黄修易录

Huang Mianshu asked: 'When the heart holds no evil thought, it is empty and wide — must one then keep a good thought?'

The Master said: 'Evil thought removed, that is already good thought: the mind's substance restored. As sun veiled by cloud — cloud gone, light regained. To remove the evil thought and then store up a separate good thought is lighting a lamp in broad daylight.'

Asked: 'Of late the wild thoughts seem gone, yet within the breast all is dark — how bring it to light?'

The Master said: 'At the start, how should the breast be bright? As turbid water fresh from the torrent, stilled in the vat, yet still muddy — only long settling clears the dross away. Work only upon innate knowledge; kept long, the dark will brighten of itself. To demand results now is forcing growth — not the work.'

The Master said: 'My teaching — extension of innate knowledge working at investigating things — is learning with a root: daily it grows, the longer the finer. The world's scholars teaching men to hunt through each thing and affair is learning without a root: in vigor the surface may hold for a while, no faults showing; with age the spirit fails and it collapses at last — like a rootless tree planted by the water, fresh for a season, fated to wither.'

Someone asked about the chapter 'set the will on the Way.'

The Master said: 'The first clause, setting the will, already holds the work of all the rest — it cannot stop. Like building a house: setting the will on the Way is choosing the ground and gathering timber, raising the dwelling; basing on virtue is the plan complete, something to stand on; leaning on humaneness is dwelling ever inside, never leaving; roaming the arts is adding paint and grace to the house. The arts are rightness — what principle finds fit: reciting poems, reading, the lute, archery — all to season this heart to ripeness in the Way. To roam the arts without first setting the will is the wastrel who builds no house, only buys paintings for a front — where would he hang them?'

Asked: 'Reading is to tune this heart, and cannot be spared; but as I read, thoughts of the examinations trail in — how be rid of them?'

The Master said: 'With innate knowledge true and earnest, even examination work burdens the heart not at all; and should it, the taint is soon felt and mastered. Reading, innate knowledge knows the cramming heart is wrong — cut it; the hasty heart — cut it; the vaunting heart — cut it. So reading is all day checking against the sages — a heart pure in heavenly principle. Whatever the reading, it is only tuning this heart: what burden?'

'Though shown this, my endowments are dull and the burden hard to escape. I have heard fortune is fated, and the highest minds disdain this; unworthy, tangled in fame and gain, I hold to it, tormenting myself for nothing. To cast it off is barred by my parents — what then?'

'Many lay this on their parents; in truth it is only the will unset. With the will set, innate knowledge makes a thousand affairs one affair. How can reading and writing burden a man? Men burden themselves with gain and loss!' And he sighed: 'This learning dark — who knows how many heroes it has shelved at just this point!'

Asked: 'Life is what is called nature — Gaozi said aright; why did Mencius condemn him?'

The Master said: 'It is nature indeed; only Gaozi took one side, missing the head. Knowing the head, even that way of speaking will serve. Mencius too said form and color are heavenly nature — that also speaks of breath. Anyone speaking at random and acting at will says it comes from my own heart and nature — that is life-is-nature; yet it runs past the mark. Knowing the head, spoken and done by innate knowledge, it lands right of itself. And innate knowledge too is only this mouth speaking, this body acting — how leave the breath, with another to speak and act? Hence: nature without breath is incomplete; breath without nature unclear. Breath is nature, nature breath — only the head must be rightly held.'

He also said: 'Your work must above all not force growth. Highest minds are rare; no learner steps straight into sagehood. Rise and dip, advance and retreat, are the natural stages of the work. Because yesterday's work went well and today's fails, to strain into a flawless show is forcing growth — and it spoils even the earlier gain. This is no small fault. Like a traveler who stumbles: rise and walk — do not play the man who never fell. Hold ever the heart unvexed in hiding, unvexed though unaffirmed; by innate knowledge, patiently, regardless of laughter, slander, honor or disgrace; let the work advance and retreat, only let this master of extending innate knowledge never rest. Long enough, strength comes of itself, and outward things lose their power to move.' He added: 'Work in earnest, and slander and slight are all profit, all fuel for virtue; work not, and they are demons that will drag you down.'

Out one day at Yu's Cave, the Master looked on the young grain: 'So soon, and grown so tall!'

Fan Zhaoqi at his side said: 'Only because it has a root. Let learning plant its own root, and growth is sure.'

The Master said: 'Who lacks a root? Innate knowledge is heaven-planted, quick with unending life; only the clutter of the private wounds and chokes it, and it cannot sprout.'

A friend was quick to flare and blame others.

The Master warned him: 'Learning must turn back upon oneself. Forever blaming, one sees only others' wrongs, never one's own. Turn back, and one finds oneself so unfinished — what leisure to blame? That Shun could melt Xiang's arrogance hung on one thing: he did not dwell on Xiang's wrongs. Had Shun set himself to correct his brother's perversity, Xiang's wrongs would have stood before him; an arrogant man will bow to no one — how then be transformed?'

The friend was moved to repentance.

He said: 'Henceforth do not discuss others' right and wrong. Whenever you would rebuke or dispute, treat that very impulse as a great selfishness to be mastered.'

The Master said: 'When friends raise questions — shallow or coarse they may be, showing off perhaps — it is an illness showing. Dose the illness; do not harbor contempt, which is not the noble heart that works good with others.'

Asked: 'On the Changes, Zhu centered on divination, the Cheng commentary on principle — how judge?'

The Master said: 'Divination is principle; principle is divination. What principle under heaven exceeds divination? Only because later ages bound divination to casting the stalks did it dwel into a petty art. Know that today's question and answer of teacher and friend — broad learning, inquiry, careful thought, clear discernment, earnest practice — are all divination: divining is but resolving doubt, making one's mind numinous. The Changes ask of heaven. Doubting and self-distrustful, men ask heaven by the Changes: the human heart can still be mixed; heaven alone brooks no feigning.'

Huang Mianzhi asked: 'Neither rigidly this nor rigidly that, but with rightness for neighbor — is every affair to be so?'

The Master said: 'Every affair indeed — but the head must be known. Rightness is innate knowledge. Know innate knowledge as the head, and there is no clinging. Take gifts: some fit to take today, unfit another day; unfit today, fit another. Cling to today's fitting, and you take all; to today's unfitting, and you refuse all — that is rigid this and rigid that, no longer the substance of innate knowledge: how call it rightness?'