TIO

I CHI, AND ITS PUB

u Hsiang, and its place as the thirty-first Book in the Li Chi was finally determined by Ma Yung and Chang

i (A.D. 589-618), in the chapter on the History of Literature [2], there are mentioned three Works on the Chung Yung;-- the first called 'The Record of the Chung Yung,' in two chuan, attributed to Tai Yung, a scholar who flourished about the middle of the fifth century; the second, '

. The scholars of that, however, devoted special attention to it, the way being led by the famous Chau Lien-ch'i [4]. He was

中庸

,志第二十七,經籍

常侍戴顒撰;中庸講疏,一卷,

周濂

ry examinations, by the fourth emperor of the Yuan dynasty (A.D. 1312-1320), and from that time the name m

s committees of scholars towards the middle of the Ch'ien-lung reign, the Chung Yung is published in two

TIO

AND SOME ACC

s's words and references to him, we might have expected to find some indication that the sage was the grandfather of the author, but nothing of the kind is given. The external evidence, however, or that from the testimony of authorities, is very strong. In Sze-ma Ch'ien's Historical Records, published about

on of Tsze-sze, thus occupies a distinguished

中庸

see the 史

ng of the imperial edict for their burning. He was a writer himself, and his Works are referred to under the title

together here a few notices of hi

r with the duke Mu of Lu [1], whose accession to that principality dates in B.C. 409, seventy years after the death of Confucius. In the 'Plates and Notices of the Worthies, sacrificed to in the Sage's Temples [2],' it is supposed that the sixty-two in the Historical Records should

cause you think that your descendants, through not cultivating themselves, will be unworthy of you? Or is it that, in your admiration of the ways of Yao and Shun, you are vexed that you fall short of them?' 'Child,' replied Confucius, 'how is it that you know my thoughts?' 'I have often,' said

穆(or

聖廟祀

may more easily be confounded, as written

the preface to the

n who was born B.C. 504. We must place his birth therefore considerably later, and suppose him to have been quite young when his father died. I was talking once about the question with a Chinese friend, who observed:-- 'Li was fift

recorded in the Li Chi, the pupil suddenly took the place of the master. We there read: 'Tsang said to Tsze-sze, "Chi, when I was engaged in mourning for my parents, neither congee nor water entered my mouth for seven days." Tsze-sze answered, "In ordering their rules of propriety, it was the design of the anci

, but he declined to receive it.' You receive your corn from other people,' urged the donor, 'and why should you decline my gift, which is of less value? You can assign no ground in reason for it, and if you wish to show your independence, you should do so completely.' 'I am so poor,' was the reply, 'as to be in want, and being afraid le

scholar relates:-- 'When Chi was living in Wei, he wore a tattered coat, without an

ted from. For the incident we are ind

II. Sect

e 四書集證,

t?" he replied, "You give away as rashly as if you were casting your things into a ditch. Poor as I am, I cannot think of my body as a ditch, and do not presume to accept your gift [1]." 'Tsze-sze's mother married again, after Li's death, into a family of Wei. But this circumstance, which is not at all creditable in Chinese estimation, did not alienat

les were surprised and questioned him. 'Did your predecessor, a superior man,' they asked, 'mourn for his mother who had been divorced?' 'Yes,' was the reply. 'Then why do you not cause Pai [4] to mourn for his mother?' Tsze-sze answered, 'My progenitor, a superior man, failed in nothing to pursue the proper pa

ring him before us as a man of strong feeling and strong will,

e 四書集證,

t be understood as I have done above, and not with

the designation o

was Tsze-s

Chi, II. Se

I should say would not suit your ideas, so that I should speak in vain and not be listened to. The only way in which I can requite it, is by recommending to your notice men of worth.' The duke said. 'Men of worth are exactly what I desire.' 'Nay,' said Chi. 'you are not able to appreciate them.' 'Nevertheless,' was the reply, 'I should like to hear whom you consider deserving that name.' Tsze-sze replied, 'Do you wish to select your officers for the name they may have or for their reality?' 'For their reality, certainly,' said the duke. His guest then said, 'In the eastern borders of your State, there is one Li Yin, who is a man of real worth.' 'What were his grandfather and father?' asked the duke. 'They were husbandmen,' was the reply, on which

e K'ung family originally sprang from tha

e 氏姓譜,卷一

race put on him by a youth, that he listened to the advice of evil counsellors, and made an attack on him to put him to death. The duke of Sung, hearing the tumult, hurried to the rescue, and when Chi found himself in safety, he said, 'When king Wan w

n has obtained a wonderful prevalence. The notice in 'The Sacrificial Canon' says, on the contrary,

