Translated by John Jorgensen, Dan Lusthaus, John Makeham, Mark Strange
Zhu Xi
Selected Writings
Edited by PHILIP J. IVANHOE
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Series Editors’ Preface
Chinese writings from pre-modern times constitute a vast body of texts stretching back over 2,500 years, and while Western studies of China have been growing, many riches from the Chinese tradition have remained untranslated or have been given only partial translations, sometimes scattered across multiple publication venues. This situation obviously poses a problem for those who want to learn about Chinese thought but lack the ability to read Chinese. However, it also poses a problem even for scholars who specialize in Chinese thought and can read Chinese, because it is not easy to read across all the time periods and genres in the Chinese corpus. Not only did the Chinese language change over time, but in some genres particular vocabularies are developed and familiarity with certain earlier texts—sometimes quite a large number of texts—is presumed. For this reason, scholars who focus on one tradition of Chinese thought from a given era cannot simply pick up and immediately understand texts from a different tradition of thought in another era. The lack of translations is thus an impediment even to specialists who can read Chinese but wish to learn about aspects of Chinese thought outside their normal purview. Furthermore, scholars are often hampered in their teaching by the lack of translations that they can assign to students, which then becomes a barrier to promoting greater understanding of Chinese history and culture among the general public.
By offering English translations of Chinese texts with philosophical and religious significance, Oxford Chinese Thought aims to remedy these problems and make available to the general public, university students, and scholars a treasure trove of materials that has previously been largely inaccessible. The series focuses on works that are historically important or stand to make significant contributions to contemporary discussions, and the translations seek
to strike a reasonable balance between the interests of specialists and the needs of general readers and students with no skills in Chinese. Translators for the series are leading scholars and experts in the traditions and texts that they render, and the volumes are meant to be suitable for classroom use while meeting the highest standards of scholarship.
This first volume in the series, on Zhu Xi (1130–1200), well exemplifies our aim to give readers greater access to Chinese texts that have not been represented or have been inadequately represented among existing translations to date. Zhu Xi is without a doubt one of the most important and influential thinkers in history, having established what became Confucian orthodoxy and the educational requirements for nearly all government officials for several centuries, not just in China but throughout much of East Asia. He left behind a massive body of writings and recorded conversations that, as of a recent printing from 2002, comprises twenty-seven volumes, each of which is several hundred pages long. While a small portion of this material has been translated, the vast majority of it has not. Furthermore, previous translations of Zhu Xi’s work, though undeniably valuable, have tended to adopt a very specific focus, such as his views on learning or his commentarial work. As a result, it has been difficult for readers lacking knowledge of Chinese to gain an understanding of Zhu’s thought that encompasses the incredibly broad variety of topics covered in his writings. The present volume constitutes an important step toward filling this gap left by previous translations. We hope that it will serve to spur greater interest in Zhu Xi and may eventually lead to a complete translation of all his works.
Eric L. Hutton and Justin Tiwald
Preface
This volume, Zhu xi: selected writings, is the first in a new series of translations of Chinese philosophical texts, Oxford Chinese Thought, edited by Eric L. Hutton and Justin Tiwald, aimed at providing English-speaking readers access to a range of China’s most interesting and influential traditional philosophical writings. While parts of Zhu Xi’s works are available in English, this volume offers the first selection of Zhu’s writings across a broad spectrum of his core concerns that is designed to be attractive to students and scholars from a wide range of disciplines. It contains lightly annotated, accurate, and readable translations that represent much more of his work than is currently available and includes thoughtful introductions to the full range of his concerns. Our primary audience is scholars and students of East Asian Confucianism, broadly construed, to whom we offer an essential resource for gaining a comprehensive understanding of Zhu Xi’s thought. The complete Chinese text for the translated passages, compiled and meticulously edited by Eric L. Hutton, is available on the Oxford University Press website: http:// global.oup.com/us/companion.websites/9780190861261/
A Note on the Cover Illustration
The cover presents the final three characters of a monumental piece of calligraphy by Zhu Xi, one hundred and seven characters in length with each character being over five inches tall. The composition quotes and paraphrases three sections of the “Great Appendix” to the Book of Changes. The red seal below the final character belongs to Zhu himself. The large seal in the upper left belongs to the Qianlong Emperor and is one of four seals attesting to the fact that the piece was part of Qing Palace Collection. Appearing at the end of the scroll, the three characters 朱熹書 mean [the characters were] “written by Zhu Xi,” but on the cover of our work they can also be read as “Zhu Xi’s Writings.”
