Record of Teaching and Practice
Recorded by the Disciple Xue Kan
Read in English. Switch to Original for word notes, or select text to ask a question.
95 · Resolve Without Rigid Clinging
Kan asked, “Holding to resolve is like a pain in the heart. With the whole mind upon the pain, how could one have time for idle talk or idle affairs?”
The Master said, “It is also good for beginners to work this way. But one must understand, ‘It goes out and comes in at no fixed time; no one knows its dwelling.’ The mind's spirit and illumination are originally like this. Only then does the work have a place to rest. If one merely clings to it rigidly, I fear another illness will arise within the work.”
96 · Nourishment and Inquiry
Kan asked, “If we devote ourselves to nourishment without attending to inquiry, what if we mistake desire for principle?”
The Master said, “People must know how to learn. Inquiry too is only nourishment. Failure to inquire merely shows that one's resolve to nourish is not earnest.”
“What does knowing how to learn mean?”
“Tell me first: why do you learn? What do you learn?”
“I have heard your teaching that learning means learning to preserve Heaven's principle. The mind's original constitution is Heaven's principle. To recognize Heaven's principle, one only needs one's own mind to have no selfish intent.”
“Then simply overcome selfish intent. Why worry that principle and desire are unclear?”
“Precisely because I fear I do not recognize these selfish intentions truly.”
“It is all because resolve is not earnest. If resolve is earnest, eyes and ears are both directed here. How could recognition fail? ‘Everyone has the mind that judges right and wrong.’ It need not be sought outside. Inquiry too is only personally examining what one's own mind sees. Could there be another vision outside the mind?”
97 · Genuine Work and Reported Effects
The Master asked the friends seated with him, “How has your work been recently?”
One described a sense of emptiness and clarity.
The Master said, “That describes an appearance.”
Another related differences between his present and former condition.
The Master said, “That describes results.”
The two were bewildered and asked for correction.
The Master said, “Our work today is simply to make the mind that wishes for goodness genuine and earnest. When it is genuine and earnest, one moves toward goodness upon seeing it and corrects a fault upon having it. Only this is genuine, earnest work. Then human desires diminish daily and Heaven's principle becomes clearer daily.
“If you merely keep seeking appearances and reporting results, you are encouraging growth by force and adding the illness of outward pursuit. That is not the work.”
98 · Disagreement Without Seeking Novelty
While reading, the friends frequently picked out points on which to criticize Hui'an.
The Master said, “To have a deliberate wish to differ is already wrong. My explanations sometimes differ from Hui'an's because, at the place where one enters and begins, a hair's breadth makes a thousand li. I cannot avoid distinguishing them. Yet my mind and Hui'an's mind have never differed. As for his other clear and fitting explanations of wording and meaning, how could one change a single word?”
99 · Pure Gold and Sageliness
Xiyuan asked, “One can reach sagehood through learning, yet Boyi and Yi Yin ultimately differed from Confucius in talent and ability. In what sense are they all called sages?”
The Master said, “What makes a sage a sage is only a mind pure in Heaven's principle, unmixed with human desires. It is like what makes refined gold refined: full purity, unmixed with copper or lead. A person becomes a sage only upon reaching purity in Heaven's principle; gold becomes refined only upon reaching full purity.
“Yet sages' talents and abilities differ in size, just as gold differs in weight. Yao and Shun are like ten thousand yi; King Wen and Confucius, nine thousand yi; Yu, Tang and King Wu, seven or eight thousand yi; Boyi and Yi Yin, four or five thousand yi.
“Their talents differ, but their purity in Heaven's principle is the same, so all can be called sages. Likewise the weights differ, but full purity is the same, so all can be called refined gold. Put five thousand yi among ten thousand yi: their full purity is the same. Place Boyi and Yi Yin among Yao and Confucius: their purity in Heaven's principle is the same.
“What makes refined gold lies in full purity, not weight. What makes sagehood lies in purity in Heaven's principle, not talent or ability. Thus even an ordinary person willing to learn can become a sage by making this mind pure in Heaven's principle. One liang of gold compared with ten thousand yi differs enormously in weight, yet in full purity it need feel no shame. This is why it is said, ‘Everyone can become Yao or Shun.’
“To learn to be a sage is merely to remove human desires and preserve Heaven's principle, like refining gold to seek full purity. If the gold's purity is not far short, less refining is needed and success is easy; the lower the purity, the harder the refining.
“People's qi dispositions differ in clarity and turbidity, purity and mixture; some are above average, some below. In relation to the Way, some know from birth and practice at ease, some know through learning and practice through recognizing benefit. Those below must do a hundred times what others do once and a thousand times what others do ten times. Yet in accomplishment they are one.
