Ssu-ma T'an classifies the philosophers of the preceding several centuries into six major schools, as follows:

The first is the Yin-Yang chia
 or Yin-Yang
 school, which is one of cos-mologists. It derives its name from the Yin
 and Yang
 principles, which in Chinese thought are regarded as the two major principles of Chinese cosmology, Yin
 being the female principle, and Yang
 the male principle, the combination and interaction of which is believed by the Chinese to result in all universal phenomena.


Output:
The second school is the Ju chia
 or School of Literati. This school is known in Western literature as the Confucianist school, but the word ju
 literally means literatus or scholar. Thus the Western title is somewhat misleading, because it misses the implication that the followers of this school were scholars as well as thinkers; they, above all others, were the teachers of

048

THE ORIGIN OK THE SCHOOLS

the ancient classics and thus the inheritors of the ancient cultural legacy. Confucius, to be sure, is the leading figure of this school and may rightly be considered as its founder. Nevertheless the term^u not only denotes Confucian" or "Confucianist, but has a wider implication as well.


Output:
The third school is that of the Mo chia
 or Mohist school. This school had a close-knit organization and strict discipline under the leadership of Mo Tzu. Its followers actually called themselves the Mohists. Thus the title of this school is not an invention of Ssu-ma T'an, as were some of the other schools.

The fourth school is the Ming chia
 or School of Names. The followers of this school were interested in the distinction between, and relation of, what they called "names" and "actualities.

The fifth school is the Fa chia
 or Legalist school. The Chinese word fa
 means pattern or law. The school derived from a group of statesmen who maintained that good government must be one based on a fixed code of law instead of on the moral institutions which the literati stressed for government.


Output:
The sixth school is the Tao-Te chia
 or School of the Way and its Power. The followers of this school centered their metaphysics and social philosophy around the concept of Non-being, which is the Too
 or Way, and its concentration in the individual as the natural virtue of man, which is Te,
 translated as "virtue but better rendered as the "power" that inheres in any individual thing. This group, called by Ssu-ma T'an
 the Tao-Te
 school, was later known simply as the Too chia,
 and is referred to in Western literature as the Taoist school.As pointed out in the first chapter, it should be kept carefully distinct from the Taoist religion.

 Liu Hsin and His Theory of the Beginning of the Schools

The second historian who attempted to classify the hundred schools was Liu Hsin (ca. 46 B.C.-A.D.


Output:
2.3). He was one of the greatest scholars of his day, and, with his father Liu Hsiang, made a collation of the books in the Imperial Library. The resulting descriptive catalogue of the Imperial Library, known as the "Seven Summaries," was taken by Pan Ku (A.D. 32.-92-)
 as the basis for the chapter, Yi Wen Chih
 or Treatise on Literature, contained in his dynastic history, the History of the Former Han Dynasty.
 In this "Treatise" we see that Liu Hsin classifies the "hundred schools into ten main groups. Out of these, six are the same as those listed by Ssu-ma T'an. The other four are the Tsung—Heng chia
 or School of Diplomatists, Tsa chia
 or School of Eclectics, Nung chia
 or School of Agrarians, and Hsiao-shuo chia
 or School of Story Tellers. In conclusion, Liu Hsin writes: "The various philosophers consist of ten schools, but there are only nine that need be noticed." By this statement he means to say that the School of Story Tellers

050

THE ORIGIN OF THE SCHOOLS

 L


Output:
050

THE ORIGIN OF THE SCHOOLS

 L

lacks the importance of the other schools.

In this classification itself, Liu Hsin did not go very much further than Ssu-ma T'an had done. What was new, however, was his attempt for the first time in Chinese history to trace systematically the historical origins of the different schools.


Output: Liu Hsin's theory has been greatly elaborated by later scholars, especially by Chang Hsileh -ch' eng (1738-1801) and the late Chang Ping -lin. In essence, it maintains that in the early Chou dynasty (llli?-256 B.C.), before the social institutions of that age disintegrated, there was "no separation between officers and teachers.' In other words the officers of a certain department of the government were at the same time the transmitters of the branch of learning pertaining to that department. These officers, like the feudal lords of the day, held their posts on a hereditary basis. Hence there was then only "official learning but no private teaching. That is to say, nobody taught any branch of learning as a private individual. Any such teaching was carried on only by officers in their capacity as members of one or another department of the government.


