陆澄录

Lu Cheng asked: "As for the work of 'abiding in unity' — reading, one's whole mind on reading; receiving guests, wholly on receiving guests — does that count as abiding in unity?"

The Master said: "Lusting after beauty with the whole mind, greed for wealth with the whole mind — does that count? That is chasing things, not abiding in unity. Abiding in unity means being devoted to one thing alone: heavenly principle."

Someone asked about setting the will.

The Master said: "To have every thought bent on preserving heavenly principle — that is setting the will. Never forget this, and in time it naturally condenses in the mind, like the Daoists' 'forming the sacred embryo.' With this thought of heavenly principle ever present, one ascends by degrees to what is beautiful, great, sage, divine — all simply from nourishing and expanding this one thought."

"When your daytime efforts feel scattered, sit quietly; when you feel too listless to read, then read — this too is prescribing according to the illness."

"In friendship, mutual deference brings gain; contending to be above each other brings loss."

Meng Yuan had the fault of self-satisfaction and love of fame, and the Master repeatedly reproved him. One day, just after a reproof, a friend was recounting his recent practice for correction. Yuan said from the side: "This is just recovering my old family stock."

The Master said: "Your illness has flared again." Yuan flushed and moved to argue.

The Master said: "Your illness has flared again," and instructed him: "This is the great root of your lifelong disease. Suppose in a ten-foot plot a great tree is planted: the rain and dew, the strength of the soil, all nourish only this great root; even if you wished to sow fine grain around it, above it is covered by the tree's branches and leaves, below entangled by its roots — how could anything grow? The tree must be felled, every fiber of root removed, before good seed can be planted. Otherwise, all your tilling and banking only nourishes that root."

Someone asked: "The abundance of later writings — does it not also confuse the true learning?"

The Master said: "The human mind and heavenly principle are one seamless whole. When sages committed it to writing, it was like painting a portrait to convey the spirit: they showed people only the rough shape, that they might seek the true likeness from it; the spirit and bearing, the speech and movement, simply cannot be transmitted. Later writings copy and recopy what the sages drew, then presumptuously dissect and add to display their skill, drifting ever further from the truth."

Someone asked: "The sage responds to changes without exhaustion — is that not from study made beforehand?"

The Master said: "How could one study so much in advance? The sage's mind is like a bright mirror: it is simply bright, responding to whatever comes, reflecting all things; it never holds the shapes of the past within nor pre-contains shapes not yet lit. What later ages teach is the opposite, at great variance with the sage's learning. The Duke of Zhou's rites and music adorning the world were within a sage's power — why did Yao and Shun not do it all and wait for Zhou? Confucius edited the Six Classics to instruct ten thousand ages — also within a sage's power — why did the Duke of Zhou not do it first and wait for Confucius? From this one knows: the sage meeting his times has those deeds. Fear only that the mirror is not bright, not that things may come unreflected. Studying changes is also just the business of the moment of reflection; the learner must first have the work of brightness. The learner's only worry is that the mind is not yet bright, never that changes cannot all be met."

"Then what of the saying 'in the vast void before any sign, the ten thousand images already stand complete'?"

"The saying itself is good; only read it poorly and it too becomes a defect."

"Righteous principle has no fixed abode and no end. When I speak with you, do not suppose that because you have gained a little, this is all there is. Were we to speak another ten, twenty, fifty years, there would still be no end."

Another day he said: "Sagely as Yao and Shun were, above them goodness has no end; wicked as Jie and Zhou were, below them evil has no end. Had Jie and Zhou not died, would their evil have stopped there? And if goodness could be exhausted, why did King Wen 'gaze on the Way as if he had not yet seen it'?"

Someone asked: "In quiet I feel fine, but the moment affairs arise it is different. What to do?"

The Master said: "You know only nourishing stillness and neglect the work of self-mastery. Meeting affairs, you will be bowled over. One must be tempered on affairs to stand firm — then one is settled in stillness and settled in movement alike."

Someone asked about the work of 'reaching upward'.

The Master said: "Later scholars, the moment anything subtle is touched, call it 'reaching upward' — not for learners — and stick to 'learning below'; thus they split the two in half. What the eye can see, the ear hear, the mouth say, the mind think — all is learning below; what the eye cannot see nor ear hear nor mouth say nor mind think — that is reaching upward. Cultivating and watering a tree is learning below; that it grows day and night, its branches spreading in full leaf, is reaching upward — how could man lend a hand there? So whatever one can work at and be told of is learning below, and reaching upward lies only within learning below. All the sages said, however subtle, belongs to learning below. Work at learning below and one naturally reaches upward; do not seek some separate work of reaching upward."

