Record of Teaching and Practice
Recorded by the Disciple Xu Ai
Read in English. Switch to Original for word notes, or select text to ask a question.
1 · Loving the People
Ai asked, “In ‘bringing closeness to the people,’ Master Zhu says ‘bringing closeness’ should read ‘renewing.’ The later phrase ‘rouse the people to renewal’ also seems to support this. You think we should follow the old text and read ‘bringing closeness to the people.’ Is there evidence for that too?”
The Master said, “The ‘renewal’ in ‘rouse the people to renewal’ means people who renew themselves. It differs from the ‘renewal’ in ‘renewing the people.’ How could it be sufficient evidence? It is ‘rouse’ that corresponds to ‘bringing closeness,’ not the meaning of ‘renewal.’
“The passages below on ordering the state and bringing peace to all under Heaven explain nothing about ‘renewal.’ Consider: ‘The gentlemen honor those whom he honored and love those whom he loved; the common people delight in what he delighted in and benefit from what benefited him’; ‘as though protecting an infant’; ‘liking what the people like and disliking what the people dislike: this is called being the people's parent.’ All express the meaning of closeness.
“‘Bringing closeness to the people’ is like Mencius' ‘loving one's kin and being benevolent to the people.’ Bringing them close is being benevolent to them. When ‘the people were not close,’ Shun appointed Xie minister of instruction to ‘reverently spread the five teachings.’ That was how he brought them close.
“In the Canon of Yao, ‘being able to make great virtue bright’ is precisely ‘making bright virtue bright.’ From ‘bringing closeness to the nine kinship groups’ through ‘making distinctions clear’ and ‘harmonizing’ is precisely ‘bringing closeness to the people,’ precisely ‘making bright virtue bright throughout the world.’
“Again, Confucius spoke of ‘cultivating oneself to give peace to the people.’ Cultivating oneself is making bright virtue bright; giving peace to the people is bringing closeness to them. To speak of closeness includes both teaching and nourishment. To speak of renewal feels one-sided.”
2 · The Highest Good
Ai asked, “On ‘knowing where to rest, and then becoming settled,’ Master Zhu says that every affair and thing has a fixed principle. This seems at odds with your account.”
The Master said, “Seeking the highest good in every affair and thing makes righteousness external. The highest good is the mind's original constitution: it is simply making bright virtue bright until it reaches utmost refinement and oneness. Yet this has never departed from affairs and things. The original commentary's words, ‘exhausting Heaven's principle to the utmost, without the least selfishness of human desire,’ get it right.”
3 · Mind Is Principle
Ai asked, “If we seek the highest good only in the mind, I fear we may fail to exhaust the principles of the world's affairs.”
The Master said, “Mind is principle. Are there affairs outside the mind, or principles outside the mind?”
Ai said, “In filial care for one's father, loyalty to one's ruler, trustworthiness among friends and benevolence in governing the people, there are many principles. I fear they must be examined.”
The Master sighed. “This account has obscured understanding for a long time. How could one sentence awaken you? For now, let us speak about what you asked. In serving your father, are you to look for a principle of filial care upon your father? In serving your ruler, are you to look for a principle of loyalty upon your ruler? In friendship and government, are you to seek the principles of trust and benevolence upon your friends and the people? It is all only in this mind. Mind is principle.
“When this mind is not obscured by selfish desires, it is Heaven's principle. Nothing needs to be added from outside. When this mind, pure in Heaven's principle, issues in serving your father, it is filial care; in serving your ruler, loyalty; in friendship and governing the people, trust and benevolence. Simply work on removing human desires and preserving Heaven's principle in this mind.”
Ai said, “Hearing you speak this way, I already feel some awakening. But the old account is entangled in my breast, and I have not yet broken free. Take serving one's father: there are many detailed practices, such as keeping him warm or cool and attending him morning and evening. Must these not also be studied?”
The Master said, “Of course they must. But there is a guiding center: study them through removing human desires and preserving Heaven's principle in this mind.
“For example, studying how to keep parents warm in winter is simply wishing to fulfill this mind's filial care, fearing the least admixture of human desire. Studying how to keep them cool in summer is simply wishing to fulfill this mind's filial care, fearing the least admixture of human desire. It is simply studying until one obtains this mind.