Output:
According to this theory, however, when the Chou ruling house lost its power during the later centuries of the Chou dynasty, the officers of the governmental departments lost their former positions and scattered throughout the country. They then turned to the teaching of their special branches of knowledge in a private capacity. Thus they were then no longer officers, but only private teachers. And it was out of this separation between teachers and officers that the different schools arose.

Liu Hsin's whole analysis reads as follows: 'The members of the Ju
 school had their origin in the Ministry of Education....This school delighted in the study of the Liu Yi
 [the Six Classics or six liberal arts] and paid attention to matters concerning humanheartedness and righteousness. They regarded Yao and Shun [two ancient sage emperors supposed to have lived in the twenty-fourth and twenty-third centuries B.C.] as the ancestors of their school, and King Wen [II2.O?-IIO8? B.C. of the Chou dynasty]


Output:
and King Wu [son of King Wen] as brilliant exemplars. To give authority to their teaching, they honored Chung—ni LConfucius] as an exalted teacher. Their teaching is the highest truth. 'That which is admired must be tested. The glory of Yao and Shun, the prosperity of the dynasties of Yin and Chou, and the achievements of Chung-ni are the results discovered by testing their teaching.

"Those of the Taoist school had their origin in the official historians. By studying the historical examples of success and failure, preservation and destruction, and calamity and prosperity, from ancient to recent times, they learned how to hold what is essential and to grasp the fundamental. They guarded themselves with purity and emptiness, and with humbleness and

052.

THE ORIGIN OF THE SCHOOLS

meekness maintained themselves....Herein lies the strong point of this school.


Output:
Those of the Yin-Yang
 school had their origin in the official astronomers. They respectfully followed luminous heaven, and the successive symbols of the sun and moon, the stars and constellations, and the divisions of times and seasons. Herein lies the strong point of this school.

'Those of the Legalist school had their origin in the Ministry of Justice. They emphasized strictness in rewarding and punishing, in order to support a system of correct conduct. Herein lies the strong point of this school.

"Those of the School of Names had their origin in the Ministry of Ceremonies. For the ancients, where titles and positions differed, the ceremonies accorded to them were also different. Confucius has said: ' If names be incorrect, speech will not follow its natural sequence. If speech does not follow its natural sequence, nothing can be established.' Herein lies the strong point of this school.


Output: "Those of the Mohist school had their origin in the Guardians of the Temple. The temple was built with plain wooden rafters and thatched roofs; hence their teaching emphasized frugality. The temple was the place where the Three Elders and Five Experienced Men were honored; hence their teaching emphasized universal love. The ceremony of selecting civil officials and that of military exercises were also held in the temple; hence their teaching emphasized the preferment of virtue and ability. The temple was the place for sacrifice to ancestors and reverence to fathers; hence their teaching was to honor the spirits. They accepted the traditional teaching of following the four seasons in one s conduct; hence their teaching was against fatalism. They accepted the traditional teaching of exhibiting filial piety throughout the world; hence they taught the doctrine of 'agreeing with the superior.' Herein lies the strong point of this school.


Output:
"Those of the Diplomatist school had their origin in the Ministry of Embassies.... [They taught the art of] following general orders [in diplomacy], instead of following literal instructions. Herein lies the strength of their teaching.

"Those of the Eclectic school had their origin in the Councillors. They drew both from the Confucianists and the Mohists, and harmonized the School of Names and the Legalists. They knew that the nation had need of each of these, and saw that kingly government should not fail to unite all. Herein lies the strong point of this school.

"Those of the Agricultural school had their origin in the Ministry of Soil and Grain. They taught the art of sowing the various kinds of grain and urged people to plow and to cultivate the mulberry so that the clothing and food of the people would be sufficient....Herein lies the strong point of this school.

"Those of the School of Story Tellers had their origin in the Petty Offices.

054

THE ORIGIN OF THE SCHOOLS


Output:
054

THE ORIGIN OF THE SCHOOLS

This school was created by those who picked up the talk of streets and alleys and repeated what they heard wherever they went....Even if in their teaching but a single word can be chosen, still there is some contribution." ("Treatise on Literature" in the History of the Former Han Dynasty.)
 This is what Liu Hsin says about the historical origin of the ten schools. His interpretation of the significance of the schools is inadequate, and his attribution of certain of them to certain Ministries is in some cases arbitrary. For instance, in describing the teaching of the Taoists, he touches only on the ideas of Lao Tzu, and omits those of Chuang Tzu altogether. Moreover, there appears to be no similarity between the teaching of the School of Names and the functions of the Ministry of Ceremonies, save that both emphasized the making of distinctions.

