TA HIO
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CHAPTER VIII
On the duty of keeping order in one’s family by correcting oneself.*
1. The significance of the phrase. : keeping order in the family consists first in freeing oneself from all distorting passions, is as follows: Men are partial to their parents and to people they like; they are also partial or unjust to those whom they despise and hate; to those whom they respect and revere, they are either partial or servile; they are partial or have an excess of pity toward those who stir their pity and compassion; and they are likewise partial to those whom they can treat with pomposity. For which reason it is a most rare thing under haven to love, and to recognize the defects of those who one loves; to hate, and to recognize the qualities of those whom one hates.
2. Hence the proverb: will you find a man to admit his son’s fault, or a peasant admitting the fertility of his field!
3. This explains that a man who has not corrected his own tendencies to injustice is incapable of putting order in his family.
This is the eighth chapter, and explains the phrase found in the title.
* The rub is in the preposition, hence my italics. Confucius will always annoy theoreticians, and lecturers. because he does not leave these things open to theorizing.-E.P.
CHAPTER IX
On the duty of a prince to govern well, by keeping order in his own family (family, that is, meaning the court as well as his relatives).
1. The phrase of the text: to govern a kingdom perperly one must begin by putting good order into the court family, can be explained as follows: It is impossible for a man who can’t teach his own family, to teach mankind. Conversely, the son of a prince perfects himself in the art of teaching and of governing a kingdom without going outside his own family. Filial respect is the principle which guides his relations to the sovereign; deference is the principle guiding his relations with his elders; good-will, the most considerate good-will, is the principle guiding his relations with the multitude.
2. The Khang-kao says: He is like a mother embracing he newborn. She tries with all her soul to foresee its nascent desires, if she does not completely understand them, she at any rate does not go far wrong. It is not in the nature of things that a girl learn to suckle an infant as a means toward getting married.
3. A single family having humanity and charity is enough to produce a crop of these in the nation; a single family showing politeness and deference is enough to make a nation deferent and polite; a single man, the prince, if he be miserly and grasping can spread disorder throughout the nation. Such is the motivation and modus of moving of these virtues and vices. Hence the proverb: You lose the deal for a word; one man determines the fate of an empire.
4. Yoa and Chun governed the empire with humanity, and the people tried to be like them. Kie and Tcheou governed with cruelty, and the people followed the fashion. These last gave orders contrary to their own taste, and the people refused to submit. For with reason a prince should himself practice all the virtues and then require others to practice them. If he does not possess and practice them he cannot make other men do so. It is impossible and contrary to nature, that a man with nothing good or straight in his heart can order other men to be virtuous and have his orders obeyed.
5. This is why putting one’s own family in order is the first requisite for proper government of a kingdom.
6. The Book of Verse says:
Fair is the peach-tree and charming
In the spread abundance of leaf,
It is like a young bride
That goes to the huose of her bride-
groom
-a young bride who is not
Rude to the rest of her family.
If you can behave properly to the members of you own family you will later be able to teach and direct a nation of men.
7. The Book of Verse says:
Find that balance that is suitable
between brothers and sisters
of different ages.
If you can find the right balance of action between brothers of different ages, you can teach their mutual duties of the elder and younger brothers throughout the kingdom.
8. The Book of Verse says:
The prince whose conduct is full of equity and wisdom
Will see men in the four corners
of the earth
imitating his rightness.
He fulfills the duties of a father, of an elder brother, and of a younger brother, and then the people do likewise.
9. This is what is said in the text: The art of good government starts with putting order in one’s own family.
( The tenth chapter is an heteroclite mass of addenda, part of it probably by the first commentator, but the whole so diffused and disjointed that the reader should, I think, pause a little before embarking upon it, and should rid his mind of the idea that he is still reading Confucius or anything very intimately connected with the Confucian philosophy. It seems to me that the first commentator found himself unable to stop, and that probably other commentators have added a line or two, or inserted here and there a reference to some historical work, corollaries, addenda, etc. One might almost head it: Heteroclite observations on government, with a few random citations.
(The gist of the work has already been presented, at the same time various points of interest prevent one from lopping of his chapter altogether.-E.P.)
TA HIO
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CHAPTER VI
On the duty of clarifying and making one’s own intentions sincere.