Acknowledgments
The series editors and I would like to thank Peter Ohlin of Oxford University Press for his initial interest in developing this series and for helping us to craft the form and style of this volume. We thank the University of Utah and in particular its College of Humanities, Philosophy Department—and especially their Charles H. Monson Award—and Confucius Institute, along with their administrative staff, for supporting and hosting a workshop held 20–21 October 2017, which enabled the contributors to this volume to meet and discuss drafts of their individual contributions and larger issues concerning the format and content of this volume, and Nalei Chen for his participation in the workshop and offering a number of helpful suggestions that have enhanced this work. We also thank the Sungkyun Institute for Confucian Studies and East Asian Philosophy for its generous support in the production of this volume.
Conventions
We have established and followed a number of policies in an effort to make the translations provided in this volume accessible and consistent; the most important are described below.
1. We include Chinese characters whenever we believe these might help readers understand or make connections among the translated passages. We employ the format: translation, italicized Romanization, and Chinese character, e.g., humaneness (ren 仁).
2. We employ standard translations for expressions such as “it was asked” (huo wen 或問 or wen 問) and “Zhu Xi (or whoever) said (or replied)” (yue 曰).
3. We do not footnote every interlocutor’s name. In most cases, when the name of the person posing the question is not important for the sense, it is omitted, but individual translators have discretion in this regard.
4. We mostly employ gender neutral language, e.g., using “human beings” for ren 人 instead of “man,” “noble person” for junzi 君子 instead of “gentleman,” and the plural forms of words such as “sages” (sheng ren 聖人). We do so, on the one hand, because Zhu believed all human beings possess a full complement of moral pattern-principle and he was interested in everyone’s moral cultivation1 and, on the other, in order to be more inclusive. However, we do not do so in cases where such a policy would introduce strong anachronism or misleading implications, for example, in passages about ministers where it would imply that women had the opportunity to attain such offices as well as men.
1. There are impressive arguments in the tradition defending claims such as that women can become sages, which seem to be implied by a number of core neo- Confucian beliefs, e.g., that all people possess a full endowment of pattern-principle.
5. When referencing the original Chinese text of The Classified Sayings of Master Zhu (Zhuzi yulei 朱子語類), we provide the chapter (juan 卷) and page numbers of the version edited by Li Jingde 黎靖德 and collated by Wang Xingxian 王星賢 (Beijing: Zhonghua shu ju, 1986), e.g., (ZZYL, Chapter 12, p. 199). For other texts, we provide the information needed to locate the passage and the edition used for the translation. When citing or referring to standard works that are widely available in English translation, e.g., the Analects, Doctrine of the Mean, etc., we do not provide a specific edition but only the chapter and section numbers needed to locate the passage.
6. We take “neo- Confucian” to be an English proper name denoting various movements in the late Tang and through the Qing aimed at reviving and reinvigorating the Confucian tradition.2 We employ the lower-case to highlight that it is not a “school” of philosophy in the sense either of a group of people who embrace the same set of beliefs and practices or the sense of having a single lineage or institutional organization. We treat Chinese terms that refer to particular parts of neo- Confucianism differently, for example, Learning of the Way (Daoxue 道學).
7. We use standard translations for titles of classic works but individual translators have discretion in this regard. Whenever translators depart from the standard translation they add a note at the first occurrence explaining their motivations and aims.
8. We use standard translations for key terms of art, for example “feelings” (qing 情), but individual translators have discretion in this regard. Whenever translators depart from the standard translation they add a note at the first occurrence explaining their motivations and aims.
9. For several terms of art we employ a hyphenated translation, e.g., “heartmind” (xin 心), “pattern-principle” (li 理), “master-governor” (zhuzai 主宰). Our intent is to give a range of meanings that are representative of such terms; readers should not take these as exhaustive of the sense of these terms. Individual translators have discretion in this regard and whenever they depart from the standard translation they add a note at the first occurrence explaining their motivations and aims.
2. For a discussion of this term, see Tillman 1992 and de Bary 1993.
Bibliography
de Bary, William Theodore. 1993. “The Uses of Neo- Confucianism: A Response to Professor Tillman.” Philosophy East & West 43(3): 541−555.
Tillman, Hoyt Cleveland. 1992. “A New Direction in Confucian Scholarship: Approaches to Examining the Differences between Neo- Confucianism and Tao-hsüeh.” Philosophy East & West 42 (3): 455–474.