“Later generations do not know that sagehood's root is purity in Heaven's principle. Instead they seek the sage solely through knowledge and ability. They think: ‘The sage knows everything and can do everything. I must understand each item of his knowledge and ability.’ Thus they do not work at Heaven's principle, but exhaust their attention and strength burrowing into books, investigating named objects and imitating outward traces.
“The broader their knowledge, the more human desires grow; the greater their ability, the more Heaven's principle is obscured. It is just like seeing someone with ten thousand yi of pure gold, yet instead of refining one's own purity to be unashamed before his refinement, vainly aspiring to his weight and seeking to equal his ten thousand yi. One throws in tin, lead, copper and iron indiscriminately. Weight increases while purity declines, until in the end there is no gold left.”
Yueren, beside him, said, “This analogy is enough to break worldly Confucians' fragmented confusion. It greatly benefits later learners.”
The Master also said, “In our work we seek only daily diminution, not daily increase. Remove one part of human desire and you restore one part of Heaven's principle. How light and free! How simple and easy!”
100 · Master Zhu and the Order of Learning
Shide asked, “Your teaching on investigating things is clear and simple enough for everyone to see. Duke Wen possessed unsurpassed intelligence. Why did he fail to examine this fully?”
The Master said, “Duke Wen had great spirit and force. From early youth he meant to carry forward the past and open the future, so he worked continually at research and writing. Had he first cultivated himself personally and earnestly, he would naturally have had no leisure for this.
“After virtue became abundant, if he truly worried that the Way was unclear, then, like Confucius withdrawing to put the Six Classics in order, cutting complexity into simplicity and instructing later learners, he would not have needed much research. Duke Wen wrote many books early and regretted it only late in life. He had done things backward.”
Shide said, “His late regrets include speaking of ‘the error in the formerly fixed text,’ asking ‘Even if I can read books, what benefit is that to my own undertaking?’ and saying ‘This has nothing at all to do with guarding books and clinging to words.’ Only then did he regret his earlier misdirected work and turn toward personal cultivation.”
He said, “Yes. This is where Duke Wen is beyond our reach. His strength was great: once he regretted, he turned. A pity he died soon afterward, without time to correct his many habitual errors.”
101 · Flowers, Weeds and Likes
Kan was removing weeds among flowers and said, “Why is goodness so hard to cultivate and evil so hard to remove between Heaven and Earth?”
The Master said, “Only because they have not yet been cultivated or removed.”
After a little while he said, “Seeing good and evil this way begins from thoughts of the bodily shell, and so goes wrong.”
Kan did not understand.
He said, “In Heaven and Earth's living activity, flowers and weeds are alike. When was there a distinction of good and evil? You want to view flowers, so you take flowers as good and weeds as evil. If you wanted to use the weeds, you would take them as good again. Such good and evil arise from your mind's likes and dislikes. That is how we know the judgment is mistaken.”
“Then is there neither good nor evil?”
“Neither good nor evil belongs to principle's stillness; good and evil belong to qi's movement. Not being stirred by qi, there is neither good nor evil. This is called the highest good.”
“Buddhists too speak of neither good nor evil. How is this different?”
“Buddhists cling to neither good nor evil and so attend to nothing. This cannot govern the world. The sage's neither good nor evil is simply ‘manufacturing no likes’ and ‘manufacturing no dislikes,’ not being stirred by qi. Yet ‘following the king's Way’ and ‘gathering at the ultimate standard’ naturally mean following Heaven's principle throughout, with work that completes and assists things.”
“Since weeds are not evil, they should not be removed.”
“That is precisely the Buddhist and Daoist view. If weeds obstruct, what prevents you from removing them?”
“But that again manufactures likes and dislikes.”
“Not manufacturing likes and dislikes does not mean having none at all. That would be a person without awareness. Not manufacturing them means only that likes and dislikes follow principle throughout, without adding another scrap of willful intent. Then it is as though one had not deliberately liked or disliked.”
“How can removing weeds follow principle throughout without adding intent?”
“Weeds obstruct, and principle too calls for their removal: simply remove them. If by chance they are not removed immediately, do not let it burden the mind. Add a scrap of willful intent, and the mind's constitution is burdened, with many occasions for qi to be stirred.”
“Then good and evil are wholly absent from things?”
“They lie only in your mind. Following principle is good; being stirred by qi is evil.”
“Ultimately, things have no good or evil.”
“As in the mind, so in things. Worldly Confucians do not know this. They leave the mind to pursue things and misread the learning of investigating things. Racing and seeking outside all day, they achieve only snatching righteousness through isolated acts, acting throughout life without clarity and practicing without examination.”
