鐔津文集 15.4

15.4

When I first examined Master Han's *Yuan dao* ("Inquiry into the Way"), he merely took humaneness and righteousness as the Way and virtue, so I thought that Master Han must have been utterly ignorant of the Confucian Way and virtue. Later, I saw his *Essay on Yanzi Not Repeating a Fault*, which says: "The sage embraces the correct nature of sincerity and clarity, and roots himself in the correct virtue of the Mean." He also cited the *Zhongyong*: "From sincerity arises clarity, which is called nature; from clarity arises sincerity, which is called education." He further said: "All these mean that faults cannot but arise in the mind, yet they are not manifested externally; evaluated by the Way of the sage, a slight deviation is called an error." Now, the Mean, sincerity, and clarity are truly the root and source of the sages' and worthies' Way, virtue, humaneness, righteousness, and myriad practices. If so, Master Han certainly also knew that there are the Way and virtue of the Mean, sincerity, and clarity. Why then did *Yuan dao* discard them and speak nothing of them? Did he consider people unfit to be taught this Way? Or did he consider that people must not be neglected? Or was he about to conceal what is good and not speak exhaustively? A gentleman surely must not conceal the good. It must be that Master Han merely saw the words "sincerity," "clarity," and "Mean," yet his mind had not penetrated their principle. However, principle is most subtle; it is refined and precise, and not easily attained. Among the seventy-two disciples, Confucius conceded this to Yan Yuan alone, saying: "He is nearly there, is he not?" Yanzi attained it, so his words rarely erred. Now, when Master Han traces the root of the sages' Way, virtue, humaneness, and righteousness, what does he esteem above others? His writings have it absent earlier and present later, contradicting and throwing themselves into confusion. Can this be called reaching the utmost? If his mind did not penetrate the ultimate principle of sincerity, clarity, and the Mean, even if he wrote more books, could they be transmitted as a standard?