In chapter seven we have seen how Mencius maintained that in human na-ture there are four constant virtues which manifest themselves as the four beginnings.'ln the above quotation Chu Hsi gives a metaphysical justifica-tion to this theory of Mencius, which is primarily psychological. According to Chu, the four constant virtues pertain to Li and belong to the nature, while the four beginnings are the operations of the mind. We cannot know the ab-stract except through the concrete. We cannot know our nature except through our mind. As we shall see in the next chapter, the Lu-Wang school maintained that the mind is the nature. This is one of the main issues be-tween the two schools.
Political Philosophy
If every kind of thing in this world has its own Li, then for the state, as an organization having concrete existence, there must also be the Li of state-hood or government. If the state is organized and governed in accordance with this Li, it will be stable and prosperous; if not, it will become disorga-nized and fall into disorder. According to Chu Hsi, this Li is the principle of government as taught and practiced by the former sage-kings. But it is not something subjective. It is eternally there, no matter whether or not it is taught or practiced. Regarding this point, Chu had some warm debates with his friend Ch' en Liang (1143-1194), who held a different point of view. Argu-ing with him, he wrote: "During a period of fifteen hundred years, the Too Lthe principle of government], as handed down by Yao and Shun Ltwo tradi-tional sage-kings] . . . and Confucius, has never been put into practice for even a single day in the world. But beyond human intervention, it is eternal-ly there. It is simply what it is, and is eternal and immortal. It cannot perish, even though men have done violence to it during the last fifteen hundred years." ("Reply to Ch'en Liang," Collected Literary Writings, chttan 36.)
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"The Too,' he said again, 'does not cease to be. What ceases to be is man's practice of it." (Ibid.)
As a matter of fact, not only have the sage—kings governed their states in accordance with the Too, but all persons who have achieved something in politics must, to a certain degree, have followed the same Too, even though sometimes unconsciously or incompletely. Chu Hsi writes: I always think that this Li L principle of government ] is one and the same both in times past and present. Those who follow it, succeed; those who violate it, fail. Not only did the sages of antiquity practice it, but even among the heroes of modern times, none can have any achievement without following this Li.Herein, how-ever, is a difference. The ancient sages, being cultivated in the wisest way in what is fundamental, could hold the golden mean, and therefore what they did was all entirely good from the beginning to the end. The so —called heroes of modern times, however, have never undergone such cultivation, and have only moved in the world of selfish desires. Those of them who were talented have succeeded in coming into a seeming agreement Lwith the Li], each making accomplishment to the extent that he followed this Li. There is one aspect in which all the so-called heroes are the same: that is,what they do can never be completely in accordance with ihe Li, and therefore is not perfectly good. (Ibid.)
To illustrate Chu Hsi' s theory, let us take as an example the building of a house. A house must be built in accordance with the principles of architec-ture. These principles eternally remain, even if in the physical world itself no house is actually built. A great architect is a man who fully understands these principles and makes his plans in accordance with them. For example, the house he builds must be strong and durable. Not only great architects, however, but all who want to build a house, must follow the same principles, if their houses are to be built at all. Such non-professional architects, how-ever, may simply follow these principles through intuition or practical expe-rience, without understanding or even knowing about them. As a result, the houses they build cannot completely accord with the principles of architec-ture and therefore cannot be of the best. Such is the difference between the government of the sage—kings and that of the lesser so—called heroes.
As we have seen in chapter seven, Mencius maintained that there are two kinds of government: that of the wang or king and that of the pa or military lord. Chu Hsi s argument with Ch en Liang is a continuation of the saine controversy. Chu Hsi and other Neo—Confucianists maintain that all govern-ments from the Han and T'ang dynasties downward have been those of pa, because their rulers have all governed in their own interests and not in the interests of the people. Here again, therefore, Chu Hsi follows Mencius, but, as before, gives a metaphysical justification to the latter's theory, which is primarily political.
