The Grand Harmony
• By 700 CE, Buddhism had become very influential
but was regarded by the Confucians as a foreign
import and was overshadowing China’s ancient
native traditions
• Buddhism was viewed (though perhaps mistakenly) as “a
threat to the social organization of the country.” (p.250)
• Buddhism offered what Confucianism lacked: a “systematic
theoretical completeness” (p.248)
• Daoism, though indigenous to China, was viewed by
Confucian scholars to be impractical, insufficiently
action-guiding and took focus too far away from
human concerns.
• Han Yu
• Emphasized practical aspect of Confucianism and importance of Ren in human
activity
• Attempted to demonstrate that Confucianism could provide a more structured and
workable approach to an ordered society as a model of an ordered heaven
• Li Ao
• A student of Han Yu – argued that Confucianism provided an adequate model to
moral reformation but did not distinguish the Confucian ideal of self control from the
Buddhist emphasis on mindfulness
• Ouyang Xiu
• Brought attention to threat of Buddhism replacing indigenous Confucian ideals but
was not successful in completing the approach
• "Explanation of the Diagram of
the Supreme Polarity" (Taijitu
shuo)
• “Non-polar (wuji) and yet Supreme Polarity (taiji)![11] The
Supreme Polarity in activity generates yang; yet at the
limit of activity it is still. In stillness it generates yin; yet at
the limit of stillness it is also active. Activity and stillness
alternate; each is the basis of the other. In distinguishing
yin and yang, the Two Modes are thereby established.
• The alternation and combination of yang and yin generate
water, fire, wood, metal, and earth. With these five [phases
of] qi harmoniously arranged, the Four Seasons proceed
through them. The Five Phases are simply yin and yang;
yin and yang are simply the Supreme Polarity; the
Supreme Polarity is fundamentally Non-polar. [Yet] in the
generation of the Five Phases, each one has its
nature.[12]
• The reality of the Non-polar and the essence of the Two
[Modes] and Five [Phases] mysteriously combine and
coalesce. "The Way of Qian becomes the male; the Way of
Kun becomes the female;"[14] the two qi stimulate each
other, transforming and generating the myriad things.[14]
The myriad things generate and regenerate, alternating
and transforming without end.[15]”
•
http://www2.kenyon.edu/Depts/Religion/Fac/Adler/Writings/Chou.htm
• The Great Ultimate – Taiji – takes the place of the Dao –
is both supreme polarity and non-polarity
• Yin and Yang are produced from the Great Ultimate
• Through the interaction of the Yin and Yang, the Five
Agencies are produced: water, fire, wood, metal and
earth.
• Each of these elements are principles – like physical
forces or laws governing all existence
Humans in the Great Ultimate
(Taiji):
• “Only humans receive the finest
and most spiritually efficacious
[qi]. Once formed, they are born;
when spirit (shen)[16] is
manifested, they have
intelligence; when their five-fold
natures are stimulated into
activity, good and evil are
distinguished and the myriad
affairs ensue.[17]”
http://www2.kenyon.edu/Depts/Religion/Fac/Adler/Writings/Ch
ou.htm
The Neo-Confucian Sage:
• “The Sage settles these [affairs] with centrality, correctness, humaneness
and rightness (the Way of the Sage is simply humaneness, rightness,
centrality and correctness) and emphasizes stillness. (Without desire, [he
is] therefore still.)[18] In so doing he establishes the ultimate of humanity.
Thus the Sage's "virtue equals that of Heaven and Earth; his clarity equals
that of the sun and moon; his timeliness equals that of the four seasons;
his good fortune and bad fortune equal those of ghosts and spirits."[19]
The superior person cultivates these and has good fortune. The inferior
person rejects these and has bad fortune.
• Therefore [the Classic of Change says], "Establishing the Way of Heaven,
[the Sages] speak of yin and yang; establishing the Way of Earth they
speak of yielding and firm [hexagram lines]; establishing the Way of
Humanity they speak of humaneness and rightness."[20] It also says, "[The
Sage] investigates beginnings and follows them to their ends; therefore he
understands death and birth."[21] Great indeed is [the Classic of] Change!
Herein lies its perfection.”
•
http://www2.kenyon.edu/Depts/Religion/Fac/Adler/Writings/Chou.htm
• Brothers who studied with Zhou Dunyi
• Emphasized role of Li – principle over Taiji (too abstract)
• Focused on question:
• “How is it possible to perfect human nature so that every person
can become a sage and so that all persons can live harmoniously
together?” (p.252)
•
Their answer was to link Li – as the ultimate principle of all things to Qi – material force –in
order to explain why things are:
• 1. unified
• 2. the way they are in their natural state
•
Next they connected Ren as the principle of humans – the essential nature of humans is to
want to be good, to act virtuously & to desire harmony with others and ultimately with the
universe as a whole
•
Vicious action then comes from a lack of cultivation of one’s humanity and uncontrolled
feelings of “pleasure, anger sorrow, joy, love, hate and desire….” (p.255)
Li – Principle
• “The reason why it is said that all things form one body is that all have
this principle, simply because they all have come from it….There is only
one principle in the world.” (p.253)
• “although I have learned much from others, the two words tian li are
what I grasped myself” (Waishu 12; 425) (tian=heaven, li=principle, tian
li = heavenly principle)
• “…what the heaven embodies does not have sound or smell. In terms of
the reality, it is change; in terms of principle, it is dao; in terms of its
function, it is god; in terms of its destiny in a human being, it is human
nature” (Yishu 1; 4).
