A brief history of early Chinese philosophy

PROBSTHAIN'S ORIENTAL SERIES.

VOL. VII.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF EARLY CHINESE
PHILOSOPHY

A .BRIEF HISTORY

OF EARLY CHINESE

PHILOSOPHY

BY

DAISETZ TEITARO SUZUKI

LECTURER IN THE IMPERIAL UNIVERSITY, TOKYO ', AUTHOR OF
"OUTLINES OF MAHAYANA BUDDHISM," ETC.

PROBSTHAIN & CO.

41, GREAT RUSSELL ST., LONDON, W.C.

1914.

UEF.ARY

MAY

^ ^ ' £ •' &

PREFACE

THE contents of this book were originally published
in The Monist (1907-1908) as three separate articles.
Wishing to collect them in a compact form, so that
they will be more accessible to the general public,
the present writer has revised the text thoroughly
and added considerable matter in an effort to make
it more illuminating.

Since the last political revolution, China has become
the cynosure of all the world. But, unfortunately,
there are only a few scholars who really understand
its people and their ways of thinking. If this first
humble attempt to expound, more or less systematic-
ally, some of the fundamental features of their thought,
which were manifested during the Ante-Ch'in period,
will contribute somewhat to the interpretation of this
long-misunderstood nation, the present work may be
said to have partially attained its purpose.

DAISETZ TEITARO SUZUKI.

TOKYO,
December, 1913.

CONTENTS

I' AGE

PREFACE - - - v

I. INTRODUCTION - i

II. PHILOSOPHY - - 13

1. DUALISM, OR YIN AND YANG - - 14

2. POSITIVISM - - - 18

3. MONISM - . 25

4. TRANSCENDENTALISM - - - 34

5. PANTHEISTIC MYSTICISM - - 41

III. ETHICS - 47

1. CONFUCIANISM - - 49

(a) Jen, the Fundamental Virtue - - 51

(b) Eeverence and Self- Inspection - - 56

(c) Sincerity- - - 59

(d) Mencius - - 64

2. ETHICS OF TAOISM . - - 71

(a) The Wu Wei - - 71

(6) Anarchism • . 78

3. HEDONISM - . -84

4. UTILITARIANISM - * . - '....- - 92

5. CEREMONIALISM - • . - . 101

IV. RELIGION - 112

NOTES . 155

INDEX - - - - - - 183

A BRIEF HISTORY OF EARLY
CHINESE PHILOSOPHY

INTRODUCTION

A TOLERABLY authentic history of Chinese civilization
dates back as early as three thousand years before
the Christian era, when the Three Eulers1 and the
Five Kings2 began to govern well -settled com-
munities along the Yellow River. The " Shu Ching,"3
one of the oldest books extant in China, contains
among others some important documents issued by
Yao and Shun,4 whose imperial reigns flourished
presumably in the twenty-fourth century before
Christ. Those documents furnish us with some
interesting religious material, shedding light on the
early Chinese conception of Nature, which, with only
slight modifications, is still prevalent at the present
day. But the real awakening of philosophical inquiry
in China must be said to be in the time when the
Chou dynasty (1122-255 B.C.) first began to show
symptoms of decline — that is, in the seventh century
before Christ, though the Chinese intellect must have

1

2 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

been active for a long time prior to this, the results
of which, however imperfect and fragmentary, found
their way in some of the " Yi Ching Appendices "
and in Lao-tze's " Tao Te Ching."6

Beginning with the seventh century B.C., a galaxy
of philosophical and ethical thinkers,6 led by Lao-tze
and Confucius, continued most brilliantly to illumine,
for some hundred years, the early stage of Chinese
philosophy. It was as though one walked in spring-
time, after the confinement of a long, monotonous
winter, into the field, where flowers of various hues
and odours greet him on all sides. Thus, this epoch,
covering about four hundred years, was one of the
most glorious periods in the whole history of Chinese
civilization; and because it was suddenly cut short
by the Ch'in dynasty (221-206 B.C.), it is commonly
known as the Ante-Ch'in period. The Chinese mind
may have developed later a higher power of reason-
ing, and made a deeper study of consciousness ; but
its range of intellectual activities was never surpassed
in any other period. If, later on, it gained in pre-
cision, it lost sadly in freedom, which sometimes
turned to sheer wantonness. It had many problems
to busy itself with at this awakening stage of national
intellectual life. The universe was yet new to the
thinking mind, which was able to find problems to
grapple with wheresoever its attention was directed ;
it was so plastic, and so creative. But after this
there set in a time for induration, whereby the in-

EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 3

tellectual blood was doomed to run along old and
stiffened veins.

An unhappy end came quite abruptly to this
glorious Ante-Ch'in period. When, in the year
221 B.C., the First Emperor (Shih Huang Ti) of the
Ch'in dynasty succeeded in consolidating the small
kingdoms and dukedoms of feudal China for the
first time into one vast empire, he took the most
drastic measures ever conceived by an absolute mon-
arch to suppress the spirit of liberty which was just
about to bloom. He would not tolerate a single
thought that did not agree with his. He would not
countenance scholars and thinkers who dared to
assume an independent air and voice their opinions.
He silenced all criticism by burying his critics alive,
and put an end to the discord of beliefs by burning
all the books and documents7 that were not in sym-
pathy with the new administration (213 B.C.). The
effects of such radical measures were just what the
Emperor desired. He suppressed all independence
of thought and reduced the spirit of the nation to
a comatose condition, which lasted for a millennium.8
During these times, China produced not a single
original thinker. The cyclone was so destructive,
leaving desolation in its wake, that people did not
venture to build any new structure of thought ; but
were constantly endeavouring to recover what they
had lost. They made a diligent research among the
literary remains. Whatever discoveries they made

4 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

were carefully studied, and commentaries were written
by various hands. Those which could not be found,
though their traditional existence was known, were
even manufactured, and boldly appeared with the old
labels on them. So, this period proved a fruitful
season for literary forgery.

Buddhism was introduced during this lethargic
period of Chinese thought (213 B.C.-A.D. 959). In
spite of the strong conservative spirit of the Celes-
tials, the new doctrine did not meet with great oppo-
sition. Finding a similar vein of thought in the
teaching of Lao-tze, the Buddhists utilized his termin-
ology to the best advantage, and also coined a number
of new words to express ideas hitherto unknown to
the Chinese. A gradual and steady spread of Bud-
dhism among the scholars paved the way for a re-
naissance under the Sung dynasty (A.D. 960-1279).
The people, with their characteristic indifference, did
not observe the propagation of the foreign doctrine,
but gradually recognized the superiority of the Hindu
intellect, especially in metaphysics and methodology.
This recognition of the merits of Buddhism was a
great impulse to the pedantic disciples of Confucius.

Though the Confucians were not inclined in those
days to do anything more than merely edit and
comment upon the lately discovered classics, Chinese
Buddhists busily occupied themselves with the elabo-
ration of their own sacred books. They not only
rendered many Sanskrit texts into their own language,

EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 5

but also produced some original religio -philosophical
works. Their inspiration, of course, primarily came
from the Buddhist canons, but they assimilated them
so perfectly that Chinese Buddhism can be said to
stand on its own footing. Its philosophy was more
profound than that of Confucius. Their world-con-
ception penetrated more deeply into the nature of
things. We generally understand by the history of
Chinese philosophy that of Confucianism; for it is
nothing more than that, except in the Ante-Ch'in
period, when other thoughts than those of Confucius
appeared in the foreground. But if we want to
understand thoroughly the train of thought that was
prevalent during the renaissance, we cannot ignore
the significance of the development of Buddhism
during the hibernation period of Confucianism.

The re-awakening of Chinese philosophy under the
Sung dynasty marked a clearly- defined period in its
history.9 Speculation, which was refreshed after its
long slumber of a thousand years, now grappled with
the questions of the Sphinx more intelligently, if not
more boldly, than it did during the Ante-Ch'in period.
Buddhism stirred up the Chinese nerve to respond to
the new stimuli. It furnished the Chinese stomach
with more food to digest and assimilate into its
system. But the Chinese did not swallow the new
nourishment with their eyes closed. They intuitively
discarded what they thought was not profitable for
their practical nature. They drew inspiration from

6 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

Buddhism in those problems only which Confucianism
set up for their intellectual exercise. It may, there-
fore, properly be said that this period of Chinese
renaissance did not bring out any new philosophical
problems outside of the narrow path already beaten
by the earlier Confucians. During the Ante-Ch'in
period, Confucianism was not yet firmly established,
and there were many rival doctrines struggling for
ascendancy and recognition. The thinkers of the
time felt a strong aversion to being yoked to one
set of teachings. But the philosophers of the Sung
dynasty never thought of deviating from the old rut.
They became conscious of many new thoughts intro-
duced from India, and endeavoured to utilize them
only so far as they were available for a fuller inter-
pretation of the Confucian doctrines, which, like the
will of the Almighty, were to them irrevocable and
infallible. They never dreamt of repudiating or con-
tradicting them in any way. All their new acquisi-
tions, from whatever source they might have come,
were invariably made use of for the discovery of
something hidden in the old doctrines, and for a
fuller analysis of them. What was original with
them was the interpretation of the old system in a
new light.

Strictly speaking, the Chinese are not a speculative
people like the Greeks or the Hindus. Their interests
always centre in moral science, or rather in practical
ethics. However subtle in their reasoning, and how-

EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 7

ever bold in their imagination, they never lose sight
of the practical and moral aspect of things. They
refuse to be carried up to a heaven where pure ideas
only exist. They prefer to be tied down in earthly
relations wherever they may go. They would deride
those star-gazers whose legs are fatally chained to
the earth; for to whatsoever soaring heights man's
speculation may climb, he is utterly unable to change
his destiny here below. This must always be kept in
mind when we peruse the history of Chinese thought.
The practical nature and conservatism of Confucianism
put an eternal seal on it, forever forbidding it to
wander in a cometary orbit.

The Sung dynasty is followed by the Yuan (1271-
1363), which did not contribute anything worth
special consideration to the history of Chinese philos-
ophy. This short Mongolian dynasty left its pages
opened where it found them. Its successor, the Ming
dynasty (1363-1663), however, produced one great
moral and intellectual character in the person of
Wang Yang-ming (1472-1529). He was a worthy
heir to the thoughts that stimulated and rejuvenated
the Chinese mind at the time of the Sung renaissance.
Though he was not an independent thinker in the
sense of being a non-Confucian, he was original
enough to find a new path to the confirmation and
realization of the old time-honoured doctrines. After
the passing of this luminary, the Chinese intellectual
heavens were once more overcast with clouds, and

8 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

from his time until the present day nothing significant
or deserving special mention has ever stirred Chinese
serenity. Under the present revolutionary Govern-
ment, only recently ushered in after the overthrow of
the Manchurian dynasty, it is still a question, as far
as its intellectual life is concerned, of how soon China
will recover from the dreamy inactivity induced by
the excessive use of the opium of conservatism.

Some time, indeed, has elapsed since the intro-
duction of Western culture and thought into the
Far East, but it is only a handful of thinkers among
hundreds of millions of souls that have been awakened
from their time-worn, threadbare usages and traditions
and superstitions. However superficially changed
their form of government, the masses are not yet
quite fully aware of the significance of the intellectual
movement of the twentieth century; and this, to a
certain extent, also applies to their neighbours. But
when the giant of the Orient is fully awakened, and
makes free and intelligent use of Western methods
of science, he is sure to achieve something quite
worthy of his history, and contribute something
original to the world treasure of thought ; for what
has hitherto kept him comparatively backward in the
march of civilization is not due to his intellectual
awkwardness or to the lack of mental equipment,
but simply to the clumsiness of method which he has
applied in the investigation of nature and mind.
Methodology is the key of knowledge. Let the

EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 9

Chinese entirely change their former attitude towards
modern intellectual activities, and there will surely
come a time for the world to feel indebted to the
giant of the Orient for his valuable store of knowledge.
The Ante-Ch'in period yields the richest harvest of
original thought in the whole history of Chinese
philosophy. As the tide of civilization had then
advanced far enough, and the general, social, and
political environment of the time was very favourable,
the Chinese mind plunged itself unreservedly into
a bold speculation on life and the universe. It had
so far nothing in the past that would distract it from
fully expressing itself. It was ushered into a field
whose virgin soil had not yet been touched by human
hands. Natural selection had not yet set her stamp
on any definite conception of life that seemed uni-
versally acceptable to the national, moral, and intel-
lectual idiosyncrasy. The competition for supremacy
was free and keen, and time had not yet announced
the survival of the fittest. Confucianism was found
still struggling for its existence ; Taoism was not yet
recognized as a distinct system ; the so-called I-twan,
Jpi £i> that is the heterodox teachings, were boldly
standing on a level with Chang-tao, J£ Jg, the
orthodox. Enjoying the utmost freedom of speech,
and unhampered by the tyranny of tradition and
learning, every man who had intelligence enough to
be original ventured his own opinion, and could find
a hearing. II the facilities of printing and distribu-

10 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

tion had been such as they are to- day, we can imagine
what a spectacular sight the Chinese world of thought
would have presented in this Ante-Ch'in period.

The Chinese mind seems to have exhausted itself in
this period, for through the entire course of its history
no further original thoughts appeared than were
expressed at this time either explicitly or by implica-
tion. Some of the thoughts that were then uttered
audibly enough had even to suffer the sad fate of
being almost entirely ignored by later philosophers.
As soon as the Confucian teachings gained a strong
hold on the people,10 no doctrines were encouraged
to develop that did not help to elucidate Confucius in
a better light or in a more popular form. The history
of Chinese thought after the Ch/in closely resembles
in this respect that of European medieval philosophy,
only the former assumed a milder form; for Con-
fucianism did not favour superstition, fanaticism, and
irrational vagaries such as we meet with in the Middle
Ages. It was practical to a fault, moralizing and
positivistic, and refused to be thrown into the abysmal
depths of metaphysics. The train of thought found
in Taoism, thus choked and obstructed, could not
make any further development even after its contact
with Buddhism, which represented the type of Hindu
speculation in China. Chwang-tze was practically the
climax of the Lao-tzean philosophy, with no system,
with no method, but pregnant with mystic sugges-
tions and vague assumptions. Therefore, we assert

EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 11

that the Chinese philosophy of the Ante-Ch'in period
was richer in thought, broader in scope, and bolder in
speculation than that in any succeeding age.

One thing at least that prevented the Chinese from
making headway in their philosophy is their use of
ideographic characters. Not only are the characters
themselves intractable and clumsy, but their gram-
matical construction is extremely loose. The verbs
are not subject to conjugation, the nouns are indeclin-
able, no tense-relations are grammatically expressible.
Now, language is the tool of reason, and at the same
time it is the key to the understanding. When we
cannot wield the tool as we will, the material on which
we work fails to produce the effect we desire ; and the
reader is at a loss to understand the meaning which
was intended by the author. How could thinkers of
the first magnitude express themselves satisfactorily
in such a language as Chinese ? Terseness, brevity,
strength, and classical purity are desirable in certain
forms of literature, and for this purpose the Chinese
language may be eminently adapted. But while
logical accuracy and literal precision are the first
requisites, those rhetorical advantages mean very
little. More than that, they are actually an incon-
venience, and even a hindrance, to philosophical
writing.11

Another thing that is sadly lacking in the Chinese
mind is logic. This fact shows itself in the Ante-Ch'in
philosophy, and throughout in the succeeding periods.

12 EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY

In India as well as in Greece, when intellectual culture
reached a similar height as that of the Ante-Ch'in
period in China, the Greeks had their logic and the
Hindus their Jietuvidya (science of cause) . They were
very strict in reasoning, and systematic in drawing
conclusions. Their minds seem to have been made of
much finer fibre than the Chinese. The latter were
filled with common sense and practical working know-
ledge. They did not want to waste their mental
energy on things which have apparently no practical
and immediate bearings on their everyday life. They
did not necessarily aim at distinctness of thought and
exactitude of expression, for in our practical and
concrete world there is nothing that can claim abso-
lute exactness. As long as we are moving on earth,
the Chinese might have unconsciously reasoned, there
was no need for them to get entangled in the meshes
of verbal subtlety and abstract speculation. There-
fore, when their philosophy did not vanish in the
mist of vague mysticism, as in the case of Taoism, it
tenaciously clung to the agnosticism of everyday ex-
perience, in which there was no absolute being, no
miraculous revelation, no eternal individual continuity
after death.

Now, let us see what were the principal thoughts
that were being elaborated by the Chinese mind
during the Ante-Ch'in period of Chinese philosophy.
They will be broadly treated under " Philosophy,"
" Ethics," and "Religion."

PHILOSOPHY

THE philosophy of the Chinese has always been
practical and most intimately associated with human
affairs. No ontological speculation, no cosmogonical
hypothesis, no abstract ethical theory, seemed worthy
of their serious contemplation, unless it had a direct
bearing upon practical morality. They did, indeed,
speculate in order to reach the ultimate ground of
existence ; but, as they conceived it, it did not cover
so wide a realm as we commonly understand it; for
to them it meant not the universe generally, with all
its innumerable relations, but only a particular portion
of it — that is, human affairs — and these only so far as
they were concerned with this present mundane life,
political and social. Thus, wedo not have in China
so much of pure philosophy as of moral sayings. The
^Chinese must be said to have strictly observed the \
injunction : " Know then thyself, presume not Grod to
scan; the proper study of mankind is man." And
this fact must be borne in mind when we investigate
the history of Chinese philosophy. Though here I
have devoted a special chapter to philosophy, it must
be understood that the subject was treated by the

13

14 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

Chinese somewhat as a side issue, and not as the main
business of their intellectual employment.

DUALISM, OB THE YIN AND YANG.

Two antagonistic currents of thought manifested
themselves at an early date in the history of Chinese
philosophy, and run throughout its entire course.
One is represented by the " Yi Ching " and Confucius
(551-479 B.C.) ;12 the other by Lao-tze.13 The former
advocated a dualism, and showed agnostic, positiv-
istic, and practical tendencies; while the latter was
monistic, mystical, and transcendental.

Dualism was the first speculative philosophy ever
constructed by Chinese thinkers. It is set forth in
one of the oldest writings called " Yi Ching " (Book
of Changes) . The book is, however, the most unintel-
ligible, most enigmatical, document ever found in
Chinese literature. Many conflicting theories have
been advanced as to its real value and meaning, and
we have not yet come to any definite settlement. As
far as I can judge, its true significance had been lost
even as early as the beginning of the Chou dynasty.
Not being able to determine its exact nature, King
Wen (1231-1135 B.C.) and Lord Chou (who died
J 105 B.C.) took it for a sort of general treatise on
natural phenomena and human affairs, which might
also be consulted as a book of divination, and upon
this surmise they wrote some commentary notes
which imply suggestions of practical wisdom and

EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 15

moral instructions. Some four hundred years later
Confucius again struggled hard to arrive at a definite
and true estimate of the book. He seems to have
been not wholly satisfied with the practical inter-
pretation of it by Wen and Chou. He wished to
find a speculative philosophical foundation in the
apparently confusing and enigmatic passages of the
" Yi Ching." He is said to have expressed his earnest
desire to have his life prolonged several years so that
he could devote them to the study of this mysterious
literature. The "Appendices," l4 popularly ascribed
to Confucius, contain some philosophical reflections,
and on that account some later exegetists declare
that the "Yi Ching" was primarily a philosophical
treatise, and later transformed into a book of divina-
tion. Whatever jju^Jvrrift ^frforft fl| |frt ^^^r ** *
from it that early Chinese thinkers derived their
rqualistic conception of the world. _"

Some lexicographers think that the character yi
^j is made of "sun"15 u and "moon " )\. Whether
this be the origin of the character or not, the inter- '
pretation is very ingenious, for yi means change in
any form — the change from daylight to moonlight,
the change from blooming springtime to harvest-
ing autumn, or the change from fortune to ill-luck,
and vice versa. Change is a predominant character-
istic of all fl-ptivitiftgyirn fr

play of the male (yany) and the female (yin) principles
in the universe. Owing to this interaction of these

16 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

opposite forces, which in the " Yi Ching " proper are
called chien j££ and k'un Jty, and respectively repre-
sented by a whole line and a divided line, beings now
come into existence, and now go out of it, and a con-
stant transformation in the universe takes place.

So it is said in the "Appendix" III :ie "Heaven is
high, earth is low ; and the relation between the strong
and the weak is determined. The low and the high
are arranged in order ; and the relation between the
noble and the lowly is settled. Movement and rest
follow their regular course ; and the relation between
the rigid and the tender is defined.

" Things are set together according to their classes;
beings are divided according to their groups; and
there appear good and evil. In the heavens there are
different bodies formed ; and there take place changes
and transformations. *~f

" Therefore, the rigid and tender come in contact ;
the eight symbols interact. To stimulate, we have
thunder and lightning ; to moisten, we have wind and
rain. The sun and moon revolve and travel, which
give rise to cold and warmth.

r^ "The strong principle makes the male, and the
weak principle makes the female.] By the strong the
great beginning is known, and the weak brings beings
into completion. The strong principle becomes in-
telligible through changes; the weak principle becomes
efficient through selection. The changing is easy to
understand ; selection is easy to follow. As it is easy

BAELY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 17

to understand, there grows familiarity ; as it is easy
to follow, efficiency is gained. That which is familiar
will last ; that which is efficient will be great. Last-
ing is the virtue of a wise man, great is the accom-
plishment of a wise man. Through change and
selection is obtained the reason of the universe. When
the reason of the universe is obtained, the perfect
abides in its midst."

Again, Confucius says in the " Appendix " IV:17
~£^ "The strong and the_weak_are the gates of change.
The strong is the male gender, and the weak is the
female gender. When the male and the female are
united in their virtues, the rigid and the tender are
formulated, in which are embodied all the phenomena
of heaven and earth, and through which are circulated
the powers of the spirits bright." C

To make another quotation in which the gist of the
dualistic conception of the " Yi Ching " is more con-
cisely stated (" Appendix " VI) ; 18 " In olden times
when the wise men made the Yi, they wanted it to be
in accord with the nature and destiny of things, which
is reason. Therefore, they established the heavenly
way in Yin and Yang; they established the human way
in humaneness and righteousness; they established
the earthly way in tenderness and rigidness. Thus,0
each of the three powers of nature was made to be
controlled by a set of two principles/'

Whatever we may call them, the strong and the
weak, or the rigid and the tender, or the male and

'2

18 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

the female^oj^heaYfiiL and -eartliyjic^Ygbng and Yin, or
Chien and K'un, there araacordin to the "Yi

Ching," two independent principles, and their inter-
play, governed by certain fixed laws, constitutes the
universe. And these fixed laws are nothing else than
the sixty-four trigrams (kua £f), as defined and ex-
plained, however enigmatically, in the "Yi Ching"
proper. The practical Chinese mind, however, did
not see this numerical conception of the world in its
abstract philosophical signification as Pythagoras did,
but confined it to the vicissitudes of human affairs.
Even when Confucius attempted to see a natural
philosophical basis in the composition of the " Yi
Ching," he could not ignore its ethical bearings so as
to plunge himself deeply into bold speculations. The
most eminent trait of the Chinese mind is to moralize
on every imaginable subject. They could not but
betray this tendency, even with the apparently non-
sensical whole and divided strokes of the eight tri-
grams.19

POSITIVISM.

What is most typical of Chinese thought, together
with the dualistic conception of nature, is its strong
aversion to metaphysics. Avowed assertions of this
sentiment have been repeatedly made by Confucius
and his school, who later on proved to be the repre-
sentative exponent of the Chinese national mind.
They persistently refused to go beyond our everyday
experiences. Their prosaic intellect always dwelt on

EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 19

things human and mundane. The discovery of two
contrasting principles in nature satisfied their curiosity,
speculatively considered; they did not venture into
a realm beyond the interaction in this visible universe
of the Yin_and Yang, and perhaps the mysterious
working of the five Forces (king fa ). And it was
through this interaction and mysterious working that
some definite laws have come to be established in the
physical world as well as in the moral; and these
laws are curiously set forth in the "Book of Changes/'
Therefore, what we have to do here on earth is to
put oursevles in harmony with these laws. When
this is done, our life-programme as a human being
is complete. Why should we go beyond these
observable and intelligible laws of nature and
morality, only to find out something transcendental
and therefore necessarily having no practical bearing
on our earthly life ? Are we not sufficient unto
ourselves without having our imagination soar so
high ? This is the most characteristic attitude of
Confucius.

Says Confucius : " How could we know death when
life is not yet understood ?" (" Analects," Book XI).
Again : " Do not trouble yourselves with things
supernatural, physical prowess, monstrosities, and
spiritual beings" (Book VII). Again: "How could
we serve spiritual beings while we do not know how
to serve men ?" (Book XI). In the " Doctrine of the
Mean " (Chung Yung), however, Confucius expresses

20 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

himself much more plainly concerning spiritual beings,
(Chapter XVI) : " How glorious are the virtues of
spiritual beings ! Our eyes cannot perceive them,
our ears cannot hear them, yet they embody them-
selves in all things, which cannot exist without
them. Yet, the spirits make all the people in the
world regulate themselves, cleanse themselves, and
clad in the ceremonious dress, attend to the sacrificial
ceremony. How full and pervading they are ! They
seem to be above us, they seem to be with us. It
is said in the ' Book of the Odes ' that the coming
of the spirits is beyond human calculation, and much
more beyond a feeling of aversion. The reason why
the invisible are so manifest is that sincerity can never
be concealed."

According to these passages, the Confucian doctrine
is quite apparent. There might be something on the
other side of this life. All these natural phenomena
and moral doings might have something underneath
them, from which they gain their evidently inexplic-
able energy. Indeed, we feel the existence of some-
thing invisible and mysterious ; we are compelled to
acknowledge this fact at the time of the sacrificial
ceremony. But we do not know its exact nature and
signification, which are too deep or too hidden from
the human understanding to unravel. As far as its
apparent, cognizable laws and manifestations are
concerned, they are, however enigmatically, stated
in the " Book of Changes," and all that we mortals

EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 21

have to do in this world is to understand these know-
able phenomena and leave alone the unknowable.
This line of reasoning seems to have appealed most
strongly to the Confucian mind.

Indeed, the Confucians and other philosophers speak
of T^ien ;JJ, or Heaven or Heavenly Destiny (t'ien
ming JRJ f^), or the Great Ultimate (tai chi ^ j^), but
they never seem to have attempted any further
investigation of the nature of this undefined being or
principle called T'ien.

*****

It is in the " Yi Ching " that we can trace, though
very sporadically, an idealistic, monistic, and mystical
tendency, which finally developed into the speculative
philosophy of the Sung dynasty, but which was
almost completely neglected by the early advocates
of the Confucian school. I shall quote here some
passages from the " Yi Ching " to illustrate my point.
Before quoting, however, it will be opportune to
remark here that the term yi sometimes has the
force and significance of an abstract principle itself
rather than the actual phenomenon of mere trans-
formation or interaction, and again that it sometimes
designates a system of philosophy which most truth-
fully explains the reason for all changes in this
dualistic world.

" The Yi is not conscious, nor does it labour ; it is
quiet, and does not stir. It feels, and then communes
with the wherefore of the universe. If it were not

22 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

the most spiritual thing in the universe, how could it
behave in this wise ?

" It is through the Yi that holy men fathom the
depths of being and explore the reason of motion
(chi ;§£). Deep it is, and therefore it is able to com-
prehend the will of the universe. It is the reason of
motion, and therefore it is able to accomplish the
work of the universe. It is spiritual, and therefore it
quickens without being speedy, it arrives without
walking/'20

Further, we read : " Therefore, the Yi has the great
origin (t'ai chi), which creates the two regulators; and
the two regulators create the four symbols (hsiang) ;
and the four symbols create the eight trigrams (Jcua).
The eight trigrams determine the good and evil ; and
the good and evil create the great work/'

In the first of the so-called " Appendices " (Hsi
Tz'u)ZQ& we have :

" The Yi is in accord with Heaven and Earth, and
therefore it pervades and is interwoven in the course
of Heaven and Earth. Look upwards, and it is
observable in the heavenly phenomena ; look down-
wards, and it is recognizable in the earthly design.
And it is for this reason that the Yi manifests the
wherefore of darkness and brightness. As it traces
things to their beginning and follows them to their
end, it makes known the meaning of death and
birth. Things are made of subtle substance (ching
ch'i Jj!} 3{*0, and changes occur on account of the

EAELY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 23

wandering spirits (yu 'hun jgr- i$|) . Therefore, the Yi
knows the characters and conditions of the spiritual
beings (kuei shan $g jfilji).

" The Yi seems to be Heaven and Earth themselves,
and it therefore never deviates. Its wisdom pene-
trates the ten thousand things. Its way delivers the
world, and it therefore never errs. It rejoices in
heavenly ordination, and knows its own destiny;
therefore it never grieves. It rests in its own abode,
and its loving kindness is sincere, and therefore it is
capable of love. It moulds and envelops all the trans-
formations in Heaven and Earth; and it never errs.
It thoroughly brings all the ten thousand things into
completion, and there is nothing wanting in them.
Its wisdom passes through the course of day and
night. Therefore, the spirits have no quarters, and
the Yi is free from materiality."

Finally, Yi seems to be used in the sense of
G-esetzmassigkeit. For instance : " When the male
(ch'ieri) and the female (k'uri) are arranged in order,
the Yi is established between them. When the male
and the female are destroyed, there is no way of
recognizing the Yi. When the Yi is no more recog-
nizable, the male and the female may be considered
to have altogether ceased to exist/'

All these are interesting thoughts, and if Confucius
was the real author of these " Appendices " to the
" Yi Ching," from which these quotations are taken,
they will prove that Confucius was not, after all,

24 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

merely a moral teacher, but capable of delving deep
into the mysteries of life and existence ; and we can
say that what made the latter-day Confucianism such
as it is, is due more or less to the emphasizing by its
followers of certain practical features of the Confucian
doctrine at the expense of its more speculative side.
If the master were followed more faithfully, and his
teachings were developed in all their diverse features,
there might have been earlier attempts at a reconcilia-
tion between Lao-tzeanism and Confucianism.
*****
Mencius,21 who was the most brilliant and most
militant of all the Confucians of the Ante-Ch'in period,
and through whom Confucianism can be said to have
been finally and definitely established in such form as
we understand it to-day, speaks of the Hao jan chi
ch'i Jgj £& ±, 3& as filling the universe (Book III).
This Ch'i can be freely translated " universal energy,"
or " impulse that awakens, stimulates, and accelerates
activity "; it is a kind of psychical agency which
animates life on this earth ; it is the nervous system
of the macrocosm. But Mencius did not use the term
in such a broad sense ; he limited its sphere and value
of activity to our moral life. It is more definite,
more psychical, and therefore nearer to humanity than
the Confucian conception of T'ien or T'ien-ming,
which seems to be a vestige, though considerably
refined, of natural religion as professed in the " Shu
Ching," or " Shih Ching." None the less Mencius'

EAKLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 25

Ch'i was too practical, too ethical, to be elevated to the
dignity of a universal principle of existence. He did
not apparently take any interest in the metaphysical
side of the Yi system. He developed only the ethics
of his great predecessor, though not in its entirety
and completeness. He was truly the representative
of the Confucian positivism.

MONISM.