Someone asked: "How does one work at 'refinement' and 'unity'?

The Master said: "Unity is the design of refinement; refinement is the work of unity — there is no unity apart from refinement. The character for 'refine' has 'rice' in it, so take rice as a figure: that the rice be purely white is 'unity'; but without the refining work of pounding, winnowing, sifting and picking, it cannot be purely white. Pounding and winnowing are refinement, yet they aim at nothing but pure white rice. Broad learning, inquiry, careful thought, clear discrimination, earnest practice — all are refinement in the service of unity. So too 'broad culture' is the work of 'ritual restraint'; 'investigating things' and 'extending knowledge' are the work of 'making the intention sincere'; 'pursuing inquiry and study' is the work of 'honoring the moral nature'; 'understanding goodness' is the work of 'making oneself sincere' — there is no second doctrine."

"Knowledge is the beginning of action; action is the completion of knowledge. The learning of the sage is one single work — knowledge and action must not be split into two."

"When Qi Diao Kai said, 'I am not yet confident in this,' Confucius was pleased. When Zilu made Zigao magistrate of Fei, Confucius said, 'You are stealing a man's son away.' When Zeng Dian spoke his aspiration, the Master approved. The sage's intent can be seen from these."

Someone asked: "When one preserves the mind in tranquility, does that count as 'the equilibrium before feelings are aroused'?"

The Master said: "What people today preserve is only settled breath. In tranquility it is only the breath that is tranquil — that is not the equilibrium before arousal."

"'Not yet aroused' is 'equilibrium' — is that then the work of seeking equilibrium?"

"Only removing human desire and preserving heavenly principle is the work. In stillness, thought after thought, remove desire and preserve principle; in movement likewise — tranquility or no tranquility. If you lean on tranquility, not only will you contract the fault of loving stillness and dreading movement, but many diseases will merely lie hidden, never eradicated, sprouting again the moment affairs arise. With following principle as the master, when were you ever not tranquil? With tranquility as the master, you may still fail to follow principle."

Someone asked: "When Confucius's disciples declared their aims, Zilu and Ran Qiu undertook government, Gongxi Chao rites and music — how practical. Zeng Dian's answer seemed like idle play, yet the sage approved him. What is the meaning?"

The Master said: "Those three held fixed intentions and expectations; holding these, one leans to one side — able in this, perhaps not in that. Zeng Dian's mind was free of them: 'doing what is proper to one's station, not craving what lies beyond it; among barbarians doing as barbarians do, in hardship doing as hardship demands — finding contentment wherever one goes.' The three were each 'a vessel' of one use; Zeng Dian had the sense of 'not being a mere vessel'. Yet the talents of the three were each brilliantly formed, unlike the world's empty talkers without substance — hence the Master approved them all."

Someone asked: "My knowledge does not advance — what to do?"

The Master said: "Learning must have a root-source; work must be done at that source, advancing gradually as water fills each hollow before flowing on. The immortals' image of the infant is a fine figure. In the womb the infant is pure vital breath — what knowledge has it? Born, it can first cry, then smile, then recognize parents and brothers, then stand, walk, grasp, carry, until at last nothing under heaven is beyond it. All this comes as essence and breath daily fill, sinews daily strengthen, intelligence daily opens — not from study pressed through on the day of birth. So there must be a root-source. Even the sage's 'setting heaven and earth in place and nurturing the ten thousand things' was cultivated from 'the equilibrium before joy, anger, sorrow and pleasure are aroused.' Later scholars, mistaking the doctrine of investigating things and seeing the sage knew all and could do all, try to exhaust everything at the very start of study — what sense is there in that?"

He added: "Setting the will and working at it is like planting a tree. At the sprout there is not yet a trunk; with the trunk, not yet branches; branches, then leaves; leaves, then blossom and fruit. When the root is first planted, just cultivate and water — do not think of branches, nor leaves, nor blossom, nor fruit. What good is idle imagining? Only do not forget the work of tending, and will you fear to lack branches, leaves, blossom and fruit?"

Someone asked: "When I read and cannot understand — what to do?"

The Master said: "It is from burrowing among the words' surface meanings that you fail. So doing, you would do better with the old learning: it read much and could gloss it through. But even fully glossed, that learning yields no real attainment to the end of life. You must work on the substance of the mind. Whatever you cannot understand or carry into practice, turn back and verify on your own mind, and it will open of itself. The Four Books and Five Classics say only this mind-substance; this mind-substance is the Way. When the mind-substance is clear, the Way is clear — there is no second thing. This is the guiding head of all study."