“If this mind has no selfish human desire and is purely Heaven's principle, it is sincere in filial care. In winter it naturally thinks of the parents' cold and seeks a fitting way to warm them; in summer it naturally thinks of their heat and seeks a fitting way to cool them. These are all particular expressions issuing from the sincerely filial mind. There must first be this sincerely filial mind; then these expressions issue forth.
“Compare a tree. This sincerely filial mind is the root; its many expressions are branches and leaves. First there must be a root, then branches and leaves. One does not first seek branches and leaves and then plant a root.
“The Record of Ritual says: ‘A filial child with deep love must have a harmonious manner. With a harmonious manner, there must be a delighted expression. With a delighted expression, there must be a gentle bearing.’ There must be deep love as the root; then these follow naturally.”
4 · Practice Beyond Correct Forms
Zheng Chaoshuo asked, “Must the highest good also sometimes be sought in affairs and things?”
The Master said, “The highest good is simply this mind's utmost purity in Heaven's principle. How could you seek it further in affairs and things? Try giving a few examples.”
Chaoshuo said, “For example, serving parents: one must seek what is fitting in the arrangements for warmth and coolness and in the provision of nourishment. Only then is there the highest good. That is why there is the work of learning, inquiry, reflection and discrimination.”
The Master said, “If it were only arranging warmth and coolness and providing nourishment fittingly, a day or two of discussion could exhaust it. What need would there be for learning, inquiry, reflection and discrimination?
“Rather, in arranging warmth and coolness, one seeks only the mind's utmost purity in Heaven's principle; in providing nourishment, one seeks only the mind's utmost purity in Heaven's principle. Here, without the work of learning, inquiry, reflection and discrimination, a hair's breadth of error may become a thousand li. Thus even sages receive the added instruction of refinement and oneness.
“If merely getting those formal arrangements right were called the highest good, then today's actors, who perform many arrangements of warmth, coolness and nourishment correctly, could also be called possessors of the highest good.”
On that day Ai again gained some understanding.
5 · Knowing and Acting Are One
Because Ai had not understood the Master's teaching that knowing and acting are one, he debated it back and forth with Zongxian and Weixian. Unable to decide, he asked the Master.
The Master said, “Try giving an example.”
Ai said, “There are many people today who know that one should be filial to one's father and respectful toward one's elder brother, yet cannot practice filial care or fraternal respect. Knowing and acting are plainly two things.”
The Master said, “Selfish desire has already cut them apart. This is no longer the original constitution of knowing and acting. No one knows without acting. To know and not act is simply not yet to know.
“When sages and worthies teach knowing and acting, they mean precisely to restore and settle that original constitution. They do not mean to leave you merely as you are. Thus the Great Learning points out genuine knowing and acting for people to see: ‘as loving a beautiful sight, as hating a foul smell.’ Seeing a beautiful sight belongs to knowing; loving it belongs to acting. Yet as soon as one sees the beautiful sight, one already loves it. It is not that one first sees it and afterward forms another intention to love it.
“Smelling a foul odor belongs to knowing; hating it belongs to acting. As soon as one smells the foul odor, one already hates it. It is not that one smells it and afterward forms a separate intention to hate it. Someone whose nose is blocked may see something foul before him, but without having smelled it, he does not particularly hate it. This is simply because he has not yet known its stink.
“Likewise, when we say someone knows filial care or fraternal respect, he must already have practiced them before he can be said to know them. Could someone merely understand how to say a few words about filial care and fraternal respect and thereby be called one who knows them?
“Again, to know pain one must already have felt pain; to know cold one must already have felt cold; to know hunger one must already have felt hunger. How can knowing and acting be separated? This is their original constitution, without selfish intent cutting it apart. Sages teach that one must reach this point before it can be called knowing. Otherwise one has simply not yet known.
“What urgent and substantial work this is! What is the intention of those today who insist upon making knowing and acting two? What is my intention in calling them one? If you do not understand the purpose of the formulation, what use is it merely to talk about one or two?”
Ai said, “When the ancients spoke of knowing and acting as two, they also meant people to see the distinction clearly. On one side they would do the work of knowing, on the other the work of acting; only then would the work have something to rest on.”