There were not lacking, however, in the Ante-Ch'in
period certain tendencies that counterbalanced the
ultra-practical, positivistic train of thought as repre-
sented in Confucianism. Though these tendencies
did not attain a full manifestation at any time in the
history of Chinese thought, they showed a strong
front at this incipient stage to their antagonistic
systems. It was quite unfortunate that they were
hampered in their development, and had from time
to time to lose sight of their essential qualities.
Probably this was in the nature of their system. They
owe their origin mainly to the teachings of the " Tao
Teh Ching,"22 and may be characterized as monistic,
mystic, transcendental, and sometimes pantheistic.
Lao-tze, however, was not the first and sole expounder
of these thoughts. He doubtless had many pre-
decessors whose words and lives are scatteringly
recorded by Confucius, Mencius, Chwang-tze, Lieh-
tze, and others, including Lao-tze himself.23 What
was most significant in the author of the " Tao Teh

26 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

Ching" was that lie gave to these conceptions a
literary form through which we are able to trace the
history of the Chinese monistic movement to its
sources.

When we pass from Confucius to Lao-tze, we ex-
perience almost complete change of scenery. Con-
fucius, in whom the Chinese mind is most typically
mirrored, rarely deviates from the plain, normal,
prosaic, and practical path of human life, and his
eyes are steadily kept upon our earthly moral rela-
tions. Lao-tze occasionally betrays his national
traits, but he does not hesitate to climb the dizzy
heights of speculation and imagination. The first
passage of the " Tao Teh Ching " shows how different
his mode of thought is from that of the Confucian
school :

"The reason24 (too jj|) that can be reasoned is not
the eternal reason. The name that can be named is
not the eternal name. The unnameable is the begin-
ning of heaven and earth. The nameable is the mother
of the ten thousand things. Therefore, in eternal non-
being I wish to see the spirituality of things ; and in
eternal being I wish to see the limitation of things.
These two things are the same in source, but different in
name. Their sameness is called a mystery. Indeed,
it is the mystery of mysteries. It is the door of all
spirituality/'

According to Lao-tze, there is only one thing which,
though indefinable and beyond the comprehension of

EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 27

the human understanding, is the fountain-head of all
beings, and the norm of all actions. Lao-tze calls
this Tao. But the Tao is not only the formative
principle of the universe; it also seems to be prim-
ordial matter. For he says in Chapter XXV of the
"TaoTehChing":26

"There is one thing, chaotic in its composition,
which was born prior to heaven or earth. How noise-
less ! How formless ! Standing in its solitude, it
does not change. Universal in its activity, it does
not relax ; and thereby it is capable of becoming the
mother of the world/'

Again in Chapter XIY : " We look at it, but cannot
see it; it is colourless. We listen to it, but cannot
hear it; it is called soundless. We grasp it, but
cannot hold it; it is called bodiless. The limits of
these three we cannot reach. Therefore, they are
merged into one. Its top is not bright, its bottom is
not murky ; its eternity is indefinable ; it again returns
into nothingness. This I call the shapeless shape, the
imageless form; this I call the obscure and vague.
We proceed to meet it, but cannot see its beginning ;
we follow after it, but cannot see its end/'

In what Lao-tze again seems to conceive his Tao,
at once the formative principle of the universe and
the primordial matter from which develops this phe-
nomenal world.

" The nature of the Tao, how obscure, how vague !
How vaguely obscure ! and yet in its midst there is

28 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

an image. How obscurely vague ! and yet in its
midst there is a character. How unfathomable, how
indefinite ! yet in its midst there is a reality, and the
reality is truly pure; in it there is truthfulness.
From of old till now, its name never departs, and
thereby it reviews the beginning of all things"
(Chapter XXI).

The Tao, as the reason of the universe and as the
principle of all activity, is something unnameable, and
transcends the grasp of the intellect. The Tao, as
primordial matter from which this world of particulars
has been evolved, is a potentiality; it has a form
which is formless ; it has a shape which is shapeless ;
it is enveloped in obscurity and utter indeterminate-
ness. According to what we learn from the " Tao
Teh Ching," Lao-tze seems to have comprehended
two apparently distinct notions in the conception of
Tao. He was evidently not conscious of this con-
fusion. The physical conception, as we might call
it, developed later into the evolution-idea of the T'ai
Chi26 by the early philosophers of the Sung dynasty,
who endeavoured to reconcile the Yi philosophy with
the Taoist cosmogony. The metaphysical side of
Lao-tze's Tao conception not only was transformed by
his early followers into pantheism and mysticism ; it
also served as an electric spark, as it were, to the
explosion of the famous controversy of the Sung
philosophers concerning Essence (Jibing {£) and
Reason (li §1). However this be, Lao-tze was the

EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 29

first monist in Chinese philosophy, as the " Yi Ching "
was the first document that expounded dualism.

Lao-tze's philosophical successors in the Ante-Ch'in
period, whose literary works have been fortunately
preserved down to the present day, are Lieh-tze,27
Chwang-tze, and perhaps Kwan-yin-tze. They all
developed the monistic, mystical, idealistic thoughts
broadly propounded in the " Tao Teh Ching." Being
ushered into the time when the first speculative
activity of the Chinese mind had attained to its full
vigour, the Taoist philosophers displayed a depth of
intellectual power which has never been surpassed by
later thinkers in brilliancy and freshness.

What most distinguishes Lieh-tze28 in the galaxy
of Taoists is his cosmogony. According to him, this
nameable world of phenomena evolved from an un-
nameable absolute being. This being is called Tao,
or Spirit of Valley (ku shen Q jfiijl), or the Mys-
terious Mother (hsuan p'in, £ 4fc)> all these terms
being used by his predecessor, Lao-tze.29 The evolu-
tion did not take place through the direction of a
personal will, that has a definite, conscious plan of
its own in the creation or evolution of a universe.
Lieh-tze says that the unnameable is the nameable, and
the unknowable is the knowable; therefore, he did
not see the need of creating a being or power that
stands independent of this nameable and knowable
world. It was in the very nature of the unnameable
that it should evolve a world of names and particulars.

30 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

It could not do otherwise. Its inherent nature neces-
sitated it to unfold itself in the realm of the Yin and
Yang.

To speak more definitely in the author's own
words : " There was in the beginning Chaos (hun tun
or hun lun), an unorganized mass. It was a mingled
potentiality of Form (hsing), Pneuma (ch'i), and Sub-
stance (chih). A Great Change (tai yi) took place in
it, and there was a Great Starting (tai chi), which is
the beginning of Form. The Great Starting evolved
a Great Beginning (tai shih), which is the inception
of Pneuma. The Great Beginning was followed by
the Great Blank (tai su), which is the first formation
of Substance. Substance, Pneuma, and Form being
all evolved out of the primordial chaotic mass, this
material world as it lies before us came into exist-
ence " (Chapter I) .

In these statements Lieh-tze appears to have
understood by the so-called Chaos (hun lun) only
a material potentiality. But, as we proceed, we
notice that he did not ignore the reason by which the
Chaos was at all possible to evolve. The reason is
the Tao, or, as he calls it, the Solitary Indeterminate
(i tuh), or the Going-and-Coming (wangfuh), or Non-
activity (wu wei). The Solitary Indeterminate is that
which creates and is not created, that which trans-
forms and is not transformed. As it is not created,
it is able to create everlastingly; as it is not trans-
formed, it is able to transform eternally. The Going-

EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 31

and- Coming neither goes nor comes, for it is that
which causes things to come and go. Those that
come are doomed to go, and those that go are sure
to come; but the Coming-and-G-oing itself remains
for ever, and its limitations can never be known.

" What comes out of birth is death, but what creates
life has no end. What makes a concrete object is
substance, but what constitutes the reason of a con-
crete object has never come to exist. What makes a
sound perceptible is the sense of hearing, but what
constitutes the reason of sound has never manifested
itself. What makes a colour perceptible is its visi-
bility, but what constitutes the reason of colour has
never been betrayed. What makes a taste tastable
is the sense of taste, but what constitutes the reason
of taste has never been tasted. For all this is the
function of non-activity (wu wei) — that is, reason "
(Chapter I).

Will there be no end to this constant coming and
going of things ? Is the world running in an eternal
cycle ? Lieh-tze seems to think so, for he says : " That
which has life returns to that which is lifeless ; that
which has form returns to that which is formless.
That which is lifeless does not eternally remain life-
less ; that which is formless does not eternally remain
formless. Things exist because they cannot be other-
wise ; things come to an end because they cannot do
otherwise, just as those which are born because
they cannot be unborn. They who aspire after an

32 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

eternal life, or they who want to limit their life, are
ignoring the law of necessity. The soul is heavenly
and the bones are earthly. That which belongs to
the heavens is clear, and dispenses itself ; that which
belongs to the earth is turbid, and agglomerates
itself. The soul is separated from the body and
returns (Jcwei, g§) to its own essence. It is, there-
fore, called spirit (kwei} $£). Spirit is returning
— that is, it returns to its real abode " (Chapter I) .

Lieh-tze thus believes that the cycle of birth and
death is an irrevocable ordeal of nature. This life is
merely a temporary abode, and not the true one.
Life means lodging, or sojourning, or tenanting, and
death means coming back to its true abode. Life
cannot necessarily be said to be better than death, or
death than life. Life and death, existence and non-
existence, creation and annihilation, are the inherent
law of nature, and the world must be said to be
revolving on an eternal wheel. The wise man remains
serene and unconcerned in the midst of this revolu-
tion ; he lives as if not living. This is the character-
istic attitude of all the Taoist philosophers; they
begin with a monistic philosophy, and end with an
ethical attitude of aloofness.

The following passage from Lieh-tze will illustrate
what a transcendental attitude is assumed by the
philosopher toward life and the universe, which is the
psychological outcome of a philosophy of absolute
identity :

EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 33

"A. man in the state of Ch'i was so grieved over
the possible disintegration of heaven-and-earth, and
the consequent destruction of his own existence, that
he could neither sleep nor eat. A friend came to
him and consolingly explained to him : f Heaven-and-
earth is no more than an accumulated pneuma, and
the sun, moon, stars, and constellations are pure
luminary bodies in this accumulation of pneuma.
Even when they may fall on the ground, they cannot
strike anything. The earth is an accumulation of
masses filling its four empty quarters. Treading on
it will not cause it to sink/ With this both were
satisfied.

" Chang-tu-tze heard of it, and said : ' The clouds
and mists, the winds and rains are accumulated
pneuma in the heavens; and the mountains and
plains, the rivers and seas are accumulated forms
on earth; and who can say that they will never
disintegrate ? Heaven- and- earth is merely a small
atom in space, though the hugest among all concrete
objects. It goes without saying that we cannot have
its measurements and know its nature. He who grieves
over its possible disintegration must be considered
truly great, and he who thinks of it as indestructible
is not quite right. Heaven-and-earth must suffer a
disintegration. There must surely be the time when
it falls to pieces. And could we be free from appre-
hension when it actually begins to fall ?'

"When this was communicated to Lieh-tze, he

3

34 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

laughed,, saying: 'It is as great a mistake to assert
that heaven-and- earth is falling to pieces as to deny
it. Whether it falls to pieces or not, we have no
means to tell; be it this or that, it is all the same.
Therefore, life does not know of death, nor does death
know of life. Coming does not know of going, nor
does going know of coming. To go to pieces or not
to go to pieces — this does not at all concern me ' "
(Chapter I).

TRANSCENDENTALISM.

Chwang-tze,30 who appeared a little later on the
stage of philosophical speculation, was the most
brilliant Taoist China has ever produced. Lieh-tze
might have been deeper in one sense than his
successor, but he was not such a brilliant genius as
the latter. The main philosophical problems handled
by Chwang-tze were those of Lao-tze, but in many
points he extended and detailed what was merely
vaguely suggested by his predecessors. He main-
tained, for instance, with Lao-tze that the world
started from the Nameless, but Chwang-tze's Name-
less was more absolute and transcendental, if we
could use the expression, than that of Lao-tze; for
Chwang-tze declares that when we say there was
non-existence (wu fjj) before existence, this non-
existence somewhat suggests the sense of relativity
and conditionally, but in truth there could not be
any such existence as non-existence; and, therefore,

EAKLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 35

it is better to say that there was in the beginning a
" non-existing non-existence " (wu-wu) — that is, not
conditional non-existence, but absolute non-existence
(Chwang-tze, "The Inner," Book II). Chwang-tze
in this wise delighted himself with subtle dianoetic
argument.

The fundamental conception of Lao-tze's doctrine
was monistic and idealistic when contrasted with the
Yi philosophy, and showed a certain contempt for the
relative phenomenal world where pluralism prevails;
but he did not altogether fly away from the latter,
he was content to remain there as a quiet, inactive,
and harmless fellow, " covering his brightness with
the earthly dust." When we come to Chwang-tze,
however, the world of relativity was felt like a big
pen ; he left it behind him in his ascent to the realm
of the Infinite, and there he wished to sleep an abso-
lutely quiescent dreamless sleep. This was his ideal.
He was, therefore, more radical than Lao-tze in his
transcendental idealism.

At the time of Chwang-tze, however, there was
such a confused and contradictory philosophical con-
troversy that it awakened him from the transcendental
enjoyment of his self -forgetting trance. Chwang-tze
was convinced of the ultimate unreality of this phe-
nomenal world, in which he did not know whether
or not his was the dream-existence of the butterfly.31
He argued that as long as things in this world are con-
ditional and limit one another, there is no avoidance

36 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

of controversy and contradiction. Each individual
mind has its own idiosyncrasy. One and the same
truth is reflected therein, perhaps, but each responds
differently according to its inner necessity. Suppose
a gale sweeps over a mountain forest : the trees
resound with their varied notes according to all the
possible differences of the cavities which may be
found in them. Some sound like fretted water, some
like the arrow's whiz, some like the stern command
of a military officer, some like the gruff roar of a lion,
and so on ad infinitum (" The Inner," Book II) . And
what need would there be to pass a judgment on
these multitudinous notes, and declare that some and
not others are correct representations of the truth ?

Chwang-tze, therefore, says that no good can come
out of engaging in a controversy of this nature. As
long as there is a relative and conditional existence,
there must be good and evil, affirmation and negation,
coming and going. It is the height of foolishness to
argue that as I am walking one way every man must
and ought to walk the same way. Has not every-
body the will and right to go his own way ? As I
should not be compelled by others to deny my own
nature, they have the same privilege to follow their
own inclinations. What is good to me is not neces-
sarily so to others, and vice versa. The stork has
long legs, but it would surely resent any human inter-
ference with their length; the duck, oh the other
hand, has short legs, but would not be thankful for

EAELY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 37

our artificial improvement on their stubbiness. Hsi
Shih was a beautiful woman, but when her features
were reflected in the water the fish would have been
frightened away. There was once a strange sea-bird
visiting the garden of the Duke of Lu. He was
pleased with it, and had it brought to his court, where
he fed it with all the delicacies his culinary depart-
ment could furnish, and entertained it with the most
beautiful music by his court players. But the bird
was sad, it neither drank nor ate, and after three days
it died. Now, exclaims Chwang-tze, "Why did not
the fool feed the bird with things it naturally feeds
on, instead of those horrible human concoctions ?"
Therefore, the philosopher insists in giving everyone
his innate freedom and the right to think and act as he
feels ; and thereby he wishes to reach the point where
all controversies may eternally be set at rest; for
every dissension is the outcome of human meddling
with the heavenly course of things.

But how can we find out what is the real intrinsic
nature of each individual existence ? Chwang-tze
seems to think that the Tao is present in every being,
and that the reason why we are in the wrong habit
of confusing what is right with what is not right, is
because we do not let the Tao work its own way, and,
therefore, if we rid ourselves of all the subjective pre-
judices that we may possess and freely follow the
course of the Tao, every being would enjoy his own
inherent virtue, and there would be no controversies

38 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

and altercations, but our life would be blessed with
the transcendental bliss of the Infinite Tao. It is
thus simple enough, believes Chwang-tze, to find the
real nature of things. Bef ree yourself from subjective
ignorance and individual peculiarities, find the uni-
versal Tao in your own being, and you will be able to
find it in others, too, because the Tao cannot be one
in one thing and another in another. The Tao must
be the same in every existence, because " I " and the
" ten thousand things " grow from the selfsame source,
and in this oneness of things we can bury all our
opinions and contradictions. He says : " Let us make
our appeal to the infiniteness of the Tao and take up
our position there." We observe here the subjective
tendency of Taoism, which distinguishes itself so
significantly from its rival doctrine, Confucianism.
Taoism is mysticism.

What, then, is the Tao ? Can we know of its nature
more definitely ? Let Chwang-tze tell us what he
thinks of it. " This is the Tao : there is in it sen-
tiency and constancy, but it does nothing and has no
bodily form. It may be handed down by the teacher,
but may not be received by the scholar. It may be
apprehended by the mind, it cannot be perceived by
the senses. It has its root and ground in itself.
Before there were heaven and earth, from of old it
was securely existing. From it came the mysterious
existence of God (ti ffi).32 It produced heaven, it
produced earth. It was before the Tai Chi (Great

EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 39

Ultimate), and yet could not be considered deep. It
was produced before heaven and earth, and yet could
not be considered to have existed long. It was older
than the highest authority, and yet could not be con-
sidered old" (Part I, Section YI).

How can this Tao be known and expressed by us ?
Is our intellectual faculty able to grasp the nature of
Tao ? Can we analyze it logically and bring it out to
our rational plane ? Chwang-tze is a mystic, as every
Taoist is, and thinks the Tao is beyond all human
intellection. When you want to express it and com-
municate it to another, it is lost. The mind seems to
comprehend it, but when it tries to point it out or
expose it before others' view, it hides itself within the
threshold of consciousness.

" Chih (intellect) went north, and was enjoying
himself by walking along the stream of Hsuen (the
Mysterious), and climbing the Hill of Yin Pin (the Con-
cealed), when he happened to meet Wu Wei Wei (Non-
doing-speaking) . Said Chih to Wei, f I have something
to ask you about, sir. What have I to think and reflect
in order to know the Tao ? Where have I to abide,
and what to wear, in order to rest with the Tao ?
What have I to rely upon, and where to go, in order
to obtain the Tao ?' Chih asked Wei three times, and
Wei made no response. Wei was not averse to
answering, but did not know how to answer.

" Having no answer, Chih returned south of the
River Peh (White) and proceeded to the Mount of

40 A BRIEF HISTOEY OF

Ku Ch'ueh (Solitary End), where he saw Chu K'uan
(Crazy-Crooked). He proposed the same questions,
and Ch'u said, ' Ah, I know it, and will tell you what
it is. But while on the point of speaking, I have
forgotten what I was about to speak/

"Having no satisfaction, Chih returned to the
Ti Kung (Imperial Mansion), and seeing Huang Ti
(the Yellow Emperor), proposed the same questions.
Said the Emperor: 'Think not, nor reflect, and you
will know the Tao ; abide nowhere, put nothing on,
and you will rest with the Tao. Have nothing to rely
on, nor go anywhere, and you will obtain the Tao/

" Chih asked : ' You and I know it, while the other
two know it not ; who is right now ?' Said the Em-
peror : ' Wu Wei Wei is quite right, Ch'u K'uan is
approaching, but you and I are far away. Now, the
knowing one speaketh not, and the speaking one
knoweth not. That is why the sage practises the
doctrine of non-speaking. The Tao cannot be brought
within human limits, nor can Virtue be reached by
human means. That which does is humaneness ; that
which wants is righteousness; and that which deceives
is propriety. Therefore, when the Tao is lost, we
have virtue; when virtue is lost, then humaneness;
when humaneness is lost, then righteousness; when
righteousness is lost, then propriety ; for the latter is
the blooming of the Tao and the beginning of dis-
order/ "

EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 41

PANTHEISTIC MYSTICISM.

When speculation reaches this point, it naturally
turns into mysticism. Intellectual discrimination and
the analytical process of reasoning give way to a
mystic contemplation of the Absolute. It is peculiar
to the human mind that while the intellect is ever
struggling to attain to a definite conception of the
universe and to state it in most positive terms, the
imagination and faith, poetic and religious, insists on
concretely and immediately grasping that something
which is so slippery as to defy all realistic apprehen-
sion and yet presents itself with annoying persist-
ence to our inner eye. The intellect sometimes
gains ascendency, and then we have an outspoken
expression of positivism. When its days are gone, as
the history of thought proves everywhere, we have
the predominance of mystic tendencies in philosophy,
and mysticism invariably tends towards pantheism.
We find in Kwan-yin-tze this culmination of Taoism.

Kwan-yin-tze, according to Ssu Ma-ch'ien's " His-
torical Records," seems to have been acquainted with
Lao-tze as we see from his request to the latter to
write a book on Taoism. Kwan-yin-tze, therefore, is
earlier than Lieh-tze and Chwang-tze, but the work
ascribed to him, and still in our possession, is evidently
a later production, though it may contain some of his
own sayings scattered in the book. Strictly speaking,
it may not be proper, therefore, to classify the Kwan-

42 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

yin-tze83 with Chwang-tze and Lieh-tze as Ante-Ch'in
literature, but it contains many characteristic Taoist
thoughts which can be regarded as a direct and
unbroken linear development of Chwang-tze and
Lieh-tze. Hence its place here as the last of the Taoist
thinkers.

The Tao, according to Kwan-yin-tze, is that which
is above all thought and explanation. When this
Tao is evolved, there appear heaven and earth and
the ten thousand things. But the Tao in itself does
not fall under the categories of freedom and necessity,
of mensuration and divisibility. Therefore it is called
Heaven (t'ienJQ, Destiny (mingfir), Spirit (shen jj$), or
the Mysterious (hsiien, s£). It is each and all of these.
As thus the one and only Tao asserts itself and mani-
fests in all possible expressions and existences, there
is nothing that is not the Tao. All things are the
Tao itself. It is like the relation between fire and
fuel. One flame of fire burns all kinds of fuel. But
the fire is not independent of the fuel. When all the
fuel burns out, there is no more fire left, as neither is
separable from the other. So, one breath of Tao
penetrates throughout the ten thousand things. They
are in it and it is in them ; they are it, and it is they.
Find it in yourself and you know everything else, and
with it the mystery of heaven and earth (Book I) .

Therefore, the essence of heaven and earth is the
essence of myself ; the spirit of heaven and earth is
the spirit of my existence. When one drop of water

EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 43

is merged into the waters of a boundless ocean, there
is no distinction between the two, but a complete
homogeneity (IV, 3). Therefore the holy man recog-
nizes unity in multiplicity, and multiplicity in unity
(V, 2). The multitude may change, may go through
an endless series of transformation, but the one is
eternally unchangeable (II, 9). Shadows come and
go, but the water which reflects them remains for ever
tranquil. The wise live in this tranquillity of the one
and serenely look at the coming and going of the
many.

As is seen here, the Kwan-yin-tze is filled with the
Mahayana Buddhist thoughts, which held sway over
Chinese minds during the Sung dynasty, when almost
all notable thinkers of the day rapped at one time or
another at the monastery door. The justifiable sup-
position, therefore, is that Kwan-yin-tze might have
been produced by one of the Buddhist Taoists of those
days, especially when we know that the book is osten-
sibly declared to have been recovered, though its
existence was known during the Han dynasty (206 B.C.-
A.D. 23). Besides, there are certain terms in the text
which were not yet known in the Ante-Ch'in period,
and which evidently point to their later introduction. I
mean such terms as $fc $$ (IV, 4) and f| 5£ (VII, 3).

Taoism has such remarkable features in its doctrine
that a foreign origin has been suspected, which, some
claim, satisfactorily solves the question of its striking
resemblance to Hindu philosophy. They even go so

44 A BRIEF HISTOEY OF

far as to suggest the Brahmin descendancy of the
Yellow Emperor, Lao-tze, and other unknown Taoist
thinkers. I will not enter upon a discussion of this
point, but the fact remains that there are some signi-
ficant points of resemblance between Taoism and
Buddhism, and that the first Buddhist missionaries
drew a large part of their terminology from Taoist
lore, and that as soon as Buddhism began to send its
roots down in Chinese soil, there were many attempts
to bring the two, Taoism and Buddhism, into one
religio-philosophical system, and, finally, that the
present popular religion in China is a sort of conglo-
meration of these two teachings, one contributing to
it with its polytheistic tendency and the doctrine of
Karma, and the other with its belief in heavenly im-
mortality. Kwan-yin-tze, as we have already seen,
and will see later, must be said to be one of those
early attempts in China which were made to reconcile
the pantheistic mystic tendency of Lao-tze and
Chwang-tze to Indian idealism. The Kwan-yin-tze is
highly interesting in this respect if not in any other.
In what follows, the reader will notice how much
more openly it breathes the spirit of Buddhism than
its predecessors.

"It is one Essence (ching $J) that becomes the
cold in heaven, the water on earth, and the essence
in man. It is one Spirit (shen jff) that becomes
the heat in heaven, the fire on earth, and the spirit in
man. It is one Animal Soul (po §||) that becomes

EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 45

the drought in heaven, the metal on earth, and the
animal soul in man. It is one Soul (hun *J|) that
becomes the wind in heaven, the wood on earth, and
the soul in man.

"Let my essence be merged in the Essence of
heaven-and-earth and all things, as all different
waters could be combined and made into one water.

" Let my Spirit be merged in the Spirit of heaven-
and-earth and all things, as all different fires could
be united and made into one fire.

" Let my animal soul be merged in the Animal Soul
of heaven-and-earth and all things, as all different
metals could be melted and made into one metal.

"Let my soul be merged in the Animal Soul of
heaven-and-earth and all things, as one tree could be
grafted on another and made into one tree.

" It is thus that heaven-and-earth and all things
are no more than my essence, my spirit, my animal
soul, my soul. There is nothing that dies, there is
nothing that is born " (Book IV) .

" To the wise there is one mind, one substance, one
reason (tao), and these three are conceived in their
oneness. Therefore, they do not repress the Hot-one
with the one, nor do they injure the one with the not-
one" (Book I).

" To illustrate, such changes as cold, heat, warmth,
and coolness are like those in a brick: when it is
placed in fire it is hot ; when put in water it is cold ;
blow a breath on it, and it is warm ; draw a breath

46 EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY

from it, and it is cool. Only its outward influences
are coming and going, while the brick itself knows
neither coming nor going. To illustrate again : See
the shadows cast in the water ; they come and go,
but the water itself knows no coming, no going "
(Book II).

" All things change, but their nature (ctii Jjt) is
always one. The wise know this oneness of things,
and are never disturbed by outward signs. Our hair
and nails are growing every minute, but the multitude
of people recognize the fact only when they become
visible; they fail to know it through its potential
signs. For this reason they think things change, and
are born and die, while the wise look at them through
their inner signs and know that there is no change
whatever in their ultimate issuance " (Book VII).

" To illustrate : In the great ocean there are mil-
lions of millions of fishes, large and small; but only
one body of water. I and this external world
with its multitudinous things are existing in the
midst of Great Evolution, but their essence is one.
To him who knows the oneness of essence, there are
neither men, nor death, nor life, nor I. The reasoning
of this world may turn the true into the untrue, and
the untrue into the true; and again, it may make
enemies of friends and friends of enemies. Therefore,
the wise, abiding in the eternality of things, think of
its changeable aspect " (Book VII) .

ETHICS

THE moral life can be said to have been the only
philosophical subject which, from the earliest stage
of culture to the present day, has seriously interested
the Chinese, and which has been considered worthy
of their earnest speculation. This was even true
with the highly metaphysical and mystical school of
Taoism, whose followers were deeply interested in com-
pounding an elixir of life and ascending to Heaven as
a sien (jjlf, saint) without shedding their corporeal
body; while it was the avowed object of Confucianism
to discard all subtle reasonings about philosophical
problems, but to confine itself to human life in its
civil, social, and moral bearings. If religion be repre-
sented by the Hebrews, philosophy by the Greeks,
and mysticism by the Hindus, practical morality must
be said to be the most characteristic trait of the
thought which prevailed among the people of the
Middle Kingdom. It has been their inmost conviction
that the universe is the manifestation of a moral
principle, and that every existence in its way has
some mission to teach humanity a moral lesson.

They did not, however, conceive the world to be
47

48 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

the creation of a personal god who superintends and
directs its course. Their Heaven (t'ien), or Heavenly
way (t'ien tao), or Heavenly Ordeal (t'ien ming), is a
sort of natural law, that is not personal but somewhat
deterministic. When we do not follow its regulations,
we suffer the consequence merely because we violated
it, and not because we incurred the displeasure of
some august being. The Heavenly Way is thoroughly
moral, and would not tolerate anything that contra-
dicts it, but no religious significance seems to have
been attached to their conception. Man is a moral
being pure and simple, there is no intimate relation
between morality and religion, as the latter is generally
understood by Christians. Throughout the writings
of Confucius we are unable to find any religious
appeal made either by him or by his followers to a
power supernatural or transcendental. If they had
a clear conscience or Were living in the blissful state
of non-action (wu wei |Hf JJ), they had everything
that they desired, and there was nothing outside
that would disturb their peace of mind. They were
thoroughly moral, they were thoroughly human, they
were thoroughly mundane.

China is rich, therefore, in this class of literature ;
every thinker or philosopher worthy of the name has
dipped his fingers in the subject, expounding his views
as to how we ought to behave while yet alive in the
world. But here the field is not monopolized between
Lao-tzeanism and Confucianism as in the case of

EAELY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 49

philosophy. At least, there is one writer independent
and original enough to stand alone by himself, though
unfortunately his school did not make any further
development beyond his own immediate disciples.
By this I mean Mu-tze's utilitarianism. There is no
doubt that this would have been a fruitful system if
it could have found a proper support and encourage-
ment among later scholars.

CONFUCIANISM.

We shall begin our exposition of Chinese ethics
with Confucianism. Whatever influence might have
been exercised by other scholars upon Chinese culture,
modes of thinking, and social life, they were all out-
vied by Confucianism, which has been the choice
the people— especially of the middle, learrift^||
official classes. The reason — or at least one of the
principal reasons — wiiy Qonfucius came to be so
honoured and distinguished by the Chinese
national teacher wasfulSo ^ ^i

based on >n?Tm^jam. aJftevoifl nf _«,ny mjsticalor
agenc ?The Chinese are a sober-minded

people, and liked Confucius in preference to all other
philosophers.

Another reason which favoured Confucianism was
that it is pre-eminently a code of morality for Olj^ftse
officialdom. As those who are at all acquainted
with their history can testify, foe one, fthjfifiti
persistently pursued by all

50 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

to obtain an official pofliMm* witli tuba Jknrernmejat. __
Their learning and education were not necessarily
to cultivate their mental and moral faculties, but to
apply them practically to their official lives as the
governing class. Learning was not sojight for ita-

Confucianism^ therefore, supplied them with a code
of_jnorals as well^ as a practical political guide ;
politics and ethics were the same thing with the
Chinese. Confucius himself worked indefatigably to
put his theories into practice while yet living; but
seeing that his efforts were not to be crowned with
success in his days, he retired from active political
life and began to teach his pupils, the principal object
of which was to prepare them for the public service,
so that they could succeed him after his death as
practical propagators of his doctrine, and not neces-
sarily as transmitters of his vast learning. In this
sense he_w£s_inojie-ei-tir-poM
and thus i

has been the prevailing moral and political doctrine

- •- f- — -i .«p»-^... . ... ..... jti __ L ..... <Br, — inTI ..... mi ,

m China throughout frs history, especially among the
mandarins.

To understand Confucianism, we must start with
Confucius's doctrine of humanism, which forms the
corner-stone of his entire ethics, or at least it has
been so understood by his influential disciples.

EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 51

Jihr, THE FUNDAMENTAL VIRTUE.

All Chinese thinkers admit that man and nature
are not mere accidents, that their existence cannot
be a haphazard affair, but that there is a .'^Tao-4-that
is, a way or norm — ^^J0 ^Q "TffUlitar flf Tnim™
^gndunt and tha giiidq pf .afrtfflir^1 ^VAT1Jig. There was
no dissenting voice among the thinkers so far as the
existence of a Tao was concerned. What vehemently
engaged them in discussion and controversy was the
being or nature of the Tao. The issue was whether
it was metaphysical or simply moral, whether it was
transcendental or positivistic. The Taoists thought
it was the former, while the Confucians adhered to
the latter conception. The Tao, says Confucius, is
no more than jen, and on this basis his ethics is
founded.

Now, it is very difficult to find a proper English
equivalent for the Chinese jen. Broadly speaking,
it is sympathy, or lovingkindness, or friendly feeling,
or better, feeling of fellowship.

The Chinese character (fc,//ew) is made out of
the two component ideograms \, man, and H
two, and its signification is thai there is an inborn
feeling in every man's heart, w^iich is awakened to
its full actuality when he conjes in contact with
another fellow -being, forming /the permanent bond
of association between them^/This feeling, Confucius
declares, is the foundation of society and the road

52 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

J^ nil fruTYin.|j y]>fn^fl It is the Tao ; it is the road
which must be travelled by every social being; it is
the door that must be passed through when going
out (" Analects/' Book YI, 15) of the house. No
moral being can live without this Tao, this road, for
that which can be dispensed with even for a moment
is no more the Tao ("Chung Yung/' Chapter I).
Therefore, the Tao is the feeling of fellowship, and
the feeling of fellowship is the Tao.

This fellow-feeling is the reason of the Golden
Rule. Without it, one will not be kept from doing
to others what one would not have done by others
("Analects/' XII, 2; XY, 23). For indeed the
feeling is that of humanity itself. Says Confucius :
" A man who has jen, wishing to establish himself,
will have others established; wishing himself to
succeed, will have others succeed" (Book YI). The
feeling of fellowship is the primary altruistic instinct
of man, which in spite of his innate egoism drives
him out of his narrow selfish limitations, and which
seeks its own satisfaction through a negation, as it
were, of himself. Confucianism does not believe in
the innate baseness of human nature^ that_ is, in its
absolute egoism; but it asserts the existence of an
altruistic impulse in every human heart. The latter is
not a modified development of egoism, but is inherent
in humanity.

It is in this spirit that Mencius says : " Everybody
has a feeling for others which he is unable to

EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 53

endure. . . . Suppose a child is at the point of
slipping down into a pit. It awakens in the spectator
a mingled feeling of apprehension and compassion,
which urges him to an immediate rescue of the child.
This is not because he wants to incur a favour upon
its parents. This is not because he wants to be
honoured by his friends or fellow-villagers. This is
simply because he cannot bear its pitiful scream.
Men who have no feeling of pity, therefore, are no
human beings" (Book Ila). As Schopenhauer made
sympathy (Mitleid) the foundation of his ethics, so
the Confucians consider feeling of fellowship as the
prime principle on which the grand edifice of human
society is built.

All virtues spring from jen. They are no more
than the modifications of this fundamental feeling, as
in various ways it comes related to the will, intelli-
gence, desires, and impulses. The circumstances
under which we move are ever changing, and our
feelings respond to them accordingly, assuming
thereby different names, such as loyalty, filial piety,
courage, propriety, faithfulness, righteousness, long-
suffering, and benevolence. Therefore, Confucius
affirms that in his dealings with men and things he
had only one principle (too) to guide him (" Analects,"
Book IV, 15) ; and that by this he meant no more
than the feeling of fellowship, is confirmed by most
Confucians.

Judging from the general trend of Confucianism,

54 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

only two moral principles are possible : one is fellow-
feeling or altruism, and the other is egoism (cf.
"Mencius," Book Ilia). When our feelings do not
go out to our fellow-beings, they are concentrated
on our own selfish motives. When the latter sense
is cultivated at the expense of the former, society
falls into pieces and humanity is ruined, and the
raison d'etre of a moral being is lost. Mencius, there-
fore, says: " J&n (fellow-feeling) is man himself"
(which is also pronounced jen in Chinese) .

To quote Mencius again : " Fellow-feeling is the
highest heavenly honour ever given to men. It is
the safest abode ever secured for men. There is
nothing that could check its course " (" Mencius,"
Book VII). Ch'eng-tze,34 a great philosopher of the
Sung dynasty, says : " Fellow-feeling is the norm of
the universe. When the norm is lost there ensues
lawlessness and discord." Chou-tze,36 another and
later great Confucian, comments on jenf saying :
" Jen is the virtue of the soul and the reason of love."
It is interesting to contrast the Confucian definition
of jen with that of Han-f ei-tze 36 in his "Commentary
on Lao-tze " : " J&n is to love others with gladness of
heart, to rejoice when they are blissful, and to be
grieved when they suffer misery. This is because the
heart is unable to refrain from being so affected, and
has nothing to do with a desire for compensation.
Therefore, says Lao-tze, ' Superior jen works as if not
working/ "

EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 55

But it must be noticed that jen was used by
Confucius as well as by his disciples, not only in its
general and ultimate signification, but in its specific
applications. To them, jen meant not only the most
fundamental ethical feeling innate in man, but its
particular modifications as practised in our daily life.
Every reader of the Confucian "Analects" is well
aware of the various senses in which the term Jen is
used by the Master, and we are sometimes at a loss
how to arrive at a definite conception of it. But the
fact seems to be that Confucius himself did not have
a very clear analytical comprehension of jen, forming
the central idea of his ethics. It is true that he was
quite conscious of one ultimate principle which under-
lies all virtues and which is generically known as jen ;
for he declared that in his daily conduct he was
guided by only one principle. But his application
of the term jen indiscriminately to this principle as
well as to its practical specifications was somewhat
confusing. Hence the ambiguity in which jen is
involved throughout the "Analects."

Dr. Y. Kaniye enumerates in his " Studies in Con-
fucius " (p. 297) the five different shades of meaning
given to jen by the Master, which are (1) prosperity,
(2) kindheartedness, (3) charity, (4) sincerity and
sympathy, (5) unselfishness (or self-control). When
the Chinese speak of three or five cardinal virtues,
jen must be understood in its specific sense.37

Now the question is : " How are we to cultivate

56 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

fellow-feeling and put it in actual operation in our
every-day life ?" This is the gist of practical Con-
fucianism, and the moral efforts of its followers are
concentrated upon the cultivation of this feeling.
Even the Master himself did not claim to have brought
his fellow-feeling into perfect development, and natur-
ally none of his three thousand disciples were said to
have attained to it. But Confucius declared toward
the end of his life : " I behave myself as my heart
desires, yet it never transgresses the mean " ("Anal-
ects/' Book II, 4). Here he may be said to have
reached the state of perfect adjustment between
natural impulses and moral discipline. He is now
jen itself. He has no scruples, no hesitancy, no
deliberation as to what would be his proper conduct
under given conditions. He is no longer hampered
by any improper thoughts and impulses. When a
person reaches this stage, he is said to be a sage, or
holy man (seng jen}, and Confucius, according to the
Chinese, fully deserves this title. He behaves as
freely and innocently as a child fresh from the bosom
of nature, and all that he does never deviates from
the Middle Way (chung tao F{* JH).

REVERENCE AND SELF-INSPECTION.

Let us now approach the question : " By what
means can one reach this pinnacle of moral perfec-
tion r

According to Confucius, ching -jjjfc or kung ijjjf is

EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 57

the road that finally leads to the perfection of human-
ism and to the full development of fellow-feeling. It
is a reverential attitude of a moral person toward his
own being. Etymologically, hung ^ is composed of
" heart " and " many hands," " many hands " meaning
" together " or " conjoined/' It is a state of mind
prompting reverential deportment. Ching ^gfc, which
is composed of " mindfulness" and "gentle tapping,"
means self-restraint, self-respect, deliberation, gravity,
and dignity. Ching and kung are generally used
together to make the one clearer by the other and
more definite. But, separately, kung is more of the
outward deportment and ching of the inner feeling.
When the feeling is carefully nourished and purified
within, and the outward manners are deliberately
adjusted, the egoistic impulse is gradually subdued,
and the altruistic one proportionately strengthened,
until the time comes when the two are thoroughly
harmonized.

The Confucians have no personal God who directly
controls the human soul. They do not appeal to any
outward object to be elevated in their moral life.
They concentrate all spiritual efforts on themselves in
order to develop from within what they possess from
their very nature. They endeavour to be modest in
their self-asserting claims. They keep themselves
well guarded against any possible intrusion of evil,
inhuman thoughts and impulses. They inspect them-
selves closely to see whether anything that is not of

58 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

fellow-feeling is being stirred in them. They move
about very deliberately and reverently not to let loose
any evil, selfish impulses, which they might inno-
cently awaken in themselves. Therefore, Confucius
says, when asked how jen should be practised :
" When you are away from home, behave yourself as
if receiving a great personage. When employing
people, behave yourself as if assisting at a great
sacrifice. Do not do to others what you would not
have others do to yourself" (Book XII). This is
tantamount to saying: "Keep yourself always in a
reverential mood, and let not your hasty and improper
passions take hold of you." In reply to his favourite
disciple, Yen Hui, Confucius says : " Overcome your
egotism and return to propriety" (li jjjg). When
asked for further details, he added : " Do not see any-
thing improper. Do not listen to anything improper.
Do not speak anything improper. Do not move
towards anything improper" (Book XII). According
to these injunctions the Confucian method of maturing
a feeling of fellowship is to give the necessary psy-
chological time to all the impulses, so that when the
first storm of emotional agitation passes over, the
mind will be prepared for a proper adjustment of
itself for a becoming action. When this practice is
repeated with the whole heart and with sufficient fre-
quency, one's deliberate moral judgments and head-
strong natural impulses will finally be adjusted, any
feeling or thought that is improper and inhuman being

EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 59

perfectly subdued, and all that is of fellow-feeling
being matured to its full strength.

SINCERITY (cheng gg).

It will be evident that the first step which a man
must take to realize and perfect a feeling of fellow-
ship, is to guard himself in his solitary moments, that is,
to be sincere with himself, not to play the hypocrite,
and to freely manifest the feeling as it moves within.

So we read in "The Great Learning"38 (Chapter VI) :
" By being sincere in all one's soul-activities (i ;jjr) is
meant that one should not deceive oneself as in dis-
liking an offensive odour, or in being attracted by a
beautiful colour. This is called being sufficient unto
oneself. Therefore the superior man must ever be
watchful over the self in his solitary moments.39

" There are no evil things which the mean man in
his retired moments would shrink from doing. But
when he sees a superior man he becomes deceitful,
trying to cover his evils and to manifest his goodness,
although others can recognize him as if looking into
their own lungs and livers. What, then, is the use [of
trying to hide evil thoughts] ? This is to say that
whatever is really within you will be made manifest.
Therefore, the superior man must ever be watchful
over the self in his solitary moments."

And again in the " Doctrine of the Mean " i40

" The Tao is not a thing that could be done without
even for a moment. What is done without is not the

60 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

Tao. Therefore, the superior man is ever watchful
over himself even when he is not seen by others ; he
is ever fearing even when he is not heard by others.
Nothing is so manifest as that which is hidden ;
nothing is so conspicuous as that which is invisible
Therefore, the superior man is ever watchful over the
self in his solitary moments."

Evil thoughts are more ready to creep into a man's
heart in his solitary moments than at any other time ;
improper impulses find his ear more prepared for
their whisperings then than at any other time. Be
deliberate and scrupulous, watch over yourself reli-
giously, when you are alone. This is the way to be
sincere to yourself and to avoid all improper thoughts
that are not in accord with the tender, loving, self-
sacrificing fellow-feeling. " Sincerity (cheng) is the
heavenly way, and to strive after sincerity (cheng cJiih
Iffi 3£) is the human way. Sincerity hits the mark
without ado, it prevails without premeditation, quietly
and leisurely it is in accord with the nature of things,
as is the case with the holy man ; while to strive after
sincerity means to adhere firmly to goodness when the
latter is discerned and espoused." So runs the decla-
ration of Confucius. Jen, then, naturally came to be
identified with sincerity of heart, and how to be sincere
with oneself became a paramount issue with later
Confucians.

That the doctrine of sincerity is to be developed
from the Confucian conception of fellow-feeling is

EAELY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 61

quite natural. Admit the existence of an altruistic
impulse in man, and also admit that this impulse
could be matured into a constant, ruling, central,
and animating moral emotion through a systematic
training, and that the discipline consists in maintain-
ing an habitual reverential attitude toward one's own
moral personality ; and the natural course of develop-
ment in practical Confucianism will be the doctrine
that one should guard oneself against the arrogance
of self-assertion in solitary moments, when all external
inhibitory forces are absent. This self-examination
or self -introspection will gradually unfold the sense of
moral dignity, naturally associated with which is the
desire to be sincere to oneself as an ethical personality.
Through sincerity now one's moral value will be
positively appreciated, and the altruistic feeling will
be developed so as to regulate the egoistic within its
reasonable limits.

Thus, the "Doctrine of the Mean" somewhat
systematically advances the doctrine of sincerity,
which is the doctrine of the mean.41 The author
seems to have had a more synthetic intellect than
his Master, and his doctrine of sincerity is compre-
hensive. We read in his work :

" Intelligence unfolding through sincerity is Essence
(hsing, $£). Sincerity reached through intelligence
is Eeligion (chiao, jjfc). When sincerity is attained,
intelligence is attained ; when intelligence is attained,
sincerity is attained " (Chapter XXI) .

62 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

"It is only through the perfect sincerity of the
universe that Essence is thoroughly comprehended.
When Essence is thoroughly comprehended, the
essence of humanity is thoroughly comprehended.
When the essence of humanity is thoroughly com-
prehended, the essence of things is thoroughly com-
prehended. When the essence of things is thoroughly
comprehended, one can assist heaven-and-earth in its
evolutionary work. When one can assist heaven-and-
earth in its evolutionary work, one can be said to
be occupying the same rank as heaven-and-earth"
(Chapter XXII).

" Sincerity works by and through itself ; the Path
leads by and through itself. Sincerity is the end
and the beginning of things. Without sincerity no
existence is possible. Therefore, sincerity is most
honoured by the superior man.

"One who possesses sincerity makes perfect not
only himself, but others. That which makes the self
perfect is humanity (Jen), that which makes others
perfect is intelligence. These are the virtues of the
Essence, and the way leading to the unity of the
internal and external. Therefore, there is not a
moment when they are not exercised in the fitness
of things (Chapter XXV).

"Perfect sincerity never ceases working. The
Reason (jg, li) of heaven-and-earth can be com-
prehended in one word. What makes the Reason is
not dualistic, and therefore it knows no limits in the

EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 63

creation of things; the Reason of heaven-and-earth
is wide, solid, high, bright, far-reaching, and ever-
lasting " (Chapter XXVI).

According to this, the Tao is identified with
sincerity (ch'eng), for it is sincerity that works out
the transformation and constant growth of the ten
thousand things, and that completes and guides the
course of the universe. Without sincerity no being
could come to existence, no change or transformation
could take place. Sincerity is law, constant in its
work. It composes the essence of human being. All
moral qualities grow naturally from the cultivation of
this fundamental virtue. Be sincere to yourself, be
sincere to your own true nature, and above all be
sincere to the laws of the universe that make the ten
thousand things grow and regulate the concatenation
of the four seasons.42 For sincerity is the essence of
human being. For it is humanity itself.

In concluding this paragraph on sincerity, it may
be remarked that the Kantian precept of morality,
" so to will that the maxim of thy conduct can
become a universal law," had been most explicitly
foreshadowed long before his time by one of the most
representative Confucians, the author of the " Chung
Yung." There are some cosmic laws pervading and
regulating all things, which, when subjectively inter-
preted, are no more than sincerity. Man as a moral
and rational being must conform himself to these
laws, must be sincere to himself, must work out what

64 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

his inner reason or altruistic feeling of fellowship
dictates, for these dictates are no more than cosmic
laws themselves issuing from the sincerity of heaven-
and-earth. Therefore, "the superior man moves so as to
make his movements in all generations a universal path;
he behaves so as to make his conduct in all genera-
tions a universal law ; he speaks so as to make his words
in all generations a universal norm " (Chapter XXIX) .
Why ? Because " the way of the superior man
never errs : have it applied to himself, or have it
bestowed upon the masses of people, or have it judged
by the [ancient] three sage-kings, and it never errs.
Have it established in heaven-and-earth, and it never
violates ; have it examined by all spiritual beings, and
its truth is never doubted ; leave it to be sanctioned
by holy men after a lapse of one hundred generations,
and yet no uncertainty remains [as to its verity] "

MENCIUS.

The development of the Ante-Ch'in Confucianism
must be said to have attained its consummation in
Mencius, who was the best representative interpreter
of his master. Indeed, were it not for his most bril-
liant defence and upholding of the system, it would
perhaps never have enjoyed its triumphal progress
throughout the subsequent long history of Chinese
thought.

At the time of Mencius there were many different
doctrines propounded by able original thinkers, each

EAKLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 65

of whom struggled to gain the upper hand over the
others. Confucianism did not thrive any better than
other systems,43 and if it had failed to have such a
brilliant and masterly personage as Mencius among
its followers, it might have fared differently. It was
he who praised Confucius to the sky, declaring that
"Never since the creation of the world was, there a
person equal to Confucius." What Mencius did to
Confucianism somewhat resembles what Chwang-tze
did for the philosophy of Lao-tze, and in many respects
each disciple typically represents the doctrine which
his master so eloquently expounded.44

The contribution of Mencius to Confucianism is his
doctrine of the essential goodness of human nature.
This was a natural sequence from the conception of
fellow-feeling and sincerity. Grant that every man
is endowed with an altruistic impulse called by Con-
fucius the " feeling of fellowship " (Jen), and that this
can be developed and matured by reverence and
sincerity which will keep under restraint all impetuous,
self-disgracing, egotistic impulses and desires; and
further grant that it is by and through sincerity, as
is most explicitly stated in the " Doctrine of the
Mean," that not only movement of the heavenly
bodies is made possible but the cycle of the four
seasons, and the growth and transformation of all
living things on earth; and finally grant that the
existence of natural and moral laws binding together
all beings, animate and inanimate, in a harmonious

5

66 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

whole, is dependent upon the sincerity of heaven and
earth — our natural question, then, will be, " What is
this sincerity ?" Being a practical moralist, Mencius
did not speculate on the problem from the standpoint
of a metaphysician. He did not think of a sort of
cosmic mind that might be existing in heaven-and-
earth and regulating things in sincere conformity with
its essential goodness. But he reflected : As long as
it is the virtue of sincerity that keeps order in nature
and society, sincerity must be said to be synonymous
with harmony and goodness. Man as essentially a
manifestation of the virtue of sincerity must be good
in his nature. Otherwise, how could he at all evolve
goodness out of himself ? How could the being sincere
to his nature be considered the height of morality?
Man must be essentially good in his nature, as he
cannot develop from within what he is not naturally
endowed with. Therefore, " there is a way to be
sincere to oneself. If a man has no clear knowledge
of goodness, he cannot be sincere to himself. For
this reason, sincerity is the heavenly way, and to
reflect on sincerity is the human way. There is
nothing that will not be moved by utmost sincerity ;
and if not for sincerity, nothing will ever be moved "
(Book III).

Mencius thinks that it is human nature to be good,
just as it is the nature of water to seek its level, or as
it is the nature of the willow-tree to be pliable and
elastic.

EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 67

Kao-tze ^ said : " Nature is like a running water :
when it is turned eastward, it flows eastward ; when
it is turned westward, it flows westward. Human
nature has no choice between good and not-good as
water has no choice between east and west." To this,
Mencius replies : " Truly, water has no choice between
east and west, but has it no choice between up and
down ? The goodness of human nature is like water
seeking the lowest level. There is no man who is not
good, there is no water that does not seek its lowest
level. Now, that water, when whipped and tossed,
could be passed over one's forehead, or that, when
arrested and driven in another direction, it could be
made to go over a hill, is not in the nature of water.
It is due to the force of circumstances. Man could
be made to do not-goodness, for his nature is as sus-
ceptible as water" (Book XI).

Farther below in the same book, Mencius gives the
contents of goodness when he says : " Man's impulse
is to do good, for his nature is good. That he does
not do good is not the fault of his natural faculty. A
feeling of sympathy everybody has; a feeling of
shame everybody has ; a feeling of deference every-
body has; a sense of discrimination everybody has.
The feeling of sympathy is humaneness (jen £l) ; the
feeling of shame is justice (i ifj|) ; the feeling of defer-
ence is propriety (U jjg) ; and the sense of discrimina-
tion is intelligence (chi ^). Humaneness, sense of
justice, propriety, and intelligence are not what is

68 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

moulded into us from without. They are inherent in
us, only men are not conscious of them (Book TV a).

" Therefore, a man without a feeling of sympathy
is not human; a man without a feeling of shame is
not human; a man without a feeling of deference is
not human ; a man without a sense of discrimination
is not human. The feeling of sympathy is the start-
ing-point of humaneness ; the feeling of shame is the
starting-point of justice; the feeling of deference is
the starting-point of propriety ; and the sense of dis-
crimination is the starting-point of intelligence. A
man has these four starting-points as he has four
limbs; and those who, having these four starting-
points, plead incapability are mutilating themselves "
(Booklla).

Of these elementary moral sentiments making up
the contents of goodness, Mencius seems to have
thought the first two, humaneness and righteousness
(or justice), to be more fundamental than the other
two ; for he says (Book IVct) : " Humaneness is the
human heart, and righteousness (or justice) is the
human way. I pity those who digressing from the
way do not walk in it, and those who abandoning
the heart do not know how to regain it." Again
(Book IV6), when he was asked what was the work
of a scholar, he replied that it consists in the ennoble-
ment of his mind. When further asked, he said : " It
is no more than [the cultivation of] humanhearted-
ness (jen) and righteousness (i). It is not human-

EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 69

hearted to kill even a single innocent being ; it is not
righteous to take what is not one's own. Where is
our abode ? Nowhere but in humanheartedness.
What is our way ? Nowhere but in righteousness.
To abide in humanheartedness and to walk in right-
eousness, here lies the consummation of a great
man's work."

Lastly, in Book IV6, Mencius repeals that " Every
man has a feeling which he is unable to endure for
others, and humanheartedness consists in extending
this feeling even to things you can endure for others.
With every man there is something which he dares
not do to others, and righteousness consists in extend-
ing this to what you can dare do to others/'46

From this it can be seen that Mencius proposes two
fundamental moral sentiments, humaneness or human-
heartedness and righteousness, both of which are
differentiations of the Confucian feeling of fellowship,
or rather two phases of it. The Mencian jen is the
affectional and esthetic aspect of the Confucian jen,
while his i is its volitional and ethical aspect. One
is love, grace, and a subjective feeling ; while the
other is duty, moral " ought," and an objective con-
sideration for others. One is the expansion of the
allruistic feeling, and the other is the inhibition of
egoism, and thus each complements the other. Again,
the one is the human heart itself, the abode where a
man finds his home (Book Ilia) ; and the other is the
walk which must be traversed by all men. The one

70 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

is " not to will what ought not to be willed/' and the
other is " not to do what ought not to be done "
(Book IVfc).

Thus the Confucius's fellow-feeling has undergone
through Mencius a more analytical consideration, and
his teaching has developed into the form in which we
have it to-day. That is to say, the Confucian ethics
started in the teaching of humanheartedness or the
feeling of fellowship, which is possessed by every
human being, by every social animal that is capable
of associating with others and developing a conscious-
ness of social solidarity. This fundamental feeling,
though only rudimentarily present in the human heart,
can be matured to its full power through a constant
vigilance over oneself in all time, not only when one
is alone, but when one comes in contact with the
world. And this vigilance over the heart must begin
with the cultivation of the sense of reverence for one's
own personality as a moral being. If a man have no
regard for his ethical character, he would surely sink
to the level of the lower animals. And this self-
reverence, in other words, means to be sincere to one's
own inner constitution, which is good and above
egoistic interests. If human nature were not good,
sincerity to oneself might come to mean an unre-
strained gratification of selfishness ; for then no moral
law could be sacred to one but that of one's own
nature. Some one might exclaim : " As I am the devil's
child, I will live from the devil." This sort of sincerity

EAELY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 71

will surely contradict the spirit of the Confucian
doctrine of fellow-feeling, and so proclaims Mencius :
" The nature of man is good." This is the consistent
development of the Confucian ethics. But Mencius
did not stop here, for he added another virtue to
man's moral being, the virtue of righteousness, and
two more, propriety and intelligence; and he made
all these four the most fundamental virtues possessed
by man, which ought to be developed in order to
perfect moral personality and to benefit the world
through this perfection.

*****
Though Confucianism can be said in a sense to be the
Chinese philosophy and ethics, there were not lacking,
especially in the Ante-Ch'in period, some other ethical
teachings which were vigorously contesting supremacy
with Confucianism, and among them we can mention the
Taoist Yang-tze, Mu-tze, and perhaps Hsiin-tze. But
let us first examine the ethics of Lao-tze, or Taoism as
it is commonly designated, which always stands con-
trasted to Confucianism.

ETHICS or TAOISM.

The Wu Wei.

The Taoists were no doubt better metaphysicians
but poorer moralists than the Confucians. Their
system of moral teachings may be called negativistic
egoism. For their main principle of conduct is to

72 A BRIEF HISTOEY OF

enjoy the bliss of life in quiet solitary retirement,
free from all worldly cares and relations, and by
devoting all their time to a serene contemplation of
nature in its absolute, eternal aspect, and not in its
ever -struggling, ever -becoming activity. They are
not selfish in the sense that they want to assert their
own egotistic will over that of others. In fact, they
strongly advocate the doctrine of non-resistance (pu
cheng chih t$, ^\ |p ;£, {§), but this not because they
want to promote the general welfare of humanity,
but because of their own preservation and happiness
and peace. Let people do whatever they like, and
let them assert their own egotism in defiance of
everything else, but in the end they will be their own
destroyers. For their egotism, instead of hurting
non-resisting innocents, recoils upon themselves, as
egotism is the moral boomerang. Lao-tze teaches :
Let others have precedence, and lo ! I am preserved.
Or, in his own words : " The holy man puts himself
behind and he comes to the front. He surrenders
himself and he is preserved. Is it because he seeks
not his self ? For that reason, he accomplishes his
self " (Chapter VII). Here is the gist of the whole
Taoist ethics.

When the Taoists are said to be egotistic, it is not
meant that they are grossly materialistic egotists who
unblushingly affirm their hedonistic impulses. Far
from it; they are harmless innocent recluses, who
have no other desire than to be left alone, in order

EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 73

that they may continue their undisturbed meditation
in a solitary cell. They have no particular desire
either on this earth or after death. But for one
thing they seem to esteem their own self above
all else. They have no desire to sacrifice their all-
precious self for the happiness of others. Indeed,
they do not desire any worldliness, and have no
craving for the vanity of vanities that is doomed to
pass. But they seem to have cared very much for
personal immortality, not after death but in this life.
Lao-tze, Chwang-tze, and Lieh-tze all had a very
exalted view on this matter. They intuitively knew
that this life as it is lived is a manifestation of the
Absolute and as such immortal, and, therefore, that
there is no need of seeking immortality after death.
The later Taoists, however, could not understand
this mystic conception of life and immortality, and
naturally upheld a corrupted, degenerated, and dis-
torted view of immortal life on this earth. Some of
the later Taoists even claimed that they knew the
secret of preparing the elixir of immortality, which
had first been discovered by their venerable master
Lao-tze and transmitted guardedly through genera-
tions. This was the first great loophole through which
the Taoists gradually fell into a hopeless system of
crass popular superstition.

The backbone of the Taoist egoism is 4p| jgj wu
wei. This term is generally rendered non-action,
while non-assertion47 gives in many cases a more

74 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

correct sense of the original. Wu wei does not
mean to sit idle and to do nothing. It means not
to interfere with others' affairs, or even with one's
own as long as they flow of themselves from the inner
fountain of the Tao.

Says Lao-tze (Chapter II) : " Therefore, the holy
man conducts his affairs with non- assertion; he
practises the doctrine of silence. All things are
working and he does not refuse [to work with them] .
All things are born [and so is he], but he does not
claim ownership; all things are achieving [and so is
he], but he is not presumptuous. His merits are
accomplished, but he does not dwell in them."

Again, in Chapter LXIY: "He who asserts is
defeated; he who seizes suffers loss. The holy man
asserts not, therefore he is not defeated; he seizes
not, therefore sustains no loss. People fail when
they are nearly at the point of accomplishing the
work they have undertaken ; if they were as cautious
in the end as in the beginning, they would be saved
from failure. Therefore, the holy man desires not-
desiring, prizes not the treasure that is unobtainable,
learns not-learning, retires where the masses pass by ;
and thereby he assists in the natural development of
all things, but he never dares to assert himself/'

In Lieh-tze we are told of the subjective state of
one who has attained to wu wei, the goal of the
Taoist philosophical training, and the reader will be
able to judge for himself what it is like to abide in

BAELY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 75

wu wei, if the following passage be thoroughly
comprehended :

" Lieh-tze, who had Lao-shang-shin for his master
and Pe-kao-tze for his companion, made great progress
in the teachings of these two philosophers, and when
he came back he was riding on the wind. Yin-shang
hearing of it stayed with Lieh-tze for some months [to
learn the secrets] , but he received no intimation what-
ever. One day he found an opportunity to approach
Lieh-tze on the subject, and implored him ten times to
divulge his mysterious accomplishment; but Lieh-tze
each time refused to answer. Whereupon Yin-shang
grew angry with the master and wanted to take leave
of him. Lieh-tze made no protest.

" Some months passed, but Yin-shang felt still
uneasy about the matter, and came back to his old
master, Lieh-tze. Said the latter : ' How is it that
you are here again when you left me only a little
while ago ?' Replied Yin-shang : 1 1 had something
about which I wanted your information, but you
refused me, and I naturally felt offended. But the
ill-feeling is no more now, and I am here again/

" Lieh-tze said : < Formerly, I thought you were
above such petty feelings, but I find now that you
are even so small-minded as that. Sit down, and I
will tell you about what I learned through my old
teacher. When I stayed three years with the old
master as teacher and with Peh-kao as companion,
my mind dared not think of what is right and what

76 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

is not, while my mouth dared not say anything about
gain and loss ; and it was then that the master gave
me a kindly glance. In five years, my mind again
began to think of what is right and what is not,
while my mouth began to speak of gain and loss ; and
the master relaxed his rigid expression and smiled
indulgently at me. In seven years, I just let my mind
think of whatever it desired, and there was no right
or wrong; I just let my mouth speak whatever it
wanted to speak, and there was no gain or loss. The
master then invited me to come and sit by him on
the same matting. In nine years, all restraint on
my thought as well as on my utterance was brushed
away, and I was not conscious of right and wrong,
gain and loss, whether they were with me or with
somebody else ; nor did I know whether Lao was my
master, or whether Peh was my companion. Within
and without, nothing interfered. Then the eye became
like the ear, the ear like the nose, and the nose like
the mouth — they became all one. The mind alone
predominated, the body was dissolved, the flesh and
bones all melted away. I was not conscious where
my body rested, nor where my feet trod ; I drifted
east or west as the wind blew, like a leaf or a rind
detached from the tree ; was I riding on the wind, or
was the wind riding on me ? I did not know which.

