黄以方录

Huang Yifang asked: 'You take learning culture broadly as learning, affair by affair, to preserve this heavenly principle — then spare strength for the arts after conduct hardly fits.'

The Master said: 'The Odes, Documents and six arts are all the showing-forth of heavenly principle, writing included. To search the Odes and Documents and arts is to learn to preserve this principle — not only what shows in deeds is culture; studying the arts with spare strength is itself part of broad culture.'

Someone asked about learning without thought breeds delusion.

'That too was said to a case: in truth, thought is learning. Doubt in learning calls for thought. As for thinking without learning — such men there truly are: thinking in mid-air, spinning a doctrine out of vacancy, not laying real strength on body and mind to preserve principle; making thought and learning two tasks, hence the delusion and the peril. In truth thought only thinks over what is learned — never two things.'

The Master said: 'The scholars of old glossed ge wu as correcting the things of all the world — how correct them? Even granting every grass and tree has its principle, how set about it? Correct the grasses and trees, and how does that flow back to make one's own intention sincere? I read ge as to correct, wu as affair.

The body of the Great Learning is ear, eye, mouth, nose, limbs. To cultivate the body is: nothing improper seen, heard, said, moved. But where on the body can the work be laid? The mind is the body's master. The eye sees, yet what makes it see is mind; the ear hears — the mind; mouth and limbs speak and move — the mind. So cultivating the body lies in attending to one's own mind-substance, keeping it ever vast and impartial, not a thread of crookedness. The master once set right: issuing through the eye, no improper seeing; the ear, no improper hearing; mouth and limbs, no improper word or movement. That is cultivating the body by rectifying the mind.

Yet the highest good is the mind's substance — how should that be not-good? Rectifying the mind: where on the substance itself could work be laid? Only at the mind's stirring can strength be set. The stirring cannot be free of ill; work there — that is sincerity of intention. A thought stirring to love good, love good in solid earnest; to hate evil, hate it in solid earnest. The intentions stirred, none insincere — how should the substance be unrectified? Hence rectifying the mind lies in sincerity; only at sincerity does the work find its landing.

Yet the root of sincerity is extension of knowledge. What others know not but one alone knows — that is the mind's innate knowledge. Knowing good yet not following this knowledge to do it; knowing evil yet not following it to forbear — the knowledge is veiled: that is failure to extend. Innate knowledge not stretched to the end, good though known as good is not solidly loved, evil not solidly hated — how should intention be sincere? Extension is the root of sincerity.

Nor is extension done in mid-air: it is corrected on actual affairs. Intention set on doing good — do it in that very affair; on removing evil — forbear in that very affair. Removing evil is correcting the crooked back to the straight; doing good, the not-good set right, is also correcting the crooked back to the straight.

So the mind's innate knowledge, unveilled by private desire, is extended to the utmost; the stirred intentions, loving good, removing evil, are all sincere. The hands-on place of sincerity's work is the investigation of things. Done thus, everyone can do it: that every man may become a Yao or a Shun lies just here.'

The Master said: 'All say investigating things must follow Hui'an — who ever actually used his method? I used it in earnest. In early years, vowing sagehood with a friend named Qian, we would investigate all the things under heaven — where was such strength to be had? Pointing to the bamboo before the pavilion, I bade him investigate it. Day and night he exhausted his mind on the bamboo's principle; by the third day he had worn himself ill. We said then it was lack of stamina; I went at it myself, day and night without the principle; by the seventh day I too fell ill of overthinking. We sighed each to each: sagehood is not to be had — no strength so vast for investigating things. Years later, among the Yi of the far south, the sense came home: the things of the world are simply not there to be investigated; the work lies only on one's own body and mind. Convinced the sage is within every man's reach, one takes the burden on one's own shoulders. This meaning I must have you know.'

A disciple reported that Shao Duanfeng held children incapable of investigating things and to be taught only sweeping, responding and deferring.

The Master said: 'Sweeping and responding are themselves a thing. A child's innate knowledge reaches just so far: teach him sweeping and responding, and that is extending that point of his innate knowledge. Again, a child's awe of teacher and elder is his innate knowledge: even at play, meeting them, he bows with respect — that is his investigating the thing to honor teacher and elder. Children have children's own investigation and extension.'

He added: 'My ge wu runs from child to sage, the selfsame work; only the sage's is the riper, costing nothing. Done thus, the wood-seller can do it; minister, high officer, the Son of Heaven himself — all do it just so.'

Someone doubting the unity of knowledge and action cited knowing is not hard, doing is.

The Master said: 'Innate knowledge's own knowing was ever easy. Only failing to extend that knowledge is knowing not hard, doing hard.'

A disciple asked: 'How can knowledge and action be one? The Mean says learn broadly, then adds practice it in earnest — plainly two things.'

The Master said: 'Broad learning is learning, affair by affair, to preserve this principle; earnest practice is learning without stopping.'

Asked: 'The Changes says by learning gather it, by humaneness carry it out — how?'