The Master said, “That loses the ancients' purpose. I have often said: knowing is the guiding intent of acting; acting is the work of knowing. Knowing is acting's beginning; acting is knowing's completion. If you understand this, speaking only of knowing already includes acting; speaking only of acting already includes knowing.
“The ancients spoke both of knowing and of acting because there is a kind of person who muddles along doing whatever he pleases, wholly unable to reflect or examine himself. This is merely blind activity and reckless doing. Thus they had to speak of knowing before such a person could act rightly.
“There is another kind who speculates vaguely in empty space, utterly unwilling to practice concretely in person. This is merely guessing at echoes and shadows. Thus they had to speak of acting before such a person could truly know.
“These were words the ancients could not avoid, correcting one-sidedness and remedying defects. Once you see this intention, a single word is enough. But people now divide knowing and acting into two jobs, thinking that one must know first and only then act: ‘For now I shall study, discuss and do the work of knowing. Once I truly know, I shall do the work of acting.’ Thus throughout life they never act and throughout life they never know. This is no small illness, nor did it arise yesterday.
“My present teaching of the unity of knowing and acting is medicine precisely for this illness. Nor have I invented it from nothing: the original constitution of knowing and acting has always been so. If you now know the purpose, there is no harm in speaking of two, for they are still one. If you do not understand the purpose, even calling them one accomplishes nothing. It is merely idle talk.”
6 · Investigating Things and Making Intention Sincere
Ai asked, “Yesterday, hearing your teaching on resting in the highest good, I felt that my work had a place to apply effort. Yet after thinking about it, I still cannot reconcile it with Master Zhu's instruction on investigating things.”
The Master said, “Investigating things is the work of resting in the highest good. Once you know the highest good, you know investigating things.”
Ai said, “Yesterday, reasoning from your teaching toward the explanation of investigating things, I seemed to see its general outline. But Master Zhu's instruction draws evidence from the Documents' ‘refinement and oneness,’ the Analects' ‘breadth and restraint’ and Mencius' ‘fully realizing the mind and knowing nature.’ That is why I cannot feel settled.”
The Master said, “Zixia firmly trusted the sage; Zengzi turned back and sought within himself. Firm trust is indeed right, but it is not as directly pressing as seeking within oneself. Since you have not obtained conviction in your mind, how can you grow accustomed to old reports instead of seeking what is right? Master Zhu likewise honored and trusted Master Cheng, yet where his mind was not convinced, when did he ever follow carelessly?
“Refinement and oneness, breadth and restraint, fully realizing the mind: these inherently accord with my explanation. You have simply not thought it through. Master Zhu's instruction on investigating things cannot avoid forced connections: it is not the original purpose.
“Refinement is the work of oneness; breadth is the work of restraint. Since you, Yueren, already understand knowing and acting as one, this can be made clear in one sentence.
“‘Fully realizing the mind, knowing nature and knowing Heaven’ concerns those born knowing and practicing at ease. ‘Preserving the mind, nourishing nature and serving Heaven’ concerns those who know through learning and practice because they recognize its benefit. ‘Not being of two minds over an early or long death, cultivating oneself and awaiting what comes’ concerns those who know through difficulty and practice with effort.
“Master Zhu misinterpreted investigating things because he read this sequence backward. Taking ‘fully realizing the mind and knowing nature’ as ‘things investigated and knowledge extended,’ he required beginners immediately to do the work of those born knowing and practicing at ease. How could they do it?”
Ai asked, “Why does fully realizing the mind and knowing nature belong to being born knowing and practicing at ease?”
The Master said, “Nature is the mind's substance; Heaven is nature's source. Fully realizing the mind is fully realizing nature. Only the world's utmost sincerity can fully realize its nature and know Heaven and Earth's transforming nourishment.
“‘Preserving the mind’ means the mind has not yet been fully realized. ‘Knowing Heaven’ uses ‘knowing’ as in administering a prefecture or county: it is one's own allotted business; one is already one with Heaven. ‘Serving Heaven’ is like a son serving his father or a minister his ruler. One must reverently attend and receive commands to avoid failure. One still stands as two with Heaven. This is the distinction between a sage and a worthy.
