A Short History of Chinese Philosophy (33 page)

Social Ethics

According to Tung Chung-shu, the theory of the Yin and Yang is also a metaphysical justification of the social order. He writes: In all things there must be correlates. Thus if there is the upper, there must be the lower. If there is the left, there must be the right....If there is cold, there must be heat. If there is day, there must be night. These are all correlates. The Yin is the correlate of the Yang, the wife of the husband, the subject of the sovereign. There is nothing that does not have a correlate, and in each correlation there is the Yin and Yang. Thus the relationships between sovereign and subject, father and son, and husband and wife, are all derived from the principles of the Yin and Yang. The sovereign is Yang, the subject is Yin; the father is Yang, the son is Yin; the husband is Yang, the wife is Yin.... The three cords [kang]a{ the Way of the [true] King may be sought in Heaven." (Ch. 53.) According to the Conlucianists before this period, there are in society five major human relationships, namely, those between sovereign and subject, father and son, husband and wife, elder and younger brother, and friend and friend. Out of these, Tung selects three and calls them the three kang. The literal meaning of kang is a major cord in a net, to which all the other

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strings are attached. Thus the sovereign is the kang of his subjects, that is, he is their master. Likewise the husband is the kang of the wife, and the father is the kang of the son.

Besides the three kang there exist the five ch ang, which were upheld by all Confucianiats. Ch'ang means a norm or constant, and the five ch'ang are the five constant virtues of Confucianism, namely, jen (human—heartedness), yi (righteousness), li (propriety, rituals, rules of proper conduct), chih (wisdom) and hsin (good faith). Although Tung Chung-shu did not especially emphasize this point himself, it was commonly held by all the Han scholars that the five virtues have their correlations in the Five Elements. Thus humanheartedness is correlated with Wood in the east; righteousness with Metal in the west; propriety with Fire in the south; wisdom with Water in the north; and good faith with Soil in the center.*

The five ch ang are the virtues of an individual, and the three kang are the ethics of society. The compound word kang—ch ang meant, in olden times, morality or moral laws in general. Man must develop his nature in the direction of the moral laws, which are the essentials of cullure and civilization.

Political Philosophy

Not all men, however, can do this by themselves. Hence it is the funclion of government to help them in their development. Tung Chung—shu writes: "Heaven has produced men with natures that contain the basic stuff of goodness but are not able to be good in themselves. Therefore Heaven has established for them [the institution of] the king to make them good. This is the purpose of Heaven." (Ch. 35-) The king governs with beneficence, rewards, punishments, and executions. These four ways of government are modeled on the four seasons. Tung says: Beneficence, rewards, punishments, and executions, match spring, summer, autumn, and winter respectively, like the fitting together of Lthe two parts ofj a tally. Therefore T say that the king is co-equal with Heaven, meaning that Heaven has four seasons, while the king has four ways of government. Such are what Heaven and man share in common." (Ch. 55.)

The organization of government is also modeled on the pattern of the four seasons. According to Tung, the fact that government officials are graded into four ranks is modeled on the fact that a year has four seasons. Likewise, the fact that each official in each rank has three assistants under him, is modeled on the fact that each season has three months. The officials are thus graded, because men naturally fall into four grades in regard to their ability and virtue. Hence the government selects all men who deserve to be selected, and employs them according to these natural grades of virtue and ability.

• See the Pai Hu T'ung Yi or General Principles from the White rhllan 8.

[Litlge], a work compiled in A.D. 79,

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Thus Heaven selects the four seasons, and hrings them to completion with the twelve [months]; in this way the transformations of Heaven are completely expressed. And it is only the sage who can similarly give complete expression to the changes of man and harmonize them with those of Heaven." (Ch. 2.4.) Since the relation between Heaven and man is so close and intimate, hence, Tung maintains, all wrongdoings in human government must result in the manifestation of abnormal phenomena in the world of nature. As had already been done by the Yin — Yang school, he supplies both a teleological and a mechanistic explanation for this theory.

