Zhongyong APPENDIX

Focusing the Familiar: A Translation and Philosophical Interpretation of the Zhongyong

Kong Ji 孔伋(483-402 BCE), was the grandson of Confucius (551-479 BCE), born to Confucius's son Boyu 伯鱼 who appears twice in the Analects. Kong Ji is best known by his "style" name Zisizi 子思子 "Master" Zisi. In the early record, his name is associated with the Zhongyong and with three other documents that found their way as chapters into the Han dynasty compilation, the Record of Rites: "A Record of the Gnomon (biaoji 表记," "The Black Robes (ziyi 缁衣)," and "A Record of the Dike (fangji 坊记)."

Master Zisi, the putative author of the Zhongyong, is becoming an increasingly important philosopher in our present historical moment. Because of documents recovered in recent archaeological finds, he is emerging out of the mists of history as one of the missing links between the teachings of Confucius captured in the Analects, and the early evolution of classical Confucianism found in the Mencius and Xunzi. He is but one of the missing links because in these finds there are appearing texts associated with several familiar names in the early Confucian tradition. Besides the abundance of new textual materials that contemporary scholars want to ascribe to Zisi, we now have other documents with titles such as the Zengzi 曾子，the Zilu 子路 , and the Yan Yuan 颜渊 , all texts named for these close personal protégées of Confucius who appear prominently in the Analects.

Zisi was not only a grandson of Confucius, but was also a student of Zengzi 曾子，one of the major figures in the later books of the Analects, and one of the eight most prominent proponents of Confucianism after the death of Confucius. The Records of the Historian also tells us that one of Zisi's later disciples was the teacher of Mencius. It is because of this direct historical association between Zisi and Mencius, together with philosophical resonances between the Mencius and the newly recovered Zisi materials, that the school coming down from Zengzi is often called the "SiMeng lineage 思孟派 ," or "the lineage of Zisi and Mencius." In the later tradition, it was this lineage that was celebrated as the orthodox Confucian transmission.

The Mencius and the Zhongyong overlap in their deference to the Analects of Confucius and their use of a standard Confucian vocabulary, as well as a cast of early cultural heroes provided as models for emulation. Another commonality of early Confucian texts such as the Analects, the newly recovered Zisi materials, the Mencius, and the Zhongyong is the extensive use of verses from the Book of Songs as a source of canonical authority that both explains and is explained by the philosophical points under discussion.

In fact, the Zhongyong like the Analects, the Mencius, and the Xunzi, appeals to the Book of Songs more than any other source as an authority for its precepts.[i] It is interesting to reflect on how the Songs functioned to promote the philosophical message of this text.

David Schaberg explores the way in which uncanonical songs underwent a process of historical framing during the Warring States and Qin dynasties.[ii] It was felt by the commentators that a song, often enigmatic and sometimes even incomprehensible, is an encoded means of communication that could only be understood and appreciated by fitting it with and within a particular historical anecdote of some interesting individual or event. It is only when the singer and the audience is properly astute that the song will yield up its coded message.

A similar kind of process seems to be at work in the philosophical literature of this period in which the canonical songs such as those collected in the Book of Songs, presumably even more widely remembered and sung by the population, are decoded by punctuating a particular philosophical point. The songs as a shared and respected repository of ancient meaning are thus clarified in a process that then allows the author to claim the prestige of the tradition for the assertion at hand.

The song is a particularly effective addition to the argument for several reasons. It is persuasive by virtue of being widely known among the audience of the text. Again, the original source of the unauthored song is the daily life of the people, where song is what Schaberg describes as "a manifestation of complete and uncontrollable genuineness."[iii] The spontaneity and honesty in the act of singing lies in the fact that songs are most often either of blame or praise: an irrepressible protest against oppression of some kind, or a public outpouring of approbation for virtuous conduct. When a philosophical text literally bursts into song, it is taking full advantage of the reader's assumption that songs do not lie. Thus, invoking a song not only clarifies an argument, but also celebrates its veracity.

The song also dramatizes the argument and charges it emotionally by bringing the more general and abstract assertions of the text down to earth and locating them in seemingly specific historical situations. Thus, a well-placed song not only lends veridical force to the philosopher's claims, but also invests it with passion.

In addition to the pervasive appeal to the Book of Songs, there is another immediate connection between the Analects, the Mencius and the Zhongyong that must not go unnoticed. We could make the argument that the discussion of the rather obscure expression, "focusing the familiar (zhongyong中庸)" which gives the Zhongyong its title and which occupies much of the first 11 passages of the text, is an elaboration of this rather opaque philosophical term found nowhere in the extant literature except in Analects 6.29:

The Master said, "The excellence required to focus the familiar is of the highest order. That it is rare among the people is an old story."

The fact that this Analects passage is repeated almost verbatim in Zhongyong 3 strengthens this hypothesis.