“As for not being of two minds over early or long death, it teaches learners to give themselves wholeheartedly to goodness, not changing the mind set on goodness because of obstruction or success, an early or a long life. Simply cultivate oneself and await the allotment. See that obstruction and success, long and short life have an allotment, so that these need not move the mind.
“Although serving Heaven still makes two with Heaven, one already sees Heaven before oneself. Awaiting the allotment is like not yet having met face to face and waiting here. This is the beginner's first establishment of the mind, with the sense of difficulty and effort. Now people reverse the order, leaving learners nowhere to begin.”
Ai said, “Yesterday, hearing your teaching, I dimly saw that the work had to be like this. Hearing this account now, I have still less doubt. Yesterday morning I reflected that the ‘things’ in ‘investigating things’ are precisely ‘affairs,’ all spoken of from the mind.”
The Master said, “Yes. The body's ruler is the mind; what issues from the mind is intention; intention's original constitution is knowing; what intention is directed toward is a thing.
“If intention is directed toward serving parents, serving parents is one thing. If intention is directed toward serving the ruler, serving the ruler is one thing. If intention is directed toward benevolence to the people and love for things, these are one thing. If intention is directed toward seeing, hearing, speaking and moving, these are one thing. This is why I say there is no principle outside the mind and no thing outside the mind.
“The Doctrine of the Mean says, ‘Without sincerity there is no thing.’ The Great Learning's work of making bright virtue bright is simply making intention sincere. The work of making intention sincere is simply investigating things.”
7 · Rectifying What Is Not Right
The Master also said, “The ge in ‘investigating things’ is like ge in Mencius' ‘the great person rectifies the ruler's mind’: removing what is not right in the mind to fulfill the rightness of its original constitution. Wherever intention and thought are directed, remove what is not right and fulfill what is right. Then there is no time or place that is not preserving Heaven's principle. This is exhausting principle. Heaven's principle is bright virtue; exhausting principle is making bright virtue bright.”
8 · Innate Moral Knowing
He also said, “Knowing is the mind's original constitution. The mind naturally knows. Seeing one's father, it naturally knows filial care; seeing one's elder brother, it naturally knows fraternal respect; seeing a child falling into a well, it naturally knows compassion. This is innate moral knowing, not something sought outside.
“If the issuing of innate moral knowing has no obstruction from selfish intent, it is what is called ‘fully extending the compassionate mind, so that benevolence is inexhaustible in use.’ But ordinary people cannot be without such obstructions. Thus the work of extending knowledge and investigating things is necessary.
“Overcome selfishness and restore principle, and the mind's innate moral knowing is no longer obstructed. It can fill everything and flow freely. This is extending one's knowing. When knowing is extended, intention is sincere.”
9 · Broad Learning and Ritual Restraint
Ai asked, “You take broad learning in cultural forms as the work of restraining oneself through ritual. I have thought deeply but cannot understand. Please give me a brief explanation.”
The Master said, “‘Ritual’ is precisely ‘principle.’ Principle's manifest and visible expression is called cultural form; cultural form's hidden and subtle aspect is called principle. They are just one thing.
“Restraint through ritual simply means wanting this mind to be purely one Heaven's principle. To make this mind purely Heaven's principle, one must work where principle appears. If it appears in serving parents, learn there to preserve Heaven's principle. If it appears in serving the ruler, learn there to preserve Heaven's principle. If it appears in dealing with wealth and rank, poverty and lowliness, learn there to preserve Heaven's principle. If it appears in dealing with hardship and border peoples, learn there to preserve Heaven's principle.
“In action or rest, speaking or silence, it is nowhere otherwise. Wherever it appears, learn upon that very place to preserve Heaven's principle. This is broad learning in cultural forms; it is the work of restraint through ritual. Broad learning in cultural forms is refinement; restraint through ritual is oneness.”
10 · One Mind, Not Two
Ai asked, “‘The mind of the Way is always master of the person, while the human mind always obeys its commands.’ Judging from your instruction on refinement and oneness, this statement seems defective.”
The Master said, “Yes. There is one mind. Unmixed with human contrivance, it is called the mind of the Way; mixed with human falsity, it is called the human mind. The human mind obtaining its rightness is the mind of the Way; the mind of the Way losing its rightness is the human mind. There were never two minds to begin with.
