41. The Master said:—‘ Does not he who knows the springs of things possess spirit-like wisdom? The superior man, in his intercourse with the high, uses no flattery, and, in his intercourse with the low, no coarse freedom:—does not this show that he knows the springs of things? Those springs are the slight beginnings of movement, and the earliest indications of good fortune (or ill). The superior man sees them, and acts accordingly without waiting for (the delay of) a single day. As is said in the Yi, “He is firm as a rock, (and acts) without the delay of a single day. With firm goodness there will be good fortune.” Firm as a rock, how should he have to wait a single day to ensure his knowing (those springs and his course)? The superior man knows the minute and the manifested; he knows what is weak, and what is strong:—he is a model to ten thousand.’
42. The Master said:—‘I may venture to say that the son of the Yen family had nearly attained (the CHAP. 5. APPENDIXFIIL. 393 standard of perfection). If anything that he did was not good, he was sure to become conscious of that; and when he knew it, he did not do the thing again. As is said in the Yi, “(The first line shows its sub- ject) returning from an error that has not led him far away. There is no occasion for repentance. There will be great good.”’
43. There is an intermingling of the genial in- fluences of heaven and earth, and transformation in its various forms abundantly proceeds. There is an intercommunication of seed between male and female, and transformation in its living types pro- ceeds. What is said in the Yi, ‘ Three individuals are walking together and one is made to disappear;. there is (but) one man walking, and he gets his mate,’ tells us of the effort (in nature) at oneness (of operation).
44. The Master said:—‘ The superior man (in a high place) composes himself before he (tries to) move others; makes his mind restful and easy before he speaks; settles (the principles of) his intercourse with others before he seeks anything from them. The superior man cultivates these three things, and so is complete. If he try to move others while he is himself in unrest, the people will not (act) with him; if he speak while he is himself in a state of apprehension, the people will not respond to him; if without (certain principles of) intercommunica- tion, he issue his requests, the people will not grant them. When there are none to accord with him, those who (work to) injure him will make their appearance. As is said in the Yi, “(We see one) to whose advantage none will contribute, while some will seek to assail him. He observes no 394 THE APPENDIXES. SECT. It.
ON a Se regular rule in the ordering of his heart:—there will be evil.”
Ee en arene ae er ee Chapter V, paragraphs 31-44, gives the words of the duke of Kau on eleven different lines in the Text of the Yi, along with remarks of Confucius in farther illustration of them. But they seem also to be intended to bring forth more fully the meaning of certain previous utterances about the structure and scope of the Yi.
Paragraphs 31-34 start from the fourth line of the 31st hexa- gram, which would seem merely to require a steady and unvarying purpose in any one, in order to the full development of his influ- ence. The editors of the imperial edition, however, make the whole a sequel of paragraph 5. But granted that there is no ‘anxious scheming’ in the processes of the natural world or in the phenomena of insect life, there is really no analogy to their pro- ceedings in the course of the man who makes himself master of ‘the nature and reasons of things,’ as described in 33 and 34. Nor are ‘the nature and reasons of things’ to be found in the Yi, as the writer believed they were. Such as it is, it requires immense thought to understand it, and when we have laid hold of it, there is nothing substantial in our grasp. The ‘virtue’ predicated of such attainment is not so much moral excellence, as apprehension and the power and ability to invent, and to affect others.
Paragraph 35. See on the third line of Khwan, the 47th hexagram. If we were to translate the explanations of the line after Confucius, we should put the first two statements hypotheti- cally; but the four that compose it seem to run on in the same way. They are all, I apprehend, hypothetical.
Paragraph 36. See on the last line of Kieh, the goth hexa- gram.
Paragraph 37. See on the first line of Shih Ho, the 21st hexa- gram. The ‘self-correction in what is small’ implies of course that the small man has been ‘awed.’ What is said about him here is true; but we hardly expect it in this place.
Paragraph 38 should probably begin, like those before and after it, with ‘The Master said.’ The characters quoted from the Yi are again from the text of Shih Ho, on the last line.
Paragraph 39. See on the fifth line of Phi, the 12th hexagram.
Paragraph 40 gives Confucius’ views on the fourth line of Ting, the 50th hexagram.
In paragraph 41 we are conducted to the 16th hexagram,—the CHAP. 6. APPENDIX III. 395 Chapter VI. 45. The Master said:—‘(The tri- grams) Kien and Khw4n may be regarded as the gate of the Yi.’ AZien represents what is of the yang nature (bright and active); Khwa&n what is of the yin nature (shaded and inactive). These two unite according to their qualities, and there comes the embodiment of the result by the strong and weak (lines). In this way we have the phenomena of heaven and earth visibly exhibited, and can com- prehend the operation of the spiritual intelligence.
46. The appellations and names (of the diagrams and lines) are various, but do not go beyond (what is to be ascribed to the operation of these two con- ditions). When we examine the nature and style second line of it. The being ‘firm as a rock’ is understood to symbolise the state of ‘rest,’ the quiet self-possession out of which successful movement and action is understood to spring.
In paragraph 42, ‘the son of the Yen family’ is Yen Hui, the favourite disciple of Confucius. The passage quoted from the Yt is that on the first line of Fa, the 24th hexagram.