e only one short notice,-- in Mencius, V. Pt. II. iii. 3, where the d

declined this, and would only occupy the position of a 'guide, philosopher, and friend.' Of the attention which he demanded, however, instances will he found in Mencius, II. Pt. II. xi. 3; V. Pt. II. vi. 4, and vii. 4. In his intercourse with the duke he spoke

title being 四書經註集證. The passage here translated from it will b

vocated this from ch. xxviii. 5, compared with Ana. III. ix, 'it being proper,' they say,

acrificial Cano

rk referred to i

not able to obtain. If I cultivate what is good, and men do not know it, it is likely that in their ignorance they will speak evil of me. So by my good-doing I only come to be evil spoken of. This is what I do not desire, but am not able to avoid. In the case of a man, w

realize the government of the duke of Chau and of Po-ch'in; practising their transforming principles, sending forth wide the favours of your ducal house, and not letting advantages flow in p

ministers to office according to propriety, and dismissed them in the same way, and hence there was that rule. But now-a-days, princes bring their ministers forward as if they were going to take them on their knee

s of his time. We see the same independence which he affected in private life, and a dignity not unbecoming the grandson of

given in the Li Chi,

ng in the section iv below. His place in the temples of the Sage has been that of one of his four assessors, since the year 1267

ION

INTE

t it is argued by some, that the arrangement of it in thirty-three chapters, which originated with Chu Hsi, is wrong [2]; but this does not affect the question of integrity, and the

'There is now the Chung Yung in the Li Chi in one p'ien. But that is not the original Treatise here mentioned, but only a branch from it [3]' Wang Wei, a writer of the Ming dynasty, says:-- 'Anciently, the Chung Yung consisted of two p'ien, as appe

on a misinterpretati

述聖

e 四書拓餘說,

記有中庸一篇,奕非

在禮記中者,一篇而已,朱子為章句,因其一篇

o recur to the ingenious device employed in the edition of the five ching published by the imperial authority of K'ang Hsi, to get over the difficulty which Wang Wei supposes. It there appears in two p'ien, of which we have the following account from the author of 'Supplemental Remarks upon the Four Books:'-- 'The proper course now is

TIO

OPE AN

s advantage, however, to the student of it, that more than most other Chinese Treatises it has a beginning, a middle, and an end. The first chapter stands to all that follows in the character of a text, containing several propositions of which we have the expansion or development. If that development were satisfactory, we should be able to bring o

e 四書拓餘說,

roductory not

ious power of discernment, approaching to that of Yen Hui [1].' We must take the Book and the author,

ath. The cultivation or regulation of that path is what is called Instruction.' It is with these axioms that the Treatise commences, and from such an i

he does not hear. There is nothing more visible than what is secret, and nothing more manifest than what is minute, and therefore the superior man is watchful over his aloneness.' This is not all very plain. Comparing it with the sixth chapter of Comm

ved, and they all act in the due degree, we have what may be called the state of harmony. This equilibrium is the great root of the world, and this harmony is its universal path.' What is here called 'the state of equilibrium,' is

cix, art. 子思,--曾子得之于隨事省

and such harmonious response is the path alo

we pass into the sphere of mystery and mysticism. The language, according to Chu Hsi, 'describes the meritorious achievements and transforming influence of sage and spiritual men in thei

rom Heaven a moral nature by which he is constituted a law to himself; secondly, Over this nature man requires to exercise a jealous watchfulness; and thirdly, As he possesses it, absolutely and relatively, in perfection, or attains to such possession of it, he becomes invested with the highest dignity and power, and may say to himself-- 'I am a god; yea, I sit in

it? In the note on the title, I have entered a little into this question. The Work is not at all what a reader must expect to

note to the first chapter:-- 楊氏所謂一篇之禮要, and Mao

y chapter from the second to the eleventh, we do well to translate it by 'the course of the Mean,' or some similar terms; but the

they do not to my mind do this. Confucius bewails the rarity of the practice of the Mean, and graphically sets forth the difficulty of it. 'The empire, with its component States and families, may be ruled; dignities and emoluments may be declined; naked weapons may be trampled under foot; but the course of the Mean can not be attained to [2].' 'The knowing go beyond it, and the stupi

ance with our Heaven-given nature, they lead us to think of it as a mean between two extremes. Each extreme may be a violation of the law of our nature, but that is not made to appear. Confucius's sayings wou

we seem at once to know the voice. He begins by saying that

of the East,' I call the Treatise 'T

h.

h.

h.

h.

Ch

h.