"Empty, numinous, never darkened — in it the many principles are complete and the ten thousand affairs arise. No principle outside the mind; no affair outside the mind."

Someone asked: "Master Hui'an said: 'What man studies comes down to mind and principle, no more.' What of that?"

The Master said: "Mind is nature, nature is principle; to insert the word 'and' between them inevitably makes two of them. It is for the learner to see this well."

Someone said: "All have this mind, and the mind is principle — why then do some do good and some evil?"

The Master said: "The evil person's mind has lost its original substance."

Someone asked: "What of the saying 'analyze to the utmost fineness without confusion, then combine to exhaust the whole without remainder'?"

The Master said: "I fear it is not exhaustive. How can principle tolerate being analyzed? And what need to piece it together? The sages' 'refinement and unity' already said it all."

"Self-examination is the preservation-and-nourishing of the mind amid affairs; preservation-and-nourishing is self-examination when without affairs."

Lu Cheng once asked about Lu Xiangshan's teaching of doing the work within human feelings and changing affairs.

The Master said: "Apart from human feelings and changing affairs there are no affairs. Joy, anger, sorrow, pleasure — are these not human feelings? From seeing, hearing, speech, movement, down to wealth, poverty, hardship, life and death — all are changing affairs. And changing affairs reside only within human feelings. The key lies solely in 'bringing feelings to due measure and harmony', and that lies solely in 'watching over oneself when alone'."

Lu Cheng asked: "Do the names humaneness, righteousness, ritual propriety, wisdom arise only after feelings are aroused?"

The Master said: "They do."

Another day Lu Cheng asked: "Are compassion, shame, deference, and right-and-wrong the outward virtues of nature?"

The Master said: "Humaneness, righteousness, propriety, wisdom too are outward names. Nature is one alone: as to its form, it is called Heaven; as ruler, the Lord; as it flows, the Mandate; as bestowed on man, nature; as master of the body, the mind. The mind's expressions: meeting a father, it is called filial piety; meeting a ruler, loyalty; and so the names go on without end — one nature only. Like a person, one alone: to the father, a son; to the son, a father; and so without end — one person only. Work at nature; see this one word 'nature' in full clarity, and the ten thousand principles shine forth."

One day the work of learning was under discussion.

The Master said: "In teaching, one must not cling to one side. Beginners, their minds like monkeys and horses, cannot be tethered; their thoughts mostly run toward selfish desire — so first teach them quiet sitting to rest thought. But once the mind has steadied somewhat, merely keeping empty stillness, like withered wood or cold ashes, is useless: teach them examination and self-mastery. This work knows no pause. Like routing bandits, there must be the resolve to sweep clean. When without affairs, hunt out every private lust — for beauty, gain, fame — one by one; dig out the root of disease so it never rises again, and only then be at ease. Be as a cat stalking a mouse: eye fixed, ear cocked; the instant a thought stirs, cut it away, clean and decisive — no indulgence, no sheltering, no escape route. That is real work; that alone sweeps clean. When no selfishness remains to master, there will be time enough to sit serene with folded hands. Though it is said 'what is there to think, what to worry?' — that is not the beginner's stage. The beginner must think: examination and mastery are the thinking of sincerity, thinking one thing only, heavenly principle. When heavenly principle is pure and complete, that is 'what is there to think, what to worry?'"

Lu Cheng asked: "What of one who fears ghosts at night?"

The Master said: "It is only from failing to 'accumulate righteousness', so the heart has something to be ashamed of — hence fear. If one's conduct always accords with the bright spirits, what is there to fear?"

Zishen said: "Upright ghosts need not be feared; the fear is that wicked ghosts disregard whether one is good or evil."

The Master said: "Since when can a wicked ghost beguile an upright person? The fear itself makes the mind wicked — that is what beguiles him. It is not the ghost that deludes; the mind deludes itself. Lust after beauty — beguiled by the ghost of lust; greed for wealth — the ghost of wealth; anger at what deserves none — the ghost of anger; fear of what merits no fear — the ghost of fear."

"Being settled is the original substance of the mind — heavenly principle. Movement and stillness are only the times one meets with."

Lu Cheng asked about the differences between the Great Learning and the Doctrine of the Mean.

The Master said: "Zisi condensed the purport of the Great Learning into the first chapter of the Doctrine of the Mean."

