01/03/2020 Cosmology of Chou Tun-yi -易学与中国古代哲学研究英文

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YI-OLOGY

Cosmology of Chou Tun-yi

Time：2009-11-05

The first cosmological philosopher is Chou Tun-yi, better known as the Master of Lien-hsi (1017-73). He was a native of Tao-chou in the
present Hunan province, and in his late years lived on the famous mountain, Lu-shan, the same place where Hui-yüan and Tao-sheng had
taught Buddhism, as described in chapter twenty-one. Long before his time, some of the religious Taoists had prepared a number of mystic
diagrams as graphic portrayals of the esoteric principles by which they believed a properly initiated individual could attain to immortality.
Chou Tun-yiis said to have come into possession of one of these diagrams, which he thereupon reinterpreted and modified into a diagram of
his own designed to illustrate the process of cosmic evolution. Or rather, he studied and developed the ideas found in certain passages in
the "Appendices" of the Book of Changes, and used the Taoist diagram by way of illustration. His resulting diagram is called the T'ai-chi T'u
or Diagram of the Supreme Ultimate, and his interpretation of it is called the T'ai-chi T'u Shuo or Explanation of the Diagram of the
Supreme Ultimate. The Shuo or Explanation can be read quite intelligibly without referring to the diagram itself.
The text of the Explanation reads as follows: "The Ultimateless [Wu Chi]! And yet the Supreme Ultimate [T'ai chi]! The Supreme Ultimate
through Movement produces the Yang. This Movement, having reached its limit, is followed by Quiescence, and by this Quiescence, it
produces the Yin. When Quiescence has reached its limit, there is a return to Movement. Thus Movement and Quiescence, in alternation,
become each the source of the other. The distinction between the Yin and Yang is determined and the Two Forms [i.e., the Yin and Yang]
stand revealed.
"By the transformations of Yang and the union therewith of the Yin, Water, Fire, Wood, Metal and Soil are produced. These Five Ethers
[ch'i, i.e., Elements] become diffused in harmonious order, and the four seasons proceed in their course.
"The Five Elements are the one Yin and Yang; the Yin and Yang are the one Supreme Ultimate; and the Supreme Ultimate is
fundamentally the Ultimateless. The Five Elements come into being each having its own particular nature.
"The true substance of the Ultimateless and the essence of the Two [Forms] and Five [Elements] unite in mysterious union, so that
consolidation ensues. The principle of Ch'ien [the trigram symbolizing the Yang] becomes the male element, and the principle of K'un [the
trigram symbolizing the Yin] becomes the female element. The Two Ethers [the Yin and Yang] by their interaction operated to produce all
things, and these in their turn produce and reproduce, so that transformation and change continue without end.
"It is man alone, however, who receives these in their highest excellence and hence is the most intelligent [of all things]. His bodily form
thereupon is produced and his spirit develops intelligence and consciousness. The five principle of his nature [ the five constant virtues
corresponding to the Five Elements] react [ to external phenomena], so that the distinction between good and evil emerges and the myriad
phenomena of conduct appear. The sage regulates himself by means of the mean, correctness, human-heartedness, and righteousness, and
takes Quiescence as the essential. [Chou Tun-yi himself comments on this: 'Having no desire, he is therefore in the state of Quiescence' ]
Thus he establishes himself as the highest standard for mankind...."(Chou Lien-hsi Chi or Collected Works of Chou Tun-yi, chiian I.)
In the Book of Changes, "Appendices III," it is said: "In the Yi there is the Supreme Ultimate, which produces the Two Forms." Chou Tun-
yi's Explanation is a development of the idea of this passage. Brief thought it is, it provides the basic outline for the cosmology of Chu Hsi
(1130-1200), one of the greatest, if not the greatest, of the Neo-Confucianists, about whom I shall have more to say in chapter twenty-
five. \

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01/03/2020 Cosmology of Chou Tun-yi -易学与中国古代哲学研究英文