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Method of Spiritual Cultivation
The Platonic idea that we cannot have a perfect state until the philoso-pher becomes king or the king philosopher,' is shared by most Chinese thinkers. In the Republic, Plato dwells at great length upon the education of the philosopher who is to become king. And Chu Hsi too, as we have seen, says that the sage-kings of antiquity were cultivated in the wisest way in what is fundamental. What is this method of cultivation? Chu Hsi has al-ready told us that in every man, and indeed in everything, there is the Supreme Ultimate in its entirety. Since the Supreme Ultimate is the totality of the Li of all things, hence these Li are all within us, but, because of our physical endowment, they are not properly manifested. The Supreme Ulti-mate that is within us is like a pearl in turbid water. What we have to do is to make this pearl become visible. The method for so doing is, for Chu Hsi, the same as that taught by Ch eng Yi, which, as we have seen in the last chapter, is twofold: The extension of knowledge through the investigation of things," and "the attentiveness of the mind."
This method has its basis in the Ta Hsiieh or Great Learning, which was considered by the Neo—Confucianists as the beginner s door for entering the life of virtue. As we have seen in chapter sixteen, the method of self-cultivation as taught by the Great Learning begins with the "extension of knowledge and investigation of things. According to the Ch eng—Chu school, the purpose of the "investigation of things is to extend our knowl-edge of the eternal Li.
Why does not this method start with the investigation of Li instead of things? Chu Hsi says: "The Great Learning speaks of the investigation of things but not of the investigation of Li. The reason is that to investigate Li is like clutching at emptiness in which there is nothing to catch hold. When it simply speaks of 'the investigation of things, it means that we should seek for 'what is above shapes' through 'what is within shapes'." (Com-plete Works, chiian 46.) In other words, Li are abstract and things are con-crete. We investigate the abstract through the concrete. What we as a result come to see lies both within the eternal world and within our own nature. The more we know Li, the more our nature, ordinarily concealed by our physical endowment, becomes visible to us.
As Chu Hsi says: "There is no human intelligence [utterly] lacking knowledge, and no single thing in the world without Li. But because the in-vestigation of Li is not exhaustive, this knowledge is in some ways not com-plete. This is why the first instruction of the Great Learning is that the stu-dent must, for all the separate things in the world, by means of the Li which he already understands, proceed further to gain exhaustive knowledge of those Lwith which he is not yet familiar], thus striving lo extend Lhis knowl-edge] to the farthest point. When one has exerted oneself for a long time, fi-nally one morning a complete understanding will open before one. Thereupon
5OO NEO-CONFUCIANISM:THE SCHOOL OF Pt.ATONIC IDEAS I
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there will be a thorough comprehension of all the multitude of things, exter-nal or internal, fine or coarse, and every exercise of the mind will be marked by complete enlightenment. (Commentary on the Great Learning, ch. 5-) Here we have again the theory of Sudden Enlightenment.
This seems to be enough in itself, so why should it be supplemented by the attentiveness of the mind? The answer is that without such attentive-ness, the investigation of things is likely to be simply a kind of intellectual exercise and thus will not lead to the desired goal of Sudden Enlightenment. In investigating things we must keep in mind lhal what we are doing is to make visible our nature, to cleanse the pearl so that it can shine forth. In or-der to be enlightened, we must always think about Enlightenment. This is the function of the attentiveness of mind.
Chu Hsi s method of spiritual cultivation is very like that of Plato. His theory that in our nature there are the Li of all things, is very like Plato's theory of a previous knowledge. According to Plato, "We acquire knowledge before birth of all the essences. (Phaedo 75-) Because there is ihis previous knowledge, therefore he who "has learned to see the beautiful in due course and succession," can "suddenly perceive a nature of wondrous beauty. " (Symposium 2JI.) This, too,is a form of Sudden Enlightenment.
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CHAPTER 26
NEO-CONFUCIANISM: THE SCHOOL OF UNIVERSAL MIND
As we have seen in chapter twenty-four, the Lu-Wang school, also known as the Hsin hslieh or Mind school, was initiated by Ch'eng Hao and com-pleted by Lu Chiu-yiian and Wang Shou-jen. Lu Chiu-yuan (II39~TI93), pop-ularly known as the Master of Hsiang-shan, was a native of the present Kiangsi province. He and Chu Hsi were friends, despite their widely diver-gent philosophic views. Their verbal and written debates on major philo-sophical problems evoked great interest in their day.
