TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN, IRELAND
Institute for International Integrations Studies
January the 10th 2007
RESEARCH ON THE CONTRIBUTION OF CONFUCIAN ETHICS
‘ To the fulfillment of world “humanity” ’
Philippe Thiébault
RICH Institute, Hanyang University, Seoul
RESEARCH ON THE CONTRIBUTION OF CONFUCIAN ETHICS
‘ To the fulfillment of world “humanity” ’
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
p.1
I. Ethics/Morality and the Human Condition
p.5
1.1. Painful lucidity concerning the world moral situation
p.5
1.2. Reappraising our ethical paths
p.8
1.2.1 MacIntyre
p.10
1.2.2 Taylor
p.12
1.2.3 Ricoeur
p.16
1.3. Present moral/ethical task
p.21
II. Meditation on Asian Ethics
p.27
2.1. Chinese moral sources and the Yijing
p.31
2.1.1 Meditation on the Universe
p.35
2.1.2 Care for one’s fellow man
p.41
2.2. Confucius’s call for “humanity”
p.47
2.2.1 The Tao of Confucius
p.49
2.2.2 Intimacy with and Reverence for Heaven
p.51
2.2.3 Confucius and the Ren
p.54
2.2.4 Man’s whole fulfillment
p.58
2.3. Asian Ethics and “Sincerity”
p.62
III. In search of Creative Paths of Ethics/Morality
p.65
3.1 Courage of a generous mutual recognition
p.67
3.2 Confucianism and the fulfillment of world “humanity”
p.75
3.2.1 Man contributing to a cosmic fulfillment
p.76
3.2.2 Heart and “Humanity” at the global level
p.81
Conclusion
p.95
ii
INTRODUCTION
This essay is the result of a period of painful meditation which began by
noticing the fracture existing between discourse and reality. While we speak of the
global village and global projects, our minds often remain connected to the local and
parochial point of view. While we speak of peace and reconciliation, acts of violence
and barbarism continue to strike the innocent. In order to assume global issues in
economics, politics or education obviously people must mature in mind to be able to
think more nobly. Bergson at the beginning of the 20th century was saying that we
need a “supplément d’âme”, “a bigger soul”. How much more so at the beginning of
this new century are we in need of a vision which combines both height and depth if
we are going to make a difference in this complex and turbulent world?
As Teilhard de Chardin pointed out, the complexity in the development of
mankind is parallel to an unavoidable process of convergence and these complexities
and convergence require that people invest more energy, intelligence and heart in
their development. He said: “The tightening network of economic and psychic bonds
in which we live and from which we suffer, the growing compulsion to act, to
produce, to think collectively which so disquiets us is preparing (theory and fact are
one on this point) not to mechanize and submerge us, but to raise us, by way of
increasing complexity, to a higher awareness of our own personality… To my mind,
this is what is ‘providentially’ arising to sustain our courage- the hope, the belief that
some immense fulfillment lies ahead of us.”1 Therefore the implication being that it is
up to us to discern what is happening in our times. What seems chaos and setbacks
may in fact contain the emergence of a new world. “We have to take into account”
continues Teilhard “what is required by the laws of complexity if Mankind is to
achieve spiritual growth through collectivization (that is living together)…. The
planetisation of Mankind, if it is to come properly into effect, presupposes, in addition
to the enclosing Earth, and to the organization and condensation of human thought,
yet another factor: the rise on our own inward horizon of a cosmic spiritual centre, a
supreme pole of consciousness, upon which all the separate consciousnesses of the
world may converge.”2
1
Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre, The Future of Man, translated by Norman Denny, Harper & Row, 1964,
p.116-117.
2
Teilhard de Chardin, op.cit., p.120.
1
“Some immense fulfillment lies ahead of us” could be our motto since it
seems that there is no other choice, because if we do not genuinely succeed in this
process of integration in which the plurality of communities and the myriad of
individualities can find their place, we will fall back further into the condition of
inhumanity. The success is linked to a rise in consciousness, vision and commitment.
It requires the joint effort of different world communities and an attraction to a higher
“pole of consciousness” to use Teilhard’s words. If people do not give themselves
fully, honestly and sincerely it will not happen, but this new generosity finds its
strength and warmth in a depth which is deeper than the depth of each individual
taken separately.
This meditation springs from the shock at the way the world has been acting
so inhumanely over the last few years. While external action is often overemphasized,
people are to a large extent suffering beings, exposed to the “pâtir” as Paul Ricoeur
says, therefore in many ways dependant on others, circumstances and events. Human
beings suffer mostly at the hands of other human beings. It is extremely painful to
watch people hurting, humiliating or degrading their fellow human beings. How can
we get used to it? The question arises: How is this behaviour possible despite the
existence of major religions, the democratization of so many countries as well as the
greater access to education for more people than in former times?”
The focus of this study is Ethics. Why choose Ethics? There are already so
many seminars and publications on Ethics. Although Ethics may be a worn-out
subject we in contrast seem to remain knowledgeable yet changing little with respect
to important issues. Our approach to Ethics may be very decisive indeed. The manner
we approach such a subject is of great consequence. We benefit more from meditating
on Ethics when we let ourselves be guided toward humility and sensitivity about our
real condition. Aristotle in his Ethica Nicomachea said we should be able to listen to
ordinary people. A few years ago I heard from an Irish person words which kept
resounding in my ears: “Before, we had nothing but we had everything. Today, we
have everything but we have nothing.” And “Our society is starving for ethics”. From
my perspective in the East, my objective is to reflect on how fundamental ethics and
morality are in the maturation and fulfillment of man as a key for the prosperity of our
actions and the benefit of a greater harmony between people. More than establishing
2
Ethics on pure reason or pure faith we will strive to enter the fundamental ethical
condition in which we find ourselves with our whole self.
My task is quite difficult since I am speaking to a Western audience about
Asian ethics as a French man. I am therefore naturally at a meeting point of East and
West and of the European schools of thought. As debates are either formulating Asian
Ethics within the framework of Western Ethics or expressing the traditional discourse
of Asian Ethics, I chose a more complex and thorny path that of exploring Asian
Ethics as a Westerner within the limits of my own strength in order to find out what is
at stake, for example in Confucian Ethics, and to learn from it in the context of a
modernized world. This task would not be possible without hermeneutics which is
adapted to the otherness of the Confucian discourse.
It may be no more than an invitation to travel in mind, in that I invite you to
explore new landscapes of self-cultivation and wisdom which, despite their
strangeness at first sight, may bring new insights on the Western tradition and on the
world’s efforts for integration. This requires taking a break for a while from our own
traditions, playing down our own certitudes and truly opening ourselves to the depth
of another culture. It may be in having the feeling of losing oneself that one starts
discovering Asian Ethics and that one enriches one’s own view of Ethics.
Therefore it is above all an approach of the Chinese mind, in particular of the
Confucian mind that matters. I chose to focus on the vivid view of life which the
Chinese have had since antiquity and to search in it their ethical path. Ethical
discourses come second. But as so often happens, perhaps due to our lack of patience,
we do not reach the profound wisdom which could enlighten our ethical perplexities.
The first part of this presentation will focus on the real situation of the world
which we cannot avoid facing and we will listen to some great voices from the West
and the East. As the world has become culturally more westernized we will reappraise
the Ethical path with the help of three important Western philosophers. On that
foundation we will consider the changes that our moral path has taken and our present
moral tasks within the radical experience of the human condition.
The second part, which I called meditation on Asian Ethics, will introduce
particularly to the Chinese moral sources in relation to the fundamental text of the
3
Yijing, Book of Changes, in search of a bridge between Eastern and Western logics. It
will also present major aspects of Confucius’s contribution in Ethics which have
inspired Asian scholars until today. The hope is to give access to an approach which
envisioned not just the individual fulfillment but the fulfillment of a society in all its
creative dimensions.
The third part will evoke the building of understanding, recognition and
reconciliation between ethical traditions. It aims at opening a way of cooperation
East-West which was dreamt at the set of the reflection. This meditation was inspired
by the example of Confucius showing how we need to work at deserving true
recognition, even amidst people’s indifference, and in the West by the last work of
Paul Ricoeur Parcours de la Reconnaissance, Journey of Recognition pointing out
towards the hope of a mutual recognition, reconnaissance mutuelle. The relation
between Confucian and Christian ethics could be an example of complementary
cooperation.
This contribution, in the spirit of the great Chinese sages and of Confucius,
wants to avoid abstract ethical issues. It sees as its core concern the crucial need for a
new education in “humanity” on a world level. What are we becoming? Such a
question is awaiting answers from people in leadership for a multitude of human
beings who lack proper guidance, a multitude who is starving and suffering in body
and mind. A new type of Ethics is waiting to be born on the foundation of the great
sages and minds that preceded us and on the foundation of groping by many who
remained obscure. In such a difficult task Confucianism could be an active partner
with other philosophical and spiritual traditions to respond to world challenges and
bring a new hope.
4
I. Ethics/Morality and the Human Condition
When people around the world watched for the first time on television with
the astronauts our blue planet, they held their breath with a feeling of awe and
thought: “Our world is one, is unique within the space, fragile and beautiful.” They
felt for a short time pride and hope that something great could be achieved in the
future. Such experiences should not be forgotten. They are valuable in that they are
able to draw people together, to raise them above the monotony of daily routine, away
from the meanness of certain relationships and from the vicious circle of betrayal,
cheating and violence. But the world situation is still far from our fervent aspirations
and we cannot avoid meditating on our real condition. Buddhists have the meaningful
symbol of the water lily taking root down in the mud and one day arising graciously
in its purity.
If we are going to move in the direction of maturation and fulfillment we have
to absorb the mistakes of the past, and admit the less perfect aspects of our actions
and of our societies, like Laozi mentions that to take a higher responsibility is to be
able to deal with the “filth”.3 But at the same time we need to open ways of hope and
raise standards of consciousness to reach higher levels of fulfillment from the
individual to the world level. It seems that the Western philosophical approach has
been stronger in the area of criticism and deconstruction while the Eastern approach,
not that it was unaware of the dark sides and moral blindness of people, however held
fast to the goodness of heart and remained patiently constructive. Critics often appear
very intelligent and powerful but may bring discouragement, while those who might
appear to be weak and naive may hide a real strength.
1.1 Painful lucidity concerning the world moral situation
We cannot avoid beginning with a lucid consideration of where we stand
today as members of the human community made up as it is of a plurality of nations
and cultures. Despite admirable contributions by some individuals, groups and
3
Daodejing, chapter 78, The Richard Wilhelm Edition, Arkana, 1978: “Whosoever takes upon himself
the filth of the realm, he is the lord at the earth’s sacrifices. Whosoever takes upon himself the
misfortune of the realm, he is the king of the world.”
5
communities, we are constantly saddened by news of terrorism, violence, immorality
and corruption – the list is endless - which directly undermine the convictions and
beliefs of the majority of people who long for a world reflecting more “care for
others”. The danger of the flow of news by the media is that progressively we harden
ourselves and become indifferent to the worsening conditions, creating instead havens
of the mind for ourselves.
In an age when everything is known so quickly it is difficult to absorb as an
individual all that is happening, especially because more of the dark side of man is
exposed than great moral accomplishments which so often remain hidden. It is easy to
switch from strong emotions to indifference. We therefore need to constantly meditate
on the human condition to discern the wheat from the chaff. Maybe within our
explorations and sometimes despair lies the hope of a new enlightenment for our
human condition.
From time to time prophetic voices rise strongly, disturbing our sleeping and
unclear conscience. Alexander Soljenitsyne said in his Liechtenstein speech of 1993:
“The 20th century does not correspond to any moral progress of mankind. Furthermore
it has been the scene of unheard genocides, of a striking cultural anemia and of a
decline of the human spirit.”4 “Erasmus”, he continued, “thought of politics as a moral
category and saw in it the manifestation of ethical aspiration. Of course it was in the
16th century. At the beginning of the Enlightenment, toward the end of the 17th
century John Locke taught us that the government of states does not fall in the sphere
of conceiving morality… And politicians found there one more political support.”5
Soljenitsyne then put forth the question: “Which reason do we have to hope that the
21st century…. will be better for us?” It would be easier to reassure ourselves about
the world situation in showing the progress in development and democratization as it
also takes place now in Asia. The purpose of facing the terrible situations into which
many people are thrown is to awaken to what is truly our human condition and more
importantly to reach a new empathy between people and nations and a new sense of
responsibility and commitment. After the horrors of a war, a persecution or an event
of hatred, people pledge that it will never happen again, but these pledges are more
often not kept and deep in ourselves we are hurting because of these failures.
4
5
L’Express, September 1993. p.45.
Soljenitsyne, L’Express, op.cit., p.42.
6
Another voice, this time from the East challenges us to reflect not just on the
present situation but on the path we have been walking since the beginning of the
“Enlightenment Project” and led us to where we stand today. Despite recognizing the
development and values of the Enlightenment, Tu Wei-ming, a Chinese scholar
lecturing at Harvard University, is critical of its dark side, especially in terms of
Ethics, calling the Western project which became a world model, a Faustian enterprise
gone out of control. He said: “The dynamics of the modern West, in the mind’s eye of
those who were overwhelmed by its creative and destructive power from the outside,
was not merely instrumental rationality but the Faustian drive to explore, know,
master and conquer. This combination of detached analytical ability and intense
passion, fueled by social Darwinism narrowly applied to inter-civilizational
competitiveness, developed international rules of game which defined fitness
exclusively in terms of wealth and power.”6
As governments and companies are moving forward into a more and more
futuristic adventure, Tu Wei-ming lets us stop a moment and look back on our past in
order to open our eyes to what started this rush toward endless progress and quest for
freedom and happiness. We often ignore or pretend not to know the cost of this rush
“out of control” particularly in human terms. Today China and Korea are paying the
heavy price of their economic development (called a “miracle) in juvenile
delinquency, moral decline, a growing gap between rich and poor people and the
break up of families without counting the ecological threat. It is puzzling how we are
easily fascinated by external miracles but close our eyes to injustices and dubious
ways of success benefiting only a certain number of people.
The West and the East used to live separately, following their own cultural
paths throughout history and meeting occasionally. Since the 16th century, however
things have drastically changed. The European enlightenment has brought
democratization and economical development to Asia and despite other ideologies has
become a reference. However Asians are searching today how to harmonize this
development with their own traditions. Because of the fast pace of global evolution,
East and West are now becoming more and more intertwined. It would seem that we
are inevitably led to relate more and more between various cultures and to face global
6
Tu Wei-ming, “A Confucian Perspective on the Core Values of the Global Community” in
International Conference on Universal Ethics and Asian Values, Korean National Commission for
UNESCO, 1999.
7
issues, particularly ethical issues within these new relations. We will consider in the
third part how much remains to be done to heal the tragedies of the East-West
encounter and to work together for the sake of the world. Although in the past either
China or Europe could put itself at the center of the world, this is no longer possible
due to the inability of either to defend it’s cultural hegemony.
1.2 Reappraising our Ethical Paths
However in order to understand better our ethical situation and its challenges
we cannot stay in the limits of our present time or only go back to the beginning of the
Enlightenment although it provides us with an important piece of understanding. We
need a reappraisal of both Western and Asian histories of Ethics going back to
antiquity. At this point, because the West has had so far a leading role in shaping
man’s modern identity on a world level, including Asia, I will reflect on the itinerary
of Western Ethics to learn about the major shifts which took place in history. I could
have started directly with Asian Ethics but it would have been somehow artificial. I
have noticed over the years that Western philosophy which was received with fervor
in Asia since the end of the 19th century, and entered new developments after the
Second World War, remains influential. Asian Thought and Ethics in Asia have
difficulty regaining the prestige they once enjoyed in the past. It is interesting to see
that Western scholars who are developing an expertise and a deep interest in Asian
Thought are reevaluating Asian Thought and stimulating Asians to do so, while a new
generation of Asian scholars are considering again their tradition and looking for
bridges with the West.7
I chose some contemporary authors of the West for their wide and significant
views such as Alasdair MacIntyre in After Virtue, Charles Taylor in the Sources of the
Self and Paul Ricoeur in Oneself as Another. We need to discover the landscape in
which we are living today and find an articulate way to describe why the situation is
such and in which direction we can now move. My interest was in fact to consider
together this trilogy in order to tune into some of the best efforts in ethical research
7
Xin Liu, Otherness of Self: A Genealogy of Self in Contemporary China, University of Michigan
Press, 2002 with references to Charles Taylor; Chenyang Li, The Tao encounters the West, Explorations
in Comparative Philosophy, State University of New York Press, 1999.
8
and to prepare the reception of Asian Ethics. It is a wish that the meaningful
meditation of these intellectual virtuosos which is rooted in the greatest thinkers,
sages and saints of the West such as Socrates, Plato, Aristotle or Augustine will
respond in harmony to the Sages of the East who will duly be introduced.
The three authors mentioned above use at the beginning of their works
symbols which are of great interest. MacIntyre says that we find ourselves in a
situation like after a cataclysm when we do not remember our previous condition and
we are trying to reconstitute our values.8 We have in our possession only fragments of
a tradition which we are not able to grasp anymore as a whole. On the other hand
Taylor speaks of a “loss of horizon”9 or a “loss of the way” when we are trying to find
our path in the mountains.10 These symbols express our desire to retrieve some
understanding about Ethics in a complex situation. Ricoeur has also used the symbol
of the horizon as the line ahead of us which constantly moves further away as we
walk. Max Weber and Marcel Gauchet spoke of a disenchanted world and before
them, Gabriel Marcel presented the world as a “broken world”, “monde cassé.”
Through our gut feelings, as Taylor would say, we perceive that something has
been distorted in our situation and that we are deprived of important values and
virtues but we have difficulty knowing the extent. As our conscience becomes more
sensitive we are eager to explore anew our traditions in order to find inspiration and
guidance on Ethics. We will reflect briefly with the help of the authors above
mentioned and consider with great attention the conclusions they draw.
8
MacIntyre, Alasdair, After Virtue- a study in moral theory, Duckworth, 1981/1996, p.2: “We possess
indeed simulacra of morality, we continue to use many of the key expressions. But we have –very
largely, if not entirely- lost our comprehension, both, theoretical and practical, of morality.”
9
Taylor, Charles, Sources of the Self- The making of the modern identity, Harvard University Press,
1989, 2001, “Inescapable Framework”, p.17: “The loss of horizon described by Nietzsche’s fool
undoubtedly corresponds to something very widely felt in our culture.”
10
Taylor, Charles, Sources of the Self, op.cit., “The Self in Moral Space”, p.41-42: “The image of
spatial orientation which I have been using as an analogy brings out another facet of our life as agents.
Orientation has two aspects; there are two ways that we can fail to have it. I can be ignorant of the lie
of the land around me- not know the important locations which make it up or how they relate to each
other. This ignorance can be cured by a good map. But then I can be lost in another way if I don’t know
how to place myself on this map…/… By analogy, our orientation in relation to the good requires not
only some framework(s) which defines the shape of the qualitatively higher but also a sense of where
we stand in relation to this.”
9
1.2.1 MacIntyre
MacIntyre, searching for a true historical narrative, starts from modernity
then moves back in time to the 18th century, then the Middle Ages and Greece. He
states that the Enlightenment project failed to ground morality either through
scientific knowledge, human nature, passions or religious beliefs.11 Major
philosophers could not find a moral authority in relation to their conception of human
nature due to a contradiction between the conception of moral rules and the view of
human nature. MacIntyre uncovers how some important notions like an essential
human nature were lost and with it a sense of telos, breaking a once coherent
system.12 An important consequence of the Enlightenment for MacIntyre is the
disconnection between fact and value, between what is and what ought to be. An
emphasis was put on expertise over character which had heavy consequences in
Ethics, especially in the weakening of true personality and virtues, people were
influenced to pretend and play certain roles. Such an evolution gave rise to skepticism
and cynicism.
But what was lost also with the Aristotelian approach and the Christian
approach which was in harmony with it was the frame of a tradition and the capacity
for people to reach a human achievement during their life, including its happy
moments and its sufferings. What sounded first like a liberation became a loss in
belonging and the pride of individuality turned against itself.
With MacIntyre we cannot but take seriously the violent attacks of Nietzsche
against what was the result of intellectual failures and Christian lack of true
commitment. “Does Nietzsche win?” asks MacIntyre. Although Nietzsche shakes our
moral foundation13, he wins only if we let him win. Often people had no real answer
11
MacIntyre, After Virtue – a study in moral theory, Duckworth, 1981/1996, p.50; “In a world of
secular rationality religion could no longer provide such a shared background and foundation for moral
discourse and action; and the failure of philosophy to provide what religion could no longer furnish
was an important cause of philosophy losing its central cultural role and becoming a marginal,
narrowly academic subject.”
12
MacIntyre, After Virtue, op.cit., p.54: “The joint effort of the secular rejection of both Protestant and
Catholic theology and the scientific and philosophical rejection of Aristotelianism was to eliminate any
notion of man-as-he-could-be-if-he-realized-his-telos”.
13
Nietzsche, The Gay Science, “Cheers for Physics”: “The persistency of your moral judgment might
still be just a proof of personal wretchedness or impersonality; your “moral force” might have its
source in your obstinacy – or in your incapacity to perceive new ideals! And to be brief: if you had
thought more acutely, observed more acutely, and had learned more, you would no longer under all
circumstances call this and that your “duty” and your “conscience”: the knowledge how moral
judgments have in general always originated would make you tired of these pathetic words –as you
10
and today we are also challenged on how to answer not only to Nietzsche but to all
forms of philosophy of suspicion. Paul Ricoeur affirmed at different times that if we
want to reach any maturity we must assume the critiques like those of Nietzsche. This
point will need further reflection.
MacIntyre suggests, however, that modern morality remains to a great extent
intelligible within the Aristotelian tradition. He suggests coming back to the Greek
sources and the Aristotelian tradition being “restated in a way that restores
intelligibility and rationality to our moral and social attitudes and commitments.”14
According to him we have reached a turning point and when we are threatened by the
barbarians who are among us we are waiting for a new St Benedict.15 We recognize
here how much Western Ethics is rooted in both Greek and Christian values that need
to be reinterpreted, and above all that on that foundation a new kind of moral
personality is much waited. MacIntyre taking the example of St Benedict is
suggesting that we need some mode of excellence in showing principles and
achieving goods, and in that we are not very far removed from the East as we will see
when we encounter Asian Ethics.
have already grown tired of other pathetic words, for instance “sin”, “salvation”, and “redemption”.
And now, my friend, do not talk to me about the categorical imperative!.../… It is selfishness in a
person to regard his judgment as universal law, and a blind, paltry and modest selfishness besides,
because it betrays that you have not yet discovered yourself, that you have not yet created for yourself
any personal quite personal ideal.”; Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, “The Origins of Herd Morality”,
tr. Marian Cowan, quoted in Peter Singer, Ethics, Oxford University Press, 1994, p.48: “The herdinstinct draws its conclusions, step by step. How much or how little the common good is endangered,
the dangers to the status quo that lie in a given opinion, or state, or passion, in a given will or talentthese now furnish the moral perspective…/… A superior, independent intellect, a will to stand alone,
even a superior rationality, are felt to be dangers; everything that lifts the individual above the herd and
causes fear in his neighbor is from now on called evil; the fair-minded, unassuming disposition that
adapts and equalizes, all mediocrity of desires comes to be called and honored by the name of
morality.”
14
MacIntyre, After Virtue, op.cit., p.259.
15
MacIntyre, After Virtue, op.cit., p.263: “What matters at this stage is the construction of local forms of
community within which civility and the intellectual and moral life can be sustained through the new
dark ages which are already upon us. And if the tradition of the virtues was able to survive the horrors
of the last dark ages, we are not entirely without grounds for hope. This time however the barbarians
are not waiting beyond the frontiers; they have already been governing us for some time. And it is our
lack of consciousness of this that constitutes part of our predicament. We are waiting not for a Godot,
but for another- doubtless very different- St Benedict.”
11
1.2.2 Taylor
From the monumental work of Charles Taylor, Sources of the Self, we will
consider only a few points which are of help in make a bridge with the Asian
approach. What is fascinating in Taylor is how he guides us with precision through
the complex materials of the Western tradition: exploring the birth of the Western
modern mind in the subtle relations between Greek and Christian thoughts. It is a
unique meditation on the creative outflow of the mind which enlightens Ethics. Taylor
is designing a philosophical framework in which the meaning of life can be expressed
in an articulate way and where we can discern new possibilities of creativity in Ethics.
The whole philosophical quest is a quest for one’s identity. However, the fact
that right at the beginning of his work Taylor relates this quest to morality is
courageous and important in a time when morality has been so depreciated that it is
even spoken of in terms of post-moral societies.16 He says: “Selfhood and the good, or
in another way selfhood and morality, turn out to be inextricably intertwined
themes.”17
The title “Sources of the Self” is already significant…. “Sources….” During
the whole of the 20th century numerous Western philosophers have opposed different
types of foundations and ontologies or denied the existence of human nature. If we
were to follow such a trend it would be quite difficult to appreciate what was
important to the East until the encounter with the West. For Taylor we cannot find our
identity and resolve our difficulties without finding some sense of our roots and
without a moral ontology.18
But the situation is such that, when we try to reach moral sources, we have to
work against a general current. We need to have conviction and take a stand. One
notices, in fact a contradiction in people between on the one hand a doubtful attitude
inherited from many thinkers and on the other a searching and an expectation to reach
moral sources. Choices have to be made as MacIntyre said.19 In a forest of opinions
we have to open a path for our own time. “It will be my claim” says Taylor “that there
16
See the analyses of Monique Canto-Sperber, L’inquiétude morale et la vie humaine, Presses
Universitaires de France, 2001.
