Record of Teaching and Practice
Subsequent Records by Huang Yifang
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317 · The Actual Place to Begin Making Intention Sincere
Huang Yifang asked: “‘Learn broadly in cultural patterns’ means learning in each affair to preserve this Heaven's principle. Yet ‘if, after acting, one has strength to spare, use it to learn cultural patterns’ seems not to agree with this account.”
The Master said: “The Poetry, the Documents, and the six arts are all manifestations of Heaven's principle. Written words are all included within them. Examining the Poetry, the Documents, and the six arts is all a means of learning to preserve this Heaven's principle. It is not only what manifests in actual affairs that is cultural pattern. ‘With strength to spare, learn cultural patterns’ is also simply an affair within learning broadly in cultural patterns.”
Someone asked about the two statements “learning without thinking” and “thinking without learning.”
He said: “These too were spoken for a particular reason. In fact, thinking is learning. If learning contains a doubt, one must think about it. ‘Thinking without learning’ refers to people who only think in empty space, wanting to imagine some principle, without actually applying strength in person and mind to learn to preserve this Heaven's principle. They treat thinking and learning as two undertakings, and therefore suffer from confusion and danger. In fact, thinking simply means thinking about what one learns. They originally are not two undertakings.”
The Master said: “Earlier scholars explain investigating things as investigating all the world's things. How could all the world's things be investigated? They also say that each plant and tree has principle. How, now, would one investigate it? Even supposing one had investigated plants and trees, how would that return to make one's own intention sincere?
“I explain ge as rectifying, and things as affairs. What the Great Learning calls the person is ears, eyes, mouth, nose, and limbs. To wish to cultivate the person means: for the eyes, do not look at what is contrary to ritual propriety; for the ears, do not listen to what is contrary to ritual propriety; for the mouth, do not speak what is contrary to ritual propriety; for the limbs, do not move contrary to ritual propriety.
“To cultivate this person, where can effort be applied upon the person itself? The mind is the person's governing master. Although the eyes see, what enables seeing is the mind. Although the ears hear, what enables hearing is the mind. Although mouth and limbs speak and move, what enables speech and movement is the mind.
“Thus wishing to cultivate the person lies in personally apprehending the constitution of one's own mind, constantly making it open and utterly impartial, with not the slightest point that is not right. Once the governing master is right, its opening through the eyes naturally has no seeing contrary to ritual propriety; its opening through the ears has no hearing contrary to ritual propriety; its opening through mouth and limbs has no speech or movement contrary to ritual propriety. This is cultivating the person lying in rectifying the mind.
“Yet the utmost good is the original constitution of the mind. Where could the original constitution of the mind have anything not good? In wishing now to rectify the mind, where could effort be applied upon the original constitution? Only at the point where the mind issues into movement can strength be applied. The mind's issuing into movement cannot avoid what is not good. Thus one must apply strength here. This is making intention sincere.
“For example, when a thought issues in loving goodness, go solidly and really to love goodness. When a thought issues in hating evil, go solidly and really to hate evil. Once every issuing of intention is sincere, how could its original constitution fail to be right? Hence wishing to rectify the mind lies in making intention sincere. Only on reaching making intention sincere does practical work find a place to land.
“Yet the root of making intention sincere lies in extending knowledge. What is called ‘what others do not know, yet one alone knows’ is precisely where my mind's innate moral knowing lies. But if one knows goodness and does not follow this innate moral knowing in going to do it, or knows what is not good and does not follow this innate moral knowing in refraining from doing it, this innate moral knowing is obscured. This is inability to extend knowledge.
“If my mind's innate moral knowing cannot be expanded to the utmost, then although I know to love goodness, I cannot really love it; although I know to hate evil, I cannot really hate it. How could intention become sincere? Hence extending knowledge is the root of making intention sincere.
“Yet neither is extending knowledge suspended in empty space. Extending knowledge lies in investigating and rectifying actual affairs. For example, if intention is directed toward doing good, go and do it in that very affair. If intention is directed toward removing evil, go and refrain from it in that very affair. Removing evil certainly rectifies what is not right and returns it to rightness. Doing good rectifies what was not good, and is likewise rectifying what is not right and returning it to rightness.
“In this way, my mind's innate moral knowing is unobscured by private desires and can be extended to its utmost. In the issuing of intention, loving good and removing evil will then all be sincere. The actual place to begin the work of making intention sincere lies in investigating things.
“Investigate things in this way, and everyone can do it. That all people can become Yao and Shun lies precisely here.”