" ' With you, however, it is quite different, who
have not stayed long enough, and who even feel
hurt and repeatedly find fault with me. The ether

EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 77

will not embrace you, not even a portion of your
body; nor will the earth bear you, not even one
member of your being; and how could you hope to
tread on the vacuity of space and ride the wind V y
(Chapter II : "The Yellow Emperor").

The above is the subjective state of moral perfection
as viewed by the Taoists, which is above all artificial
restraints or regulations, and in perfect harmony with
the transcendental Tao ; that is, wu wei. But when
this doctrine of not doing anything is too inclined
toward passivity, it becomes the ethics of femininism.
It teaches submissive humiliation, moderation, meek-
ness, and often nonchalance; though, according to
Lao-tze, these things are not prized for their intrinsic
virtue, but as the means of attaining the end of
self-preservation or self-affirmation. "I do not dare
assume lordship, but the position of a guest. I do
not dare advance an inch, but retreat a foot "
(Chapter LXIX). "Man is tender and weak at his
birth, he is stark and rigid when dead. All things
and grasses and trees are tender and feeble at their
birth, but when dead they are dry and sear. There-
fore, those that are stark and rigid are followers of
death. Those that are tender and weak are followers
of life. Therefore, a strong army does not win, and
a strong tree grows to decay. The strong and great
are cowered, the tender and weak are uplifted "
(Chapter LXXV1).

And again in Chapter LXXVIII,48 says Lao-tze :

78 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

" There is nothing under the heavens that excels
water in tenderness and weakness, yet there is nothing
that surpasses it in efficiency when it attacks the hard
and the strong. This is known to everybody that the
strong is conquered by the weak, that the rigid is
conquered by the tender."

In spite of this emphasis placed on passive and
negative egotism, the ethics of Lao-tze is not lacking
in noble thoughts such as characterize Buddhism and
Christianity. By these I mean such passages as the
following : "The holy man has no fixed thought of
his own, he makes the wishes of his people his own.
G-ood ones I meet with goodness ; not-good ones I too
meet with goodness ; and thereby I gain goodness.49
Faithful ones I meet with faith, not-faithful ones I
too meet with faith; for thereby I gain faith"
(Chapter XLIX). "Requite hatred with virtue "
(Chapter LXIII). " I have a triple treasure. I hold
this very precious. The first is compassion, the
second is moderation, and the third is not to come in
front before the world" (Chapter LXVII).

ANARCHISM.

Lao-tze's doctrine of passivity, when positively
stated, is to let things follow their own natural bent
without any interference from outside. Masses have
an inherent tendency to gravitate toward the centre
of the earth; men have an inborn desire to follow the
course of the Tao, which is in them. Therefore, let

EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 79

them alone, do not yoke them with unnecessary rules
and formalities. Things that are imposed from with-
out acquire unnaturalness, so that they are inevitably
crippled. Lao-tze thus exclaims : " The more man-
dates and laws are enacted, the more there will be
thieves and robbers " (Chapter LYII). And Chwang-
tze agrees with him by saying that, " if an end were
put to sageness, and wisdom put away, the great
robbers would cease to arise ; if jade were put away
and pearls broken to bits, the small thieves would not
appear" (Part II, Section III, "Chii Chieh"). To
quote Lao-tze again : " When the great Tao is obliter-
ated, we have humaneness and righteousness. Pru-
dence and circumspection appear, and we have much
hypocrisy. When family relations no longer har-
monize, we have filial piety and parental love. When
the country and the clans decay through disorder, we
have loyalty and allegiance. Abandon your saintli-
ness, put away your prudence, and the people will
gain a hundredfold. Abandon your humaneness, put
away your righteousness, and the people will return
to filial piety and paternal love. Abandon your
scheming, put away your gains, and thieves and
robbers will no longer exist" (Chapter XVIII).

These are strong words, and smack not a little of
anarchism. In truth, when the ethics of Lao-tze is
carried out to its logical extreme, it results in nothing
but absolute anarchism, though not in the sense of
utter disorderliness. The Taoist metaphysicians of the

80 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

Ante-Ch'in period unanimously advocate the doctrine
of non-resistance and non-interference. They want
to return to the primitive stage of civilization, when
there were no laws or regulations whatever. Every-
body is supposed by them to have then enjoyed the
utmost individual freedom and to have been as yet
unconscious of abusing it at the expense of another.
History, however, does not prove that there was such
a golden age in the remote past, but that, on the con-
trary, the struggle for existence among various tribes
as well as within one and the same tribe was a uni-
versal phenomenon. But the Taoists refused to take
notice of the fact ; probably they took it for granted,
as many other Chinese thinkers did, that there existed
in prehistoric times a universal peace and unbounded
happiness. Even if they might have been induced to
doubt it in one way or another, they were willing to
ignore it, in order that they might remain charmingly
spellbound by their imagination and visionary retro-
spect. An anarchistic state of things was thus made
the highest ideal of individual as well as social life.

The following allegory culled from the Chwang-tze
(Part II, Section VII) very ingeniously illustrates the
significance of wu wei in the Taoist ethics : " The
ruler of the Southern Ocean was Shu, the ruler of the
Northern Ocean was Hu, and the ruler of the Centre
was Chaos. Shu and Hu were continually meeting
in the land of Chaos, who treated them very well.
They consulted together how they might repay his

EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 81

kindness, and said : ' Men all have seven orifices for
the purpose of seeing, hearing, eating, and breathing,
while this ruler alone has not one. Let us try and
make them for him/ Accordingly they dug one orifice
in him every day ; and at the end of seven days Chaos
died." Poor Chaos ! If he had been left in his chaotic,
undetermined, undifferentiated, and, therefore, neces-
sarily inactive (wu wei) condition, which was indeed
the raison d'etre of his existence, he could have enjoyed
a life of eternity and of perfect contentedness too.
The unnecessary, though quite well-meant, inter-
ference of his neighbours permanently put an end to
his very existence.

Whatever the Taoist world-shunning ethics, it was,
after all, a creation of the Chinese mind. It never
lost sight of its practical import ; that is, it always
showed a considerable interest in politics and state -
administration. The reader might imagine that an
ethical doctrine such as that of Lao-tze would not
trouble itself with political affairs, which are merely
a product of the worldly wisdom and artificiality
despised so strongly by the Taoists. But no Chinese
philosopher and moral teacher would ever think of
ignoring the practical consequences of his theory.
Indeed, the value of a theory had to be judged by its
working utility in the daily life of man as an individual
and as a member of society.

Lao-tze's theory with regard to the administration
of state affairs, as can be expected, was a direct, un-

6

82 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

modified application of his wu wei, and might be
called a laissez faire policy. Give the people as much
freedom as they want; let them not be encumbered
with artificial formalities and excrescent regulations ;
leave them alone as much as possible ; if necessary,
deprive them of all craftiness, cunning, and prudence
which they have acquired since the initiation of arti-
ficialities, and lead them to a state of primitive inno-
cence and absolute artlessness. This policy, according
to Lao-tze, is understood to secure the peace and good
order that used to prevail in the olden times of " cord-
knotting " administration. The people would be
delighted with whatever they have, simple and plain.
They would die natural deaths when they were old.
The cocks and dogs would happily voice their perfect
contentment all around the country. And here we
have a perfect state of things that ought to exist
when the natural course of the Tao is faithfully
followed (see "Tao Teh King," Chapter LXXX).

In the following, the reader will have the ideal
kingdom of the Taoists : " While taking a nap, the
Yellow Emperor dreamed that he was on a visit to
the country of the Hua-lisii, which is situate west of
the state of An and north of the state of Tai, and
distant ever so many hundreds of thousands of miles
from the Middle Kingdom. The Hua-hsii's country
could not indeed be reached by boat or carriage or on
foot ; it could only be visited by a spirit. There was
no ruler or chief in this country, which was left to its

EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 83

own fate. The people had no special desires or appe-
tites, they were living naturally. They did not know
how to grow attached to life nor how to abhor death ;
therefore, there was no premature death among them.
They did not know how to be egotistic and how to
neglect others; therefore they were free from the
feelings of love and hate. They did not know what
was meant by being in accord with a thing or out of
harmony with it; therefore they entertained no thought
of partiality. They had nothing to long for, or to
get attached to, nor had they anything to fear, or to
recoil from. They went into water and were not
drowned. They went into fire and were not scorched.
Though whipped, they felt no pain ; though scratched,
they had no itching sensation. They rode through
the emptiness of space as if treading on the solid
ground ; they slept in the air as if lying on a bed.
The cloud and fog did not obstruct their sight, nor
did thunder and lightning disturb their hearing, nor
did beauty and ugliness affect their minds, nor did
hills and valleys make their steps unsteady, for they
walked as spirits" (Chapter II, "The Yellow Em-
peror ").

The reader will here notice how radical is the
difference between the ethics of Confucius and
Lao-tze. Some sinologists ascribe this difference to
climatic variation, the former representing the type of
vigorous, industrious, and order-loving Northerners;
while the latter that of care-free, visionary, impulsive

84 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

and often indolent Southerners. Under the pressure
of the rigorous climate and inclement weather, the
Northerners have to fight hard against nature. With
them the letting - alone policy will result in the
annihilation of their own existence. But the case
is entirely different with the Southerners; to them
nature does not mean a force that is unfavourable
to them and therefore to be conquered. On the
contrary, she is so bountiful that they can enjoy the
fulness of life with hardly any toil. Non-resistance
and non-interference are the best policy whereby they
can deal with nature. For this reason, Confucius can
be said to represent the Northern type, and Lao-tze
the Southern. The history of Chinese thought and
philosophy is the record of the struggles between these
two rival conceptions, Taoism aided by Buddhism
and frequently joined by popular superstition, and
Confucianism generally strongly proving to be the
more representative and indigenous to the Chinese
mind.

HEDONISTIC EGOISM.

The most rigorous expounder of hedonistic egoism
in the history of Ante-Ch/in philosophy was Yang-tze.
He seems to have been very influential at times, and
his doctrine displayed a considerable force against
Confucianism, and if it had not been for the eloquence
of a great genius like Mencius, it might have been
able to defy its opponents for a long while yet.
Yang-tze's doctrine proves to what extent the nega-

EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 85

tivistic egoism of Lao-tze can degenerate. Properly
speaking, Yang-tze was not a philosopher at all. He
was an eccentric soul, perhaps mortally wounded by
some political disappointment and wrongfully guided
by his natural pessimistic bent. His doctrine, if it
be so called, was not a mature result of serious
reflection, but rather the incoherent utterance of a
mind cruelly in despair at the outlook of humanity.
But the tolerance, nay, the popular acceptance which
was accorded to the wild exclamations of Yang-tze,
showed that the Chinese mind in this period was
fertile, versatile, and ready to lend an ear to any-
thing novel. Yang-tze's existence was possible only
in those days. Had he appeared a few hundred
years later, his sayings would have been forever
buried in oblivion.

Yang-tze, or Yang Chou, which is his proper name,
did not leave any work of his own. Perhaps he did,
but we do not know of its existence. All the data we
have to-day of his life and utterances are contained
in the Lieh-tze, the Mencius, the Chwang-tze,60 and
the Han-fei-tze.61 From these it appears that Yang
Chou was a younger contemporary of Lao-tze, and
from him he seems to have received some instruction
concerning life and virtue, which was somehow similar
to that given to Confucius. It is, therefore, but
natural that we can trace in Yang Chou's hedonism
a distinct echo of Lao-tze's ethics of self-complacency.
In the latter was a prevailing tone of quiet negativism,

86 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

but in Yang Chou we have a positive insistence on
ultra-egoism. Sharing with the Taoists the ascetic
spirit, he did not teach sensual debauchery as a
principle, yet what he is considered to have taught
sometimes verges dangerously near it. There is no
reason, however, to believe that the author himself was
a man of loose morals. He was a recluse disgusted
with the world and its artificialities. And he was
a satirist, too. When he is seen in this light, his
doctrine is not so offensive and despicable as it is
charged to be by the Confucians.

The ground principle of Yang-tze's egoism52 is,
negatively, to shirk all the artificial restraints that
are calculated to bridle the natural impulses of man,
be they high or low, and, positively, to let him go
back to a state of primitive naivete and enjoy his
blessed life to the full extent of his emotional
capacity.63 Yang-tze, therefore, looks down on the
Confucian doctrine of humaneness and righteousness
as something forced upon human nature and not
innate to it. The object of life is not to yoke our-
selves to moral pillories such as were imposed by the
Confucians, merely in order that posterity might have
a good opinion of us. The object of life is to give
the freeest rein to our nature and gratify it to the
utmost. For is not life short ? and is not this short
life even encumbered with all kinds of cares and
worry ? Subtract from a man's life the years of
babyhood and senility, and its half is gone. Then

EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 87

take away hours of sleep, and there remains only
one-fourth of the entire length of our life, which
rarely reaches the one hundred-year mark. But is
this one-fourth filled with unalloyed joy and happi-
ness ? By no means, for are there not so many
unnecessary things that threaten to cut off even this
remaining fraction of life ? Desires are consuming our
corporeal strength ; social traditions are crippling our
moral simplicity; national prejudices are strangling
freedom of action ; laws and regulations are muzzling
the expression of natural sentiments. Under these
intolerable encumbrances, how could we spend light-
heartedly even the mere fraction of life that is
granted to us ? Therefore, says Yang-tze, let us
abandon all things that are external and superfluous,
and let us enjoy our natural, unhampered life to its
full limits. People of olden times were perfectly
aware of the shortness of life and wanted to make
the best of it. They lived as their simple, innocent
impulses dictated. Their desire was to preserve the
naivete or integrity of their nature. They never
worried themselves about things earthly. They
never distorted or mutilated what they obtained
from heaven merely for the acquisition of things arti-
ficial. They were above political intrigues, aspira-
tion for fame, commercial greed, and other petty
human concerns.

This self-abandoned indifference and transcenden-
talism distinctly echoes the teaching of Lao-tze. But

88 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

Yang-tze was not a mere quietist. He sometimes
actually endorses debauchery of the worst kind. His
almost unconditional egoism does not allow him to
extend his sphere of interest either to his fellow-
beings that are thriving around him or to those that
are to come after him. He is utterly indifferent to
matters concerning others. He stands absolutely
alone. He does not condescend to identify himself
with other fellow -individuals. Therefore, he scoffs
at such men of virtue as Shun,64 Yii,55 Chou Kung,66
and Kung Fu-tze (Confucius), who are universally
revered by the Chinese; he picks them out as
examples of most unnatural men who worried and
deformed themselves merely for the sake of a good
name. Yang-tze, on the other hand, praises Chou67
and Chieh68 — the type of infamy and depravity — as
men who had courage and even virtue to behave as
their natural impulses dictated. What did it matter
to them if they now stand for everything that is
disgusting in man? They who are so vehemently
condemned by posterity as well as such virtuous men
as Shun and Confucius, — are they not all gone for-
ever and aye ? Are not their bones crumbling, their
flesh and blood already mingling in the dust ? Let
posterity say of them whatever it pleases, both
the censured and the praised are absolutely in-
sensible. Honour or dishonour, are they not like
bubbles on water ? Why not enjoy all that is
enjoyable while alive ? Begone ! our doctrinaires,

EAKLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 89

hypocrites, unnatural moralists, and vain aspirants
after fame !

" How then is our life to be lived ?69

' ' Indulge in what your ear desires to hear ; indulge
in what your eye desires to see ; indulge in what your
nose desires to smell; indulge in what your mouth
desires to speak ; indulge in what your body desires
to obtain ; and indulge in what your mind desires
to do.

" Now, sound is what the ear desires to hear, and
when it is denied, it means the crippling of the
auditory sense. Things beautiful are what the eye
desires to see, and when these are denied, it means
the crippling of the visionary sense. Perfume is
what the nose desires to smell, and when this is
denied, it means the crippling of the olfactory sense.
Judgment is what the mouth desires to speak, and
when this is denied, it means the crippling of intelli-
gence. Delicious food and warm clothing are what
the body desires to have, and when these are denied,
it means the crippling of the sense of comfort.
Freedom is what the mind desires to have, and
when this is denied, it means the crippling of one's
nature.

" All these cripplings are so many unnatural self-
restraints, and he that has the fixed thought to do
these, is molesting himself, is torturing himself. If
you cast away the thought of self-molestation, and
lightheartedly and joyously indulge your passions and

90 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

desires, and giving yourself up to the pursuit of
pleasure calmly await the coming of death, your life
of one day is equal to another's life of one month,
and your life of one year to another's life of ten
years. This is the way I take care of my life.
Those who are yoked to the thought of self-molesta-
tion may have a long life of one hundred, ten
hundred, even of ten thousand years, in a depressed
state of mind, but what is the use of all that ? It is
not my way of taking care of life."

When judged from these passages alone, Yang-tze
may appear a crass sensualist, a most vigorous
libertine; but in other places we come across the
typical Lao-tze doctrine of wu wei or the world-
fleeing spirit of some Hindu philosophers.

" The reason why men are restive is due to four
things: (1) longevity; (2) fame; (3) social position;
and (4) wealth. People crave these things, and
therefore they fear spiritual beings, their fellow-
citizens, influences from unknown regions, and the
punishment of the civil laws. They are called
irrational and disobeying Heaven. Such people
could be killed or saved at will by others, for they
are not masters of themselves.

" Those who obey heavenly orders have no desire
for longevity beyond the limit set by Heaven. They
have no craving for fame as they have no thought of
displaying their worth. They have no desire for
social rank as they have no thought of abusing their

EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 91

power. They have no desire for wealth as they are
free from avarice. These people are called ' obedient/
The obedient people do not long for worldliness ;
they are independent, self-complacent; they are far
above things earthly ; they have destiny in their own
hands and are free from all outward interference/'

Taking all in all, Yang-tze is not a debauchee,
but a self-contented, artless, simple-minded child of
nature. He hates all kinds of inordinate excess and
artificiality. He wants to live as he came from the
bosom of eternity. He has not the slightest craving
for sensual pleasures beyond the demands of nature.
He feels hungry, and eats a morsel of coarse bread,
and is satisfied. He is cold, and puts on one more
woollen tunic, and is comfortable. He is a fatalist.
He calmly greets death. He has no desire for im-
mortality, either in life or after death. In these
respects he deeply breathes the spirit of Lao-tze.

Whatever the merits and faults of his extreme
doctrine, he occupies a unique position in Chinese
philosophy. In his days and immediately after his
death, he seems to have had quite a sway over
Chinese minds as we read in Mencius (toward the end
of Book VI) : "As a sage-king does not rise, the
lords and dukes are unrestrained, irresponsible
scholars go too far in their discussion, and the
doctrines of Yang Chou and Mu Ti are rampant
everywhere. When the general public is not swayed
by Yang, it is swayed by Mu. Yang is so egotistic

92 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

as to ignore the existence of a ruler ; and Mu is so
ultra-altruistic as to ignore the existence of the
parents. But when we do away with the ruler and
parents, we shall all be the beasts/'

UTILITARIANISM.

Almost all Chinese ethical doctrines are more or
less characterized by a strong utilitarian tendency,
for practicality is the key that opens one of the main
entrances to the Chinese mind. But there are, too,
other moral traits predominant and peculiar to them.
For instance, filial devotion is practically the corner-
stone of later Confucianism; ceremonialism also
occupies a conspicuous part in Chinese life; and
lastly, there is a persistent assertion of conservative
spirit in all their doings, and this spirit naturally
makes the Chinese great lovers of peace. As all
these racial characteristics have claimed their due
consideration in the system of their national philo-
sophy, their utilitarian tendency had to be modified
to a certain extent. Therefore, it is a matter of self-
evidence that we recognize in Confucianism a
harmonious blending of all the predominant traits
of the Chinese mind; for, otherwise, it would have
been neglected like so many other doctrines, and
would not have filled the position which it has held
almost without interruption since its first establish-
ment. The doctrine I am going to consider, on the
other hand, overlooked the importance of all the

EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 93

Chinese peculiarities other than utilitarianism and
practicality. It unduly emphasized this phase, which
necessarily resulted in an utter disregard of all
other things.60 The doctrine is commonly known as
ultra-altruism in contradiction to the ultra-egoism
of Yang-tze ; but, properly speaking, its fundamental
principle is utilitarianism pure and simple. It also
contains many conceptions which are closely similar
to Christianity, and it is very probable that if it were
fostered amongst a people who were more idealistic,
imaginative, and above all religious, it might have
developed into a system almost like Christianity.

The author of this interesting doctrine is Mu Ti,
or Mu-tze as he is more generally known. Records
vary as to his nativity and age, but the probability
is that he was a younger contemporary of Confucius
and flourished about the time when most of his
immediate disciples were gone. His home seems to
have been in the south and not in the north. He
held an official position like every other learned man
in the country. The work61 now in our possession
consists of fifty-three books or chapters. Originally
there were more books in it. It seems most of
the fifty-three books were written by his personal
disciples after his death ; but some of them are
utterly unintelligible to us to-day, owing to textual
discrepancies and corruptions.62 Many desperate
attempts were made to adjust them, but practically
to no purpose. The other parts, however, which are

94 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

free from obscurity, show in many respects a clear
logical mind on the part of the author — something
unusual in Chinese philosophers.

The ideal of Mu Ti is universal peace and universal
prosperity. Whatever his teachings, they are all in-
tended to bring about this state of things. He
declares that the business of the holy man consists in
promoting peace among his people, in developing all
the resources of nature, and in avoiding all the
possible causes of evils that befall our community.
It is wonderful to notice how modern are these views
of the old Chinese philosopher, Mu Ti. He asks :
" Why is the existing state of things far from this
ideal ?" " Because/' answers he, " everybody esteems
his own self above others." The strong usurp the
rights of the weak, the crafty take advantage of the
ignorant, officers abuse their power over the un-
protected, and powerful states absorb the helpless.
For these reasons, we are constantly in a state of
war, individual with individual, family with family,
clan with clan, and state with state. This cannot be
the destiny of humanity as ordained by the will of
heaven, which is our ultimate source of authority.
Let one love another as one's own self, let a nation
love another as its own, let a sovereign love his
subjects as himself, let the son love his parents as
himself, let everybody love everybody else as himself.
Then there will be no traitors who love themselves at
the expense of the state to which they belong ; there

EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 95

will be no tyrant who ignores the welfare of his
subjects ; no robbery, no enmity, no inhumanity ;
in fact, there will be no evil that will disturb universal
peace ensuing from this practice of universal love
(Chapters XIV and XV).

How is the principle of universal love and mutual
benefit justified ? Mu Ti argues that there are three
methods of testing the soundness of a principle. First,
it must conform to the will of heaven and be in ac-
cordance with the doings of ancient sages ; secondly,
our daily experiences must justify it; and thirdly,
when it is made into a law and practised among the
people, it must prove an agent for the general welfare 63
(Chapters XXXVI and XXXVII). Mu Ti proceeds to
prove all these points in this way. Heaven created
the sun, moon, and innumerable stars. It regulates
their courses, and the four seasons follow in order —
spring and autumn, winter and summer. It sends
forth thunder and lightning, rain and snow. Warmed
by them the five cereals and other nourishing and
useful plants grow. People avail themselves of these
heavenly gifts. Again, there are mountains covered
with all useful trees and stored with all wealth-pro-
ducing metals. People transform them for their
own service and make themselves comfortable in
every way. Again, there are sovereigns and wise
men specially favoured by heaven. They make laws
and administer to the needs of the people ; the wicked
are punished, the ignorant are enlightened, and pros-

96 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

perity is secured. Do not all these things come from
the will of heaven ? Do not all these things come
to everybody without discrimination? Why, then,
heaven must be considered the source of love and
righteousness, and our duty on earth is but to follow
this will and practise universal love and mutual benefit
(Chapter XXVII).

And was this not also the teaching and practice of
the ancient sages ?

Our daily experiences teach us the same lesson.
Those who love are loved, those who hate are hated
If we benefit others, they are glad to return the
favour ; if we rob them of what is due to them, they
will be ready to requite in a similar way. This is
what we observe all around us (Chapter XIV) .

If we make this heavenly will the principle of
administration, the sovereign will be beneficent, the
subject loyal, the father kindhearted, the child filial,
the elder brother friendly, and the younger dutiful.
Good or evil, the source of influence is from above.
There was once a king who admired a slender waist,
and every woman in the state deprived herself of
necessary food. There was another king who de-
lighted in muscular strength, and every youth in the
state devoted himself to all kinds of athletic exercises.
Therefore nobody can tell to what extremity the
masses will rush when an example is shown by the
privileged classes. Let the sovereign and his officers
exercise the will of heaven as it is manifested about us,

EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 97

and the entire nation will at once endeavour to follow
the model set up by them. Universal peace and
eternal prosperity will then inevitably be the outcome
(Chapter XY).

The real issue of Mu Ti's doctrine, however, seems
to lie more in its utilitarian aspect than in its human-
istic side. This can be seen from his economic views
which brought about the vehement accusation64 of
the Confucians, resulting in the final downfall of his
whole system. He rigorously opposed the prevalence
of luxurious habits as to dwelling, clothing, eating,
and travelling ; and he also condemned the custom of
concubinage. They are all the unproductive con-
sumption of wealth ; so much is spent, and nothing
material is gained thereby. The real happiness of
the masses does not consist in the encouragement of
luxury, but in the production of wealth.

The custom of concubinage naturally results in the
overproduction of bachelors as well as old maids — the
fact will eventually threaten the growth of population.
(Is it not interesting to note that the sole ground of
Mu-tze's objection to concubinage is that of practical,
material consideration, and not a moral and social
one?)

On the same ground, Mu Ti objected to Confu-
cian seritimentalism. The Chinese always cherished
a very deep reverence for their ancestors, and lost no
opportunity to show the feeling in public. Their
burial ceremony, therefore, was naturally of the most

7

98 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

elaborate character. There was a strong tendency
among the poor as well as the rich to go beyond their
means, in order to express or make a show of the
deepest reverence and sympathy for the deceased.
We learn from modern travellers that there are in
China some professional mourners who are hired by
real mourners to make their funeral procession appear
more mournful by their simulating show of lamenta-
tion. The Chinese of olden times perhaps did not
take such an extreme step to make a public exhibition
of their grief ; at least we are not in possession of any
documents to prove this. But they were certainly
ready to acknowledge the highest type of filial devo-
tion in those who remained in mourning for at least
three years for their deceased parents. During this
long period06 they lived a most secluded life; they
retired from public offices if they held any; they did
not attend to any commercial transaction; they re-
frained from participating in any public or private
festivals. They remained at home like prisoners or
religious recluses, fixing all their pious thoughts on
the memory of the deceased. This was what was
generally endorsed by the followers of Confucianism
as a pious expression of filial devotion ; and this was
what was most strenuously opposed by Mu Ti (see
"MuTi/' Chapter XXY). *

His objections were on the whole sound and well-
grounded. He demonstrated that there was no sense
in wasting wealth on such unproductive things as

EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 99

funerals : that such a protracted observation of
mourning tended to paralyze the administration of
the government, and to check the progress of industry
and commerce. It is altogether unnecessary to wrap
a corpse in extra clothes, to put it in an extraor-
dinarily strong coffin, and to inter it in an unduly
deep grave. All we have to consider in these matters
is the practical end which they are intended to serve.
Mu Ti was a thorough utilitarian, and refused to yield
to any sentimental extravagances. He did not dis-
regard the significance of sentiment; he was willing
to pay due regard to it, but he could not bear to see
the national and individual wealth scattered to the
winds for the sake of mere sentimentalism.

It is, therefore, no wonder that Mu Ti was also
against music 66 (Chapter XXXII) and vigorously
condemned war (Chapters XVII, XVIII, and XIX).
In his opinion, music did not add an iota to the national
wealth and prosperity ; and as to war, it was simply
abominable; every trade and industry comes to a
standstill, and every sense of justice and righteous-
ness is thereby hopelessly benumbed. At any rate,
anything that will disturb the peace of a nation and
destroy its productive facilities is mercilessly attacked
by Mu Ti.

A fatalistic doctrine which seems to have been pre-
valent in his days could also not escape his condemna-
tion. According to him, fatalism was a great obstacle
in the way of industry and prosperity. If the people

100 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

were abandoned to the so-called fate which is pre-
determined and beyond human control, there would
be no incentive to urge them to work, produce wealth,
and preserve permanent peace. On the other hand,
everybody would remain perfectly passive and utterly
inactive, leaving everything to the pre-established
order of things as regulated in the beginning of
Unknown Destiny. This state of things could never
be suffered to exist in this world of striving. Mu Ti
was a strong advocate of the untiring energy and
strenuous life. In him we see the practical tendency
of the Chinese mind singularly emphasized, though at
the expense of their love of formalism and ceremonial-
ism (see Chapters XXXV, XXXVI, and XXXVII).

Finally, what is significant in Mu Ti is his concep-
tion of t'ien, which means literally "heaven," but
can be freely translated by " God " even in the Chris-
tian sense. The difference between the Christian God
and Mu Ti's Heaven (t'ien) is that while the former
made the conception of God foremost and its worship
the paramount issue of the religious life, the latter
conceded the first place to utilitarianism, for the
execution of which the God-idea became necessary to
him. It will no doubt be very interesting to consider
at length Mu Ti's conception of Heaven in its connec-
tion with his doctrine of universal love, which is so
closely akin to Christianity. This will be done later
when the religious side of Chinese thought claims our
attention (see p. 147 et seq.).

EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 101

CEREMONIALISM.

As one might have expected, there was a virulent
attack upon the ultra-utilitarianism of Mu Ti. The
Chinese love of ceremony and their strong sentiment
of ancestor - worship prevented them from giving
themselves up to philosophical simplicity or making
an unconditional surrender to utilitarianism. This
antagonistic spirit found its spokesman in Hsiin-tze,67
who nourished several decades later than Mencius.
He left a work consisting of thirty-two books or
chapters. He was not so brilliant a genius as his
predecessors, Mencius and Chwang-tze, but for
a Chinese philosopher of those days his method
of reasoning was singularly sound and systematic.
(So far as I know, there exists no English translation
of the " Hsiin-tze.")

The Confucians of later days treat Hsiin-tze as if
he were a stepson not properly belonging to the
orthodox lineage of Confucianism. This is mainly
due to his doctrine of the innate badness of human
nature, which he forcefully set forth against the
opposite view held by Mencius. Since Han Yii (A.D.
768-824), an eminent scholar and writer of the T'ang
dynasty, pronounced Mencius, in place of Hsiin-tze,
as the transmitter of the orthodox Confucian teachings
at the end of the Ante-Ch'in period, Hsiin-tze lost his
legitimate position and consideration in the eyes of
the general public. But from a scholarly point of

102 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

view, he is entitled, not a whit less than his eloquent
predecessor, Mencius, to a prominent place in the
development of Confucianism.

