Rediscovering Kongzi
First up, a quick note: Unless otherwise stated, all
quotations and page and chapter references in this post are from Selected Philosophical Writings of Fung
Yu-Lan (Foreign Languages Press, Beijing,
1991). All references to classical Chinese texts, unless otherwise stated, are
as recorded in that same book.
Changsha
. It seems this section of my book was originally a book in its own right. So I flipped through to the first page of this section and started reading. Chapters 1, 2 and 3 are The Spirit of Chinese Philosophy, The Background of Chinese Philosophy, and The Origin of the Schools. These chapters had some interesting ideas, some of which I didn’t entirely agree with, but still, fair points, but on the whole I wasn’t particularly taken with these chapters. Then Fung moved on to Confucius and Confucianism. This I found a little odd- doesn’t Taoism predate Confucianism? I was under the impression that if there was an historical Laozi, he was older than Confucius, which explains why Confucius consulted him, and that in any case, the Dao De Jing draws on ideas, beliefs and theories that had already been circulating in China, while Confucius took the Six Classics as scripture and constructed a set of ethics that would preserve what he thought the old order of the early Zhou Dynasty was.
His primary function as a teacher, he felt, was to interpret to his disciples the ancient cultural heritage.
In the same section, Fung goes on to say that despite his own insistence that he was “a transmitter and not an originator” (Analects VII, 1), Confucius was very much an originator in that, “Confucius gave them interpretations derived from his own moral concepts” (p 235), which confirms half of what I originally thought of him- the half about him inventing a system of ethics that would preserve what he saw as the traditional order handed down from Zhou.
Righteousness (yi) means the “oughtness” of a situation. It is a categorical imperative. Everyone in society has certain things which he ought to do, and which must be done for their own sake, because they are the morally right things to do. If, however, he does them only because of other non-moral considerations, then even though he does what he ought to do, his action is no longer a righteous one. (p 236)
Pretty clear, but “oughtness”? Fung also explains yi in opposition to li, which he defines as ‘profit’.
“To use a word often disparaged by Confucius and later Confucianists, he [one who does what he ought to do “because of other, non-moral considerations] is then acting for “profit.” Yi (righteousness) and li (profit) are in Confucianism diametrically opposed terms. Confucius himself says: “The superior man comprehends yi; the small man comprehends li.” (Analects IV, 16) Herein lies what the later Confucianists called the “distinction between yi and li,” a distinction which they considered to be of the utmost importance in moral teaching.
In Zhang Dainian’s Key Concepts in Chinese Philosophy (Foreign Languages Press,
Beijing
, 2002, translated by Edmund Ryden), on page 291, we have this definition of Confucius’ yi:
As Confucius valued benevolence, he also promoted justice. Benevolence is the highest moral norm, whereas yi 義, what is right, refers generally to the existence of moral norms.
Yes, this edition of Zhang’s Key Concepts uses traditional
characters. I don’t know if that’s because the original was written in
traditional characters or if it’s due to the translator’s personal preferences,
or some editorial decision in the hallowed halls of Yale University Press
(which seems to have been the original publisher) or the Foreign Languages
Press. Likewise, I don’t know the reasons behind the translation of yi as either “righteousness” or “justice”,
but both translations seem equally accurate. Zhang makes no mention of li, although I presume it is 利.
The idea of yi is rather formal, but that of jen [he uses Wade-Giles throughout the text; jen=ren] (human-heartedness) is much more concrete. (p 237)
Alright, I have to admit I don’t get what Fung means by “formal” and “concrete”, and I don’t understand why he renders ren as “human-heartedness). The Xinhua Zidian bilingual edition gives “同情,友爱 benevolence, kindheartedness”. In the translators introduction to the section of Zhang’s Key Concepts entitled “Benevolence and Justice, Ren-yi, 仁義”, page285, says of ren:
It is expressive of the relations that should pertain among human beings. Hence it has been translated as ‘humanity,’ benevolence,’ ‘love,’ and, to bring out the sense of relationship, ‘co-humanity.’ It is also the supreme virtue that encompasses all others and so is rendered ‘goodness,’ ‘perfect virtue.’
I guess I should note that that comes with a reference to Wing Tsit-Chan, A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy (Pinceton: Princeton University Press, 1963), pp. 788 – 789, but I have no access to that book, so I don’t particularly care about it right now.
But the material essence of these duties is “loving others”, i.e. jen or human-heartedness. The father acts according to the way a father should act who loves his son; the son acts according to the way a son should act who loves his father. Confucius says: “Human-heartedness consists in loving others.” [Analects, IV, 16] The man who really loves others is one able to perform his duties in society. (p 237)
Well, then I managed to get myself all confused by missing where Fung explains the meanings of Chung and Shu.