'So too. Learning in each affair to preserve principle, the heart never strays — hence gathering. Ever learning to preserve it, no private desire breaking in — that is the heart's unresting, hence carrying it out.'

'Confucius: knowledge reaches it, humaneness cannot hold it — two again.'

'Reaches it is already acting. Only failing to act constantly, broken by private desire, is humaneness not holding.'

'And your mind-is-principle against Chengzi's in things is principle?'

'In things is principle wants a mind added before in: this mind in the thing is principle — in serving a father, filial piety; a ruler, loyalty.'

And to them all: 'Know my purport. Why do I say mind is principle? Only because the world splits mind and principle in two, breeding all these sicknesses. The five hegemons' expelling the barbarians and honoring the house of Zhou were one private heart — off principle. Yet men call their deeds right, only their hearts impure, admiring the doing, making a fair show outside with the heart nothing to do with it. Splitting mind and principle, the stream runs down to the hypocrisy of the hegemon's way unawares. Hence I say mind is principle, to have men know the two are one and work upon the mind, not snatching rightness from outside — that is the true royal way. That is my purport.'

Asked why the sages' many words must be beaten into one: 'Not beaten — the Way is one, that is all; its being undoubled is why its engendering is past fathoming. Heaven and earth and the sages are each one — how two?'

'The mind is no lump of flesh and blood: wherever there is awareness, there is the mind. The ear's and eye's seeing and hearing, the hand's and foot's knowing pain and itch — this awareness is the mind.'

Huang Yifang asked: 'On your doctrine, are the Mean's watching-over-oneself-alone, accumulating rightness, breadth and restraint all affairs under investigating things?'

The Master said: 'Not so. Investigating things is watching alone, is vigilance. As for accumulating rightness, breadth and restraint — the work is one and the same; those several are not all filed under investigating things.'

Yifang asked about honoring the moral nature.

The Master said: 'Pursuing inquiry is itself honoring the nature. Zhu said Zilu taught by honoring the nature, while he himself surely gave more to inquiry — splitting the two. All the labor of today's lecture and discussion is only preserving this mind, not losing its nature. Where is honoring the nature done by honoring in a void, without inquiry? Or inquiry done in a void, nothing to do with the nature? — then one knows not what all this lecturing studies.'

Asked on extending to breadth and greatness: 'Exhausting the subtle is itself extending the breadth; walking the mean is itself reaching the highest light. The mind's substance is vast of itself; failing the subtle, one is veiled by private desire, swallowed in the countless small. Exhaust every fine winding, and private opinion cannot veil it — no barriers or screens left: how not vast?'

'Subtle of thought, or of affairs and principles?'

'The subtlety of thought is the subtlety of affairs and principles.'

The Master said: 'Today's disputants on nature, wrangling over sameness and difference, are all speaking of nature, none seeing it. Who sees it has no sameness or difference to speak.'

Asked: 'Sound, beauty, goods and gain — innate knowledge too, I fear, cannot be without them.'

The Master said: 'Indeed. But the beginner's work must sweep and scour them, letting none lodge and gather. Then, met by chance, they burden not, and one responds of itself. Innate knowledge works precisely upon sound, beauty, goods and gain: extended to bright and bright, unveilled by a hair, even that commerce is the flowing of heaven's rule.'

The Master said: 'Extension and investigation are what I lecture you on, day after day this, one year and twenty years this. Take my words and work in earnest: each lecture heard, a step gained. Else it is all idle talk — what use in the hearing?'

The Master said: 'Man's substance is ever still and unmoving, ever stirred and all-penetrating; before response it is not earlier, after response not later.'

A friend cited: 'The Buddha held up a finger: do you all see? We see. He drew it into his sleeve: do you still see? We do not. The Buddha said: you have not yet seen your nature. This I do not understand.'

The Master said: 'The finger is seen and unseen; your seeing-nature is ever there. Men's mind and spirit gallop only over what is seen and heard, laying no real work on the unseen and unheard. The unseen and unheard are innate knowledge's substance; vigilance and fear are the work of extending it. Let the learner at every moment see his unseeing and hear his unhearing — there the work finds solid ground. Long ripened, no effort needed, no watching required, the true nature stints not of itself. What burden from the sight and hearsay outside?'

Asked: 'The scholars of old said the kite's soaring and fish's leaping are, like always-having-the-task, quick and alive.'

The Master said: 'So it is. All between heaven and earth, quick and alive, is this very principle — the unresting flow of my innate knowledge. Extending innate knowledge is the work of the task at hand. Not to be parted from — in truth it cannot be parted from: nowhere not the Way, nowhere not the work.'

The Master said: 'Being here, you must set up the heart resolved on sagehood. Hour upon hour, one stroke of the staff one welt, one box on the ear one drop of blood — only so is every sentence of mine strength to you. Drifting loose through the days, like a dead lump of flesh that feels no stroke — in the end nothing comes of it; home again with nothing but your old tricks. Is that not pity?'

Asked: 'Of late the wild thoughts are fewer, yet I do not deliberately plan the work either — is this the work or not?'

The Master said: 'Go work in earnest; even such planning will do no harm — in time it settles of itself. A little work done, and already talking of fruits — what is there to lean on?'