• “Tian is nothing but principle. We call it god to emphasize the wonderful
mystery of principle in ten thousand things, just as we call it lord (di) to
characterize its being the ruler of events ” (Yishu 11; 132).
•
http://www.iep.utm.edu/chenghao/
Qi – Vital or Material Force, Concrete Things
• “what is metaphysical (xing er shang) is called dao, while
what is physical (xing er xia) is called concrete thing”
(Yishu 11; 119)
• “outside dao there are no things and outside things there
is no dao” (Yishu 4; 73)
• “everything that is tangible is vital force, and only dao is
intangible” (Yishu 6; 83).
• “human nature is inseparable from vital force, and vital
force is inseparable from human nature” (Yishu 1; 10)
• “there is no god (shen) outside vital force, and there is no
vital force outside god” (Yishu 1; 10).
•
http://www.iep.utm.edu/chenghao/
Ren as Principle:
• “…in the relation of father and son, to be father and son lies in affection; in
the relation of king and minister, to be king and minister lies in seriousness
(reverence). From these to being husband and wife, being elder and
younger brothers, being friends, there is no activity that is no dao. That is
why we cannot be separated from dao even for a second” (Yishu 4; 73-74).
• “ ‘what is great and originating becomes (in humans) the first and chief
(quality of goodness).’ This quality is known as humanity” (Yishu 11; 120).
• “doctors regard a person as not-ren when the person cannot feel pain and
itch; we regard a person as lacking humanity when the person does not
know, is not conscious of, and cannot recognize rightness and principle.
This is the best analogy” (Yishu 2a; 33).
• “a person of humanity will be in one body with ten thousand things” (Yishu
2a; 15).
•
http://www.iep.utm.edu/chenghao/
• Considered the third most important Confucian
thinker after Confucius and Mengzi – his interpretation
of Confucianism became the official state philosophy in China
& Chinese civil service exams were based on his interpretations. (p.261)
• Focused on how one might recover their original and natural goodness through
“moral self-cultivation.” (p.256)
• Agreeing with the Chen brothers, he argued that “human nature was identical to
the supreme principle of the universe, and that it was therefore of the nature of
pure goodness.” (p.257)
• He explained the origin of evil as a result of a material corruption of principle
• For Zhu Xi, there is a difference between principle in itself and principle when it
becomes embodied & material;
• “What exists before physical form is the one principle harmonious and
undifferentiated, and is invariably good. What exists after physical form,
however, is confused and mixed, and good and evil are thereby
differentiated.” (p. 257)
On the cultivation of one’s character
• Two doctrines are proposed:
• The preservation of one’s natural goodness:
• The investigation of principle generating correct understanding
• “The mind embraces all principles and all principles are
complete in this single entity, the mind. If one is not able
to preserve the mind, he will be unable to investigate
principle to the utmost. If he is unable to investigate
principle to the utmost, he will be unable to exert his mind
to the utmost.” (p.259)
• “To be sincere, empty of self, courteous, and calm is the
foundation of the practice of love….To love others as we
love ourselves is to perfect love.” (p.259)
• He reinvigorated what had become a stagnant and fragmented
version of Zhu Xi’s philosophy – arguing for both rationalism
and idealism, deemphasizing the role of empiricism.
• He emphasized the importance of moral principle – over
matter
• He also focused on the “fundamental mind” as a means to
control one’s feelings.
• His reform centered on two basic principles:
• The all-inclusive character of the mind
• That knowledge and action should not
be distinguished in moral areas
• “The learning of the great man consists entirely in
getting rid of the obscuration of selfish desires in
order by his own efforts to make manifest his clear
character, so as to restore the condition forming one
body with Heaven, Earth and the myriad things, a
condition that is originally so, that is all. It is not that
outside of the original substance
• something can be added.” (p.261)
Thus, knowledge of the good is seen to
be innate – all we have to do is to get rid
of the things that keep us from revealing
this knowledge – our selfish ego.
• He argued for a more empirical
approach – focusing on a careful and
detailed investigation of practical living,
and had little patience for the
metaphysical.
• “A thing is an affair or event. When
we talk about an event, we do not go
beyond daily affairs such as
drinking and eating. To neglect
these and talk about principle is not
what the ancient sages and worthies
meant by principle.” (p.263)