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Selover OXPORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 2005 OXTORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Oxford New York Auckland Bangkok Buenos Aires Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kolkata Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi Sao Paulo Shanghai Taipei Tokyo Toronto Copyright © 2005 by The American Academy of Religion Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. 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