A Revision of Liu Hsin's Theory


Output:
A Revision of Liu Hsin's Theory

Yet though the details of Liu Hsins s theory may be wrong, his attempt to trace the origin of the schools to certain political and social circumstances certainly represents a right point of view. I have quoted him at length because his description of the various schools is itself a classic in Chinese historiography.

The study of Chinese history has made great progress in China in recent times, especially during the few years just before the Japanese invasion of 1937. In the light of recent research, therefore, I have formed a theory of my own in regard to the origin of the philosophic schools. In spirit this theory agrees with that of Liu Hsin, but it must be expressed in a different way. This means that things have to be seen from a new angle.


Output: Let us imagine what China looked like politically and socially in, say, the tenth century B.C. At the top of the political and social structure, there was the King of the Chou royal house, who was the "common lord" of all the different states. Under him were hundreds of stales, each owned and governed by its Princes. Some of them were established by the founders of the Chou dynasty, who had allotted the newly conquered territory as feudal fiefs to their relatives. Others were ruled by the former rivals of the Chou house, who now, however, acknowledged the King of Chou as their common lord.


Output:
Within each slate, under the Prince, the land was again divided into many fiefs, each with its own feudal lord, who were relatives of the Prince. At that time, political power and economic control were one and the same. Those who had the land were the political and economic masters of it, and of the people who lived on it. They were the chiln tzu,
 a term which literally means "sons of the Princes," but which was used as a common designation of the class of the feudal lords.

The other social class was that of the hsiao jen,
 meaning small men, or

O56 ' THE ORIGIN OF THE SCHOOLS

 shu min,
 meaning common people or the mass. These were the serfs of the feudal lords,

who cultivated the land for the chtin tzu
 in time of peace, and fought for them in time of war.

 L

The aristocrats were not only the political rulers and landlords, but also the only


Output:
persons who had a chance to receive an education. Thus the houses of the feudal lords were not only centers of political and economic power, but also centers of learning.

Attached to them were officers who possessed specialized knowledge along various lines. But the common people, for their part, had no chance to become educated, so that among them there were no men of learning. This is the fact behind Liu Hsin' s theory that in the early Chou dynasty "there was no separation between officers and teachers."

This feudal system was formally abolished by the First Emperor of the Ch' in dynasty in 2.2.1 B.C. But hundreds of years before that, the system had already begun to disintegrate, whereas thousands of years later, economic remnants of feudalism still remained in the form of the power of the landlord class.


Output:
Historians of modern time are still not agreed as to what were the causes of the disintegration of the feudal system. Nor is it within the scope of this chapter to discuss these causes. For the present purpose, it is sufficient to say that in Chinese history the period between the seventh and third centuries B.C. was one of great social and political transformation and change.

We are not sure just when the disintegration of the feudal system began. Already as early as the seventh century there were aristocrats who through the wars of the time, or for other reasons, lost their lands and titles, and thus fell to the level of the common people. There were also common people who through skill or favoritism became high officials of the state. This illustrates the real significance of the disintegration of the Chou dynasty. It was not only the disintegration of the political power of a particular royal house, but— and this is more important—of an entire social system.


Output:
With this disintegration, the former official representatives of the various branches of learning became scattered among the common people. They had either been actual nobles themselves, or had been specialists holding hereditary offices in the service of the aristocratic ruling families. This is the significance of a quotation made by Liu Hsin from Confucius in the course of the same "Treatise partially quoted from above: "When ceremonies become lost [at the court], it is necessary to search for them in the countryside."

Thus when these former nobles or officials scattered throughout the country, they maintained a livelihood by carrying on, in a private capacity, their specialized abilities or skills. Those of them who expressed their ideas to other private individuals became professional teachers, and thus there arose the separation between the teacher and the officer.

The word "school" in this chapter is a translation of the Chinese word 058

THE ORIGIN OF THE SCHOOLS


Output:
THE ORIGIN OF THE SCHOOLS

 chia,
 which at the same time is used to denote a family or home. Hence it suggests something personal or private. There could be no chia
 of thought before there were persons who taught their own ideas in a private capacity.