17
Taylor, Charles, Sources of the Self, Harvard University Press, 1989/2001, p.3.
18
Taylor, Charles, Sources of the Self, op.cit., p.8: “I spoke at the outset about exploring the
‘background picture’ lying behind our moral and spiritual intuitions. I could now rephrase this and say
that my target is the moral ontology which articulates these intuitions.”
19
MacIntyre, After Virtue, Chapter 9, “Nietzsche or Aristotle?”
12
is a great deal of motivated suppression of moral ontology among our
contemporaries…/… So the work I am embarked upon here could be called in large
degree an essay in retrieval. Much of the ground will have to be fought for…”20 This
could be said also for Asian Thought and Ethics.
As we often view a tradition of Ethics in a static way, Taylor, like MacIntyre
makes us see it in its historical background and living emergence. Most of all he
shows us how we are part of its improvement or its neglect. We have a tendency to
take things for granted and are inclined to speak of the Self as our own, and we use
good and just values in an indifferent manner, while the Self and these values had to
be conquered at a terrible price.21 We should in fact be grateful that so much has been
done from which we benefit and that our situation could be even worse. What must it
have been like living in 4th or 5th century Europe? I cannot but think of Saint Patrick
(386-493) working in Ireland within such harsh circumstances.
On the basis of our choices and commitment we start to see with the guidance
of our conscience that temptations lead us to mediocrity which leaves us unsatisfied.
The good presented to us often tastes insipid, especially when we come in contact
with what Taylor calls “hypergood”, either the Good in Plato or God’s agape in
Christianity. The positive change of our time is that we do not accept such
hypergoods from outside but we want to relate to them with our whole being.22 With
Aristotle we could speak of “excellence”. As we strive for excellence in many
scientific fields, why should the humanities continue to weaken and become narrow23
and neglected, particularly Ethics, as we notice now even in Asia?24
The important contribution of Richard Taylor is to give us tools to approach
and connect with the moral sources from which we became estranged and for which
we are longing. “The central notion is that articulation can bring us closer to the good
as a moral source, can give it power. The understanding of the good as a moral source
20
Taylor, Charles, Sources of the Self, op.cit., “Inescapable Frameworks”, p.10.
Taylor, Charles, Sources of the Self, op.cit., “Ethics of Inarticulacy”, p.64-65.
22
Taylor, Charles, Sources of the Self, op.cit., p.73 “Our acceptance of any hypergood is connected in a
complex way with our being moved by it…/… Our authorities, or the founders of our traditions, those
who give these goods their energy and place in our lives, they felt them deeply.”
23
Taylor, Charles, Sources of the Self, op.cit., p.79: “I mentioned in the beginning of the first chapter
the tendency in contemporary philosophy to give a very narrow focus to morality. Morality is
conceived purely as a guide to action. It is thought to be concerned purely with what is right to do
rather than with what it is good to be.”
24
Canto-Sperber, Monique, L’inquiétude morale et la vie humaine, op.cit. Canto-Sperber shows that
since the beginning of the 20th century there was in France a decline of a genuine reflection on
fundamental morality.
21
13
has also been deeply suppressed in the main stream of modern moral consciousness,
although it was perfectly familiar to the ancients.”25 This contribution of Taylor on
“articulation” complements Paul Ricoeur’s “interpretation” in his work of
hermeneutics. Because of different historical factors we are not able to find meaning
even in important aspects of life, we consider as treasures valueless things and
activities while we ignore true treasures.26 What was familiar to great sages makes us
laugh. But convincingly Taylor is showing us that “articulation will open us to our
moral sources and release their forces in our lives.”27
As we continue meditating on Charles Taylor’s insights, I will consider a
moment the birth of the modern Self and cogito in the Western tradition which we
will be able later on to relate to the Eastern Heart-and-Mind, xin/sim. This birth is in
fact the second major emergence of reason after the first emergence in Greece and it
is not connected anymore to the cosmos.
A major part of Taylor’s reflection is devoted to the discovery of man’s inner
depth. How did it take shape in the Western tradition? According to Taylor, Plato first
prepared the understanding of the mind as a unitary space. The soul, in becoming one,
reaches the highest point of the person through reason and with it calmness and selfpossession, a state where the person becomes centered. Although Plato spoke of soul
and body and not yet of outside and inside, without his contribution the clear
realization of interiority could not have happened in the same way. “The centering or
unification of the moral self was a precondition of the transformation which I will
describe as an internalization, but the centering is not this internalization itself.
Without the unified self which we see articulated in Plato’s theory, the modern notion
of interiority could never have developed.”28
What is important to us is to discover with Taylor what happened particularly
from Plato to Descartes in the forging of the Self and of the ego. It is not widely
known for example that Augustine played a crucial role in philosophy and that
Descartes was deeply Augustinian, as will be seen when other aspects of Descartes
emerge.
25
Taylor, Charles, Sources of the Self, “Moral Sources”, op.cit., p.82.
Taylor, Charles, Sources of the Self, “Moral Sources”, op.cit., p.95: “The eclipse of our whole
awareness of qualitative distinction carries with it the neglect of this whole dimension of our moral
thought and experience.”
27
Taylor, Charles, Sources of the Self, “Moral Sources”, op.cit., p.107.
28
Taylor, Charles, Sources of the Self, “Plato’s Self-Mastery”, p.120
26
14
The decisive step toward interiority was achieved by Augustine (354-430).29
Despite his affinity with Plato’s thought, for example, the idea of an external rational
order, Augustine started a new reflection. His major innovation was to see the
oppositions of spirit and matter, eternal and temporal in terms of internal and external,
inner and outer. Augustine calls us within and tells us that the road to God is inside.
He is one of the first to underline that the world can only be experienced by oneself,
thus preparing the meditations of Descartes. “Augustine’s turn to the self was a turn to
radical reflexivity, and that what made the language of inwardness irresistible. The
inner light is the one which shines in our presence to ourselves; it is the one
inseparable from being creatures with a first-person standpoint.”30
However for Augustine this road within leads us above all back to God. “We
can see the crucial importance of the language of inwardness for Augustine. It
represents a radically new doctrine of moral resources, one where the route to the
higher passes within. In this doctrine, radical reflexivity takes on a new status,
because it is the ‘space’ in which we come to encounter God, in which we effect the
turning from lower to higher. In Augustine’s doctrine, the intimacy of self-presence
is, as it were, hallowed with immensely far-reaching consequences for the whole of
Western culture.”31 With Augustine, God is to be found not just in the world but at the
very foundation of the person.32
Although Descartes was Augustinian, according to Taylor he placed the moral
sources within us. Descartes disengaged himself from the cosmos and looked at it
through the power of his reason. So the world is now seen in an objective way and
considered as a sophisticated mechanism. As Taylor puts it Descartes gave a “radical
twist” to the Augustinian inwardness. This was of great consequence, Descartes
giving full authority to the individual. Man constructs his own world view. The
cosmos is no more seen as embodying a meaningful order.
With Descartes the moral sources became fully internalized due to the power
of reason. Man controlling such a “disenchanted world” through rational means finds
29
Interestingly Saint Patrick (386-493) was a contemporary of Augustine.
Taylor, Charles, Sources of the Self, “In Interiore Homine”, op.cit., p.131.
31
Taylor, Charles, Sources of the Self, “In Interiore Homine”, op.cit., p.140.
32
The Augustinian meditation is an important step in the West which helps relating to the Eastern
mind. I have appreciated the Buddhist thought of the Korean Chinul (1158-1210) in relation to
Augustine in La Pensée Coréenne,- Aux sources de l’Esprit-Coeur, Part II, Editions Autres Temps,
2006.
30
15
in it the sense of his dignity, dignity which became essential in the modern world.33
However, if we reflect on this “twist” we notice that Descartes caused a severance; a
parting of man from the ontological source. If Descartes34 still speaks of God, the
focus is on the scientific understanding and control of the world.
Progressively the individual led by his reason took the whole stage, achieving
considerable knowledge of science and politics, liberating man from many hindrances
but losing in the process the relation with the living God . “The Cartesian proof (of
God) is no longer a search for an encounter with God within. It is no longer the way
to an experience of everything in God. Rather what I now meet is myself.”35
1.2.3 Ricoeur
This leads us to the reflection of The Self as Another - a work which Paul
Ricoeur begins by an analysis of Descartes’s Meditations. Ricoeur shows that right
from its emergence the cogito was in a threatened position. At first confident in its
power it became criticized itself. “Exalted subject, humiliated subject: it seems that it
is always through a complete reversal of this sort that one approaches the subject; one
could conclude that the “I” of the philosophies of the subject is atopos, without any
assured place in discourse.”36
Therefore, wanting to avoid the excesses of pride and despair, Ricoeur
suggests a balanced way through a careful hermeneutics. “As credence without any
guarantee, but also as trust greater than any suspicion, the hermeneutics of the self can
claim to hold itself at an equal distance from the cogito exalted by Descartes and from
the cogito that Nietzsche proclaimed forfeit.”37 The true identity of the Self comes,
not so much in an absolute certitude or a total self-denial but in a serene and confident
“attestation” of oneself.38
33
Taylor, Charles, Sources of the Self, “Descartes’s Disengaged Reason”, op.cit., p.151-152.
Taylor’s Charles, Sources of the Self, “Descartes’s Disengaged Reason”, op.cit., p.157: “God’s
existence has become a stage in my progress towards science through the methodological ordering of
evident insight. God’s existence is a theorem in my system of perfect science. The centre of gravity has
decisively shifted.”
35
Taylor, Charles, Sources of the Self, “Descartes’s Disengaged Reason”, op.cit., p.157.
36
Ricoeur, Paul, Oneself as Another, translated by Kathleen Blamey, The University of Chicago Press,
1995, p.16
37
Ricoeur, Paul, Oneself as Another, op.cit., p23.
38
Ricoeur, Paul, Oneself as Another, op.cit., p.21-23.
34
16
The search of an identity, as we can meditate with Ricoeur is a life long
adventure. It is to comprehend how the Self in a given culture emerges and shapes
itself on the basis of language, through a multifaceted literature which is like the
laboratory of ethics and wisdom. We are led to reflect on people’s search for a good
life, for living together according to moral norms and to standards of justice. There is
no shortcut to reach our own identity. Patiently we have to analyze the different levels
of the formation of the Self and to express them in a coherent whole.
What is remarkable in Ricoeur’s analysis is that he allows us to go further than
the limited Cartesian certitude, Nietzschean cynicism or Kierkegaardian despair to
include important human dimensions like action as a fundamental way of being, and
suffering and experiences which push us to the limits. Man is not just reason, he is
also feeling, walking toward death, going through dramatic and tragic situations. Man
is part of life in all its aspects. In enduring through sometimes conflictual and
meaningless aspects of living, he becomes more humane.39
Having analyzed language, action and narration, Ricoeur reflects on the
progression of the Self through ethics, morality and wisdom, dimensions which are
also important for the East. Ricoeur considers that these dimensions are a way of
returning to the Self and of relating to others. He explains how ethics is striving for a
good life and morality is more the respect one has for universal norms. Ricoeur’s
emphasis is on Self-esteem, estime de soi. Many moral norms exist in different
religious spheres but man is still ill-treated and people are often humiliated and hurt,
even in the name of religion. Therefore, although the moral norm remains important
in all situations, the guiding reference, beyond an abstract norm or law may be the
Self in its unique and sacred aspect.40
Self-esteem is the research of happiness and in relation to Aristotle we can see
the importance of practical wisdom. Man is essentially motivated in his action by a
will to fulfill excellence and to reach the highest good. Through this he finds self39
This reflection here is partly taken from a previous writing, “Philosophical Approach to Korean
Mind-and-Heart, Korean Identity in the New Millennium, The Academy of Korean Studies, 2001,
p.568-572.
40
Ricoeur, Paul, Oneself as Another, op.cit., p.170-171: “I propose (1) the primacy of ethics over
morality, (2) the necessity of the ethical aim to pass through the sieve of the norm, and (3) the
legitimacy of recourse by the norm to the aim whenever the norm leads to impasse in practice… To the
ethical aim will correspond what we call self-esteem (estime de soi), and to the deontological moment,
self-respect (respect de soi)… It will be made apparent (1) that self-esteem is more fundamental than
self-respect, (2) that self-respect is the aspect under which self-esteem appears in the domain of norms,
and (3) that the aporias of duty create situations in which self-esteem appears not only as the source but
as the recourse for respect, when no sure norm offers a guide for the exercise hic et nunc of respect.”
17
esteem but it is not a narrow satisfaction since it is possible only in relation with
others, particularly friends and in the framework of a determined society shaped by
institutions. Friendship as important to Ricoeur as it was to Aristotle.41 Ricoeur
underlines in relation to friendship that solicitude is more important than obedient
duty, because he perceives acting people as suffering.42 There is a calling for
authentic relations between human beings and this prepares the foundation for a
successful society. It must go to the level of authentic emotions expressed between
people.43 In the harsh conditions of daily life, a deeper sense of the other, of his
suffering, of the value of relationships is to be developed. All this for Ricoeur depends
more on ethics than on moral norms, because it is the fragile and delicate research of
real human beings looking day by day for a better life.
While he says that the give and take between ethics and morality is sufficient,
Ricoeur adds, however, the notion of practical wisdom. And this notion has the effect
of dealing explicitly with dimensions of conflict in society. “Conflict is the goad that
sends us to this court of appeal in the three areas: the universal self, the plurality of
persons, and the institutional environment.”44 The question is how people can live
together. The individual can fully develop within a society established according to
institutions. But there is also a limit to institutions when they become corrupt. In a
conflictual society and world the respect for people must not be neglected over a
respect for rules.
What Ricoeur analyzed in Oneself as Another is the search for a clearer
understanding of the Self in a society and in a world in relation to others. His
balanced, respectful and nuanced approach allowed him to embrace the complex
aspects of the Self from the linguistic dimension to an Ontological interrogation. Man
appears on one hand determined and limited by his character and by the structures of
41
Ricoeur, Paul, Oneself as Another, op.cit., p.181: “In Aristotle himself, friendship serves as a
transition between the aim of the “good life”, which we have seen reflected in self-esteem, apparently a
solitary virtue, and justice, the virtue of human plurality belonging to the political sphere. […] Not only
does friendship actually belong to ethics, as being the first unfolding of the wish to live well; but… it
brings to the forefront the problematic of reciprocity, authorizing us to reserve for a second-order
dialectic –the Same and the Other- the question of otherness as such.”
42
Oneself as Another, op.cit., p.190: “Suffering is not defined solely by physical pain, nor even by
mental pain, but by the reduction, even the destruction, of the capacity of acting, of being-able-to-act,
experienced as a violation of self-integrity.”
43
Oneself as Another, p.191: “It is indeed feelings that are revealed in the self by the other’s suffering,
as well as by the moral injunction coming from the other, feelings spontaneously directed toward
others. This intimate union between the ethical aim of solicitude and the affective flesh of feelings
seems to me to justify the choice of the term of “solicitude”.”
44
Oneself as Another, op.cit., p.250.
18
society and tradition, but on the other hand he is full of potential to adapt and create.
There is in Ricoeur’s reflection on the problems which we face for the future a
constant reference to sources such as Aristotle’s analysis of action, ground of actuality
and potentiality, Kant’s fundamental moral universality, Hegel’s emergence of the
Rational Self through figures and modern philosophers allowing to form concepts of
care, of flesh and the Other as a face.
The last chapter of Oneself as Another which ends with Socratic irony, is
dedicated to an interrogation on Ontology. In this chapter Ricoeur referred to a
passage of Aristotle which he chose and commented upon in a significant way: “In
Aristotle’s text [9.6 (1048b 18-35)] it matters little that sometimes dunamis is invoked
on behalf of the physics of motion, and sometimes pure actuality on behalf of
cosmotheology. What is essential is the decentering itself – both upward and
downward in Aristotle – thanks to which energeia-dunamis points toward a ground of
being, at once potentiality and actuality against which human action stands out. (un
fond d’être, à la fois puissant et effectif, sur lequel se détache l’agir humain.)”45
Therefore man’s action cannot be understood without a “fond d’être” – a ground of
being- toward which one must decenter oneself.
MacIntyre, Taylor and Ricoeur have demonstrated how greater work is needed
to regain a clearer ethical reflection as many important aspects have been lost. The
fruits seem difficult to get and the results disappointing when facing societies and the
world as they are. The articulation of an ethical discourse is like a fight to get at the
core of issues and to overcome ideas which are not beneficent ethically. These three
authors tell us that Ethics is much related to the discovery of ourselves, of our
identity, but that we need to see it in the perspective of a whole life which is
expressed through a narrative and which is part of an endangered tradition to which
we belong.
We are, however very much caught up in internal conflict since we have been
influenced to reject tradition, to center on individual values, to create by our
individual strength. Nietzsche laughed at our conscience and at philosophers like
Kant, pushing us to dare to be ourselves beyond good and evil. Where are the voices
answering to Nietzsche? Ethical research does not concern an ordinary subject, it has
to do with the most precious aspect of our life, our inner Self and our family to start
45
Ricoeur, Paul, Oneself as Another, translated by Kathleen Blamey, The University of Chicago Press,
1992, p.308.
19
with, and we cannot be guided only by fashion trends, intellectual pressures or
academic dryness.
MacIntyre, Taylor and Ricoeur have the courage to come back to the great
texts and authors of the Western tradition, to show clearly that we cannot find Ethical
solutions in negating the moral sources to which we have been connected. We are and
will be able to become in great part through the gifts we have received from the Greek
and Christian teachings.46 The three authors admit humbly that something is not right
in our situation and that in many ways we are only scraping the surface of our
problems when we consider them in relation to the mystery of evil.47 We are facing
new forms of barbarism as MacIntyre said.
Can we find our path by our own strength, without the light and the model of
those who have suffered to open a way or to protect it and who have been recognized
as sages and saints? Augustine, whom Ricoeur admired, has been mentioned by
Taylor as a towering figure for both philosophy and theology, illustrating through his
Confessions with candor and depth the beauty of living in an ethical way.
46
Taylor, Charles, Sources of the Self, op.cit., p.521: (here is the conclusion of Taylor) “There is a large
element of hope. It is a hope that I see implicit in Judaeo-Christian theism (however terrible the record
of its adherents in history), and in its central promise of a divine affirmation of the human, more total
than humans can ever attain unaided.”
47
Ricoeur, Paul, Le mal, Un défi à la philosophie et à la théologie, Labor et Fides, 1996.
20
1.3. Present moral/ethical task
These moments of reflection on what has been recently expressed in Western
Ethics serve to place Asian Ethics within modernity. Asian peoples in fact have made
much effort to welcome Western Thought and today live in relation to both cultures. I
began with Western Ethics that I may look within the present Western reflection at
what is being researched and the expectations which could be closely related to Asian
Thought. As we go deeper and honestly look into ourselves we may discover how
others, sometimes in their very difference, contribute to our own formation. Although
we are at first reluctant, we recognize the benefits when we have overcome the
difficulties of encounter. This work aims at making bridges between different forms
of Ethical approaches and at enriching Ethics through the contribution of the East, but
we cannot expect that endeavor to be simple and easy.
That we lost our horizon or the frame of moral sources is more than an image
and has to do with our life both in our inner Self and in our action. According to many
contemporary descriptions of our situation,48 in becoming modern we have left the
antique ethical frame within which things were seen in a cosmic dimension, we have
left also the medieval frame dominated by the transcendental view of God and we
have built up the power of reason. A movement of secularization took place in
philosophy criticizing different forms of transcendence and affirming more and more
individual liberation and fulfillment. However through contemporary Western
thought, man became much estranged from the cosmos and nature despite ecological
concerns. He took on himself to realize his actions by his own strength and often
without reference to the divine or a higher spiritual source. The contemporary man
appears often lonely in the middle of crowds, busy with a myriad of activities, all
preoccupied by his goals but having less and less the opportunity to discover the
wonders of himself and of the universe.
We are often submerged by the multiplicity and conflicting aspects of
thoughts and systems what Paul Ricoeur calls the “forest of speculation/la forêt de la
spéculation.”49 As it is mentioned in the title to this section, the objective is to rethink
Ethics in the radical terms of the human condition. We need to wonder again on what
48
49
For example Luc Ferry, Qu’estce-qu’une vie réussie?, Grasset, 2002.
Ricoeur, Paul, Soi-même comme un autre, Seuil, 1990, p.410.
21
we are, as we are able to create a symphony in a fleeting moment, spark of genius
often amidst pain, and some time later “being no more”.
What confidence can we have in our own moral capacity and strength when
we start to look at our real condition? Socrates taught us already that wisdom is to
admit that we know little and many times that we do not know well and correctly
despite our first sense of certitude. Pascal added the Christian distress facing the
human condition: “Man is a subject full of errors which are natural and incorrigible
without God’s grace. Nothing shows him the truth. Everything deludes him.”50
Keeping the lesson of Pascal, Ricoeur developed his reflection of the “fallible man”.
Our time needs some kind of fundamental humility. When we are confronted
by a situation of injustice, a difficult moral decision, a lie, we are reminded of our
“naked Self” to take an Augustinian expression.51 Gabriel Marcel said that the tragedy
of the 20th century philosophy is to have lost humility. How to get at the root of
Ethical questions without it? The Book of Changes, Yijing made humility and modesty
fundamental features of Heaven, man and Earth.
To speak too quickly of “man-god” may become a shortcut suppressing a
necessary meditation on man’s condition taking into account all the aspects of man. Is
it possible to find true meanings of life beyond and after Ethics and religion, or are we
just saying words? What does “after” Ethics mean when we can live only “in” Ethics?
The present rejection of certain forms of Ethics and religion is due to the fact that we
did not research the reality deeply enough like Pascal. “Wretchedness (misery) of man
without God/Misère de l’homme sans Dieu; happiness of man with God.” exclaimed
Pascal.52
In fact, we approach most truthfully what Ethics is in some rare and privileged
moments, particularly facing death. As Socrates said to his judges: “I want to give you
the proof at once why I think it likely that one who has spent his life in philosophy
should be confident when he is going to die…/… The fact is, those who tackle
philosophy aright are simply and solely practicing dying, practicing death, all the
time, but nobody sees it.”53 This requests that we live our life fully and in putting
meaning into it. Our actions in life involve values which require us to face death.
50
Pascal, Blaise, Pensées, Ch.III,XXVII, translated by Isaac Taylor, Oxford University Press, 1970,
p.33.
51
The Confessions of Saint Augustine, translated by John Ryan, Image Books, Doubleday, 1960, p.193.
52
Pascal, Blaise, Pensées.
53
Great Dialogues of Plato, translated by W.H.D.Rouse, A Mentor Book, 1956, Phaedo, p.466.
22
Confucius, as we will see, took virtue with the same seriousness.54 The last moments
of life reveal man’s true heart beyond all pretenses. “The philosopher Tsang being ill,
Mang Chang went to ask how he was. Tsang said to him: ‘When a bird is about to die,
its notes are mournful; when a man is about to die, his words are good.’ ”55 Goodness
comes out of us when we are challenged to get rid of all that is not essential and to
enter the real path of life.
Heidegger developed major aspects of his reflection on what he called “the
forgetfulness of being”. We could say that today our time is characterized by the
forgetfulness of true morality. As our mind is preoccupied with many goals we are
tempted to forget the most precious dimensions of life. How beautiful is memory in us
which has gathered from many generations treasures which we can expand by our
own creativity. Augustine said: “Great is the power of memory…. Who has
penetrated its very bottom? …/… Great wonder arises within at this. Amazement
seizes me. Men go forth to marvel at the mountain heights, at huge waves in the
sea…/.. but themselves they pass by.”56 We are passing by what could put us in the
direction of our true fulfillment. We are passing by treasures of our mind, restricting
ourselves to certain aspects and not being aware of what is waiting to be discovered.
Forgetfulness symbolizes a disease of our mind while on the contrary
recollection and memory lead to an ethical and life recovery. Mencius said:
“Benevolence, ren, is man’s mind, and righteousness is man’s path. How pitiful is it
to neglect the path and not pursue it, to lose this mind and not know to seek it
again!”57 As Mencius expressed it, we let lie fallow the depths of our mind which
could enlighten our path and because we are negligent and careless we do not notice
into which state we have fallen.
Particularly in the domain of Ethics we experience our poverty as we perceive
in ourselves and within situations how thoughts and words are twisted and distorted in
a subtle way. We long for straightforwardness and clarity, but situations are often
crooked. This may be the most painful reality of our human condition. MacIntyre
spoke of a pianist who can play very well but acts as an awful person, he spoke of
54
The Analects of Confucius, translated by James Legge, Book XV, Chapter VIII: “The Master said:
‘The determined scholar and the man of virtue will not seek to live at the expense of injuring their
virtue. They will even sacrifice their lives to preserve their virtue complete.’ ”
55
The Analects of Confucius, op.cit., Book VIII, chapter IV.1-2.
