A Short History of Chinese Philosophy (44 page)

The top of the bamboo symbolizes the climax of the achievement of Enlightenment. "Rising yet another step means that after Enlightenment has come, the sage still has other things to do. What he has to do, however, is no more than the ordinary things of daily life. As Nan—ch uan said: After coming to understand the other side, you come back and live on this side.' (Recorded Sayings of Ancient Worthies, chtian 12.)

Although the sage continues living on this side, his understanding of the other side is not in vain.

Although what he does is just what everyone else does, yet it has a different significance to him. As Hui-hai, known as the Master of Pai-ch'ang (died 814), said: "That which before Enlightenment is called lustful anger, is after Enlightenment called the Buddha Wisdom. The man is no different from what he was before; it is only that what he does is different." (Recorded Sayings of Ancient Worthies, chiian I.) It would seem that there must be some textual error in this last sentence. What Pai-ch'ang apparently intended to say was: "What the man does is no different from

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what he did before; it is only that the man himself is not the same as he was.

The man is not the same, because although what he does is what everyone else does, he has no attachment to anything. This is the meaning of the common Ch'an saying: "To eat all day and yet not swallow a single grain; to wear clothes all day and yet not touch a single thread. (Recorded Sayings of Ancient Worthies, chiton 3 and 16.)

There is yet another common saying: "In carrying water and chopping firewood: therein lies the wonderful Too." (Record of the Transmission of the Light, chilan 8.) One may ask: If this is so, does not the wonderful Too also lie in serving one's family and the state? If we were to draw the logical conclusion from the Ch'an doctrines that have been analyzed above, we should be forced to answer yes.

The Ch an Masters themselves, however, did not give this logical answer. It was reserved for the Neo-Confucianists, who are the subject of our next several chapters, to do so.

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CH'ANISM: THE PHILOSOPHY OK SILENCE

CHAPTER 23

NEO-CONFUCIANISM: THE COSMOLOGISTS

IN 5^9, after centuries of division, China was again unified by the Sui dynasty (589-617). The Sui, however, soon gave way to the powerful and highly centralized dynasty of T'ang (618-906). Both culturally and politically the T' ang was a golden age in China, which equalled and in some ways surpassed that of Han.

The examination system for the selection of officials, in which the Confucian Classics held a pre-eminent position, was reestablished in 61a. In 618 Emperor T'ai-tsung (62.7-649) ordered that a Confucian temple be established in the Imperial University, and in 630 he again ordered scholars to prepare an official edition of the Confucian Classics. As part of this work, standard commentaries on the Classics were selected from among the numerous commentaries that had been written before that time, and official sub-commentaries were written to elucidate these standard commentaries. The resulting Classical texts, with their official commentaries and subcommen-taries, were then commanded by the Emperor to be taught in the Imperial University. In this way Confucianism was reaffirmed as the official teaching of the state.

But Confucianism had by this time already lost the vitality which it had once manifested in the form of such men as Mencius, Hsiin Tzu, and Tung Chung—shu. The original texts were there, and their commentaries and sub-commentaries were even more numerous than before, yet they failed to meet the spiritual interest and needs of the age. After the revival of Taoism and the introduction of Buddhism, people had become more interested in metaphysical problems and in what I call super-moral values, or, as they were then phrased, the problems of the nature and Destiny (of man). As we have seen in chapters four, seven, and fifteen, discussions on such problems are not lacking in such Confucian works as the Confucian Analects, the Men— cius, the Doctrine of the Mean, and especially the Book of Changes. These, however, needed a genuinely new interpretation and elucidation in order to meet the problems of the new age, and this type of interpretation was as yet

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lacking despite the efforts of the Emperor s scholars. Han Yil and Li Ao