Someone asked: "On Confucius's rectification of names in Wei, earlier scholars said he would 'report above to the Son of Heaven and below to the regional lords, depose Zhe and install Ying.' What of that view?"

The Master said: "Hardly so. Would one who honors me with utmost respect and awaits my governance be deposed by me first? Where are human feeling and heavenly principle in that? Since Confucius was willing to govern for Zhe, Zhe must already have entrusted the state to him wholeheartedly. The sage's abundant virtue and utmost sincerity would have transformed Zhe, making him see that a man without a father cannot be a man; Zhe would weep bitterly and run to welcome his father back. The love of father and son is rooted in nature; with such genuine remorse from Zhe, how could Kuai Kui fail to be moved and yielded? When Kuai Kui returned, Zhe would restore the state to him and ask for punishment. Kuai Kui, transformed by his son, with Confucius's utmost sincerity mediating, would surely refuse and re-entrust the throne to Zhe. The ministers and people would insist on Zhe as ruler. Zhe would expose his own crimes, petition the Son of Heaven and proclaim to the lords his resolve to yield the state to his father. Kuai Kui, the ministers and people would likewise extol Zhe's repentance, filial goodness, and petition that Zhe rule. Thus the mandate would settle on Zhe, restoring him as ruler of Wei. Compelled, Zhe would follow the later precedent of the retired sovereign: leading ministers and people to honor Kuai Kui as Grand Duke, providing fully for him, then resume his place. Then ruler as ruler, minister as minister, father as father, son as son — names rectified, words following smoothly, and in one stroke good governance could spread through the world. Perhaps this is what Confucius meant by rectifying names."

Lu Cheng, lodging in the Honglu Temple quarters, received a letter saying his son was gravely ill; he was so distressed he could hardly bear it.

The Master said: "This is precisely the moment for the work. If you let it pass now, what use is lecturing in leisure? It is on such hours that one must be tempered. A father's love for his son is the truest feeling, yet even heavenly principle has its due measure; beyond that measure it is private sentiment. Most men mistake this for principle's own demand for grief and give way to unrelenting anguish, not knowing this is already 'the mind unsettled by anxious care.' Broadly, the seven feelings mostly err by excess, rarely by deficiency. Once excessive, it is no longer the mind's original substance; it must be brought back to due measure. At a parent's death, would the son not wish to weep himself to death for satisfaction? Yet it is said 'grief must not destroy life' — not the sage's forced restraint: the original substance of heavenly principle has its own limits not to be exceeded. Only know the substance of the mind, and one can neither add nor subtract a hair's breadth."

"One cannot say the equilibrium before arousal is possessed by everyone. Substance and function are one source: with that substance comes that function; only with the equilibrium before arousal comes the harmony of feelings expressed all in due measure. Since people today lack the harmony of due measure, know that they have not fully attained the equilibrium before arousal either."

"The words of the Changes are the six characters 'First nine: the submerged dragon does not act'; its image is that first line; its changes are the lines one falls upon; its divination is the use of its words."

'The night breath is said of ordinary people. If learners do the work, then by day, in affairs or out of them, it is all where this breath gathers and springs forth. For the sage there is no need to speak of night breath.'

Lu Cheng asked about the passage 'hold it fast and it remains; let go and it is lost.'

The Master said: 'Going out and coming in without fixed time, none knowing its dwelling — though said of the ordinary mind, the learner too must know that the mind's original substance is originally thus, and only then is the work of holding fast without defect. One must not say outright that going out is loss and coming in preservation. In terms of the original substance there is no going out or coming in at all. If one speaks of out and in, then thinking and engagement are its going out; yet the master of it stays brightly here — out to where? And with no going out, what coming in? What Chengzi called the bodily frame is nothing but heavenly principle. Busy with engagements all day yet never departing from heavenly principle — one is within the frame. Depart from principle, and that alone is letting go, that alone is loss.'

He added: 'Out and in are but movement and stillness, and movement and stillness have no beginning — what fixed dwelling could there be?'