318 · Investigating the Bamboo
The Master said: “Everyone says investigating things must follow Huiweng. But when have they ever taken his explanation and used it? I truly did use it.
“In my early years, I discussed becoming a sage or worthy with my friend Qian. We wanted to investigate all the world's things, but where could we obtain such immense strength? So I pointed to the bamboo before the pavilion and told him to investigate it. Morning and night Qian exhausted and investigated the bamboo's principle, using all his thought. After three days, fatigue of spirit made him ill.
“At first we said his vital strength was insufficient. So I myself went to exhaust and investigate it. Morning and night I could not obtain its principle. After seven days, I too fell ill from wearisome thought. We then sighed together that becoming sages or worthies was impossible: we did not have their immense strength to investigate things.
“During my three years among the Yi people, I gained considerable insight into this meaning. Only then did I know that there were originally no things in the world to be investigated. The work of investigating things is done only upon person and mind. Once I was certain that sagehood was something everyone could reach, I naturally had something to undertake and bear. I want you all to know the meaning here.”
319 · Children Have Their Own Investigating of Things
A disciple mentioned Shao Duanfeng's argument that children cannot investigate things and should only be taught sweeping, cleaning, responding, and answering.
The Master said: “Sweeping, cleaning, responding, and answering are themselves a thing. Children's innate moral knowing reaches only this far. Teaching them to sweep, clean, respond, and answer is extending this small point of their innate moral knowing.
“For example, children know to revere teachers and elders. This too is where their innate moral knowing lies. Thus even amid play, on seeing a teacher or elder they go and bow respectfully. This is being able to investigate things in order to extend their innate moral knowing of revering teachers and elders. Children naturally have children's investigating of things and extending of knowledge.”
He also said: “What I call investigating things is work of this kind from childhood all the way to sagehood. Only, the sage's investigating of things is a little more thoroughly practiced and requires no exertion. Even a firewood seller can investigate things in this way. Dukes, ministers, great officers, and even the Son of Heaven all do it in this way.”
320 · Knowing Is Easy, Extending It Difficult
Someone doubted that knowing and acting were one, and asked about the two lines beginning “Knowing it is not difficult.”
The Master said: “Innate moral knowing knows of itself, and that is originally easy. It is only that one cannot extend that innate moral knowing. This is ‘Knowing it is not difficult; acting on it is difficult.’”
321 · The Purpose of Saying Mind Is Principle
A disciple asked: “How can knowing and acting become one? For example, the Doctrine of the Mean says ‘learn broadly’ and also ‘practice earnestly.’ Plainly knowing and acting are two things.”
The Master said: “Learning broadly simply means learning to preserve this Heaven's principle in every affair. Practicing earnestly simply means not ceasing in that learning.”
The disciple asked again: “The Changes says ‘learn in order to gather it,’ and also ‘use benevolence to put it into practice.’ How is this?”
The Master said: “It is the same. Learn in each affair to preserve this Heaven's principle, and this mind will never let itself go. Hence ‘learn in order to gather it.’ Constantly learning to preserve this Heaven's principle, without interruption by private desires, is precisely where this mind does not cease. Hence ‘use benevolence to put it into practice.’”
The disciple asked again: “Confucius says, ‘Knowing reaches it, but benevolence cannot hold it.’ Then knowing and acting are two.”
The Master said: “To say ‘reaches it’ already means acting. But one cannot act constantly and is interrupted by private desires. This is benevolence being unable to hold it.”
The disciple asked again: “About mind being principle: Master Cheng says, ‘In things it is principle.’ How can you say mind is principle?”
The Master said: “Before the word ‘in,’ add the word mind. This mind, present in things, is principle. For example, this mind present in serving the father is filial devotion; present in serving the ruler, loyalty.”
The Master then told him: “You must recognize my guiding purpose in establishing these words. Why do I now say mind is principle? Only because worldly people divide mind and principle into two and thereby produce many diseases.
“For example, the Five Hegemons' expelling the Yi and Di and honoring the Zhou royal house all came from one private mind, and therefore did not accord with principle. Yet people say their conduct accorded with principle and it was only their minds that were not pure. Often they delight in and admire what they did, wanting to make things look fine on the outside while leaving them wholly unconnected with the mind.
“Dividing mind and principle into two flows into the falsity of the hegemonic way without one's knowing it. Thus I say mind is principle, wanting people to know that mind and principle are one. Then they come to apply effort in the mind, rather than take up an outward semblance of rightness. This is the truth of the kingly Way. This is my guiding purpose in establishing these words.”
