鐔津文集 10.4

10.4

On such a month and day, the śramaṇa [Qisong] respectfully presents this letter to Collator of the Secretarial Court Guan Yanchang. Previously, honoured by Lord Guan Yanchang obtaining Qianzi’s discourse on assisting the teachings and rejoicing that it accorded with his own views, you sent a letter discussing the Way of Great Impartiality in over a hundred words, praising me excessively. Because Yanchang was traveling west, Qianzi then sent a letter to the Prime Minister extolling this Way, fearing only that the letter would not fully express his intent, and recounting that Yanchang was to meet the Prime Minister to speak of it further on his behalf. Now the Way of Great Impartiality is the utmost of the Sage's Way. When the Way of Great Impartiality is practiced, one does not treat all under heaven with casual closeness or distance, nor does one demand power and profit under the guise of loyalty and filiality. For a subject ought to be loyal, and a son ought to be filial; one should be close to those who can be treated with closeness, and distant from those who can be treated with distance. These are what Yao and Shun practiced. Yet the root of the Way of Great Impartiality lies in sincerity and illumination. The Sage preserves sincerity so as to communicate with Heaven and Earth; the Sage displays illumination so as to accord with the August Ultimate. Just as the Zhongyong says: 'When pleasure, anger, sorrow, and joy have not yet arisen, it is called the mean; when they arise and all hit the proper measure, it is called harmony. The mean is the great root of all under heaven; harmony is the penetrating Way of all under heaven.' That Yao and Shun reached this Way was because they were able to be sincere and illuminated, and to maintain its root. Even sages found the Way of sincerity and illumination difficult. Confucius said: 'When the Great Way was practiced, I did not attain it, but my aspiration was there.' In later ages, when loyalty and filiality were encouraged and admired, people took loyalty and filiality to boast and show off, so that those who used loyalty and filiality for power and profit competed in confusion, swarming and blurring across the realm. How could those of genuine loyalty and genuine filiality, neither improper nor partisan, avoid being mixed up with them in the same age? How could they make themselves clear? Those who boast and show off also assume that the minds of others are like their own, no longer believing that there is such a thing as making oneself sincere. Therefore, the Way of sincerity and illumination is swept away and seen no more. The root of the Way of Great Impartiality is likewise no longer known. How much less can anyone keep and maintain it! In these times, Yanchang alone has been able resolutely to promote sincerity and illumination and sustain discourse on the Way of Great Impartiality; is this not because his natural endowment attained what is lofty and far, rather than being merely the result of habitual training and cultivation? When Qianzi's book first came out, the gentlemen of the official class merely praised the fineness of its prose; I have only roughly read the books of the hundred masters. You alone, Yanchang, said that I kept my mind on Great Impartiality, and your letter was diligent and thorough. If not for an earnest love of the Way and deep mutual understanding, how could it be like this? At present, great sages and great worthies gather at court, governing all under heaven precisely through the Way of Utmost Impartiality. It is fitting that Yanchang stir up its source, vigorously setting forth discourse by means of the Way of sincerity and illumination, using it to aid education and transformation; then the efficacy of your meritorious virtue and excellent work will become all the greater. Strive on! Strive on! Respectfully submitted.