“Master Cheng said, ‘The human mind is human desire; the mind of the Way is Heaven's principle.’ Although the words seem to divide them, the intention gets it right. But to say, ‘The mind of the Way is master, while the human mind obeys its commands,’ makes two minds. Heaven's principle and selfish human desire cannot stand together. How could Heaven's principle be master while human desire also follows and obeys its commands?”
Reading note
In the resumed quotation the project's source has 生, ‘life,’ where the first quotation and the whole argument have 主, ‘master.’ The English follows the repeated governing contrast and discloses the anomalous graph here. It does not change the Chinese source.
11 · Classics, History and Genuine Practice
Ai asked about Wenzhongzi and Han Tuizhi.
The Master said, “Tuizhi was merely an outstanding literary man; Wenzhongzi was a worthy Confucian. Later people exalt Tuizhi simply because of his prose. In fact he falls very far short of Wenzhongzi.”
Ai asked, “Then what about Wenzhongzi's error in composing imitations of the classics?”
The Master said, “I fear one cannot condemn imitating the classics altogether. Tell me: how does the intention behind later Confucians' writing compare with imitating the classics?”
Ai said, “Worldly Confucians' writing is not free of a wish for reputation, yet it aims to illuminate the Way. Imitating the classics seems purely for reputation.”
The Master said, “Writing to illuminate the Way—what model does that follow?”
“Confucius edited and transmitted the Six Classics to illuminate the Way.”
“Then is imitating the classics alone not following Confucius?”
Ai said, “Writing can bring something about the Way to light. Imitating the classics seems merely to imitate their traces, perhaps adding nothing to the Way.”
The Master said, “By illuminating the Way, do you mean making people return to simplicity and genuine plainness, manifesting it in actual conduct? Or beautifying phrases merely to clamor before the world?
“The world's great disorder comes from empty literary form prevailing while actual practice declines. If the Way were clear throughout the world, the Six Classics would not need to be transmitted. Confucius edited and transmitted them because he could not avoid it.
“From Fuyi's drawing of the hexagrams to King Wen and the Duke of Zhou, explanations of the Changes, such as the Linked Mountains and Returning to the Hidden, multiplied in unknown numbers. The Way of the Changes fell into great disorder. Confucius saw the world's taste for literary elaboration grow daily and knew these explanations would become endless and unbounded. He therefore selected and expounded the explanations of King Wen and the Duke of Zhou, judging that these alone obtained the fundamental source. The confused explanations were all discarded, and only then did the world's accounts of the Changes become unified.
“So too with the Documents, Odes, Ritual, Music and Spring and Autumn Annals. After the Canons and Counsels in the Documents, and below the Two Southern Collections in the Odes, there were such writings as the Nine Hills and Eight Cords, together with wanton, shrill and unrestrained verses in unknown thousands and hundreds. By then the named objects and measures of ritual and music were likewise inexhaustible. Confucius cut them down, transmitted and corrected them; only then were those accounts discarded.
“In the Documents, Odes, Ritual and Music, when did Confucius ever add a single word? The theories in today's Record of Ritual were all pieced together by later Confucians and are no longer Confucius' old text. As for the Spring and Autumn Annals, although it is said that Confucius made it, it is actually all the old wording of Lu's histories. What is called ‘writing down’ writes down the old; what is called ‘cutting out’ removes excess. There is subtraction without addition.
“Confucius transmitted the Six Classics because he feared elaborate writing would disorder the world. He sought to simplify and could not simplify enough, making people strive to remove literary embellishment and seek actuality, rather than teaching them through embellishment.
“After the Spring and Autumn Annals, elaboration flourished still more, and the world became still more disordered. The First Emperor incurred guilt by burning books because he acted from private intent and should not have burned the Six Classics. Had his purpose then been to illuminate the Way, taking and burning all theories opposed to the classics and rebellious against principle would secretly have accorded with the intention of editing and transmitting.
“From Qin and Han onward, writing flourished still more. To remove it all now is certainly impossible. One should simply model oneself on Confucius, record and bring forward what is near to right, and then strange and perverse accounts should gradually fall away of themselves.