In other words, “Do to others what you wish yourself.” This is the positive aspect of the practice, which was called by Confucius chung or “conscientiousness to others”. And the negative aspect, which was called by Confucius shu or “altruism”, is: “Do not do to others what you do not wish yourself.” The practice as a whole is called the principle of chung and shu, which is “the way to practice jen.” (p 238)
And then:
The principle of chung and shu is at the same time the principle of jen, so that the practice of chung and shu means the practice of jen. And this practice leads to the carrying out of one’s responsibilities and duties in society, in which is comprised the quality of yi or righteousness. Hence the principle of chung and shu becomes the alpha and omega of one’s moral life. (p 239)
Right. But now that I’ve (belatedly) found that definition, I’m still confused. What are chung and shu? Apart from the use of Wade-Giles, one big disadvantage of Fung is the absence of characters, making it difficult to check words in the dictionary. So I guess I’m going to have to go back to Zhang Dainian. On page 291 of Key Concepts, Zhang provides this short note:
Not doing to others what you would not want done to yourself is also called ‘empathy’ (shu 恕). Confucius singled it out as one word worth practicing:
Zi Gong asked, “Is there one word which can be practiced throughout one’s life?” The Master said, “It is empathy. What you yourself do not want do not impose on others.” (Analects 15, Duke Ling of Wei #23, p. 301)
Benevolence would seem to contain empathy within it. Empathy is the same virtue taken from a narrow perspective; ‘benevolence’ also expresses the need to establish others and make them outstanding.
Xinhua
Zidian defines 恕 as “forgive; pardon”. My big dictionary, A Chinese-English Dictionary (Revised Edition) (Foreign Languages
Teaching and Research Press,
Beijing
, 2002) gives “1: consideration for others; forbearance 2: forgive; pardon; excuse” and a third definition which is not relevant in this context.
Yao
and Shun fell short of it.” (Zhang, p. 287), and then moving into what seems to be the same passage that Fung uses, although the translation is quite different.
As we shall see, the Taoists taught the theory of “doing nothing,” whereas the Confucianists taught that of “doing for nothing.” A man cannot do nothing, according to Confucianism, because for every man there is something which he ought to do. Nevertheless what he does is “for nothing”, because the value of doing what he ought to do lies in the doing itself, and not in the external result. (pp 239 – 240)
This is important to the introduction of Ming 命 “because Confucius was ridiculed by a certain recluse as “one who knows that he cannot succeed, yet keeps on trying to do it.”” (p 239) So why did Confucius persevere?
He traveled everywhere and, like Socrates, talked to everybody. Although his efforts were in vain, he was never disappointed. He knew that he could not succeed, but kept on trying.
About himself, Confucius said: “If my principles are to prevail in the world, it is Ming. If they are to fall to the ground, it is also Ming” [Analects XIV, 38] (p 240)
So for Confucius, fate or Ming 命 is that huge collective of things beyond our control, but there is still plenty that we can do, and that which we can do, providing it accords with yi (righteousness or justice), we should do. Therefore, because he knew he was fulfilling his social and familial obligations, he was never disappointed despite his lack of success.
Zhang says of Ming 命:
In the early period the term ming referred to the command of God. The divine element decreased, and by the time of the Mencius, ming referred to all that was outside the power of human influence to alter. (Zhang p 125)
So is Fung jumping the gun here? His definition of Confucius’ ming sounds similar to that which Zhang ascribes to Mencius. All that Zhang has to say about Confucius’ ming is:
Confucius claimed that at fifty he knew heaven’s decree [Analects 2, On Administration 4] This decree determined whether the Way was operative or not:
The master said, “Whether the Way is going to be operative is a matter of decree; whether the Was is not going to be operative is a matter of decree.” (Analects 14.38)
A later section of the Analects defines a gentleman in terms of knowing heaven’s decree:
The master said, “One who does not know the decree cannot be a gentleman.” (Analects 20.3)
The Way is an ideal to be sought. Whether it is attained depends on the decree. Although the term ‘decree’ is thus used in the Analects, it is not elaborated on. (Zhang pp. 127 – 128)
Again we have an apparent disagreement,
although it is hard to tell whether the disagreement is only apparent because
where Fung goes into detail explaining Confucius’ view, Zhang gives a quick
definition and moves on. Although, the view Zhang ascribes to Mencius is
suspiciously close to the view Fung ascribes to Confucius. Still, Fung does
supply a lot more support from his view from the Analects. Also, again both Zhang and Fung quote the same passage
from the Analects, but in entirely
different translations. It seems to me that in both translations, the general
principle is the same and is reasonably clear, but the different translations
would seem to have quite different meanings on the surface. Fung’s quotation
comes across as Confucius defending himself against “a certain recluse”, while
Zhang’s reads as a general statement of principle.
Confucius, however, was already recognized in his own day as a man of very extensive learning. (p 244)
Until I read the section entitled Confucius’ Position in Chinese History
(pp 242 – 244), I had this image of Confucius as a lonely and professionally
frustrated old man terrified of the instability and constant change of his time
wandering around crankily ranting that the world should return to the
stability, propriety and good order that existed (or so he believed) in the
early Zhou. I guess on that point I was completely wrong. In fact, Fung seems
to place Confucius very firmly in the class of ru (儒?) (p 233),
or literati or scholars (Fung’s definition) the “teachers of ancient classics
and thus the inheritors of the ancient cultural legacy.” (pp 224 – 225)