Hsieh Liang-tso and the Analects of Confucius: Humane Learning as a Religious Quest (American Academy of Religion Academy Series)

198 Pages·2005·10.81 MB·English

by  Thomas W. Selover

Hsieh Liang-tso and the Analects
of Confucius
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Hsieh Liang-tso and the
Analects of Confucius
Humane Learning as a Religious Quest
Thomas W. Selover
OXPORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
2005
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Selover, Thomas Whitfield.
Hsieh liang-tso and the analects of confucius:
humane learning as a religious quest / Thomas W. Selover
p. cm. — (American Academy of Religion academy series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-19-515610-2
1. Confucius. Lun ye. 2. Religion and the humanities.
3. Xie, liangzuo, ca. 1050-ca.ll20 I. Title. II. Series.
PL2471.Z7S425 2003
181M12—dc21 2002027432
246897531
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
Foreword
Tu Wei-ming
The central meaning shared by verbs such as think, cogitate, reason, reflect,
and speculate is "to use the power of the mind, as in conceiving ideas and
drawing inferences." Whether or not we subscribe to the exclusive dichotomy
of body and mind, thinking seems inevitably intertwined with the cognitive
function of the mind. We assume that mind thinks and body acts and that it is
appropriate for us to think clearly before we act. We further assume that
theory is intellectually superior to practice and that even if concrete practice is
often necessary for validating and refining the theory, it is of secondary
significance in the life of the mind. In the value scale of thinking, theoria is
more fundamental than praxis.
The Chinese idea of t'i-chih fi£p (tizhi, "experiential knowing") suggests a
mode of thinking ("embodied thinking") that involves the body as a consti-
tutive part of the "mental" process. We think not only with our head but also
with our heart; we feel, sense, and will as we think. We can discipline
ourselves to cogitate and reason in a disinterested manner devoid of feelings,
but in our ordinary daily living, there is always an affective dimension to our
thinking. Understandably, aesthetic, ethical, or religious reflection takes as its
primary datum the experience rooted in the bodily sensations.
Through rigorous self-cultivation, we learn to appreciate that thinking as
self-reflexivity is essential for human flourishing. Either in the Socratic dictum
that the unexamined life is not worth living or in the Confucian conviction
that self-cultivation is the root of an educated person, the scope of thinking is
more than conceiving ideas and drawing inferences. Thinking is necessarily a
transformative act. The mind not only has the capacity of speculation but is
also self-awakening and self-enlightening.
In Hsieh Liang-tso and the Analects of Confucius: Humane Learning as a
Religious Quest, Tom Selover, through empathetic understanding and analog-
ical imagination, presents a succinct analysis of the core value in Confucian
thought, jen {H (ren, humanity or co-humanity). Intent on capturing the
vi Foreword
"kernel" of this commonly shared and profoundly ineffable way of being
human, Selover straightforwardly defines Jen as sensitivity. We humans, so
conceived, are primarily sentient beings rather than rational animals. The way
we see, hear, smell, touch, taste, and sense defines who we are. Concrete
feeling, instead of abstract thinking, provides the authentic access to human
wisdom. This mode of philosophizing as a way of living entails self-cultivation,
an ethical and religious discipline that integrates the body and mind as a
spiritual attainment.
While Selover is deeply moved by this deceptively simple vision of human
flourishing, he does not present it as his own faith. Rather, he articulates the
humanist insight of Ch'eng Hao (Cheng Hao, 1032-1085), arguably the most
brilliant proponent of the learning of the heart-and-mind in the Sung (Song,
960-1279) dynasty. Actually, Selover's strategy of a focused investigation on
Ch'eng Hao's single most significant philosophical move of conceptualizing
humanity as sensitivity is roundabout. Instead of addressing Ch'eng directly,
he elucidates the Master's seminal idea through an informed and critical
analysis of the thought of his gifted student, Hsieh Liang-tso (Xie Liangzuo,
C.1050-C.1120). Furthermore, Selover makes a deliberate choice to navigate
through the fragmented landscape of Hsieh's commentary on the Confucian
Analects as a tack of encompassing the "realms of sensitivity" as defining
characteristics of humanity. In so doing, he manages to bring in all four
dimensions of the religio-philosophical enterprise—scripture, tradition, reason,
and experience.
