The Zhong-Yong

Tu-wei ming; "Centrality and Commonality"; James Legge: "Mean-in-Action"; Hughes: "The Central Harmony"; Ezra Pound: "The Unwobbling Pivot". Most generally known as "Doctrine of the Mean."

The Buddhist Middle Way, the "right" of the 8-fold path: "right livelihood, right action . . . ." The original word can be literally translated as "middle wayed" action.

Aristotle’s Doctrine of the Mean. But more cosmic and ontological in Confucianism. Full unity of reality, truth, and goodness. Metaphysical basis for virtue ethics East and West.

Aristotle would never have said the way of the world is "sincere" (cheng), but this text does. Cheng translated also as "truth" and "reality." At the cosmic level "sincere" might be better rendered as Heaven being "true" to itself.

Origins of the Text

It’s attributed to Confucius’ grandson Zisi (Tzu-ssu), but scholars suspect multiple authors and redaction over time. Tu does believe that it came from the time of Mencius. One passage alludes to standardization of wheels and that did not happen until the Qin dynasty in the late 3rd Century (221-206 BCE).

It became a part of the Book of Rites, but how was it sneaked in there? Recall that this book was supposed to have come from Zhou times.

Doctrine of Mean, The Great Learning, The Analects, and The Mencius became the four classics of neo-Confucianism and the Chinese civil service exams.

Commentary on the Text

Chap. 1: Xing is from Tian. To follow Xing is to follow the Dao. Daoist influences here? A dialectic of opposites? See Chap. 6 in E & W. Zhong means equilibrium, centrality, or mean; Yong means harmony, commonality, or universality. See Tu, p.9

Chap. 2: The junzi embodies Zhong-Yong. The inferior person does not live in the mean.

Chap. 3: Confucius: "Perfect is the Mean," but most people have not followed it. Same as Analects 6:29 (Lau). Lau says the mean is a moral virtue.

Chap. 4: Daoist influence? Chan says "no" for all aspects of this text. "The intelligent go beyond it and the stupid fall short of it."

Chap. 6: The sage-emperor Shun found the mean between the extremes.

Chap. 8: Yen Hui, Confucius’ favorite disciple, also stayed in the Mean.

Chap. 10: Daoist dialectic: there’s strength in weakness. The junzi stays in the Mean unflinchingly. Question: How does one reconcile a cosmic mean with a personal one?

Chap. 12: Sage is not a god. There are things she cannot know nor put into practice.

Chap. 13: Pattern of the ax handle. Is it in the wood--"not far off?" If so, then it relates to Gier’s interpretation of Mencius 6a1. Moral: always make your ax from the original pattern. Golden rule at end of Chap. 13, first paragraph. The meaning of this, however, may simply be: "Don’t make copies from other copies."

Chap. 14: When with the barbarians, do what the barbarians do?! Contrast with Analects 9:13: "If a junzi lives there [with the barbarians], what rudeness would there be?"

The junzi. . . waits for his destiny (ming). What could that be? Tu says it does not mean "fate," but simply fulfillment and self-completion. Compare with Mencius chap. 7.

Chap. 14: The Zen of Archery at the end.

Chap. 15: Dialectic of far and near, high and below.

Chap. 16: Confucius’ positive talk about spiritual beings (shen). Why should we be suspect?

Shen forms the substance of all things? Yet another use of the word shen? Nothing can be without them. Shen and Cheng (reality=sincerity) are connected. Except for the idea of sincerity, there is a great comparison with Thales, the ancient Greek philosopher who thought that the basic substance was water and that there were gods (theoi) in all things.

Chap. 17: On the sage-emperor Shun.

Chap. 18: King Wen was just as great

Chap. 19: King Wu and the Duke of Zhou were also great. Governed with wu wei--lit. "non-action" or "indifferent action."

Chap. 20: The great pun ren* is ren. ("Benevolence means man. When these two are conjoined, the result is the Way" [Lau's Mencius 7b16). The cultivation of the Dao is done through ren*. It’s greatest expression is affection for relatives.

Yi is "setting things right and proper." Greatest application is honoring the worthy. Mencius’ "respect."

Yi given rise to li We discover li by gauging the relative degrees of affection we feel for people and relative degrees of honoring them.

Ren* as "people living together"-- lit. "Two peopleness." Buber’s Mitmenschlichkeit.

Historical Note: Cheng Xuan used this meaning of ren* to counter its intellectualizing in the Qing dynasty (1644-1912) as "state of mind."

p. 105 top: Famous rules for the ruler and the Five Relationships

It doesn’t matter how one gets knowledge? Using it for advantage is OK?!

p. 105-06: Nine standards of imperial administration.

Chap. 20 (p. 107) Cheng is the way of tian. The person of cheng is one "who hits upon what is right without effort and apprehends without thinking." This is the sheng ren--sage.

Chap. 22 Only cheng will allow us to develop our xing. Then you can develop the xing of others. Then a cosmic expansion. [Quote.]

Chap. 24 Cheng gives one foreknowledge and capacity for divination. "He who has absolute cheng is like a shen." Note: he is not a shen but like one. How can one give this chapter a more naturalistic and humanistic interpretation? On the face of it this sounds rather esoteric and irrational.

Chap. 25 Cheng means the completion of the self, and all things are completed by and through it. The completion of the self-making it whole? This means ren*. The completion of things means wisdom (zhi).

Does completion of the self mean filling the space between Heaven and Earth; or at least unobstructed flow of qi through the body? Is this Mencius' Flood-like Qi energy?

Chap. 26 Cheng is in all things. "It is because it is infinite and lasting that it can complete all things." Cheng works with wu wei in nature. That’s a model then for the sage/emperor to act.

Chap 27 The sage expands, overflows, and fills all between Heaven and Earth. Dao depends on "perfect virtue"—human virtue or natural cheng? Dao is self-directing, so this must mean that the Dao has its own de.

Chap 28 Standardized wheels. Internal evidence that this chapter of the Zhong-Yong could not have been written before the Qin dynasty (221-206 BCE).

Chap 31 Characteristics of the sage. All are human not divine attributes. Deep as an abyss. Note the simile for next chapter. He is a counterpart to Heaven, not Heaven itself.

Chap 32 Ames and Hall cannot demonstrate the divinity of the sage from this passage, for at least two reasons: (1) From context: the very human sage of Chap. 31; and (2) the figurative language used.

Chap. 33 The superior person makes no special display of virtue. In this she is simply following tian, which is constantly brilliant, regular, predictable.