The disciple asked again: “The sages and worthies have so many sayings. Why insist on making them one?”
He said: “I am not insisting on making them one. As it is said, ‘The Way is only one,’ and again, ‘Because its being is not two, its generation of things is unfathomable.’ Heaven, Earth, and the sages are all one. How could they be two?”
322 · The Mind Is Wherever Awareness Occurs
“The mind is not a piece of blood and flesh. Wherever there is awareness, there is mind. The ears and eyes knowing hearing and seeing, the hands and feet knowing pain and itching: this awareness is mind.”
323 · The Same Work, Not Several Parts Collected
Yifang asked: “In your account of investigating things, such teachings as the Doctrine of the Mean's vigilance when alone, accumulating rightness, and breadth and restraint all become affairs of investigating things.”
The Master said: “No. Investigating things is vigilance when alone and is caution and apprehension. As for accumulating rightness and breadth and restraint, the practical work is simply the same. It is not taking those several things and making them all into the affairs of investigating things.”
Reading note: The reply's 慎擉 is read through 慎独 in the question as vigilance when alone. The source graphic is unchanged.
324 · Inquiry Honors Nature and Detail Reaches Breadth
Yifang asked about honoring one's moral nature.
The Master said: “Following the path of inquiry and learning is precisely the means of honoring one's moral nature. Huiweng says that Zijing instructs people through honoring moral nature, and asks, ‘Is it not that my teaching has a little more of inquiry and learning?’ This divides honoring moral nature and inquiry and learning into two undertakings.
“All the effort we now expend on study, practice, discussion, and examination is nothing other than preserving this mind and not losing its moral nature. Could honoring moral nature mean honoring it in empty space without inquiry and learning? Could inquiry and learning mean inquiring and learning in empty space, disconnected from moral nature? In that case, I do not know what undertaking our present study, practice, discussion, and examination would be learning.”
Yifang asked about the two lines beginning “reach breadth and greatness.”
He said: “Exhausting refinement and subtlety is precisely the means of reaching breadth and greatness. Following the constant Mean is precisely the means of reaching the utmost height and brightness.
“The original constitution of the mind is naturally broad and great. If people cannot exhaust refinement and subtlety, they are obscured by private desires and can become unbearably small. Thus, if one exhausts every minute detail and turn, private intention cannot obscure one. Naturally all those obstructions and barriers disappear. How could breadth and greatness fail to be reached?”
He asked again: “Is refinement and subtlety the refinement and subtlety of thoughts, or of the principles of affairs?”
He said: “The refinement and subtlety of thoughts is the refinement and subtlety of the principles of affairs.”
325 · Speaking of Nature and Seeing Nature
The Master said: “Those now discussing nature produce endless agreements and disagreements. They are all speaking of nature, not seeing nature. For those who see nature, there are no agreements or disagreements to speak of.”
326 · Apply the Work amid Sounds, Beauty, Wealth, and Profit
Someone asked: “Even innate moral knowing, I fear, cannot be without sounds, beauty, wealth, and profit.”
The Master said: “Certainly. But in beginning to apply effort, one must sweep and wash them away, not letting them remain accumulated. Then, when they happen to be encountered, they will not become a burden, and one will naturally follow and respond.
“Innate moral knowing applies effort precisely amid sounds, beauty, wealth, and profit. If one can extend it with complete refinement and clarity, without the slightest obscuration, then in all encounters with sounds, beauty, wealth, and profit, nothing is other than Heaven's standard flowing forth.”
327 · Do Not Turn Twenty Years into Mere Talk
The Master said: “I discuss extending knowledge and investigating things with you all: every day it is this. Discuss it for ten or twenty years, and it is still like this. Hear my words and really go to apply effort. Each time you see me discuss it, you will feel that you have advanced another step. Otherwise it is only a round of talk. Even if you listen, what use is it?”
328 · No Earlier and Later in Responding
The Master said: “A person's original constitution is constantly still and unmoving, and constantly affected and thereupon penetrating all things. Not yet responding is not earlier; having responded is not later.”
329 · The Seeing Nature Remains
A friend cited a Buddhist account: “A finger is displayed and the assembly is asked, ‘Have you all seen it?’ They answer, ‘We have.’ The finger is put back into the sleeve, and they are asked, ‘Do you still see it?’ They answer, ‘We do not.’ The Buddha says, ‘You have still not seen your nature.’ This meaning is unclear to me.”
The Master said: “The finger is sometimes seen and sometimes not seen, but your nature that sees is always present. People's mind and spirit race only toward what is seen and heard, without applying solid effort in what is not seen and not heard.