About the Translators
Ari Borrell is a bibliographer for Chinese literature at the Modern Languages Association. His research interests focus on the interactions of Buddhist and neo- Confucian elites in the Song dynasty.
Beverly Bossler is a professor of history at University of California, Davis. Her work focuses on gender and social relations in the Tang, Song, and Yuan dynasties. Her publications include Courtesans, Concubines, and the Cult of Female Fidelity (2013) and Gender and Chinese History: Transformative Encounters (2015, editor).
Daniel K. Gardner is the Dwight W. Morrow Professor of History at Smith College. He has written extensively on the Confucian and neo- Confucian traditions in China. His books include Learning to Be a Sage: Selections from the Conversations of Master Chu, Arranged Topically (1990), Zhu Xi’s Reading of the Analects (2003), and Confucianism: A Very Short Introduction (2014).
Philip J. Ivanhoe is distinguished chair professor in the College of Confucian Studies and Eastern Philosophy at Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, Korea where he is Director of the Sungkyun Institute for Confucian Studies and East Asian Philosophy and Editor-in- Chief of the Journal of Confucian Philosophy and Culture. He specializes in the history of East Asian philosophy and religion and its potential for contemporary ethics.
Yung Sik Kim is a professor emeritus of Seoul National University, where he was professor in the Department of Asian History and the Program in History and Philosophy of Science until he retired in 2013. He received his PhD from Princeton University in 1980, and works on various aspects of Confucian scholars’ thought and knowledge, in particular their attitudes toward scientific, technical, and occult knowledge. He is the author of The Natural
Philosophy of Chu Hsi (2000) and Questioning Science in East Asia: Essays on Science, Confucianism, and the Comparative History of Science (2014).
Ellen Neskar is the Merle Rosenblatt Goldman Chair of Asian Studies at Sarah Lawrence College, where she teaches pre-modern Chinese philosophy and history. She specializes in the intellectual and religious history of the Song dynasty.
On- cho Ng is a professor of history, Asian studies, and philosophy at the Pennsylvania State University, where he also serves as head of the Department of Asian Studies. He is an intellectual historian of Late Imperial China, and has written extensively on Confucian historiography, hermeneutics, and religiosity.
Hoyt Cleveland Tillman is a professor of Chinese history in the School of International Letters and Cultures at Arizona State University, and specializes in the history of Chinese thought, especially Confucianism during the Song to Yuan periods. His academic honors include being the first Sinologist to receive the senior research prize from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in 2000 and serving as an affiliated researcher at Peking University’s Center for Studies of Ancient Chinese History since 2004. In contrast to others who focus on orthodoxy, his English, Chinese, and Korean publications emphasize diversity and alternatives within Confucianism.
Justin Tiwald is a professor of philosophy at San Francisco State University. He has published on classical Confucian, Daoist, and neo- Confucian accounts of moral psychology, well-being, and political authority, as well as the implications of Confucian views for virtue ethics, individual rights, and moral epistemology. His books include Neo-Confucianism, with Stephen C. Angle (2017); Ritual and Religion in the Xunzi, with T. C. Kline III (2014); and Readings in Later Chinese Philosophy, with Bryan W. Van Norden (2014).
Curie Virág is Senior Research Fellow and Co-Project Director in the School of History, Classics, and Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh, and Visiting Professor in the Departments of Philosophy and Medieval Studies at Central European University. Her primary interests concern pre-modern Chinese philosophy and intellectual history (Warring States to twelfth century), focusing on the emotions, cognition, and subjectivity. She is actively engaged in cross-cultural and comparative research, and currently co-directs the research project “Classicising Learning in Medieval Imperial Systems: Crosscultural Approaches to Byzantine Paideia and Tang/Song Xue,” funded by the European Research Council. Her published work includes The Emotions in Early Chinese Philosophy.