It was not until the latter part of the T ang dynasty that there arose two men, Han Yii (768-824) and Li Ao (died c. 844), who really tried to reinterpret such works as the Ta Hsiieh or Great Learning and Chung Yung or Doctrine of the Mean, in such a way as would answer the problems of their time. In his essay titled Yiian Too or 'On the Origin and Nature of the Truth," Han YU wrote: "What I call the Too is not what has hitherto been called the Too by the Taoists and the Buddhists. Yao [a traditional sage-king of antiquity J transmitted the Too to Shun [ another traditional sage-king supposed to be the successor of Yao]. Shun transmitted it to Yii [successor of Shun and founder of the Hsia dynasty]. Yti transmitted it to [Kings] Wen and Wu and the Duke of Chou [the three founders of the Chou dynasty]. Wen and Wu and the Duke of Chou transmitted it to Confucius, and Confucius transmitted it to Mencius. After Mencius, it was no longer transmitted. Hsiin [Tzu] and Yang [Hsiung] selected from it, but without reaching the essential portion; they discussed it, but without sufficient clarity." (Ch'ang-li Hsien—sheng Chi, or Collected Works of Han Yil, chiian II.)

And Li Ao, in an essay titled "On the Restoration of the Nature," writes very similarly: "The ancient Sages transmitted this teaching to Yen Tzu Li.e., Yen Hui, the favored disciple of Confucius]. Tzu-ssu, the grandson of Confucius, received the teaching of his grandfather and composed the Doctrine of the Mean in forty-seven sections which he transmitted to Mencius....Alas, though writings dealing with the nature and Destiny are still preserved, none of the scholars understand them, and therefore they all plunge into Taoism and Buddhism. Ignorant people say that the followers of the Master [i.e., of Confucius] are incapable of investigating the theories on the nature and Destiny, and everybody believes them. When some one asked me about this, I transmitted to him what I knew....My hope is that this long obstructed and abandoned Truth may be transmitted in the world." (Li Wen-hung Chi or Collected Works of Li Ao, chiian 1.)

The theory of the transmission of the Truth from Yao and Shun downward, though already roughly suggested by Mencius (Mencius Vllb, 38), was evidently reinspired in Han Yii and Li Ao by the Ch an theory that the esoteric teaching of the Buddha had been transmitted through a line of Patriarchs to Hung—jen and Hui— neng. At a later time one of the Ch eng brothers (see chapter 2.4) even stated unequivocally that the Chung Yung or Doctrine of the Mean was the esoteric teaching of Confucius.

(Quoted by Chu Hsi in his introduction to his Commentary on the Chung Yung.) It was widely believed that the transmission of the Truth had become interrupted after Mencius. Li Ao, however, apparently felt that he himself possessed a certain understanding of it, and that through his teaching he could thus act as a continuator of

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^

Mencius. To do this became the ambition of all Neo-Confucianists after Li Ao s time. All of them accepted Han Yii s theory of the orthodox line of transmission of the Tao or Truth, and maintained that they were themselves links in that transmission. Their claim is not without justification, because, as we shall see in this and the following chapters, Neo-Confucianism is indeed the continuation of the idealistic wing of ancient Confucianism, and especially of the mystic: tendency of Mencius. That is the reason why these men have been known as the Tao hsiieh chia and their philosophy as the Tao hsiieh, i.e., the Study of the Tao or Truth. The term Neo-Confucianism is a newly coined western equivalent for Tao hsiieh.

There are three lines of thought that can be traced as the main sources of Neo-Confucianism. The first, of course, is Confucianism itself. The second is Buddhism, together with Taoism via the medium of Ch anism, for of all the schools of Buddhism, Ch anism was the most influential at the time of the formation of Neo-Confucianism. To the Neo-Confucianists, Ch'anism and Buddhism are synonymous terms, and, as stated in the last chapter, in one sense Neo-Confucianism may be said to be the logical development of Ch' anism. Finally, the third is the Taoist religion, of which the cosmological views of the Yin-Yang School formed an important element. The cosmology of the Neo-Confucianists is chiefly connected with this line of thought.