1. The expression clarify and render sincere one’s own intentions, means: Don’t denature your own direct tropisms; such as the tendency to escape from a disagreeable odour, or to love an agreeable and seductive object. This is called satisfying oneself. For the sake of it the sage keeps close watch on his intentions and secret thoughts.
2. Vulgar men living unobservedly off the highroads commit vicious actions; there is no evil they do not commit. If they see a sage keeping watch on himself, they pretend to be like him, hiding their vicious conduct and parading a similar virtue. A man with an eye is like someone who gets into their liver and kidneys; against him their disguise serves for what? Hence the proverb: the truth is inside, the form is outside. For this reason the sage should keep his eye glued on his intentions and secret thoughts.
3. Thseng the disciple said: Yes, and if then eyes are looking at a man, and ten hands pointing at a man, has he that much more to fear; or must he by so much keep closer watch on himself!
4. Riches adorn the house, virtue adorns the person; in the state of clarification the soul increases, and the material substance submitted thereto profits by the increase. Hence should the sage.
This is the sixth chapter of the commentary. It explains the term “clarify and makes sincere one’s intentions.”
CHAPTER VII
On the duty of perfecting oneself by permeating one’s soul with probity and directness.
1. The words “ridding oneself of all distorting passions consists in giving directness to the soul ” mean: If the soul is troubled by the passions of wrath, it cannot obtain this directness; if the soul is dominated by fear, it cannot obtain this directness; if the soul is bobbing about with the emotions of joy or pleasure, it cannot obtain this directness; if the soul is crushed by grief, it cannot obtain this directness.
2. When the soul is not mistress of herself, one looks and one does not see; one listens and does not hear; one eats without knowing the taste of the food.
3. This explains why the action of ridding one’s soul of all distorting passions consists in the necessity of giving directness to one’s soul.
This is the seventh chapter of the commentary, and explains the phrase found in the title.
( The commentator quoted by Pauthier at the end of the sixth chapter, throws rather more light on this seventh chapter than on the chapter preceding. Sic: The real or proper essence of the intelligence is to be clarified.-E.P. )
TA HIO
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CHAPTER IV
On the duty of knowing and of not confusing causes and effects.
1. The Philosopher said: I can listen to cases, and judge law-suits as well as the next man; but the needs would be, perhaps, better met by preventing these law-suits? So that crooks and ill-nautured people should not be able to bring in their lying accusations and frame-ups, by which system we are entirely over-run by vile schemes of these men. That is what I mean by knowing the root from the branch.
This is the fourth chapter of the comment. It refers to the matter of the root and the branch.
CHAPTER V
On the duty of perfecting one’s knowledge in the matter of morals, and in penetrationg the motivation of action.
1. There are two terms, first:
knowing the root or the cause
2. Second:
perfection of kowledge
(both perceptive knowledge, and aquaintance with the subject.)
(This is all that remains of the fifth chapter of the comment. It dealt with the question indicated in the title. Pauthier says that he tried to fill in the lacuna by referring to the ideas of Tching-tseu, a commentator a little older than Tchou-hi. These indicate that we should give ourselves up to a profound examination of actions and their motivation; for the “spiritual intelligence” is not categorically incapable of knowing; the beings in nature, and the actions of men are not utterly without a cause or a principle.
(Here the Ji-kiang offers the passage: The heart or thinking principle in man is eminently immaterial, eminently intelligent; it is far from being deprived of all natural knowledge (or aptitude, savoir naturel) and human actions are equally far from being causeless or without reason for being.
(Pauthier continues, with reference to Tching-tseu: Only these principles, these causes, these reasons have not yet been submitted to sufficiently profound investigation. For this reason human knowledge is not complete, absolute; and for this reason the “Book of the Great Learning” begins by teaching men that those among them who study moral philosophy should take pains to make a long and profound investigation of natural creatures and human actions, in order that, starting from what they already know about the motivation of actions, they may increase their knowledge, and penetrate into their most intimate nature. In setting oneself thus to make use of all one’s energy and of all one’s intellectual faculties, one arrives after a long time at some knowledge and intimate comprehension of the real motivations of actions; and one penetrates the intrinsic and extrinsic nature of human behaviour, not merely the obvious factors of it, but also the subtler essence; and the motivations of all these actions become clear and manifest to an intelligence thus long and persistently exercised. That is what one means by penetrating the motivation of actions and perfecting one’s knowledge of ethics.)