Chronology of Important Events in Zhu Xi’s Life
1130 Born 18 October in the Youqi District of Fujian Province.
1140 Zhu’s father resigns over policy disagreements and begins tutoring Zhu Xi at home.
1143 Zhu’s father dies; Zhu Xi begins studying with Liu Zihui, Liu Mianzhi, and Hu Xian.
1148 Passes highest level of Imperial Examinations and obtains Presented Scholar degree.
1149 Marries daughter of Liu Mianzhi; her posthumous name was “Person of Great Virtue” (Shiren 碩人). (date approximate)
1151 Appointed Registrar of the District of Tong’an, takes up position in 1153.
1153 Birth of first child, a son named Shu 塾 (courtesy name Shouzhi 受之).
1160 Formally becomes Li Tong’s student.
1172 Writes “Explanation of the Meaning of the Western Inscription” (Ximing jieyi 西銘解義).
1173 Writes “Elucidation of the Diagram of the Supreme Ultimate” (Taiji tushuo 太極圖說).
1175 Compiles, with Lü Zuqian, A Record for Reflection and debates Lu Jiuyuan 陸九淵 (1139–1193) at Goose Lake Monastery.
1177 Composes his Collected Commentaries on the Analects and Collected Commentaries on the Mengzi
1179 Accepts position as Prefect of the Nankang Military District and revives the White Deer Grotto Academy.
1182 Indicts Tang Zhongyou 唐仲友 (1136–1188), Prefect of Taizhou 台州 and relative of the Prime Minister, for official misconduct.
1189 Writes commentaries on the Great Learning and Doctrine of the Mean.
1190 Accepts position as Prefect of Zhangzhou 漳州 in Fujian 福建 Province.
1196 Zhu’s Learning of the Way (Daoxue 道學) is proscribed by the Emperor as “false learning.” In the same year, Zhu is accused by Shen Jizu 沈繼祖 (Presented Scholar degree 1169) of six “great crimes” and five “evil deeds.”
1200 Zhu passes away from natural causes on 23 April.
Introduction
Zhu Xi 朱 熹 (18 October 1130, d. 23 April 1200)—courtesy names (zi 字): Yuanhui 元晦 and Zhonghui 仲晦; pen name (hao 號): Huian 晦庵 was born in the Youqi District ( Youqi xian 尤溪縣) of Fujian Province (Fujian sheng 福建省).1 His Chronological Biography (Nianpu 年譜)2 claims that from a very early age he showed remarkable ability and inquisitiveness. He is described as a “clever and serious” youth (Wang 1998, 2). At age four (sui 歲) when his father pointed skyward and declared, “That is Heaven,” we are told Zhu Xi asked, “What lies above Heaven?” (Wang 1998, 2). At age eight, it is reported that he read through the Classic of Filial Piety (Xiaojing 孝經) in a single sitting and wrote above its title, “Those who fail to follow this are not fully human” (Wang 1998, 2). Around the same time, in the company of other children, he once sat apart from them, playing in the sand. Sitting upright, he drew patterns in the sand and when people went and looked at them, they discovered he had inscribed the eight hexagrams of the Classic of Changes (Yijing 易經)(Wang 1998, 2). At the age of ten, upon reading the Mengzi 孟子 (Mencius), when he came to the line, “The sages and I are the same in kind” (Mengzi 6A7), he was overcome by a feeling of indescribable joy; earlier he had thought that becoming a sage was easy, but now, he felt
1. Excellent accounts of Zhu Xi’s life can be found in Brian McKnight, “Chu Hsi and His World,” in Chan 1986, 408–436; Chan 1987; and several chapters in Chan 1989. A short but highly insightful introduction to his life, thought, and contributions to neo- Confucianism is Thompson 2017.
2. I have relied on what most scholars regard as the standard version of this text, Zhu Xi’s Chronological Biography (Zhu Xi nianpu 朱熹年譜) by Wang Maohong 王懋竑 (1668–1741) 1998. For a thorough account of Zhu’s different biographies, see “The Hsing-chuang” in Chan 1989, 1–11.
how difficult it was (Wang 1998, 3). Such precocious beginnings presaged— almost certainly retrospectively—his remarkable career.
Zhu Xi received his early education at home from his father Zhu Song 朱松 (1097–1143), who began instructing his son soon after having been forced from office because of his opposition to the appeasement policy the Song court had adopted toward the Jurchen in 1140. Following Zhu Song’s death in 1143, Zhu Xi studied with three of his father’s friends, Liu Zihui 劉子翬 (1101–1147), Liu Mianzhi 劉勉之 (1091–1149), and Hu Xian 胡憲 (1086–1162). All three of these scholars were deeply interested in Daoism and Buddhism as well as Confucianism and as a consequence Zhu Xi was exposed to and developed a sophisticated knowledge and appreciation of all three traditions.