From the historical point of view, what Hsiin-tze
did for Confucianism was to emphasize its ceremonial
side, while Mencius strongly developed its humanistic
side. In the Confucian " Analects " itself, it is some-
times doubtful whether the Master means to give
more importance to ceremonialism (li, jjj§) or to
humanheartedness (jen, £l). His almost congenital
fondness for rituals and ceremonies was so remark-
able that it caused his biographers to record that
" In his childhood Confucius used to play with
the sacrificial bowls and dishes which he arranged
with due tormaiities." In Book X of the " Analects"
the reader will notice how carefully and minutely is
described the Master's every manner and behaviour
on different occasions, as if he were the living embodi-
ment of all that was proper in life. The main motive
of his interview with Lao-tze was to inquire about
ceremonial usages, formally recorded or not, which
were kept in the archives of the Chou dynasty, of
which Lao-tze was the custodian. And his contem-
poraries seem to have acknowledged him as authority
on matters sacrificial and ceremonial.

Confucius was an ardent advocate of ceremonialism,
not only in its outward expressions, but in its morally
edifying effects on character. In the same sense
Pascal urged a strict observance of all the church

EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 103

rituals as finally conducive to the development of
piety and a Christian disposition. Confucius deplored
the universal decline of the ceremonial spirit in his
days, and did not miss the opportunity to declare
his disapproval. If such a powerful, brilliant, and
extraordinary person as Mencius had not followed
Confucius and emphatically proclaimed the ethical
subjective, and humanitarian phase of his doctrine,
Hsiin-tze, promoter of ceremonialism, instead of the
eloquent Mencius, would have been recognized as the
representative of the orthodox school of Confucianism.

What was most fatal to the popularity of Hsiin-tze
was perhaps due to his radical view of human nature,
which, in contrast to Mencius, he considered essentially
bad, and which, therefore, needed correction through
the rules of propriety, for these were especially in-
vented for this purpose by the ancient sages.

But, strictly speaking, this unflattering conception
of human nature was not of so much importance to
Hsiin-tze as his ceremonialism. His object was to
give a philosophical foundation to his ethics, and this
he based on the crookedness of humanity which needs
rectification. Like other Chinese thinkers, Hsiin-tze
always kept before his eyes the practical side of his
philosophy. His object was to lead people to the
path of perfect virtue ; and to attain it, ceremonialism
was introduced as the best means. It was not of
much consequence, practically considered, whether
humanity in its innate constitution was theoretically

104 A BEIBF HISTORY OF

bad or good; the main thing was to follow the
Confucian codes of morality. And in the course of
this study, we might say, he incidentally found out
that human nature was not good after all as claimed
by Mencius; for if it were, he reasoned, why did it
ever need rectifying through moral discipline and the
rules of propriety ?

Says Hsiin-tze : " Every one has inborn desires.
When these desires are not satisfied, he looks around
for the objects [of satisfaction]. When no measure
and limits are set to this searching, there necessarily
arises quarreling. Quarreling means disturbance, and
disturbance obstruction. Wise men of old hated this
disturbance ; therefore, they established rules of
propriety and justice, and imposed them upon the
people. Their desires were thus regulated and their
requirements thus furnished. Every desire was not
allowed to be satisfied, nor every satisfaction to lead
to a new one. The equilibrium between them was
constantly kept under control. This is the beginning
of the proprieties." M

From this, it is apparent that Hslin-tze considered
society an artificial institution. When men were left
to themselves, they fought against one another, for
each endeavours to have his own desires satisfied
without any regard to his neighbour's. But some-
how it occurred to the mind of a wise man that this
constant disturbance was not a very desirable state of
affairs. Tlie people must be put together in groups.

EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 105

and to insure peace among them some definite checks
must be placed on their never-satiated desires. He
knew that this procedure was against their nature,
that those checks meant the curbing of their wild
desires and impulses, that this was an artificial in-
vention (fJJ, wei ; literally, human doing) contrary
to the innate badness of human nature. Therefore,
the holy man, according to Hsiin-tze, was no more
than a perfected type of artificiality. The differ-
ence between him and the masses was not due
to the difference of their innate character, but to the
artificial refinement that is given to the original raw
material.

Here comes the most pronounced difference between
Hsiin-tze and other Confucians in their practical
system of moral discipline. Tze Ssu (grandson of
Confucius), Tseng-tze (one of the Confucian apostles),
Mencius, and other principal Confucians show a
unanimous tendency to lay more importance on the
inner significance of £l, jen, humanism, and %$[,
ching, reverence, considering the rules of propriety
as a natural outward growth of the inner sentiment.
But Hsiin-tze did not believe in the goodness of human
nature, and could not rely on its self-cultivation. To
use modern terms, he strongly believed in the over-
whelming influence of environment in shaping a man's
character and destiny. The human mind was not a
blank sheet of paper on which anything could be
inodelled. It was, on the contrary, a very rough

106 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

substance which needed the most careful handling
and systematic remodelling. Rigid rules of propriety
artificially laid down by the wise men of old had to
be applied to the original raw material, hewing off
all its ruggedness, and smoothly polishing it up to a
required shape.

" Therefore," says Hsiin-tze, " human nature is the
original foundation and raw material, while artificiality
(wei) means refinement and culture. If not for the
original nature, artificiality would have nothing to
apply itself to; and if not for artificiality, the
original nature would fail to polish itself. Through
the co-operative adjustment of the two, we have a
class of people called the wise, and the consolidation
of the empire is thereby effected. Therefore, I say
that as all things are created through the union of
heaven and earth, and as all changes take place
through the contact of the male and the female
principle, the peace of the empire is obtained
through the co-operative adjustment of the original
nature and artificiality " (Chapter XIX, " Li lun
p'ien").

It is, then, by this artificial remodelling of the
original baseness of humanity that the hungry could
be persuaded to give precedence to the older, the
tired to endure their hardships, brothers to agree in
the distribution of their ancestral property, and the
people to show due consideration even to strangers ;
for all these excellent behaviours are not a spon-

EAKLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 107

taneous exhibition of the sentiment as harboured in
the heart of the natural man, but they must be
ascribed to the beautiful artificial influence of cere-
monialism (li i) .w

If other Confucians are to be classified as upholders
of subjectivism, Hsiin-tze was no doubt a decided
proclaimer of objectivism. He did not believe in
evolving goodness from within, but in grafting it from
without. He did not believe in the cultivation of the
altruistic impulse called the feeling of fellowship or
humaneness (Jen), but in the muzzling of egotism by
some artificial method. When we remember what
powerful factors are traditions and the instinct of
imitation in the upbuilding of society, it is undeniably
true that Hsiin-tze's objective method of moral train-
ing, however one-sided, is conducive in many cases to
the making of a higher moral character.

Ceremonies, formulas, and rules prescribed by reli-
gion or tradition, are the natural outward manifes-
tations of some inner sentiments felt by the wise and
virtuous men of ancient times and by all following
generations sanctioned as elevating and hallowing.
When those established rules are reversed in order,
and, instead of letting them come from within, are
forced upon a human heart from without, it can
logically be expected that they will produce in the
receiving organ similar sentiments and impulses to
those that stirred within ancient men of piety and
virtue. The human heart is made of so many sus-

108 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

ceptible strings, and each of them responds to a certain
note. If they are not strong and original enough to
vibrate automatically from within, they can be made
to act in a definite way by some mechanical means
from without. And that is the psychology of cere-
monialism.

In one sense the view of the later Confucians who
find in Hsiin-tze a seed of heterodoxy can be justified,
for he opposed the idealistic undercurrent in Confu-
cianism which was very precious to most of its adhe-
rents. Says Hsun-tze : " Moral training cannot gain
a step by mere retrospection ; let a man studiously
apply himself to [practical] discipline [or study].70
One whole day spent in meditation does not equal in
merit one minute of [practical] study. We may stand
a-tip-toe as high as possible ; but it is far better to go
up to some height and look round far and wide.
Climb up higher and wave your hands ; your arms
have not gained an inch, but they are seen from afar.
Raise your voice in the direction of the wind ; it is not
necessarily strong, but it can be heard distinctly.
Wise men do not differ in their nature from others.
What makes them wise is due to their adaptation to
environment. Therefore, wise men are particular in
choosing their place of dwelling and their associates,
for things are grouped according to their congeniality.
Let us study all the records bequeathed by our ancient
sages and practise them in our daily life. What is
the most essential of all things, however, is the study

EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 109

and observance of rules of propriety. This is the
consummation of all studies and the culmination of
all virtues." 71 As to the study and importance of the
canonical books, Hsiin-tze was in perfect agreement
with all the other Confucians. But he considered the
book of ceremonies or proprieties to be of special
significance. There are, generally speaking, two
opposite tendencies in the history of philosophy, one
is subjectivism and the other objectivism. In the
Chinese history of thought, Hsiin-tze represented the
latter, and strongly emphasized the importance of
ceremonial formalities.

It is, therefore, quite in keeping with his general
principle that again in opposition to Mu-tze, he laid
great emphasis on the importance of music. Mu-tze
saw in music its economical unproductiveness only,
and ignored its soothing and refining effect on the
sentiment. Hsiin-tze was always bent on cultivating
the character by all possible external means, among
which music must be considered one of the most
potent.72 In this respect Hsiin-tze certainly voiced
one of the sentiments remarkably characteristic of
the Chinese. One of the main reasons, however, why
they did not favour him so much as Mencius, is, as
said before, owing to his peculiar conception concern-
ing the original nature of humanity. Whatever selfish
and bestial impulses and thoughts we may betray in
our daily intercourse with our fellow-creatures, we
are innately inclined not to conceive ourselves as radi-

110 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

cally base in character, and to consider goodness as
something artificial (wei). Our fundamental belief,
though at first unconscious, is that we are capable as
well of absolutely disinterested impulses and thoughts
and actions. And our experiences prove that our
faith in ourselves, though subjectively formulated at
the beginning1, stands on some irrefutable objective
facts. The Chinese, with their highly cultivated
common sense, naturally shrank from Hsiin-tze's
conception of human nature, while in other points
he was a spokesman of their characteristic senti-
ments.

Another factor that tends to prejudice Hsiin-tze in
the eyes of the Chinese public, lies perhaps in his style
of writing. What makes a thought acceptable gener-
ally, is not always determined by its genuine worth,
but in many cases by the manner in which it is pre-
sented. For even a worn-out idea becomes agreeably
acceptable when it is garbed in a new style. Hsiin-tze
stands in this respect far below Mencius. His reason-
ing was unusually powerful and exact and logical as
compared with Mencius' s,73 but the style in which his
thought was expressed was not so brilliant and elo-
quent and charmingly attractive as that of Mencius.
It cannot be denied, as we see to-day, that the pre-
mises and conclusions of these two great ancient
philosophers are defective and one-sided, and do not
cover the entire field; but judging from their rhetori-
cal effects, Mencius appeals more irresistibly even to

EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 111

readers of these latter days ; and it is no wonder that
intellectual Hsiin was treated by his compatriots as
though he were without the pale of the holy teaching
of Confucius — Confucius who, to the people of the
Middle Kingdom, was the ultimate authority in matters
moral and religious.

RELIGION

UNDER this heading will be discussed the conception
of God or Shang Ti J^ ^ in the Five Canonical Books
( Wu Ching), especially in the " Shu " and the " Shih,"
both of which may be considered to embody the gist
of popular philosophy in early China. The reason
why I confine myself to these classical documents- is
because every religious attitude manifested by the
Chinese towards God is to be found in them, and I
might almost say, only in them. The philosophers,
on the other hand, including the Confucians, the
Taoists, and others, seem to have had nothing espe-
cially to do with the worship of God. Perhaps one
solitary exception was Mu-tze, who has some special
chapters in his book devoted to the subject. In fact,
there is a very definite line of demarcation between
these two representative groups of writings, the
classics and the philosophical works. The first are
religious in the proper sense of the word, while the
latter are practical, moral, and rationalistic, or some-
times highly speculative, as is the case with the Taoist
books.

The earliest Chinese notion of God was more or less
112

BAELY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 113

personal ; the relation that obtained between Heaven
(t'ien ^)74 and mankind on earth, was to a certain
degree intimate and mutually responsive ; whenever
misfortune visited the people they were sure to cry to
Heaven as the source of mercy and repent of their
wickedness. But when the philosophical mind began
to make inquiries, Heaven lost its emotional, religious
relations to the creatures below ; for it became more
and more impersonal until it finally came to represent
a mere sum of natural laws which required no special
humouring, as it were. T'ien came to be used in
the sense of rationality, and almost entirely replaced
by ffi ti (Lord),75 or J^ ffi shang ti (Lord on high),
a term fully suggesting a personal agent.76

That in ancient times the Chinese had in their minds
a being, or power, or even a person that governed
mortals below, is gathered from the terms (Lord,
August Heaven, Pitying Heaven, etc.) so liberally and
religiously used in the " Shu Ching," « Shih Ching,"
" Yih Ching," and "Li Ki "—especially in the first two
canonical books. In what follows an attempt will be
made to illustrate the attitude of the early Chinese
towards this shang ti as well as the attributes under
which he was conceived.

1. In the first place, Heaven (t'ien) was compas-
sionate, as is known from one of its common attributes,
.g min, " pitying." Whenever the early Chinese
suffered, they called upon Heaven for protection and
commiseration ; they found consolation in their distress

8

114 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

by; addressing Heaven as their parent. When the
early Chinese settlement was still struggling hard
with wild and barbarous neighbours, with those San
Miao tribes who rebelled repeatedly against Chinese
rule, the Chinese authorities thought it expedient to
appeal to the religious sentiment of the wild Miao and
to call Grod to their help. So we read in the " Coun-
sels of the great Yii," in the " Shu Ching " (Part II,
Book II) : ee At the end of three decades, the people
of Miao rebelled against the commands, when Yi came
to the help of Yii, saying, 'It is virtue only that
moves Heaven ; there is no distance to which it does
not extend. Fulness invites loss, humility receives
increase — this is the way of Heaven. In the early
time of Ti77 when he was living by Mount Li, he went
into the fields, cried daily to Pitying Heaven, and to
his parents, taking upon himself all guilt and charging
himself with their wickedness. Reverently attending
to his duties, he appeared before Ku Sau with re-
spectful humility ; he looked grave and awestruck, till
Ku Sau also became transformed by his example.
Entire sincerity moves the spirits,78 how much more
will it move the rulers of Miao P "79

Under King Li (878-828 B.C.) of the Chou dynasty,
a courtier was slandered and disgraced. He did not
know where to appeal for vindication but to Heaven,
who looked upon human affairs with parental sym-
pathy. He composed a poem and thus addressed
Heaven : " 0 Great and Distant Heaven, who art

EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 115

called our parent,80 why should I without crime or
offence suffer from disorders so great ! The terrors
of Great Heaven are excessive, but indeed I have
committed no crime. The terrors of Great Heaven
are excessive, but indeed I have committed no
offence" (" Shih Ching," II, Y, 4; Legge, p. 361).

Mang-tze, a chief of eunuchs, became a victim of
slander, whereupon he cried to Heaven, bitterly
denouncing his enemies : " The proud are delighted
and the troubled are in sorrow. 0 Azure Heaven !
O Azure Heaven! Look on these proud men; pity
those who are troubled" (" Shih," II, Y, 6).

2. Since Heaven is compassionate, it is Heaven
that showers blessings upon humankind. The early
Chinese were quite simple-hearted. Whenever their
hearts overflowed either in grief or in joy, they, like
every other primitive people, made Heaven their last
refuge. When the Chou dynasty came to full
sovereignty through the successful achievements of
its earlier rulers, T'ai Wang, T'ai Pe, Wang Chi, and
through the subjugation of Mi and Ts'ung by King
Wen, they ascribed this to the special grace of
Heaven shown to the House of Chou, and for which
the poet was made to sing the virtues of the kings
and to thank Heaven in the following lines : " Great
is the Lord on high, beholding this lower world in
majesty. He surveyed the four quarters, seeking for
some one to give establishment to the people. Those
two earlier dynasties had failed to satisfy him with

116 A BEIBF HISTORY OF

their government; so throughout the various states,
he sought one on whom he might confer the rule.
Hating all the great states, he turned his attention to
the West, and gave a settlement [to King 'Fai] "
(«Shih"III,I, 7; Legge, p. 389).

This idea of heavenly bliss is also expressed in a
much earlier ode of the Shang dynasty (1766-
1123 B.C.). The piece is a sort of hymn sung to the
spirit of the founder of the dynasty, T'ang the
Perfect. First, it alludes to his virtuous life, offer-
ings are made, he is asked to partake of them and to
bless his descendants. Then it describes the feudal
princes coming to celebrate the festival (" Shih," IV,
Y, 2) : " With the hubs of their wheels bound with
leather, and their ornamented yokes, with the eight
bells at their horses' bits all tinkling, [the princes]
come to assist at the offerings. We have received
the appointment in all its greatness, and from Heaven
is our prosperity sent down, fruitful years of great
abundance. [Our ancestors] will come and enjoy
[our offerings] and confer on us happiness without
limit/'

In another ode belonging to the same period, the
virtue of T'ang the Perfect is described and praised
as a special blessing bestowed upon him by Heaven :
"He received the tribute of the states, small and
large, and supported them as a strong steed [does its
burden] : — so did he receive the blessings of Heaven.
Everywhere he displayed his valour, unshaken, un-

BAELY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 117

moved, unterrified, unscared, — all dignities were
united in him" (" Shih," IV, V, 4; Legge, p. 310).

This idea of heavenly bliss is also expressed by
Chou Kung in his advice to his colleague, Shao
Kung, who wanted to retire from the royal service.
Alluding to the prosperous state which the Chou
dynasty was then enjoying, the Duke of Chou says :
"And the favour of Heaven has come to us so
largely ; it should be ours to feel as if we could not
sufficiently respond to it" ("Shu," Part V, Book
XVI, "The Prince Shih").

3. Not only bliss but curses also come from
Heaven, when creatures below pay no regard to the
moral laws as established by it. There are numerous
passages in the " Shu " as well as the " Shih " in
which sufferers most pitifully appeal to Heaven for
rescue, sometimes even blaming Heaven for the
misery which they endure. This is quite natural;
for were it not for the existence of evils man would
never become conscious of a power above him. To
quote only a few of the many lamentations addressed
to Heaven by the early Chinese : " Great Heaven is
not just to send down these dire calamities ; Great
Heaven is not merciful to send down these miseries .
... 0 Unpitying Great Heaven, there is no end to
disorder ! With every month it continues to grow so
that the people have no rest " (" Shih," II, IV, 7).81
" Great and Far-reaching Heaven, how is it thou hast
not extended thy benevolence, but sendest down ruin

118 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

and famine, and bringest about desolation throughout
the Empire ? Pitying Heaven, quickened with wrath,
hast thou no discrimination, no design ? Leave un-
punished those who sinned, for they have already
suffered for their offences. But those who are with-
out sin are also drawn into the general misfortune "
(" Shih," II, IV, 10).82 " Shou, King of Shang, does
not reverence Heaven above, and inflicts calamities
on the people below. . . . Great Heaven was moved
with indignation" (" Shu," V, I).83

4. Heaven was thus considered to be in possession
of full power over mankind. It showed mercy to
those who were virtuous and obedient to the heavenly
will; but woe unto those who deviated from its
prescribed course; no one could resist or ignore
heavenly displeasure. "The overpowering wrath of
unfathomable Heaven is felt throughout the world
below" ("Shin," II, V, I).84 "Right from the
spring comes the water bubbling, revealing its
depths — sorrow of my heart ! Did it start only to-
day ? Why not in the days before me ? Why not
in the days after me ? Incomprehensible Heaven,
far and distant, is able to strengthen anything. Do
not disgrace your ancestors, but save your posterity "
("Shih," III, III, 10).86 "If you reverently obey,
Heaven will favour and compassionate you. But if
you do not reverently obey, you shall not only be
deprived of your lands, but I will also carry to the
utmost Heaven's inflictions upon your persons"

EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 119

("Shu," V, XIV; Legge, p. 200). In this passage,
which is taken from Chou Kung's address to the
"Numerous Officers" of the Yin dynasty which he
had just overthrown, we notice his most threatening
attitude toward the survivors of the preceding
dynasty. This is due to the conviction that he
represents in his person the authorities above,
according to which he was ordered to overturn the
tyrannical government of Shang. This theocratic
conception is traceable throughout in the history
of China, to which further reference will be made
later on.

5. Owing to the fact that sinners are liable at any
time to be visited with heavenly judgments, the
power above had to be revered and its decrees
complied with. The poet Fang Peh, of the Chou
dynasty, who mourns the prevailing misery of the
people suffering from the reckless policy of King Yu,
strongly urges the King and his counsellors to heed
the wrath exhibited by Heaven : " Revere the wrath
of Heaven, and dare not to make sport or be lax.
Revere the ways of Heaven, and dare not to be wild
and unruly. Great Heaven is bright and is with you
wherever you go. Great Heaven is clear-sighted,
and is with you wherever you wander " (" Shih," III,
II, 10; Legge, p. 410). In the same spirit, King
Wu addresses K'ang Shu who was about to be
appointed Marquis of Wei, a former stronghold of
the Shang dynasty : " Let us be reverent, let us be

120 A BRIEF HISTOBY OF

reverent. The way of Heaven is evident, and its
decree is not easy to follow. Say not that it is high,
high above us. It ascends and descends around
these people ; daily overseeing us, it is wherever we
are. ... Oh ! Fang, my little child, be reverent as
if thy person were suffering from a disease ; awesome
though Heaven be, it yet helps the sincere " (" Shu/'
V,IX; Legge,p. 165/.).

6. Heaven is not only the symbol of power and
energy, but that of wisdom, bright and illuminating.
" High Heaven, so bright, the earth below lies in thy
illuminating survey" (« Shih," II, VI, 3).86 "Great
Heaven is exceedingly bright" ("Shih," III, III, 2).87
" The bright and illuminating Lord on high giveth us
promise of a prosperous year" (" Shih," IV, II, I).88
" Great Heaven is bright and is with you in all your
journeys. Great Heaven is clear-sighted and is with
you in all your wanderings" (" Shih," III, II, 10).

7. Being intelligent and all-seeing, what is decreed
by Heaven must be carried out by man who is no
more than a mere instrument. The will of Heaven
once declared is irrevocable, for it is the source of the
moral laws and the standard of conduct. So, a poet89
of the Chou dynasty again declares : " Look into the
midst of the forest ; there we find large faggots and
small twigs. The people now in their sad condition
look towards Heaven, vague and indefinite. Yet
when its determination is fixed, there is no one whom
it will not conquer. There is the great Lord on high,

EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 121

and does he hate any one ?" Duke Wu of Wei makes
a rejoinder to this conviction when he says, " Great
Heaven never errs" (« Shih," III, III, 2).90 And
this unerring decree of Heaven was ever kept in view
by a wise ruler, who would never think of doing
violence to his moral conscience as an expression of
the heavenly will. The Chinese government in those
earlier days, and perhaps even now to a certain extent,
was a theocracy. So we read in the " Instructions "
given to T'ai Chia by his aged teacher minister, Yi
Yin ("Shu," IY, V; Legge, p. 95 /.) : "The former
king kept his eye constantly on the manifest decrees
of Heaven, and so maintained the worship of the
spirits of heaven and earth, of those presiding over
the land and the grain, and of those of the ancestral
temple — all with sincere reverence. Heaven took
notice of his virtue, and caused its great appointment
to light on him that he should soothe and tranquillize
the myriad regions." Again, in the " Great Announce-
ment," which was issued by King Ch'eng of the Chou
dynasty when he was at the point of undertaking a
punitive expedition against some of his rebellious
lords, the young King declares (" Shu," Y, YII) :
" My work is as the servant of Heaven, which has
assigned me this great task and laid the hard duty on
my person. ... I the little child dare not disregard
the appointment of the Lord on high. ... Oh ! the
clearly-intended will of Heaven is to be feared, it is
to help my great inheritance " (Legge, p. 159) .91

122 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

8. The moral relations that exist between men are
so determined eternally by the ordinances of Heaven.
Heaven is the source of moral authority. Those who
are immoral commit sin against Heaven and cannot
escape its retribution. It is always impartial and
shows no favour in administering justice. So declares
the poet Yin Chi Fu of the Chou dynasty in the reign
of King Hsiian : " Heaven gave birth to the multi-
tudes of the people ; and wherever there are things
they are governed by fixed laws. To delight in what
is held by the people eternally normal, that is the
highest virtue" (" Shih," III, III, 6). This notion
of the heavenly origin of the moral laws is much more
clearly and definitely stated in the " Shu Ching " (II,
III) by Kao Yao, minister to Shun. Kao Yao says :
" It is by the heavenly arrangement that we have a
universal order here ; and ours is to maintain properly
the five orders ; let us be sincere in these five. It is
the heavenly ordinance that we have a regular pro-
ceeding here ; and ours is to observe the five cere-
monies; let us be constant. Through universal
respect and united reverence, let there be a harmo-
nious regulation. Heaven favours the virtuous ; and
there are five habiliments; let the five be clearly dis-
tinguished. Heaven punishes the guilty ; and there
are five punishments ; let the five be in effect. In
the affairs of administration — let us be earnest, let us
be earnest " (cf. Legge, p. 55).

9. The moral laws were thus made by Heaven, and

EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 123

eternally fixed; and it was the same authority that
rewarded the just and punished the unjust. For
Heaven was not only the author of the laws, but their
executor, stern and inflexible. Therefore, whether or
not the creatures here below were made happy, pros-
perous, and satisfied, depended upon their own conduct.
If they obeyed the rules initiated by Heaven and
practised goodness (te), the Lord on high favoured
them ; but if they did not they were sure to suffer the
consequence. There was no escape from this absolute
law. Therefore, we read in the " Shu Ching "
(IV, IV, "The Instructions of Yi") : "Only the
Lord on high is not constant : on the good- doer He
sends down all blessings, and on the evil-doer He
sends down all miseries. Do you but be virtuous, be
it in small things [or large], and the myriad regions
will have cause for rejoicing. If you be not virtuous,
be it in large things [or small] , it will bring the ruin
of your ancestral temple" (Legge, p. 95). Yi Yin,
the sage-minister, again expresses the identical idea
in his discourse on "Absolute Virtue" (" Shu," IV, VI),
which is also addressed to his charge T'ai Chia : " It
was not that Heaven felt any partiality for the Lord
of Shang ; but Heaven comes to [him who practises]
absolute virtue. It was not that Shang courted the
favour of the lower people, but the people turned
towards [him who practised] absolute virtue. Where
there is absolute virtue, there is no undertaking that
is not favourable. Where virtue contradicts itself,

124 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

there is no undertaking that is not unfavourable.
Favour or disfavour does not wrongfully fall upon
men : for Heaven sends down misfortune or pros-
perity according to their virtue " (cf. Legge, p. 101).
In one word, " The heavenly way is to bless the good
and to curse the dissolute " (" Shu," IV, III, "The
Announcement of 'Fang ").

10. It thus goes without saying that Heaven knows
110 partiality whatever in conferring bliss or sending
down calamity. The venerable Yi Yin again instructs
his young king (" Shu/' Part IY, Book V, Section C) :
" Oh ! Heaven knows no favouritism. Only those who
are reverent are favoured by it. The people have no
special person whom they constantly cherish, they
only cherish those that are benevolent. The spiritual
beings have no special offerings which they are con-
stant in accepting, thev only accept things that are
offered with sincerity. The heavenly seat is indeed
difficult to hold." Later, Chou Kung also utters the
same sentiment when he is about to appoint his nephew
Chung Hu to Lord Tsai (" Shu," Y, XVII) : " Great
Heaven knows no favouritism. Only those who are
virtuous are helped by it. The people's hearts know
no constant attachment ; only they cherish those that
are benevolent."

11. As Heaven shows no partiality in its dealings
with creatures on earth, the latter must always be
on their guard so that they may not fall from the
heavenly grace and suffer misery and ignominy.

EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 125

Heaven can never be relied upon, it is not constant,
it changes as a man changes in his virtuous conduct.
And it is most difficult for him to be always upright
and virtuous, and not to deviate even for a moment
from the path prescribed by the Lord on high.
Heaven's favours are the most difficult thing to be
retained by us earthly creatures. The unreliability
of the heavenly will, therefore, from the human point
of view, is ever and again emphasized by the early
Chinese moralists. Yi Yin's (who died 1713 B.C.) in-
struction to the young king T'ai Chia repeatedly refers
to this idea ; he seems never tired of reminding the
inexperienced lest he let loose his youthful unbridled
passions in his administration, thinking that the
heavenly pleasure once shown to his father is constant
and eternal regardless of his own conduct. " Oh !"
says Yi Yin, " it is difficult to rely upon Heaven, for
its decrees are not constant. But [let a ruler] be
constant in his goodness, and he will preserve his
throne. Let him be inconstant in his goodness, and
the nine provinces will be lost to him " (" Shu/' IY,
VI; Legge, p. 101). Later, Chou Kung (d. 1105 B.C.)
is also anxious to impress this idea on his colleague,
Shao Kung : " The decrees of Heaven are not easily
preserved, Heaven is difficult to be depended upon "
(" Shu/' Y, XYI; Legge, p. 206). In the "Book of
Odes" we find Chou Kung again referring to the
utmost difficulty of securing the heavenly grace : for
he sings in his commemoration of the father Wen

126 A BEIEF HISTORY OF

(" Shih," III, I, 2) : " The bright illumination [of
virtue] here below; the stern authority [of God] there
above. Heaven is not readily to be relied upon ; it
is no easy task to be a king. Yin's rightful heir to
the heavenly seat was not allowed to govern the four
quarters. . . . The King Wen gloriously served the
Lord on high with watchfulness and reverence, and
thus won numerous blessings. Since his virtue was
never reversed, he enjoyed the allegiance of the states
from all quarters. . . . The troops of Yin Shang
assembled like a forest and marshalled on the wilds
of Mu. We rose thereupon and [Shang Fu cried to
the King Wen], ' The Lord on high is with thee, be
not faint-hearted P "

*****
From these statements, it is apparent that the
Chinese even in those early days had a conception of
God, a Supreme Being, who presided over human
affairs below, and that this conception was of a very
high order ; and at the same time the fact will strike
an observant reader that the Chinese God is different
in one essential point from the Hebrew God — that is,
the former betrays no such personal intimacy as the
latter does in the Old Testament. The Chinese are
not such an intensely religious and fanatical people
as the Hebrews, and naturally their conception of the
highest authority of moral laws was not so personal
and intimate as that of the Jews, though Shang Ti
was personal enough in certain respects. Even in

EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 127

their most religious documents in the "Shu Ching,"
they seem never to have given rein to their imagina-
tion so far as to depart from the bounds of common-
sense morality. This will be shown in the following
"Announcement of T'ang," who founded the Yin
dynasty (1766-1154 B.C.). This imperial manifesto
was issued by T'ang to justify himself before his
subjects in the overthrow of the preceding dynasty
and in the establishment of his own — a procedure
sanctioned by Heaven.92 In this we see the elevation
of its moral tone, but not any particularly religious
fervour. After T'ang had made an end of the Hsia
dynasty and returned to Po, he issued this announce-
ment, a solemn inauguration of the new dynasty :
" Ah ! Ye multitudes of the myriad regions, listen
clearly to the announcement of me, the One Man.
The Great Lord on high has endowed the people
below with a conscience, and it is their eternal nature
to be in accord with it; while the work of the
sovereign is to make them tranquilly pursue the
course which it would indicate.

"The king of Hsia extinguished his virtue, and
played the tyrant, extending his oppression over you,
the people of all the clans from myriad regions.
Suffering from his cruel injuries, and unable to
endure the bitterness and venomousness, you, the
people of all the clans from myriad regions, with
one accord protested your innocence to the spirits
of heaven and earth. The way of Heaven is to

128 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

bless the good and make wretched the dissolute. It
sent down calamities on Hsia, to make manifest her
guilt.

