A COMMENT UPON SHUSHI'S PHILOSOPHY. BY GEORGE Wм. Knox, D.D. [Read 9th March, 1892.] The association of Jinsai and Sorai with the orthodox philosophers in the introduction to my translation of the Shundai-Zatsuwa has called forth Mr. Haga's interesting “ Note” giving details of the Kogaku school. Kyuso repeatedly refers to this school but always with sharp criticism and reproof,1 and the "Note" will enable the reader to test the fairness of his polemic. As Mr. Haga touches upon some of the fundamental positions of the Tei-Shu philosophy, it has seemed worth while to set forth Shushi's own teaching in a brief resumé. The quotations in this "Comment are from the fortyninth section of Shushi's complete works. Ri is law conceived as an entity. It somewhat resembles the Platonic ideas. By it all things have their ideal It is above all form 2 and of itself is neither motion nature. 3 nor rest. It has motion and rest are ki, their law is ri. rest, for while motion and Essentially ri is benevolence and righteousness and is wholly pure and good." Ri differs, however, from the Platonic ideas as it is immanent. It is embodied in ki. Abstractly ri precedes ki; but really there is no ri apart from ki, nor any ki apart from ri. Neither is prior for both are eternal. Ri depends on ki and ki depends on ri. Even when thought is pushed to the furthest point, beyond the beginning of any development, both ri and ki exist. This furthest point is named the Great Limit, and to prevent misapprehension is also named "The Limitless and the Great Limit." In it are both ri and ki, though they are distinguishable only after evolution has begun." Shushi says that The Great Limit is only ri,10 but adds immediately, it is only ki11 and returns to his formula. Wherever there is ri is also ki. His all pervading dualism is not from an original monism.15 12 13 10 Ki is all that ri is not. It is rest and motion.14 It is always and everywhere of two kinds 15 and the In and the Yō are its all pervading manifestations.16 In is the west, the earth, the female; it is dark, passive, selfish, avaricious and the way of all evil men belongs to it.1 heaven, the male; it is light, active, pure, belongs to it.17 To law by which it works would come nearer to 13 make Ki all and ri merely the abstract be so our interpreted. idea, but I do not see that Shushican 12 11 10 Yō, is the east, unselfish and the There never was ·然也是是事:太聚錯氣氣之在 極 而 太 極、The Infinite and Absolute- 字 18 a time when these opposites were not.1 The cosmic processes are condensation and dispersion.19 Ri forms nothing, ki forms and makes; and wherever ki condenses there is ri in its midst.20 The kosmos was formed by the action of the In and Yō; the impure sediment settling and forming the Earth, the lighter part forming the Heavens.21 The opposites grinding together, as the grain is scattered from a mill, so are all things formed; there is both the fine and the coarse, and the former constitutes all that is worthy and noble, the latter all that is evil and ignoble.22 Earth is thus ki, so are trees, stones and man's body. Heaven is also ki, as are likewise sun, stars, wind, thunder, lightning, man's soul and mind.23 Ki in fact is everything except the incorporeal and ethical ri. In calling Shushi a dualist, then, it must be remembered that motion and rest, matter and force, matter and mind are still all of one, and this one is ki. His dualism arises from the reification of ri. The universe is not created, but is an eternal process. The passages in the Classics which seem to ascribe creation and providence to Heaven are explained away. Heaven itself is a part of the unending process that comprehends the all. It is generated like all the rest.24 Ideally it is 之螻後有 也神性 粗無邊生其晝 在為在多氣天 便無蓋 見橫 然 生蟻此此故魂只有已只人四夜 中星中運地在氣得渠 動 無其理理 聚魄是 細只管物邊運 央辰央滓磨初 其度則 陰言 靜 所生有後則有理 如管層之散而不只氣裏水間 中無能 陽陰 無 付皆安方有知不 人層々萬出無 動在之面磨只 【造 之聚 端 受是頓有散有可 物々散珠粉息,不外清無去是 作結情之陰 耶如處此則覺以有生出如擾便是常者處磨陰 只造 陽陽 此大氣 無者 偏出天麵者是在周便出得陽 此作 又而旣 皆散 有人地磨便陰 下環為便急之 何天有 氣言 正物之相是陽 慮地此 之所‘其氣似游之 氣理 運天結了氣 轉為成便這 凝却 聚無 天細氣 地日個一 處情 理意 散始 無 sense. ri, as are all other things by nature. Pyschologically and physically it is ki. When the Classics say that Jōtei does this and that: that Heaven bestows, appoints, protects, generates, etc., Shushi explains, that the meaning is merely that the ri is thus and so. 25 At the same time Heaven is not a dead thing. Shushi is not a materialist in the modern Whatever belongs to man's nature belongs in higher degree to Heaven. When man, e.g., is righteous, Heaven responds. All the universe is to Shushi instinct with life, and he identifies the all with the operations of man's mind rather than with matter. But in fact the distinction of spirit and matter is not his. He moves in a different intellectual sphere. (See "Ki, Ri and Ten" below). Shushi thought it the distinguishing merit of the preceding philosophers of the Sō (Sung) dynasty that they cleared up the greatest difficulty in the Classics, viz. the ascription of goodness to man's nature notwithstanding his present sinfulness. The Sages left this unexplained but the scholars of the Sō dynasty ascribed the perfect goodness. to the ideal ri and the origin of evil to the imperfect receptivity of portions of the ki, and thus presented a theory which so far forth was intelligible and consistent. refutation needs more potent arguments than the Kogaku school appear to possess. For Jinsai says: "If it is the case that the good in man comes of sei (ri) and the evil of ki-shitsu, what is the reason that ki-shitsu 是 三 是 是之禍降 理段推如 Its is bad? It 出非 三 段只 一意這箇也只 是推原其理 妒 此、曰、此 是理如此、 只主類常之善而作將 must be from ri, and therefore we must conclude that ri is also evil." This conclusion would follow were ri the source of ki, and were ki essentially evil, but neither position is in accordance with Shushi's teaching. He thus explains the origin of evil :-Ri is the law of all the virtues, the essence of benevolence and righteousness. Wherever ki forms there ri rests in its midst. But ki exists in two forms, as we have seen, and from these all things are developed with the distinction of fine and coarse. Certain portions and forms of ki are perfectly recipient of ri and there is virtue and goodness. Other portions and forms. of ki imperfectly receive ri and there is sin and evil. 26 Ri is not evil, for where it is in its perfection is goodness and virtue; its obscuration alone is evil. Nor is ki essentially evil, though it many obscure the ri as the morning mist obscures the sun. Ri is changeless and it is of ri that the superior man writes when he calls man's nature “ good.” Ki is changeful and it is not fitting that he should write of it. 27 As ki ever changes ri cannot be always evenly received. Evil is thus of necessity, as always in pantheistic systems. 29 Ki exists everywhere and always in its two-fold form, so that In and Yó, motion and rest, the fine and the coarse, being associated together, there is only a question of preponderance.29 In the meanest man good is not wholly absent, and in the best man an element of evil 28 29 28 27 26 欲求迭正氣可鴟矣之等不及看 其故 相偏氣通成不同則而論 一網至 所道更理語可惡遺非君 隔氣之塞異齊也氣氣萬 |