Wang Jiaxiu asked: 'Buddhism allures people into its way with escape from birth and death; immortality does so with long life; their intent is not to make people do ill. At the utmost they too glimpse the sages' upper half, though it is not the right road. Like officials today: some enter by examination, some by nomination, some by direct appointment — all may reach high office, yet it is not the proper road, which the noble person will not take. At their height, immortals and Buddhists roughly agree with the Confucians, but holding the upper half they drop the lower, never whole like the sage — though that agreement cannot be denied. Later Confucians, holding only the sages' lower half, split the Way and lost its truth, drifting into memorization, belles-lettres, utility, philology — in the end no less heterodox. These four schools toil lifelong without a hair's gain for body or mind, seeming even to fall short of those pure-hearted practitioners transcending worldly bonds. Today's learners need not first attack immortals and Buddhists; set your wills firmly on the sages' learning. When that learning shines, the others fade of themselves. Otherwise, what we study they may disdain, and we would still ask them to stoop to us — is that not hard? Such is my humble view; what do you say?'

The Master said: 'Broadly right. But this talk of upper half and lower half is itself the bias of human sight. In the sage's way, perfectly central and correct, running through high and low, all is one thread — where is there any upper or lower half? The alternation of yin and yang is called the Way; yet the benevolent see it and call it benevolence, the wise call it wisdom, and the people use it daily and know it not — hence the way of the noble person is little known. Are benevolence and wisdom not the Way? Only, seen askew, defects arise.'

'Yarrow stalks are indeed the Changes; tortoise shells too are the Changes.'

Someone asked: 'Confucius said King Wu's music was not wholly good — was there some dissatisfaction?'

The Master said: 'For King Wu it could hardly be otherwise.'

'Had King Wen not died, how would it have ended?'

'In Wen's day, two of the world's three parts were already his. Had Wen still lived at the time of Wu's campaign, arms might never have been raised: the remaining third would have come over of itself. Wen simply managed the tyrant Zhou well, keeping him from giving full rein to evil.'

Someone asked about Mencius's 'holding to the mean without weighing is clinging to one extreme.'

The Master said: 'The mean is heavenly principle, and it is constant change. Changing with every moment, how could it be held fast? One must fit the measure to the time; no rule can be fixed in advance. Like later scholars trying to state every doctrine without a crack, setting up a fixed mold — that is precisely clinging to one extreme.'

Tang Xu asked: 'Is setting the will just keeping a good thought constant, meaning to do good and remove evil?'

The Master said: 'When a good thought is present, that is heavenly principle. The thought itself is good — what further good to seek? The thought is not evil — what evil to remove? This thought is like a tree's root and sprout; to set the will is simply to stand long in this good thought. Following the heart's desire without overstepping the line is only the will brought to ripeness.'

'Vitality, virtue, speech, action — on the whole, gathering-in is the rule; going forth is only of necessity. So it is with Heaven, Earth, and all beings.'

Someone asked: 'What manner of man was Wenzhongzi?'

The Master said: 'He almost had the whole body of the sage in miniature; a pity he died young.'

'Then why the fault of continuing the classics?'

'Even that cannot be wholly condemned.'

Asked to explain, after a long while he said: 'One feels all the more the good craftsman's heart, solitary in its pains.'

'Xu Luzhai's saying that scholars should put making a living first also leads men astray.'

Someone asked the immortals' primal breath, primal spirit, primal essence.

The Master said: 'One thing only: flowing forth it is breath, congealing it is essence, its wondrous working is spirit.'

'Joy, anger, sorrow, pleasure are in their original substance already in due measure and harmony. The moment one stirs in some private notion, there is excess or shortfall — private desire.'

Someone asked about 'having wept, not singing the same day.'

The Master said: 'The sage's mind-substance is naturally so.'

'Self-mastery demands sweeping clean without a hair left behind. Let one hair remain, and every evil comes trooping after it.'

Someone asked about the New Treatise on Pitch-pipes.

The Master said: 'Learners must set pressing duties first; calculating these numbers ever so skillfully may still be useless — one must first possess the root of rites and music in the heart. Moreover, the book's method waits on the breath with pipes, but at the very moment of the winter solstice the pipe ashes may fly sooner or later; within that instant, how do you know which pipe marks the solstice's exact point? One must first know the solstice moment in one's own mind. Here it breaks down. Learners must first work at the root-source of rites and music.'

Xu Ai said: 'The mind is like a mirror: the sage's mind a bright mirror, the common mind a tarnished one. The recent doctrine of investigating things is like using the mirror to reflect things — working at the reflecting, unaware the mirror is still dim: how can it reflect? Your teaching of investigating things is like polishing the mirror bright — working at the polishing; and once bright, reflecting is by no means abandoned.'

Someone asked about the Way's fine and coarse.

The Master said: 'The Way has no fine or coarse; men's seeing has. Take this room: entering, one sees only its rough outline; dwelling long, pillars and walls grow distinct one by one; longer still, even the carved tracery on the pillars is made out in detail. Yet all the while it is one room.'