TA HIO
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CHAPTER III
On the duty of aiming definitely at perfection, the sovereign good.
1. The Book of Verse says: The people like to live within a radius of an hundred leagues from the royal dwelling.
( That is to say the lines in the book of verse fefer to a period when the reigning family possessed a certain charm.- E.P. )
2. The Book of Verse says: The yellow bird
that lifts its plaintive note
with sound of “mien-man,”
Chooseth its dwelling place
in the branchy hollow of the hills.
Saith Kung the master philosopher: Is man with all his wit less wise than this bird with a yellow plumage, that he should not know his dwelling place or fix the point of his aim.
3. The Book of Verse says:
Wide and deep was the virtue of
Waen-wang
That for all his splendour
Lost not the point of his aim;
Who turned not aside in his mind
Till his deed were brought to the full.
He who set his aim, as a prince, on the practice of the humanities and in well-wishing to all men; as subject, in consideration for his sovereign; as a son, he placed this aim in the practice of filial respect; as a father, in fatherly kindness; and his relations to and his contracted engagements with other men in the practices of open-hearted fidelity.
4. The Book of Verse says:
That the bamboo are abundant and green
By the Ki, by the bank of the river;
How wise is our prince, Tcheou-Koung*
With the beauty of knowledge.
He is like the carver of ivory,
He is like the carver of precious
stones
That bringeth them to full polish,
Silent and grave he seemeth,
Austere and calm in demeanour,
A prince decked with knowledge
and wisdom
One whom we can not ever forget.
* B.C. 1150
5. The “He is like the artist who cutteth and worketh in ivory” indicates the study of application of the intelligence to the search for the principles (motivations) of our actions; the “He is like the carver and polisher of precious stones” indicates the perfecting of himself. The expression: “O, how silent and grave he seems” indicates his diffidence, and his solicitude for the attainment of perfection; the “austere and calm in demeanour” expresses the care he took to make his conduct an example worth imitation. The “We have a prince decked with knowledge and wisdom; one whom we can not ever forget” shows this wisdom to have been an accomplished fact, and the moral perfection as something the people could not forget.
The Book of Verse says: How hath the tradition of the ancient kings (Wen and Wou) remained in the memory of the people. The sages and princes who followed them imitated their wisdom and their solicitude for the wellbeing (convenience) of their posterity. The populations enjoyed in peace, after them, what things they had wrought for their happiness, and they put to profit their good provision that they had had in a just dividing of land.* For which they will not be forgotten throughout the ages to come.
This is the third chapter of the commentary. It illustrates what one should understand by placing one’s ultimate destination in perfection, the sovereign good.
* Various commentators say that this refers to a division of arable land into sections of one li each; thus every man had an occupation and a means of subsistence. – E.P.
Major C.H.Douglas – Pound’s Economist
January 22, 2009 at 2:39 pm (Commentary, Uncategorized) (Commentary)
“But few, if any, other authors have explained that as productivity increases year after year, who benefits from that increased productivity is determined essentially by money and banking policy. Specifically, Douglas explains (particularly in Part 2, Chapter 2) that, if the money supply is not increased, dollars/pounds become more valuable, such that prices drop. But, if the money supply is increased just enough, the value of each dollar/pound – hence prices – can be left unchanged. Finding it desirable to keep prices unchanged in this way, Douglas then explains that, essentially, a decision has to be made about who gets the additional dollars/pounds. Under our current fractional reserve system, the banks do, by creating and lending out extra credit. Under a “social credit” system, the extra dollars would be divided up and given to all citizens in equal portions as a “dividend”. His rationale: that increases in productivity – resulting as they do from innovation and technological advancement over time – are a “cultural heritage” that belongs not to banks but to all members of society. His message is clear: the citizenry are prevented from benefitting from their own cultural heritage, and this leaves them increasingly indebted to banks, and unable to reduce, over time, the portion of their lives that they spend working and simply trying to survive. Under social credit, Douglas foresees a decrease in work and an increase in leisure or, at least, the opportunity to work less if one so chooses.”
http://www.mondopolitico.com/library/socialcredit/socialcredit.htm
Major C.H.Douglas 1879-1952
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