“Seeing and hearing nothing is the original constitution of innate moral knowing. Caution and apprehension are the work of extending innate moral knowing. Students must at every moment constantly see what they do not see and constantly hear what they do not hear. Only then does practical work have a solid place to land.
“After a long time, when it is mature, no exertion is needed. Without waiting for guarding and restraint, genuine nature naturally does not cease. How could outward hearing and seeing be a burden?”
330 · The Hawk and the Fish
Someone asked: “Earlier scholars say the hawk's flying and the fish's leaping share the same vivid vitality as always having something to attend to.”
The Master said: “That is right too. All the vivid vitality between Heaven and Earth is this principle. It is the ceaseless flowing of my innate moral knowing. Extending innate moral knowing is the practical work of always having something to attend to.
“Not only must one not depart from this principle: in reality one cannot depart from it. Wherever one goes, there is the Way; wherever one goes, there is practical work.”
331 · Make Every Word Effective
The Master said: “While you are here, you must establish a mind resolved that you must become sages. At every moment it must be like a stroke leaving a mark, a slap drawing a handful of blood. Only then can you listen to my words and gain strength from every sentence.
“If you drift vaguely through the days, you are like a piece of dead flesh that does not know pain or itching even when struck. I fear that in the end nothing will be accomplished. Returning home, you will find only your old techniques again. Would this not be a pity?”
332 · Do the Work before Discussing Its Results
Someone asked: “Recently I feel that deluded thoughts are fewer, and also feel that I have not deliberately fixed on how practical work must be done. I do not know whether this is practical work.”
The Master said: “For the present, go and apply effort solidly. Even a little more of this deliberate consideration does no harm. Over a long time it will naturally become settled and fitting. If, after barely applying a little effort, you begin talking about results and signs, what is there to rely on?”
333 · The Knowing at the First Stirring
A friend lamented: “When private intention sprouts, my own mind clearly knows it. It is only that I cannot make it go at once.”
The Master said: “This point of knowing as it sprouts is the root of your life. Immediately going to wear away that private intention is the work of establishing the decree.”
334 · Nature’s Goodness and Differing Habits
“The Master's saying ‘natures are near one another’ is Mencius's saying ‘nature is good.’ It cannot be explained exclusively in terms of qi endowment. If we speak of endowment, how could the hard and soft, for example, be near one another? It is only in the goodness of nature that they are the same.
“At the beginning of human life, goodness is originally shared. But the hard, habituated to goodness, become hard in goodness; habituated to evil, hard in evil. The soft, habituated to goodness, become soft in goodness; habituated to evil, soft in evil. Thus they grow farther apart each day.”
335 · Gold and Jade Dust in the Eye
The Master once told students: “Upon the mind's constitution, not a single thought may remain lodged. It is like the eye not tolerating the slightest dust or sand. How much can that speck amount to? Yet the whole eye at once becomes dark as Heaven and Earth.”
He also said: “This thought is not only a private thought. Even a good thought must not have the slightest attachment. Put a little gold or jade dust into the eye, and the eye still cannot open.”
Reading note: The source's 心礼 is read as the mind's constitution from the comparison with a thought lodged in the eye. The Chinese graphic is unchanged.
336 · Clear Responsiveness and the Shared Body
Someone asked: “The human mind is one body with things. My own person originally has blood and qi flowing through it, and therefore we call it one body. But other people already have different bodies, and birds, beasts, plants, and trees are more distant still. How can we speak of one body?”
The Master said: “Simply look at the working of affecting and responding. Not only birds, beasts, plants, and trees: even Heaven and Earth are one body with me, and spirits too are one body with me.”
The questioner asked for explanation. The Master said: “Look between Heaven and Earth: what is their mind?”
He replied: “I have heard that people are the mind of Heaven and Earth.”
“And what in a person is called mind?”
“Only a clear responsiveness.”
“Then you can know that what fills Heaven and Earth is only this clear responsiveness. People separate themselves only through bodily form. My clear responsiveness is the governing master of Heaven, Earth, and spirits. Without my clear responsiveness, who would look up to Heaven's height? Without my clear responsiveness, who would look down to Earth's depth? Without my clear responsiveness, who would distinguish spirits' good and ill fortune, calamity and blessing?
“Apart from my clear responsiveness, there would be no Heaven, Earth, spirits, and myriad things. Apart from Heaven, Earth, spirits, and myriad things, there would also be no clear responsiveness of mine. Thus it is one qi flowing through. How could there be separation?”