The Master said: 'Gentlemen, of late when we meet your questions are few — why? Not working, everyone fancies he already understands learning and needs only walk it out. Little do they know selfish desire rises daily, like dust on the floor: sweep one day, a new layer the next. Work in earnest and you will see the Way has no end — the deeper the probe, the deeper it goes — until it is pure white, not a hair unpenetrated.'

Someone asked: 'Only when knowledge is complete can one speak of making the intention sincere. Since I do not yet exhaustively know heavenly principle and human desire, how can I do the work of self-mastery?'

The Master said: 'Work truly and personally without pause, and each day you will see more of the fineness of heavenly principle in this mind, and each day more of the subtlety of selfish desire. Without the work of self-mastery, one only talks all day; principle never shows itself, nor does desire. It is like walking a road: walk a stretch, and you know a stretch; at the forkings, ask where you doubt, then walk on; only so do you gradually arrive where you would go. Today's people will not preserve the principle they already know nor remove the desire they already know, and worry only about not knowing all — idle talk, of what use? Wait till you have mastered yourself with nothing left to master, then worry about not knowing all — it will not be late.'

Someone asked: 'The Way is one alone; yet the ancients' accounts of it often differ — is there a key to seeking it?'

The Master said: 'The Way has no fixed place or form and cannot be clung to; to seek it pinned to the words' letter strays far. People speak of Heaven, but when have they ever seen Heaven? To say sun, moon, wind and thunder are Heaven will not do; to say men, things, grass and trees are not Heaven will not do either. The Way is Heaven. Know it, and what is not the Way? Each man, from his one corner's view, decides the Way is only thus — hence the differences. Learn to seek within and see your own mind-substance, and there is no time or place where it is not this Way. Through all antiquity, without end or beginning — what same or different then? The mind is the Way, the Way is Heaven: know the mind and you know the Way and Heaven.'

He added: 'To truly see this Way, you must recognize it on your own mind, not seeking outside.'

Someone asked: 'Must names, things and measures also be studied beforehand?'

The Master said: 'Perfect the substance of your own mind, and their use is included. If the mind truly holds the equilibrium before arousal, then feelings issue in due-measure harmony, and nothing undertaken fails. Without that mind, all the world's names and measures studied in advance remain foreign to you — mere ornament, useless when the moment comes. Not that they should be wholly ignored: knowing what comes first and last, one is near the Way.'

He added: 'Each is perfected according to his talent, for talent is what one can do. Kui's music, Ji's husbandry — their endowments were thus from the start. To perfect them means only making their mind-substance pure in heavenly principle; whatever flows from principle is then called talent. Brought to purity, one is also no mere vessel: let Kui and Ji exchange arts, and they could still do it.'

He added: 'In wealth doing as wealth demands, in hardship doing as hardship demands — all this is being no mere vessel. Only one whose mind-substance is kept correct can do so.'

'Better a few feet of well water with a spring than acres of pond water without one — its life is inexhaustible.' The Master was sitting by a pond with a well alongside, and used this as a figure for learning.

Someone asked: 'The world declines daily — how can the air of high antiquity be seen again?'

The Master said: 'A single day is one whole cosmic cycle. Rising to sit quietly at dawn, not yet in contact with things, the mind's clear brightness is like wandering in the age of Fuxi.'

Someone asked: 'The mind keeps chasing after things — what is to be done?'

The Master said: 'The ruler sits serene and dignified while the six ministers discharge their offices — thus the realm is ordered. The mind commanding the five senses should be thus. Now when the eye would see, the mind chases after sights; when the ear would hear, after sounds — like a ruler who, appointing officials, goes to sit in the Ministry of Personnel himself, or, moving troops, sits in the War Ministry. Not only is the ruler's proper role lost; none of the six ministers can do his office either.'

'A good thought arises — know it and expand it; an evil thought arises — know it and check it. This knowing, expanding, checking is the will — Heaven's own intelligence. The sage has only this; the learner must preserve this.'

Lu Cheng said: 'Lust, greed, love of fame are indeed selfish desire. But why are idle thoughts and stray fancies also called selfish desire?'

The Master said: 'They rise, after all, from those very roots of lust, greed and fame — search for the root and you will see. You know for certain there is no thought in you of becoming a robber — why? Because you originally have no such mind. Were your desires for wealth, beauty, fame and gain all extinguished like the absent thought of robbery, leaving the mind's substance bare and alone, what idle thoughts would remain? That is 'still and unmoving', the equilibrium before arousal, the 'vast impartiality' — then naturally 'stirred, it penetrates all', feelings issue in due measure, and things are met as they come.'