56
Augustine, Confessions, op.cit., p.238.
57
The Works of Mencius, Translated by James Legge, Dover Publications. 1970, Book VI, Part I,
Chapter XI, p.414.
23
how people are tempted to pretend, to play a certain role, even in terms of morality.
This pretense was one of the causes of the decline of Christianity and when we turn to
the East we could say the same for Confucianism and Buddhism.
In art we are able to distinguish between an authentic original masterpiece and
a fake. We are revolted by the false and the lies. However, it is a much more difficult
task in Ethics to find out what is “authentic” and what is a “lie” because our condition
has been so damaged. Nietzsche had a strong base for his attacks. His philosophy has
for us the effect of a mirror. We realize through Nietzsche’s criticisms our own
failures and historical failures. We have to confess a dark side of man even in the
religious sphere. But we can uncover that Nietzsche, who wanted to bring complete
truth and started “from a genuine insight”58 was himself hiding, consciously and
unconsciously, certain aspects that he could not admit and that many of the
conclusions and propositions he suggested have proven not to bring us on the true
path of life.
Paul Ricoeur has shown the radical attack of Nietzsche against the Cogito of
Descartes. According to him, Nietzsche went further than the Cartesian doubt in that
he got at the Cogito itself.59 But Nietzsche must also give account for his radical
attacks. “As for Nietzsche’s own philosophy, either it exempts itself from the
universal reign of Vorstellung (representation, illusion) – but through what higher ruse
could it escape the sophism of the liar?”60 That is why, talking about our human
condition under the attacks of Nietzsche, Ricoeur used the expressions of the “broken
Cogito” or the “humiliated Cogito”. What is striking is the subtlety of the break in
ourselves and even Nietzsche with the power of his argumentations did not escape
this condition.
Similarly, many followers of Nietzsche constantly speak of the task of
unmasking what is illusion, of bringing the truth on what they suspect as lies. The
image of the mask is apt to convey our tragic condition61 but no one is free from this
condition. The task of unmasking lies and crookedness is far more complex and
58
MacIntyre, Alasdair, After Virtue, Duckworth, 1981/1996, p.113.
Ricoeur, Paul, Oneself as Another, translated by Kathleen Blamey, The University of Chicago Press,
1992, p.14: “The strict selection made here is faithful to my purpose, which is to show in Nietzsche’s
anticogito not the inverse of the Cartesian cogito but the destruction of the very question to which the
cogito was held to give an absolute answer.”
60
Ricoeur, Paul, Oneself as Another, op.cit., p.13.
61
The film The Phantom of the Opera gives food to think. It is spoken of the crooked person as an
“animal with a man’s mask” in Hahn Moo-Sook, Encounter, translated in English by Ok young Kim
Chang, University of California Press, 1992, p.69.
59
24
perilous than imagined, especially without a spiritual dimension. Asian thought was
sensitive since an early age to the fact that in our condition we can even lie to
ourselves.
As Ricoeur who in his reflections always wanted to see how far he could go,
we must find the courage to absorb all criticisms and undo all masks and pretenses to
reconsider who and what we are. However there comes the moment to build anew
which is extremely difficult. Western philosophy may have been “suspecting” and
“deconstructing” for too long. Many sincere people are waiting for new expressions
on the human condition, on man’s identity, and the moral dimensions of life.
Do we have among us a Socrates, a Plato, a Confucius or a Mencius? In “the
forest of speculations” and debates, we aspire to hear a voice which opens wider
horizons, which breathes courage to this world to fulfill its tasks not just externally
and intellectually but taking into account its soul, its moral and spiritual aspirations.
We read again Plato’s Dialogues and Confucius’s Analects, not just by academic
tradition but because we feel a veneration for Socrates and Plato or Confucius who are
still great masters to us beyond the distance of time. We read them also with the hope
that a new Socrates or a new Confucius may emerge in us and in history, not in the
sense of a repetition of ideas, but in the sense of a nobility of life within our time.
We need less theoretical analyses and more encounters with great minds and
sages of all ages to train ourselves toward fulfillment of the whole person. The
Chinese had an early sense of what is more elevated in the spirit and were ready to
admire it in humbleness and silence, waiting later times for their own expression.
“Mencius said: ‘Confucius ascended the eastern hill, and Lu appeared to him small.
He ascended the Tai mountain and all beneath the heavens appeared to him small. So
he who has contemplated the sea, finds it difficult to think anything of other waters,
and he who has wandered in the gate of the sage, finds it difficult to think anything of
the words of others.’ ”62 That will be our next step to discover the moral sources of
China in relation to the great ancient figures who remain a reference and inspiration
throughout history and whose words make “other” words look insipid.
As our age is tempted to justify superficial or dishonest ethical conducts due to
falsified motivations and a quest of the individual satisfaction, a new awakening of
62
The Works of Mencius, Translated by JamesLegge, op.cit., Book VII, Part I, Chapter XXIV, p.463.
25
our conscience is stimulated by the “decentering” of ourselves toward higher sources
of inspiration. “Confucius said: ‘There are three things of which the superior man,
junzi (man in quest of maturity), stands in awe. He stands in awe of the ordinances of
Heaven He stands in awe of great men. He stands in awe of the words of the sages.’
”63
We may think that sages of the West and of the East just belong to the past
and that we have the keys of the future in our hands. However these sages were once
like us, often coming from humble positions but they let Heaven form them; they
were patient, ready to endure hardships and at the proper time they could become a
source of life for many. “Mencius said: ‘When Heaven is about to confer a great
office on any man, it first exercises his mind with suffering, and his sinews and bones
with toil. It exposes his body to hunger and subjects him to extreme poverty. It
confounds his undertakings. By all these methods it stimulates his mind, hardens his
nature, and supplies his incompetencies. Men for the most part err, and are afterwards
able to reform. They are distressed in mind and perplexed in their thoughts, and then
they arise to vigorous reformation…/… From those things we see how life springs
from sorrow and calamity, and death from ease and pleasure.”
63
The Analects of Confucius, Translated by James Legge, Book XVI, Chapter VIII.
26
II. Meditation on Asian Ethics
Here I will approach Asian Ethics in its otherness without any ambition to
cover all of the depth and richness of the subject. There are now numerous
publications in English focusing on Chinese Ethics in itself or in relation to Western
Ethics and offering the contributions of scholars East and West.64 I would like to take
time in this research to reflect on the way the Chinese have considered the moral
sources in the early period corresponding to the axial age spoken by Karl Jaspers. We
will focus on some important Classics such as the Book of Changes, Yijing, also the
Analects of Confucius and on some Neo-Confucian works such as those of Zhou
Doun-i. It must be said at the start that although a greater focus will be placed on
Confucianism, Chinese and Asian Ethics cannot be understood in their depth without
Taoism and Buddhism.
The choice of early Chinese Thought comes from the fact that, much more
than in the Western tradition, later developments of thought and even modern and
contemporary ways of thinking and doing things are deeply rooted in the early forms
of thought. The whole system of education related to the social leadership was based
on the Classics in a unique way.
It is unfortunate that at certain times in history the Classics came to be studied
with the goal of getting power. It explains why in the modern period many people did
not take them seriously any more and considered them as empty words. Therefore
today Asian peoples have considerably disconnected themselves from what used to
constitute the basis of their thought and of their Ethics. This phenomenon was
accentuated by the introduction of Western philosophy bringing with it rational tools
for sharper criticisms. Today Western philosophy is more studied in Asia than Asian
philosophy such as Confucianism. As a result of this a reappraisal of Asian Ethics is
even more complex than the reappraisal of Western Ethics since Chinese lost much
confidence in their tradition.
However, behind this evolution lies a perennial problem. In all times, East and
West, many people tend to avoid what is deep and substantial, looking more for
64
Chinese Ethics in a Global Context –Moral Bases of Contemporaries Societies, edited by Karl-Heinz
Pohl & Anselm W. Müller, Brill 2002; Comparative Approaches to Chinese Philosophy, Edited by Bo
Mou, Ashgate, 2003; Chinese Philosophy in an era of globalization, Robin R. Wang, Editor, State
University of New York Press, 2004.
27
external recognition, even in the field of thought. If Confucius, as quoted,
recommended to revere the words of the sages, it is not enough practiced because the
newest and the controversial are more popular and sell better. Sages are not well
frequented. Laozi had these words:
“When the superior man hears the Way (Tao),
He is scarcely able to put it into practice.
When the middling man hears the Way,
He appears now to preserve it, now to lose it.
When the inferior (small) man hears the Way,
He laughs at it loudly.
If he did not laugh,
It would not be fit to be the Way.”65
Sages and deep thinkers are laughed at but on the long run they withstand
trials because the flowers are ephemeral while the fruits remain. “The great man
resides in substance (foundation), not in attenuation (surface)./ He resides in fruitful
reality, not in blossom ornament.”66
Here we start with a sense of awe a travel of the mind, leaving familiar
Western landscapes which at times have been disturbed by strong voices but which
remain well-ordered by the all-mighty reason. At first disorientation is a normal
feeling when entering the Far Eastern landscapes, but let us hope that it will be a
rewarding experience.
We aim not at a competition of thoughts where one thought would be
considered higher but only at the welcoming of a guest from afar in order to establish
a friendship. We come on the foundation of several centuries of relation with the East
and we have translations of important Asian texts allowing us, as Ricoeur says, this
“hospitalité langagière/hospitality of the language” thanks to which “we can receive
in our own home the words of the stranger.”67
65
Tao Te Ching (Daodejing), Lao Tzu (Laozi)Translated by Victor H. Mair, Bantam Books, 3 (41), p.7.
Tao Te Ching (Daodejing), op.cit., 1 (38), p.4. French version by Liou Kia-hway, Lao-tseu, Tao-To
King, Gallimard, 1967, p.75: “Le grand homme s’en tient au fond et non à la surface,/ il s’en tient au
noyau et non à la fleur…”
67
Ricoeur, Paul, Sur la Traduction, Bayard, 2004, p.20, “Hospitalité langagière, où le plaisir d’habiter
la langue de l’autre est compensé par le plaisir de recevoir chez soi, dans sa propre demeure d’accueil,
la parole de l’étranger.”
66
28
The most formidable obstacle of encounter between East and West has been
the claim of logic. Asian thought was denied the recognition as true philosophy since
Hegel declared it had not reached the level of conceptual reasoning. But, instead of
opposing the strength of logic in the West vis-à-vis the absence of logic in the East,
we could present East and West as having a different type of logic and offering
complementary strong points of view. While Western thinkers are fascinated by what
is in the light of reality and want to grasp clear ideas, Asian philosophers like to
suggest, to keep a rich impreciseness and to approach through reason in harmony with
life and that which is beyond the purely conceptual.68
This can be expressed through a consideration of Asian painting. Asian artists
allow us to imagine, to dream, beyond the frame of the painting. They use techniques
influenced by Eastern Thought like stylization, expressing an object or a form with a
few lines, almost like a sign. They also make use of empty space, expressing the flow
of life, its purity, its change, that which is evanescent, impermanent and eternal.
André Malraux said that the Asian landscape emerges from silence.69
It is true that reason appeared first in the West with the Greeks and initiated
the freedom to think by oneself70. All great thinkers like Descartes, Kant and Hegel
came back for inspiration to this unique moment in history symbolized by the artistic
achievement of the Athenians like the Parthenon and the exemplar sculptures.
This does not diminish other ways of approaching the reality which cannot be
comprehended only by pure conceptual means. For example, Pascal showed the limits
of reason: “The highest attainment of reason is to know that there are an infinite
number of things beyond its reach. And it must be extremely feeble, if it does not go
so far. A man ought to know, when to doubt, when to be certain, and when to submit.
He who cannot do this does not understand the real strength of reason.”71 He shows
also how reason is enriched by heart. “We know the truth not only through reason but
through heart. It in this last sort that we know the first principles and it is in vain that
reasoning, which does not take part in it, tries to combat them.”72 “The heart has its
68
Thiébault, Philippe, “Exploring the Confucian Self”, Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society,
Korea Branch, vol.73, 1998, p.12-13.
69
Thiébault, Philippe, “Exploring the Confucian Self”, op.cit., p.14. We can take for example the
Chinese Mou-K’I, Hsia Hsiang Landscape, 13th century and the Korean An Kyông, Dream Journey to
the Peach Blosom Land, 1447.
70
Hegel, Leçons sur l’histoire de la philosophie 2, Gallimard, 1954, p.20-21.
71
Pascal, Pensées, translated by Isaac Taylor, Oxford University Press, 1970, Chapter X.I, p.95.
72
Pascal, Pensées, 110 (282): “Nous connaissons la vérité non seulement par la raison mais encore par
le coeur. C’est de cette dernière sorte que nous connaissons les premiers principes et c’est en vain que
29
arguments, which reason knows not”73 /”Le coeur a son ordre, l’esprit a le sien qui est
par principe et démonstration. Le coeur en a un autre.”74
Furthermore Henri Bergson, who had numerous insights helping discover the
Eastern mind, expressed how experience progresses not only in the direction of
intelligence but also in the direction of intuition and symbols. According to his
hypothesis, “There would be a supra-intellectual intuition. If this intuition exists, a
taking possession of the spirit by itself is possible, and no longer a knowledge that is
external and phenomenal.”75 With Bergson the barriers between intelligence and
intuition, understanding and sensitiveness are fading away. Bergson spoke of “a
knowledge from within, that can grasp facts in their springing forth instead of taking
them already sprung, that would dig beneath space and specialized time.” 76He speaks
of the spirit reaching being in its depths.
In relation to the Yijing as we are about to discover Marie-Ina Bergeron has
this extraordinary remark: “China does think not only with its brain but with its
heart.”77 Think with the heart… As the West never really continued expanding the
initiative of Pascal or Bergson, the East remained truthful to its early intuitions and
convictions about the mind-and-heart. We may come back later on to open new ways
of a philosophy of the heart in relation with Asian thought in the hope of sharing the
depths of our traditions.78
le raisonnement, qui n’y a point de part, essaie de les combattre.”
73
Pascal, Pensées, tr. Isaac Taylor, Chapter 21.V, p.182.
74
Pascal, Blaise, Pensées, 110 (282); 298 (283).
75
Bergson, Henri, Creative Evolution, Translated by Arthur Mitchell, The Modern Library, New York,
1944, p.391.
76
Bergson, Henri, Creative Evolution, op.cit., p.393.
77
Bergeron, Mare-Ina, L’Eternelle Féerie, l’image, Guy Trédaniel Editeur, 1989, p.10.
78
As one exemple of this Asian expression the author wrote an essay on the hidden dimensions of
mind-and-heart in Korean philosophy, La Pensée Coréenne, Aux sources (cachées) de l’Esprit-Coeur,
Autres Temps, 2006.
30
2.1. Chinese Moral Sources and the Yijing
In a unique way the awakening of the Chinese to thought happened in
marveling at nature. Chinese were always fascinated by the enchantment of the world,
not first for a scientific understanding but for a poetical connection. “The poetical
knowledge of the world”, said Bachelard, “precedes as it is right, the rational
knowledge of objects. The world is beautiful before it is true. The world is admired
before it is proved.”79 This notion has remained true in Confucianism and Taoism.
Images and symbols were constitutive of the first way of thinking in China
and remained so. It is not just a pre-philosophical stage of philosophy, it is as essential
for the Chinese mind as the concept for the Western mind. Instead of the certitude of
getting the ideas, Chinese appreciate the multiple images because they express the
ideas while remaining close to the real.80 That’s why the Yijing is based on the
fundamental eight trigrams symbolizing the forces of nature, thunder, wind, mountain,
lake, water, the Creative and the Receptive, these trigrams being the basis of the
hexagrams. The point here is not to get technical but to perceive the Chinese mind at
work.
Instead, for example, of speaking of humility in an abstract way the Yijing
presents the hexagram composed of two trigrams, below, the mountain and above, the
earth, letting us discover progressively the richness of its image. According to our
logic the mountain stands high on the earth. But here the mountain hides from our
view, suggesting how the greatest contributions must be kept in control and lowly
positions may be as important as the most visible ones.
79
Bachelard, Gaston, L’Air et les Songes, essai sur l’imagination du mouvement, éditions José Corti,
1943, p.192.
80
Bergeron, Marie-Ina, L’Eternelle Féerie, l’image, Guy Trédaniel Editeur, 1989, p.8: “Every human
being is born and dies within an overabundance of colors, forms and sounds, in a word of “images”.
These open the field of his experience. These reveal to every human being his cosmic dimension and
his belonging to the “Ten thousand things” of China – whole of the entire created world, from the grain
of sand to Man-, these constitute the unique material of human activity…/…Between the “gift” and the
“given” and the most sacred of Man’s heart, a secret way slowly was discovered.”
31
The Image
“Within the earth, a mountain:
The image of modesty.
Thus the superior man reduces that which is too much,
And augments that which is too little.
He weighs things and makes them equal.”81
According to the Changes, modesty is common to Heaven, Earth and man and
illuminates from within its love of lowly position. “Modesty that is honored spreads
radiance. Modesty that is lowly cannot be ignored.”82 Laozi, in the spirit of the
Changes emphasized humbleness in meditating on nature. “The river and the sea can
be kings of the hundred valley streams because they are good at living below them.” 83
Opening the Yijing is to tune into the wonders of the universe with all its
components, its plants and its animals which require precise observation. It is to enter
the cycle of life, the springing of natural forces like the thunder which initiates
movement in nature, the return of the seasons, the new start from the winter, the
resurgence from what seemed dead. Everything changes through a process of youth,
growth, maturity and old age as the day goes from the sunrise to the sunset, the year
from the joyful expectations of the spring to the apprehensive beginning of the winter.
Several ancient Chinese texts are in many ways hymns to the beauty and
mystery of life, mystic and reverential songs. A text from the 11th century said: “What
man appreciates more than anything is Life… Life is the great virtue of Heaven, Life
is the great joy of the earth, Life is man’s great happiness.”84 Admiring reverence of
life in all its dimensions was a characteristic of the early Chinese.
When Western thought ran into the danger to shine in its abstraction, away
from the richness of the concrete and the beauty of life, Eastern thought remained
close to the song of life and kept an alliance with poetry. Victor Hugo has this
suggestive expression, in a poem of “thought germinating near the ear”85 while we
81
The I Ching or Book of Changes, The Richard Wilhelm Translation, Princeton University Press,
1950/1976, p.64.
82
Book of Changes, op.cit., p.462.
83
Daodejing, Chapter 66.
84
Quoted by Marie-Ina Bergeron, Ciel/Terre/Homme- Le Yijing, Guy Trédaniel Editeur, 1986, p.45-46.
85
Hugo, Victor, Les Rayons et les Ombres, Larousse, 1950, p.70:
“Enfants! Aimez les champs, les vallons, les fontaines,
Les chemins que le soir emplit de voix lointaines,
Et l’onde et le sillon, flanc jamais assoupi,
32
could speak for the East of “thought germinating near the blossoming trees or near
mountain and water.” Chinese were seeing correspondences between nature and
human life and possibilities of application like the bird lowering his wings in
difficulty.86
Modern people under the influence of utilitarian thought, as Charles Taylor
reminded us, have moved away from man’s role within a cosmic order or divine
history to concentrate on relieving man’s suffering, to emphasize ordinary life and to
be diverted to less noble activities.87 However this may contain the risk for man to
lock himself in limited actions and to lose the sense of his greater home and his
greater destiny. In becoming ultra efficient man may not see any more his vital
relation to nature and all beings there for him. Man uses everything instead of being
part of what comprehends him.
The cosmos is not an idea of which one can get rid of as one pleases, it is the
womb of all life, and laughing at it reminds us of what Laozi said. Who are we within
the cosmos? That’s why a classic like the Yijing is important and remains constantly
studied in the East. It does not only weave our relations with the cosmos and with
human beings but connects us to a source of life, wisdom and morality hidden within
this cosmos. The Changes (Yijing) is no ordinary book: “They show care and sorrow
and their causes. Though you have no teacher, approach them as you would your
parents.”88
Confucius, who had worn out several copies of the Yijing, said that if he was
given more time to live he would devote it to study of the Yijing in order to reduce the
occasions for him to make important mistakes. The reason why Confucius had this
classic in such esteem is due to the admiration for those who conceived it and
considered it was a “book of life.” It would go beyond the scope of this essay to give
an exact account about the formation and the structure of the Yijing.89
Où germe la pensée à côté de l’épi.”
86
Yijing, “Hexagram 36”, “Nine at the beginning”: “Darkening of the light during flight. He lowers his
wings. The superior man does not eat for three days on his wanderings. But he has somewhere to go.
The host has occasion to gossip about him.” Wilhelm comments how a man who struggles to overcome
difficulties retreats. He suffers losses because of his principles but he knows his goal, despite all
criticisms.
87
Taylor, Richard, Sources of the Self, The making of the modern identity, Harvard University Press,
1989/2001, p.13.
88
Yijing, “Great Treatise”, Translated by Richard Wilhelm, Part II, Chapter VIII.6, P.349.
89
Jullien, François, Figures de l’immanence –Pour une lecture philosophique du Yi king (Yijing),
Grasset, 1993.
33
However, I will make a few remarks on this classic to prepare the background
of our further reflection on Ethics in the Yijing. First, let us say that Chinese is a
unique language in that it is related to a special early inspiration. Chinese characters
were created at the time of the beginning of divination. They contain in them
fragments of deep experiences in nature and in social life. They speak to our eyes and
let reverberate important meanings in our mind. We can look at them as one looks at a
painting, coming back to it to find out more. It seems that the abstraction is already
built in the Western language, while Chinese language right from the beginning kept
natural spontaneity and concreteness. When we look at the characters of water and
fire, for example, we can almost feel water and fire for so true to life are they in
design.
What counts the most for Chinese is the real experience of life. But is it easy
to express it? Therefore what is fundamental to them is the quiet, silent and empty soil
from which will spring life, word, writing and emotions… Chinese entire culture
shows that well and we remember Malraux’s sentence: “The Asian landscape
emergess from silence.” The Asian mind has a fondness for silence while the Western
mind educated within both the Greek and Christian traditions is moved by the Logos.
Confucius loved the silence and was reluctant to speak. When dealing with
important subjects he felt like he could only stutter, for he was following the example
of previous great sages such as those who composed the Yijing. The authors of the
Yijing knowing the difficulty of language used the symbol of yielding and full lines to
speak to our mind in its multiple capacity of archetype, reason, emotion and spirit. In
the philosophical part of the Yijing called “The Great Treatise” one reads: “The
Master said: ‘Writing cannot express words completely. Words cannot express
thoughts completely.’ Are we then unable to see the thoughts of the holy sages? The
Master said: ‘The holy sages set up the images in order to express their thoughts
completely …” 90
90
Yijing, “The Great Treatise”, Part I, Chapter XII.2, in Book of Changes, Translated by Richard
Wilhelm, Princeton University Press, 1950/1976, p.322.
34
2.1.1 Meditation on the Universe
The holy sages composed the Yijing in meditating on the universe, man and
his destiny. It is somehow difficult for us to realize the time and energy great people
in China took to meditate on “all things” in order to listen to their teachings and to
receive from them life beyond life. Their attitude was to give themselves entirely,
perceiving how great was the gift they were receiving from the mysterious reality.
With the Yijing we experience the capacity for the mind to penetrate and to embrace
all things.
When in ancient times Fuxi ruled the world as sovereign, he looked upward
and observed (contemplated) the images in heaven and looked downward and
observed the models (patterns) that the earth provided. He observed the
patterns (the markings) of birds and beasts and what things were suitable for
the land. Nearby, adopting them from his own person, and afar adopting them
from other things, he thereupon made the eight trigrams in order to become
thoroughly conversant with the virtues inherent in the numinous and the bright
and to classify the myriad things in terms of their true, innate natures.91
However, as the universe seems to many, immense but without meaning
related to them, as they do not find their way in the entanglement of things and are
perplex on the myriad of events and destinies, feeling caught within tight knots, some
sages appeared to help undoing the knots.
The holy sages were able to survey all the confused diversities under
heaven, They observed forms and phenomena, and made representations of
things and their attributes. These were called the Images. The holy sages were
able to survey all the movements under heaven. They contemplated the way in
which these movements met and became interrelated, to take their course
according to eternal laws. Then they appended judgments, to distinguish
between the good fortune and misfortune indicated. These were called the
judgments. This comes from the fact that they observed before they spoke and
91
Lynn, Richard, John, The Classic of Changes, Columbia University Press, 1976, “Great Treatise”,
Part II.2, p.77.
35
discussed before they moved. Through observation and discussion they
perfected the changes and transformations.92
Major intuitions were established early and remained a basis in Chinese Thought.
Here we see how the sages discerned within the apparent confusion of phenomena the
reality of principles regulating relations between the variety of beings looking for
their right fulfillment. They were the first to express what people are unconsciously
looking for. They stressed the importance of relations within the universe. All things
are interrelated not in confusion but with a meaningful purpose to discover. The
relation between beings is a cornerstone of Chinese Thought and the Yijing has
introduced Asians to great depths of this reality93and could bring light to modern
individualism.