Teleologically speaking, when there is something wrong in human government, this necessarily causes displeasure and anger on the part of Heaven. Such displeasure or anger is expressed through natural visitations or prodigies, such as earthquakes, eclipses of the sun or moon, droughts or floods.

These are Heaven s way of warning the ruler to correct his mistakes.

Mechanistically speaking, however, according to Tung Chung-shu, "all things avoid that from which they differ and cleave to that to which they are similar, and things definitely call to themselves their own kind. Hence abnormalities on the part of man necessarily call forth abnormalities on the part of nature.

Tung Chung-shu, contradicting his teleological theory expressed elsewhere, maintains that this is the law of nature and that in it there is nothing supernatural. (Ch. 57. ) Philosophy of History

In chapter twelve we saw how Tsou Yen maintained the theory that the changes of dynasties in history are influenced by the movements of the Five Powers. A certain dynasty, because it is associated with a certain Power, must conduct its government in a manner appropriate to thai Power. Tung Chung—shu modifies this theory by maintaining that the succession of dynasties does not accord with the movement of the Jive Powers, but with a sequence of what he calls the "Three Reigns." These are the Black, White, and Red Reigns. Each has its own system of government and each dynasty represents one Reign. (Ch. 23.)

In actual history, according to Tung, the Hsia dynasty (traditionally 22.05-1766 B.C.) represented the Black Reign; the Shang dynasty (1766?-1122? B.C.) the White Reign; and the Chou dynasty (1122?

-256 B.C.) the Red Reign. This constituted one cycle in the evolution of history. After the Chou dynasty, the new dynasty would again represent the Black Reign, and the same sequence would recur.

It is interesting to note that in modern times, colors have also been used to denote varying systems of social organization, and that they are the same three as those of Tung Chung—shu. Thus, following his theory, we might say that Fascism represents the Black Reign, Capitalism the White Reign, and 326 THEORIZER OF THE HAN EMPIRE:TUNG CHUNG-SHU

Communism the Red Reign.

Of course, this is only coincidence. According to Tung Chung-shu, the three Reigns do not differ fundamentally. He maintains that when a new king founds a dynasty, he does so because he has received a special Mandate from Heaven. Hence he must effect certain external changes to make apparent that he has received the new Mandate. These include the shifting of his capital to a new place, assumption of a new title, changing the beginning of the year, and altering the color of clothing worn on official occasions. As to the great bonds of human relationships," says Tung, "and as to morality, government, moral instruction, customs and the meaning of words, these remain wholly as they were before. For why, indeed, should they be changed? Therefore, the king of a new dynasty has the reputation of changing his institutions, but does not as a matter of fact alter the basic principles." (Ch. I.) These basic principles are what Tung calls the Too. His biography in the History of the Former Han Dynasty (ch. 56) quotes him as saying: "The great source of Tan derives from Heaven; Heaven does not change, nor does the Too.

The theory that the ruler rules through the Mandate of Heaven is not a new one. In the Book of History we find sayings implying this theory, and Mencius made it already sufficiently clear. But Tung Chung-shu made it the more articulate by incorporating it into his whole philosophy of nature and man.

In the feudal age, all rulers inherited their authority from their ancestors. Even the First Emperor of the Ch'in dynasty was no exception. But the founder of the Han dynasty was different. Rising from the common people, he succeeded in becoming Emperor of the (to the Chinese) entire civilized world. This needed some justification, and Tung Chung-shu provided Lhat justification.

His theory that a ruler rules through the Mandate of Heaven justified the exercise of imperial authority and at the same time set certain limits on it. The Emperor had to be watchful for manifestations of Heaven's pleasure or displeasure, and to act accordingly. It was the practice of the Han Emperors, and, to a greater or lesser extent, of the Emperors of later dynasties, to examine themselves and the policies of their government, and to try to reform them when abnormal natural phenomena gave them cause to be uneasy.