Someone asked about 'the will is first, the breath next.'

The Master said: 'It means: where the will arrives, the breath arrives — not first and second in rank. Hold fast the will, and nourishing the breath is included; do not abuse the breath, and that too is holding the will. Mencius spoke on both sides to correct Gaozi's one-sidedness.'

Someone asked: 'Earlier scholars said: the way of the sage stoops down to humility; the words of the worthy pull themselves up to height. What of it?'

The Master said: 'Not so — that would be pretense. The sage is like Heaven: everywhere is Heaven — above the three lights, below the nine depths; when did Heaven ever stoop? This is greatness transformed. The worthy are like mountains, simply keeping their height; yet a hundred fathoms cannot be stretched to a thousand, nor a thousand to ten thousand. So the worthy never pulled themselves up; to pull oneself up is pretense.'

Someone asked: 'Cheng Yi said one must not seek equilibrium before the feelings are aroused; yet Yanping taught students to observe the weather of the mind before arousal. How so?'

The Master said: 'Both are right. Cheng Yi feared people would hunt for a 'mean' before arousal, treating it as a thing — like my earlier point about mistaking settled breath for equilibrium — so he directed work to nourishing and examining. Yanping feared people would have nowhere to begin, so he had them attend every moment to that pre-arousal weather, eye and ear given to this alone — which is just the work of vigilance over the unseen and unheard. Both were words the ancients used of necessity to guide people.'

Lu Cheng asked: 'The fullness of equilibrium and harmony in joy, anger, sorrow, pleasure is surely beyond ordinary people. Yet take some small matter that should stir feeling: if one has felt nothing beforehand and the response stays in measure, is that not equilibrium and harmony too?'

The Master said: 'For the moment and the single affair it may be so called, but not yet the great root and the reached Way. Human nature is all good; equilibrium and harmony belong to everyone originally — how could they be absent? But the ordinary mind is dimmed and veiled; its substance shows forth from time to time, flaring and failing, not its whole substance and great functioning. Equilibrium everywhere, then it is the great root; harmony everywhere, then it is the reached Way. Only the utterly sincere under Heaven can establish the great root.'

'I do not yet grasp the meaning of equilibrium.'

'It must be recognized out of your own mind; words cannot convey it. Equilibrium is heavenly principle.'

'What is heavenly principle?'

'Remove human desire, and you know heavenly principle.'

'Why is heavenly principle called equilibrium?'

'Because it leans nowhere.'

'What is that like?'

'Like a bright mirror, wholly luminous, not a speck of dust clinging.'

'Leaning means clinging — to beauty, gain, fame. But before arousal, none of these has yet attached itself; how do we know the mind leans?'

'Though not yet attached, the daily desires for beauty, gain and fame were never absent; never absent, they must be called present; and if present, the mind cannot be said not to lean. Like a man with malaria: though the fit is quiet, the root was never removed — he cannot be called well. Only when every private desire has been swept away without a thread remaining, the mind's whole substance vast and pure in heavenly principle, can it be called the equilibrium before joy, anger, sorrow and pleasure — the great root of all under Heaven.'

Someone asked: 'That with Yan Hui's death the sagely learning perished — I cannot but doubt it.'

The Master said: 'Yan Hui alone saw the Way in its wholeness — his deep sigh shows it. His words — the Master skillfully led me on step by step, broadening me with culture, restraining me with ritual — were said after seeing it through. How are broad culture and ritual restraint skillful leading? Learners must think on this. The wholeness of the Way even the sage can hardly tell in words; learners must cultivate and awaken to it themselves. Yan Hui's 'longing to follow, yet finding no way' is King Wen's gazing on the Way as if unseen. To gaze on it as unseen is truly to see. With Yan Hui dead, the true line of the sagely learning was no longer fully handed down.'

Someone asked: 'The master of the body is the mind; the mind's numinous brightness is knowledge; knowledge stirring is intention; where intention attaches is the thing — is it so?'

The Master said: 'It is.'

'To keep this mind constantly present — that alone is learning. Past and future things: what gain in thinking of them? It only lets the original mind stray.'

'Disordered speech is itself proof that the mind is not present.'

Shangqian asked how Mencius's unmoved mind differs from Gaozi's.

The Master said: 'Gaozi gripped the mind and forced it not to move; Mencius accumulated righteousness until it did not move of itself.'