"Therefore I, the little child, charged with the
decree of Heaven and its evident terrors, did not
dare to pardon [the criminal]. I presumed to use
the dark-coloured victim-bull, and, making clear
announcement to the spiritual sovereign in the high
heavens, requested leave to deal with the ruler of
Hsia as a criminal. Then I sought for the great
sage, with whom I might unite my strength, to
request the favour [of Heaven] for you, my multi-
tudes.

4 ' High Heaven truly showed its favour to the
people below, and the criminal has been degraded
and subjected. What Heaven appoints is without
error ; — brilliantly [now] , like the blooming of plants
and trees, the millions of the people show a true
revival.

"It is given to me, the One Man, to secure the
harmony and tranquillity of your states and clans;
and now I know not whether I may not offend
against [powers] above and below. I am fearful and
trembling, as if I were in danger of falling into a
deep abyss.

"Throughout all the regions that enter on a new
life under me see that ye follow not lawless ways;
make no approach to insolence and dissoluteness ; let
every one be careful to keep his state; that so we

EAKLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 129

may receive the favour of Heaven. The good in
you, I will not dare to keep concealed ; and for the
evil in me I will not dare to forgive myself. I will
examine these things in harmony with the mind of
the Lord on high. When guilt is found anywhere in
you who occupy the myriad regions, let it rest on me,
the One Man. When guilt is found in me, the One
Man, it shall not attach to you who occupy the
myriad regions.

" Oh ! let us attain to sincerity in these things, and
so we shall likewise have a [happy] consummation "
('< Shu/' Legge, p. 89/.).

The Chinese Grod was not the God of the Psalms
nor of Job ; he was a quiet, deliberate, ethical power
that discharged or exercised his function rather
impassively. He never showed himself in the midst
of fires, thunders, or lightnings to rent his personal
ire upon the creatures below. The Chinese never
caught a glimpse of their Grod. He was hidden far
up in the azure skies, he could not be brought into
immediate personal touch with mortals. His presence
could only be inferred through the manifestations of
his power — that is, through extraordinary natural
phenomena. When he was indignant, he visited all
kinds of calamity upon the misguided. So we read
in the "Slut Ching" (III, III, 3): "Heaven is
sending down death and desolation, and has put an
end to our king. It is [now] sending down those
devourers of the grain so that the husbandry is all in

9

130 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

evil case. Alas for our Middle States ! all is in peril
and going to ruin. I have no strength [to do any-
thing], I but think of the power in the azure vault."
Again : " Bright was the Milky Way, shining and
revolving in the sky. The King said, ' Oh ! What
crime is chargeable to us now, that Heaven sends
down death and desolation ? Famine comes again
and again. There is no spirit I have not sacrificed
to, there is no victim I have grudged. Our jade
symbols, oblong and round, are exhausted; — how
is it that I am not heard? *>.* The drought is
excessive, and I may not try to excuse myself. I am
full of terror and feel the peril, like the clap of
thunder or the roll. Of the remnant of Chou, among
the black-haired people, there will not be a half man
left, nor will the Lord on high in great Heaven
exempt me. One and all, shall we not dread this?
Our ancestors will be without successors/ ""

These calamities came down from Heaven on
account of human wickedness.94 The cry of the
suffering is piteous enough, and if this were raised to
Yahveh, it is highly probable that he would listen to
it and make a personal communication with his
creatures below. But the Chinese Grod in great
Heaven which is far extending,95 veiled in obscurity96
(though sometimes bright and illuminating), and
having no sound nor odour,97 is altogether irresponsive ;
he seems to be not immediately concerned with human
affairs, in any event not so personally as the Judaic

EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 131

G-od, who " thundereth marvellously with his voice/'
Avho " saith to the snow, Be thou on the earth ; like-
wise to the small rain, and to the great rain of his
strength/' and again who " sealeth up the hand of
every man; that all men may know his work"
(Job, xxxvii, 5-7). Such a God as this was not in
accord with the Chinese imagination.

Though lacking in religious fervour, the Chinese
God, besides being a stern moral power, was a
political director, whose foremost object of adminis-
tration was to give his people happiness, peace, and
justice. When Heaven found its earthly representa-
tive who is called the " son of Heaven " unworthy of
his exalted position, it appointed some one else from
among the people. This new representative, con-
scious of his holy mission, gathered about him all the
available forces to rise against the prevailing house.
He would recount all the outrageous, inhuman sins
committed by the tyrant, and in them would seek the
justification of his action as heaven-ordained. The
"Great Declaration" ("Shu," V, I) by King Wu of
the Chou dynasty, though by some considered
spurious, fairly illustrates the attitude of a new
dynasty against its corrupt, degenerate predecessor.
He declares : " Heaven-aiid-earth is the parent of all
creatures; and of all creatures man is the most
highly endowed. The sincerely intelligent [among
men] becomes the great sovereign; and the great
sovereign is the parent of the people. But now

132 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

Shou, the king of Shang, does not reverence Heaven
above, and inflicts calamities on the people below.
Abandoned to drunkenness and reckless in lust, he
has dared to exercise cruel, oppression. He has
extended the punishments of offenders to their
relatives. He has put men into offices on the
hereditary principle. He has made it his pursuit to
have palaces, towers, pavilions, embankments, ponds
and other extravagances, to the most painful injury
of you, the people of myriad regions. He has burned
and roasted the royal and good. He has ripped up
pregnant women.

"Great Heaven was moved with indignation, and
charged my deceased father Wen to display its
terrors; but [he died] before the great work was
completed. On this account, I, Fa, the little child,
have by means of you, the hereditary rulers of my
friendly states, contemplated the government of
Shang : but Shou has no repentant heart. He sits
squatting on his heels, not serving the Lord on high
nor the spirits of heaven and earth, neglecting also
the temple of his ancestors, and not sacrificing in it.
The victims and the vessels of millet all become the
prey of robbers, and still he says, 'The people are
mine; the [heavenly] appointment is mine/ never
trying to correct his contemptuous mind.

" Heaven, for the help of the people below, made
for them rulers, and made for them instructors, that
they might be able to be of service to the Lord on

EAELY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 133

high, and secure the tranquillity of the four quarters
[of the empire]. In regard to deciding who are
criminals and who are not, how dare I give any
allowance to my own wishes ?

" ( When the strength is the same, measure the
virtue [of the parties] ; when the virtue is the same,
measure their righteousness !' Shou has hundreds of
thousands and myriads of officers, but they have
hundreds of thousands and myriads of minds j I have
[but] three thousand officers, but they have one mind.
The iniquity of Shang is full. Heaven gives com-
mand to destroy it. If I did not obey Heaven, my
iniquity would be as great.

"I, the little child, early and late am filled with
apprehensions. I have received the command of my
deceased father Wen ; I have offered special sacrifice
to the Lord on high ; I have performed the due ser-
vices to the great earth, and I lead the multitudes of
you to execute the punishment appointed by Heaven.

" Heaven compassionates the people. To what the
people desire, Heaven will be found to give effect.
Give ye aid to me, the One Man, to cleanse forever all
within the four seas. Now is the time. It should
not be lost" (Legge, p. 125/.)-

The " Shih " records how Heaven appointed King
Wen to take measures against the tyrant of Shang,
whose atrocious deeds are enumerated in the above
" Declaration." " The Lord on high said to King Wen,
* I am pleased with your intelligent virtue, not loudly

134 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

proclaimed nor portrayed, without extravagance or
changeableness, without consciousness of effort on
your part, in accordance with the pattern of the Lord
on high/ The Lord on high said to King Wen,
'Take measures against the country of your foes.
Along with your brethren, get ready your scaling
ladders, and your engines of onset and assault, to
attack the wall of Ch'ung'" (III, I, 7).

The Chinese did not make any distinction between
moral and political authority. Whoever is able to
govern the people must be a man of moral perfection;
and whoever is perfect in his goodness is entitled to
a rulership; for the highest position in the state
belongs to the one who is nearest to the Lord on
high. In this, the Chinese conception of rulership
may be considered somewhat akin to that of Plato,
who conceives the state as a sort of great ethical
institution in which the morally perfect and philoso-
phically great must lead the masses.

When any rebellious uprising was not necessary to
enforce the heavenly order of things against a despot,
it was the wont of a perfect, virtuous ruler to select
the wisest and most virtuous of his subjects as his
own successor. In this way Yao raised Shun to the
highest office in the state, and Shun in turn selected
Yu to succeed him. The occupation of the throne
thus effected was ascribed to the heavenly will as we
read in "The Counsels of the Great Yu" ("Shu,"
II, II), in which the minister Yi praises the virtue of

EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 135

Yao : " Oh ! the virtue of the divine Yao is vast and
unceasing. It is holy, spirit-like, awe-inspiring, and
refined. G-reat Heaven regarded you favourably, and
ordained you to hold all the four oceans and to become
the ruler of the empire."

Therefore, it was natural that every dynastic change
was considered by the Chinese a decree of Heaven.
The Yin failed because Heaven wanted to discontinue
its favour, though this was once so generously be-
stowed upon the declining dynasty. The Chou was
favoured because the rising one had proved its virtue
and ability to carry out the appointment by the Un-
known. The declining house showed by its very
decline that it was no longer able effectively to main-
tain the right entrusted to it by Great Heaven. The
disintegration that had been going on within the
kingdom was the punishment from above. But if the
ruler could not be made to become conscious of the
fact and continued to aggravate the wretched condi-
tion of affairs, the heavenly punishment was to be
completed by the total overthrow of the reigning
government.

It was in accordance with this spirit that the Duke
of Chou made the following declaration to the officers
of the Yin dynasty which he overthrew (1122 B.C.) :
" Ye numerous officers of the Yin dynasty, great ruin
came down on Yin from the cessation of forbearance
in pitying Heaven, and we, the lords of Chou, received
its favouring appointment. We felt charged with the

136 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

manifest wrath of Heaven, carried out the punishment
which came from a superior, and rightfully disposed
of the appointment of Yin, thus finishing [the will of]
the Lord on high. Now, ye numerous officers, it was
not our small state that dared to attack the appoint-
ment of Yin, but Heaven was not for Yin, for indeed
it would not strengthen the disorderly [government
of Yin]. But it helped us. Did we dare to seek the
office of ourselves ? Only the Lord on high was not
for Yin as was gleaned from the doings of our com-
mon people in whom is seen the manifest wrath of
Heaven" ("Shu," V, XIV; Legge, p. 196/.).

As I stated before, the Chinese Shang Ti never
made any direct personal demonstration of his will
before the people, though the latter felt intimate
enough toward him, as for instance when they ap-
pealed to him as the last resort. Whatever displeasure
or wrath he felt was only indirectly communicated
through such inanimate mediums as drought, famine,
epidemics, or earthquake, and especially through the
doings and feelings of the common people, which a
wise ruler is always anxious to read correctly. Heaven
utters no word, but through the people. Its ever-
persistent will is to bring peace and good-will and
righteousness here below ; and when the ruler, failing
to execute this order to the satisfaction of the masses,
endeavours to promote his personal selfish interests
the people grow uneasy, disorder begins to prevail, a
clamour goes up from the suffering, extraordinary

EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 137

phenomena take place, and herein the wise read symp-
toms of heavenly displeasure. " Heaven sees as the
people see, Heaven hears as the people hear "
(" Shu/' V., I.). " As Heaven has mercy upon the
people, whatever is desired by them is always granted"
(" Shu," Y, I, a). Again, " Heavenly intelligence is
shown in the intelligence of the people, and the mani-
festation of heavenly wrath is shown in the manifesta-
tion of the wrath of the people" ("Shu," II, III).
The relation between the two, above and below, is so
intimate that when one is affected the other is sure to
feel it. Therefore, whenever there is a manifestation
of unrest among the masses, the wise and virtuous
know that the heavenly appointment of the prevailing
dynasty is being revoked, and they bide their time to
rise against it when all hopes for its regeneration or
reformation are gone. Vox populi, vox del, was the
motto of the Chinese. Much of the Chinese democracy
that prevails in spite of an autocratic form of govern-
ment, is certainly due to the conception of the divinity
of the popular will.

The vox populi was not, however, the only means to
ascertain the heavenly will. There was another indi-
cation of it — divination. When divination and the
reading of the popular will agreed, the wise knew
conclusively where lay the heavenly will, and did not
hesitate to carry this out through every means within
their power. When King Ch'ang of the Chou dynasty
started on his punitive expedition against the tyrant

138 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

of Shang, he divined by the great tortoise-shell be-
queathed to him by his father, King Neng, whether
the great undertaking he was about to execute were
in accord with the heavenly pleasure and could be
brought to a successful end (" Shu/' Y, YII ; Legge,
pp. 157-158) . Having obtained a favourable response,
he issued "the Great Announcement " to his fellow-
dukes and kings as well as to his own people.

When Shun wanted to select his royal successor, he
had recourse to divination, though his mind was first
made up as to who it should be. To the protestation
of great Yii, that the divine Shun should, before
selecting his successor, " submit the meritorious
ministers one by one to the trial of divination and let
the favourable indication be followed," the divine
Shun replied, "According to the rules for the regula-
tion of divination, a person should first make up his
mind and then refer his decision to the great tortoise-
shell. My mind therefore was first made up. I con-
sulted and deliberated with every one of my people,
who all agreed with me. The spiritual beings indi-
cated their approval, the tortoise-shell and divining
stalks concurred. Divination, when lucky, should
not be repeated. . . . The manifest appointment of
Heaven is on thy person, and thou art eventually to
ascend the sovereign seat" ("Shu," II, II; Legge,
p. 50/.).

In "The Great Plan » (" Shu," Y, IY, Chapter 7),
we read how divination by the tortoise-shell and the

EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 139

stalks of milfoil is to be resorted to in the settlemen
of doubts.98 The philosophy of divination is that of
the Yih King, to which allusion has been made already
in an earlier part of this book.

Thus it is evident that Shang Ti was the supreme
power that guided and controlled the destiny of the
people below. It was the moral authority of the
universe, and its will, in whatever way manifested,
either through public opinion or divination, was
absolute. The only way to court its favour was to be
morally upright and humane. It never showed any
personal favouritism. In this can also be seen the
peculiarly practical turn of the Chinese mind. Their
Shang Ti was the Grod of monotheism as much as the
Yahveh of the Jews ; but as I have repeatedly re-
marked, Shang Ti never entered into such an intimate
relationship with mortals as did Yahveh. The Ti
was a somewhat impersonal moral principle, though
not without some of the human passions as when he
showed his wrath through famine and desolation.
However this may be, the Chinese conception of
Shang Ti was free from the elements of poetical
or mystical imagination. He never revealed himself
on a certain sacred spot on earth, nor in any material,
objective form that could be perceived by the human
senses. No Chinese sages ever heard his " still small
voice/' There was no Moses, no Abraham, no
Aaron; but Shun, Yii, Yi Yin, T'ang the Perfect,
Duke of Chou, and Confucius — all prosaic and

140 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

practical and strictly ethical. Theophany was un-
known in China. In short, Chinese imagination
could not conceive the utility of the prophet or seer.
It is true that the voice of Shang Ti is sometimes
represented as having spoken to the mortal ear, but
we are always kept in the dark as to his method
of communication, if not through strange natural
events," or vox populi, or divination. He never
manifested himself even in dreams or visions.

The early Chinese, however, seem to have made
a distinction between Ti and T'ien. Though, of
course, this distinction was not clearly denned, Ti
appears to have been understood more personally
than T'ien. This would at once be felt when Ti
is translated into English by "Lord" or "God,"
while T'ien is rendered " Heaven." About the
time of Confucius, or even as early as when the
first part of the "Yin King Commentaries" was
written, the significance of Ti was almost lost sight
of, while T'ien came to occupy the more important
place in the religious system of China. In other
words, Shang Ti came to be regarded purely as a
moral principle or reason of the universe. The most
efficient and practical and religious way of serving it
was to put all its moral laws such as the five Eternal
Codes into practice, and did not necessarily consist in
offering prayers or singing hymns or sacrificing
victims to an imaginary, invisible presence that at
best had no immediate personal relationship to the

EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 141

world below. The heavenly way was the human way.
It was thus that the early religious conception of
Shang Ti became gradually metamorphosed into the
purely philosophical principle of Tien and then finally
into the ethical idea of Tao.100

Another peculiar feature of the Chinese worship of
Shang Ti, which must not escape our consideration
here, was that there was no popular temple dedicated
to him where Heaven-fearing souls might come and
offer prayers and ask special grace from above. The
worship of Shang Ti was solely a state affair en-
trusted to a ruler personally, who by virtue of his
heavenly appointment was the only authorized person-
age sacred enough to conduct the ceremony of wor-
ship. It was the ruler himself and nobody else who
could offer the annual sacrifice to Shang Ti, could
give him thanks for whatever he did for the reigning
house or the people in general. This was one of the
most important imperial functions, the neglect of
which might incur a heavenly displeasure and result
in a grievous catastrophe to the kingdom. Indeed, it
was thought sacrilegious for the masses to worship
Heaven,101 who was too sacred, too divine, too holy
to be so familiarly approached by those who were in
fact nobodies in the eyes of the Lord on high.

The worshipping of God by the common people,
even by feudal lords, was an act of usurpation upon
the inviolable right or duty of the reigning sovereign,
who alone was the mediator between Heaven and the

142 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

people. Though Heaven communicated its indigna-
tion through the feeling of the multitudes of the
people, it was only one man who was permitted to
reflect upon it and take the proper course to appease
the heavenly wrath. When this one man was suc-
cessful in his reflection or interpretation as well as
in his undertaking, he was said to have been truly
appointed by Heaven. Ever after this, he would
never think of neglecting either the annual celebra-
tion of Shang Ti, or offering sacrifices on all great
state occasions. As we read in the "" Shu Ching "
and the " Shih Ching," the omission of this sacred
and exclusive duty on the part of the occupant of
the heavenly seat was counted among the grave
offences which merited his dethronement by a more
popular and virtuous political leader. This peculiar
relation of Shang Ti to the creatures below is due to
the fact that the Chinese did not conceive their
Ti in his individual relation to mankind generally.
The supreme one commissioned the earthly ruler
with the office of looking after the welfare, moral and
physical, of the masses. The latter, therefore, had
nothing to do individually with the highest authority
himself. It was sufficient for them if they obeyed
the state regulations and acted according to the
moral laws conceived as eternal and unchangeable.
Of course, they had their ancestors to remember,
to revere, and to keep supplied with sacrifices,
but this was practically all that the common people

EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 143

had to do in the way of religion, all their other doings
being strictly moral, practical, and secular.

From the earliest time in the history of Chinese
civilization, Shang Ti seems to have been associated
with the state as such and not with individuals. And
as the state was no more than its ruler himself in
those days,, the latter always assumed the duty to
worship Shang Ti and to offer him the proper
sacrifice in the proper season. In the great Chinese
encyclopaedia, "Ku Chin T'u Shu Chi Ch6ng"
(section " Natural Phenomena," chapter " Spiritual
Beings and the Miraculous," Yol. IX), we notice
reference to the facts that Huang Ti Yu Hsiung Shih
in ancient times worshipped Shang Ti in a specially
built temple, that Chuan Hsu Kao Yang Shih com-
posed a piece of music called Cheng Yun on the
occasion of a sacrifice to Shang Ti, and that later Ti
K'u Kao Hsin Shih built a sort of artificial hill in the
southern field, where he worshipped Shang Ti, the
sun, moon, constellations, and his ancestors. The
"Shu Ching," the "Chou Li" (records of the rituals
of the Chou dynasty), and also the " Li Ki" contain
various statements referring to the state worship
of Shang Ti on certain occasions. These facts are
confirmed by the " Yih Ching " where (Appendix II)
we read : " Thunder issues from the earth ; it re-
verberates, which indicates the trigram Yu. The
ancient kings, in accordance with this, composed
music, and honoured virtue, and offered it magnifi-

144 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

cently to the Lord on high, while their ancestors and
their father were made to share [at the service]."
Further, under the trigram Hwan, we read : " Wind
moves over water, which is Hwan. The ancient
kings, in accordance with this, offered sacrifice to the
Lord on high and built the ancestral temple."

All this clearly shows that from ancient times the
worship of Shang Ti was one of the great state
affairs which did not concern the people below. In
this connection it may be interesting to note that
music was offered to Shang Ti, but no hymns singing
of his virtue, power, or mercy.

This peculiar relation of Shang Ti to the people in
general is very significant when we consider that he
was not the creator of the universe. The early
Chinese world-conception was wavering between
monotheism and polytheism. It sometimes looked as
if it advocated one Shang Ti, and then it fell back
upon polytheistic belief, allowing besides Shang Ti in
Great Heaven the terrestrial god, the five gods of
water, fire, wood, metal, and earth, the mountain gods,
and the river gods. But these latter were more or
less subordinate to Shang Ti, who apparently occupied
the foremost and highly important position in the
hierarchy of the gods, though the exact relation-
ship among them was left undefined. At all events,
this phenomenal world was not the sole work of
Shang Ti in Heaven, but a combined undertaking to
which the Earth contributed a great deal of its energy.

EAELY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 145

Therefore, in the Chinese mind, heaven and earth are
very closely associated, so closely indeed that they
sometimes form one idea as heaven-and-earth. We
can say, however, that a dualistic conception of the
world, either in the popular mind or in philosophy,
was a most predominant note throughout the history
of Chinese thought, not only in its earliest stage, but
even when the Chinese mind reached its maturity
during the Sung dynasty.

However that may be, this creation, as it were, by
heaven-and-earth did not have any particularly well-
defined purpose ; there was not visible in it any strong
predominating will.102 True, things were regulated
according to rules, the universe was surely law-abiding,
well-regulated, and by no means chaotic; but these
laws were not animated with the presence of a special
soul or spirit, which was powerful and active enough
to impress itself upon the Chinese imagination. Being
singularly practical and positivistic, the latter did not
go beyond the boundary of its prosaic reasonableness.
There was no logical need for it to find a creator in
the Shang Ti, nor was the religious and sentimental
demand for him strong enough ; and as soon as the
worship of the Ti was taken up by the King as his
most solemn and especial duty, the people and the
philosophers turned their attention in another direc-
tion where the Shang Ti did not make himself obtru-
sive. Thus the Ti gradually came to lose his ancient
dignity in the popular mind, and his existence no more

10

146 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

actively and efficiently influenced the course of affairs
moral as well as political ; and the practical Chinaman
has ever since been content with the unpoetic and
non-religious notion of T'ien.

In conclusion, it will be found quite interesting to
note that there was at least one thinker in ancient
China who came to realize in a systematic way the
existence more or less of a Supreme Being. I mean
Mu-tze, the greatest exponent of humanism and utili-
tarianism. It was due to him that China ever came
to reason methodically about the presence of a
Sovereign Power in the world, superintending the
course of Nature as well as the doings of moral
creatures on earth. Whatever feelings the earlier
moralists, philosophers, and political writers might
have entertained as to the manifestation of a divine
will in human affairs, they were vague and merely
tentative, they lacked the support of sound reasoning.
Mu-tze, however, for the first time conceived an all-
powerful Grod intellectually, and devoted some special
chapters in his book to the subject, trying to prove
the presence of a Supreme Being, and giving some
concrete reasons why worship and reverence are due
to him. In fact, his doctrine of universal love and
his extreme utilitarianism are based on the conception
of a great, wise, just, impartial will.

The following are some passages culled from Mu-tze

EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 147

where he reasons for the existence of the highest
authority.

The philosopher Mu said : " Those wise men who
wish to practise humanity and justice ought to dis-
cover the whence of justice.

" Whence is justice ?

"Justice does not issue from the ignorant and
humble, but necessarily from the noble and intelligent.
For justice means good government.

' ' How do I know this ?

" When there is justice in the empire, order pre-
vails ; but when there is no justice, confusion prevails.
Therefore, I know that justice means good govern-
ment. Those who are ignorant and humble cannot
govern the noble and intelligent, while the latter can
govern the former. For this reason I know that
justice does not issue from the ignorant and humble,
but from the noble and intelligent.

" Who then is noble, and who is intelligent ?

" It is Heaven that is noble, it is Heaven that is
intelligent. If so, it must be from Heaven where
justice issues."

People of to-day, however, may say : " We know
for certain that the sovereign is nobler than the feudal
lord, and the feudal lord than the state official. But
we do not know that Heaven is nobler and more intel-
ligent than the sovereign himself."

The philosopher Mu said : " I know the reason why
Heaven is nobler and more intelligent than the

148 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

sovereign. For when the latter does an act of good-
ness, he is rewarded by Heaven ; but when he com-
mits disorderly deeds, he is punished by Heaven.
When he is sick or suffers calamities or curses, he
will, after fasting and performing ablation, make
offerings of sweet liquor and corn to the Heavenly
spirits ; and it is then that Heaven removes all these
evils for him. I have, however, never known cases
in which Heaven asks the sovereign for blessings.
Therefore, I know that Heaven is nobler and more
intelligent than he.

" Not only this ; the books by the ancient sage-kings
tell us about the intelligence and activity of Heaven :
' How clear-sighted and knowing Heaven is ! It looks
down on the world below as its sovereign/ This is to
say that Heaven is nobler and more intelligent than
the sovereign. I do not know if in fact there is any-
thing nobler and more intelligent than Heaven. As
it is thus Heaven that is the noblest and the most
intelligent, it must surely be from Heaven where
justice issues.

t( Therefore, wise men of to-day who wish from their
inmost hearts to practise rationality, to develop the
material resources of the country, and to discern the
origin of humanity and justice, ought to revere the
Heavenly will"

"If we have to revere the Heavenly will, what
does it desire ? What does it hate ?"

"The Heavenly will does not desire to see the

EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 149

greater states attack the lesser ones, the greater
families disturb the lesser ones, the strong abuse the
weak, the cunning outwit the simple, and the noble
lord it over the humble. These are not desired by
Heaven.

" Heaven, on the contrary, desires that the stronger
among the people should co-operate with the weaker,
the virtuous instruct the ignorant, and the wealthy
divide with the poor. It again wishes that the higher
ones should make efforts to conduct the government,
and the lower ones to attend to their own occupations.
When the higher ones make efforts to conduct the
government, order prevails in the state ; when the
lower ones make efforts to attend to their occupations,
there is an abundant supply for public expenditure.
Now let the kingdom be orderly and abundantly sup-
plied with means, and the people on one hand will
make offerings of purified liquor and corn to Heaven
and the spiritual beings, while on the other hand they
will barter rings, gems, pearls, and jades with their
neighbours on all sides. Against such a people no
feudal lords will harbour enmity. On the frontiers
there will be no clanking of arms. Within the empire
the hungry will be fed, the tired left to rest, and all
the people find refuge and nourishment. The sovereign
and superior officers will be benevolent, the subjects
and inferiors loyal; the father and elder brothers
loving, children and younger brothers obedient.
Therefore, if one, reverently in accord with the

150 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

Heavenly will, practise it in the empire, generally,
one will be able to administer a judicious government,
to keep the people in harmonious order, to increase
the wealth of the country, and to meet all the public
expenditure. When all the people are thus comfort-
ably dressed and sufficiently fed, there prevails a
general peace, free from worries. Therefore, wise
men of to-day, wishing from their inmost hearts to
practise rationality, to develop the material resource
of the country, and to discern the origin of humanity
and justice, ought to revere the Heavenly will.

"Moreover, the relation of the sovereign to his
empire is no more nor less than that existing between
princes of the minor states, or feudal lords, and their
respective principalities. Why should these princes
and lords wish to see their subjects and states and
peoples do harm to one another ? When a greater
state attacks a smaller one, and a larger family puts
in disorder a lesser one, how could the offender expect
to be praised and honoured for this crime ? Surely
they will be most severely punished and executed.
The way in which Heaven governs the world is exactly
like that. Stronger states by attacking the smaller
ones, or larger cities by invading the smaller ones,
may wish to have blessings from Heaven ; but bless-
ings will never be theirs, for they would surely be
visited by calamities and curses.

" Therefore, when our conduct is not in accord with
Heaven's desire, but is what Heaven does not desire

EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 151

us to do, then Heaven will act towards us, not in the
way we desire, but directly against us ; for we shall
then have to suffer diseases, epidemics, calamities, and
curses. Therefore, if the sovereign fails to do Heaven's
will, but acts contrary to it, all the people of the
empire along with himself will be plunged into the
abyss of calamity and curse. Therefore, sage-kings of
olden times knew well how disasters would be brought
by Heaven and the spiritual beings upon the people,
and they avoided those deeds which would not be
liked by Heaven and the spiritual beings. This is
because the ancient kings wished to promote the
welfare of the empire and to avoid those things that
were not conducive to this end. Consequently, Heaven
arranged cold and heat, and regulated the four seasons,
and harmoniously disposed of the Ying and Yan, rain
and dew. The five cereals ripened according to the
season, the six domesticated animals multiplied, and
diseases, epidemics, or famines never assailed the
people.

" Moreover, I know how sincere Heaven's love for
the people is. For it is Heaven that created the sun,
moon, stars, and constellations, and made them shine
and follow their courses duly ; that arranged the four
seasons in order to regulate the lives of the people on
earth ; that by means of thunder, falling snow, frost
rain, and dew quickens the growth of the five cereals
and thread-yielding flax, all of which profits the people
materially ; that planned the formation of mountains,

152 A BRIEF HISTORY OF

rivers, and valleys, producing wealth in manifold
forms ; that created kings, princes, and various lords
in order to supervise the moral conditions of the
people, rewarding the deserved, and punishing the
disorderly, and to have them supplied with enough
means for their clothing and nourishment, making
metals, earth, birds, and beasts, to serve them, and
cultivating the five cereals and thread-yielding flax
plants. From the earliest times down to the present
day there has never been any change in this state of
affairs.

" Heaven thus knows no partiality in its love for
the world, it quickens and matures all things, thereby
benefiting them all. There is not a single object in
this world which is not heavenly made and yet which
could not be used by the people and thereby benefit
them. But those men who only know small things
and ignore the greatest, do nothing in the way of
requiting the heavenly favours, and do not know that
this constitutes so-called inhumanity and misfortune.

" Again, Heaven gives misfortune to those who kill
the innocent. If Heaven did not sincerely love the
people, why would it punish the offender with mis-
fortune ?

" Again, in history we have concrete examples where
those who in accord with Heaven's will loved and
benefited the people were rewarded by Heaven ; while
those who contrary to Heaven's will hated and wronged
the people were punished by Heaven. To the former

EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 153

class belong the sage-kings of the ancient three
dynasties — Yao, Shun, Yii, 'Fang, Wen, and Wu.
What did they do ? What they did was to practise
universal love and avoid partiality. That is to say,
they did not allow the larger states to attack the
smaller ones, the larger families to put the smaller
ones in disorder, the strong to threaten the weak, the
more numerous to abuse the fewer, the cunning to
plan against the simple, the noble to lord it over the
humble. In whatever undertakings of theirs, they
never forgot to benefit the three things, that is,
Heaven, the spiritual beings, and the people. When
all these three are universally benefited, it is called
Heavenly Virtue, and beautiful names are added to it.
" Therefore, Heaven's will is like unto the compass
of a wheelwright, or the rule of a carpenter. When
the wheelwright taking up his instrument wants to
measure and to distinguish between what is circular
and what is not circular, he will say : ' That which is
in accord with my instrument will be called a circle,
while that which is not will not be so designated.
By this, I distinguish one from the other/ Why?
Because his measuring instrument is correct. As with
the carpenter, so with Heaven's will. It desires first
to measure the rightful administration of kings,
princes, or grand persons in the empire, and, secondly,
to judge the literature and utterances of all the people.
Whatever deeds or utterances or administration that
are in unison with Heaven's will are called good;

154 EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY

while those contrary to it are called bad. It is through
this heavenly law and standard that the humaneness
or inhumaneness of all the kings, princes, grand per-
sons, and higher officials is measured and judged, as
when we distinguish between black and white.