How is it possible to reach a penetration of the mind which allows not just a
scientific knowledge but a comprehensive understanding of beings and events, of
situations and right actions? A preparation and a continuous training of the mind and
of the whole personality are needed, and it is for this reason that the Chinese sages
became models of character. Mencius whom we quoted said how a person destined to
an important task must face painful hardships. His saying is rooted in earlier sages
who prepared themselves deeply to receive insights on the universe.
The holy sages purified their hearts, withdrew, and hid themselves in the
secret. They concerned themselves with good fortunes and misfortunes in
common with other men. They were divine (spiritual), hence they knew the
future; they were wise, hence they stored up the past. Who is it that can do all
this? Only the reason and clear-mindedness of the ancients, their knowledge
and wisdom, their remitting divine (spiritual) power.94
The Yijing gave an inspiration to both Confucianism and Taoism concerning
this quest for comprehensive knowledge rooted in mysterious depths. The sages hid
92
“The Great Treatise”, op. cit., Part I, Chapter VIII, 1.2.4., p.304.
Bergeron, Marie-Ina, La Chine et Teilhard, Jean-Pierre Delarge, 1976, p.58: “For ancient China,
relation does not come under the category or the logic… It belongs to substance, essence, to what is
intrinsic, to the ontological foundation of all phenomena.”
94
“Great Treatise”. Op. cit., Part I. Chapter XI.2, p.316-317.
93
36
themselves to find out about hidden truths. Highest truths are like a hidden treasure95
that requests great sacrifices and purification to reach. The sages in contemplating the
universe, Heaven and earth, and in withdrawing within themselves awakened to the
universe principles which rule all things in a manifest way but hide themselves.
That which lets now the dark, now the light appear is the Tao. As continuer,
it is good. As completer, it is the essence (substantial nature). The kind man
discovers it and calls it kind. The wise man discovers it and calls it wise. The
people use it day by day and are not aware of it, for the way of the superior
man (junzi) is rare. It manifests itself as kindness but conceals its workings. It
gives life to all things, but it does not share the anxiety of the holy sage. Its
glorious power, its great field of action, are of all things the most sublime. It
possesses everything in complete abundance: this is its great field of action. It
renews everything daily: this is its glorious power. As begetter of all
begetting, it is called change. As that which completes the primal images, it is
called the Creative; as that which imitates them, it is called the Receptive.96
This is one of the most beautiful passages of the “Great Treatise” showing
well the kind of awakening the sages did. We will limit ourselves to a few points.
Here appears the Asian Tao/Dao which is manifested through the Yin and the Yang.
In another passage it is called the Taiji97 which became one of the great symbols of
Asian Thought. Let us notice that the Tao, which is the ontological source of all
95
Pascal, Pensées, translated by Isaac Taylor, Oxford University Press, 1970, Chapter VIII.V, p.74-75:
“God is concealed from man: therefore, every religion which does not assert this fact, is false: and
every religion which admits it, but does not explain its cause, is essentially defective.”; Simone Weil:
“God could only create by hiding himself. Otherwise there would be nothing but himself.”, excerpt
from Gravity and Grace, tr, by Emma Craufurd, Putnam & Sons, 1952.
96
It can be compared with the newer translation of Richard John Lynn, The Classic of Changes,
Columbia University Press, 1994: “The reciprocal process of yin and yang is called the Dao. That
which allows the Dao to continue is human goodness [shan], and that which allows it to bring things to
completion is human nature [xing]. The benevolent sees it and call it benevolence, and the wise [zhi]
see it and call it wisdom. It functions for the common folk on a daily basis, yet they are unaware of it.
This why the Dao of the noble man is a rare thing! It is manifested in benevolence and hidden within
its functioning. It arouses the myriad things but does not share the anxieties of the sages. As replete
virtue and great enterprise, the Dao is indeed perfect! It is because the Dao exists in such rich
abundance that we refer to it as the “great enterprise” It is because the Dao brings renewal day after day
that we refer to it as “replete virtue”. In its capacity to produce and reproduce we call it “change”.
When it forms images, we call it Qian. When it duplicates patterns, we call it Kun.”
97
“Great Treatise”, op.cit., Part I, Chapter XI.5: “There is in the Changes the Great Primal Beginning,
Taichi/Taiji. This generates the two primary forces, Yin and Yang. The two primary forces generate the
four images. The four images generate the eight trigrams.”
37
things and the cosmic principle, is at the same time characterized by goodness in that
it gives life to all beings and maintains their nature.
Reflecting a little more closely to the original we learn important aspects
which remained in Asian philosophy and Ethics. The good is expressed in cosmic
terms as what gives continuity. The process of life not only starts but lasts and allows
myriads to benefit from it. Secondly the nature of being means an accomplishment
rooted in the Tao. This reality, that Mencius continued to reflect on and was called the
nature of goodness built in beings received from the original source of the Tao, is
there, but may be not perceived by certain people. It is so rich and profound that it can
be recognized differently by people according to the life they live. Among the
possible ways it can be called, we recognize the ren, which was favored by Confucius
as essential in human action. Ren could be rendered as caring for others and is close to
the Christian agape but has other nuances in Confucianism and defies definition. We
will come back to it with Confucius. In contrast with the view of an uncaring universe
full of haphazard phenomena where people die meaninglessly, Chinese sages
perceived goodness at work in the universe, when we are able to leave a narrowminded approach and tune to the cosmic reality.
It is therefore said “The Tao manifests itself as ren.” However “it conceals
itself in its actions.” As some people commented, the Bible was formed in a land
where shepherds reared sheep. One of the symbols of Christianity is the shepherd who
calls his sheep. Differently, the Yijing was formed in a land of farmers who especially
planted rice. So the Chinese meditated on the growing of plants. The farmer is never
tired of waiting for the return of spring and to watch the coming forth from the soil of
his plants. It is always a wonder how the sprout emerges from the ground. Here, close
to their plants, Chinese have thought of this visible expression of the goodness of the
Tao without which the continuation of life is not possible. However, while watching
the visible sprouts they realized that this wonder was due to the roots but that the
invisible roots were difficult to figure out in their depth and relation with the complex
elements of the soil.
One meaningful expression on the Tao is its “rich de (virtue) and great work”
which make it sublime. Here we find the character de, virtue, which in the ancient
days meant some spiritual power received by the kings from higher spiritual beings,
38
on the basis of a straight and devoted life. Later on Confucius taught that this de was
in fact present in every person as a jewel that needs to be polished. This overflowing
de of the Tao is paired with a remarkable achievement visible throughout the cosmos.
Tao’s greatest de, virtue, is to renew everything constantly. The Tao is “the begetter
of all begetting” and is manifested through the Creative and Receptive, the two primal
forces of the universe.
Creative and Receptive, Qian and Kun, of which Confucius said that they are
“the gateway to the Changes”98 were expressed symbolically through one full line and
one yielding line as the beginning of everything.99 The characters used for them
symbolized the sun drying lands covered by water for Qian and the earth making
things develop or sprouts germinating out of the ground for Kun.100 What became
later on more abstract principles Yin and Yang are in the Yijing very close to nature.
We do not need to over pause in meditating on the Taiji symbol which we will
see again with Zhou Doun-I, the father figure of the rebirth of Confucianism, called
Neo-Confucianism, in the 11th century. Zhou Doun-I who inspired also the great Zhu
Xi started his reflection in going back to the Yijing and to the consideration of the
Taiji. Through the diagram of the Taijii we acknowledge that the universe is one, it is
centered due to the Tao or Taiji and at the same time it is constitutively made of the
dual relation between Yin and Yang. However, Yin and Yang are not two entities
which occasionally meet. Yin is within Yang and Yang is within Yin. As later
philosophical commentaries have developed, they are one but two, they are two but
one, that is to say that they keep their identity within the deepest relation. This is the
root of all relations.
The relation of Yin and Yang springing out of the Tao or Taiji is a dynamic
growing relationship destined to multiply through its fruits within harmony. From this
fundamental relation exemplified in male and female emerge through a more and
more complex relation of elements a whole universe symbolized by the 64
hexagrams, a universe of physical dimension, human relations and personal destinies.
98
“Great Treatise”, op.cit., Part II, Chapter VI.2.
Some have made relations between the structure of the Yijing and computer science. Already Leibniz
through his exchanges with the French Jesuit Bouvet got the 64 hexagrams of the Yijing and could
reflect on his system of binary arithmetic.
100
Bergeron, Marie-Ina, Teilhard et la Chine, Jean-Pierre Delarge, 1976. p.35.
99
39
Despite the complexity of all things what strikes us is the harmony of the whole,
invisible and visible, spiritual and physical.101
Qian-Kun, Yin-Yang represent fundamental aspects shared by the Tao and by
human beings. “The movement of Heaven is full of power. Thus the superior man
makes himself strong and untiring,”102 and “The earth’s condition is receptive
devotion. Thus the superior man who has breadth of character carries the outer
world.”103 The Changes emphasize both creativity and receptivity as an ontological
source and a way for man’s fulfillment. In commentaries one finds for Qian: “Great
indeed is the sublimity of the Creative, to which all beings owe their beginning and
which permeates all heaven.”; “The way of the Creative works through change and
transformation, so that each thing receives its true nature and destiny and comes into
permanent accord with the Great Harmony: this is what furthers and what
perseveres.”104 And for Kun: “Perfect indeed is the sublimity of the Receptive. All
beings owe their birth to it, because it receives the heavenly with devotion”; “The
Receptive in its riches carries all things. Its nature is in harmony with the boundless. It
embraces everything in its breadth and illumines everything in its greatness. Through
it, all individual beings attain success.”105
In the Chinese approach it is as vital to be obediently welcoming the gift of
life as to take the initiative of creating. As modernity, with Nietzschean accents, came
to privilege the power of the creative, sometimes aggressively, a reflection is needed
on the beauty of receiving. Paul Ricoeur has these magnificent words: “Life is
carrying me. I am brought and put in the world through my birth; I will be taken away
through my death. Because I do not put my life, I am put on it, I rest on it as on a
foundation; I rest on my breath as on the waves of the sea; and I rest “myself” so
much the better when I renounce to wish and when I commit myself to this wisdom of
life which is concealed by sleep.”106 In contrast with modern philosophy which denied
human nature and made man a kind of “Prometheus” as Tu Wei-ming said, the East
101
Teilhard de Chardin added to the infinite of greatness and the infinite of smallness of Pascal the
infinite of the complex, discerning a superior sphere of the Personal and of personal relations.
102
Yijing, “Great Treatise”, translated by Richard Wilhelm, op.cit., p.6.
103
“Great Treatise”, op.cit., p.12.
104
Yijing, “The Creative”, translated by Richard Wilhelm, op.cit., p.370-371.
105
Yijing, “The Receptive”, op.cit., p.386-387.
106
Ricoeur, Paul, Philosophie de la volonté I Le volontaire et l’involontaire, Aubier 1950/1988, p.388:
“La vie me porte. Je suis apporté et mis au monde par ma naissance ; je serai emporté par ma mort.
Parce que je ne pose pas ma vie, je suis posé sur elle, je repose sur elle comme une fondation ; je
repose sur ma respiration comme sur les vagues de la mer ; et je « me » repose d’autant mieux que je
renonce à vouloir et m’abandonne à cette sagesse de la vie que recèle mon sommeil. »
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from the beginning was inclined to recognize man in his true dimension within the
universe, the nature he received,107 and in consequence to balance both aspects of
action and acceptance.
2.1.2 Care for one’s fellow man
The holy sages, however did not remain fascinated by the universe for the
purposes of pure contemplation. They were concerned by the progression of their
fellow man both physically and spiritually. That is why their actions have been
recorded on how they guided people in the use of fire, agriculture, communication,
writing, rites etc.108 As Chinese observed the universe in its concreteness they were
early attentive to the practical use of things for the benefit of life. This may explain
how they developed a genius for inventions in many fields such as writing, printing,
metal, and transport etc… Here also the inventions were not just for scientific
ingenuity but they were deeply connected to the well-fare of people.
Above all the holy sages were concerned how to find a path for right actions
according to people and to situations. As life is fragile and exposed to many
circumstances and events in a complex universe, Chinese showed cautiousness in
action, taking for clear decisions which would not cause regret or humiliation. That is
why in the earliest commentaries of the Yijing are found expressions such as: “Do not
act”; “Danger. No blame”; “Good fortune”; “To go on brings humiliation”; “Good
fortune without blame.” We understand in this context the reflection of Confucius: “If
I was given a few years more to live I would devote them to the Yijing and I would
succeed in not committing any major mistake.”109
The Chinese had also a sense of the unique path of each person in harmony
with their sense of the multiplicity of reality. While having a deep relation with all
beings, each person is unique and lives in specific circumstances at a certain time.
That is why people’s actions must be considered within their specific context. It is
known how in that spirit Confucius would speak differently of important matters
107
The Doctrine of the Mean/Zhongyong, translated by James Legge, Dover Publications, 1971,
Chapter I, p.383: “What Heaven has conferred is called the (human) nature; an accordance with this
nature is called the path of duty; the regulation of this path is called instruction.”
108
Yijing, “Great Treatise”, Part II.Chapter II, History of Civilization, op.cit., p.328-335.
109
The Analects of Confucius, 7.16.
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according to the people he was dealing with. He sensed in people the potential and the
limitations.
However, in order to penetrate concrete situations and circumstances it is
necessary to enter in harmony with reality in its depth.
The holy sages contemplated the changes in the dark and the light (Yin and
Yang) and established the hexagrams in accordance with them. They brought
about movements in the firm and the yielding, and thus produced the
individual lines. They put themselves in accord with the Tao and its de
(power), and in conformity with this laid down the order of what is right. By
thinking through the order of the outer world to the end (researching
principles), and by exploring the law of their nature to the deepest core (going
to the deepest of human nature), they arrived at an understanding of fate.110
There are some remarkable points in this passage. First the sages before
anything else focused on the Tao and on Virtue, moving in harmony with them,
learning from them with their whole being, letting them transform them and hoping to
become like them. A passage of Laozi’s Daodejing is in resonance with the Yijing on
this: “Those who put all their strength in the Tao become like the Tao. Those who
practice the de (Virtue) become like the de. Those who lose everything identify
themselves with the loss. Those who become like the Tao, the Tao finds joy in
welcoming them. Those who become like the de, the de finds joy in welcoming them.
But those who identify themselves with the loss, the loss finds satisfaction in
welcoming them.”111 The nostalgia of the sages is to enter the intimacy of the Tao and
its virtue.
In this intimacy the sages transformed their nature, becoming a model for
others. “The Master said: ‘Is not the Book of Changes supreme? By means of it the
holy sages exalted their natures (de, virtue) and extended their field of action (action).
Wisdom exalts. The mores make humble. The exalted imitate heaven. The humble
follow the example of the earth.”112 The sage is able to elevate himself to respond to
Heaven and to humble himself to take into account all kinds of situations.
110
Yijing, “Discussion of the Trigrams”, translated by Richard Wilhelm, op.cit., p.262.
Daodejing, Chapter 23.
112
Yijing, “The Great Treatise”, op.cit., Part I, Chapter VII.1, p.302-303. Compare with Richard John
111
42
On the basis of the relation with the Tao, the sages are able to penetrate all
situations in their complexities, to comprehend the problem of wills and reach a
proper action.
The Changes are what has enabled the holy sages to reach all depths and to
grasp the seeds of all things. Only through what is deep can one penetrate all
wills on earth. Only through the seeds can one complete all affairs on earth.
Only through the divine (spiritual) can one hurry without haste and reach the
goal without walking.
And
The Master said: ‘The Changes, what do they do? The Changes disclose
things, complete affairs, and encompass all ways on earth…. For this reason
the holy sages used them to penetrate all wills on earth and to settle all doubts
on earth.113
The way of the Changes is to “penetrate”, “disclose”, “settle”, “complete”,
“embrace”… through depth, in reaching the core of reality where things are designed
and decided. One important concept of the Changes is the seed, ji.114 It is probably
related to the observation of the coming out of sprouts from the ground, but it is
applied to the human field. How important for the Chinese the first beginning of a
thought, the first movement of the emotion, the first move in the action. The
consequences can be either fruitful or destructive according to the internal motivation.
The Master said: ‘To know the seeds (ji), that is divine(spiritual) indeed. In
his association with those above him, the superior man (junzi) does not flatter.
In his association with those beneath him, he is not arrogant. For he knows the
seeds. The seeds are the first imperceptible beginning of movement, the first
trace of good fortune (or misfortune) that shows itself. The superior man
Lynn’s translation of The Classic of Changes, p.56: “The Master said: “The Changes, how perfect it is!
It was by means of the Changes that the sages exalted their virtues and broadened their undertakings.
Wisdom made them exalted, and ritual made them humble. Exalted, they emulate Heaven, and,
humble, they model themselves on Earth.”
113
Yijing, “The Geat Treatise”, op.cit., Part I, Chpater X.5-6; Chapter XI.1/
114
Bergeron, Marie-Ina, Ciel/Terre/Homme/ Le Yi Jing, Introduction à la métaphysique chinoise, Guy
Trédaniel Editeur, 1986, p.89-90: “Ji is “the embryo of embryo”, the stage of extreme smallness, of
extreme simplicity in an overall movement or a dialectical crux. Transient moment in the history of the
cosmos, Ji can allow man to play a role in his own “creation” as in the development of society.”
43
perceives the seeds and immediately takes action. He does not wait a whole
day.’ 115
Therefore the intense study of the universe and of man tends to focus on how to be
able to discern what will be favorable to the development and fulfillment of the
person in relation to others.
This is not easy in a short time to introduce the ethical view of the Book of
Changes based on a specific logic and spirit. However we find here with all its
symbolism, mysteriousness and depth the starting point of many Confucian, Taoist
and Buddhist reflections on Ethics. It has been used through history in various ways
including divination. I focus here on the core wisdom of the Changes in its structure
and design, also in its philosophical section, “The Great Treatise.”
We have with the Changes an example of applied Ethics related to each
person’s origin, situation in life, to the development in life according to his or her
character and potential, according to circumstances, to events of the year, of the
month, of the day, of the moment. Situations seem to repeat themselves but the time
has changed, we have progressed, matured or stagnated. Spring and autumn are the
same and yet so different. The research of true action in the Changes makes us think
of what Heidegger painfully looked for in Being and Time.
I would like us to reflect for a moment on the design and arrangement of the
lines of the hexagrams. We may at first be confused by the diversity and the
complexity of the material presented by the Changes. It echoes “the forest of
opinions” Paul Ricoeur was talking about. The sages, the great men are precisely
those who guide us to find principles and key in that complexity. Therefore the
Chinese sages showed that in fact everything arises from a fundamental unity, grows
through a fundamental duality in relation with the basic forces of the universe. They
presented an arrangement of the eight fundamental trigrams manifesting a logic at
work in the universe.
Fuxi or some early figure is supposed to have drawn a representation of the
64 hexagrams born from the 8 trigrams. Each hexagram being made of 6 lines we are
looking at 384 lines representing the diversity of the “10, 000 things” as Chinese also
like to say. Fuxi drew with these hexagrams a circle and in the middle a square
115
Yijing, “Great Treatise”, op.cit., Part II, Chapter IV.11. p.342.
44
according to another arrangement. The circle symbolizes Heaven and the square the
earth. Likewise man is part of a whole and he has to find his way in this whole. It is
the challenge and responsibility of man to find the principles organizing this whole
and to guide the development of his life according to them.
The Changes consider at the same time with the same weight the two first
lines Yin and Yang and the 384 lines, what seems imperceptible and was is infinite.
As the first movement is crucial, the change of just one line in this concert is equally
crucial. If one line of the six lines in the hexagrams changes, the whole hexagram
changes. This exemplifies how in our life what seems the smallest event, thinking,
encounter changes the whole perspective of what is becoming. We know well, as the
Changes in numerous cases present, how meeting someone at a certain period in our
life has so many consequences for us.
Let us consider for a moment a hexagram and its six lines. It is formed of two
trigrams with a core line in the middle and in the Changes’ logic the two bottom lines
represent Earth, the middle ones man and the upper ones Heaven. Each line is
considered from the bottom to the top and corresponds to a situation. We all go
through moments and stages in a day, in a year or in our life. Each beginning is
always precarious but coming to the end of a stage is also perilous and requests
reflection.
Each line which is either full or yielding according to the constitution of the
trigram has its characteristics and potential which request our attention. We see in
application here the ji, seed, the imperceptible movement which brings various
changes. The Changes are unique in guiding people to become aware of time and
circumstances they live in and to act appropriately. Mencius lauded Confucius to be
among sages the “sage of the proper time”. Confucius was known, in the spirit of the
Changes to act or to retire, to speak or be silent at the right moment.
I like to end up this point by giving consideration for the composition of some
hexagrams and the wisdom expressed through them. Hexagram 23, “Splitting apart”
is made of only yielding lines from the bottom except one line at the top which is in a
crucial and dangerous position. The judgment says: “Splitting apart. It does not
further one to go anywhere.”116 Weakness and mediocrity may have reached a point
of rupture when we lose important acquisitions in life. The image is the mountain
116
Yijing, tr, by Richard Wilhelm, op.cit., p.94.
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resting on the earth. This is the reverse of the hexagram 15 of modesty that we saw,
where the mountain was inside the earth. Here the mountain is high and needs a
strong foundation whence people in higher position must be generous to others.
Now if this one strong line changes position and comes at the bottom of the
hexagram we have hexagram 24, “the return”. It is made of thunder at the bottom and
earth on top. The situation is totally different. Everything seems also uncertain and
weak but the strong line at the bottom expresses a new beginning, a hope, although
one must remain cautious. The judgment says “Return. Success, Going out and
coming in without error.”117 After a time of decline and failure, the new is arising and
bringing changes, pushing away what was hindering the development and
accomplishment.
The Yijing does not theorize about ethics or virtues, it sets a natural horizon
and context in which man learns from nature and situations how to set a proper path
of thought and action. Man’s actions are always related to a precise time of the year
and of one’s life, of a period and it is crucial to be aware of it. The Yijing holds at the
same time the highest principle and the most concrete aspects of life. There is no
moral principle taught from outside, the moral direction comes within the course of
the sincere research among the complexities of life.
This has been a brief introduction of some aspects of the Yijing which could be
continued since Asian peoples have reflected throughout all history on these issues
and are looking for new understandings today in the context of modernity. Although
an adequate hermeneutics is not easy, such profound wisdom could be helpful in
finding new horizons in world ethics.
117
Yijing, tr. By Richard Wilhelm, op.cit., p.97.
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2.2 Confucius’s Call for “humanity”
One of the primary reasons for first having presented the Yijing is that this
classic is a foundation for Asian thought and Ethics and that Confucius prolonged
such a tradition. Confucius said himself how he loved what is ancient and that his first
wish was to honor and transmit what came before him: “The Master said: ‘A
transmitter and not a maker, believing in and loving the ancients, I venture to compare
myself with our old P’ang.’ ”118 Confucius admired particularly the culture of Zhou
which was the foundation of his own state of Lu: “The Master said: ‘Zhou had the
advantage of viewing the two past dynasties. How complete and elegant are its
regulations (culture)! I follow Zhou.’ ”119 Let us mention that the Book of
Changes/Yijing is also called the Changes of Zhou, because one or two other books of
Changes of previous periods. And that explains also the love of Confucius for the
Yijing.
Confucius felt an acute sense of responsibility for preserving a precious
culture which he considered in danger of disappearing. “The Master was put in fear in
K’wang. He said, ‘After the death of king Wen, was not the cause of culture lodged
here in me? If Heaven had wished to let this cause of culture perish, then I, a future
mortal, should not have got such a relation to that cause. While Heaven does not let
the cause of culture perish, what can the people of K’wang do to me?’ ”120 Therefore,
feeling a historical responsibility, one of his concerns was to protect a heritage that he
considered important for the education of future generations. No one knows how
Chinese culture would have developed without Confucius, but we have to
acknowledge the success of his work despite the fact that he was ignored in his own
day.
In fact Confucius was both a transmitter and a creator. Having the humility to
recognize what was discovered before him he acknowledged his debt and meditated
such treasures in order that they become part of him and he made sure that they could
become accessible to others by his compilation of documents and through his
teaching. Despite his humble statement, Confucius was however also a creator as he
gave a new direction, not in cutting from the past but in reinterpreting important ideas
118
The Analects of Confucius, 7.1, translated by James Legge.
The Analects of Confucius, 3,14, translated by James Legge.
120
The Analects of Confucius, 9.5, translated by James Legge.
119
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in relation to his time, and to what he considered urgent tasks to be fulfilled in order
that society became more humane.
Often people start to read directly the Analects of Confucius without
considering the historical background, the importance of the classics and they wonder
why they do not understand easily what Confucius was teaching. It would be like
reading the gospels of Jesus without studying the Old Testament and the Hebrew
culture. Therefore, parallel to the reading of the Analects, it is necessary to make the
effort of discovering the antique history and culture of China.
Confucius was so much presented in the West as an ordinary moralist that it is
difficult to overcome this caricature. Before coming to Confucius’s view of values
and Ethics we must consider what were the trends and the core of his reflection. Let
us take here the Asian symbol of the bamboo. The bamboo is supposed to represent
the flexibility and the resistance of the mind. It is uprightness and elegance. It is made
of thin and hollow stems which soar toward the sky with a slight curve, the stems
being hollow. The soaring of the stems is interrupted with strong and full knots which
contrast with the emptiness and which are like a time of concentration before surging
again.