Output:
Likewise there were different kinds of chia
 because these teachers were specialists in varying branches of learning and of the arts. Thus there were some who were specialists in the teaching of the classics and the practicing of ceremonies and music. These were known as the ju
 or literati. There were also specialists in the art of war. These were the hsieh
 or knights. There were specialists in the art of speaking, who were known as the pien—chi:
 or debaters. There were specialists in magic, divination, astrology, and numerology, who were known as the fang-shih,
 or practitioners of occult arts. There were also the practical politicians who could act as private advisers to ihe feudal rulers, and who were known as fa-shu chih shih
 or "men of methods." And finally, there were some men who possessed learning and talent, but who were so embittered by the political disorders of their lime that they retired from human .society into the world of nature. These were known as the yin—che
 or hermits or recluses.


Output:
According to my theory, it is from these six different kinds of people that the six schools of thought as listed by Ssu—ma T an originated. Paraphrasing Liu Hsin, therefore, I would say: Members of the Ju
 school had their origin in the literati.

Members of the Mohist school had their origin in the knights.

Members of the Taoist school had their origin in the hermits.

Members of the School of Names had their origin in the debaters.

Members of the Yin-Yang
 school had their origin in the practitioners of occult arts.

Members of the Legalist school had their origin in the "men of methods."

The explanations of these statements will be found in the chapters that follow.

060

THE ORIGIN OF THE SCHOOLS

 L

 CHAPTER 4

UCIUS, THE FIRST TEACHER


Output:
CHAPTER 4

UCIUS, THE FIRST TEACHER

CONFUCIUS is the latinized name of the person who has been known in China as K'ung Tzu or Master K'ung.* His family name was K'ung and his personal name Ch'iu. He was born in 551 B.C. in the state of Lu, in the southern part of the present Shantung province in eastern China. His ancestors had been members of the ducal house of the state of Sung, which was descended from the royal house of Shang, the dynasty that had preceded the Chou. Because of political troubles, the family, before the birth of Confucius, had lost its noble position and migrated to Lu.

The most detailed account of Confucius' life is the biography which comprises the forty-seventh chapter of the Shih Chi
 or Historical Records
 (China s first dynastic history, completed ca. 86 B.C.).


Output:
From this we learn that Confucius was poor in his youth, but entered the government of Lu and by the time he was fifty had reached high official rank. As a result of political intrigue, however, he was soon forced to resign his post and go into exile. For the next thirteen years he traveled from one state to another, always hoping to find an opportunity to realize his ideal of political and social reform. Nowhere, however, did he succeed, and finally as an old man he returned to Lu, where he died three years later in 479 B.C.

 Confucius and the Six Classics

In the last chapter I said that the rise of the philosophic schools began with the practice of private teaching. So far as modern scholarship can determine, Confucius was the first person in Chinese history thus to teach large numbers of students in a private capacity, by whom he was accompanied during his travels in different states. According to tradition, he had several thousand students, of whom several tens became famous thinkers and schol-


Output:
*The word Tzu or "Master' is a polite suffix added to names of most philosophers of the Chou Dynasty, such as Chuang Tzu, HsUn Tzu, elc, and meaning Master Chuang, Master Hsiin, etc.

O 6 l CONFUCIUS, THE FIRST TEACHER

ars. The former number is undoubtedly a gross exaggeration, but there is no question that he was a very influential teacher, and what is more important and unique, China's first private teacher. His ideas are best known through the Lun Yil
 or Confucian Analects,
 a collection of his scattered sayings which was compiled by some of his disciples.

Confucius was a ju
 and the founder of the Ju
 school, which has been known in the West as the Confucian school. In the last chapter we saw how Liu Hsin wrote regarding this school that it "delighted in the study of the Liu Yi
 and emphasized matters concerning humanheartedness and righteousness.


Output:
The term Liu Yi
 means the "six arts," i.e., the six liberal arts, but it is more commonly translated as the "Six Classics." These are the Yi
 or Book of Changes,
 the Shih
 or Book of Odes
 (or Poetry),
 the Shu
 or Book of History,
 the Li
 or Rituals
 or Rites,
 the Yiieh
 or Music
 (no longer preserved as a separate work), and the Ch un Ch iu
 or Spring and A utumn A n— nals,
 a chronicle history of Confucius state of Lu extending from 72.2. to 479 B.C., the year of Confucius' death. The nature of these classics is clear from their titles, with the exception of the Book of Changes.
 This work was in later times interpreted by the Confucianists as a treatise on metaphysics, but originally it was a book of divination.