“Then what about ‘loving a beautiful sight and hating a foul smell’?”
“That is precisely following principle throughout. Heaven's principle naturally requires it, originally without selfish intent manufacturing likes or dislikes.”
“How could loving a beautiful sight and hating a foul smell not involve intention?”
“It is sincere intention, not selfish intention. Sincere intention only follows Heaven's principle. Yet even following Heaven's principle allows no added scrap of willful intent. Thus attachment to anger or liking prevents one from obtaining rightness. There must be spacious, great impartiality: only that is the mind's original constitution. Know this and you know the center before arousal.”
Bosheng said, “You say, ‘Weeds obstruct, and principle too calls for their removal.’ Why then does this again begin from the bodily shell?”
He said, “You must examine this in your own mind. What mind makes you want to remove weeds? What mind made Zhou Maoshu leave the grass before his window unremoved?”
102 · The Guiding Center
The Master told learners, “In learning you must obtain a guiding center before the work has somewhere to rest. Even if you cannot yet work without interruption, it is like a boat with a rudder: lift it and you awaken. Otherwise, though engaged in learning, you achieve only snatching righteousness through isolated acts, acting without clarity and practicing without examination, not the great root and universally realized Way.”
He also said, “Once you see it, speaking across or along is all right. If you understand here but not there, you have simply not yet seen it.”
103 · Examinations and Resolve
Someone asked about the unavoidable burden upon learning of preparing for civil examinations for one's parents' sake.
The Master said, “If preparing for examinations for parents' sake burdens learning, does cultivating fields to nourish parents also burden learning? An earlier worthy said, ‘Fear only that it takes away resolve.’ I fear only that one's resolve to learn is not genuine and earnest.”
104 · Busy Affairs and a Settled Ruler
Chongyi asked, “My state of mind is usually busy. It is busy amid affairs, but busy without affairs too. Why?”
The Master said, “Heaven and Earth's movement of qi originally never stops for a breath, yet it has a ruler. Thus it is neither early nor late, hurried nor slow. Through a thousand changes and ten thousand transformations, the ruler is always settled. People receive this and live.
“When the ruler is settled, one is unceasing like Heaven's movement. Even responding to ten thousand changes, one remains composed and free. This is what is called ‘Heaven's lord at peace, the hundred bodily parts obeying.’ Without a ruler, there is only this qi running loose. How could one not be busy?”
105 · Reputation and Actuality
The Master said, “The great illness in learning is love of reputation.”
Kan said, “Since the year before last I thought this illness had lessened. Examining carefully lately, I know it has not. Must it mean outwardly seeking to impress people? Is simply being pleased by praise and troubled by criticism this illness breaking out?”
“Exactly. Reputation stands opposite actuality. As concern for actuality grows by one part, concern for reputation lessens by one part. If one's mind is wholly concerned with actuality, it has no concern for reputation. If concern for actuality were like hunger seeking food or thirst seeking drink, how could one still have time to love reputation?”
He also said, “In ‘He fears that, when life ends, his name is not matched,’ read the character for ‘matched’ in the departing tone. It has the same meaning as ‘The gentleman is ashamed when reputation exceeds actuality.’ If actuality does not match reputation, it can still be repaired while one lives; once dead, there is no catching up.
“‘Forty or fifty and still not heard’ means not having heard the Way, not having no reputation. Confucius said, ‘That is reputation, not attainment.’ How could he expect this of people?”
106 · Regret as Medicine
Kan often regretted his faults.
The Master said, “Regret and awakening are medicine for removing illness, but their value lies in changing. If they linger within, the medicine gives rise to another illness.”
107 · Do Not Compete Over Weight
Dezhang said, “Your analogy of refined gold for sagehood, weight for a sage's capacity and refining for a learner's work is deeply pressing. Only calling Yao and Shun ten thousand yi and Confucius nine thousand yi seems doubtful.”
The Master said, “This too starts from the bodily shell, so you fight over weight on a sage's behalf. Without starting from the bodily shell, Yao and Shun's ten thousand yi are not too much, nor Confucius' nine thousand too little. Yao and Shun's ten thousand are simply Confucius'; Confucius' nine thousand are simply Yao and Shun's. Originally there is no other and self: that is why they are sages.
“Discuss only refinement and oneness, not more and less. If their minds are alike in purity of Heaven's principle, they are all called sages. How could their strength and spirit be entirely alike? Later Confucians compare only weights and so drift into achievement and profit.
“Remove the mind that compares weights. Let everyone exhaust his own strength and attention, working only at this mind's purity in Heaven's principle. Then each possesses it himself and each becomes wholly complete: the great complete their greatness, the small their smallness. Without yearning outside, nothing is lacking.