“I do not know what Wenzhongzi's intention was in imitating the classics. I deeply approve the undertaking and believe that, were a sage to arise again, he could not change this.
“The world remains ungoverned simply because literary form flourishes while actuality declines. People put forward their own views and compete in novelty to dazzle custom and win praise, merely confusing the world's understanding and blocking its ears and eyes. Everywhere people rush to ornament phrases to become known, no longer knowing the conduct of strengthening the root, valuing actuality and returning to simplicity and genuine plainness. Writers have helped initiate all this.”
Ai said, “Yet some writings cannot be dispensed with. For instance, without the Zuo Tradition, the Spring and Autumn Annals might be difficult to understand.”
The Master said, “If the Spring and Autumn Annals must await the Tradition before becoming clear, it is a riddle with its ending omitted. Why would a sage trouble himself to make such difficult, obscure words? Much of the Zuo Tradition is the old wording of Lu's histories. If the Annals needed it to become clear, why would Confucius have cut it out?”
Ai said, “Yichuan also said, ‘The Tradition is the case record; the Classic is the verdict.’ When the text records ‘so-and-so killed his ruler’ or ‘attacked such-and-such a state,’ without understanding the affair it may be hard to judge.”
The Master said, “I fear Yichuan's statement too merely follows worldly Confucians and misses the sage's intention in making the Classic. If it records ‘killed his ruler,’ killing the ruler is already the crime. Why ask further about its details? Punitive expeditions should issue from the Son of Heaven. If it records ‘attacked a state,’ attacking the state is already the crime. Why ask further about its details?
“The sage transmitted the Six Classics simply to set people's minds right, simply to preserve Heaven's principle and remove human desires. He therefore spoke repeatedly of preserving Heaven's principle and removing human desires. When people asked, he spoke according to each one's capacity, yet would not say too much, fearing that they would seek only in words. Thus he said, ‘I wish not to speak.’ As for all the affairs that indulge human desires and extinguish Heaven's principle, how could he be willing to show people their details? That would foster disorder and guide wickedness.
“Thus Mencius said, ‘Among Confucius' followers none spoke of the affairs of Dukes Huan and Wen; that is why later generations have no transmitted account.’ This is the established practice of Confucius' school. Worldly Confucians understand only the learning of a hegemon, so they want to know many secret plots and crafty schemes. Their hearts are entirely fixed on achievement and profit, precisely contrary to the sage's intention in making the Classics. How could their thinking reach an understanding?”
He sighed and said, “It is not easy to speak of this with someone who has not attained Heaven's virtue.”
He also said, “Confucius said, ‘I can still remember when historians left gaps in their texts.’ Mencius said, ‘Better have no Documents than trust the Documents entirely. From the Completion of War I take only two or three slips.’ When Confucius edited the Documents, he retained only a few pieces from the four or five hundred years of Tang, Yu and Xia. Was there not a single further event? Yet this is all he transmitted. We can see the sage's intention. The sage wanted only to remove elaborate writing; later Confucians want only to add more.”
Ai said, “The sage made the Classics simply to remove human desires and preserve Heaven's principle. Concerning affairs from the Five Hegemons downward, it is indeed true that he did not wish to show people the details. But why is there so little about the time before Yao and Shun?”
The Master said, “Affairs in the time of Xi and the Yellow Emperor were remote and sparsely recorded, and few transmitted them. One can imagine the situation. It was entirely a world of rich simplicity and plainness, without the slightest literary ornament. This was the government of highest antiquity, beyond the reach of later ages.”
Ai said, “Yet there were transmitted writings such as the Three Ancient Records. Why did Confucius cut them out?”
The Master said, “Even if transmitted, they gradually ceased to suit changing times. Customs opened out, literary ornament grew daily, and by the end of Zhou one could no longer turn back even to Xia and Shang customs. How much less Tang and Yu, and still less Xi and the Yellow Emperor!
“Yet though their government differed, their Way was one. Confucius followed the tradition of Yao and Shun and took Wen and Wu as his models. Wen and Wu's institutions were precisely Yao and Shun's Way, but governing according to the time, their arrangements, policies and commands had already changed. Even Xia and Shang undertakings, applied to Zhou, would fail to fit in places. Thus ‘the Duke of Zhou thought to combine the three kings; where there was a lack of fit, he looked upward and reflected, continuing from day into night.’ How could highest antiquity's government be practiced again? This is certainly something the sage could leave aside.”
