Classics in Chinese Philosophy

From Mo Tzu to Mao Tse-Tung

Wade Baskin, Wade Baskin

• Publisher: Philosophical Library/Open Road
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781497689411
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Eastern Philosophy

During the last century China has undergone more change than during any other period in its long and turbulent history. Roughly a quarter of the world's population has been directly affected by the radical transformation that culminated in the establishment of the present Communist state—one which claims to have translated into reality the Confucian ideal of securing the equality of all men. In underdeveloped regions throughout the world, wherever the quest for social justice has been checked, millions of people have been indirectly affected by these changes. Western scholars, somewhat perplexed by what has already happened, are trying to determine the causes underlying the whole succession of events. Believing that recent developments are best understood when viewed from a historical perspective, the editor of this work has tried to present in one volume a conspectus of the brilliant and many-sided development of Chinese philosophy. The study of Chinese philosophy has been severely restricted by the difficulties of the classical literary style and, until recently, by the absence of reliable translations. Problems of terminology abound because the same Chinese term is translated differently in the works of different philosophers. The editor endeavors in the introductory statement preceding each selection to help the reader to cope with these lexical problems. By adopting a chronological arrangement of the materials and calling attention to interlinking developments, he provides the reader with a practical means of familiarizing himself with the most important documents of the cultural heritage of China, the cradle of the world's oldest civilization, from the Confucian Analects to the theoretical statements of Mao Tse-Tung.

Confucius

Confucius (551-478 B.C.). Though legend obscures his life, it is known that Confucius (K’ung Fu-tse) was born in Lu, was married at an early age, served as a public official, was eminently successful as a teacher, and continued throughout his lifetime to advocate social reform. He had at least one son and one daughter. His mother died when he was twenty-four, and he followed the ancient Chinese custom of retiring from active life to mourn her death for a period of three years. He devoted much time to meditation and to the study of history in order to become a statesman as well as a philosopher and devote himself to the task of reconstructing the moral and material welfare of the people. He began his teaching career at the age of thirty and soon attracted a large following. He also rose in the ranks of the administrative hierarchy, finally receiving an appointment as Minister of Crime and Chief Judge in his native province of Lu. He became a national hero, for it was said that his very appointment was equivalent to putting an end to crime; there were no cases to try. Eventually, however, he was ousted from his judicial position by jealous rivals. Somewhat disillusioned, he spent the rest of his life traveling from state to state with a few disciples, lecturing, and teaching. He devoted the last five years of his life to literary pursuits and died in 478 B.C., at the age of 73.

A traditionalist, he tried to reform society by educating people in what he thought to be the right traditions. Central to his teachings is the ethical principle of the maintenance of jen (humanity, sympathy, human-heartedness, benevolence, reciprocity, or forbearance) between men. The bond of sympathy is preserved by the rectification of names (cheng ming). Every person should discharge the duties befitting his position in society: the ruler should rule, the minister should minister, a father should be a father, a son should be a son, etc. Each person should treat his subordinates as he would be treated by those holding positions superior to his own. Thus he was a reformer, but the reforms he championed were based on tradition.

The Tâo (way, course of nature, cosmic order, etc.), common to all Chinese philosophies, was to him a way of conduct leading to universal happiness. Divorced from religion or a clear concept of Heaven, his ethics was based on his observation of men in society. The right way is not rigid but allows the individual to choose his conduct according to his circumstances. Wisdom is to know man, virtue to love man. Virtue consists not only in the negative avoidance of extremes but also in the positive act of bringing these extremes into harmony.

For more than two thousand years after his death, his legacy exerted a dominant influence over the intellectual and political life of the Chinese people. Eventually the Confucian scriptures became the required texts in all education and the basis for selecting government officials through competitive examinations. Confucius claimed that he did not write the six classics (Liu I) but simply collected the legacy of the past. The six classics (I Ching; Shih, or the Book of Odes; Shu, or the Book of History; Li, or Rituals; Yüeh, or Music; and Chun Chiu, or Spring and Autumn Annals) were supplemented by Confucius’ Analects and by the Book of Mencius, a collection of the teachings of his most illustrious follower. Confucius must be reckoned as the most important thinker in Chinese history and one of the most influential men in world history.