“This is the solid undertaking of making goodness clear and making oneself sincere. Later Confucians do not understand sagely learning. They do not recognize and extend the innate moral knowing and innate ability within their own minds, but seek knowledge of what they do not know and ability to do what they cannot do, merely aspiring to heights and greatness.
“They do not know that their own minds are Jie and Zhou's, yet at every turn they want to perform Yao and Shun's undertakings. How could they? Bustling year after year until old age and death, they never know what they have accomplished. How sad!”
108 · Substance and Function Share One Source
Kan asked, “Earlier Confucians take the mind's stillness as substance and its movement as function. What of this?”
The Master said, “Movement and stillness cannot be made the mind's substance and function. Movement and stillness are times. Speak of substance, and function is within substance; speak of function, and substance is within function. This is called substance and function sharing one source. But it is harmless to say that in stillness one can see its substance and in movement its function.”
109 · Willingness to Change
Someone asked, “Why can the highest wisdom and lowest foolishness not be changed?”
The Master said, “It is not that they cannot change. It is only that they are unwilling to change.”
110 · Different Accounts of Friendship
Asked about the passage where Zixia's disciples ask about friendship, the Master said, “Zixia speaks of friendship among the young; Zizhang speaks of friendship among mature people. Use their words well and both are right.”
111 · Learning and Timely Practice
Ziren asked, “‘To learn and practice at due times—is that not a delight?’ Earlier Confucians say learning means imitating what earlier awakened people did. What of this?”
The Master said, “Learning means learning to remove human desires and preserve Heaven's principle. Undertaking this, one naturally seeks correction from the earlier awakened and examines ancient teachings, putting in much questioning, discrimination, reflection, preservation, examination and overcoming. Yet all this only aims to remove this mind's human desires and preserve its Heaven's principle.
“To say ‘imitating what earlier awakened people did’ speaks of only one part of learning and seems to seek solely outside.
“Practicing at due times: ‘sit like a person representing an ancestor’ does not mean practicing sitting alone, but practicing this mind while sitting. ‘Stand as at purification’ does not mean practicing standing alone, but practicing this mind while standing.
“Delight is the delight in ‘principle and righteousness delight my mind.’ The human mind originally delights in principle and righteousness, as eyes naturally delight in colors and ears in sounds. Only when obscured and burdened by human desires does it fail to delight. Now human desires depart daily and principle and righteousness soak through daily. How could there be no delight?”
112 · The One Thread and the Root
Guoying asked, “Although Zengzi's three daily examinations are pressing, might they be work from before he heard of the one thread running through?”
The Master said, “Confucius told Zengzi of the one thread because he saw that Zengzi had not obtained the essential point of working. If learners truly work at wholeheartedness and reciprocity, is that not the one thread?
“The One is like a tree's root; running through is like its branches and leaves. Without planting the root, what branches and leaves could one obtain? Substance and function share one source. If substance is not established, whence does function arise? The claim that ‘Zengzi had already carefully examined and earnestly practiced its uses in each affair, but did not yet know the oneness of its substance’ is, I fear, incomplete.”
113 · Zigong and Yan Hui
Huang Chengfu asked about the passage, “Who is superior, you or Hui?”
The Master said, “Zigong learned much and remembered it, working upon hearing and seeing. Master Yan worked upon the ground of the mind. Thus the sage asked to awaken Zigong. But Zigong's answer still lay only in knowledge and views. Therefore the sage sighed in regret for him, rather than approving him.”
114 · Anger and Repeated Faults
“Only by possessing the center before arousal could Master Yan avoid transferring anger or making the same mistake twice.”
115 · Pruning and the Seed of Resolve
“Those who plant trees must cultivate the roots; those who plant virtue must nourish the mind. Want a tree to grow, and one must prune its excessive branches when it first comes to life. Want virtue to flourish, and one must remove outside fascinations when first learning. If poetry and prose fascinate one outwardly, spirit and energy gradually leak away into poetry and prose. Every other outside fascination is the same.”
He also said, “My account of learning is work that brings something out of nothing. You must be able to trust it: it is simply establishing resolve. A learner's single resolve toward goodness is like a tree's seed. Only do not force its growth or forget it. Simply continue cultivating it, and naturally it grows day and night: living qi becomes fuller daily, branches and leaves more abundant.
“When a tree first grows, it sends out excessive branches that must be cut off before root and trunk can become great. Beginners are the same. That is why establishing resolve values devoted oneness.”
116 · Felt Insufficiency and Real Gain
People were discussing how one follower worked at nourishment and another at understanding and views.
The Master said, “Those devoted to nourishment see their insufficiency daily; those devoted to views see their surplus daily. Feeling daily insufficient, one daily gains a surplus; feeling daily a surplus, one daily becomes insufficient.”
