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I. CONFUCIUS (551-479 B.C.E.)
III. WANG YANG-MING (1472-1529 C.E.)
I.4 Tseng Tzu said: "Every day I examine myself on
three counts. In what I have undertaken on another’s
behalf, have I failed to do my best (chung)? In my
dealings with my friends, have I failed to be trustworthy in
what I say? Have I passed on to others anything that I
have not tried out myself?"
II.6 Meng Wu Po asked about being filial. The Master
said, "Give your mother and father no other cause for
anxiety than illness.”
II.17
The Master said: "Yu, shall I tell you what it is to
know? To say what you know when you know, and to
say you do not when you do not, this is knowledge."
III.3 The Master said: "What can a man do with the rites
(li) who is not benevolent (jen)? What can a man do with
music who is not benevolent?"
IV.4 The Master said, "If a man sets his heart on
benevolence, he will be free from evil.”
VII.6
The Master said, "I set my heart on the Way
(tao), base myself on virtue (te), lean upon benevolence
(jen) for support and take my recreation in the arts."
12.11 Duke Ching of Chi’i asked Confucius about
government. Confucius answered, “Let the ruler be a
ruler, the subject a subject, the father a father, the son a
son.” The Duke said, “Splendid! Truly, if the ruler be not
a ruler, the father not a father, the son not a son, then
even if there be grain, would I get to eat it?”
Master Wang said: The great man regards Heaven
and Earth and the myriad things as one body. He
regards the world as one family and the country as one
person. As to those who make a cleavage between
objects and distinguish between the self and others, they
are small men. That the great man can regard Heaven,
Earth, and the myriad things as one body is not because
he deliberately wants to do so, but because it is natural to
the humane nature of his mind that he do so. Forming
one body with Heaven, Earth, and the myriad things is
not only true of the great man. Even the mind of the
small man is no different. Only he himself makes it small.
Therefore when he sees a child about to fall into a well,
he cannot help a feeling of alarm and commiseration.
This shows that his humanity forms one body with the
child. It may be objected that the child belongs to the
same species. Again, when he observes the pitiful cries
and frightened appearance of birds and animals about to
be slaughtered, he cannot help feeling an “inability to
bear” their suffering. This shows that his humanity forms
one body with birds and animals. It may be objected that
birds and animals are sentient beings as he is. But when
he sees plants broken and destroyed, he cannot help a
feeling of pity. This shows that his humanity forms one
body with plants. It may be said that plants are living
things as he is. Yet even when he sees tiles and stones
shattered and crushed, he cannot help a feeling of regret.
This means that even the mind of the small man
necessarily has the humanity that forms one body with
all. Such a mind is rooted in his Heaven-endowed
nature, and is naturally intelligent, clear, and not
beclouded.
For this reason it is called the “clear
character.” Although the mind of the small man is divided
and narrow, yet his humanity that forms one body can
remain free from darkness to this degree. This is due to
the fact that his mind has not yet been aroused by
desires and obscured by selfishness. When it is aroused
by desires and obscured by selfishness, compelled by
greed for gain and fear of harm, and stirred by anger, he
will destroy things, kill members of his own species, and
will do everything. In extreme cases he will even
slaughter his own brothers, and the humanity that forms
one body will disappear completely. Hence, if it is not
obscured by selfish desires, even the mind of the small
man has the humanity that forms one body with all as
does the mind of the great man. As soon as it is
obscured by selfish desires, even the mind of the great
man will be divided and narrow like that of the small man.
The learning of the great man consists entirely in getting
rid of the obscuration of selfish desires in order by his
own efforts to make manifest his clear character, so as to
restore the condition of forming one body with Heaven,
Earth, and the myriad things, a condition that is originally
so, that is all.
(From The Analects, translated D.C. Lau [NY: Penguin
Books, 1979].)
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II. MENCIUS (c. 320 B.C.E.)
Mencius said, “No man is devoid of a heart sensitive
to the suffering of others. . . . My reason for saying that
no man is devoid of a heart sensitive to the suffering of
others is this. Suppose a man were, all of a sudden, to
see a young child on the verge of falling into a well. He
would certainly be moved to compassion, not because he
wanted to get in the good graces of the parents, nor
because he wished to win the praise of his fellow
villagers or friends, nor yet because he dislike the cry of
the child. From this it can be seen that whoever is devoid
of the heart of compassion is not human, whoever is
devoid of the heart of shame is not human, whoever is
devoid of the heart of courtesy and modesty is not
human, and whoever is devoid of the hart of right and
wrong is not human. The heart of compassion is the
germ of benevolence; the heart of shame, of dutifulness;
the heart of courtesy and modesty, of the observance of
the rites; the heart of right and wrong, of wisdom. Man
has these four germs just as he has four limbs.
(From Mencius, translated D.C. Lau [NY:
Books, 1970], pp. 82-83.)
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Penguin
(From “An Inquiry on the Great Learning,” in A Source
Book in Chinese Philosophy, translated and compiled by
Wing-Tsit Chan [Princeton, NJ: Princeton University
Press, 1963], pp. 659-660.)