The questioner asked again: “Heaven, Earth, spirits, and myriad things have existed through the ages. How can they all cease to exist without my clear responsiveness?”
He said: “Look now at someone who has died. That person's vital spirit has dispersed. Where are that person's Heaven, Earth, and myriad things?”
337 · Real Appearance and Illusory Appearance
When the Master set out on the campaign in Si and Tian, Dehong and Ruzhong followed to see him off at Yantan. Ruzhong raised the Buddhists' accounts of real appearance and illusory appearance.
The Master said: “With mind, all is real; without mind, all is illusory. Without mind, all is real; with mind, all is illusory.”
Ruzhong said: “‘With mind, all is real; without mind, all is illusory’ speaks of practical work from the original constitution. ‘Without mind, all is real; with mind, all is illusory’ speaks of the original constitution from practical work.”
The Master approved his words. Dehong did not yet understand at the time. Only after several years of practical work did he come to trust that original constitution and practical work are one. Yet the Master spoke incidentally then in response to a question. In our Confucian guidance of people, there is no need to borrow this language in establishing an account.
338 · A Broad Road Turned into Thorns
I once saw the Master escort two or three venerable elders to the door. Returning, he sat in the middle hall, seeming troubled. Dehong hurried forward and asked why.
The Master said: “Just now I discussed this learning with the elders. It truly was a round hole and a square peg. This Way is level as a broad road, yet worldly scholars often add their own wild obstructions. They spend a whole life trapped in a field of thorns without regret. I do not know what their explanation is!”
Dehong withdrew and told the friends: “In instructing people, the Master does not exclude even the old and declining. This is a benevolent person's mind of compassion toward others.”
339 · Arrogance and the Absence of a Separate Self
The Master said: “The great disease of human life is simply the one word arrogance. Arrogant as a son, one must be unfilial; arrogant as a minister, disloyal; arrogant as a father, unaffectionate; arrogant as a friend, untrustworthy. Thus Xiang and Danzhu were both unworthy. That one word arrogance settled the outcome of their lives. You must constantly apprehend this.
“The human mind is originally natural principle, refined and clear, without the slightest staining attachment. It is simply the absence of a separate self. Within the breast there must never be this possessive having; having it is arrogance. All the excellences of the ancient sages were also simply absence of a separate self. With no separate self, one can naturally be humble. Humility is the foundation of all goodness; arrogance is the chief of all evils.”
340 · The Palm Everyone Sees and No One Knows
He also said: “This Way is utterly simple and easy, and also utterly refined and subtle. Confucius says: ‘Would it not be like showing it upon the palm?’ What day does a person not see the palm? Yet ask how many lines and patterns are in it, and the person does not know.
“Take my two words innate knowing. Explain them once and they are clear: who does not know them? But if we want actually to see innate moral knowing, who can see it?”
Someone asked: “This knowing seems to have no fixed direction or form and to be most difficult to grasp.”
The Master said: “Innate moral knowing is precisely the Changes: ‘As a Way it shifts repeatedly, changing and moving without dwelling, circulating through the six vacant places, with no constant upper or lower; hard and soft exchange, it cannot be made a fixed norm, but follows only where change leads.’ How could this knowing be grasped and held? See it penetratingly, and one is a sage.”
341 · Questions Make the Subtlety Clearer
Someone asked: “Confucius says, ‘Hui is no help to me.’ Did the sage really expect assistance from his disciples?”
The Master said: “These too are truthful words. This Way is originally inexhaustible. The more questions and challenges there are, the more clearly its refinement and subtlety appear.
“The sage's words are originally comprehensive. But someone asking a question or raising a difficulty has an obstruction within the breast. Challenged by that person, the sage brings out the meaning with still greater vitality. Master Yan, however, heard one thing and knew ten, and his breast was clear. How could he ask questions or raise difficulties? Thus the sage too remained still and unmoving, with nothing further to bring forth. Hence ‘no help.’”
342 · The Reminder a Top Graduate Still Requests
Zou Qianzhi once told Dehong: “Shu Guoshang once brought a sheet of paper and asked the Master to write out the passage about tong and zi trees small enough to encircle in the hands. The Master raised his brush and wrote. On reaching ‘yet when it comes to one's own person, one does not know how to nourish it,’ he looked around and smiled:
“‘Guoshang has read books and come first in the highest examination. Could he really not know that his person ought to be nourished? Must he still recite this passage to seek a warning?’ Everyone then in attendance became apprehensive.”
Reading note: The source's 恫梓 is read as the tong and zi trees named in the cited Mencius passage. The Chinese source is not corrected.
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