117 · Reverence and Exhausting Principle
Liang Rifu asked, “Dwelling in reverence and exhausting principle are two affairs. You take them as one. How is this?”
The Master said, “Between Heaven and Earth there is only this one affair. How could there be two? Speak of its myriad distinctions, and there are three hundred major ritual forms and three thousand forms of bearing: how would it stop at two? Tell me first: what is dwelling in reverence? What is exhausting principle?”
“Dwelling in reverence is the work of preservation and nourishment; exhausting principle exhausts the principles of affairs and things.”
“What does one preserve and nourish?”
“Heaven's principle in this mind.”
“Then this too is only exhausting principle. Now tell me how one exhausts the principles of affairs and things.”
“Serving parents, one must exhaust the principle of filial care; serving a ruler, the principle of loyalty.”
“Do the principles of loyalty and filial care lie in ruler and parents, or in one's own mind? If in one's own mind, it is simply exhausting this mind's principle. Now tell me: what is reverence?”
“Only holding to oneness.”
“What is holding to oneness?”
“When reading, putting the whole mind into reading; when meeting affairs, putting the whole mind into them.”
“Then when drinking, one puts the whole mind into drinking; when loving beauty, the whole mind into loving beauty. That is pursuing things. How could it count as work of dwelling in reverence?”
Rifu asked for instruction.
He said, “The One is Heaven's principle. Holding to oneness means the whole mind remains upon Heaven's principle. Know only holding to oneness, without knowing that the One is principle, and amid affairs you pursue things; without affairs you cling to emptiness.
“Only when, with affairs or without them, the whole mind works upon Heaven's principle is dwelling in reverence also exhausting principle. Speak of devoted concentration in exhausting principle and it is called dwelling in reverence; speak of precision in dwelling in reverence and it is called exhausting principle. It is not that, after dwelling in reverence, one has another mind to exhaust principle, or, while exhausting principle, another mind to dwell in reverence. The names differ, but the work is only one affair.
“It is like the Changes' words, ‘Reverence straightens the inside; righteousness squares the outside.’ Reverence is righteousness when there are no affairs; righteousness is reverence amid affairs. The two phrases together speak of one undertaking.
“When Confucius says, ‘Cultivate oneself through reverence,’ he need not speak of righteousness. When Mencius says, ‘Accumulate righteousness,’ he need not speak of reverence. Understand this, and whether speaking across or along, the work is always the same. Cling to words and chase phrases without knowing the root, and one fragments and splits apart, leaving the work nowhere to rest.”
“Why is exhausting principle precisely fully realizing nature?”
“The mind's substance is nature; nature is principle. Exhaust the principle of benevolence by genuinely wanting benevolence and bringing it to its utmost; exhaust righteousness by genuinely wanting righteousness and bringing it to its utmost. Benevolence and righteousness are only my nature, so exhausting principle is fully realizing nature. Mencius' ‘extending the compassionate mind’ until ‘benevolence is inexhaustible in use’ is precisely the work of exhausting principle.”
Rifu said, “Earlier Confucians say, ‘Every grass and tree has principle and must be examined.’ What of that?”
The Master said, “I have no leisure for it. First go and understand your own nature and feelings. One must be able fully to realize human nature before fully realizing things' nature.”
Rifu was startled into understanding.
118 · Knowing as Principle’s Living Clarity
Weigan asked, “How is knowing the mind's original constitution?”
The Master said, “Knowing is principle's numinous aspect. Speak of its ruling and it is called mind; speak of its endowment and it is called nature. No small child fails to know love for parents or respect for elder brothers. If only this living capacity is not blocked by selfish desires and is extended to the full, it is complete.
“Completeness is its original constitution, sharing virtue with Heaven and Earth. Below the sage, people cannot be without obscuration, so investigating things is needed to extend their knowing.”
119 · Sincere Intention and a Right Mind
Shouheng asked, “The Great Learning's work is only making intention sincere, and that work is only investigating things. Cultivating oneself, ordering the family, governing and bringing peace are exhausted in sincere intention. Why is there also work of setting the mind right, with anger or liking preventing its rightness?”
The Master said, “You must think this through yourself. Know this and you know the center before arousal.”
Shouheng asked repeatedly.
He said, “Learning's work has shallow and deep stages. At first, without concretely applying intention to love good and hate evil, how could one do good and remove evil? This concrete application is making intention sincere.
“But people do not know that the mind's original constitution originally contains no single fixed thing. Continually applying intent to love good and hate evil adds this further intention, and then it is not spacious, great impartiality. The Documents' ‘manufacturing no likes or dislikes’ is the original constitution. Thus it is said, ‘With attachment to anger or liking, one does not obtain rightness.’
