The Four Books by Daniel K. Gardner

Author:Daniel K. Gardner
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc.
Published: 2013-04-02T16:00:00+00:00

MAINTAINING PERFECT BALANCE

MAINTAINING PERFECT BALANCE 27

[Zhu Xi glosses the title as follows: “Zhong is a term meaning ‘neither to one side nor the other; neither to overshoot nor to fall short.’ Yong means ‘normal or constant.’” Immediately after the title, Zhu adds the following introduction to the text, which the later tradition treats as part of the classic itself:]

The Masters Cheng said, “To lean neither to one side nor the other is what is called zhong (‘maintaining perfect balance’); unchanging is what is called yong (‘normal or constant’). Perfect balance is the true Way of the universe; the constant is the steadfast principle of the universe. This work presents the method of the mind-and-heart as passed down from generation to generation by the Confucian school. Fearing that over time mistakes would arise, Zisi wrote it down in the text we have here, passing it on to Mencius. In the beginning the text speaks of the one principle; in the middle, it unfolds to treat the myriad things; and in the end, it brings them together again as the one principle. Unfurl it and it fills every corner of the universe; roll it back up and it retreats [into the mind-and-heart], wrapping itself in secrecy. Its flavor is inexhaustible. The whole of it is practical learning. The skilled reader turns it over and over in his mind, and once he gets it, draws on it his whole life, finding that it has no limits.”28

[Zhong the first character in the title, means “maintaining perfect balance” and brings to mind passages in the Analects (e.g., 6.29, which is cited almost word for word below, in ch. 3.1) and the Mencius (passage #47). “To maintain perfect balance,” according to Zhu’s remarks here and in commentary to these passages in the Analects and the Mencius, is to weigh circumstances and find the perfect balance, behaving precisely as demanded by the particular circumstances. This requires that we exercise sensitive judgment, balancing the various considerations against one another. “Maintaining perfect balance” is never going too far or falling short, never leaning to one side or the other, and consequently is to behave just as we should in each and every situation in life. This is where the second character, yong , comes in, according to Zhu. Glossing the character as “normal or constant,” he understands yong, as had Master Cheng before him, to refer to steadfast principle (dingli ). Only by carefully considering each set of circumstances, and following the perfectly appropriate, perfectly balanced course of action called for by those circumstances, can one unfailingly accord with steadfast principle.

When disciples, in conversation with Zhu, note that his gloss of yong, “normal or constant,” appearing just after the title, differs from Master Cheng’s reference to it as “unchanging,” he explains that the term “constant” carries the meaning of “unchanging.” It is only because yong is constant that it is unchanging. He then adds that Cheng’s gloss, “unchanging,” refers to “unchanging principle.” Elaborating, he says, “yong (normal or constant)

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