Tung's theory of the succession of the Reigns also set a certain limit to the tenure of a given dynasty.

No matter how good an imperial house may be, the length of its rule is limited. When the end comes, it must give way to another dynasty, the founder of which has received a new Mandate. Such are the measures through which the Confucianists tried to lay restraints upon the power of an absolute monarchy.

Interpretation of the Ch un Ch iu

According to Tung Chung-shu, neither the Ch'in nor the Han was the direct successor of the Chou dynasty. In actual fact, he asserted, it was Confu—

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cius who received the Mandate of Heaven to succeed the Chou and to represent the Black Reign. He was not a king de facto, but one de jure.

This is a strange theory, but it was actually maintained and believed by Tung Chung-shu and his school. The Ch'un Ch iu, or Spring and Autumn Annals, which was originally a chronicle of Confucius native state of Lu, was supposed by them (incorrectly) to be a very important political work of Confucius in which he exercised his right as the new king. He represented the Black Reign and instituted all the changes that go with this Reign. Tung Chung—shu was famous for his interpretation of the Ch un Ch iu, and could justify all aspects of his philosophy by quotations from it. As a matter of fact, he commonly quoted the Ch un Ch iu as the main source of his authority. That is why his work is titled the Ch un—ch iu Fan—lu or Luxuriant Dew from the Ch un Ch iu.

Tung divides the centuries covered by the Ch'un Ch iu (72.2.-479 B.C.) into three periods, which he calls the three ages. These are: (1) the age that was personally witnessed by Confucius; (2.) that which he heard of through the oral testimony of elder living contemporaries; (3) that which he heard of through transmitted records. According to Tung Chung—shu, Confucius, when writing the Ch'un Ch'iu, used differing words or phrases to record the events occurring in these three periods. It is by studying the way in which these words or phrases are used that one may discover the esoteric meaning of the Ch'

un Ch iu.

Three Stages of Social Progress

There have been three important commentaries written on the Ch un Ch' iu, and since the Han dynasty these have become classics themselves. They are the Tso Commentary, known as the Tso Chuan (which probably was originally not written in toto as a commentary on the Ch un Ch iu, but was later attached to that work), and the Kung Yang and Ku Liang Commentaries. All three are supposedly named after the authors who composed them. Among the three, the Kung Yang Commentary, in particular, interprets the Ch un Ch iu in agreement with the theories of Tung Chung-shu. Thus in this Commentary we find the same theory of the three ages. During the latter part of the Han dynasty, Ho Hsiu (12.9-182.) wrote a commentary on the Kung Yang Commentary, in which he still further elaborated this theory.

According to Ho Hsiu, the Ch un Ch iu is a record of the process through which Confucius ideally transformed the age of decay and disorder into that of "approaching peace," and finally into that of "universal peace." He identifies the earliest of the three ages, "the age of which Confucius heard through transmitted records, as one of decay and disorder. In this period Confucius devoted his whole attention to his own state of Lu, and took Lu as the center of his reforms. The next period, the age of which Confucius heard through oral testimony, is identified by Ho Hsiu as that of "ap-330

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preaching peace. It was an age in which Confucius, having given good government to his own state, next brought peace and order to all the other Chinese states lying within the "Middle Kingdom. Finally, the last of the three periods, "the age which Confucius personally witnessed, is identified by Ho Hsiu as that of "universal peace." It was an age in which Confucius, having brought all the Chinese states to peace and order, also civilized all the surrounding barbarian tribes. In this period, Ho Hsiu said: The whole world, far and near, great and small, was like one. * Of course Ho Hsiu did not mean that these things were actually accomplished by Confucius. He meant that they were what Confucius would have accomplished if he had actually had the power and authority. Even so, however, the theory remains fantastic, since Confucius himself was alive only during the latter part of the three supposed ages of the Ch un Ch iu.