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Not in Two Minds Philosophy of Mind and Action in Zhū Xī’S (1130-1200) Interpretations of the Counsels of the Great Yu

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Not in Two Minds Philosophy of Mind and Action in Zhū Xī’S (1130-1200) Interpretations of the Counsels of the Great Yu Not in Two Minds Philosophy of Mind and Action in Zhū Xī’s (1130-1200) Interpretations of the Counsels of the Great Yu Anders Sydskjør MA Thesis (60 Credits) in East Asian Culture and History (EAST4591), Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages. UNIVERSITETET I OSLO Spring 2016 Not in Two Minds -Philosophy of Mind and Action in Zhū Xī’s (1130-1200) Interpretations of the Counsels of the Great Yu Anders Sydskjør II © Anders Sydskjør 2016 Not in Two Minds: Philosophy of Mind and Action in Zhū Xī’s (1130-1200) Interpretations of the Counsels of the Great Yu Anders Sydskjør http://www.duo.uio.no/ Trykk: Bedriftstrykkeriet, Tveita III Abstract One of Zhu Xi’s (1130-1200) most important texts, the Preface to the Mean and Commonality 中庸序 (date of composition: 1189) is organised as a long recontextualisation and commentary on a sixteen character long passage from the Old Text Shangshu 古文尚書. His commentary tantalisingly describes the text as telling us something of importance regarding the nature of the mind and its role in one’s interactions with the world. What he there writes has typically been interpreted as espousing an ideal of strict self-denial and a subjugation of the self to moral laws. This thesis argues that his meaning is almost precisely the opposite; by reading of the Preface in light of near-contemporary discussions of the text with his students. It argues that Zhu in the Preface elaborates a responsive theory of the mind and on that basis a theory of moral action as moral responsiveness. His responsive theory of the mind sets out to describe the sorts of things that give shape to one’s responses to the outside world; this includes the state of one’s body, brute contingency and most importantly one’s moral nature. The theory of moral action developed on this basis is one that seeks to describe how one can avoid being a victim of the whims of fate, and even in the most adverse conditions lead a flourishing life; not free from contingency but in a creative co-existence with it. The way this thesis achieves this result is by taking the commentary form seriously; where previous interpreters have assumed Zhu to be a systematic philosopher deriving doctrines from abstract principles, this thesis reconstructs what Zhu says as attempts to interpret a text. It does this in three steps, divided over three chapters: It first reconstructs the lively debate that was taking place during the Northern and Southern Song Dynasties on precisely how to interpret the passage from the Counsels of the Great Yu; it then reconstructs the assumtptions Zhu ascribes to the text by interpreting several arguments Zhu makes as arguments for a particular reading of a text; in the last chapter these assumptions are read back into the Shangshu text through the lens of several illustrations Zhu uses to arrive at the picture of responsive action described above. IV Acknowledgements More than anyone, I would like to express the profoundest gratitude to my supervisor, Halvor Eifring, professor of Chinese at the University of Oslo. The care, patience and generosity with which he has treated me throughout the process of writing this thesis has been of an immeasurable help. Halvor’s ability to subtly prod one into figuring out what one’s good ideas are, and then to provoke one into finding what would be good reasons for thinking them true are abilities that every teacher should aspire to. I notice that some of my fellow students are worried before meetings with their supervisors, but I always looked forward to mine and will miss being able to call hour-long conversations with Halvor ‘work’. I also like to thank my fellow students and co-workers Guttorm Gundersen, for helping me find materials I didn’t even know I was looking for; and Gunnar Sjøstedt for the heroic effort he put into making one of the chapters of this thesis more readable, and both of them collectively for making life in the reading room intellectually stimulating. I would further like to extend my deepest thanks to the Reading Group of Classical Chinese at IKOS. Meeting weekly to bicker over the details of grammar and intellectual history may not be everyone’s idea of a good time, so it is astounding that so many of us have found our way to UiO at the same time (and the parties have really been something else!). Last, but not least, I would like to thank Ami Mo 阿覓莫 for for her support and care throughout the process, and for introducing me to the joys of the Sichuanese dialect. One would have hoped that with so many people to thank there would be someone to blame as well. Unfortunately, the shortcomings of this thesis, most of which I know all too well, are entirely a result of my own limitations. -Anders Sydskjør, May 30th 2016 V Abbreviations SSJZ The Collected Commentaries on the Four Books 四書集注章句 ZZWJ The Collected Writings of Zhu Xi 朱子文集 ZZYL The Classified Conversations of Zhu Xi 朱子語類 VI Table of Contents Abstract .................................................................................................................................... IV Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................... V Abbreviations ........................................................................................................................... VI 1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Subject and Scope ........................................................................................................ 1 1.2 Texts and Contexts ...................................................................................................... 3 1.3 Previous Research........................................................................................................ 7 1.4 Methodological Reflections ......................................................................................... 8 1.5 Structure of the Thesis ............................................................................................... 10 2 The History of a Distinction: Background ....................................................................... 13 2.1 The Counsels of the Great Yu. .................................................................................. 14 2.2 Commentaries before the Zhu ................................................................................... 16 2.3 Zhu’ Commentaries ................................................................................................... 29 2.4 After Zhu ................................................................................................................... 37 2.5 Concluding Remarks ................................................................................................. 39 3 The Ontology of the Two Minds ...................................................................................... 40 3.1 Taking Responsiveness as Basic ............................................................................... 41 3.2 Two Dynamic Origins ............................................................................................... 47 3.3 The Unity of the Mind ............................................................................................... 61 3.4 Concluding remarks ................................................................................................... 62 4 Awareness and the Two Minds ........................................................................................ 63 4.1 What Does ‘Awareness’ Mean? ................................................................................ 64 4.2 Awareness along Different Roads ............................................................................. 73 4.3 Awareness , Luck and Action .................................................................................... 84 4.4 Concluding Remarks ................................................................................................. 88 5 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 90 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................. 92 Appendix: Texts and translations ............................................................................................. 97 VII 1 Introduction 1.1 Subject and Scope The Song dynasty, from the northern to the southern, was a period of fierce intellectual activity, and one of the more hotly debated topics of the day was the nature of the mind and its role in moral action. Or rather; one of the most hotly debated topics of the day was how several texts of varying degrees of antiquity were to be understood as regards these topics. This thesis will discuss one such interpretation of one such text. During the Northern Song, a whole discourse began to form around a passage from the chapter Counsels of the Great Yu 大禹謨 in the Old Text Shangshu 古文尚書 consisting of a mere sixteen characters that were taken to say something of importance about what stands in the way of one becoming a mature moral agent, what enabling factors exist for one to become a mature moral agent and to suggest a way of proceeding towards that aim. These sixteen characters are the following: 人心惟危，道心惟微，惟精惟一，允執厥中1 The mind of man is perilous; the mind of the Way is subtle; you must rarefy and unify them; steadfastly hold to this Mean! What so
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