Lu Chiu—yuan s Conception of the Mind
Both Lu Chiu-yuan and Wang Shou-jen are said to have become con-vinced of the truth of their ideas as a result of experiencing Sudden En-lightenment. One day, it is said, Lu was reading an ancient book in which he came upon the two words ytt and chou. An expositor remarked: "What com-prises the four points of the compass together with what is above and below: this is called yti. What comprises past, present, and future: this is called chou." Thereupon Lu Chiu-yiian experienced an instantaneous enlighten-ment and said: "All affairs within the universe come within the scope of my duty; the scope of my duty includes all affairs within the universe. (Lu Hsiang-shan Ch'iian-chi or Collected Works of Lu Hsiang-shan,,chiian 33-) And on another occasion he said: The universe is my mind; my mind is the universe. (Ibid., chiian $.)
Whereas Chu Hsi endorses Ch eng Yi s saying that the nature is Li, Lu Chiu-yuan replies that "the mind is Li." (Collected Works,chuan 12.) The two sayings differ only by one word, yet in them lies the fundamental division between the two schools. As we have seen in the last chapter, the mind, in Chu Hsi's system, fs conceived of as the concrete embodiment of Li as found in Ch'i; hence it is not the same as the abstract Li itself. Chu Hsi, consequently, can only say that the nature is Li, but not that the mind is Li. But in Lu Chiu-yiian s system, on the contrary, the mind itself is the
5O4 NEO-CONFUCIANISM:THE SCHOOL OF UNIVERSAL MIND
nature, and he considers the presumed distinction between nature and mind as nothing more than a verbal one. Regarding such verbal distinctions, he says: Scholars of today devote most of their time to the explanation of words. For instance, such words as feeling, nature, mind, and ability all mean one and the same thing. It is only accidental that a single enlity is de-noted by different terms." (Collected Works, chilan 35.)
Yet as we have seen in the last chapter, Chu Hsi's distinction between nature and mind is certainly far from a verbal one, for from his point of view, there actually exists such a distinction in reality. This reality as seen by him, however, is not the same as that seen by Lu Chiu— yuan. For the former, re-ality consists of two worlds, the one abstract, the other concrete. For the lat-ter, however, it consists of only one world, which is the mind or Mind.
But the sayings of Lu Chiu—yuan give us only a sketchy indication of what the world system of the Mind school is. For a more complete exposition, we must turn to the sayings and writings of Wang Shou-jen.
Wang Shou-Jen s Conception of the Universe
Wang Shou—jen (l$J2.-lz>2.'&) was a native of the present Chekiang province, and is generally known as the Master of Yang— ming. He was not only an outstanding philosopher, but was also notable as a practical statesman of high capacity and moral integrity. In his early years he was an ardent follow-er of the Ch eng-Chu school; and, determined to carry out Chu Hsi s teach-ing, once started to investigate the principle or Li of bamboo. He concentrat-ed his mind upon the bamboo day and night for seven consecutive days, yet failed to discover anything. Finally he was forced to give up the attempt in great despair. Afterward, however, while living amid primitive surroundings in the mountains of southwest China, to which he had been temporarily ex-iled because of political intrigue at court, enlightenment came to him sud-denly one night. As a result, he gained a new understanding of the central idea oi the Greiil Learning, and from this viewpoint reinterpreted this work. In this way he completed and systematized the teaching of the Mind school.
In the Ch uan Hsi Lu or Record of Instructions, which is a selection of Wang Shou-jen s recorded sayings made by one of his disciples, one pas-sage reads: "While the Master was taking recreation at Nan-chen, one of our friends, pointing at the flowers anil trees on a cliff, said: You say there is nothing under heaven that is external to the mind. What relation, then, do these high mountain flowers and trees, which blossom and drop of them-selves, have tomy mind?' The Master replied: 'When you do not see these flowers, they and your mind both become quiescent. When you see them, their color at once becomes clear. From this fact you know that these flowers are not external lo your mind.'" (Pt. 3.)
Another passage reads: 'The Muster asked: According to you, what is the mind of Heaven and Earth?' The disciple answered: 'I have often heard that