The Teachings of the Master

From The Confucian Analects, translated by William Jennings, London, George Routledge & Sons Limited, 1895.

ADVANTAGE, DESTINY AND DUTY

(5)

1. Topics on which the Master rarely spoke were—Advantage, and Destiny, and Duty of man to man.

2. A man of the village of Tah-hiang exclaimed of him, ‘A great man is Confucius!—a man of extensive learning, and yet in nothing has he quite made himself a name!’

The Master heard of this, and mentioning it to his disciples he said, ‘What then shall I take in hand? Shall I become a carriage-driver, or an archer? Let me be a driver!’

3. ‘The (sacrificial) cap,’ he once said, ‘should, according to the Rules, be of linen; but in these days it is of pure silk. However, as it is economical, I do as all do.

‘The Rule says, “Make your bow when at the lower end of the hall”; but nowadays the bowing is done at the upper part. This is great freedom; and I, though I go in opposition to the crowd, bow when at the lower end.’

4. The Master barred four (words);—he would have no ‘shall’s, no ‘must’s, no ‘certainly’s, no ‘I’s¹.

5. Once, in the town of K‘wang, fearing (that his life was going to be taken), the Master exclaimed, ‘King Wăn is dead and gone; but is not “wăn¹” with you here? If Heaven be about to allow this “wăn” to perish, then they who survive its decease will get no benefit from it. But so long as Heaven does not allow it to perish, what can the men of K‘wang do to me?’

6. A high State official, after questioning Tsz-kung, said ‘Your Master is a sage, then? How many and what varied abilities must be his!’

The disciple replied, ‘Certainly Heaven is allowing him full opportunities of becoming a sage, in addition to the fact that his abilities are many and varied.’

When the Master heard of this he remarked, ‘Does that high official know me? In my early years my position in life was low, and hence my ability in many ways, though exercised in trifling matters. In the gentleman is there indeed such variety (of ability)? No.’

(From this, the disciple) Lau used to say, ‘’Twas a saying of the Master: “At a time when I was not called upon to use them, I acquired my proficiency in the polite arts.”’

7. ‘Am I, indeed,’ said the Master, ‘possessed of knowledge? I know nothing. Let a vulgar fellow come to me with a question,—a man with an emptyish head,—I may thrash out with him the matter to end, and exhaust myself in doing it.’

8. ‘Ah!’ exclaimed he once, ‘the phoenix does not come! and no symbols issue from the river¹! May I not as well give up?’

9. Whenever the Master met with a person in mourning, or with one in full-dress cap and kirtle, or with a blind person, although they might be young persons, he would make a point of rising on their appearance, or, if crossing their path, would do so with quickened step²!

10. Once Yen Yüen³ exclaimed with a sigh, (with reference to the Master’s doctrines), ‘If I look up to them, they are ever the higher; if I try to penetrate them, they are ever the harder; if I gaze at them as if before my eyes, lo, they are behind me!—Gradually and gently the Master with skill lures men on. By literary lore he gave me breadth; by the Rules of Propriety he narrowed me down.—When I desire a respite, I find it impossible; and after I have exhausted my powers, there seems to be something standing straight up in front of me, and though I have the mind to make towards it I make no advance at all.’

11. Once when the Master was seriously ill, Tsz-lu induced the other disciples to feign they were high officials acting in his service.—During a respite from his malady the Master exclaimed, ‘Ah! how long has Tsz-lu’s conduct been false? Whom should I delude, if I were to pretend to have officials under me, having none? Should I deceive Heaven? Besides, were I to die, I would rather die in the hands of yourselves, my disciples, than in the hands of officials. And though I should fail to have a grand funeral over me, I should hardly be left on my death on the public highway, should I?’