He also said, “Devoting oneself solely to nonaction, unable like the three kings to govern according to the time and insisting on practicing highest antiquity's customs: this is the learning of the Buddhist and Daoist schools. Governing according to the time, unable like the three kings to root everything in the Way and instead acting with a mind set on achievement and profit: this is the undertaking of hegemons and those below them. Later Confucians discuss and discuss, yet understand only the techniques of hegemony.”
Reading notes
The Master's claims about the composition, editing and transmission of the classics remain his argument. The English does not rewrite them into a separate historical reconstruction. Fuyi, Xi and Baoxi elsewhere in this batch preserve the source's forms of the ancient culture-hero's name. The Three Ancient Records renders the title Sanfen; the other early titles are also retained. Tang and Yu here designate the eras of Yao and Shun, not the later Tang dynasty.
The rare repeated word 𫍢𫍢 is read as noisy contention, reflected in “clamor.” The two or three slips, four or five hundred years, the separate collections and each stage of the argument are retained. The discussion's provocative statement about the First Emperor and the later schools is not omitted or softened into a summary. Chinese source text and reading layers are unchanged.
12 · Government and Its Root
He also said, “The government of Tang and Yu and earlier cannot be restored in later ages: it may be left aside. Government below the Three Dynasties cannot be modeled in later ages: it may be cut out. Only the government of the Three Dynasties can be practiced. Yet when people discuss the Three Dynasties without understanding their root, attending only to their branches, that too cannot be restored.”
13 · Classics and History
Ai said, “Earlier Confucians, in discussing the Six Classics, take the Spring and Autumn Annals as history. History records events in particular; I fear its character may ultimately differ somewhat from that of the Five Classics.”
The Master said, “Spoken of in terms of events, it is called history; spoken of in terms of the Way, it is called a classic. Events are the Way; the Way is events. The Spring and Autumn Annals is also a classic; the Five Classics are also histories. The Changes is Baoxi's history; the Documents is the history of Yao, Shun and those after them; Ritual and Music are histories of the Three Dynasties. Their events are the same; their Way is the same. Where could there be the difference you speak of?”
14 · The Odes and Textual Transmission
He also said, “The Five Classics too are only histories. History illuminates good and evil and provides instruction and warning. Where goodness can instruct, it sometimes preserves the traces to show a model. Where evil can warn, it preserves the warning but removes the details to close off wickedness.”
Ai said, “Preserving the traces to show a model also preserves Heaven's principle as it is in itself. Removing the details to close off wickedness also checks human desires as they are about to sprout. Is that so?”
The Master said, “The sage's making of the Classics certainly has no intention other than this. Yet you need not cling to the wording.”
Ai asked again, “If evil that can warn is preserved as a warning while its details are removed to close off wickedness, why did he alone not remove Zheng and Wei from the Odes? Earlier Confucians say, ‘Evil can chastise and correct people's unrestrained intent.’ Is that right?”
The Master said, “The Odes is no longer the old text of Confucius' school. Confucius said, ‘Banish Zheng's sounds: Zheng's sounds are licentious.’ He also said, ‘I hate Zheng's sounds for disordering proper music,’ and, ‘The music of Zheng and Wei is the music of a ruined state.’ This is the established practice of Confucius' school.
“The three hundred pieces Confucius fixed were all what is called proper music. All could be performed at the suburban sacrifices and ancestral temple, or in village and neighborhood. All served to express and spread peace and harmony, steep and nourish virtue and nature, and change customs. How could they contain such things? That would foster licentiousness and guide wickedness.
“These must have been attached by worldly Confucians after the Qin fires to make up the number of three hundred pieces. Wanton verses are widely liked and transmitted in the world, just as happens everywhere in today's lanes and alleys. ‘Evil can chastise and correct people's unrestrained intent’ is an explanation invented after failing to find the real account.”
Reading note
The allegations about the Odes' transmitted text, like those in the preceding discussion of the classics, belong to the Master's interpretation. The translator retains them and the number three hundred rather than replacing them with a modern textual account.
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