Zhu passed the official Presented Scholar (jinshi 進士) exam in 1148, at just nineteen years of age, and continued his studies, waiting for his first governmental appointment. In 1153, he was offered and took up a position as Registrar of the District of Tong’an (Tong’an xian zhubu 同安縣主簿), a post he retained until 1156. He began serious study of Confucian philosophy under the neo- Confucian master Li Tong 李侗 (1093–1163) the same year he accepted his first official position, and formally became Li’s student in 1160 at the age of thirty. From this point on, he focused all his energies on Confucianism and in particular the interpretation that came down from the Cheng brothers: Cheng Hao 程顥 (1032–1085) and Cheng Yi 程頤 (1033–1107).
Zhu Xi held views that were opposed to the court on a number of important issues and so he chose to avoid government service after his time as Registrar of the District of Tong’an. This arrangement afforded him much more time for study, reflection, and writing. In 1179, however, he returned to government service, accepting a position as Prefect of the Nankang Military District (Nankang jun 南康軍), and revived the White Deer Grotto Academy (bailudong shuyuan 白鹿洞書院), a famous former school at the foot of Wulau Peak (Wulao feng 五老峰) on Mount Lu (Lushan 廬山). Three years later, he was demoted for attacking the performance and integrity of some influential officials. From this point onward, his official career took a convoluted and unstable course.3 He was appointed to and demoted from a succession of positions and was dismissed from his last official post, accused of several serious crimes. A petition was drafted, calling for his
3. For an account of Zhu Xi’s official career, see Schirokauer 1962.
execution. Despite his checkered official career and its ignominious conclusion, his interpretation of neo- Confucianism soon became dominant at the Song court, and eight years after his death, in 1208, Emperor Ningzong of the Song 宋寧宗 honored him with the posthumous name “Duke of Culture” (Wen Gong 文公); ever since, he has often been referred to as “Zhu, Duke of Culture” (Zhu Wen Gong 朱文公). Twenty years later, Emperor Lizong of the Song 宋理宗 granted him the additional posthumous title “Duke of the State of Hui” (Huiguo Gong 徽國公), and in 1241, he was awarded the highest honor a Confucian can receive, when his spirit tablet was placed in the Hall of the Complete Symphony (Dacheng Dian 大成殿), the main Confucian temple in Kongzi’s hometown, Qufu 曲阜. Since that time and down to the present day, Zhu Xi has been revered as one of the “Twelve Wise Ones” (Shi’er zhe 十二哲), the most accomplished, influential, and admired scholars in the Confucian tradition.
As noted earlier, Zhu Xi’s interpretation of neo- Confucianism, which self-consciously sought to continue and develop the philosophy of the Cheng brothers (and especially the thought of Cheng Yi), became the orthodox school in China and beyond, commonly known as the Learning of PatternPrinciple (lixue 理學) or the Cheng-Zhu Learning of Pattern-Principle (Cheng-Zhu lixue 程朱理學).4 During the Yuan dynasty 元代 (1271–1368), Zhu Xi’s edition and interpretation of the Four Books5 was adopted as the basis for the Imperial Examination System, which was the pathway to officialdom and success in traditional Chinese society.6 It remained the orthodox tradition until the collapse of the Qing dynasty 清代 (1644–1911) and had a profound and enduring influence on how the tradition was understood in Korea, Japan, and Vietnam.7
There are a number of interrelated reasons why Zhu Xi’s interpretation of the Confucian tradition proved to be so influential and enduring; chief among these is the sheer brilliance and power that it displays. Another important
4. For introductions to the philosophy of the Cheng-Zhu School, see Graham 1987; Chan 1989; Tillman 1992; and chapters 4, 5, 8, and 9 in Makeham 2010.
5. The Four Books (Sishu 四書) are the Great Learning (Daxue 大學), Analects (Lunyu 論語), Book of Mencius (Mengzi 孟子), and the Doctrine of the Mean (Zhongyong 中庸). Zhu Xi’s commentary on the Four Books is called the Collected Commentaries on the Four Books Arranged in Sections and Sentences (Sishu zhangju jizhu 四書章句集注).
6. For Zhu Xi’s ascendancy in the Yuan, see Liu Ts’un-yan, “Chu Hsi’s Influence in Yuan Times,” in Chan 1986, 521–550.
7. For a study of the Confucian tradition in China, Korea, and Japan, see Huang 2010 and Ivanhoe 2016. See also the contributions by Youn Sa-soon and Yamazaki Michio in Chan 1986.