These three lines of thought were heterogeneous and even in many respects contradictory. Hence it took time for philosophers to make a unity out of them, especially since this unity was not simply an eclecticism, but a genuine system forming a homogeneous whole. Therefore although the beginning of Neo—Confucianism may be traced back to Han Yii and Li Ao, its system of thought did not become clearly formed until the eleventh century. This was the time when the Sung dynasty (960-1279), which reunited China after a period of confusion following the collapse of the T ang, was at the height of its splendor and prosperity. The earliest of the Neo -Confucianists were chiefly interested in cosmology.

Cosmology of Chou Tun-yi

The first cosmological philosopher is Chou Tun—yi, better known as the Master of Lien—hsi (1017-73). He was a native of Tao—chou in the present Hunan province, and in his late years lived on the famous mountain, Lu-shan, the same place where Hui-ytian and Tao-sheng had taught Buddhism, as described in chapter twenty—one. Long before his time, some of the religious Taoists had prepared a number of mystic diagrams as graphic portrayals of the esoteric principles by which they believed a properly initiated individual could attain to immortality. Chou Tun-yi is said to have come into possession of one of these diagrams, which he thereupon reinterpreted and modified into a diagram of his own designed to illustrate the process of cosmic evolution. Or rather, he studied and developed the ideas found in certain

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passages in the 'Appendices' of the Book of Changes, and used the Taoist diagram by way of illustration.

His resulting diagram is called the T'ai-chi T u or Diagram of the Supreme Ultimate, and his interpretation of it is called the T' ai-chi T'u Shuo or Explanation of the Diagram of the Supreme Ultimate. The Shuo or Explanation can be read quite intelligibly without referring to the diagram itself.

The text of the Explanation reads as follows: "The Ultimateless [Wu Chi]\ And yet the Supreme Ultimate [T'ai Chi]\ The Supreme Ultimate through Movement produces the Yang. This Movement, having reached its limit, is followed by Quiescence, and by this Quiescence, it produces the Yin. When Quiescence has reached its limit, there is a return to Movement. Thus Movement and Quiescence, in alternation, become each the source of the other. The distinction between the Yin and Yang is determined and the Two Forms [i.e., the Yin and Yang] stand revealed.

By the transformations of the Yang and the union therewith of the Yin, Water, Fire, Wood, Metal and Soil are produced. These Five Ethers [ch'i, i. e., Elements] become diffused in harmonious order, and the four seasons proceed in their course.

"The Five Elements are the one Yin and Yang; the Yin and Yang are the one Supreme Ultimate; and the Supreme Ultimate is fundamentally the Ultimateless. The Five Elements come into being each having its own particular nature.

"The true substance of the Ultimateless and the essence of the Two [Forms] and Five [Elements]

unite in mysterious union, so that consolidation ensues. The principle of Chien [the trigram symbolizing the Yang] becomes the male element, and the principle of K'un [the trigram symbolizing the Yin]

becomes the female element. The Two Ethers [the Yin and Yang] by their interaction operate to produce all things, and these in their turn produce and reproduce, so that transformation and change continue without end.

"It is man alone, however, who receives these in their highest excellence and hence is the most intelligent [of all beingsJ. His bodily form thereupon is produced and his spirit develops intelligence and consciousness. The five principles of his nature [ the five constant virtues corresponding to the Five Elements] react [to external phenomena], so that the distinction between good and evil emerges and the myriad phenomena of conduct appear. The sage regulates himself by means of the mean, correctness, humanhearted-ness, and righteousness, and takes Quiescence as the essential. [Chou Tun-yi himself commentes on this: Having no desire, he is therefore in the state of Quiescence' ] Thus he establishes himself as the highest standard for

mankind__ (Chou Lien—hsi Chi or Collected Works of Chou Tun—yi, chiian I. )

In the Booh of Changes, "Appendix III," it is said: "In the Yi there is the Supreme Ultimate, which produces the Two Forms." Chou Tun-yi's Explanation is a development of the idea of this passage. Brief though it is, it provides the basic outline for the cosmology of Chu Hsi (113012.00), one of the 442. NEO-CONFUCIANISM:TH£ COSMOLOGISTS

greatest, if not the greatest, of the Neo-Confucianists, about whom I shall have more to say in chapter twenty-five.