As we are often tempted to concentrate only on the concepts, the bamboo
reminds us of the complementary dimensions like the soaring of the mind, the
emptiness and silence in which the concepts can be formed. We are called not to lean
on one aspect but to balance flexibility and resistance, uprightness and elegance,
interiority and exteriority.
What is to be underlined at the beginning of this meditation on Confucius is
the harmony that the Master struggled to attain, both in his personality and his
thought. He came close to this harmony in some ways and recognized his
shortcomings on some points as a human being. Those who could approach him
closely had this remark to make: “The Master was mild, and yet dignified; majestic
and yet not fierce; respectful and yet easy.”121 In his research also the Master strove to
combine different aspects: “My studies lie low, and my penetration rises high.”122;
“Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous.”123
121
The Analects of Confucius, 7.37, translated by James Legge.
The Analects of Confucius, 14.37, translated by James Legge.
123
The Analects of Confucius, 2.15, op.cit.
122
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2.2.1 The Tao of Confucius
Although he lived in a time of turmoil, faced hardships and through his
peregrination and efforts did not achieve much result, Confucius never gave up,
motivated by a high vision and a strong ideal. His best disciple Yan Hui noticed it
vividly:
The more I look up at it124, the higher it soars, the more I penetrate into it,
the harder it becomes. I am looking at it in front of me, and suddenly it is
behind me. The Master is good at drawing me forward a step at a time; he
broadens me with culture and disciplines my behavior through the
observance of ritual propriety. Even if I wanted to quit, I could not. And
when I have exhausted my abilities, it is as though something rises up right
in front of me, and even though I want to follow it, there is no road to
take.125
The notion of Tao is essential in Asian Thought, it is strongly present in the
Book of Changes and it has influenced the three currents: Confucianism, Taoism and
Buddhism. The research of the Tao makes people see beyond the difficulties and
human limitations a vital direction for life. “The Master said: ‘The junzi is anxious
lest he should reach the Tao; he is not anxious lest poverty should come upon him.’
”126 Man is on his way in life under the attraction of Tao which is both mysterious and
close. It has been expressed in other classics like the Doctrine of the Mean,
Zhongyong: “The way (Tao) which the superior man, junzi, pursues, reaches wide and
far, and yet is secret. Common men and women, however ignorant, may intermeddle
with the knowledge of it; yet in its utmost reaches, there is that which even the sage
does not know.”127
124
Anne Cheng translated by “The Great Way(Voie) of the Master”; Legge translated by
The Master’s doctrines”.
125
The Analects of Confucius, 9.10, translated by Roger Ames and Henry Rosemont, Ballantine Books,
1998.
126
The Analects of Confucius, 15.31, translated by James Legge.
127
The Doctrine of the Mean, Chapter 12, translated by James Legge.
49
Some people have reduced the vision of Confucius to ordinary and pragmatic
concerns in life. If Confucius emphasized practice he was motivated by a higher truth.
“The Master said, ‘If a man in the morning hears the Tao, he may die in the evening
without regret.’ ’’; “A scholar, whose mind is set on the Tao and who is ashamed of
bad clothes and bad food, is not fit to be discoursed with.”128 “Set the will on the
Tao.”129 The Tao has to do with the all ordinary and still it refers to the highest
aspirations in life and makes us face death in overcoming fear.
The Book of Changes was containing the seed of Confucius’s thought130 but
also important ideas of Laozi’s Daodejing. In his own terms Laozi spoke of the Tao in
harmony with Confucius: “Those who put all their strength in the Tao become like the
Tao… Those who become like the Tao, the Tao finds joy in welcoming them…”131 It
is known how Laozi considered as mysterious and nameless the source of life , the
Tao, to which every being returns and still he tried to say something about it.
However, only in a very humble way are we able to utter something about it.
In a different sphere, Buddhist scriptures reverberate sometimes Confucian
and Taoist texts in their expressions of a cosmic Law enlightening and guiding
people. “Once the living beings have heard the Law, they will enjoy peace and
security in their present existence and good circumstances in future existences, when
they will receive joy through the way and again be able to hear the Law. And having
heard the Law, they will escape from obstacles and hindrances, and with regards to
the various doctrines will be able to exercise their powers to the fullest, so that
gradually they can enter into the way. It is like the rain falling from the great cloud
upon all the plants and trees, thickets and groves, and medicinal herbs. Each,
depending upon its species and nature, receives its full share of moistening and is
enabled to sprout and grow.”132
All the great minds of the ancient times spoke of a fundamental Way acting
as a beneficial rain nourishing a multitude of beings, allowing them to grow according
to their specific nature and to their aptitude of understanding. They did not impose a
teaching or a method but called for an attitude of openness and of learning. As often
128
The Analects of Confucius, 4.8 ; 4.9, translated by James Legge.
The Analects of Confucius, 7.6, op.cit.
130
See the previous pages 33-34.
131
Excerpts of the Daodejing, chapter 23 quoted pages 37-38. There are different translations that can
be compared, Philip Ivanhoe and Bryan Van Norden, Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy,
Hackett, 2003, p.170; Tao Te Ching, translation by Victor Mair, Bantam Books, 1990, p.89.
132
The Lotus Sutra, translated by Burton Watson, Columbia University Press, 1993, p.99.
129
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the tendency is to limit the horizon and to focus on an individual dimension, the
notion of Tao gives a sense at the same time of vastness and elevation and of unity of
a whole in which the multitude of beings find their accomplishment.
2.2.2 Intimacy with and Reverence for Heaven
Confucius did not speak only of the Tao, he spoke even more often, of
“Heaven” with reverence: “It is only Heaven that is grand, and only Yao
corresponded to it.”133 But Confucius remained discreet on other crucial issues:
“Zigong said, ‘The Master’s personal displays of his principles and ordinary
descriptions of them may be heard. His discourses about man’s nature and the way
(Tao) of Heaven cannot be heard.’ ”134
Confucius, however, took Heaven very seriously. It was said that he lived his
life in front of Heaven for the sake of others. Without entering the debates of
interpretation, it is possible to recognize that there was for Confucius a personal
dimension in Heaven. Let us mention some of his sayings. When his beloved disciple
Yan Hui died at 41 years of age Confucius exclaimed: “Alas! Heaven is destroying
me! Heaven is destroying me!”135; or “Heaven produced the power of virtue (de) that
is in me.”136 Through the language that he used one notices that Confucius expressed
an intimate relation with Heaven while keeping a deep attitude of reverence.
Confucius leaned on Heaven when he encountered people’s rejection of his ideas or
even people despising him. “Alas! There is no one that knows me…. But there is
Heaven that knows me.”137 Or when he defended the depth of Chinese culture: “While
Heaven does not let the cause of culture perish, what can the people of K’wang do to
me?”138
Confucius’s grandson Zi Si developed what Confucius only suggested, what
became essential in Confucianism, for example: “What Heaven has conferred is called
human nature; following human nature is called the Tao. To let fructify the Tao is
133
The Analects of Confucius, 8.19, translated by James Legge.
The Analects of Confucius, 5.12, op.cit.
135
The Analects of Confucius, 11.9, op.cit.
136
The Analects of Confucius, 7.22, op.cit.
137
The Analects of Confucius, 14.37.
138
The Analects of Confucius, 9.5, translated by James Legge.
134
51
called education.”139 Therefore his teaching developed ontological aspects of Heaven
which were not present in the Analects.
Heaven and Tao are complementary expressions of the Chinese research of the
sources of moral life. It is worth recalling important passages of the Yijing which we
saw: “As continuer, the Tao is good. As completer, it is the essence (human
nature).The kind man (man of ren) discovers it and calls it kind (ren)…/…It manifests
itself as kindness (ren) but conceals its workings….It renews everything daily; this is
its glorious power (de)….”140 And the other crucial passage: “The holy sages put
themselves in accord with the Tao and its de and in conformity with this laid down the
order of what is right. By intensely researching principle and going to the deepest of
human nature they arrived at an understanding of fate.”141 Such passages have
inspired more reflections than many books written.
There is here a key direction for the development of Confucius and Mencius’s
thoughts which became a reference for Confucianism and Neo-Confucianism. The
Tao manifests itself as ren but its actions remain invisible. Man is called to enter into
harmony with the Tao and its de. The manifestation of the de of Tao is to constantly
renew everything, all beings, and the whole universe. Everyone benefits of this
generosity of life expressing the source of kindness and virtue and is called to reach
an understanding of one’s nature and to cooperate to this fulfillment. Zi Si developed
this sense of fulfillment by saying that every being fulfills oneself in fulfilling others
and “Able to give their full development to the natures of creatures and things, he can
assist the transforming and nourishing powers of Heaven and Earth.”142
Therefore our human nature which we inherit as a potential is not just
individual, but individual and related to others and to the cosmos at the same time. No
one can escape such ontological relationship between beings which is a source of
development but also a cause of suffering and of responsibility. What the sages and
Confucius did was to focus on the goodness present in the fundamental nature which
reflects the goodness of the Tao.
If we go back for a moment to the two first hexagrams of the Yijing, qian and
kun we see that, as the primary cosmic forces, they have both the same characteristics
of fundamentality, prevalence, fitness and constancy. “Fundamentality is the leader of
139
The Doctrine of the Mean, Chapter I, translated by James Legge.
Yijing, « Great Treatise », Part I, Chapter V, 1-7. See page 33 of this text.
141
Yijing, « Discussion of the Trigrams », original in Wônbon Chuyôk, p.1108. See page 37 of this text.
142
The Doctrine of the Mean, Chapter 22, translated by James Legge.
140
52
goodness. Prevalence is the coincidence of beauty. Fitness is coalescence with
righteousness. Constancy is the very trunk of human affairs” And the commentaries
established a correspondence between these fundamental characteristics and human
nature characteristics. “The noble man embodies benevolence (ren) sufficient to be a
leader of men. The coincidence of beauty in him is sufficient to make men live in
accordance with propriety (rites). He engenders fitness in people sufficient to keep
them in harmony with righteousness. His constancy is firm enough to serve as the
trunk for human affairs.”143 We recognize here the four virtues so celebrated in NeoConfucianism.
Despite a certain complexity in the first discovery one realizes how Confucius
took inspiration from these fundamental sources and brought to them personal
contribution. Therefore some of his sayings, when studied within this context, get a
fuller meaning. For example Confucius said:
“Heaven gave birth to de (power of virtue) in me.”144
This saying has been related to a passage of the Book of Odes: “Heaven, in giving
birth to the multitudes of the people, / to every faculty and relationship annexed its
law./ The people possess this normal nature,/ And they consequently love its normal
virtue (de)./ ”145 Confucius recognized the fundamental virtue in man and identified it
as a gift from Heaven, to everyone but also to him personally. With Confucius, de,
power of virtue [virtue being a weak translation], is no more the prerogative of the
king or of higher persons but a gift to everyone. It represents a very important point of
meeting between Heaven and man and it is up to man to discover it and to work on it.
It has been compared to a jewel in man which requests cutting and polishing.
While we are inclined to logically analyze the Tao and the de, the Eastern
logic suggests that “it is from the de (power of virtue) that we enter into the Tao.” The
moral dimension has epistemological and ontological implications. Man’s inner
highest value is de, virtue and without it man cannot know himself and Heaven. That
is why Mencius who deeply accepted Confucius’s thought said: “He who goes to all
143
The Classic of Changes, A new translation of the I Ching/Yijing as interpreted by Wang Bi,
Translated by Richard John Lynn, Columbia University Press, 1994, Hexagram 1, Qian, “Commentary
on the words of the text”, p. 130.
144
The Analects of Confucius, 7.22.
145
The She King, translated by James Legge, Hong Kong University Press, 1960, Part II, Book III, Ode
VI, Decade of Tang, p.511.
53
the depth of his mind-and-heart knows his nature, and knowing his nature, he knows
Heaven.”146 Because de is a gift from Heaven and is related to the Tao’s ability of
renewing things constantly, it cannot be minimized as an ordinary virtue. De
comprehends all the fundamental virtues. Confucius said that Heaven has put de in
him, he did not say the same for ren, which means we have to find out the specificity
of de which has been less studied by modern readers. De has been related to human
nature, xing, as “the source of all beauty, truth, goodness and value in man”, as “the
basis, source, foundation and criterion of the moral judgment of good and evil.”147
2.2.3 Confucius and the Ren
Although Confucius spoke of de as being so fundamental he mentioned more
often ren which is closely related to the de. He defined none of them and indicated
only how they are discovered in the earnest practice. So we find in the classic The
Great Learning the expression of “brightening the de, mingde”: “The Tao of the Great
Learning consists in brightening the de, renewing people and in resting in the highest
good.”148 We notice the emphasis of man’s action to make shine the de.
Since Confucius has given privilege of place to the ren we need to attempt to
discover its role and meaning. While de could be seen as a more fundamental source
and presence of Heaven in man, ren may be seen as the expression of de through
actions. It is a seed of goodness in man which longs for development and requests
man’s responsibility. The Yijing said that the Tao manifests himself as ren, this being
recognized by those who are practicing ren. This would be the full ren which man is
aspiring to reach. So much has been written in the East and in the West on ren that I
have not the confidence to introduce to a fuller understanding of the subject.
However, the purpose is to have enough understanding to establish a relationship with
Western Ethics, despite the dimension of otherness.
Ren needs to be placed within the large frame of life. It is a reality in which we
live and to which we need to awaken. We live in ren and without it we have no way
of fulfillment. Confucius said: “It is ren which constitutes the beauty of a
146
The Works of Mencius, Original text and translation of James Legge, Dover publications, 1970,
Book VII, Part I, Chapter I, here my own translation.
147
Lew, Seung-kook, A Study of Oriental Philosophy, Kunsongsôche, 1983, p.410.
148
Confucian Analects, Great Learning and Doctrine of the Mean, Chinese original and English
translation by James Legge, Dover publications, 1972, p.356, here my own translation.
54
neighborhood. If a man does not select a residence where prevails ren, how can he
expect wisdom?”149 And Mencius: “Ren is the tranquil habitation of man and justice
(righteousness) is his straight path. Alas for them, who leave the tranquil dwelling
empty and do not reside in it, and who abandon the right path and do not pursue it.”150
For Mencius ren characterizes man in his excellence. “Ren is man. As
embodied in man’s action, it is called the Tao.”151 “Without the heart of
commiseration, man is not a man.”152 This expresses the appreciation Confucius had
for the ren mentioning that it is more precious than water and fire (Analects, 15.34)
and that one should not forget it even during the time of a meal.
A bright intelligence is not enough to approach the ren. Confucius spoke often
of a selfless and sacrificial dedication to enter the depths of life. “If a man in the
morning hears the Tao, he may day in the evening without regret (content).”
(Analects, 2.8) Concerning the ren he has this saying:
The determined scholar and the man of ren will not seek to live at the
expense of injuring the ren. They will even sacrifice their lives to have the
ren complete.153
This notion of not “injuring the ren became important in Confucianism. From
Confucius arose the conviction that something is deposited in human nature which is
at the same time precious and fragile, which asks to come to life but can be easily
ruined if we are not attentive and devoted. Mencius found there inspiration on the way
we do violence to ourselves as we should work at fulfilling ourselves: “Mencius said,
‘With those who do violence to themselves, it is impossible to speak. With those who
throw themselves away, it is impossible to do anything. To disown in his conversation
propriety and righteousness (justice), is what we mean by doing violence to oneself.
To say – “I am not able to dwell in ren or pursue the path of righteousness” is what
we mean by throwing oneself away.’ ”154
149
Confucian Analects, op.cit., 4.1.
The Works of Mencius, op.cit, Book IV, Part I, Chapter X.2-3”
151
The Works of Mencius, op.cit., Book VII, Part II, Chapter XVI. Legge translates here Tao by “path
of duty).
152
The Works of Mencius, Book II, Part I, Chapter VI.3.
153
Confucian Analects, op.cit., 15.8.
154
The Works of Mencius, op.cit, translated by James Legge, Book IV, Part I, Chapter X, 1-2.
150
55
To approach the ren is at the same time to protect it from all negative forces. It
then requires an understanding of the many ways violence can be done to us.
The Master said, ‘I have not seen a person who loved ren, or one who
hated what was not ren. He who loved ren, would esteem nothing above it.
He who hated what is not ren would practice ren in such a way that he
would not allow anything that is not ren to approach his person.’ 155
A study of the mind-and-heart according to the East would be necessary to enter
deep meanings involved in what Confucius is talking about, sometimes with only
suggestions. Mencius was one of the first to enter this depth when he wrote for
example “The heart of commiseration is the sprout of the ren.”156 One way to
discover the fundamental nature of ren is to observe and practice the basic emotions
which flow into us if we cultivate them and respect them. Something which cannot be
fully presented here is the integration of the reflection of the role of emotions in the
dimension of ren and therefore of morality.
As often in Eastern Thought more important than knowing the ren is to realize
it. A patient work on oneself is necessary for ren to be manifested. The focus is on the
transformation.
The Master said: ‘To subdue oneself and return to propriety (rites), li, is
realizing ren.’ 157
Practically we have to be serious in the cultivation of the self and also the
discipline and harmony in the relation with others, which are expressed through the
rites, li. Li symbolizes the shaping which takes place in relations allowing people to
become true human beings. Therefore for Confucius no effective care and love can
take place without the controlling and shaping of the self which may involve struggle
and pain. This is to be remembered when we will look for ways in our times to guide
people towards more “humanity”. There is here a bridge between the reality and the
ideal, the ideal coming on the basis made by people through responsibility.
155
Confucian Analects, op.cit., 4.6.
The Works of Mencius, op.cit., Book II, Part I, Chapter VI.5.
157
Confucian Analects, op.cit., 12.1.
156
56
Confucius set the tone for many to come to take responsibility for a real
change in man toward goodness and never to abandon the task. Master Zeng
expressed well Confucius’s mind:
The scholar-apprentice may not be without breadth of mind and vigorous
endurance. His burden is heavy and his course is long. Ren is the burden
which he considers it is his to sustain; -is it not heavy? Only with death does
his course stop; - is it not long? 158
This is admirable and has inspired many great figures of Asia and is needed
today. What counts is to make a difference in this world whatever it takes and
whatever the opposition or the cynicism making fun of the effort, as Confucius
experienced it himself.
Sometimes Confucius expressed the various aspects of this task in a
paradoxical way. In the spirit of the Book of Changes he said that what seems
extremely hard to fulfill can also be easy against all expectations.
Is ren something remote? I wish the ren and here it is naturally.159
On the reverse barriers may be formidable. The most difficult obstacle is evil
which challenges both philosophy and theology as Paul Ricoeur said. Confucius was
aware in his time of the cruelty of evil taking many forms, having faced himself
several death threats. How daring, then, for him to say:
If the will is set on ren, there is no evil.160
What we may think as utopian is in fact a deep understanding of the fundamental
reality of goodness. It is up to people to decide to move in the direction of goodness
and on that basis goodness flows into the heart, wiping out all falsehood. Gandhi said
once that tyrants seem to win but that we must believe that ultimately evil will be
defeated.
158
Confucian Analects, op.cit., 8.7.
Confucian Analects, op.cit., 7.29.
160
Confucian Analects, op.cit., 4.4.
159
57
2.2.4 Man’s whole fulfillment
Although we may focus on ren we must not forget the bigger picture of what
Confucius was aiming at fulfilling. Especially in a time when we separate fields and
activities in more and more specialized techniques, Confucius was contemplating man
in his complete fulfillment and the harmony of society as a whole. Maturation and
fulfillment were the main concerns of Confucius. Mencius had this to say: “The value
of ren depends entirely on its being brought to maturity.”161
Confucius gave a direction in how to proceed along the path of development
toward maturity, starting by reflecting on his own path. What can be truer than the
fruit of one’s own experience, not just lofty ideas? Especially when one deals with
morality nothing surpasses the example given in the family and in society. It was
reported that the ruler of Lu invited Confucius to give his advice on how to govern.
Confucius told him: “Be straight yourself” and for this was never appointed.
Confucius made that remark based on his life. How to govern people if one is not
straight with oneself? Therefore when Confucius was teaching, people were moved by
the truth of what he was saying, for example: “The Master said, ‘If a minister makes
his own conduct correct, what difficulty then will he have in assisting in government?
If he cannot rectify himself, what has he to do with rectifying others.’ ”162
In relation to the process of maturity several passages of the Analects are
worth reflecting on:
At fifteen, I had my mind bent on learning. At thirty, I stood firm. At forty,
I had no doubts. At fifty, I knew the decrees of Heaven. At sixty, my ear
was an obedient organ for the reception of truth. At seventy, I could follow
what my heart desired, without transgressing what was right.163
161
The Works of Mencius, op.cit., Book VI, Part I, Chap.XIX.
Confucian Analects, op.cit, translated by James Legge, 13.13.
163
Confucian Analects, op.cit, 2.4. Compare Legge’s translation with the translation of Roger Ames
and Henry Rosemont, The Analects of Confucius, Ballantine Books, 1998 : « From fifteen, my heartand-mind was set upon learning ; from thirty I took my stance ; from forty I was no longer doubtful ;
from fifty I realized the propensities of tian (tianming), from sixty my ear was attuned ; from seventy I
could give my heart-and-mind free rein without overstepping the boundaries. » or with the translation
of Bruce and Taeko Brooks, The Original Analects, Columbia University Press, 1998: “At fifteen I was
determined on learning, at thirty I was established, at forty I had no doubts, at fifty I understood the
commands of Heaven, at sixty my ears were obedient, and at seventy I may follow what my heart
desires without transgressing the limits.”
162
58
Such a text packed as it is with meaning on different levels has puzzled many
commentators as much as some other passages in the Confucian classics. The
beginning of the progression is related to an intense learning and a set of the will
without which understanding and action remain limited. Firmness of will and clarity
of an unchanging mind have been highly valued by Asians. Mencius, for example,
said that at forty he reached “a heart which does not move.” On this basis, after fifty
started for Confucius a development of the person very much orientated toward an
internal dimension which has sometimes mystical aspects. Therefore Confucius could
harmonize a very pragmatic approach to situations with a deep spiritual concern.
The moral summit that Confucius reached at seventy is far from rigidity and
authoritarianism as some have suggested about Confucianism. Confucius showed that
real maturity is the harmonization of the freedom of the Self in its creativity and the
natural conformity to the highest principles. One finds joy in doing what is right for
oneself and for others. This means that principles have become a natural view and
practice; a part of oneself. This is the incarnation of “putting oneself in accord with
the Tao and its de” found in the Book of Changes and of “Those who become like the
de, the de finds joy in welcoming them” as stated in the Daodejing.
Another passage of the Analects of Confucius suggests the growth and
fulfillment of the person within society.
The Master said, ‘It is by the Odes that the mind is aroused. It is by the
Rules of Propriety that the character is established. It is from Music that the
finish is received (the accomplishment is done).164
Confucius loved practical arts, history, poetry and many subjects but here he
shows an interesting development orientated toward the fulfillment of the personality.
The rites are at the core as it has always been essential to Asians but, surprisingly,
music is in the position of an achiever. Poetry placed at the beginning plays the
important role of awakening the emotions and the intentions, that is why Confucius
spent so much time selecting poems as a way of education and guidance. Critics claim
that he censored what did not seem correct to him, but we must also say that he took
responsibility for setting a standard in poetic and literary expression. This was related
164
Confucian Analects, op.cit., translated by James Legge, 8.8.
59
to his awareness that a culture has a great influence on society and can get corrupted.
Confucius said, for example, that one recognizes the state of a country by listening to
its music. One could say the same about books published.
What must be underlined here is the role of poetry, rites and music within
society. At an early period the Chinese were aware that a human being needs for his
complete development a cultural environment of high quality which greatly impressed
Leibniz. What Confucius mentions about poetry, rites and music prolongs a reflection
and a practice which preceded him. Confucius not only loved poetry but studied
music with great masters and played himself various musical instruments.
One is surprised when one discovers the ancient context of rites and music, by
the onto-cosmological dimension of Chinese Thought which has remained so up to
this day.
There is heaven above and earth below, and between them are distributed
all the (various) beings with their different (natures and qualities): - in
accordance with this proceeded the framing of ceremonies. (The influences
of) heaven and earth flow forth and never cease; and by their united action
(the phenomena of) production and change ensue: - in accordance with this
music arose. The processes of growth in spring, and of maturing in summer
(suggest the idea of) benevolence (ren); those of in-gathering in autumn and
of storing in winter, suggest righteousness. Benevolence(ren) is akin to
music, and righteousness to ceremonies.
Harmony is the thing principally sought in music: -it herein follows
heaven, and manifests the spirit-like expansive influence characteristic of it.
Normal distinction is the thing aimed at in ceremonies: -they therein follow
earth, and exhibit the spirit-like retractive influence characteristic of it.
