A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy

883 Pages·1969·4.806 MB·English

by  Wing-Tsit Chan

A SOURCE BOOK IN
C H I N E SE P H I L O S O P HY
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A S O U R CE BOOK IN
CHINESE
PHILOSOPHY
TRANSLATED AND COMPILED BY
WING-TSIT CHAN
PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
Copyright © 1963 by Princeton University Press
L.C. Card: 62-7398
ISBN 0-691-07137-3
•
Chapter 7, "The Natural Way of Lao Tzu," with additional notes and
comments, has been published as The Way of Lao Tzu,
copyright © 1963, The Bobbs-Merrill Company.
•
Publication of this book has been aided by
the Ford Foundation program to support publication,
through university presses, of
works in the humanities and social sciences,
as well as by grants from the John Simon Guggenheim
Memorial Foundation, the Edward W. Hazen Foundation,
and the McInerny Foundation.
•
Wing-tsit Chan, now Anna R. D. Gillespie Professor of Philosophy at
Chatham College, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is also
Professor of Chinese Culture and Philosophy Emeritus
at Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H. He did
his undergraduate work at Lingnan University
in Canton, China, and received his Ph.D. from Harvard University.
He has taught both in China and in this
country since 1929, and is the author of many distinguished
publications in the field of Chinese philosophy.
•
First PRINCETON PAPERBACK Edition, 1969
TO GREGG M. SINCLAIR
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• • • FOREWORD • • •
ONE OF THE HOPEFUL SIGNS in these otherwise hectic times in which
we are living is the long-overdue realization of the need for mutual
understanding between the peoples of the East and those of the West.
Genuine understanding of people who are separated from us by great
distances or who differ from us in language, in way of life, in social
custom, is difficult to achieve, even for those who are sincerely dedicated
to this task.
Such understanding is vital—humanly, intellectually, practically—
but it cannot be achieved through any superficial assessment of words or
actions which are often unrevealing or possibly even misleading. It can
be achieved only through a searching and serious study of the dominant
ideas, the motivating beliefs that have, down through the ages, shaped
the "mind," or over-all philosophy, of a race or a nation.
In getting at this basic philosophy, the only procedure available to
the outsider is to study the thought of the intellectual leaders, the molders
of the thought of the culture as a whole. And the only way to reach these
great minds is through their own words. No amount of second-hand ex-
planation or description or interpretation can assure the student that he
is getting at the real mind of the thinker. Studying the original (even in
translation), with the aid of knowledgeable guides where necessary—
this alone can make for clarity of comprehension and assurance of au-
thenticity.
This Source Book is devoted to the purpose of providing such a basis
for genuine understanding of Chinese thought (and thereby of Chinese
life and culture, since the relationship between the two is probably more
pronounced in China than in any other country). It brings to English-
speaking Westerners the basic materials for serious work in Chinese
philosophy, which in its profundity and its long historical development is
probably less adequately understood than that of any other great civiliza-
tion in the world today. By virtue of misguided selection of only ancient
texts, or popular texts, or texts which are primarily literary rather than
technical, the Chinese philosophical tradition has been distorted out of
all proportions. The Western philosopher, if he would be a true philoso-
pher in considering all the experiences, insights, and systematic intel-
lectual speculation of mankind as data for his comprehensive philosophi-
cal thinking, can no longer remain blind to the important insights of the
great Chinese minds of history. The Chinese philosophers have much to
contribute in many areas of the broad quest for truth, and it is high time
that we in the West overcome our basic ignorance of this field, or at least
vii
FOREWORD
attempt to correct the limited and possibly distorted interpretations that
we now have.
This Source Book is indeed a milestone along the complex and difficult
road to significant understanding by Westerners of the Asian peoples,
and a monumental contribution to the cause of philosophy. It is the first
anthology of Chinese philosophy to cover its entire historical develop-
ment. It provides substantial selections from all the great thinkers and
schools in every period—ancient, medieval, modern, and contemporary
—and includes in their entirety some of the most important classical
texts. It deals with the fundamental and technical as well as the more
general aspects of Chinese thought. With its new translation of source
materials (some translated for the first time), its explanatory aids where
necessary, its thoroughgoing scholarly documentation, this volume will
be an indispensable guide for scholars, for college students, for serious
readers interested in knowing the real China.
I must take this opportunity, on behalf of all who are seriously con-
cerned about the development of greater understanding of Asian philos-
ophy, to thank Dr. Chan for producing this significant volume. Dr.
Chan has taught Chinese philosophy in both China and the United States
and, as far as I know, is the only Chinese philosopher who has taught
in the United States in this one field continuously for more than 25 years.
He knows thoroughly the needs and problems of students of Chinese
philosophy—and, as a public lecturer, he is also well aware of the in-
terests of the educated public. He brings to this work the valuable bene-
fits and advantages of this unique background and experience. The task
he has undertaken has been stupendous. Few scholars could have—or
would have—undertaken it; no one else could have handled it so well.
As mentioned by Dr. Chan in the preface, this volume is the second
in a series of Source Books in Asian philosophy. The first volume, A
Source Book in Indian Philosophy, edited by Dr. S. Radhakrishnan and
myself, was published by Princeton University Press in 1957 and was
reissued in 1959. "A Source Book in Buddhist Philosophy," intended
as a third volume in this series, is now in preparation.
Charles A. Moore
Honolulu, Hawaii
viii
••• PREFACE •••
CHINA has changed more in the twentieth century than in any period in
her history. She has overthrown a 3,000-year-old monarchic system. She
has replaced the 1,300-year-old examination institution with modern
education. Men and women are for the first time equal. And she has
embraced Communism. These radical transformations and many more
have forced Westerners to ask why they have taken place. The search is
no longer one for information but for explanation. Realizing that neither
contemporary factors nor external influences alone can provide the
answer, they have begun to probe into Chinese thought. And since
Chinese thought is predominantly Confucian, they have looked into
Confucian teachings with great seriousness.
The study of Confucianism in the West is not new. James Legge's
translation of the Confucian Classics began a century ago. Unfortunately,
Western studies of Chinese philosophy have been largely confined to
ancient Confucianism and its rival systems, as if Chinese Buddhism were
not Chinese, Neo-Taoism did not exist, and later Confucianism but a
footnote to the Confucian Classics or at best a de luxe edition of them.
But the fact is that Chinese thought and the Chinese way of life in the
last several hundred years have, generally speaking, been the product of
Neo-Confucianism, which thrived from the twelfth to the sixteenth cen-
tury, and Neo-Confucianism is itself an outgrowth of ancient Confucian-
ism, modified by Taoism and Buddhism. Therefore, in order to under-
stand the mind of China, it is absolutely necessary to understand Chinese
thought, especially Neo-Confucianism, in its entire historical develop-
ment. The present book has been prepared primarily to meet this urgent
need.
In attempting to maintain an historical perspective, I have throughout
this work tried to strike a balance between the modern, medieval, and
ancient periods as well as between Confucianism, Taoism, and Bud-
dhism. The selections presented herein have been chosen with this
balance and perspective in view. In the chapters from the Analects, for
example, special attention has been given to sayings on knowledge,
human nature, human destiny, Heaven, and the like—perennial prob-
lems in Chinese philosophy—but only to the extent that such selectivity
does not distort the total teaching of Confucius. Moreover, my choice
of philosophers and schools has been guided by their relative influence
on the development of Chinese thought, not by the temporary interest
of non-Chinese scholars. Many Western scholars, for example, have been
much interested in Wang Ch'ung (27-100?), evidently because of his
skepticism and naturalism, but have been little interested in Wang Pi
ix