12. Tsz-kung once said to him, ‘Here is a fine gem. Would you guard it carefully in a casket and store it away, or seek a good price for it and sell it?’ ‘Sell it, indeed,’ said the Master,—‘that would I; but I should wait for the bidder¹.’

13. The Master protested he would ‘go and live among the nine wild tribes.²’

‘A rude life,’ said some one;—‘how could you put up with it?’

‘What rudeness would there be,’ he replied ‘if a “superior man” was living in their midst?’

14. Once he remarked, ‘After I came back from Wei to Lu the music was put right, and each of the Festal Odes and Hymns was given its appropriate place and use.’

15. ‘Ah! which one of these following,’ he asked on one occasion, ‘are to be found (exemplified) in me,¹—(proper) service rendered to superiors when abroad; duty to father and elder brother when at home; duty that shrinks from no exertion when dear ones die; and keeping free from the confusing effects of wine?’

16. Standing once on the bank of a mountain-stream, he said (musingly), ‘Like this are those that pass away—no cessation, day or night²!’

Other sayings:—

17. ‘I have not yet met with the man who loves Virtue as he loves Beauty.

18. ‘Take an illustration from the making of a hill. A simple basketful is wanting to complete it, and the work stops. So I stop short.

‘Take an illustration from the levelling of the ground. Suppose again just one basketful (is left), when the work has so progressed. There I desist³!

19. ‘Ah! it was Hwúi, was it not? who, when I had given him his lesson, was the unflagging one!

20. ‘Alas for Hwúi! I saw him (ever) making progress. I never saw him stopping short.

21. ‘Blade, but no bloom,—or else bloom, but no produce;—ay, that is the way with some!

22. ‘Reverent regard is due to youth¹. How know we what difference there may be in them in the future from what they are now? Yet when they have reached the age of forty or fifty, and are still unknown in the world, then indeed they are no more worthy of such regard.

23. ‘Can any do otherwise than assent to words said to them by way of correction? Only let them reform by such advice, and it will then be reckoned valuable. Can any be other than pleased with words of gentle suasion? Only let them comply with them fully, and such will be accounted valuable. With those who are pleased without so complying, and those who assent but do not reform, I can do nothing at all.

24. (1) ‘Give prominent place to loyalty and sincerity.

(2) ‘Have no associates (in study) who are not (advanced) somewhat like yourself.

(3) ‘When you have erred, be not afraid to correct yourself.

25. ‘It may be possible to seize and carry off the chief commander of a large army,² but not possible so to rob one poor fellow of his will.

26. ‘One who stands,—clad in hempen robe, the worse for wear,—among others clad in furs of fox and badger, and yet unabashed;—’tis Tsz-lu, that, is it not?’

Tsz-lu used always to be humming over the lines—

‘From envy and enmity free,

What deed doth he other than good³?

‘How should such a rule of life,’ asked the Master, ‘be sufficient to make any one good?’

27. ‘When the year grows chilly, we know the pine and cypress are the last to fade.¹

28. ‘The wise escape doubt; the good-hearted, trouble; the bold, apprehension.

29. ‘Some may study side by side, and yet be asunder when they come to the logic of things. Some may go on together in this latter course, but be wide apart in the standards they reach in it. Some, again, may together reach the same standard, and yet be diverse in weight (of character).’

30. ‘The blossom is out on the cherry tree,

With a flutter on every spray.

Dost think that my thoughts go not out to thee?

Ah, why art thou far away²!’

(Commenting on these lines) the Master said ‘There can hardly have been much “though going out.” What does distance signify?’

PROPRIETY, VIRTUE, AND FRIENDSHIP

(8)

1. Yen Yüen was asking about man’s proper regard for his fellow-man. The Master said to him, ‘Self-control, and a habit of falling back upon propriety, (virtually) effect it. Let these conditions be fulfilled for one day, and every one round will betake himself to the duty....