鐔津文集 15.10

15.10

In 'The Basis of Government' (Benzheng), Master Han says: 'The governance of the Zhou emphasized cultural refinement. Once it fell into corruption, later generations did not know how to continue it. Broadly displaying antiquity, they followed the techniques of their own age to make them clear to the people. The people then began to be bewildered by teachings, and the doctrines of the hundred schools arose thereby.' He also says: 'I have heard from my teacher: In antiquity, those who ruled the realm transformed it without displaying the way by which they transformed it. When it fell into corruption, they changed it without displaying the way by which they changed it. Through this, government was attained, and through this, the people became pure and honest. If a future creator understands the reasons why teaching and transformation decayed, restrains the bizarre and eccentric, promotes the August Ultimate, suppresses superficial ornamentation, and esteems loyalty and substance—then, vast like the movements of Heaven, subtle like spiritual transformation, the practice of the Way will surely be near.' Does this statement by Master Han not show disgust at the excesses and evils of cultural refinement, regarding teachings as possessing traces? Yet his words seem to want the realm to use cultural refinement and plain substance to rescue each other, like the governance of the Three Kings, and also seem to want the realm to employ the way of ease and simplicity to effect transformation, like the Three Sovereigns. His words lack a clear beginning or end, causing students to be confused. If Master Han wished for governance like that of the Three Kings, how could the Three Kings not display the way by which they governed? If he wished for the non-action (wuwei) of the Three Sovereigns, where 'vast like the movements of Heaven, subtle like spiritual transformation,' then this resembles what Laozi called his 'Dao and De.' As for those who ruled the realm in antiquity and transformed it without displaying the way by which they transformed it, none were more prominent than the Three Sovereigns: Fuxi, Shennong, and the Yellow Emperor. The Three Sovereigns are precisely whom Laozi's tradition took as masters and ancestors. Master Han ought to have criticized Laozi, asserting that his 'Dao and De' were merely the private words of one individual. If Laozi's doctrines were indeed private, how could these words of Master Han be considered public? Why was Master Han so unreflective and uncritical when writing books? How are students to examine and take them as a model?