Hence the sages made music in response to heaven, and framed ceremonies
in correspondence with earth. In the wisdom and completeness of their
ceremonies and music we see the directing power of heaven and earth.165
Through the “Record of Music” belonging to the classic of the Book of Rites we
see in Asia a longing for a dynamic and complementary exchange between a more
165
The Sacred Books of the East, edited by Max Muller, vol.XXVIII, The Li Ki, translated by James
Legge, Clarendon Press, 1885, p.102-103
60
internal cultural creativity like music and a more external creativity like the rites
although they have both an aspect of the other. The rites would need a whole study to
be fully taken into account. Modern Western scholars are discovering their important
role. Let us consider a few meaningful reflections. Michael Nylan: “Ritual did for the
early Chinese what tragedy did for the ancient Greeks: it schooled humans in the
definition of proper social roles while justifying their necessity; at the same time,
ritual performances propelled the human imagination beyond the here and now,
implying both the operation of larger cycles of fate and a boundless, hence godlike,
human capacity for perfection.”166 With insight Léon Vandermeersch says: “The
ritual in Chinese Thought is not at all the formal remnant of an action deprived of its
meaning but on the reverse a studied form on which all kinds of actions must shape
themselves if they do not want to miss the conformity to the meaning of things and
consequently deviate from the universal order.”167
Herbert Fingarette was one of the first Western scholars to realize the
philosophical value of the Chinese rites in studying the Analects of Confucius: “The
(spiritually) noble man is one who has labored at the alchemy of fusing social forms
(li) and raw personal existence in such a way that they transmuted into a way of being
which realizes te(de), the distinctively human virtue or power…/… Men become truly
human as their raw impulse is shaped by li. And li is the fulfillment of human
impulse, the civilized expression of it- not a formalistic dehumanization. Li is the
specifically humanizing form of the dynamic relation of man-to-man. The novel and
creative insight of Confucius was to see this aspect of human existence, its form as
learned tradition and convention, in terms of a particular revelatory image: li, i.e.,
“holy rite”, “sacred ceremony”, in the usual meaning of the term prior to
Confucius.”168
The aspiration and not just the dream of Confucius is for society to become a
great harmonious unit where people can freely grow and relate to each other for the
benefit of the whole which is not limited by political institutions or by economical
bodies. It requires much from individuals, even sacrifice, but the outcome is very
rewarding. A world without wars, injustices, persecution and terrorism is not
166
Nylan, Michael, The Five “Confucian” Classics, Yale University Press, 2001, p.169.
Vandermeersch, Léon, Wangdao ou la Voie Royale, Publications de l’Ecole Française d’ExtrêmeOrient, volume CXIII, 1980, p.268.
168
Fingarette, Herbert, Confucius –The Secular as Sacred, Harper Torchbooks, 1972, p.7.
167
61
impossible if people would only give consideration for just a moment to what is to be
done, instead of continuing on blindly with what is mechanically done.
2.3 Asian Ethics and “Sincerity”
We cannot but make some remarks on the fundamentality of “sincerity”,
cheng, in Asian Ethics, particularly in Confucianism and Neo-Confucianism.
Sincerity became in the West the prey for philosophers of suspicion and
existentialists. When sincerity is ruined, the way to fundamental discoveries and
realizations in life may be closed. Sincerity has much to do with reliability,
authenticity, and integrity but if such a value disappears, all actions are threatened.
MacIntyre placed the focus on the pretense in Ethics, showing how it is
dangerous to play a role while avoiding the substantial reality and responsibility.
Speaking about becoming truly human, someone may play well the violin, but what if
he is not reliable in life. This is a tragic situation in which the person concerned may
not be aware since he or she is centered only on technical success. With further
consideration we acknowledge a split between the external beauty of the music and
the ethical ugliness. When Confucius was speaking of an achievement through music
he was speaking of the highest human achievement in harmony with the fundamental
ethical dimension.
Chinese had early on intuited that sincerity determines true life and that
without it one is at a loss. The vision of sincerity was already present in the Yijing,
Book of Changes, but it was fully explored in the Doctrine of the Mean, Zhongyong.
Sincerity is that whereby self-completion is effected, and its way is that by
which man must direct himself. Sincerity is the end and beginning of things;
without sincerity there would be nothing. On this account, the profound man
regards the attainment of sincerity as the most excellent thing.169
Without sincerity there is nothing. If we apply this to any field we know the power
of such words. Without sincerity, education or politics are games which work for a
while but are damaging in the long run. People find out sooner or later, and
169
Doctrine of the Mean, Chapter 25.
62
resentment and struggle begin. In many aspects of ethics and morality we witness that
often the most precious values are disregarded. So it is with sincerity.
Asian thought dearly values sincerity as enlightening all activities of man
because it is the root of all virtues, the root of the human heart and it points toward an
ontological reality which is fully sincere. Asians have meditated throughout their
history on the Zhongyong as a way to integrate sincerity in their life.
Sincerity is the Tao of Heaven. The achievement of sincerity is the tao of
people.170
Heaven is naturally fully sincere. People must work hard themselves in order to
make sincerity shine. As we saw previously in our study of the Tao and of Heaven,
Asians kept a relation between Ethics and Ontology because the reality is one and
man is part of this reality. It is man’s responsibility to find out what is hidden. “Such
is the manifestation of what is minute! Such is the impossibility of repressing the
outgoings of sincerity!”171
In the 11th century Zhou Doun-I, the founder of Chinese Neo-Confucianism
rethought the whole tradition of the classics and of Confucianism starting with the
Book of Changes. He is known for two famous essays, one, An explanation of the
diagram of the Great Ultimate which is interesting for understanding the cosmic
vision of the Chinese, and second, Penetrating the Book of Changes is directly related
to our issue of sincerity.
Sincerity is the foundation of the sage. “Great is the qian, the originator!
All things obtain their beginning from it” It is the source of sincerity. “The
way of qian is to change and transform so that everything will obtain its
correct nature and destiny.” In this way sincerity is established. It is pure
and perfectly good.” and
“Sagehood is nothing but sincerity. It is the foundation of the Five Constant
Virtues (humanity, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and faithfulness) and
the source of all activities. When tranquil, it is in the state of non-being, and
when active, it is in the state of being. It is perfectly correct and clearly
170
171
The Doctrine of the Mean, 20.13.
The Doctrine of the Mean, 16.5.
63
penetrating. Without sincerity, the Five Constant Virtues and all activities
will be wrong. They will be depraved and obstructed. Therefore with
sincerity very little effort is needed [to achieve the Mean]. [In itself] it is
perfectly easy but it is difficult to put into practice. But with determination
and firmness, there will be no difficulty. Therefore it is said. “If a man can
for one day master himself and return to propriety, all under heaven will
return to humanity[…]”172
Confucius and other authors of the Four Books gave importance to
sincerity. The author of the Great Study173 spoke for example of “making the will
(intention) sincere and correcting the mind-and-heart” in the process of the selfcultivation related to establishing a family and a nation. Making the will sincere
became a cornerstone of Confucianism. In several passages Confucius expressed
that if we make the right foundation, which is sometimes simple, achievement
becomes easy. He mentioned for example that if a person in leadership is
complete and straight, people will have no difficulty to find direction and to
follow.
Sincerity is the foundation of virtues, and of being. It is what gives its
truth to the de, comprehensive power of virtue, and to the ren, cardinal caring
and sacrificial love of the Yijing and of Confucius. Sincerity may be seen as the
North Pole star of Confucian Ethics, like a magnetic field which allows all the
ethical fields to find their orientation and organization.
With sincerity we are coming to the third and last moment of reflection of
this essay when we consider how we are challenged today to bring sincerity into
global ethics despite the counter forces of suspicion, cynicism, indifference and
deconstruction. We long for unchanging and universal values which bring
together human beings in their diversity for a common work, and this is not
possible without genuine sincerity.
172
173
A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy, Princeton, 1973, Translated by Wing-tsit Chan, p.465-466.
The Great Learning, The text of Confucius, 4-5.
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III. IN SEARCH OF CREATIVE PATHS OF ETHICS/MORALITY
Any ethical tradition be it either from the East or from the West is rich and
complex, and each one has reached its own interrogations about limitations and
failures and is always considering new possibilities. The age brings people and
cultures together and it becomes difficult to consider only one’s own traditional
values. This third moment of reflection is an attempt to reflect on horizons and paths
of Ethics in the interrelation between the East and the West. Both East and West face
major problems in the globalization process and Ethics can be a field of mutual
discovery and cooperation.
We heard from important voices from the West and the East reminding us of
the decline of the human spirit in the 20th century, and of the irresponsible promethean
development gone out of control and whose rules of game crush many powerless
people. But now the lucidity of our situation is not enough as we feel the urgent need
to truly apply Ethics at the global level. We wonder how to overcome the fracture
between discourse and reality that we mentioned at the beginning of this essay.
It is difficult to grasp world ethical problems because of the forgetfulness of
fundamental morality. It is as if morality was a secondary matter or could be used to
fit certain goals. Even more seriously an astonishing situation developed in which the
most precious values discovered by great people in the East and in the West are
distorted in a subtle way.174 The noble and humble are treated as vile and mediocrity
seems to have been given pride of place. However pointing out ethical defects is one
thing. To find alternatives and to open new paths of Ethics is far more demanding. It
requires a vital concern going for one’s family and one’s nation and the extended
world.
Our view is that beyond the analyses of ethical defects and debates about
particular ethical issues we are reaching a turning point of great magnitude in Ethics
which greatly affects the future of our planet and of mankind. The future of man may
be in danger if a direction is not applied for a reverence of life and the dedication to
serve others beyond the individual goals. This brings to mind the beautiful ethical
attitude of “concern” and “caring” expressed by Confucius concept of ren which
contrasts with what is often heard in daily life: “Nobody cares.” This attitude is
174
See page 21.
65
illustrated by the passage in the Yijing related to the maturation of man: “All day long
the profound man is creatively active. At nightfall his mind is still beset with cares.
Danger. No blame.”175 Man develops himself according to his capacity for caring.
We could be wiped away and broken by the realities of our world in all its
negative and evil dimensions. No human being has really the strength to bear what
millions of human beings have to endure in the harshest conditions. What is important
here is the Confucian advice to focus on what is positive. Confucius and Mencius
went through wars and were confronted to scenes of cruelty, injustice and barbarism
and despite this they constantly concentrate on the good in people and situations. This
is the direction we would like to take now in order to fully concentrate on what could
inspire new forms of creativity in Ethics at the world level.
Our main concern throughout this essay has the “humanity” in man and its
fulfillment at a world level to bring about a change to so many inhumane situations. In
other words it means how to become fully a person, truly a human being, how to
preserve and achieve what is “humane” in us. What seems simple often escapes us
and the greatest minds had difficulty to find answers and paths leading to a
fulfillment. Confucius exclaimed himself that he did not expect to meet a sage and
that he would be content to find a person who does not change (The Analects of
Confucius, 7.25). Precisely in our time which developed a culture so external and
technical that we need to relearn about how to feel and to act as a human person.
This concern for humanity fits well with Confucianism which made it as
probably its main priority. Confucius suggested being serious with this present life
and with all human relations before engaging in spiritual activities.176 However, he
did not remain on a simplistic level, he knew that on the basis of true humanity and of
simplicity great things can be achieved.
Especially in the field of Ethics one is sometimes disturbed by the “forest of
opinions” and of theories to borrow the expression of Paul Ricoeur. The Eastern
approach is in a remarkable way appeasing our mind by its invitation to silence and
meditation, not due to a lack or a kind of emptiness but as a result of opening oneself
to the depth of our situation. So, paralleled to this reflection, is the invitation to tune
175
The Yijing, “The Great Treatise”, The Lines, Nine in the third place.
The Analects of Confucius, 11.11: “Zilu asked about serving the spirits of the dead. The Master said,
‘While you are not able to serve men, how can you serve their spirits? Zilu added, ‘I venture to ask
about death’. He was answered, ‘While you do not know life, how can you know about death?’ ”
176
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to the Eastern capacity of remaining silent to absorb reality, to let it sink into
ourselves and to ponder what can be learned and what kind of action may be initiated.
The purpose of this essay is not just to bring in the perspective of Asian Ethics
in its technical dimension or with the consideration that it has more value or was
without any problem in application. This is more of an opportunity to see the value in
each other. That is why we considered also some important Western reflections. Now
the difficulty is to come to a true dialogue, recognition and co-creation. Therefore we
will take some time to deal with the issue of mutual recognition before introducing
certain approaches of Eastern Ethics which could help the maturation of world
“humanity.”
3.1 Courage of a generous mutual recognition
To live together harmoniously and creatively at the world level supposes that
we recognize each other in our respective identity and dignity. World organizations
will be ineffective without this ethical process of positively appreciating the other. If
the problem of “recognition” is crucial, there is not yet a philosophy of recognition as
Paul Ricoeur pointed out. In his last book, Parcours de la Reconnaissance, Itinerary of
Recognition, Ricoeur gave some useful elements to guide us. In the third part “La
reconnaissance mutuelle, the mutual recognition” (coming after “The recognition as
identification” and “To recognize oneself,” he analyzed how Western philosophers
looked for a foundation of a possible relation between the Self and others. Ricoeur
said that “it is advantageous to deal with the theme of recognition, Anerkennung, as a
response of moral nature to the challenge created by a naturalist interpretation of the
sources of politics,” particularly the one of Hobbes.177
The true alterity is quite difficult to conquer due to the human historical
condition. In Hobbes view, alterity is forced and is a calculation due to the fear of a
violent death. It is Leibniz who put the other within the juridical relations, the object
of law “being everything that matters to others that we do for them and that is in our
power” or according to another expression “making the happiness of another our own
happiness.”178
177
178
Ricoeur, Paul, Parcours de la Reconnaissance, Stock, 2004.
Ricoeur, Paul, Parcours de la Reconnaissance, op.cit., p.251.
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Hegel answered to the challenge of Hobbes who emphasized the condition of man as
struggling for survival. For him the struggle is essentially a struggle for a reciprocal
recognition179 and Hegel used the negative dimension for the benefit of the Spirit.
Hegel’s approach has inspired modern developments of recognition under the aegis of
love, law and social esteem. This development of recognition being denied and even
despised.
The struggle is very much present in modern and contemporary Western
philosophy. Ricoeur asked himself in rereading Hegel if this quest of recognition does
not end up in a new “unhappy consciousness” and a new “bad infinite.” It is
noteworthy to underline how the last piece of writing by Paul Ricoeur was dedicated
to “a research of experiences of recognition of an appeased nature,”180 bringing into
relation states of peace and ceaseless struggles. The intent is not to pretend to reach
the solution of struggles but to show that the states of peace, “états de paix”, “sunny
spells, or éclaircies”, “clearings, clairières”, confirm that the moral motivation is not
illusory.
Ricoeur followed in depth the interconnections between the recognition of the
Self and the recognition of the other, the recognition of the Self finding its
accomplishment in the mutual recognition. He suggested also that a unilateral giving
close to agape may be necessary to complement this mutual recognition. Through
agape, one makes oneself closer to the other and does it gratuitously.181
An interesting reflection is done on the gift. To give is to make a gift to
someone without any price and any expectation of a gift in return. It leads to a
receiving. The best attitude in receiving is gratitude. The third element is the decision
to give back in return. In the act of giving Ricoeur saw the important “ceremonial
character of the exchange” - which in my view we could relate to Eastern ritual.
Therefore the mutuality of the exchange between people becomes a mutual
recognition.182
As an example of the gift without any expectation Ricoeur mentioned the
gesture of chancellor Brandt kneeling down in front of the monument dedicated to the
victims of the Holocaust. Such gestures open a world of hope and contribute to create
a state of peace. There are many ways which could open states of peace between
179
Ricoeur, Paul, op.cit., p.257.
Ricoeur, Paul, op.cit., p.273, p.319.
181
Ricoeur, Paul, op.cit., p.323.
182
Ricoeur, Paul, op.cit., p.342.
180
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cultures, which do not need to be so spectacular.183 Although the process of
recognition seems endless it is not illusory and requests generosity.
In the conclusion of his book Ricoeur underlined the difference between the
active form of recognition linked to knowledge and the passive form “to be
recognized” expressing the expectation in people that others acknowledge their value.
There are two fundamental poles in the process of recognition, the discovery of the
Self and the discovery of the other. Ricoeur has two quotations, one before part II,
“To recognize oneself”, of Rimbaud “I recognized myself as a poet”(Letter to
Georges Izambard) and the other before part III, “The mutual recognition”, of
Rousseau: “As soon as a man was recognized by an other as a being who feels, thinks
and is alike himself, the desire or the need to communicate to him his feelings and his
thoughts made him look at the means to do it.” (Essai sur l’origine des langues/ Essay
on the origin of languages)
In the background we see at work a dialectic between the development of
recognition, reconnaissance, and the force contributing to the “méconnaissance”, non
recognition, misappreciation. Everyone suffers not to be recognized for who he is in
reality and it may be one of the causes of the tragedies of relations between cultures;
the process of recognition being obstructed by the negative attitude of one of the
partners. What if a real recognition would happen between Asia and Europe at a
cultural level? That was the dream of Leibniz. It is all a problem of the identity
specific to everyone. “To be recognized”, said Ricoeur, “if it ever happens, would be
for everyone to receive the full assurance of one’s identity thanks to the recognition
by others of one’s mastery of capacities.”184
We are constantly taken apart and divided between occasions of conflict and
occasions of generosity. There is a struggle between the non recognition of the other
and the desire to be recognized oneself. To achieve the process of recognizing the
other and being recognized in a mutual recognition may request that generosity
prevails over conflict. A free act of generosity defuses violence and hatred as have
proven great figures such as Gandhi. Ricoeur sees in the fragile states of peace a
“promise” of mutual recognition which has to be protected itself because it is
threatened by many deceptions.
183
184
Ricoeur, Paul, op.cit., p.354.
Ricoeur, Paul, op.cit., p.361.
69
What is remarkable in Ricoeur is that the recognition of the other is not
disconnected from the assertion and attestation of the Self. In contrast to what is often
thought, in recognizing the other we are not losing our identity and denying our value.
On the contrary, in the long run we are becoming more fully ourselves. This is an idea
that the Chinese have strongly emphasized.
Ricoeur finished his reflection on a note of caution. The mutual recognition
that we are longing for does not erase the reality of the original dissymmetry between
the Self and the other. There is no relation of fusion possible since the Self is not the
other. And the rediscovery and integration of such dissymmetry to the mutuality of
exchange of gift is what gives meaning to the “between” the protagonists.185
In listening Ricoeur pointing out the importance to get over the desire to be
recognized by oneself and being eager to give freely, to receive with gratitude, to
overcome all the deceptions and struggles in the process of recognition, one cannot
but think of Confucius. Although Confucius did not theorize on the question of
recognition, he gives us much to think about.
Confucius, who suffered himself of never being recognized for what he did
and what he wanted to accomplish in his lifetime, underlined the importance of first
recognizing the others.
I will not be afflicted at others not knowing me; I will be afflicted that I do not
know others.186
Instead of looking for recognition from others which is often related to fame and
power, one should focus on working to make the basis of a real recognition.
I am not concerned that I am not known, I seek to be worthy to be known.187
I will not be concerned at others knowing me; I will be concerned at my own
want of ability.188
For Confucius, the recognition process requests the other’s responsibility but
includes also higher forms of recognition than those given by others. The promise that
185
Ricoeur, Paul, op.cit., p.376.
The Analects of Confucius, 1.16.
187
The Analects of Confucius, 4.14.
188
The Analects of Confucius, 14.32.
186
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Ricoeur was speaking about crosses the limits put by people often in a narrow and
unjust way. What about those who were never recognized in history? Do they have no
value? To study history in fact guides us to discover or rediscover the contribution of
people who were ignored and whose importance surges again. What a contrast in the
destiny of Confucius of being ignored in his own day and widely recognized later,
even in a surprising way today on a world level despite denying ideologies.
The Master said, ‘Alas! There is no one that knows me. ’ […] But there is
Heaven that knows me!
The detour through Ricoeur’s reflection on recognition was a preparation to
appreciate in a more meaningful way the Chinese contribution to Ethics. The desire to
be recognized is often stronger than to recognize the other generously. But to
recognize the Chinese ethical values requires that we tone down our own
perspectives. It requires listening, silence, and self-sacrifice. How many
misunderstandings and tragedies could be avoided! No culture, however great it is has
the right to impose itself on others. Opening new paths of reflection necessitates that
we have the courage to recognize our own limits and failings. Ricoeur was in the 20th
century one of the rare philosophers with Merleau-Ponty who had profound intuitions
on the potential of relations between Greek and Asian cultures:
A phenomenology orientated by the philosophical question of Greek origin
must give its place to the great experiences of India and of China. Here
becomes obvious the contingence of the Western tradition, its limit. There is
a moment when the principle of orientation becomes a principle of
limitation. […] The point of view from which one can see the equal value of
others does not exist yet and will exist only when a universal human culture
will totalize all the cultures. Before that neither the history of religions nor
philosophy can be the concrete universal which can comprehend the whole
human experience. […] Philosophy as we received it from the Greeks and
perpetuated it in the West will not be equal to this concrete universal until a
serious encounter and a mutual explanation will not have taken place. […]
71
We probably are coming near to the moment of the founding encounter and
of a reorganization of a memory based on the opposition between the “near”
and the “far.” We are not in measure to imagine what such an encounter will
mean for the categories of our ontology, for our reading of the Pre-Socratic,
of the Greek tragedy and of the Bible. But one thing is sure: we will enter in
this great debate of each culture with all by the way of our memory…. It
will complicate the structuring of our memory. […]189
What will happen in the encounter between Chinese ethics and Western ethics
depends on how much we invest in the encounter. Already many academic fruits have
been earned but they have not yet reached the level of a global recreation and
application like in the case of the Greek-Hebrew encounter.
To realize a global culture, a global ethics would be like realizing a great
symphony. Each instrument plays its role but what counts is the harmony of the
orchestra under the leadership of the conductor. The Self creates in relation to the
other. He remains himself while becoming other in the others and in the work
produced. In the orchestra, each instrument has its unique value and in the world the
universal beauty comes from the contribution of a multiple variety of particularities,
the myriad of individualities and the plurality of communities that we evoke in
introduction. I owe to professor Olivier Abel190 the discovery of this beautiful
reflection of Paul Ricoeur.
When the encounter is a confrontation of creative impulsions, a
confrontation of surges, it is itself creative. I think that from creation to
creation there is a kind of consonance, within the absence of complete
agreement. It is in this way that I understand the very beautiful theorem of
Spinoza: “The more we know singular things, the more we know God.” It is
after having gone to the very depth of the singularity that one feels that it is
in consonance with all others.191
189
Ricoeur, Paul, Philosophie de la Volonté, Aubier, 1960/1988, p.185-186.
Olivier Abel is professor of Philosophy of Ethics at the Paris Faculty of Protestant Theology,
Preface, p.12 of La Pensée Coréenne de Philippe Thiébault, editions Autres Temps, 2006, taken from
Paul Ricoeur, Histoire et Vérité, Seuil, 1964, p.287.
191
Ricoeur, Paul, “Universal civilization and national culture”, Esprit, 1962, Histoire et Vérité, 1964,
p.281-282.
190
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Man is a creative being. Creativity characterizes him the most and gives him
his dignity. And this is always accomplished in a particular expression which when
excellent becomes universal. One of the great joys is to complete a work in science,
the arts or any field. But unfortunately creativity in the 20th century has been
weakened in the fields of thought, wisdom and Ethics/morality as great minds
reminded us at the beginning of this reflection. As Confucius said, we should be able
first to recognize our want of ability and lack of worthiness. The multiple external
creations of our time may obscure the fact that what is at stake is the creation of man
himself. As Charles Taylor expressed it we have to retrieve the ground of Ethics and
fight for it. But we can see this challenge as a noble task which our ancestors had also
to undertake and some of them left remarkable guidelines.
We are not the first to start reflecting on the exchange between Eastern and
Western Ethics. Two important moments took place that we should keep in mind. The
first was in the 16th century with the pioneering of European missionaries such as the
Italian Jesuit Matteo Ricci who set the example of a true encounter by studying first
the language and culture of the other, the Chinese. Ricci forgot himself to appreciate
the other in his deep culture and looking for an exchange of friendship. As Yves
Raguin said: “What is to be learned from Ricci is his sense of listening to a culture
and a moral tradition… He made the Chinese introduce him to their literature and
philosophy and made himself completely receptive. This is the reason why he had so
many friends. […] Matteo Ricci was truly a bridge between China and the rest of the
world.”192
The second moment of creative encounter East-West was from the middle of
the 17th century to the middle of the 18th century. In contrast from the 16th century it
was more centered on the sciences, but the foundation of Matteo Ricci continued to
bear its fruits. Great European philosophers, among them Leibniz and Voltaire, were
aware of the importance of the cultural relation with China. Here are some of what
Leibniz had to say:
I consider it a singular plan of the fates that human cultivation and
refinement should today be concentrated, as it were, in the two extremes of
our continent, in Europe and in Tschina (as they call it) which adorns the
192
Raguin, Yves, An example of enculturation, Lumen Vitae, vol. xxxix, Brussels, 1984, p.266.