Output:
Concerning the relation of Confucius with the Six Classics, there are two schools of traditional scholarship. One maintains that Confucius was the author of all these works, while the other maintains that Confucius was the author of the Spring and Autumn Annals,
 the commentator of the Book of
 Changes,
 the reformer of the Rituals
 and Music,
 and the editor of the Book of History
 and Book of Odes.


Output:
As a matter of fact, however, Confucius was neither the author, commentator, nor even editor of any of the classics. In some respects, to be sure, he was a conservative who upheld tradition. Thus in the rites and music he did try to rectify any deviations from the traditional practices or standards, and instances of so doing are reported in the Lun Yii
 or Analects.
 Judging from what is said of him in the Analects,
 however, Confucius never had any intention of writing anything himself for future generations. The writing of books in a private rather than official capacity was an as yet unheard of practice which developed only after the time of Confucius. He was China's first private teacher, but not its first private writer.


Output:
The Six Classics had existed before the time of Confucius, and they constituted the cultural legacy of the past. They had been the basis of education for the aristocrats during the early centuries of feudalism of the Chou dynasty. As feudalism began to disintegrate, however, roughly from the seventh century B.C. onward, the tutors of the aristocrats, or even some of the aristocrats themselves—men who had lost their positions and titles but were well versed in the Classics—began to scatter among the people.

They made their living, as we have seen in the last chapter, by teaching the Classics or by acting as skilled "assistants, well versed in the rituals, on the occasion of

064

CONKUC1US, THE FIRST TEACHER

funeral, sacrifice, wedding, and other ceremonies. This class of men was known as the ju
 or literati.

 Confucius as an Educator


Output:
Confucius, however, was more than aju
 in the common sense of the word. It is true that in the Analects
 we find him, from one point of view, being portrayed merely as an educator. He wanted his disciples to be "rounded men who would be useful to state and society, and therefore he taught them various branches of knowledge based upon the different classics. His primary function as a teacher, he felt, was to interpret to his disciples the ancient cultural heritage. That is why, in his own words as recorded in the Analects,
 he was "a transmitter and not an originator." (Analects,


Output: VII, I.) But this is only one aspect of Confucius, and there is another one as well. This is that, while transmitting the traditional institutions and ideas, Confucius gave them interpretations derived from his own moral concepts. This is exemplified in his interpretation of the old custom that on the death of a parent, a son should mourn three years. Confucius commented on this: 'The child cannot leave the arms of its parents until it is three years old. This is why the three years' mourning is universally observed throughout the world."


Output:
(Analects,
 XVII, 2.1.) In other words, the son was utterly dependent upon his parents for at least the first three years of his life; hence upon their death he should mourn them for an equal length of time in order to express his gratitude. Likewise when teaching the Classics, Confucius gave them new interpretations. Thus in speaking of the Book of Poetry,
 he stressed its moral value by saying: In the Book of Poetry
 there are three hundred poems. But the essence of them can be covered in one sentence: Have no depraved thoughts.' " (A nalects,
 II, i.) In this way Confucius was more than a mere transmitter, for in transmitting, he originated something new.


Output:
This spirit of originating through transmitting was perpetuated by the followers of Confucius, by whom, as the classical texts were handed down from generation to generation, countless commentaries and interpretations were written. A great portion of what in later times came to be known as the Thirteen Classics developed as commentaries in this way on the original texts.

This is what set Confucius apart from the ordinary literati of his time, and made him the founder of a new school. Because the followers of this school were at the same time scholars and specialists on the Six Classics, the school became known as the School of the Literati.

 The Rectification of Names

Besides the new interpretations which Confucius gave to the classics, he had his own ideas about the individual and society, heaven and man.