“Setting the mind right is simply recognizing one's own mind's constitution within the work of making intention sincere, always keeping the mirror empty and the balance level. This is the center before arousal.”
120 · Awareness in Solitude
Zhengzhi asked, “What of the explanation, ‘Caution and fear are work when one does not know; vigilance in solitude is work when one alone knows’?”
The Master said, “There is only one work. Without affairs there is certainly this solitary knowing; amid affairs there is solitary knowing too. If people do not work at this place of solitary knowing, working only where others also know, they practice pretense: ‘Only on seeing a gentleman do they hide themselves.’
“This place of solitary knowing is sincerity's sprout. Here, whether the thought is good or evil, there is no falsifying the fact of knowing. Get this one thing right and a hundred things are right; get it wrong and a hundred are wrong. It is precisely the boundary of kingship and hegemony, righteousness and profit, sincerity and pretense, good and evil.
“Establish it firmly here, and one sets the root straight and clears the source: one establishes sincerity. The spirit and lifeblood of the ancients' many efforts at making themselves sincere lie entirely here. Truly, nothing is more visible or manifest. At no time or place is it absent; without end or beginning, it is only this work.
“Now if caution and fear are again divided off as what one does not know, the work fragments and is interrupted. Caution and fear are already knowing. If one does not know, who is cautious and fearful? Such a view would drift into extinguishing awareness in meditative absorption.”
“If, whether thoughts are good or evil, there is no falsifying this knowing, does the place of solitary knowing never have a moment without thought?”
“Caution and fear are thoughts too. The thought of caution and fear can never cease. If that mind is absent for a moment, one is either dim and stupefied or has already drifted into an evil thought. From dawn to dusk, from youth to old age, wanting no thought means not knowing oneself. That could only be dull sleep, withered wood or dead ashes.”
121 · Reading Without Prejudgment
Zhidao asked, “Xunzi says, ‘Nothing nourishes the mind better than sincerity.’ Why do earlier Confucians reject this?”
The Master said, “This too cannot immediately be called wrong. The word sincerity can be used in speaking of work. Sincerity is the mind's original constitution; seeking to restore it is the work of reflecting on sincerity. Mingdao's ‘preserve it through sincerity and reverence’ has this meaning too. The Great Learning says, ‘Wishing to set their minds right, they first made their intentions sincere.’
“Xunzi's words certainly have many defects, but one cannot indiscriminately split hairs to find fault. In reading anyone's words, if a view is fixed in advance, one's judgment becomes excessive. Mencius approved Yang Hu's ‘Those who become rich are not benevolent.’ Here we can see the sages' and worthies' greatly impartial mind.”
122 · The Genuine Self and the Bodily Shell
Xiao Hui asked, “Selfishness is hard to overcome. What should I do?”
The Master said, “Bring your selfishness here and I will overcome it for you.”
He also said, “People must have a mind to act for themselves before they can overcome themselves; only by overcoming themselves can they complete themselves.”
Xiao Hui said, “I too have some wish to act for myself, yet do not know why I cannot overcome myself.”
The Master said, “First tell me what your mind to act for yourself is like.”
After a long while Hui said, “I wholeheartedly want to be a good person, so I call that having some wish to act for myself. Reflecting now, I see it only acts for the self of the bodily shell, not the genuine self.”
The Master said, “When has the genuine self ever departed from the bodily shell? I fear you have not acted even for the self of the bodily shell. Tell me: is your so-called bodily self not ears, eyes, mouth, nose and limbs?”
Hui said, “Exactly. For their sake, the eyes want colors, the ears sounds, the mouth tastes and the limbs ease and pleasure. That is why I cannot overcome myself.”
The Master said, “‘Beautiful colors blind people's eyes; beautiful sounds deafen their ears; beautiful tastes spoil their palate; racing and hunting make people mad.’ These all harm your ears, eyes, mouth, nose and limbs. How could they act for their sake?
“If you acted for ears, eyes, mouth, nose and limbs, you would consider how ears should hear, eyes see, the mouth speak and limbs move. You must not look, listen, speak or move contrary to ritual before ears, eyes, mouth, nose and limbs can be completed. Only that acts for their sake.
“Now you race outside all day, seeking reputation and profit. That all acts for things outside the bodily shell. If you acted for ears, eyes, mouth, nose and limbs by not looking, listening, speaking or moving contrary to ritual, could those bodily parts by themselves refrain from looking, listening, speaking or moving? It must proceed from your mind.
“This seeing, hearing, speaking and moving are all your mind. The mind's seeing opens through the eyes; its hearing through the ears; its speaking through the mouth; its movement through the limbs. Without your mind, there would be no ears, eyes, mouth or nose.