Selover employs Hsieh's scriptural commentary to demonstrate that the
"religious" dimensions of the Confucian tradition can be best illuminated in a
comparative framework. He examines the Neo-Confucian claims to authentic
transmission by a nuanced interpretation of their communal critical self-
awareness. He probes the semantic field in which "humanity" is disclosed not
only as thought but also as action. Especially noteworthy is his idea of
humane learning "as an on-going personal endeavor [which] leads to
increased awareness of and sensitivity to the full range of one's human
situation, embedded not only in a network of human relations that in principle
cannot exclude anyone, but also in a cosmos infinite in extent and in
complexity." In Selover's thought-provoking interpretation, Master Ch'eng's
dictum that humanity "forms one body with Heaven, Earth and myriad
things" is a paradigmatic expression of experiential knowing and embodied
thinking with important theological implications.
Preface
A Brief Autobiography of the Inquiry
This study originally grew out of research interest in relationships among what
have traditionally been called the "Three Teachings" of China—Confucian,
Taoist, and Buddhist —during the Sung dynasty (960-1279). Sparked in a
graduate seminar with Wilfred Cantwell Smith, that interest led to a focus on
the interweaving of these three religious traditions in the thought and practice
of some key Sung dynasty figures, with a background predisposition to favor
the more "ecumenical" among them. The matter, however, turned out to be
more complex.
There is, indeed, a concrete historical sense in which the traditional
Chinese aphorism "the three teachings return to one" (san-chiao £z/e/-/H$fc§i
—) is true for the Sung period, namely that they together shaped the heritage
informing Chinese literati culture during that time. This basic fact of mutual
influence is observable at every turn. Nevertheless, many of the seminal think-
ers of the period were intent on distinguishing and defending the authentic line
of interpretation in their own tradition from any confusion with others.
Therefore, pursuit of the Confucian line in that sometimes cacophonous
concerto of Sung thought led to the issue of authentic transmission, and that
in turn led to a focus on Hsieh Liang-tso Hfjlfe (c.l050-c.l 121).
Hsieh Liang-tso (later known as master Shang-ts'ai ±^7^^.) was one of
the leading direct disciples of the brothers Ch'eng Hao fl H and Ch'eng I |i
SI in the early days of the Confucian revival known as "Tao-hsueh" Uf^ (The
Learning of the Way) in Northern Sung China. Hsieh was thus among the
first to recognize and follow the insights of the Ch'eng brothers as definitive of
the authentic Confucian tradition, a recognition that became, directly or
implicitly, the conviction of nearly all of the later Confucian scholarly
community. The focus of this study is on Hsieh's engagement with the
Confucian Analects lwi§ as a key text, particularly important for under-
standing jen in (humaneness, humanity). My translation and analysis of
Hsieh's commentary on the Analects, drawn from the composite work Lun-
Meng ching-i fmiSfRil (Essential Meanings of the Analects and Mencius)
compiled by Chu Hsi ^ H (1130-1200), forms the textual basis of this study,
and selections from it are included in the appendix.
For Chu Hsi and his contemporaries, it became an issue whether or not
Hsieh's interpretations of the Analects, and particularly his controversial
understanding of Jen as chueh %H (awareness, sensitivity), represented an
viii Hsieh Liang-tso and the Analects
authentic transmission of Confucian teaching as taught by the Ch'eng brothers.
This controversy is explored in various ways throughout the book. My
research thus demonstrates some of the variety and intellectual tensions within
what Hoyt Tillman has felicitously called the Tao-hsueh "fellowship,"
particularly in terms of the dynamic of savoring the scriptural and traditional
resources (wan-weiffifc)d attaining personal realizationfgknjdfkgjfgkdfkfkgfgk
also shows that the understanding of yen was a much more central issue for the
Tao-hsueh masters than is generally represented in the secondary literature.