Method of Spiritual Cultivation

The ultimate purpose of Buddhism is to teach men how to achieve Buddhahood--a problem that was one of the most vital to the people
of that time. Likewise, the ultimate purpose of Neo-Confucianism is to teach men how to achieve Confucian Sagehood. The difference
between the Buddha of Buddhism and the Sage of Neo-Confucianism is that while the Buddha must promote his spiritual cultivation outside
of society and the human world, the Sage must do so within these human bonds. The most important development in Chinese Buddhism
was its attempt to depreciate the other-worldliness of original Buddhism. This attempt came close to success when the Ch'an Masters stated
that "in carrying water and chopping firewood, therein lies the wonderful Tao." But, as I said in the last chapter, they did not push this idea
to its logical conclusion by saying that in serving one's family and the state therein also lies the wonderful Tao. The reason, of course, is
that, once they had said this, their teaching would have ceased to be Buddhism.
For the Neo-Confucianists, too, how to achieve Sagehood is one of the main problems, and Chou Tun-yi's answer is that one should "having
no desires." In his second major treatise, the T'ung Shu or General Principles of the Book of Changes, we find that by wu-yü he means
much the same as the wu-wei (having no effect) and wu-hsin (having no mind) of Taoism and Ch'anism. The fact that he uses wu-yü,
however, instead of these other two terms, shows how he attempts to move away from the other-worldliness of Buddhism. So far as the
terms are concerned, the wu in wu-yü is not so all inclusive as that in wu-hsin.
In the T'ung Shu Chou Tun-yi writes: "Wu-yü results in vacuity when in quiescence, and straightforwardness when in movement. Vacuity
in quiescence leads to enlightenment, and enlightenment leads to comprehension. [Likewise] straightforwardness in movement leads to
impartiality, and impartiality leads to universality. One is almost [a sage when one has] such enlightenment, comprehension, impartiality,
an universality." (Collected Works, chüan. 5.)
The word yü used by the Neo-Confucianists always means selfish desire or simply selfishness. Sometimes they prefix it by the word ssu
(selfish), in order to make their meaning clear. Chou Tun-yi's idea in this passage may be illustrated by a passage from the Mencius, often
quoted by the Neo-Confucianists: "If today men suddenly see a child about to fall into a well, they will without exception experience a
feeling of alarm and distress. This will not be as a way whereby to gain the favor of the child's parents, nor whereby they may seek the
praise of their neighbours and friends, nor are they so because they dislike the reputation [of being unvirtuous]." (Mencius, II a, 6.)
According to the Neo-Confucianist, what Mencius here describes is the natural and spontaneous response of any man when placed in
such a situation. Man is by nature fundamentally good. Therefore his innate state is one in which he has no selfish desires in his mind, or as
Chou expresses it, one of "vacuity in quiescence." As applied to conduct, it will lead to an immediate impulse to try to save the child, and
this sort of intuitive conduct is what Chou calls "straightforwardness in movement." If, however, the man does not act on his first impulse,
but pauses instead to think the matter over, he may then consider that the child in distress is a son of his enemy, and therefore he should
not save it, or that it is the son of his friend and therefore he should save it. In either case, he is motivated by secondary selfish thoughts
and thereby loses both his original state of vacuity in quiescence and the corollary state of straightforwardness in movement.
When the mind lacks all selfish desires it becomes, according to the Neo-Confucianists, like a brilliant mirror, which is always ready to
reflect objectively any object that comes before it. The brilliancy of the mirror is compared with the mind's "enlightenment," and its
readiness to reflect with the mind's "comprehension." When the mind lacks any selfish desires, its natural response to external stimuli
results in actions that are straightforward. Being straightforward, they are impartial, and being impartial, they are carried out without
discrimination. Such is their nature of universality.
This is Chou Tun-yi's method of achieving Sagehood, and consists, like that of the Ch'an monks, of living naturally and acting naturally.

(This paper was originally published in A SHORT HISTORY OF CHINESE PHILOSOPHY, By FUNGYU-LAN)
『I want to say』

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