The connection between the Zhongyong and the Mencius is a bit more complex. One of the most original and remarkable ideas that is developed extensively in the Zhongyong is the extension and elaboration of the familiar notion of cheng 诚 which conventionally meant "integrity" or "sincerity" to express human participation in the ongoing process of cosmic "creativity." Zhongyong 25 is explicit in eliding the cognates cheng 成"to consummate, to complete, to finish" and cheng 诚 "creativity/integrity/ sincerity":

Creativity is self-consummating. . . . But creativity is not simply the self-consummating of one's own person; it is what consummates events.

The term cheng 诚 appears in the Analects in its familiar sense of "sincerely, truly," but is not used in this extended sense of "cosmic creativity."

There is a document that was recovered in the 1993 Guodian 郭店 archaeological find that has been tentatively entitled Chengzhi wenzhi 成之闻之，This text as revised by the contemporary scholar, Guo Yi (1999), contains the phrase:

Guo Yi finds considerable resonance between this document and the Zhongyong, and an immediate association between the expression "creativity" (chengzhi 成之) in Chengzhi wenzhi, and the unusual applications of cheng 诚 and chengzhi 诚之 as they appear in Zhongyong 20-26. Underscoring this purported relationship between the two texts, there is a parallel allusion to the notion of "prizing creativity" in Zhongyong 25:

On the basis of both semantic and linguistic resonances, Guo Yi argues that Chengzhi wenzhi is in fact the product of Zisi's later adherents who came to have some direct influence on Mencius. As we shall see, this notion of "creativity" expressed in the Mencius as cheng 诚 might be a link between the two.

Direct resonances between the Mencius and Zhongyong are minimal, yet important where they do occur. For example, Zhongyong 20 does have some rather overt linguistic and conceptual overlap with the sociopolitical ideas found in Mencius 4A12 in which persons cultivate themselves through unrelenting attention to the nexus of roles and relationships that locate them within family and community.

Again, the earliest occurrence of cheng 诚 in the sense of "creativity" in the extant literature that uses the character cheng 诚("creativity") rather than cheng 成("complete") is in this same Mencius 4A12 passage. This Mencius passage introduces a theme central to the Zhongyong: It is in the process of "creativity (cheng)" that the ways of tian and human beings come together most efficaciously. The Mencius observes:

诚身有道，不明乎善，不诚其身矣。是故诚者天之道，思诚者人动道。至诚而不动者，未之有也；不诚未有能动者也。

There is a way being creative in one's person. Persons who do not understand efficacy are not creative in their persons. For this reason, creativity is the way of tian, and reflecting on creativity is the proper way of becoming human. There has never been a case in which those of utmost creativity have failed to influence things, while those lacking in creativity have never been able to do anything at all.

There is a way of getting on with one's kin: If on introspection one finds a lack of creativity in one's person, one will not get on well with one's kin. There is a way of being creative in one's person: If one does not understand efficacy, one will not find creativity in one's person. Creativity is the way of tian; creating is the proper way of becoming human.

In fact, Zhongyong 21-26 seems to be an extended elaboration upon this Mencian sense of "creativity (cheng)," using the same expression with some frequency. There is thus the interesting possibility that Zhongyong 20-26 is a gloss on Mencius 4A12, just as the opening passages of Zhongyong are an attempt to disambiguate the term "focusing the familiar (zhongyong)" found in Analects 6.29. The motivation, of course, would be to claim a direct continuity between these two early Confucian texts and the Zhongyong's understanding of the human role in the creative processes.

Another interesting echo between Mencius and Zhongyong is 7A1 in which Mencius says:

尽其心者，知其性也，知其性，则知天。存其心，善其性，所以事天也。

To make the most of one's heart-and-mind is to realize one's natural tendencies, and if one realizes one's natural tendencies, one is realizing tian. Sustaining one's heart-and-mind and nourishing one's natural tendencies is how one serves tian.

This portion of the Mencius might be the inspiration for Zhongyong 22 which shares a similar vocabulary and grammatical structure, and expands upon the same philosophical point:

唯天下至诚为能尽其性，能尽其性，则能尽人之性，能尽人之性，则能尽物之性，能尽物之性，则可以赞天地之化育，可以赞天地之化育，则可以与天地参矣。

Only those of utmost creativity in the world are able to make the most out of their natural tendencies. Only if one is able to make the most of one's own natural tendencies is one able to make the most of the natural tendencies of others; only if one is able to make the most of the natural tendencies of others is one able to make the most of the natural tendencies of processes and events; only if one is able to make the most of the natural tendencies of processes and events can one assist in the transforming and nourishing activities of heaven and earth; and only if one can assist in the transforming and nourishing activities of heaven and earth can human beings take their place as members of this triad.

Notes to the Appendix

[i]Mark Lewis (1999): 163-76 goes to some pains to show how there is a progression in this early literature in the way in which these different philosophical texts use the Book of Songs.

[ii] Schaberg (1999).

[iii] Schaberg (1999):337.