A friend sighed: 'When private intent sprouts, my own heart knows it clearly — only I cannot make it go at once.'

The Master said: 'That very knowing at the sprouting is your root of life. Grind it away on the spot — that is the work of establishing the Mandate.'

'The Master's natures are near is Mencius's nature is good; it must not be read only of temperament. Temperament is hard set against soft — how near? It is the goodness of nature that is shared. At birth the good is one; but the hard, practiced in good, become hard-good, in evil hard-evil; the soft, soft-good or soft-evil — and daily they draw apart.'

The Master once told the learners: 'The heart can bear no lingering thought, as the eye no grain of dust. How much is a grain? Yet the whole eye goes dark. Nor is it only private thoughts — good thoughts too leave no room: gold and jade filings in the eye keep it from opening all the same.'

Asked: 'The mind is one body with things: within my own self blood and breath flow as one, hence one body. But in another it is another body; beasts and plants farther still — how one body?'

The Master said: 'Look only at the spring of response and stirring. Not beasts and plants alone: heaven and earth too are one body with me, ghosts and spirits too.'

Asked to explain: 'Look into this heaven and earth — what is the heart of heaven and earth?'

'I have heard that man is the heart of heaven and earth.'

'And what is man's heart?'

'Only the one numinous brightness.'

'Know then that filling and thridding heaven and earth there is only this numinous brightness; only the body walls men apart. My numinous brightness is the master of heaven and earth and the spirits. Without my brightness, who would look up to heaven's height? Without it, who sound earth's depth? Without it, who tell the spirits' luck and doom? Let heaven, earth, the spirits and the ten thousand things part from my brightness, and there are no heaven, earth, spirits or things; let my brightness part from them, and there is no my brightness. So it is one breath flowing through — how wall it off?'

Asked again: 'Heaven, earth, spirits, things stand through all the ages — why should they all be gone for want of my brightness?'

'Look at the dead man: his numinous sprite gone scattering — where now are his heaven and earth and ten thousand things?'

As the Master set out for Si'en and Tianzhou, Dehong and Ruzhong followed him to Yantan. Ruzhong raised the Buddhists' real aspect and illusory aspect.

The Master said: 'With mind, all is real; without mind, all illusion. Without mind, all is real; with mind, all illusion.'

Ruzhong said: 'With mind real, without mind illusion — that is the work said upon the substance. Without mind real, with mind illusion — the substance said upon the work.'

The Master allowed his words.

I had not then fully reached it; years of work brought me to trust the oneness of substance and work. But the Master spoke then by chance, out of the question; where we Confucians point the way for men, we need not borrow this for doctrine.

I once saw the Master see two or three aged scholars out, then withdraw to the porch with a clouded face. I drew near to ask.

He said: 'Just now, speaking of this learning with those elders — a round peg in a square socket. This Way lies open as a highway; the world's scholars choke it with their own brambles, lifelong in the thorns and unrepenting — I know not what to say!'

When I withdrew I told my friends: 'The Master teaches none by their age or decay — the heart of the humane that pities all.'

The Master said: 'Life's great disease is one word — pride. A son proud will be unfilial; a minister proud, disloyal; a father proud, unloving; a friend proud, untrue. Xiang and Danzhu came to nothing for that one word — a lifetime closed by it. Bear this ever in mind. The human heart is heaven's own principle, bright and bright, no thread of stain — nothing but selflessness; the breast must hold nothing of the sort: to hold it is pride. The many goods of the ancient sages were nothing but selflessness; selfless, one is humble of oneself. Humility is the base of all good; pride, the chief of all evil.'

He also said: 'This Way is utterly simple and easy, and utterly subtle and fine. Confucius: is it not like showing the palm? What day does a man not see his palm? Ask how many lines lie in it — he knows not. So with my two words innate knowledge: explain once and it is plain — who does not know it? But to see it truly — who can see it?'

'This knowing, I fear, has no place or form — past catching.'

'Innate knowledge is the Changes: its way shifts ever, moving without staying, streaming through the six voids, above and below without constancy, hard and soft exchanging, no canon to hold, going only as change bids. How catch it? See it through, and one is a sage.'

Asked: 'Confucius said Hui is no help to me — did the sage truly look to his disciples for help?'

The Master said: 'It was the plain truth. The Way is past exhausting; the more the questioning, the finer it shows. The sage's words are whole of themselves; but when one questions with a blocked breast, the sage, pressed, unfolds them all the more brightly. Yan Hui, hearing one, knew ten, all clear within — what room for questioning? So with him the sage rested still, nothing to unfold: hence no help.'

Zou Qianzhi once told Dehong: 'Shu Guoshang brought a sheet of paper asking the Master to write out the chapter on the fist-thick paulownia and catalpa. The Master, brush suspended, wrote to the line till it comes to the self, yet he knows not how to nurture it, then turned with a smile: Guoshang, a graduate at the head of the list — can he truly not know the self must be nurtured, that he must recite this for warning? All the friends in attendance started to attention.'