“What is called your mind is not exclusively that lump of blood and flesh. If it were that lump, the lump remains in a person now dead: why can he no longer see, hear, speak or move?
“What is called your mind is what can see, hear, speak and move. This is nature; this is Heaven's principle. Only with this nature can one live. This nature's principle of living is called benevolence. Issuing in the eyes, it sees; in the ears, it hears; in the mouth, it speaks; in the limbs, it moves. All are only Heaven's principle issuing into life. Because it rules the whole person, it is called mind.
“The mind's original constitution is originally only Heaven's principle, originally without anything contrary to ritual. This is your genuine self, ruler of the bodily shell. Without the genuine self there is no bodily shell: truly, having it means life, lacking it death.
“If you truly acted for that bodily self, you would have to use this genuine self, constantly guarding its original constitution, cautious concerning what is not seen and fearful concerning what is not heard, afraid of damaging it in the slightest. As soon as the least movement contrary to ritual sprouted, it would be like a knife cutting or a needle piercing, unbearable until the knife was removed and the needle pulled out. Only this is a mind that acts for oneself and has strength to overcome oneself.
“Now you are precisely taking a robber for your child. Why say you have a mind to act for yourself yet cannot overcome yourself?”
123 · Eyes and Mind
A learner suffered from an eye illness and was deeply distressed.
The Master said, “You value your eyes and belittle your mind.”
124 · What One Really Asks For
Xiao Hui delighted in immortality teachings and Buddhism.
The Master warned him: “From childhood I too firmly aspired to the two schools. I thought I had gained something and that Confucianism was not worth learning. After three years among the border peoples, I saw sagely learning's simplicity, ease, greatness and breadth. Only then did I sigh with regret for thirty years of misdirected effort.
“At their finest, the two schools are only a hair's breadth from the sages. What you now learn is merely their earth and chaff, yet you trust and delight in yourself so much. Truly, an owl stealing a rotten rat!”
Hui asked about the finest aspect of the two schools.
The Master said, “I tell you that sagely learning is simple, easy, great and broad, but you do not ask about what I awakened to. You ask only about what I regretted.”
Ashamed, Hui apologized and asked about sagely learning.
The Master said, “You are now asking only as a formality. Wait until you have a genuine mind to seek sagehood; then come and I will speak with you.”
Hui asked repeatedly.
The Master said, “I have already told you everything in one sentence, and you still do not understand.”
125 · Tasting Bitterness
Liu Guanshi asked, “What is the center before feelings are aroused like?”
The Master said, “Simply be cautious concerning what is not seen and fearful concerning what is not heard. Nourish this mind until it is purely Heaven's principle, and naturally you will see.”
Guanshi asked for a brief indication of its condition.
The Master said, “A mute person eating bitter melon cannot explain it to you. To know this bitterness, you must eat it yourself.”
Yueren, beside him, said, “Only this is genuine knowing being acting.”
All the friends seated there gained some understanding.
126 · Knowing Day and Night
Xiao Hui asked about the Way of death and life.
The Master said, “Know day and night, and you know death and life.”
Asked about the Way of day and night, he said, “Know day, and you know night.”
“Is there something about day we do not know?”
The Master said, “Can you know day? You rise muddled, eat uncomprehendingly, act without clarity and practice without examination, dim all day. This is only dreaming the day.
“Only when every breath has nourishment and every instant preservation, this mind alert and bright, Heaven's principle uninterrupted for a single breath, can one know day. This is Heaven's virtue, this is penetrating and knowing the Way of day and night. What further death and life remains?”
127 · Nature, Way and Teaching
Ma Zishen asked, “The old explanation of ‘cultivating the Way is called teaching’ says, ‘The sage grades and regulates what our nature inherently possesses to establish models for the world, such as ritual, music, punishments and government.’ What of this?”
The Master said, “The Way is nature and the allotment, originally wholly complete, incapable of addition or subtraction, needing no ornament. Why would it need a sage's grading and regulating? That would make it an incomplete thing.
“Ritual, music, punishments and government are methods for governing the world, and can certainly be called teaching. But that is not Zisi's original purpose. If the earlier explanation were right, why, in entering the Way through teaching below, would he leave aside the sage's instruction in ritual, music, punishments and government and separately introduce caution and fear? The sage's teaching would have been set up uselessly.”
Zishen asked for instruction.
The Master said, “Zisi speaks of nature, the Way and teaching from their root and source. Heaven allots to people, and the allotment is called nature. Follow nature in action, and nature is called the Way. Cultivate the Way in learning, and the Way is called teaching.