, Preliminary Dissertation

h embraces also the eight chapters which follow. 'It is designed,' says Chu Hsi, 'to illustrate what is said in the first chapter that "the path may not be left."' But more than that one sentence finds its illustration here. Tsze-sze had reference in it also to what he had said-- 'The superior man does not wait till he sees things to be cautious, nor till he hears things to be apprehensive. There is nothing more visible than what is secret, and nothing more manifest than what is minute. Therefore, the superior man is watchful over himself when he

e-handle, in hew

rn is not

men according to their nature, with what is proper to them; and as soon as they change what is wrong, he stops. When one cultivates to the utmost the moral princip

f which have I as yet attained.-- To serve my father as I would

would require him to behave to me: to this I have not attained. Earnest in practising the ordinary virtues, and careful in speaking about them; if in his practice he has anything defective, the superior man dares not but exert himself

itive form. Confucius recognises the duty of taking the initiative,-- of behaving himself to others in the first instance as he would that they should behave to him. There is a certain narrowness, indeed, in that

'the manifestness of what is minute, and the irrepressibleness of sincerity;' the second, on the filial piety of Shun, and how it was rewarded by Heaven with the throne, with enduring fame, and with long life; the third and fourth, on the kings Wan and Wu, and the duke of Chau, celebrating them for their filial piety and other associate virtues; and the fifth, on the subject of government. These

which I have directed to it, there are some points in

rother, and friends; of 'the three virtues by which those duties are carried into effect,' namely, knowledge, benevolence, and energy; and of 'the one thing, by which those virtues are practised,' which is singleness or sincerity [1]. It sets forth in detail the 'nine standard rules for the administration of government,' which are 'the cultivation by the ruler of his own character; the honouring men of virtue and talents; affection to his relatives; respect towards the great min

prevail throughout heaven and earth, and all things will be nourished and flourish.' It is here, that now we are astonished at the audacity of the writer's assertions, and now lost in vain endeavours to ascertain his meaning. I have quoted the words of Confucius that it is 'singleness' by which the three vi

ar.

ar.

ar.

is,-- 'is he who without effort hits what is right, and apprehends without the exercise of thought; he is the sage who naturally and easily embodies the right way. He who attains to sincerity, is he who chooses what is good and firmly holds it fast. And to this attainment there are requisite the extensive study of what is good, accurate inquiry about it, careful reflection on it, the clear discrimination of it, and the earnest practice of it [3].' In these passages Confucius unhesitatingly enunciates his belief that there are some men who are absolutely perfect, w

riting this term, I am thinking here not of sin against God, but, if we can conceive of it apart from that, of failures in regard to what ought to be in our regulation of ourselves, and in our behavior to others;-- 'if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ou

ar.

ar.

s. 18

. VII

stand to each other in the relation of cause and effect. The sayings of Ovid, 'Video meliora proboque, deteriora sequor,' 'Nitimur in velitum s

eatise. 'When we have intelligence resulting from sincerity, this condition is to be ascribed to nature; when we have sincerity resulting from intelligence, this co

velopment to the nature of other men, he can give their full development to the natures of animals and things. Able to give their full development to the natures of creatures and things, he can assist the transforming and nourishing powers of Heaven and Earth. Able to assist the transforming and nourishing powers of Heaven and Earth, he may with Heaven and Earth form a ternion [2].' Such are the results of sincerity natural. The case below this -- of sincerity acquired, is as follows,-- 'The individual cultivates

h.

h.

. xx

eir hands they become nothing but extravagant hyperboles, but the author himself would, I believe, have protested against suc

unt of the object of Tsze-sze in the Chung Yung is that he wrote it to celebrate the virtue of his grandfather [1]. He certainly contrives to do this in the course of it. The thirtieth, thirty-first, and thirty-second chapters contain his eulogium, and never has any other mortal been exalted in such terms. 'He may be compared to heaven and earth in their supporting and containing, their over-shadowing and curtaining all things; he may be compared to the four seasons in their alternating progress, and to the sun and moon in their successive shining.' 'Quick in apprehension, clear in discernment, of far-reaching intelligence, and all-embracing knowledge, he was fitted t

思,作此以昭明祖德; see

gnedly honour and love him. Hence it is said,-- He is the equal of Heaven!' 'Who can know him but he who is indeed quick in a

when he is alone, he carries out his description, till by easy steps he brings it to the consummation of the whole world tranquillized by simple and sincere reverentialness. He moreover eulogizes its mysteriousness, till he speaks of it at last as without sound or smell [1].' Between the first and last chapters there is a corres

singular applications of passages from the older Classics, are noticed in the notes subjoined to the translation. I wished here that its scope should be seen, and the means be afforded of judging how far it is worthy of the high character attributed to it. 'The r

led to misconceptions of its character. Were it styled 'The states of Equilibrium and Harmony,' we shoul

ncluding not

ntroductory

ed by his gorgeous but unsubstantial pictures of sagely perfection. He has eminently contributed to nourish the pride of his countrymen. He has exalted their sages above all that is called God or is worshipped, and taught the masses of the people that with