He added: 'The mind's original substance never moves. That substance is nature; nature is principle; nature never moved, principle never moved. Accumulating righteousness is restoring the mind's original substance.'

'When the myriad images stand full, that too is the void before any sign; the void before any sign is the myriad images standing full. The void is father of unity; the standing images are mother of refinement. In unity there is refinement; in refinement, unity.'

'No thing outside the mind. When a thought of filial piety arises in my mind, that filial piety is a thing.'

The Master said: 'Even those now studying what I call the investigation of things mostly let it slip into learning of mouth and ear. How much less can those already sunk in mouth-and-ear learning turn back to this! The fineness of heavenly principle and human desire is seen only by ceaseless examination and mastery. Even while one speaks, mouth full of heavenly principle, who knows how many selfish desires have sprung up in a flash of the heart? Some steal forth unnoticed; even forceful scrutiny hardly finds them — can mere talk know them all? To lecture on principle yet not follow it, lecture on desire yet not remove it — is that the learning of investigating things and extending knowledge? Later learning at its best accomplishes only a righteousness snatched by surprise assault.'

Someone asked about investigating things.

The Master said: 'Ge means to correct: correct the incorrect and return it to the correct.'

Someone asked: 'Does knowing where to rest mean knowing the highest good is in my mind alone, not outside — and only then the will is settled?'

The Master said: 'It does.'

Someone asked: 'Is the work of investigating things done in movement?'

The Master said: 'It brooks no division of movement and stillness — stillness too is a thing. Mencius's always having the task at hand means the work goes on in movement and stillness alike.'

'The difficulty of the work lies wholly in investigating things and extending knowledge — this is the matter of making the intention sincere. With intention sincere, broadly the mind is rectified of itself and the self cultivated. Yet rectifying the mind and cultivating the self each have their place of effort: cultivation is on the side of the already-aroused, rectification on the side of the not-yet-aroused. The mind rectified is equilibrium; the self cultivated is harmony.'

'From investigating things and extending knowledge to giving peace to all under heaven, there is only the one work of brightening bright virtue — even loving the people belongs to it. Bright virtue is this mind's virtue, which is humaneness. The humane take heaven, earth and the ten thousand things as one body: should a single thing miss its place, my humaneness has somewhere fallen short.'

'To speak only of brightening bright virtue and not of loving the people is to near Laozi and the Buddhists.'

'The highest good is nature; nature has not a hair of evil in it — hence highest good. Resting in it is only restoring it as it originally is.'

Someone asked: 'Knowing the highest good is my nature, my nature lodged in my mind, my mind the resting place of the highest good — then I no longer seek wildly outside, and the will is settled. Settled, no turmoil: stillness. Still and not moving rashly: peace. At peace, single-minded, ten thousand thoughts bent on attaining this highest good — this is being able to deliberate and attain. Is this right?'

The Master said: 'Broadly, yes.'

Someone asked: 'Chengzi said the humane take heaven, earth and the ten thousand things as one body. Why then is Mozi's universal love not called humaneness?'

The Master said: 'This is hard to put into words; you must recognize it yourselves. Humaneness is the creative principle's ceaseless life-giving. Though it pervades everywhere without gap, its flowing forth proceeds only by degrees — hence it is inexhaustible. At the winter solstice one yang is born, and only gradually do the six yang follow; without the one born, whence the six? So with yin. Because gradual, there is a point of arising; because there is an arising, life; because life, no cessation. Like a tree: the first budding is where its life arises; budding, then trunk; trunk, then branch and leaf — life upon life without end. No bud, whence trunk and branches? And budding means a root below: with root, life; without, death — rootless, whence the bud? The love of father and son, elder and younger brother is the arising-point of the mind's life, like the tree's budding; from there to loving the people, then cherishing things, is trunk, branch and leaf. Mozi's love without gradation sets one's own father and brother level with the passerby, abolishing the point of arising; no bud tells you there is no root — not life without end; how can that be humaneness? Filial piety and brotherly love are the root of humaneness — the principle of humaneness sprouting from within.'

Someone asked: 'Yanping said: according with principle and without selfish mind. How do according with principle and freedom from selfishness differ?'

The Master said: 'The mind is principle: without selfishness is according with principle; off principle is selfishness. To split mind and principle apart in speech is also unfitting.'

Asked further: 'The Buddhists cling to none of the world's private passions — seemingly without selfishness — yet abandoning human relations seems off principle.'

'In truth it is one affair: all of it only perfecting a self-serving mind.'