O<# CONFUCIUS, THE FIRST TEACHER


Output:
In regard to society, he held that in order to have a well—ordered one, the most important thing is to carry out what he called the rectification of names. That is, things in actual fact should be made to accord with the implication attached to them by names. Once a disciple asked him what he would do first if he were to rule a state, whereupon Confucius replied: "The one thing needed first is the rectification of names." (Analects,
 XIII, 3.) On another occasion one of the dukes of the time asked Confucius the right principle of government, to which he answered: "Let the ruler be ruler, the minister minister, the father father, and the son son." (Analects,


Output: XII, II.) In other words, every name contains certain implications which constitute the essence of that class of things to which this name applies. Such things, therefore, should a-gree with this ideal essence. The essence of a ruler is what the ruler ideally ought to be, or what, in Chinese, is called the way of the ruler. If a ruler acts according to this way of the ruler, he is then truly a ruler, in fact as well as in name. There is an agreement between name and actuality. But if he does not, he is no ruler, even though he may popularly be regarded as such. Every name in the social relationships implies certain responsibilities and duties.. Ruler, minister, father, and son are all the names of such social relationships, and the individuals bearing these names must fulfill their responsibilities and duties accordingly. Such is the implication of Confucius theory of the rectification of names.


Output:
Human—heartedness and Righteousness

With regard to the virtues of the individual, Confucius emphasized hu-man-heartedness and righteousness, especially the former. Righteousness (yi)
 means the "oughtness" of a situation. It is a categorical imperative. Every one in society has certain things which he ought to do, and which must be done for their own sake, because they are the morally right things to do. If, however, he does them only because of other non-moral considerations, then even though he does what he ought to do, his action is no longer a righteous one. To use a word often disparaged by Confucius and later ^onfucianists, he is then acting for "profit." Yi
 (righteousness) and Zi(profil) are in Confucianism diametrically opposed terms. Confucius himself says: The superior man comprehends yi;
 the small man comprehends li.


Output:
(Analects,
 IV, 16.) Herein lies what the later Confucianists called the distinction between yi
 and li,
 a distinction which they considered to be of the utmost importance in moral teaching.

The idea of yi
 is rather formal, but that of jen
 (humanheartedness) is much more concrete. The formal essence of the duties of man in sociely is their oughtness, because all these duties are what he ought to do. But the material essence of these duties is "loving others, i.e., jen
 or humanheart-edness. The father acts according to the way a father should act who loves his son; the son acts according to the way a son should act who loves his fa— 068 CONFUCIUS, THE FIRST TEACHER


Output:
ther. Confucius says: Human —heartedness consists in loving others. (Analects,
 XII, 2.2..) The man who really loves others is one able to perform his duties in society. Hence in the A nalects
 we see that Confucius sometimes uses the word jen
 not only to denote a special kind of virtue, but also to denote all the virtues combined, so that the term "man of jen"
 becomes synonymous with the man of all —round virtue. In such contexts, jen
 can be translated as "perfect virtue."

 Chung and Shu

In the Analects
 we find the passage: When Chung Kung asked the meaning of jen,
 the master said: ....


Output:
Do not do to others what you do not wish yourself .... " (XII, i.) Again, Confucius is reported in the Analects
 as saying: "The man of jen
 is one who, desiring to sustain himself, sustains others, and desiring to develop himself, develops others. To be able from one's own self to draw a parallel for the treatment of others; that may be called the way to practise jen."(
 VI, 2.8.) Thus the practice of jen
 consists in consideration for others. Desiring to sustain oneself, one sustains others; desiring to develop oneself, one develops others." In other words: "Do to others what you wish yourself." This is the positive aspect of the practice, which was called by Confucius chung
 or "conscientiousness to others." And the negative aspect, which was called by Confucius shu
 or "altruism,"

is: "Do not do to others what you do not wish yourself. The practice as a whole is called the principle of chung
 and shu,
 which is "the way to practice jen.


Output:
This principle was known by some of the later Confucianists as the principle of applying a measuring square. That is to say, it is a principle by which one uses oneself as a standard to regulate one's conduct.

In the Ta Hsileh
 or Great Learning,
 which is a chapter of the Li Chi (Book of Rites),
 a collection of treatises written by the Confucianists in the third and second centuries B.C., it is said: "Do not use what you dislike in your superiors in the employment ol your inferiors. Do not use what you dislike in your inferiors in the service of your superiors. Do not use what you dislike in those who are before, to precede those who are behind. Do not use what you dislike in those who are behind, to follow those who are before. Do not use what you dislike on the right, to display toward the left. Do not use what you dislike on the left, to display toward the right. This is called the principle of applying a measuring square.