In comparative perspective, these concerns with authentic transmission and
the humane learning (jen-hsueh fl^p) can be seen as bearing significant
similarity to the practice of theology in the West. As will be set out in some
detail, this similarity is manifested in a fourfold interpretive pattern com-
prising scripture, tradition, reason, and experience. Thus, Hsieh Liang-tso's
thought, the Tao-hsueh movement in general, and by implication the
resources of the Confucian tradition as a whole are worthy of consideration in
the wider context of comparative religion and comparative theology.
In the chapters that follow, the comparative framework, which emerged
last but was implicit all along, is put first. The introduction starts from modern
questions concerning the religious dimensions of the Confucian tradition and
then proceeds through historical antecedents of those questions in the works of
Matteo Ricci and James Legge to an initial mapping of a concept of com-
parative theology, based on the four warrants of scripture, tradition, reason,
and experience. Chapter 1 places Hsieh in the context of the rise of Sung
dynasty Tao-hsiieh, with special attention to the Ch'eng brothers' claims to
the authentic transmission of Confucian learning. Chapter 2 places Hsieh's
commentary on the Confucian Analects among other commentaries of the
time and discusses its particular features. Chapter 3 treats Hsieh's most impor-
tant contributions on the Confucian problematique of "knowingyen." Chapter
4 returns to the question of authentic transmission as raised by Chu Hsi,
drawing out implications of Hsieh's insights for later Confucian learning. In
the concluding chapter, further ramifications of this study for contemporary
and comparative theology are suggested.
The first desideratum of comparative work in cultural and religious studies
is that it be thoroughly grounded in the traditions of scholarship for its area of
special inquiry. On this basis, the wider comparative frame of reference can
provide an enhanced understanding. This book, therefore, can be read in at
least two ways. Chapters 1-4 are intended to stand on their own merits as an
account of the issues of authentic transmission and humane learning
surrounding Hsieh and his commentary on the Analects, acceptable to the
canons of Confucian scholarship in particular and sinology in general. The
comparative concerns raised in the introduction do not explicitly intrude in
Prefacekhjgldfkghlkdfgkldflfgldfflghldfgi
most of this account, so that in principle one could begin with chapter 1 and
leave the comparative religious context aside, at least temporarily. On the
other hand, the larger comparative issues set out in the introduction are
pertinent at every point of the account, and if they are borne in mind
throughout, a wider range of resonances can be appreciated.
The subtitle of the book, "Humane Learning as a Religious Quest," is
intended to suggest a trajectory forward to the present time, at the outset of the
twenty-first century. We are engaged now, I believe, in a collective intellectual
and spiritual process of culling the inherited resources of humankind's
philosophical and religious traditions, seeking shareable wisdom for our
common human life. The Confucian is one major strand in humankind's long
pilgrimage, which deserves to be recognized as having contributed to our
spiritual and temporal well-being. After more than a century of intense
critique, it yet contains living ideas that can significantly enhance our
emerging global culture. As this book tries to suggest, humane learning is vital
to us today, as both a personal and a corporate quest.
A Note on Textual Matters
As is already clear, I have used the Wade-Giles romanization system through-
out this book, with the exception of names of contemporary Chinese who use
the Pinyin system for spelling their names. Abbreviations for sources are given
at the beginning of the selected bibliography. Passages cited from the
Confucian scriptural classics are given according to standard English
translations, with modifications noted. Translations from Neo-Confucian
works, particularly those of Hsieh Liang-tso, are my own unless otherwise
noted. I have endeavored throughout to resist the gender bias inherent in the
language of those standardized English translations, and in the earlier
Confucian tradition itself, though I realize that I may not have done so
completely. "Learning to be human" is a continuous process of widening
horizons.
Acknowledgments
"To learn and to acknowledge from time to time those from and with whom
one has learned, is it not a pleasure?" The core research for this book was
presented as my doctoral dissertation in Comparative Religion at Harvard
University's Divinity School. My dissertation advisor, Prof. Tu Wei-ming,
guided me with unfailing patience, persistence, and sensitivity to think and