73
Orient as Europe does the opposite edge of the earth. Perhaps Supreme
Providence has ordained such an arrangement, so that as the most cultivated
and distant people stretch out their arms to each other, those in between may
gradually be brought to a better way of life. […] Who would have believed
that there is on earth a people who, though we are in our view so very
advanced in every branch of behavior, still surpass us in comprehending the
precepts of civil life? Yet now we find this to be so among the Chinese, as
we learn to know them better. And so if we are their equals in the industrial
arts, and ahead of them in contemplative sciences, certainly they surpass us
(though it is almost shameful to confess this) in practical philosophy, that is,
in the precepts of ethics and politics adapted to the present life and use of
mortals. Indeed it is difficult to describe how beautifully all the laws of the
Chinese, in contrast to those of other peoples, are directed to the
achievement of public tranquility and the establishment of social order, so
that men shall be disrupted in their relations as little as possible.193 (Leibniz,
Preface to the Novissima Sinica, 1697/1699)
Despite the foundation of Ricci and the expectations of Leibniz tragedies have taken
place during the 19th and 20th centuries in that the Chinese and Europeans became
much more estranged from each other than in the past. Our task of mutual recognition
and of co-creation is therefore more complex and delicate due to the despise,
deceptions and struggles mentioned by Ricoeur. We cannot walk into a relationship,
either political or economical, with Asians as if nothing had happen in history. We
need to face our memory and go through a healing process that we cannot control
since it has to reach a level of mutuality.
It is in that spirit and that understanding that we must use every opportunity
and state of peace to progress in welcoming the treasures of another culture, here the
Chinese, through Western languages and reflect, like Leibniz, on the possibilities of
benefiting more the common good. We often take for granted that others appreciate
our own culture but neglect to notice how meaningful also the tradition of other
cultures could be for us.
193
Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm, Writings on China, translated with an introduction, notes and
commentaries by Daniel Cook and Henry Rosemont, Open Court, 1994
74
Through what is called the colonial period our European ancestors have
misunderstood global ethics and have misused culture and religion to dominate other
nations and this was also the case in Asia. Certain events happened in Asia which
have ruined the constructive co-creation realized by sacrificial figures in the 16th and
18th centuries. What went wrong in the encounter East-West discredited our own
systems of Ethics and shook our philosophical and spiritual credibility. That is why
we cannot but search for trans-national and trans-cultural ways according to which the
dignity of people and their own cultural treasures will be honored.
3.2 Confucianism and the fulfillment of world “humanity”
Without mutual recognition at the world level there will be no way to share
cultural treasures and to face the enormous challenges of this uncertain age. On the
basis of sincere recognition a more universal culture will be able to emerge;
comprehending the particular richness of various traditions. We have here an
opportunity to observe at the twilight of damaging ideologies a renaissance of
Confucianism which could enlighten debates and actions.
I would like now to suggest some streams of reflection in relation to
Confucianism within the global context in order to meditate on what can make Ethics
one of the noblest motivations for the higher purposes of life. While differences of
opinions and theories will always be among us we need to make happen “sunny
spells,” as Ricoeur said, where we come out of the clouds of negative confrontation
and misunderstanding to open positive paths of Ethics which would benefit the lives
of many.
We often start by confronting the material immediate ethical issues and end up
nowhere because we do not have the height and depth of knowledge to be able to
penetrate the issues in their complexities. Problems dominate us and paralyze us until
we become discouraged. For this reason reconnecting with the Classics either of the
East or the West is not just a question of tradition versus modernity, but a way to draw
from the perennial wells of knowledge of courageous frontrunners who lived like us
but wanted their life to reach the highest values away from all forms of mediocrity.
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3.2.1 Man contributing to a cosmic fulfillment
The ethical goals and achievements of man are not limited to individual or
national perspectives, they point toward a cosmic fulfillment. The Chinese always
believed that we are part of an infinite universe forming a unified whole. Although we
explore it and analyze it in its different components, the whole is primary and the
parts can be comprehended in relation to the whole while the whole is reciprocally
manifested in its parts. This whole which is life itself, is evolving through different
forms of relationships. The relationships between the whole and the parts and even
between the parts are not just phenomenal but essential.
As a consequence man is not just in the universe, he is made of it, symbolizing
it, both spiritually and physically. The Chinese thought beyond a duality of spirit and
matter; there being no matter in the Western sense. Matter, qi, is energy, which
Teilhard de Chardin expressed in his own terms: “The true matter is spirit!”194 For the
Chinese, man is profoundly and intimately related to the universe in a way which is to
be explored through a whole life, not just scientifically but according to many
dimensions including a mystical dimension. That is why Mencius could say: “All
things are already in us.”195
Some modern Western philosophers have argued that the relation with the
cosmos was something from ancient times and that we are free from it today, being
able to make ourselves through the power of reason and the strength of our own will.
We see as a result the endangering of our planet and of our daily lives. But not
everyone thought without a vision, these words of Teilhard, in harmony with Chinese
Thought bear witness: “Man could not see himself outside humanity, nor humanity
outside life, nor life outside the Universe”; and “Man can really become a man only if
practically he takes consciousness of the “cosmic” process of which he takes part and
of which he is the responsible forerunner.”196
Our relationship to the universe is not a secondary one. On account of the
Enlightenment process which started in the 18th century we came to believe that we
were the absolute masters of the universe without developing an adequate wisdom.
194
Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre, Ecrits du temps de la guerre (1916-1919), Grasset, 1965, p.206.
The Works of Mencius, Book VII, Part, Chapter IV.1.
196
The first quotation is taken from The Human Phenomenon and the second from To Accomplish Man
are presented by Marie-Ina Bergeron in China and Teilhard, Jean-Pierre Delarge editor, 1976, p.26-27.
195
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We did not see a spiritual value in nature and we used it in a superficial and
irresponsible manner, while for the Chinese nature and Heaven were masters and
teachers to be reverentially revered, each being of the universe that belongs to all the
different kingdoms of life and having a role and an infinite price. There is this
beautiful image in the Yijing: “A spring wells up at the foot of the mountain. The
image of youth. Thus the profound man fosters his character by thoroughness in all
that he does.” The profound man leaves the childhood and its limitations like the
water which fills up holes and gaps and goes forward despite obstacles. He reaches
the strength and calm of a mountain close to an abyss.197 An intimate and inseparable
relationship of maturing man and nature.
The mystery of man who is an infinite whole in himself, part of a
breathtakingly immense whole, a center between the infinitely great and the infinitely
small, as Pascal remarked. Teilhard added the infinitely complex of the emergence
within a vast cosmic process. All these discoveries lead us to meditate on man, the
way the Chinese sages were lost in their contemplation over the complexities of the
universe and the changes taking place in it. How intensely the Chinese have been
since the earliest times meditating on the singular things within the enchantment,
féerie, of all things. After so many disenchantments, we may need today a new
enchantment awakening us to unsuspected wonders of the universe.
In the sphere of Western philosophy, Ricoeur has gone so deep and, like
Teilhard de Chardin but differently, in resonance with the Chinese Thought with such
an admirable aim: “To think the whole man, Penser tout l’homme.” While many
philosophers in the 20th century have emphasized the finitude of man, Ricoeur
rereading Descartes held both the finite and the infinite in man and insisted that one
should start from the whole of man, le tout de l’homme”: “Man is no less destined to a
limitless rationality and to the beatitude that he is limited to one perspective and
handed over to death or riveted to the desires.” […] “If the progress of thought in a
philosophical anthropology never consists to go from the simple to the complex but
always proceeds within the totality itself, it can only mean a progress in the
philosophical clarification (élucidation) of the global view.”198
Often distracted by all sorts of fragmentations and disintegrations, we lose the
sense of the unity of the whole while the Chinese kept firmly a living relation with the
197
198
Yijing, Hexagram 4 “Youthful Folly”. Translate by James Legge.
Ricoeur, Paul, Philosophie de la Volonté, 2, Finitude et Culpabilité, Aubier 1993, p. 23 and 24.
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whole and its center. What makes possible all relations and brings harmony within
their differences is a pole of unity. Certain Chinese diagrams represent well this
reality when we consider the yin and the yang relating to and within each other and
having at the center the taiji which expresses this source of unity.
What makes the unity of the cosmos is a caring and fruitful relation of
complementary beings and the Chinese have recognized, in a different way from the
West, the presence of an active center. The universe is centered which has tremendous
consequences, even if this fact remains one of the greatest challenges to human
thinking. Because of such a center all things develop through harmony despite the
setbacks and errors due to human failures. That is why Teilhard de Chardin in the
worst situations of his time kept such a cosmic optimism.199
We would view the cosmic as abstract and static but that was not the case for
the Chinese. In important writings it is expressed how the center is crucial for the
fulfillment of all beings.
The center is the great root from which grow all the human actions in the
world, and the harmony is the universal path which they all should pursue.
Let the states of center and harmony exist in perfection and a happy order
will prevail throughout heaven and earth, and all things will be nourished
and flourish.200 And again
Able to give their full development to the natures of creatures and things,
man can assist the transforming and nourishing powers of Heaven and
Earth. Able to assist the transforming and nourishing powers of Heaven and
Earth, he may with Heaven and Earth form a ternion.201
On the basis of the Zhongyong Tu Wei-ming could present brilliantly the
Confucian view of man as a co-creator of the universe; moved by the cosmic
dynamism and taking entire responsibility for the fulfillment of all things. Tu Wei199
Teilhard de Chardin, The Human Phenomenon, p.27 and p.30, presented by Marie-Ina Bergeron in
China and Teilhard, op.cit., p.66: “It is up to man to perceive the meaning of the world… the physical
relations and the structural (structurelle) unity of the material (étoffe) of the universe which offers to
our contemplation the symbols and forms of all Harmony and Beauty. […] The scales falling from his
eyes, man discovers that he is not a lost element in the cosmic solitudes…”
200
The Doctrine of the Mean, Chapter I, translated by James Legge.
201
The Doctrine of the Mean, Chapter XXII, translated by James Legge.
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ming explained: “Implicit in the Zhongyong ontological structure is a profound sense
of oneness among human beings and a strong belief in the organismic unity of man
and nature. It is true that human nature is imparted from heaven, but human beings are
not merely creatures and heaven alone does not exhaust the process of creativity. In
an ultimate sense, human beings, in order to manifest their humanity, must themselves
fully participate in the creative process of the cosmos. To be sure, they do not create
ex nihilo (nor for the matter does Heaven), yet they are capable of assisting the
transforming and nourishing process of heaven and earth. […] Whether the paradigm
is fully realizable in the world, the ontological assertion that there is a possibility of
human participation in the cosmic creativity is itself of great significance.”202
Coming closer to the center of all energy and creativity, man progressively
takes conscience that he is himself called to enter this creative dynamism. Formidable
intuition of the East which because of its profundity, encounters harmoniously other
profundities of the West. “Through his fidelity man must during his life build, starting
from the most natural part of himself, a work, an “opus”, in which enters something of
all the elements of the earth. Man makes himself his soul, all along his days on earth;
and at the same time he cooperates to another work, another “opus” which infinitely
goes over, while closely leading them, the perspectives of his individual success: the
accomplishment of the world. […] In the action I adhere to the creating power of
God; I coincide with it; I become, not only its instrument but its living extension. [….]
God, in what He owes as the most alive and incarnated, is not far from us, outside the
tangible sphere. He is, in a way, at the tip of my pen, of my peak, of my brush, of my
needle, of my heart, of my thought. It is in carrying to their last natural finish the line,
the stroke, the point with which I am busy that I will grasp the final Goal toward
which my deep will aims.”203
When it is therefore spoken of as a cosmic center bringing unity and harmony,
it is not foreign to our personal expectations, our deepest desire to create, to bring a
contribution, to realize an opus with all our natural talents. The action is divine and
cannot be reduced to its impoverished forms despite all justifications. The
accomplishment of the world to which everyone contributes is not limited to all the
material and external forms of organizations and institutions.
202
Tu Wei-ming, Centrality and Commonality –An essay on Chung-yung (Zhongyong), The University
Press of Hawaii, 1976, p.118-119.
203
Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre, Le Milieu Divin, Seuil, 1957, p.50-53.
79
Although we could think that such a cosmic approach to Ethics is the lot of
some privileged mystics, for Confucians, it was part of the human destiny. That is
why they remained close to nature, never disconnected philosophy from poetry and
the arts which were allowing them to express their cosmic experience with all its
beauty. Ethics is not some sort of dry imaginings for solving problems, it is a
fountainhead of life, giving to it its beauty and soul, making simple what looked
complicated and easy what looked impossible. That is why Confucius could say about
the ren, the deepest root of Ethics in the East: “Is the ren remote? I desire it and quite
naturally it is at hand.”204
The cosmic perspective in Confucian Ethics allows us to overcome a narrow
view of human action which easily can be paralyzed by non constructive debates and
conflicts. Man’s activities are related to a series of widening circles elevating from the
individual level to the world sphere and beyond. They are also part of a process of
creativity which constantly deepens toward new horizons. The tragedy is that many
people for various reasons are not able to participate in it or are discriminated or are
pushed away from this creative process. A new vision of Ethics is needed at each
level of society and at each step on the elaboration of globalization.
In the Confucian view, man does not lose himself in society or in the cosmos.
While he expands on higher levels of life, concomitantly he becomes stronger as an
individual. His disinterested attitude in serving higher purposes brings back to him the
joy of self-fulfillment through the fulfillment of the whole. What better joy than to see
one’s family or one’s nation peaceful and achieving its objectives? On the contrary
taking from one’s family or nation for oneself in the long run causes remorse.
There exists in Confucianism a unique vision of great harmony and unity
called daitong which Chinese and Asians have constantly pursued despite numerous
human shortcomings and failures. It gives a sense of living with the concern of all in
the family, all in society, “all under Heaven.” Much could be learned on how to better
live our lives. When the claim of rights grows greater than the commitment in
responsibility and duty, when the individual has won his way at the cost of others and
the nation then the whole suffers as a consequence.
Moral issues could be seen in another perspective if more people would
overcome a narrow vision of life and discover the joy and benefit of contributing to a
204
The Analects of Confucius, 7.29.
80
protection and improvement of life on earth - “all under Heaven.” When this vision
has weakened in Asia, societies were caught in privileging one’s clan or one’s faction
and causing political and social turmoil.
Global ethics and morality will not improve with regulations, financial
packages and new theories but through a revolution of mentality which makes us
realize the miracle of life in the universe and the incredible gift we received to share it
for a certain period of time. What counts, as all the sages in the East and the West
have shown us, is the intensity with which we live, the breadth of vision and the
dedication for the achievement of tasks we do not always deeply enough understand
nor count the cost.
3.2.2 Heart and “Humanity” at the global level
At this point we would like to come back to what we discovered about the
contribution of Confucius as given continuity by Mencius. More than speaking of the
virtues and of moral situations, we will deal with the Chinese understanding of the
mind-and-heart. The West speaks of the Self, of the identity of the Self, which reflects
a more conceptual discourse, although Augustine brought to it a dimension of
interiority. The encounter and sharing with the East could allow new insights on the
conception of the ethical Self through the deepening of the heart.
If the beginning of the 20th century saw a turning point in science205, the
beginning of this century is an even more challenging turning point in the humanities,
and especially in Ethics. One of the major transitions in science was a shift from a
mechanistic conception of the world inherited from the 17th century to a recognition
of the wholeness and movement of the universe. 206 Scientific discoveries have shown
the earth and the universe as a living system where what prevails is interrelation and
cooperation.207 Scientists recognized the complexity at work in nature which
205
Capra, Fritjof, The Turning Point, Science, society and the rising culture, Bantam Books,
1982/1988.
206
Capra, Fritjof, The Turning Point, op.cit., p.77: “In contrast to the mechanistic Cartesian view of the
world, the world view emerging from modern physics can be characterized by words like organic,
holistic and ecological. […] “The universe has to be pictured as one indivisible, dynamic whole whose
parts are essentially interrelated and that can be understood only as patterns of a cosmic process.”
207
Capra, Fritjof, The Turning Point, op.cit., p.279: “Detailed study of ecosystems over the past
decades have shown quite clearly that most relationships between living organisms are essentially
cooperative ones, characterized by coexistence and interdependence, and symbiotic in various degrees.
Although there is competition, it usually takes place within a wider context of cooperation, so that the
81
manifests the subtle expression of mind.208 The new vision of reality introduces us to
the dynamic emergence of the mind.209 Science can accompany the philosophical
reflection and stimulate us to open new ways of understanding the reality. It is
therefore of importance to consider how scientists see the mind at work in nature and
to see all the resonances in the fields of humanities.
However the turning point in Ethics may be far more difficult and painful to
realize as the “humanity” and culture in our societies are in danger. MacIntyre
expressed that some new dark ages were upon us “not entirely without grounds for
hope.” “This time the barbarians are not waiting beyond the frontiers, they have
already been governing us for quite some time.”210 We could add with the East that
the barbarians are not just among us but that they are within us. We see often what is
to be changed outside of us and in a confrontation with an external enemy when upon
deeper reflection we discover that the line passes through us. Whence these
enlightening words of Confucius: “When we see men of worth, we should think of
equaling them; when we see men of a contrary character, we should turn inwards and
examine ourselves.”211 And again “He who requires much from himself and little
from others, will keep himself from being the object of resentment.”212 That is why
we hope that in deepening the mind-heart we will find out more clearly which ethical
issues of our time are more relevant and in urgent need of our attention.
Issues of emotions and internal dimensions of the mind may have been
neglected in Western philosophy or were not taken enough as ideal subjects of
research. In its specific orientation the West, in contrast with the East, did not develop
certain aspects of Ethics which would be of help today in order to balance the
larger system is kept in balance.”
208
Capra, Fritjof, The Turning Point, p.280: “The tendency of living systems to form multileveled
structures whose levels differ in their complexity is all-pervasive throughout nature and has to be seen
as a basic principle of self-organization. At each level of complexity we encounter systems that are
integrated, self-organizing wholes consisting of smaller parts, and at the same time, acting as parts of
larger wholes. […] “As in a real tree, there are interconnections and interdependencies between all
systems levels; each level interacts and communicates with its total environment.” […]; p.282: “The
new insight of subatomic physics seems to hold for the study of living matter: the observed patterns of
matter are reflections of patterns of mind.”
209
Capra Fritjof, The Turning Point, op.cit., p.290, 292: “As Bateson said, “Mind is the essence of
being alive. […] Both life and mind are manifestations of the same set of systemic properties, a set of
processes that represent the dynamics of self-organization.” […] In the stratified order of nature,
individual minds are embedded in larger minds of social and ecological systems, and these are
integrated into the planetary mental system, which in turn must participate in some kind of universal or
cosmic mind.”
210
MacIntyre, Alasdair, After Virtue, a study in moral theory, Duckworth, 1982, 1996, p.263.
211
The Analects of Confucius, 4.17.
212
The Analects of Confucius, 15.14.
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technological modernization. To complicate things, Asians have become westernized
in many ways and have moved away from their own heritage.
We feel first at a loss to deal with all the complexities of introducing the
Confucian vision of mind-and-heart since it requests also an understanding of the
Asian background. More than a question of self-identity or the autonomy of reason
which can generate a control of the world, Asian thinkers were interested in the
cultivation and maturation of the mind-and-heart, freely and without any immediate
interest. As we noticed in exploring texts of the Yijing or of Confucius, we are drawn
into unfathomable depths which are expressed in ways that leave us meditating for a
long time. Consequently, not just the intellect but the whole person is touched and
envolved in the reflection.
That is why Asian art and poetry allow us to complement our discovery of the
heart-and-mind. We progressively sense how for Asians the heart is as profound, vast
and complex as the universe. It is almost like they were afraid to analyze the different
aspects of the mind, thinking they may lose the beauty in its wholeness. We never get
tired of Victor Hugo’s words: “There is a greater sight than the sea, it is the sky; there
is a greater sight than the sky, it is the inside of the soul.”213 These words fit well what
the Chinese have been meditating for centuries.
One of the major Chinese intuitions is that at the center of the cosmos is
heart; heart-and-mind, and that the leading force of the cosmos is caring for
fulfillment. Morality is the essential base allowing the heart to be fully active.
Whence the beautiful Chinese expression: “Through morality we enter the Tao/Dao.”
But when morality weakens or gets unclear, the heart does not function according to
its original design and the whole personality does not reach maturity.
Nature is one of the grounds in which the heart can awaken and flourish.
Because the East did not disconnect man from its natural living milieu it was not
caught in a pure psychological approach of the mind-heart. The heart could expand
more freely to wider horizons at the border of different fields and moving toward the
center of all things. According to the Chinese vision, at the center of Heaven and earth
is man, at the center of man is the heart, at the center of the heart is the original nature
and as essence of the original nature is Taiji, the Great Ultimate called also Inji, the
Ultimate in man. The universe is in man, as man is in the universe. The Great
213
Hugo, Victor, Les Misérables, Livre VII, Chapitre III : « IL y a un spectacle plus grand que la mer,
c’est le ciel ; il y a un spectacle plus grand que le ciel, c’est l’intérieur de l’âme. »
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Ultimate, Taiji, is reflected in the heart, as man is embraced by the Great Ultimate.
“Vast and enveloping like the Matter, but warm and intimate like a soul, God is the
Center everywhere spread, whose immensity is due to an excess of concentration,
whose rich simplicity synthesizes a paroxysm of accumulated virtues.”; “Center in
which everything meets and which becomes distended toward all things to bring them
back to itself.”214
In this scientific age, we may comprehend the mechanisms of the brain but
how far do we know the heart-and-mind? How much are we investing in the
maturation of the heart-and-mind? The crisis in the humanities, in ethics and values
cannot be solved just “technically.” To come back to our departure point, it requests a
higher vision and an illuminating approach but especially all the depths of the heart.
In order for a global fulfillment to come through what is needed is “the rise on our
own inward horizon of a cosmic spiritual centre, a supreme pole of consciousness,
upon which all the separate consciousnesses of the world may converge.”215 As we
are often considering issues externally, in fact the horizon that we are looking for is
essentially within ourselves.
We have built many relations, institutions and organizations at the world level
and they are waiting not just for ideas but for a heart. “Humanity is building its
composite brain beneath our eyes,” said Teilhard de Chardin, “May it not be that
tomorrow, through the logical and biological deepening of the movement drawing it
together, it will find its heart, without which the ultimate wholeness of its powers of
unification can never be fully achieved? To put it in other words, must not the
constructive developments now taking place within the Noosphere in the realm of
sight and reason necessarily also penetrate to the sphere of feeling?”216
It is striking how Confucius, although he remained so discreet and selfeffacing on the major issues of philosophy and Ethics, has become in history a
moving force in China and in the world. He never got tired of learning and making
effort, his heart was overflowing with care and concern, for people, but especially
those who had very important responsibilities. However, as we saw, he did not allow
himself to present definitions or systematic views. Even some of his disciples saw him
214
Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre, Reflections and Prayers in Space-Time, Seuil, 1972, p.9 ;17.
Teilhard de Chardin, quoted p.2.
216
Teilhard de Chardin, The Future of Man, Translated by Norman Denny, Harper & Row, 1964, p.178.
215
84
as enigmatic, evasive or hiding something. But he pointed out to them that he was not
hiding anything and that he wanted to share freely with them.
The moving experience is that Confucius was inspiring and leading people
through the force of his heart but he did not let it be felt by others. He was not
concerned by a theory or a recognition but by awakening people to their own thinking
and responsibility, and to the maturation leading them to perform a correct action. He
just initiated an awareness and remained in the background. In daily life Confucius
appeared simple and dignified. Even in dangerous circumstances or with unprincipled
people he did not change but was firm and determined.
The choice of Confucius in this search of new creative paths of
Ethics/Morality is due to the ability of such a Master to combine the height of vision
and the depth of heart; the strength of the will and the gentleness of character. Facing
tragedies and encountering undignified human beings, he kept looking for people of
responsibility. In the complexity of situations, torments of the mind and moments of
despair he remained simple, not thinking high of himself but concerned that he did not
know enough others, was lacking in ability and aspiring to love everything, old and
new, to love everyone, hoping for their accomplishment.
The heart taught by Confucius, more through a humble and true practice of
everyday life, cannot be contained by theories but enlightens all reflections. While
Plato, Pascal and even Augustine emphasized an “anxious”, inquiet, perplexed and
fragile heart, Confucius initiated for the East a peaceful, optimistic and giving heart
which is attuned to the Buddha’s heart. The heart is the treasure of the person. It is
puzzling how very inadequate our research tends to be in comparison with the great
sages.
The direction Confucius gave, although he did not theorize about Ethics, is
how morality is determined in the simple actions of life for anyone in any position.
We know that we are often caught in the matters of ordinary life. We may be stopped
or deviated or hurt by one word, one attitude or one action. That is why all the plans,
the directives of Ethics at any level including the global level may be ruined when we
or some people do not relate ethics to simple situations of ordinary life; unto the
details which have great consequences. It does not mean to restrict life to what is
ordinary, but to find in it what appears the ordinary ways for higher forms of life.
85
This is the strength of Confucianism initiated by Confucius. Any ordinary
action is full of potential, conceals profound meanings and developments in its
simplicity. That is why our attitude is determinant not just in its formal aspects but
with its taking root in the heart. Observing the nobility of heart with which Confucius
lived we feel how weakened may become the moral standard of our actions, and our
heart tells us that we are not doing right. “When the Master saw a person in a
mourning dress, or any one with the cap and upper and lower garments of full dress,
or a blind person, on observing them approaching, although they were younger than
himself, he would rise up, and if he had to pass by them, he would do it hastily.”217
Without consideration of age, Confucius responded to the grieving heart of others.
What a contrast when we witness at times in Asia attitudes of avoiding blind people
or emphasizing age to build a relationship!