“Following nature concerns those already sincere: ‘From sincerity to illumination is called nature.’ Cultivating the Way concerns making oneself sincere: ‘From illumination to sincerity is called teaching.’ The sage follows nature in action, and that is the Way. Below the sage, people cannot yet follow nature and cannot avoid exceeding or falling short of the Way. Thus they must cultivate it.
“Cultivating the Way prevents the worthy and wise from exceeding it, and the foolish and unwilling from falling short. All must follow this Way, and then the Way becomes teaching. This ‘teaching’ is the same as in ‘Heaven's Way is the utmost teaching’ and ‘wind, rain, frost and dew are all teaching.’ ‘Cultivate the Way’ is the same as in ‘cultivate the Way through benevolence.’
“Only after cultivating the Way can people avoid departing from it and restore nature's original constitution. Then it too is the sage's Way of following nature. The caution and fear mentioned below are the work of cultivating the Way; center and harmony restore nature's original constitution. As the Changes says, ‘exhaust principle, fully realize nature and thereby reach the allotment.’ Center and harmony, giving Heaven and Earth their places and nourishing things, fully realize nature and reach the allotment.”
128 · Instruction Suited to Yan Hui
Huang Chengfu asked, “Earlier Confucians take Confucius' reply to Yan Yuan's question about governing as establishing a Way for constant practice through ten thousand ages. What of this?”
The Master said, “Master Yan embodied sagehood. His great root and source for governing were already complete. Confucius had known this deeply in daily life, so there was no need to speak of it here. He spoke only about institutions and cultural forms.
“These points too must not be neglected: they must be like this for complete goodness. Nor can one become careless in safeguards because one's own root is sound. One must ‘banish Zheng's sounds and keep flatterers far away.’ Master Yan worked inwardly upon virtue through overcoming the self. Confucius feared he might neglect some outer details, so supplemented precisely what he lacked.
“For someone else, one must teach, ‘Government lies in people; obtain people through oneself; cultivate oneself through the Way; cultivate the Way through benevolence,’ together with the universally realized Way, nine guiding principles and much work of making oneself sincere. Only then could it be done. That is the Way for constant practice through ten thousand ages.
“Otherwise, would merely using Xia's calendar, riding Yin's carriage, wearing Zhou's cap and performing the Shao dance govern the world? Later people see only that Master Yan was first in Confucius' school and asked about governing a state, so they treat this as an enormously grand affair.”
129 · The Center of the Great Learning
Cai Xiyuan asked, “Duke Wen's new text of the Great Learning puts the work of investigating things and extending knowledge before making intention sincere, seemingly matching the opening chapter's sequence. If we follow your account of the old text, making intention sincere instead comes first. I am still unsettled about this.”
The Master said, “The Great Learning's work is making bright virtue bright. Making bright virtue bright is only making intention sincere. Its work is only investigating things and extending knowledge.
“Make sincere intention primary and do the work of investigating things and extending knowledge: only then does the work have a place to rest. Doing good and removing evil are all affairs of making intention sincere.
“The new text first exhaustively investigates the principles of affairs and things. Vague and unbounded, it has nowhere to rest. One must add a word, ‘reverence,’ to tug it back toward one's person and mind, yet ultimately it still has no root or source.
“If the word reverence must be added, why did Confucius' school leave out the most essential word and wait more than a thousand years for someone to supply it? Precisely because sincere intention is primary, there is no need to add reverence. Thus bringing forward sincere intention identifies learning's great guiding center. Fail to examine this and truly a hair's breadth of difference becomes a thousand li of error.
“In general, the Doctrine of the Mean's work is only making oneself sincere. Its utmost is utmost sincerity. The Great Learning's work is only making intention sincere. Its utmost is the highest good. The work is altogether the same. To say we must add reverence here and sincerity there cannot avoid drawing feet onto a snake.”
Reading notes on the Xue Kan records
All thirty-five records remain complete within this reading chapter, including every turn in the flower-and-weed dialogue, both gold comparisons, the reverence/principle discussion and the explanation of the genuine self. Liang and yi remain traditional weights; the differing quantities compare capacities rather than degrees of moral purity. The pleasure and dislike passages distinguish sincere intention from added selfish intent rather than eliminating awareness.
In the weed question the current source has 埋 where the surrounding argument has 理; the English reads “principle” and discloses the graph here. The enclosure-shaped 囗 in the self/body discussion is read as the mouth word. The current 不肯 is retained as “unwilling” in the teaching passage rather than silently replaced by another graph. The disputed reading of reputation and actuality is the Master's own interpretation of the Analects. His descriptions of other thinkers, schools and the classical books remain his claims. Chinese source text and reading layers are unchanged.
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