" Therefore, those kings, princes, grand persons, or
wise men of to-day who wish sincerely to practise
rationality, to promote the material resources of the
country, and to discern the origin of humanity and
justice, ought to be obedient to the will of Heaven.
For obedience to the will of Heaven is the law of
justice."

NOTES

1 The " Three Rulers" (san huang H JL)> generally-
known as the Heavenly, Earthly, and Human Sover-
eigns, are perhaps personifications of the three powers
of Nature. Their age belongs to the mythological era
of Chinese history.

2 The " Five Emperors " (wu ti 3£ *$& ) are always
mentioned, but their names vary. A most popular
enumeration is Fuh Hi, Shen Ming, Huang Ti, Kin
T'ien, and Chuan Hu, covering the period 2852-
2355 B.C.

3 The " Shu Ching " is one of the Five Books (wu
ching 3£ $g), considered canonical by the Confucian
scholars ever since the time of Wu Ti (140-87 B.C.)
of the Han dynasty. They are: "Yi Ching" (Book
of Changes), " Shih Ching" (Book of Odes), " Shu
Ching " (Book of History), " Li Ki " (Records of Rites),
and " Ch'un Ch'iu " (Spring and Autumn) . See the
" Sacred Books of the East," Vols. Ill, XVI, XXVII,
XXVIII, and also the " Chinese Classics," by Legge,
Vols. Ill, IV, V.

4 The two ideal sage-kings of ancient China. Yao
reigned 2356-2255 B.C., and Shun 2255-2205 B.C. But
some authorities, among whom Dr. Shiratori, of the
Tokyo Imperial University, deny their historicity.

5 Literally, " Tao" is the way or reason; " Te,"
virtue ; and " Ching" canonical book. As regards the
nature of the book and the author, see the text, where
the monistic philosophy is treated.

155

156 NOTES

6 What a glorious age this was for early thinkers of
China can be seen from the fact that several writers
and historians of the day made attempts to classify
them according to their doctrines, the number of
which had become confu singly large. To quote only
one of those historians, Pan Ku, author of the "History
of the Han Dynasty " (Han Shu] , divides the Ante-Ch'in
thinkers into ten classes : (1) Scholars (ju chia, Confu-
cians) ; (2) Taoists (too chia) ; (3) Astrologers and
G-eomancers (yin yang chia) ; (4) Jurists (fa chia) ;
(5) Logicians or Sophists (ming chia) \ (6) Followers
of Mu-tze (mu chia) ; (7) Diplomatists (tsung heng
chia) ; (8) Miscellaneous Writers (tsa chia) ; (9) Agri-
culturists (neng chia) ; (10) Story Writers (hsiao shuo
chia) .

7 The " Book of Changes " was not included among
them, for it was considered a book of divination, which
could not possibly do any harm to the absolute govern-
ment of the First Emperor.

8 Perhaps the Emperor's drastic measures were not
solely responsible for this state of things which fol-
lowed his reign, but the Chinese mind itself began
about this time to show symptoms of exhaustion, as
we can judge from a school of sophistry which then
arose, and whose chief advocates were Ching Sun
Ling and his followers.

9 This is what Orientalists call " modern Chinese
philosophy," though quite Mediaeval as regards the
time. When we know the ancient Ante-Ch'in philo-
sophy and this " modern " one, it can be said that we
know all about the speculative development of the
Chinese mind throughout its long history. For in the
first period we come across genuine Chinese efforts to
solve the problems of the universe quite independent
of any foreign influence. (The so-called Indian influ-
ence on the early Taoists is not probable.) In the
second period, philosophers of the Sung dynasty en-

NOTES 157

deavoured to handle the old questions with a light
borrowed from Buddhism, which, however, was not
openly acknowledged by them.

10 It took some time, however, for Confucianism to
assume this superior position. At the beginning of
its career it met with strong opposition at the hand
of the Taoists, who, at times, seemed to get the better
of their rival, especially in the earlier periods of the
Han dynasty, when the Emperor W6n, Empress
Tou, and their son Ching (under the influence of his
mother) , showed great partiality towards the followers
of the old philosopher, Lao-tze. With the coming of
Emperor Wu, the Confucians began to manifest great
activity, finally bringing about what we might call
the golden age of literature in the Han period. The
period of the Six Dynasties that followed was charac-
terized by the predominance of Buddhist thoughts
and feelings which drew their vitality partly from
Taoism. Early in the Tang dynasty Lao-tze again
became conspicuous, for the Emperor Tai, claiming
the same ancestry as the sage himself, honoured the
latter with the sublime title of the " Tai shang hsiien
yuen huang ti" (great, superior, unfathomable, pri-
mordial, august Lord), and a special devotional palace
was built in his honour, where the Emperor annually
worshipped him in great style. But the tide of Confu-
cianism, which was all the while gathering its strength
in spite of royal disapproval, at last succeeded in
gaming the upper hand over its rival school; and
when it became a fixed order of things in Chinese life
that every officer, civil and military, was recruited
from among those who passed examinations in the
Confucian classics (and Confucianism is eminently
fitted for this purpose), Taoism as well as Buddhism
for ever lost their official hold upon the people;
and, as we know that officialism is everything in
the Middle Kingdom, we can understand into what

158 NOTES

predicament the followers of Lao-tze were finally
reduced.

11 We can well imagine what a difficult task it was
for the first Chinese Buddhists to render their highly-
abstract and greatly complicated canonical books into
the native tongue. They could never be transformed
and compressed into the classical model of Chinese
philosophy ; and the result was that even to-day, after
more than one thousand years of intercourse and inter-
mixture with the native thought, Buddhist literature
forms a distinct class by itself. Those scholars who
are versed only in general Chinese classics are unable
to understand Buddhist writings. Even Buddhist
monks themselves who could not read the Sanskrit
or Pali originals must have experienced almost un-
surmountable difficulties in understanding the trans-
lations of their sacred books.

12 What was done by Confucius along the line of
literary work was mostly the compiling and editing
of old records and traditions. Of the Five Canonical
Books thus edited by him, the " Spring and Autumn "
undoubtedly comes from his own pen, but certain
parts of the " Book of Changes," known as ' ' Appen-
dices," and usually ascribed to his authorship, are
by some scholars denied to be indisputably his. The
best book that gives his own views is the " Analects "
(Lun Yii), compiled by his disciples, probably some
time after his death, but not as we have it to-day, for
it was not until after the firm establishment of the
Han dynasty that the " Analects" began to assume
the canonical shape in which it has been transmitted
to later generations. This book also throws light on
his personality. It is the New Testament of Confu-
cianism. An English translation (second edition), by
Legge, was published in 1893. The volume also con-
tains his translation of the other two of the "Four
Books" (8hi Shu), that is "The Great Learning"

NOTES 159

(Tai Hsiao), and "The Doctrine of the Mean" (Chung
Yung). "The Mencius," the fourth of the Four
Books, was also translated by Legge, and forms the
second volume of the " Chinese Classics."

13 The Life of Lao-tze is almost lost in legendary
mist, but one thing authentically known is that he
was an older contemporary of Confucius, and flourished
during the sixth century before Christ. The " Tao
Teh Ching," "Canon of Reason and Virtue," is the
title of his only work which was said to have been
written by him through the request of his friend and
disciple, Kwan-yin-tze, when the old philosopher was
leaving his own country for an unknown part of the
world.

14 We do not know for certain whether Confucius
wrote those " Appendices." They may contain some
of his own sayings and thoughts, especially in such
passages as introduced by "The Master said"; but
the " Appendices " as a whole were evidently written
by many hands, as their styles and expressions and
points of view vary widely from one another.

16 Others, however, assert that the character yi
primarily represented the form of a chameleon, and
was etymologically connected with the character lung
(dragon), to which the former has a certain morpho-
logical resemblance. And as the chameleon owes its
most characteristic feature to the changeability of its
colour, the character yi gradually came to signify the
abstract idea of change in all its modes. It is pos-
sible that if the chameleon were really habitually
found in the region where the thoughtful author or
authors of the " Yi Ching " flourished, he or they
must have been struck with the mysterious changes
obtainable on the skin of this strange animal, and
finally drew his (or their) own conclusions about the
divine signification of this peculiarity.

16 Cf. Legge, p. 348 /. The passages quoted

160 NOTES

in this book are generally based on Legge's transla-
tions wherever they were available, but in most cases
with some alterations, as the present author deemed fit.

17 Cf. Legge, p. 395.
3 Legge, p. 423.

9 I shall not venture my opinion concerning the
nature and significance of the " Yi Ching " proper, as
this does not particularly concern us here. The
" Appendices " are more important and interesting as
embodying an early system of Chinese speculation,
and as forecasting the development of Chinese philo-
sophy in the Sung dynasty. For further information
concerning the kua (trigram) and yao (lines) of the
"Yi Ching/' see Dr. Carus's "Chinese Philosophy
and Chinese Thought," p. 25 /. (Open Court Pub-
lishing Co., Chicago.) See also Legge's " Yi Ching "
in the " Sacred Books of the East," Vol. XVI.

20 Cf. Legge, p. 350.

20« Cf. Legge, p. 353.

1 His date is not exactly known. He seems to
have lived somewhere between 379 and 294 B.C.
Mencius is the Latinized form of Mang-tze. His
book, which bears his own name, consists of four or
seven (when sub-divided) chapters or books. Similar
to the Confucian " Analects," it is mainly composed
of the dialogues which took place between the author
and the feudal lords of his days whom he visited, and
also of those between him and his followers as well as
contemporary scholars. Legge's English translation
of Mencius is included in the " Chinese Classics."
Arthur B. Hutchinson published in 1897 an English
translation of Faber's " Mind of Mencius," which was
originally written in German. The sub-title of the
book is " Political Economy Based upon Moral Philo-
sophy, a Systematic Digest of the Doctrines of the
Chinese Philosopher."

22 There exist several translations of this most

NOTES 161

widely known book of Taoism in the English as well
as other European languages. It is a short work
consisting of some five thousand Chinese characters.
It is divided into eighty-one chapters as we have it
now, but the division was not the author's own, and
it sometimes distracts us from an intelligent reading
of the book as a whole, which may best be considered
a compilation of epigrams and aphorisms.

23 That Lao-tze records many of his predecessors'
views and sayings is seen from his frequent use of
such expressions as : " Therefore says the sage," " This
is what is anciently said," "So we have the early
writers saying this."

1 This is Dr. Carus's term for tao.

26 It is difficult to determine the time when the
book began to be divided into chapters ; for, accord-
ing to Sse Ma-ch'ien, the only division made by the
author was into two parts. But later on commentators,
each relying on his own judgment, divided the text
into 55, 64, 68, 72, or 81, while some made no such
attempts. The division here adopted is that of eighty-
one, not because the present writer considers this
the best way to understand the text, but merely
because it is the most popular one.

26 The term, T'ai Chi, first appears in one of the
Confucian Appendices to the " Yi Ching." " In the
system of the Yi there is the Great Ultimate (or
source or limit, t'ai chi). It produces the two regu-
lators "... This passage has been quoted elsewhere.
Here, however, the term t'ai chi does not seem to have
a very weighty metaphysical sense. It only meant
what it literally means, " great limit." The important
philosophical signification it came to bear originated
with a thinker of the Sung dynasty called Chou Tun-i
(A.D. 1017-1073). According to him, "The Non-
ultimate is the Great Ultimate. The Great Ultimate
moved, and it produced Yang (male principle). At

11

162 NOTES

the consummation of the motion there was a rest in
the Great Ultimate. While resting it produced Yin
(female principle). At the consummation of rest it
resumed motion. Now moving, now resting, each
alternately became the root of the other. With this
differentiation of the Yin and the Yang there have
been permanently established the two principles."

27 It may be explained here that the character tze,
which is found in connection with most of the Chinese
philosophers' names, has an honorary signification.
It primarily means a child, then son, then any male,
young, middle-aged, or old, and finally gentleman. It
also means teacher, sage, philosopher. As a term of
address it is equivalent to " sir."

28 Lieh-tze, otherwise called Lieh Yu-kou, is gener-
ally known to have lived between the times of Lao-tze
and Chwang-tze, that is, sometime in the fifth century
before Christ. The work which goes under his name
seems to have been compiled by his disciples. It
consists of eight books or chapters, and was first
edited in the fourth century A.D. by Chang Chen of
the Tsin dynasty. My quotations here are mostly
taken from Book I, in which his ontological views
are comprehensively presented. A partial English
translation of the Lieh-tze was published by Frederick
Henry Balf our in his " Leaves from My Chinese Scrap-
book" (pp. 85-135), under the heading, "A Philo-
sopher who Never Lived " (London : Triibner and Co.,
1887). There exists also a French translation, com-
plete, by Ch. de Harlez in his " Textes Taoistes," 1891,
and a German translation by E. Faber, 1877.

29 We find these terms used by Lao-tze (Chapter VI)
without reference to an earlier authority ; but Lieh-tze
quotes them as from the " Book of the Yellow Em-
peror." Is it possible that such an ancient literature
was still in existence during the Chou dynasty ? If
such was the case, and the book really contained such

NOTES 163

passages as quoted by Lao-tze and Lieh-tze, we must
seek the origin of the Taoistic thoughts in the earliest
days of Chinese civilization. Indeed, the Yellow
Emperor is frequently referred to as an ancient sage
by all the writers, and we find the doctrine of " Huang
Lao " (that is, the Yellow Emperor and Lao-tze) linked
together, and usually put in contrast to that of Con-
fucianism.

30 Chwang-tze was a contemporary of Mencius, and
must have nourished toward the end of the fourth
century B.C. He was a great classic writer, and his
writings are considered among the best specimens of
early Chinese literature. His work which we now
have is divided into three parts, " Inner," " Outer,"
and " Miscellaneous," altogether consisting of thirty-
three books. It is said that originally it was made up
of fifty- three books, twenty of which are now missing.
About the genuineness of the writings, a consensus of
opinion is that the first "Inner" part undoubtedly
comes from his own hand, but that the remaining two
parts are so interlaced with spurious passages that it
is difficult to distinguish one from the other. But,
generally speaking, even those spurious parts are a
development of Chwang-tze's own thoughts. We
have two English translations of Chwang-tze — one by
Giles, and the other by Legge in the " Sacred Books
of the East."

31 « Formerly, I, Chwang Chou, dreamt that I was
a butterfly, a butterfly flying about, feeling that it
was enjoying itself. I did not know that it was Chou.
Suddenly I awoke and was myself again, the veritable
Chou. I did not know whether it had formerly been
Chou dreaming that he was a butterfly, or whether
it was now a butterfly dreaming that it was Chou.
This is the case of what is called the transformation of
things" ("The Inner," Book II).-

32 Chwang-tze's attitude towards God as the maker

164 NOTES

of the universe is that of an indifferent agnosticism.
To quote his own words : " What is that which makes
us such as we are ? I do not know. May I assume
the existence of an absolute ruler who makes things
as they are ? Yet I am unable to grasp his peculiari-
ties. All that I know of him is that his working is
practicable though its features are hidden. He has
indication but no forms. . . . Judging from this
standpoint, it is reasonable to conceive of the existence
of an absolute master, yet it would not make a particle
of difference to this absolute master whether our in-
telligence is allowed to catch a glimpse of his signs or
not. We are such as he made us."

33 This book has never been translated, so far as I
know, into any European language. It is doubtless a
much later production, but contains a great deal of
profound philosophical reflection worth studying.

84 Ch'eng-tze, or Ch'eng Hao, A.D. 1032-1085. He
is the author of the books called " Ting Hsing Shu "
and " Shih Jen P'ien," embodying the gist of his
philosophy. His brother, I, was also a noted
thinker.

36 Or, Chou-Hsi, great commentator on the Con-
fucian Classics, A.D. 1130-1200. He was a disciple of
Ch'ing-tze, and wrote many books, which later became
the standard works for the orthodox Confucians, that
is, those who do not advocate the views advanced by
Lu Chiu-yuan (A.D. 1140-1192), the great rival philo-
sopher of Chou Hsi, as well as by Wang Yang-ming
of the Ming dynasty.

36 Died 233 B.C. He was a disciple of Hsiin-tze,
and his chief study was criminal law. Fifty-five of
his essays are still extant, among which there are
some commentary notes to some of Lao-tze's sayings.
His position as a moral writer is neither strictly Con-
fucian nor Lao-tzean.

87 The three cardinal virtues are : Wisdom (chi) tjjj,

NOTES 165

humaneness (Jen) £, and courage (yu) J|. The five
virtues are : Humaneness (jeri) £l, righteousness (i)
*j$£, propriety (li) jjj§, wisdom (chi) ^, and faithfulness
(shen) fg.

38 " Tai Hsiao," one of the Four Books (shi shu) of
Confucianism. It was Chou-tze of the Sung dynasty,
who selected these four books as most elemental and
fundamental in the study of Confucianism. Before
him, they did not have any recognized place in the
Confucian system.

39 It will be interesting to note what Swedenborg
says concerning man's state after death : " In the
spiritual world no one is allowed to think and will in
one way and to speak and act in another. Every
one there must be a likeness of his own affection
or of his own love, and therefore must be outwardly
such as he is inwardly " (" Heaven and Hell," § 498).
While living in the natural world, most people are
hypocrites, they hide their ruling love deep within
themselves, and do not know what its real nature is ;
perhaps they may see glimpses of it now and then in
their solitary moments, when they have no need of
disguising themselves before others; so Swedenborg
says that it is very difficult to know what one's ruling
passion really is. Confucianism, therefore, advises us
to be watchful over one's own heart, when being free
from all the external constraints, it reveals itself in
all its activity, and there to find out its true nature,
which is the man himself, as the Swedish mystic truly
remarks that " every one is his own love and is thus
as his ruling love is ?" ("Heaven and Hell," § 58).

40 "Chung Yung," another of the Four Books,
generally considered the work of Tze-szu, the grandson
of Confucius and the teacher of Mencius. This is
one of the most philosophical books on Confucian
ethics.

41 "The Doctrine of the Mean" does not exactly

166 NOTES

express the meaning of the Chinese term "chung."
" Chung " ordinarily signifies " middle," which is also
its etymological sense, but in the " Chung Yung/' it
means rather a state of equilibrium or potentiality in
which all the passions and impulses are yet hidden and
not brought out into operation, and in which, there-
fore, good and evil are not yet manifest and remain in
a state "without name" (wu ming, or wu yuh), to use
a Lao-tzean term. And this state of equilibrium
(chung) is said by Tze-szu to be the " great foundation
of the world/' and by Lao-tze the " beginning of the
universe" (Chapter I). The whole passage in the
" Chung Yung " runs as follows : " Love and anger,
sorrow and joy, when they are not yet manifest, this
is a state of equilibrium (chung) ; when they are
manifest all in accordance with order, this is harmony
(hwa). Equilibrium is the foundation of the world,
and harmony is the thoroughfare of the world. When
equilibrium and harmony are maintained, heaven and
earth are determined, and all things grow." Compare
this with what Lao-tze says : " The unnamable is the
beginning of the universe, and the namable is the
mother of all things." When chung is rendered by
"the mean" instead of "equilibrium," the sense of
the entire passage above quoted becomes very obscure,
and the contrast between the statical chung and the
dynamical hwa (harmony) will be destroyed.

42 Confucius once said ("Analects," Book XVII) :
"I wish to keep silence." Tze-kung, one of his
eminent disciples, who was surprised at the Master's
remark, said : " If the Master keeps silence, what shall
we, humble disciples, have to record ?" Confucius
said : " What does Heaven ever speak ? The four
seasons come in turn, and all things grow. Does
Heaven ever speak ?" There are certain well-regulated
laws in the universe which pursue their course without
demonstration. Find them in our own hearts, and

NOTES 167

sincerely follow them as they dictate. This is the
Confucian common-sense intuitionalism.

43 We read in Mencius (Book II b) : " The sage-
kings are no more now, and the feudal lords are
behaving as they please, while irresponsible scholars
are talking with utmost freedom. The world is filled
with the utterances of Yang-chou and Mu-ti, and
anybody who talks at all belongs to the school of Mu
if not to that of Yang. ... So long as the teachings
of Yang aud Mu are not repressed, those of Confucius
will not be made manifest. The false doctrines are
deceiving the people and suffocating humaneness and
righteousness. When humaneness and righteousness
are suffocated, men become beastly. Hence my solici-
tude for the preservation of the teachings of the
ancient sage. It is my desire to keep Yang and Mu
in check, and to drive away their unrestrained
utterances, so that the upholders of the false doctrines
may not raise their heads again."

44 When we scan their works, the character of each
looms up with great clearness and definiteness. One
is dignified in mien, deliberate in speech, and stately
in movement ; the other, quite opposite to this, is free
and unrestrained in every way. We can mentally
picture one donning a golden robe with the em-
broidered figures of dragon and phoenix, and sitting
on a throne bedecked with all kinds of brilliant gems,
and presiding over an assembly of noblemen, who
reverently bow before his august personality which is
singularly tempered with a humane expression. The
other, however, might be imagined as swinging
himself in a rustic hammock among luxuriant summer
greens, his old, almost threadbare dress loosely hanging
about him, and with an expression which hardly
betrays a trace of earthly concern, while his eyes are
rapturously raised toward a drifting cloud in the
distant sky. What a pitiful fate it was that these two

168 NOTES

geniuses possessing peculiarly contrasted characters,
but both endowed with unusual dianoetic power and
living contemporaneously in the same land, never
chanced to see each other !

45 Kao-tze seems to have been a philosopher con-
temporary with Mencius. He did not leave any work
of his own, but in many ways he seems to have
taken issue with Mencius on the subject of human
nature.

46 Cf. Book II a, as quoted above, p. 67.

47 This is Dr. Carus's term for wu wei.

48 Cf. Chapter XLIII. " The weakest under the
heavens chases and drives the hardest under the
heavens, and there is no space where it does not
penetrate. For this reason I know the usefulness of
not doing (wu wei) "

49 Cf. the following Confucian injunction on the
subject : " Someone asked Confucius, ' What do you
think of requiting hatred with virtue ?' Answered
the Master, ' What then will virtue be requited with ?
Requite hatred with justice, requite virtue with
virtue/ "

60 In "Chwang-tze" we have the following dialogue
between Yang-tze and Lao-tze : Yang-tze-chou saw
Lao-tan and said : " Suppose here is a man who is
quick in turning towards the Tao and energetic in
action, whose insight into the nature of things is
penetrating, whose intelligence is thorough-going,
and who knows no fatigue in the study of the Tao;
could such a man be compared to the wise ruler?"
Said Lao-tan : " When compared to the holy 'man,
such a man would look like a navvy or petty trades-
man, who ever belabours himself with his trick and
handicraft, dissipating his bodily energy and wearing
out his spirit. And again, tigers and leopards are
killed by the hunter because of their beautiful skins ;
monkeys and dogs which are clever enough to hunt

NOTES 169

up badgers are caught in turn by a trap because of
their very craftiness; how could such ones be com-
pared with the wise ruler ?" Yang-tze-chou then
assumed a solemn countenance and asked : " May I
inquire what would be the wise ruler's government ?"
Lao-tan answered : " In the government of the wise
ruler, his merits embrace the entire world, and yet
remains as if not conscious of his own doings; his
all -regenerating love extends over the ten- thousand
things, and yet the people are not conscious of its
presence. Though there are many other things to be
mentioned about him, I will not go into details, only
that under his government everything would be
rejoicing with itself; for abiding in the unfathom-
able, he leisurely walks in the non-existent." This
answer of Lao-tze to Yang-tze reminds us of the
former's reply to the founder of Confucianism when
he was requested to give him the meaning of propriety
(" Chwang-tze," Book VI).

51 In " Han-f ei-tze," we read that Yang-tze was
once travelling through the state of Sung and passed
a night at an inn in its eastern district. The inn-
keeper had two wives ; one was very beautiful, while
the other was homely ; but it was the latter that was
more honoured by him. Yang-tze inquired of him
why it was so, and the man answered : " The beautiful
one is too conscious of her beauty, and I do not know
how she could thus be beautiful; the homely one
recognizes her own homeliness, and I do not know how
she could thus be homely." Yang-tze said to his
disciples : " Remember this, my young men, if you
behave wisely and yet be unconscious of your being
wise, there will be no place on earth where you will
be hated " (Book VII, Chapter XXII). This passage
also occurs in " Lieh-tze," Chapter II, " On the
Yellow Emperor."

62 What follows is condensed from Lieh-tze's work

170 NOTES

in which there is a chapter exclusively dealing with
the views of Yang Chou.

63 To be free from all the artificial or outward
restraints, moral or otherwise, and to abandon oneself
to the enjoyment of one's inward life — this is typical
of all the Taoists. Chwang-tze also makes one of his
characters (Tao-shih) exclaim against the Confucian
conventionalism : " Let me tell you now what lies in
the inmost heart of every individual. His eye desires
to see what is beautiful, his ear desires to hear what
is melodious, his mouth to taste what is delicious, and
his inner impulses and feelings want to be satisfied.
The height of longevity to which one can attain is
one hundred years, the next is eighty, and the last
sixty. How often, except for a few days, can one be
free from illness, death, or worry, and have a hearty
laugh ? . . " Also see below.

64 See footnote 4.

66 Generally known as the Great Yii. He succeeded
Shun and reigned 2205-2196 B.C.

56 Died 1105 B.C.; fourth son of Wen Wang, and
younger brother to Wu Wang, and one of the
founders of the Chou dynasty.

67 Died 1122 B.C. He was the last Emperor of the
Yin dynasty, and committed all kinds of the wildest
orgies, which enabled Wu Wang to establish the
foundation of the Yin dynasty.

68 Died 1763 B.C. The last ruler of the Hsia
dynasty, who also recklessly indulged in cruelty and
debauchery, and was finally overthrown by Tang the
Perfect. Chou and Chieh are the two symbolical
tyrants of China.

69 The "Lieh-tze," "On Yang-tze," where this
passage occurs in the dialogue between Aii-ping-shang
and Kwan-yi-wu.

60 Says Mencius (Book XIII): "With Yang-tze
egotism is everything. Even when he could benefit

NOTES 171

other people by sparing one bit of his hair, he would
not do that. With Mu-tze altruism is everything.
If by rubbing himself from forehead to heel he could
benefit other people, he would do so. Tze-Mo adheres
to the mean. The adhering to the mean is nearer [to
the truth]. But if, in adhering to the mean, the
weights are missed to keep balance, it is just as bad
as adhering to the extremes. The reason why the
extremists are condemned is that they mutilate the
[whole] Tao, that they raise one point [too high] at
the expense of a hundred others."

61 To my knowledge there exists no English trans-
lation of the work. In Faber's German translation,
an abstract of each chapter is given. There also exists
a French work on this philosopher by Alexandra
David, 1907.

62 This is partly due to the neglect suffered by
Mu-tze at the hands of Chinese scholars through the
successive dynasties until the last Tsin, when a few
scholars picked up, as it were, the almost-forgotten
philosopher to examine him in a new light. If he had
not been ignored so long, we should have possibly
had a far better text than the one we have at present,
poorly edited, and almost unintelligible in many places.

63 No early Chinese philosopher is so conscienti-
ously methodical in his reasoning as Mu-tze, who
always endeavours to prove every step he takes in
accordance with such logical laws as are set forth by
himself. It is strange that the Chinese mind refused
to listen to his methodical exposition of utilitarianism
and to effect its fuller development.

64 « rpjie refuting of the arguments of Yang and Mu
should be like the taming of the wild hogs. After
they have been put in a pen, they should be bound
fast " (Mencius, Book XIY). In another place (Book
VI) he again compares them to the lower animals.
Hsiin-tze is not so severe and impassioned as Mencius

172 NOTES

in the condemnation of the Mu-tzean utilitarianism.
He says : " Mu-tze' s one-sided doctrine of utility made
him ignore the significance of culture and refinement
(wen ]£). When utilitarianism (yung fft) prevails, the
Tao is lost in commercialism (li ;flj) (Chapter XXI).
In another place (Chapter VI) declares Hsiin-tze :
" He, Mu-tze, does not know how to consolidate the
empire and to establish an administrative order in
the state. He gives precedence to efficiency and
utility, exaggerates the importance of economy and
thrift, and pays no attention to the order of social
organization. He has never allowed himself to
entertain the thought of distinguishing classes, and
therefore he does not recognize the distinction between
the sovereign and the subject. To maintain his theory,
Mu-tze now advances some plausible reasons ; and in
expounding them he displays a certain logical skill so
that ignorant masses are ready to be deceived and
confused by him."

65 In the Confucian " Analects," XVII, 21, one of
his disciples wants to shorten the mourning period
from three years to one. While his argument is very
rational, the master refuses to agree with him on a
sentimental ground, which, however, seems to be
somewhat too far-fetched and not at all convincing.

66 For Hsiin-tze's condemnation of the prosaic
unmusical Mu-tze, see p. 111.

67 He was born in 340 B.C., and the greater part of
his exceedingly long life was spent in the kingdom
of Ts'i. When eighty-six years old, he went to Ch'u
to seek a new refuge. After some vicissitudes, he died
at the very high age of over one hundred and twenty
years. Like most Confucian scholars, his entire life,
except his last twenty or so years, was passed as a
high state officer.

68 Chapter XIX, "On the Rules of Propriety" (Li
lun p'ien).

NOTES 173

69 Chapter XXIII, "On the Badness of Human
Nature."

70 A similar view was also expressed by Confucius
himself in the "Analects"; for he says: "Once I
fasted the whole day and did not sleep the whole
night, all the time engaged in thinking. It was of no
use, however. Nothing is like study [that is to say,
practical discipline]."

71 An abstract of Chapter I, "On the Encourage-
ment of Study."

72 « MUSJC means enjoyment, and enjoyment is what
the human heart inevitably craves. Therefore, one
cannot go without some form of enjoyment, which
expresses itself in sound and action. This is human.
All the movements that may take place in our hearts
will thus be manifested outwardly. Therefore, we
must have some form of enjoyment, and this enjoy-
ment must be demonstrated ; but when the demonstra-
tion is not in accordance with certain laws, it will
inevitably lead to disorder. As the wise men of old
hated this disorder, they regulated the singing of man
so that it might lead him to the path of rectitude.
Thus, people sang and enjoyed themselves, but did
not go to excess ; their melodies were various, and each
expressed their feelings, which were thus checked ; all
the modes of inflection, combination, intonation, and
concordance were enough to awaken in a man's heart
a variety of good feelings and to keep him away from
evil and filthy influences " (Chapter XX, "On Music ").

73 Hsiin-tze is right in a sense when he says against
the reasoning method of Mencius as follows : " It is
stilted and lacks in universality; it is obscure, and
there are no definite explanations; it is tightening,
and the knots remain unloosened." (Chapter VI,
" Against the Twelve Philosophers ").