The Chinese marveled at the sight of the universe where all things established
relations in such a way that it brings harmony and the development of each being,
although many aspects are beyond our full understanding. They marveled in a similar
way at human relationships wishing them to reflect that harmony and fruitfulness.
Mystery of relations between human beings! Man finds happiness and fulfillment in
true relationships from closer ones to more distant ones; wider circles bringing back
fruition to more intimate relations. But we know how difficult it is to succeed in even
one relationship, and especially at the international level, and how destructive can be
failed relationships.
Confucius put all the strength of his attention on some specific relation at a
certain time within particular circumstances. If we reach the right emotions and heart,
not only we can succeed in that relationship but we obtain results at higher levels of
society. The primary difficulty is to be able to perceive the expectations of the other
and to respond to them. Master Zheng said about the Master’s way: “It is to be true to
the principles of our nature, cheng, and the benevolent exercise of them to others,
shu.”218 The two Chinese characters comprehend the first one, the heart and the
center, the second one, the heart and the identity. In order to establish a relation my
heart needs to be centered. Also when I establish a relation my desire is to become
one with the other. This is close to the expression of Ricoeur “The Self as another.”
217
218
The Analects of Confucius, 9.9.
The Analects of Confucius, translated by James Legge, 4.15.
86
Although each human relation requires a process of caring at a private level, it
has at the same time a transforming effect on the world. Through the ren Confucius
saw a commitment which makes society better. “To subdue oneself and to return to
propriety is ren. If a man can for one day subdue himself and return to propriety, all
under heaven will defer to his ren.”219 Simple actions in ordinary life which are rooted
in heart have an impact on the world. Here is a difficult path in Ethics when a moral
standard is connected at the level of society. The world is waiting for its heart. Not
just exemplar actions of charity but the heart working within society and at the level
of governing bodies.
Confucius, despite the doubts and irony of many, expected that opening a
path of goodness and righteousness had the power to move other people in the same
direction despite the hindrances and heaviness of society. That is why he was saying
that the profound man by his example was moving others like the wind moving the
grass. He saw this caring of ren not just in terms of position but of relations between
all generations. “Zilu said to Confucius: ‘I should like, sir, to hear your wishes.’ The
Master said: ‘They are, in regard to the aged, to give them rest; in regard to friends, to
show them sincerity; in regard to the young, to treat them tenderly.’ ”220
What we can learn from Confucius despite the distance of time is that he
meant a complete ethical fulfillment of the person and also of society. The ren he was
pointing to was not just an individual concern. A society without ren has not much
future, although it succeeds economically. His “spiritual disciple” Mencius
understood it deeply and fought for it, explaining to the powerful leaders of his time
the need of a government of ren, renzheng.
“Penser tout l’homme”, to think the whole man, said Ricoeur. So much is
implied ethically in these few words. In Confucius’s terms man is not just from the
earth, he is related to Heaven and all things. Man is also in relation with all human
beings at different levels and in different ways. How may one find one’s path of
destiny in such a noble condition? By responding in living one’s whole life for the
highest purposes, and making oneself worthy through a dedicated maturation. Whence
the admirable direction he gave: “At fifteen, I had my mind bent on learning. At
thirty, I stood firm. At forty, I had no doubts. At fifty, I knew the decrees of Heaven.
219
220
The Analects of Confucius, 12.1.
The Analects of Confucius, 5.25.
87
At sixty, my ear was an obedient organ for the reception of truth. At seventy, I could
follow what my heart desired, without transgressing what was right.”221
Despite the opinions that people must liberate themselves from moral yokes
and are free to satisfy their needs, Confucius shows here that true morality does not
hinder man’s fulfillment but guides him toward the highest form of joy. Through
maturation we come to the point where we are able to spontaneously wish and move
toward what is right, good and generous. Our heart is content, creative and rests in
what is highly principled. Ethics and morality become one, there is no more the need
of imperatives and the desire is reconciled with virtue. What seemed difficult to
realize morally has become natural and even directives such as “love your enemy”
seem reachable.
With the example of the Master we come to realize how far we have to go to
discover morality beyond all narrow approaches. The moral experience and challenge
are beyond discourses and analyses although we need them for a while. Asian thinkers
constantly start from silence and meditation and go back to silence and meditation. In
fact, as many Western thinkers have already expressed, the statute of Ethics and
philosophy is itself at stake. These words of MacIntyre, mentioned in the first part,
remain a challenge for us: “The failure of philosophy to provide what religion could
no longer furnish was an important cause of philosophy losing its central cultural role
and becoming a marginal, narrowly academic subject.”222 Now is the time when
philosophy and morality should find again their place of honor at the levels of
decision which engage the future of mankind.
Confucius suffered much from the irony and cynicism of powerful people who
had no time for principles and morality. His voice was covered over by empty words
and falsity which brought more misery to China. Morality is a delicate path which can
be easily lost; a direction in which people get confused under the pressure or threats
of others. Cynicism is a leper of our societies when we should put all our strength to
prevent the moral impoverishment at the national and global levels. Confucius’s wish
is well known that those having the highest power should be men of the highest
virtue, and that one should do one’s utmost to be worthy of the responsibility we
receive.
221
222
Confucian Analects, op.cit, 2.4. translated by James Legge.
MacIntyre, After Virtue, op.cit., p.50.
88
As
Plato
became
indissociable
from
Socrates,
Mencius/Mengzi
is
indissociable from Confucius. In fact the original Confucian school was called
Confucius-Mencius school. Mencius expressed with a literary talent and a great depth
the Master’s thought particularly on the cultivation and protection of the heart and its
application at the national level. We will limit ourselves to a few points which can
contribute to an awakening of “world humanity.” For many reasons we have let grow
in ourselves an unbalance between reason and emotion, neglecting to adequately
nourish our emotions, often becoming slaves of them.
In the encounter with the sages of Asia, one experiences with acuity how man
takes the orientation of becoming greedy, indifferent, violent and cruel when he loses
his “basic feelings.”223 Man is in a great extent a being of emotions but if emotions
are not taken into account, cultivated and guided in an appropriate manner they
endanger the whole personality and endanger human relations.
When Mencius expressed that one of the major aims of philosophy is to
recover one’s lost heart-and-mind, he took it seriously. “How pitiful is it to lose one’s
heart and not to know to seek it again! […] The great end of learning is nothing else
but to seek for one’s lost heart.”224 He did not speak only of a psychological or
sociological investigation but of a commitment of the whole person which brings out
the true humanity in a person.
All men have a mind-and-heart which cannot bear to see the suffering of
others. Those who have no heart of commiseration are not really human
beings. Those who have no heart of shame and dislike are not really human
beings. Those who have no heart of modesty and complaisance are not
really human beings. Those who have not the heart of approving and
disapproving are not really human beings.225
223
Dalai Lama, Ancient Wisdom and Modern World, Ethics for the New Millennium, Abacus,
1999/2000, p.66, “Events such as those which occurred at Auschwitz are violent reminders of what can
happen when individuals –and by extension whole societies- lose touch with basic human feeling. This
explains why, although it is necessary to have legislation and international conventions in place as
safeguards against future disasters of this kind, much more effective and important than such
legislation is our regard for one another’s feelings at a simple human level.”
224
The Works of Mencius, Book VI, Part I, Chapter XI.
225
The Works of Mencius, Book II, Part I, Chapter VII, translated by James Legge.
89
What makes someone a real person is his capacity to acknowledge, sense and
take in himself the pain or the joy of another human being and of other living beings.
The Chinese character in used in Mencius’s expression of “cannot bear the suffering
of others” represents the blade of a knife in the heart with traces of blood. What
someone goes through becomes mine and pierces my heart. The feeling is a precious
and wonderful capacity of the human being to move towards the other and to be
moved by him,226 but what a tragedy when it is misused or distorted.
However the feelings present, to a great extent, the mystery of the human
condition. Reason requires the totality but feelings require a complete happiness and
the two evolve in mysterious complementary ways. Ricoeur has these profound
remarks: “On one hand reason, which is an opening to the totality, generates feeling,
which opens to happiness. On another hand feeling internalizes reason. It reveals to
me that reason is my reason, because through feeling, I take possession of reason.” 227
Mystery of feelings which change constantly, which are fragile and can be
disproportionate, being similar to a coloring of the soul, to use Ricoeur’s expression.
We identify with the landscape and the landscape smiles within us. Reason and
feelings, which at first seem contradictory, in reality shed light on each other, the
reason helping us to clarify our life of feelings. Through an analysis of different levels
of disparity in man Ricoeur guides us to witness the emergence of true feelings in the
Self: “Admiration and awe are beyond and before a violated sensibility of subdued
presumption. They witness the affinity of sensibility for rationality.”228
The ultimate level analyzed by Ricoeur is the level of the heart in which all
disproportions become internalized. Ricoeur refers to Plato’s thumos, which is the
intermediary between the bios and the logos. The heart expresses fragility in itself.
Feeling is the unity of an intention toward the world and of an affection in me. The
mystery of feeling is in the undivided connection of man’s existence with beings
through desire and love. A deep feeling is the heart of heart, the spiritual joy of being.
Two aspects of Ricoeur’s reflection are in harmony with the Eastern
approach. First Ricoeur looks to reach emotions in their pure origin before the fallen
condition of sin. He wants to think beyond the fragility and misery emphasized by
226
Ricoeur, Paul, Oneself as Another, “It is indeed feelings that are revealed in the self by the other’s
suffering as well as by the moral injunction coming from the other, feelings spontaneously directed
toward others. This intimate union between the ethical aim of solicitude and the affective flesh of
feelings seems to me to justify the choice of the term of solicitude.”
227
Ricoeur, Paul, Philosophy of the Will, Aubier, 1988, p.118
228
Ricoeur, Paul, Faillible Man, translated by Charles A.Kelbley, Fordham University Press, 1986.
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Pascal. Confucius and Mencius also focused on the heart, not in its struggling
condition, but in its original surging. The second aspect developed by Ricoeur is to go
beyond the individual level and to relate the feeling to the dimensions of life such as
Having, Power and Worth. Feelings develop in a world, they interiorize the world and
finally become an internal world. Such reflection is also in harmony with Confucius
and Mencius pouring out their efforts to raise the quality of feelings within society.
A philosophy of the heart and emotions was never really developed in the
frame of Western philosophy, and as such we can see the consequences in Ethics.
Again Ricoeur is one of those rare philosophers who reflected on that issue.229 He
searched for a way of going over the states of exaltation and humiliation, of pride and
misery, of struggle between reason and emotion. Within the human condition
described as sinful by Christianity he looked for a maturation of the heart. Here the
strength of Mencius and Asian wisdom could be brought in fruitfully.
We would like to take one more moment in the company of Mencius in
selecting among his rich reflection the aspect of the rising of emotions in the heart.
China has been since the early ages a country of farmers who developed particularly
the rice-fields. The farmer has the patience to observe nature in its cycle, to watch
particularly the return of life at the end of the winter. The coming of the buds in the
trees and the blooming of flowers manifesting the resurgence of life has been the
object of many artistic expressions and many philosophical reflections.230
Mencius expressed the beginning of true feelings in the heart as duan which
represents the coming out of the plant which stands in the field. It is hardly visible but
it is effective and looking for development. It comes from depth. The beginning of an
emotion or a thought has been so much meditated in the East. In order to be aware of
this we need to cultivate carefully our consciousness from the very beginning.
The reflection of Mencius is in harmony with the Yijing that we looked at
previously. “Only through what is deep can one penetrate all wills on earth. Only
through the seeds can one complete all affairs on earth.” And Confucius commented
that “to know the seeds, that is divine.”231 Therefore often we lack knowledge of our
deepest emotions, we are not aware of their emergence and we react too late when
deviation or damage has already taken place.
229
Ricoeur, Paul, Philosophy of the Will, op.cit, p.98.
See page 34.
231
See page 38.
230
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This profound insight can enlighten moral life from the individual level to the
global level. We often want to act when it is too late or when some tragic event brings
destruction but we do not even notice that it is the result of an absence of foreseeing,
of preparation, of understanding of the roots. We have not done the work of reflection
and meditation, of maturing the issues, of moral cultivation. How could we then
expect good fruits, having not toiled to transform ourselves?
Because of that early reflection the East knew the fragility of emotions and
still it saw all the divine potential in them, and had the confidence to overcome the
limitation and make a difference. The Korean philosopher Yi I, Yulgok, expressed
powerfully our human condition in his poems:
“Human feelings, as the wings of the cicadas, in hardships, are transient.
A knife is hidden within words and smiles.”232 And also
“A corrupted thought erodes original brightness
At the beginning faintly and at the end violently.”233
On the foundation of Confucius, Mencius has opened in the East a path of
self-cultivation unique in the world. Reminding us of some prophets of Israel he
became a reference of morality and justice to all Chinese, but like Confucius he paid
the price for it234, nurturing an unflinching and humble mind: “If, on self-examination,
I find that I am not upright, shall I not be in fear even of a poor man in his loose
garments of hair-cloth? If, on self-examination, I find that I am upright, I will go
forward against thousands and tens of thousands.”235
Like Confucius, Mencius gives us a sense of what it is to become a really
noble and dignified person. Despite all kinds of philosophical and ethical works we
are still unclear in our understanding and realization of a noble person going through
life and destiny with dignity. We are, however, moved by great figures like Socrates
or by great saints whom we admire, but to come out in this present century with forms
232
Yulgok Complete Works, Anthology of Poems, “On one’s way”, Academy of Korean Studies,
1987,vol.1
233
Yulgok Complete Works, Anthology of Poems, “Writing one’s inmost thoughts on a winter solstice
evening”, Academy of Korean Studies, 1987,vol.1, p.16
234
See page 23.
235
The Works of Mencius, Book II, Part I, Chapter II.7.
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of humanity which resemble them we are still uncertain, although we are put off by all
sorts of mediocrity.
“The disciple Kung-tu said, ‘All are equally men, but some are great men,
and some are little (mediocre) men; -how is this?’ Mencius replied, ‘Those
who follow that part of themselves which is great are great men; those who
follow that part which is little are little men.’ […] ‘The senses and the
mind(heart) are what Heaven has given to us. Let a man first stand fast in
the supremacy of the nobler part of his constitution, and the inferior part will
not be able to take it from him. It is simply that which makes the great man.’
[…]
“There is a nobility of Heaven and there is a nobility of man. […] The men
of the present day cultivate their nobility of Heaven in order to seek for the
nobility of man, and when they have obtained that, they throw away the
other: their delusion is extreme. The issue is simply this, that they must lose
that nobility of man as well.”236
Ethics and morality cannot flourish when Heaven is denied, when man
neglects or throws away the nobler part of himself, becoming attached to things which
are of lesser value. We have moved away from the deepest parts of our heart and we
have let Heaven be taken away from us. How then would we expect to find a true
horizon and authentic paths of morality?
For Mencius, what is crucial is to cultivate oneself. That is why he used
agricultural metaphors. “There now is barley. Let it be sown and covered up; the
ground being the same, and the time of sowing likewise, the same; it grows rapidly
up, and, when the full time is come, it is all found to be ripe. Although there may be
inequalities of produce, that is owing to the difference of the soil, as rich or poor, to
the unequal nourishment afforded by the rains and dews, and to the different ways in
which man has performed his business in reference to it. Thus all things which are the
same in kind are like to one another; why should we doubt in regard to man, as if he
236
The Works of Mencius, Book VI, Part I, Chapter XVI, translated by James Legge.
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were a solitary exception to this? The sage and we are the same in kind.”237 Mencius
does not focus on the differences of condition but on the same potential in every
being.
The farmer is conscious of what can destroy his plantations. He would do
anything to protect them. How could we be negligent with ourselves? “The way in
which a man loses his proper goodness of mind is like the way in which the trees are
denuded by axes and bills. Hewn down day after day, can the mind retain its
beauty?”[…] “If it receives its proper nourishment, there is nothing which will not
grow. If it loses its proper nourishment, there is nothing which will not decay
away.”238 Do we think like Mencius of the beauty or ugliness we build in ourselves
through our thoughts and actions, through our negligence or assiduity? We have in
such passages one of the sources of what has guided Asian people to love morality
and self-cultivation down through the centuries even unto our own day.
Important questions on globalization will find a solution when people start to
return to themselves and enter into the depths of their heart. When it comes to heart,
we feel often as beginners and are perplexed, but we know that the consequences of a
lack of understanding or of maturity have enormous consequences. Much can be
expected of a real exchange Eat-West in exploring the resources of the heart for
elevating human relations and bringing out more ‘humanity”. Teilhard de Chardin had
an extraordinary sense of world fulfillment through heart: “Must not the constructive
developments taking place […] also penetrate to the sphere of feeling?”239 And again
“The world glows with a new warmth: that is to say, it opens itself wholly to the
power of Love. To love is to discover and complete one’s self in someone other than
oneself…. It is the state of isolation that will end if we begin to discover in each other
not merely the elements of one and the same thing, but of a single Spirit in search of
itself.”240 It is an invitation to bring feeling and warmth in all the work places in
danger to be taken over by routine, bureaucratic procedures and non recognition of
persons.
The whole philosophical tradition of Asia: Confucianism, Buddhism and
Taoism, has seen within man and the universe mind-and-heart as the most precious
gift of life. Therefore it has searched, dug and written with enthusiasm about the heart
237
The Works of Mencius, Book VI, Part I, Chapter VII, translated by James Legge.
The Works of Mencius, Book VI, Part I, Chapter VIII, id.
239
Quotation inserted page 77.
240
Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre, The Future of Man, op.cit., p.89-92.
238
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since the early period. Education has focused on the education, nourishment of
internal treasures, control of the Self and many values in order for people to mature
and achieve for themselves through action considered not just as earthly activities but
as noble spiritual tasks. The ordinary tasks of daily life have been valued as
extraordinary and the secular as sacred. Today even Westerners are attracted to
discover the Buddhist mind of compassion inclined to generously advise and help; the
Taoist audacity of expanding the mind within freedom and spontaneity, and the
Confucian self-cultivation which makes its concern to reach the depth and sincerity of
a profound person, and to make shine the relations between human beings in their
sacred dimension.
CONCLUSION
The difficulty in the humanities is that we may lose everything any time.
There is no definitive conquest. “Exalted subject, humiliated subject: it seems that it is
always through a complete reversal of this sort that one approaches the subject.”
According to Ricoeur.241 There are forces at work in this world to humiliate the
human spirit, to humiliate culture and morality, turning beautiful ideas and deeds into
dust. There are voices whispering that Confucianism and the Classics are just things
from the past and are not relevant any more. Therefore all what we have been
discovering so far would be to no avail. It is part of our walking this road in life to be
tempted and to become the prey of incertitude, negations and doubts.
This whispering which affects us deeply is not new and is not, for example
just the fact of Marxism and Maoism but is a perennial threat against true culture.
Confucius already worried that the treasures of Chinese culture would disappear. “The
genius of Confucius”, says professor Vandermeersch, is to have known, without
changing them, how to internalize in ethical values the principles of the institutional
tradition he felt the mission to restore. […] He was saving the spirit of the ancient
Chinese kingship, which sublimated was going to become the Chinese humanism.”242
If China kept such a high sense and practice of Ethics/Morality, it owes it in many
ways to this Master who has more than once been vilified.
241
242
See page 15.
Vandermeersch, Léon, Wangdao or the Kingly Way, EFEO, p.499.
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Despite our accomplishments in many fields, the danger remains, as in the
time of Confucius, to let spread an age of culture without culture, of institutionalized
life stifling a true development of ethics and heart. Philosophy has been marginalized,
Ethics has been disconnected from important sectors of life due to the lack of an
internal exploration of the Mind-and-Heart and of a cultivation of the whole person.
Vision and enthusiasm have weakened and the voices of suspicion, irony and
deconstruction have taken the upper hand, leaving us often close to despair. That is
why Bergson suggested to bring “more soul” into our societies.
All the images used by contemporary thinkers of a situation after a cataclysm,
of a lost horizon, of a suppression of moral ontological “ground” for our moral
condition point to what looks inextricable complexities. Beyond our declarations
about Ethics we know that something is not quite right, is twisted in our lives. Our
actions often contradict our ethical goals and even our ethical reflection does not find
its own coherence.
Particularly in Ethics/Morality we are caught in numerous knots that often we
have made ourselves and we are unable to undo them. Even the greatest minds have
suffered of this reality and felt powerless more than once. What is called evil in
religious terms is not just some kind of external enemy that one could confront but a
subtle net paralyzing us, a subtle “corrupted thought eroding the original brightness”
to use the words of Yulgok. Something in us is undoing what we struggle to think and
accomplish and at the same time tightening more the knots which threaten us. And we
cannot find what causes these endless deviations, crookedness and pretenses.
Evil is so subtle that it can hide its action and prevent us from recognizing its
presence. Even Nietzsche with all his intelligence could not pierce the mask of the
lies. But we have powerful arms with the “little way” of humbleness and patient
offering of the Self to all trials of life until something “comes untied” in us and that
we become able to “reach the divine knot which tie things.”243 We have lost
humbleness because we were told that it was weakness and failure. But true
humbleness has the power to undo the knots and to open new paths.
The Eastern tradition in favoring humility found a protection to reach untold
depths of wisdom. Laozi championed that approach which finds echoes in
Confucianism and Buddhism. “Nobility has humility for root. What is high has for
243
Saint Exupéry, Oeuvres, Gallimard, 1959, “Citadelle CXX”, p.769.
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root what is low.”244 We rarely think in philosophy and Ethics how important is our
attitude and approach to situations, and we wonder why problems remain unsolved.
The humility practiced in sacrifice and hardship made Confucius able to say: “I wish
for the ren, and naturally it manifests itself.”245 And again “Man can enlarge the Tao,
the Tao cannot enlarge man.”246 How fearful it is to think that we can close or open
our own path.
New horizons in Ethics/Morality may be found in the creative relation EastWest. The crisis we go through challenges us to succeed the turning point mentioned
by MacIntyre. To have lost everything can allow us to rediscover things anew. The
East experienced it. “The person of superior virtue does not insist upon his virtue; for
this reason, he has virtue. The person of inferior virtue never loses sight of his virtue;
for this reason, he lacks virtue. […] When the Way is lost, afterward comes virtue.
When virtue is lost, afterward comes ren. [….] The great man resides in substance
and not in superficiality. He resides in fruitful reality and not in blossomy
ornament.”247
Our time needs to rediscover an order of greatness, true greatness being
beyond names. The East learned early how to discern what has really value. Mencius
said: “He who has contemplated the sea, finds it difficult to think anything of other
waters, and he who has wandered in the gate of the sage, finds it difficult to think
anything of the words of others.”248Joy and admiration arise in the contemplation of
great things and great deeds. Everyone is called to greatness.
In the West, Pascal with impetuosity spoke of “the three orders.” “The infinite
distance from the bodies to the minds represents the distance infinitely more infinite
from the minds to the charity, because the latter is supernatural. […] The greatness of
wisdom, which comes from God, is invisible to people connected to the flesh and to
the mind. […] All the bodies together and all the minds together and all what they
produce are not worth the humblest act of charity.”249
On the basis of a clearer sense of orders and priorities, we may find paths of
creativity, maturation and fulfillment. Either Confucius in antiquity or Teilhard de
Chardin in modernity as we mentioned at the beginning, set up ahead of their time “an
244
Laozi, Daodejing, Chapter 39.
The Analects of Confucius, 7.29.
246
The Analects of Confucius, 15.28.
247
Daodejing, Chapter 38, Adapted from Victor Mair.
248
Passage quoted page 23.
249
Pascal, Blaise, Pensées, 793, edition Brunschwicg.
245
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immense fulfillment.” Only with such a vision and dedication can the world and
individual problems start to be seen in a true ethical/moral perspective. Values are not
just considered in relation to a discipline or to a specific activity but to a large task,
beyond all frontiers, to which we can dedicate ourselves with enthusiasm. People,
beyond a job or a position, aspire to contribute through their creation to the
accomplishment of a greater work and to the accomplishment of the world.
Man is born to become a creator. In everyone is dormant the desire to create in
a multitude of ways manually, intellectually and spiritually. Confucius has shown that
our aspirations to create can be really fulfilled when they are guided and matured
through morality and rites. Man is by essence a moral being and without morality, any
thought, action and creation loses its depth, its value and its beauty. “If a man be
without the ren (the virtues proper to humanity translates Legge), what has he to do
with rites of propriety? If a man be without the ren, what has he to do with music?”250
Some people may have believed that Confucius put a moral yoke on man’s action or
restricted it. On the contrary he gave it its full dynamism.
The greatest creation man is called to cooperate with may be compared to the
sculpture of humanity in himself. Confucius gave the example of bringing out
humanity in himself and in others like Socrates with his maieutics.251 He had the
patience to endure, to wait and to be silent before reaching out to others with words.
Are we not in many ways like a rough stone waiting for the hands of a sculptor which
will manifest with our co-operation a master-piece? But how delicate is our task!:
“That whereby man differs from the lower animals is but small. The mass of people
cast it away, while noble men preserve it.”252
250
The Analects of Confucius, 3.3.
Plato, Complete Works, French edition, translation by Leon Robin, Pleiade, 2003, p.95: “Their
delivery, truly, is the work of God, and also my work.”
252
The Works of Mencius, Book IV, Part II, Chapter XIX, translated by James Legge.
251
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