74 35 t'ien (heaven) and -Jfc t'ai (great) and A J^n
(man) all seem to have developed from the common

174 NOTES

source representing a human figure with outstretched
arms, that is, "fr. To avoid confusion, this archetypal
character was later differentiated into the three f orms,
5c, >^, J^, while t'ai (great) retained its original
type more faithfully than the others ; for it is engraved
in the ancient vases, thus • 1^, /^ , ^, "J", anc^ nnalty
-^. The character " man," however, seems to have
suffered most changes, though their different stages
are not now traceable, perhaps owing to its earlier
transformation. The only ancient type we have of it
is 7| or }y which some lexicographers try to explain
by making it represent a human figure as seen side-
wise, but this guess is too obviously wrong to be refuted,
when there is no reason to suppose that the ancient
Chinese people preferred this obscure character to
the most natural one -ft without some serious reason ;
and the reason is, ^ is an abbreviation or a trans-
formation of the original "ft to distinguish it from
t'ai or t'ien, which meaning gradually came to be
attached to the original signification of jen (man).
Therefore, ^ t'ien primarily signified simply some-
thing above, and not something great which is above.
The latter explanation is too philosophical to be the
conception of the natural man. T'ien, as we have it
engraved in the ancient vessels, appears in the f ollow-
ing forms: Jft ,<&,$;, -£.

76 The character ti ^, the ancient form of which
is jjjff ^ is, according to a Japanese sinologue, com-
posed of three elementary characters : (( above " — »
"great" "j^ and "wide" |—|; and it signifies a
mighty one who is on high.

76 It may not be altogether proper to consider

NOTES 175

Shang Ti as a being residing in heaven (t'ien).
Though it is certain that he was not merely a moral
power nor the personification of Heaven as some
Christian missionary scholars of Chinese religion are
inclined to believe, he was not a person in the fullest
sense of the word. But he had something of person-
ality in him and could properly be called "he"
instead of " it." There is no doubt, however, that the
early Chinese did not conceive their Shang Ti as did
the Jews their Yahveh. When the Chinese spoke of
Shang Ti, they had in their minds something of an
august supreme being in Heaven above, who was the
a.rbiter of human destiny, though not their creator.
He did not, exactly speaking, reside in Heaven, but
Heaven was his material or objective expression.
Figuratively speaking, Heaven was Shang Ti, and
Shang Ti was Heaven. A famous commentator to the
"Wu Ching," Lii Shih says: "It is called Heaven
(t'ien) when viewed from the point of its overshadow-
ing the entire world ; it is called Lord (ti) when viewed
from the point of its rulership." Again, the author of
the " Lii Shih," a history of prehistoric China, says in
one of his supplementary essays attached to the
History : "Ti is T'ien, and T'ien is Ti. Why, are they
not identical ? T'ien is a general name given to
primordial essence [yilan ch'i], while Ti is a name
given to its virtue as manifested in its activities. It
is T'ien when viewed from the point of its objectivity ;
it is Ti when viewed from the point of its rulership.
When the immensity of depth, height, and expansion
of the essence is considered, it is called the ' lord on
high in great heaven.' When reference is made to
the fact that the lords of water, fire, wood, metal,
and earth abiding in different localities assume alter-
nately the rank of leadership, we consider the Lord
differentiating himself into five lordships, and he is
accordingly known under five different names, which

176 NOTES

may, however, be comprised in the one name of Great
Heaven. When sacrifices are offered to the five lords
who severally assuming their celestial ranks are to be
designated under one common appellation, then they are
collectively known as the Shang Ti (Lord on high)."

77 That is, Shun, who became the ruler of this early
settlement in the year 2255 B.C.

78 jp$ (sheri) was originally written J2> (^), and
meant lightning ; 75 ( shih) was added later when the
idea of a spiritual being was conceived who is the
controller of electric current in the heavens. <j|f

symbolizes, as we can still trace its meaning even in
its present form, rays coming from above, and means a
revelation from a higher being to the creatures below.
Therefore, as far as the etymology is concerned, shen
denotes a spiritual being, who, residing in a region
above us, sends down its rays of revelation on the
earth.

79 The quotations from the "Shu" and the "Shih
Ching " are generally taken, with occasional modifica-
tions, from Legge's translations in the " Sacred Books
of the East," Vol. III.

80 Cf. "Shu Ching," Part V, Book I, "The Great
Declaration " ; " Heaven and Earth are the parents of
all creatures."

81 Legge, p. 352 ff. The poem is said to have been
composed by Chih Fu, a grand officer of the Chou
dynasty under King Yii (781-771 B.C.), who listened
to the evil advice of his favourite mistress Yin.

82 Legge, p. 357. The author of the poem is Chili
Yu of the Chou dynasty, who wrote this, lamenting
the unjustifiable action of the King, and expressing
his surprise at its progress unchecked by heavenly
wrath.

88 Legge, p. 125 /. From the first section of the
"Great Declaration," which is divided into three.

NOTES 177

The Declaration was issued by King Wu of the Chou
dynasty when he assembled his army at Mang Ching
to attack Chou Hsin, the tyrant of the Shang. Some
consider this spurious.

4 Legge, p. 358. A poem written during the reign
of King Yii who was notorious for his misconduct. It
continues : " [The King's] counsels and plans are
crooked and bad. When will an end be put to them ?
Good counsels are not followed; evil counsels are
listened to. When I look at the counsels and schemes,
I am greatly grieved."

85 Legge, p. 429. Composed in the time of King
Yii. The author evidently believes in the almighty
power of Heaven who can turn misery into happiness,
if the people below behaved according to his behest.

86 This is from a poem composed by a court officer
engaged in a frontier war. Speaking of the hardships
which he endures, he calls to Heaven that knows
everything which transpires on earth, and continues :
" I marched on this expedition to the West as far as
this wilderness of Ch'iu. From the first to the second
moon, I have passed through the heat and the cold.
My heart is sad, the poison [of my lot] is too bitter.
I think of those officers at court, and my tears fall
down like rain. Do I not wish for home ? but I dread
the net of guilt."

87 Legge, p. 416. From a didactic poem by Duke
Wu of Wei in his ninetieth year.

88 Legge, p. 321. By Chou Kung, who admonishes
his minister of agriculture.

89 Chia Fu lamenting the misrule of his King
(" Shih," II, IV, 8. Legge, p. 354).

90 Legge, p. 417. The whole stanza runs thus :
" Oh, my son, I have told you the old ways. Hear
and follow my counsels, then shall you have no cause
for great regret. Heaven is now inflicting great
calamities and destroying the state. My illustrations

12

178 NOTES

are not taken from things remote ; great Heaven never
errs. If you go on to deteriorate in your virtues, you
will bring the people to great distress."

91 Observe also the following : " The ordinances of
Heaven, how uninterrupted they are ! and how un-
fathomable !" ("Shih," IV, I, 2). "The doings of
High Heaven have neither sound nor odour. Follow
the example of King Wen, and the myriad regions will
repose their confidence in you" (" Shih," III, I, 1).
" How vast the Lord on high ! He is the ruler of
men below. When in his fearful wrath, the decrees
of the Lord on high are full of woes. Heaven creates
the multitudes of the people, whose destinies are not
uniformly determined. There are none who have not
their [hopeful] start, but few are they that have
a [blissful] finish" ("Shit," HI, III, 1).

92 This justification was later subscribed to by
Confucius, who says in one of his commentaries on the
"Yih Ching," that "The revolution of T'ang and Wu
was in accordance with Heaven and in harmony with
men."

93 "Shih," III, III, 4. The drought occurred in
the sixth year of King Hsuan of the Chou dynasty.
He reigned 827-781 B.C.

94 Confucius seems to have shared this belief to a
certain extent as his " Analects " records his assump-
tion of a reverential attitude as if in awe for something
extraordinary, whenever there was a hurricane or
thunder of unusual violence.

95 "Shih," II, V, 4; II, IY, 10, etc.

96 "Shih," II, IY, 8; III, III, 10, etc.

97 "Shih," III, I, 1.

98 Divination by the tortoise shell is called pu f»,
and that by the milfoil sliih $g. Why these two
things have been selected for this particular purpose
is explained, according to one commentator, by the
fact that they both acquire something of spiritual

NOTES 179

signification when sufficiently old so as to enable a
diviner to consult spiritual beings through these
mediums. The shell is burned in a fire properly
purified, and in the cracks thereby produced are read
divine signs. In the case of the milfoil, forty-nine
stalks of it are separated and counted over and again
until eighteen changes are effected, when the diviner
is finally able to settle his doubts.

99 Hsiin-tze was a very practical and unimaginative
thinker. Note what he says about strange phenomena
of nature which the early Chinese people thought
to be expressions of heavenly indignation : " The stars
are falling, the trees are roaring, and the people of
the kingdom tremble with fear. What does this
signify ? It does not signify anything. It is a natural
disturbance caused by Yin and Yang, and occurring
at irregular intervals. It is rational to wonder at it,
and irrational to fear it. Such things as the eclipses
of the sun or moon, unseasonable storms, or the
frequent appearance of strange stars— such things
occur in every generation. If the ruler is enlightened
and his government is honest, however often such
events may take place, he cannot be hurt. If the
ruler is benighted and his government is disorderly,
even if there may take place no such things, he is of
little account. Therefore, the shooting of stars, or
the roaring of trees, is no more than a mere natural
disturbance, caused by Yin and Yang, and occurring
at irregular intervals. It is rational to wonder at it,
but irrational to fear it" (Chapter XVII, "On
Heaven ").

Compare this with the almost religious attitude of
Confucius toward unusual natural happenings such as
violent thundering or hurricanes, as recorded in the
"Analects."

100 The following passage from Hsun-tze (Chapter
XVII, " On Heaven ") will show what a prosaic and

180 NOTES

practical conception of Heaven the author had ; and
when we compare this with the attitude of the Five
Canonical Books towards Heaven, which was highly
religious and reverential, we can at once feel the gap
that came to exist between the canonical writers and
the philosophers. Says Hsiin-tze : " The working of
Heaven is constant ; it does not exist for Yao, nor does
it disappear for Hsiieh. When a man responds to it
with order, there is luck ; when he responds to it with
disorder, there is evil. When he strengthens the
foundation and is economical in expenditure, Heaven
cannot make him poor; when he takes the proper
nourishment" and exercises himself regularly, Heaven
cannot make him ill; when he is single-hearted in
practising what he ought to, Heaven cannot do him
any harm. Therefore, such a one cannot be made by
rain or drought to suffer hunger or thirst, cannot be
made by cold or heat to suffer sickness, cannot be made
by evil spirits to suffer misfortune.

"When a man, however, neglects the foundation
and is extravagant in expenditure, Heaven cannot
make him rich; when he does not take sufficient
nourishment and does not exercise himself frequently
enough, Heaven cannot make him healthy; when,
deviating from the course which one ought to follow,
he wanders about irregularly, Heaven cannot make
him happy. Therefore, such a one will suffer hunger
before a drought or rain comes ; he will be sick before
the cold or the heat is yet threatening; he will be
miserable before evil spirits visit him.

" Peace is gained by opportuneness and not by evil
procedure ; there is no reason to blame Heaven, for it
is as it ought to be. Therefore, one who has a clear
understanding of the distinction between heavenliness
and humaneness, is called the perfect man."

101 The reason why the common people were not
allowed to worship the Shang Ti individually, and

NOTES 181

why the ruler himself did not worship him more
frequently, is partially seen in the following passage
from the "Li Ki" (Book XXI): "Sacrifices should
not be frequently repeated. Such frequency is in-
dicative of importunateness, and importunateness is
inconsistent with reverence. Nor should they be at
distant intervals. Such infrequency is indicative of
indifference, and indifference leads to forgetting them
altogether" (" S. B. E.," Vol. XXVIII).

102 rpj^ 0hinese p0ets and philosophers were not
altogether unconscious of a predominating will in the
universe, which is beyond human control; but this
consciousness did not play a very important part in
their emotional life. As a typical instance of the
Chinese philosophical attitude towards the universal
will, here is a passage quoted from Chwang Tze :
" Tze Lai fell ill and lay gasping at the point of death,
while his wife and children stood around him weeping.
Li went to ask for him and said to them, ' Hush ! Get
out of the way ! Do not disturb him in his process of
transformation/ Then, leaning against the door, he
spoke to him [the dying friend] : ( Great indeed is the
author of transformation ! What is he now going to
make of you ? Where is he going to take you ? Is
he going to make you the liver of a rat ? or is he going
to make you the arm of an insect ?' Tze Lai said, ' A
son's relation to his parents is such that whenever he
is told to go, whether east, west, south, or north, he
simply obeys the command. A man's relation to the
Yin and Yang is more than that to his parents. If
they are hastening my death, and I do not obey, I
shall be considered unruly.

"'Now, there is the Great Mass, that makes me
carry this body, labour with this life, relax in old age,
and rest in death. Therefore, that which has taken
care of my birth is that which will take care of my
death.

182 NOTES

" ' Here is a great founder casting his metal. If the
metal, dancing up and down, should say, " I must be
made into a Mo Yeh [a famous old sword]," the great
founder would surely consider this metal an evil one.
So, if merely because one has once assumed the human
form, one insists on being a man, and a man only, that
author of transformation will be sure to consider this
one an evil being. Let us now regard heaven-and-
earth as a great melting-pot and the author of trans-
formation as a great founder; and wherever we go,
shall we not be at home ? Quiet is our sleep, and calm
is our awakening'" (" S. B. E.," Yol. XXXIX,
p. 249).

INDEX

AARON, 139

Abraham, 139

Altruism, 93, 94

" Analects," the Confucian,

quoted, 19, 102 ; made classical,

158

Anarchism, 78 et seq.
Ante-Ch'in period, the, 2, 3, 5, 6,

9, 10, 11, 12
thinkers, 2

Buddhism, 4, 10, 157 ; and its
Sanskrit literature, 158 ; and
Taoism, 84 ; Chinese, 5 ; Maha-
yana, and Kwan-yin-tze, 43

Buddhists, Chinese, 4, 5

Ceremonialism, 101 et seq. ; the

psychology of, 107-108
Ch'ang, King, 137
Changes, Book of. See " Yi

Ching "

Chang-tao (orthodoxy), 9
Chaos, allegory of, 80. See Hun

lun
Cheng (sincerity), 59 et seq. ; and

the ' ' Doctrine of the Mean, ' ' 65
Ch'eng, King of Chou, 121
Ch eng-tze on«7&t, 54
CJii (the reason of motion), 22
Ch'i (energy), 24
Ch'i (nature), 46
CJii (pneurna), 30
Chieh, 88, 170
CKien, 16, 18, 23
Chih (substance), 30

, Ch'in dynasty, 2, 3
j Chinese thought : and ideography,
11 ; and logic, 11 et seq. ; and
mediaeval philosophy 10 ; aver-
sion to metaphysics, 18; con-
servatism of, 4 ; its clumsiness,
8 ; its freshness, 29 ; its moral-
izing tendency, 18 ; practicality
of, 7, 13, 145
I Ching (essence), 44
! Ching (reverence), 106 ; its ety-
mology, 57
! Ching chi (subtle substance), 23

Chou dynasty, 1, 88, 115, 170

Chou Kung, 14, 15, 88, 117, 119,
124, 125, 135, 139, 170

Chou Tun-i, 161 ; on the Great
Ultimate, 161-162

Chou-tze on Jen, 54

Christianity and Mu-tze, 93

Chung explained, 166

" Chung Yung." See the " Doc-
trine of the Mean "

Chwang-tze, 10, 25, 34 et seq., 73
85, 101 ; allegory of chaos, 80 ;
a mystic, 39 ; and Creator, 181 ;
and Lao-tze, 34, 65 ; compared
with Lieh-tze, 34 ; compared
with Mencius, 167 ; compares
Tao to a gale, 36 ; his attitude
towards God, 163 ; his book
and translations, 163 ; his
dream of a butterfly, 163 ; his
ideal, 35 ; his naturalism, 36 et
seq.; on the unknowable ness of
Tao, 40 ; quoted, 79

183

184

INDEX

Confucianism, 5, 6, 9, 10, 49 et
seq., 92; against Taoism, 157 ;
and Laotzeanism, 24 ; its intu-
itionalism, 167 ; why favoured
by the Chinese, 49

Confucians and Buddhism, 4

Confucius, 2, 5, 10, 14, 25, 88,
139 ; and ceremonialism, 102 ;
and Lao-tze compared, 26, 83 ;
and Mencius, 65 ; and positiv-
ism, 18 ; and " Yi Ching," 15,
18; his attitude towards agnos-
ticism, 21 ; his attitude to-
wards spiritualism, 19, 20 ; his
popularity, 49 ; his relation to
the "Appendices," 23 ; his
religious attitude contrasted
with Hsun-tze's, 179 ; on
mourning, 172 ; on study, 173

Cord-knotting, 82

Creation, 144

Deference, 67, 68
Discrimination, 67, 68
Divination, 14, 137, 138, 139, 140.

178
" Doctrine of the Mean " quoted,

20, 52, 59, 61, 62, 64
Dualism, 14 et seq., 145

Egoism, Yang-tze's, 93

Ethics, Chinese, 47 et seq. ; the

most favourite theme for the

Chinese, 47

Fellow-feeling. See J$n
Filial devotion, 92
First Emperor, the, 3
11 Five Books " ( Wu Ching). 158 ;
enumerated, 155. See " Wu
Ching "
Five ceremonies, 122

Emperors enumerated, 155

eternal codes, 140

gods, 144

habiliments, 122

kings, 1

orders, 122

punishments, 122
" Four Books " enumerated, 158

God, 57, 112, 146 ; Chinese,

different from the Hebrew, 129,

130, 131 ; irresponsive, 130 ;

more moral than religious, 127 ;

political director, 131 ; the

Chinese notion of, 112 et seq.

See also " Shang Ti "; Heaven

Good, defined by Mencius. 67

"Great Declaration," 131, 176

"Great Learning," the, quoted,

59. See Tai Hsiao
Great Ultimate, 161. See Tai

CKi
Greece, 12

Han-fei-tze, 15 ; on Jen, 54

Han-yu, 101

Haojan chi ch'i, 24

Heaven : and dynastic change,
135 ; and the moral order, 122 ;
and Mu-tze, 96 ; and the
popular will, 137, 140 ; ap-
pealed by King Li, 114 ; ap-
pealed by Mang-tze, 114 ; as
God, 113 ; as illuminating wis-
dom, 120 ; as parent, 114 ;
communicates its will through
natural phenomena, 136, 140 ;
compassionate, 114 et seq. ;
cursing, 117 ; displeased, 118 ;
favouring T'ang the Perfect,
116 ; indignant, 132 ; its decree
irrevocable, 120 ; not partial,
123, 124, 125; one ordained
by, 131 ; pitying, 113 et seq. s
punishes the unjust, 123 ; send-
ing death, 129 ; son of, 131 ;
thanked by the House of Chou,
115 ; the Chinese, compared
with the Hebrew, 126 ; to be
obeyed, 119 ; unerring, 121.
See also Tien; "God"; and
" Shang Ti"

Heaven and earth : as one con-
ception, 145 ; disintegration of,
33

Hedonism, 84 et seq.

Hetuvidya, 12

Hindu influence, 156
philosophers, 90

INDEX

185

Hindu philosophy and Taoism, 43-

44
thought, 4, 6, 10, 12

Hsiang (symbols), 22

Hsing (essence), 28, 61-62

Hsing (form), 30

Hsuan ping (mysterious mother) ,
29

Hsiin-tze, 71, 101 et seq. ; and
Confucius, 111 ; and Confucian-
ism, 101 ; and Mencius, 102
et seq., 109, 110; and Mu-tze,
172, 173 ; and objectivism, 107 ;
his life, 172 ; his prosaic con-
ception of Heaven, 179-180 ;
on abnormal phenomena, 179 ;
on artificiality, 104 ; on human
nature, 104 ; on music, 173 ;
quoted, 104 ; quoted on study,
108 ; why heterodox ? 108

Hua hsii, the ideal state of Tao-
ists, 82-83

Human, heartedness. See Jtn

Human nature : like water, 66-67 ;
like willow-tree, 66. See also
' ' Nature ' '

Humaneness. See J$n

Hun lun (chaos), 30

/(righteousness or justice), 69
Ideograph, 11
Intelligence (chi), 67, 68
Ituh (solitary indeterminate), 30
I-twan (heterodoxy), 9

Jin, 69, 102, 105, 107 ; and human
nature, 65 ; and Mitleid, 53 ;
and sincerity, 62, 63 ; and the
altruistic impulse, 52 ; and the
golden rule, 52 ; and Yang-tze,
86 ; as one of the four cardinal

- virtues, 67 ; contrasted with
egoism, 54 ; denned by Ch'eng-
tze, 54 ; denned by Chou-tze,
54 ; denned by Han-fei-tze, 54 ;
defined by Mencius, 52-53 ; de-
fined in the "Chung Yung,"
52 ; difficult to cultivate, 56 ;
explained etymologically, 174 ;
fellow-feeling, 51 etseq., 70, 71 ;

how to practice, 58 ; human -
heartedness, 68; in Lao-tze
54 ; in Mencius, 54 ; is door
and road, 52 ; is man (J2n), 54 ;
is the Middle Way, 56; its
etymology, 51 ; its four mean-
ings of, 55 ; its real sense am-
biguous, 55 ; realization of, 59 ;
the fundamental virtue, 53

Job, 129, 131

Justice (i), 67, 68

Kant and the "Chung Yung," 63

Kao-tze, 67, 168

Kao Yao, 122

Kua (trigram), 18, 160. See also
"Trigram"

" Ku chin t'u shu chi ch'eng," 143

Ku shtn (spirit of the valley), 29

Kuei sMn See. " Spiritual beings "

JCun, 16, 18, 23

Kung (reverence), its etymology,
57

Kwan-yin-tze, 29, 41 et seq. ; his
book a later production, 41 ;
on Tao, 42; why a later pro-
duction, 43

Kwei (spirit), 32. See also " Shen"

Lao-tze, 2, 14, 25, 71, 85, 90,
102 ; and Buddhism, 4 ; and
Chwang-tze, 34, 65 ; and Con-
fucius, _fi§i_: an(^ Confuciui,^
comparea^26 ; and Kwan-yin-
tze, 41 ; and Lieh-tze, 29 ;
contrasted with Yi philosophy,
35 ; life of, obscure, 159 ; prac-
tical, 81 :mio ted. 72.74.77^1^
.79 : worshipped as~Lord, 157

Lao-tzeanism and Confucianism,
24

Li (reason), 28

"LiKi,"113

Lieh-tze, 25, 29, 73, 85; and
Lao-tze, 29 ; compared with
Chwang-tze, 34 ; his work and
translation, 162 ; on life, 31 ;
quoted, 30, 31, 75, 76; riding
on the wind, 75 ; with Chang-
tu-tze, 33

186

INDEX

Life, analyzed by Yang-tze, 87

el, seq.

"LuShih" quoted, 175
' ' Lun Yii." See the ' ' Analects "

Manchu dynasty, 8

Many, the, and the one, 43, 46

Mencius, 24 25, 64 et seq, 84, 85,
101, 105 ; and Hsiin-tze, 102 et
seq. ; and Kao-tze, 67 ; attacks
Yang and Mu, 167, 171 ; com-
pared with Chwang-tze, 167 ;
defines goodness, 67 ; defines
y^/i, 52, 54 ; his two funda-
mental moral feelings, 69 ; his
- position in Confucianism, 65 ;

pqiWtttJ, J>3, 54, 65, 66, 69;
quoted againsF Yang-tze, 31 ;
translations of, 160

Milfoil, 139, 178

Ming dynasty, 7
thinkers, 7

Ming, five, 19

Monism, 25 et seq.

Moses, 139

Mu (soul), 45

Mu Ti, or Mu-tze, 93 et seq.

Mu-tze, 49, 71, 91, 112, 146;
against Confucianism, 97 ;
against determinism, 100 ;
against excessive mourning,
98 ; against music, 99 ; and
Christianity, 100 ; attacked by
Hsiin-tze, 172, 173; attacked
by Mencius, 167, 171 ; com-
pared with Hsun-tze, 109 ; his
economic view, 97 ; his God-
idea, 147 et seq. ; his ideal, 94 ;
its European translations, 171 ;
methodical, 171 ; on concu-
binage, 97 ; on T'ien, 100 ;
?uoted, 95, 96 ; why neglected,
71

Mysterious Mother, 29

Mysticism, 14 ; pantheistic, 41
et seq.

Nameless, 34

Nature : and Kao-tze, 67 ; the
Chinese conception of, 1

Nature, human, and Mencius, 65

et seq.

Non-action, 48. See also Wu wei
Non-activity. See Wu wei
Non-assertion (wu wei), 168
Non-existence, 34
Non-resistance, 72, 80, 84

' ' Odes, the Book of." See ' ' Shih

Ching "
One, the, and the many, 43, 46

Pantheistic mysticism, 41 et seq.

Pascal, 102

Philosophers, Chinese, classified,

155. See " Thinkers "
Philosophy : Chinese, 13 et seq. ;

practical, 13. See also ' ' Chinese

thought ' '
Plato, 134
Pneuma (chi), 33
Po (animal soul), 44
Positivism, 18 et seq.
Post Ch'in thinkers, 8
Propriety (U), 67, 68
Psalms, 129
Pythagoras, 18

Reason (too), 161
Renaissance, Chinese, 5, 6
Reverence (ching), 56 et seq. ; to-
wards one's own person, 70
Righteousness. See Justice

San Miao, 114

Schopenhauer, 53

Self-inspection, 4, 56 et seq.

Shame, 67, 68

Shang Ti, 112, 113, 139, 145;
a person, 174-175 ; and state
worship, 180 ; and Tao, 141 ;
as the moral reason. 140 ; no
popular prayers offered to, 140;
no popular temple dedicated
to, 141 ; not creator, 144 ; the
worship of, a state function,
141, 142, 143. See also " God "
and " Heaven"

SMn (spirit), 44 ; explained ety-
mologically, 176

INDEX

187

"Shih Ching," 24, 113 ; quoted,
20. 115, 116, 117, 118, 119;
also quoted throughout the
chapter " on Religion "

Shih Huang Ti. See " the First
Emperor "

" Shu Ching," 1, 24, 113 ; notes
on, 155 ; quoted, 114, 117, 118,
119, 120 ; also quoted through-
out the chapter " on Religion "

Shun, 1, 88, 122, 138, 139, 153,
155, 176

Sien (saint), 47

Sincerity. See Ch'eng

Sophistry, a school of, 156

Spirit, 32

Spirit of Valley, 29

Spirits, 114

Spiritual beings, 20, 23, 138

Ssu Ma-ch'ien, 41, 161

Sung dynasty, 4, 5, 6 ; philo-
sophers of, 4, 5, 6, 28

Swedenborg, 165

Sympathy, 67, 68

T'ai, etymologically explained,

174

Tai chi (great starting), 30
T'ai chi (great ultimate), 21, 22,

38, 161 ; and Tao, 28
"Tai Hsiao" (great learning),

165

T'aishik (great beginning), 30
Tai su (great blank), 30
T'ai yi (great change), 30
T'ang the Perfect, 116, 127, 139,
153 ; his " announcement," 127
et seq., 138

Tao : and fin, 51 ; and Shang Ti,
141 ; as destiny (ming], 42 ; as
spirit (shtn), 42 ; as the mys-
terious .hsiin), 42 ; by Kwan-yin-
tze, 42 ; by Lao-tze, 29 ; com-
pared to fire, 42 ; conditioned,
36 ; Confucian, 59-60 ; denned
by Chwang-tze, 38 ; explained,
26 et seq, ; is Heaven (t'ien),
42 ; its unknowableness told in
a parable, 40 ; present in every-
thing, 37

"Tao-Te-Ching," 2, 25 etseq., 29,
159, 160-161; quoted, 26-27;
title explained, 155

Taoism, 9, 10, 12, 71 ; against
hypocrisy and humaneness, 79 ;
and Buddhism, 84 ; and Hindu
philosophy, 43, 44 ; as anar-
chistic, 79 ; as negativistic
egoism, 71 ; culminates in Kwan-
yin-tze, 41 ; ethics of, 71 et
seq. ; feminism, 77 ; its prac-
tical side, 81 ; mystical, 14,
38 ; subjective, 38

Taoists : as quiet recluses, 73 ; the
ideal state of, 82-83

Theocrasy, 119, 121

Theophany, 140

Three Rulers, the, 1 ; enumer-
ated, 155

Ti (God), 38, 113, 145; distin-
guished from T'ien, 140 ; ety-
mologically explained, 174

Ti (Shun), 114

Tien, 21, 24, 48, 113, 146 ; as
conceived by Mu-tze, 100 ; as
God, 100 ; distinguished from
Ti, 140 ; explained etymologi-
cally, 174 ; in Mu-tze's phil-
osophy, 147 et seq.

Tien ming (heavenly destiny),
21, 24, 48

Tien too (heavenly way), 48

Tortoise, 178 ; shell, 138

Transcendentalism, 34 et seq.

Treasure, the triple, by Lao-tze,
78

Trigrams, 18, 22

Tseng-tze, 105

Tze explained, 162

Tze-szu, 105, 165

Utilitarianism, 92 et seq.

Virtue : and hatred, 168 ; and jus-
tice, 168 ; its kinds, 164-165
Vox populi, vox dei, 137

Wang fuh (going and coming),

30
Wang Yang-ming, 7

188

INDEX

Wei (artificiality), 105, 110
WSn, King, 14, 15, 115, 153
Western culture and China, 8
Will, Heavenly, in Mu-tze, 148 et

seq. ; in the universe, 145, 146
Wu. See ' ' Non-existence " and

" Non-assertion "
Wu, King, 119
"Wu Ching," 112
Wu wei, 30, 31, 48, 71 et seq.,

90 ; and laissez faire, 82 ;
Chwaug-tze's allegory, 80 ; de-
fined, 74 ; its usefulness, 168 ;
non-activity, 73 ; non-assertion,
73

Yahveh, 130, 139
Yang-chou. See "Yang-tze"
Yang-tze, 71, 84 et seq. ; a fatalist,

91 ; a sensualist (?), 89 90 ;
against humaneness, 86 ; and
Lao-tze, 85, 87 ; and Lao-tze,
quoted from " Chwang-tze,"
168-169 ; attacked by Mencius,
167, 171 ; his egoism, 86, 88 ;
his life, 85 ; in Han-fei-tze,
169 ; in Lieh-tze, 169, 170 ; on
life, 87 et seq. ; why men are
restive ? by, 90

Yao, 1, 134, 153, 155

Yao (lines), 160

Yellow Emperor, 82; a Brah-
min (?), 44

" Yellow Emperor," Book of the,
162

Yi : and Mencius, 25 ; as Gesetz-
mdssigkeil, 23; its etymology,
159 ; its meaning, 21 ; the
character explained, 15

"Yi Ching," 14, 15, 16, 18, 19,
113, 156 ; and divination, 139 ;
and dualism, 29 ; and Sung
philosophy, 160 ; and the
numerical conception of the
world, 18 ; and the philosophy
of Sung, 21 ; its mystical
teachings, 21 ; quoted, 21 et
seq., 143

"Yi Ching Appendices," 2, 15,
16, 17, 22, 140 (quoted) ; and
Confucius, 159

Yi philosophy and Taoist cos-
mogony, 28

Yi Yin, 121, 123, 124, 125, 139

Yin and Yang, 14 et seq., 18, 19,
30, 151

Yii, 88, 114, 134, 138, 139,
170

Yu hun (wandering spirits), 23

Yuan dynasty, 7

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