To paragraph 43, as to paragraph 38, I would prefix the cha- racters for ‘The Master said.’ ‘Male and female’ is to be taken generally, and not confined to the individuals of the human pair. One Chinese writer says that in the transformations ascribed to heaven and earth, birds, fishes, animals, and plants are included, but from the ‘ transformation in its living types’ plants are excluded, because in their generation there is nothing analogous to the emis- sion and reception of seed. Other Chinese writers, however, are well enough acquainted with the sexual system of plants. It would seem to me that Confucius, if the paragraph were really his, intended only plants or the vegetable world in his reference to the operation of heaven and earth, and had all living tribes in view in his mention of male and female. The passage of the Yi referred to is on the third line of Sun, the 41st hexagram. ‘The application of it is far-fetched.
Paragraph 44. See on the fifth line of Yi, the 42nd hexa- gram.
490 THE APPENDIXES. SECT. Il.
ee (of the appended explanations), they seem to express the ideas of a decaying age.
47. The Yi exhibits the past, and (teaches us to) discriminate (the issues of) the future; it makes manifest what is minute, and brings to light what is obscure. (Then king WAn) opened (its symbols), and distinguished things in accordance with its names, so that all his words were correct and his explana- tions decisive;—(the book) was now complete.
48. The appellations and names (of the diagrams and lines) are but small matters, but the classes of things comprehended under them are large. Their scope reaches far, and the explanations attached to them are elegant. The words are indirect, but to the point; the matters seem plainly set forth, but there is a secret principle in them. Their object is, in cases that are doubtful, to help the people in their conduct, and to make plain the recompenses of good and evil.
The principal object, it is said, of chapter VI, paragraphs 45-48, is to set forth the views of king Wan and his son in the explana- tions which they appended to the diagrams and lines; and in doing this the writer begins in 45, with Ff-hsi's starting, in the formation of his eight trigrams, from the devising of the whole and divided lines, to represent the two primitive forms in nature. The two ‘pure’ trigrams formed of these lines, unmixed, give rise to all the others, or rather the lines of which they are formed do so; and are thus compared to a gate by which the various diagrams enter to complete the system that is intended to represent the changing phenomena of nature and experience. The next sentence in the above version of paragraph 45 appears in Canon McClatchie’s translation of the Yi, as follows:—‘ Khien is the membrum virile, and Khwin is the pudendum muliebre (the sakti of Khien). It is hardly possible, on reading such a version, to sup- press the exclamation proh pudor! Can a single passage be adduced in support of it from among all the Chinese critics in the CHAP. 7. APPENDIX. III. 397 Chapter VII. 49. Was it not in the middle period of antiquity that the Yi began to flourish? Was not he who made it familiar with anxiety and cala- mity?
50. Therefore (the roth diagram), Li, shows us the foundation of virtue; (the 15th), Hsien, its handle; (the 24th), F, its root; (the 32nd), Hang, its solidity; (the 41st), Sun, its cultivation; (the 42nd), Yi, its abundance; (the 47th), Khwa4n, its exercise of discrimination; (the 48th), 3ing, its field; and (the 57th), Sun, its regulation.
51. In Li we have the perfection of harmony; in Hsien, we have the giving honour to others, line of centuries? I believe not. The ideas which it expresses are gratuitously and wantonly thrust into this text of the Yf. ‘Ahien’ and ‘Khw&an’ are not spoken of thus. If the latter half of the paragraph be unintelligible, this interpretation of the former would make the whole disgusting.
In paragraph 46 the writer passes from the work of Ff-hst to that of king Wan and his son, and the composition of the written Yi is referred to ‘a decaying age,—the age, namely, of the tyrant Kau. Then king Wan and the duke of /4u, it is said, deploring the degeneracy of their times and the enormities of the government, indicated, by their treatment of the ancient symbols, their sense of right and wrong, and the methods by which the prevailing evils might be rectified.
Paragraphs 47 and 48 follow and expand the meaning of 45. The editors of the imperial edition say that the former sentence of 47 is the sequel of 45, and the latter of 46, bringing us finally to the explanations and decisions of king Wan, as the most im- portant portion of the Yi. Ad Hst, moreover, observes that throughout the chapter, as weil as in the chapters that follow, there must be many characters wanting in the text, while there are many also that are doubtful. This is specially the case with 48. Where the order of the characters has been disarranged merely, correction is easy; but where characters are evidently missing, attempts to fill the lacunae are merely guess-work, 398 THE APPENDIXES. SECT. Il.
eee and the distinction thence arising; in Fa we have what is small (at first), but there is in it a (nice) discrimination of (the qualities of) things; in Hang we have a mixed experience, but without any weari- ness; in Sun we have difficulty in the beginning and ease in the end; in Yi we have abundance of growth without any contrivance; in Khwan we have the pressure of extreme difficulty, ending in a free course; in 3ing we have abiding in one’s place and at the same time removal (to meet the move- ment of others); and in Sun we have the weighing of things (and action accordingly), but secretly and unobserved.
52. (The use of) Li appears in the harmony of the conduct; of Hsien, in the regulation of cere- monies; of Fa, in self-knowledge; of Hang, in uni- formity of virtue; of Sun, in keeping what is harmful at a distance; of Yi, in the promotion of what is advantageous; of KhwAn, in the diminution of re- sentments; of 3ing, in the discrimination of what is righteous; and of Sun, in the doing of what is appropriate to time and to circumstances.
Chapter VII, paragraphs 49-52, is occupied with nine hexa- grams, as specially indicating how the superior man, or the ruler, should deal with atime of trouble and solicitude, specially by the cultivation of his own virtue. Not, we are told, that the same thing might not be learned from other diagrams, but these nine specially occurred to the writer, or, as many think, to Confucius.
Paragraph 49 is important as agreeing in its testimony with 46. The Yi was made in middle-antiquity; that is, in the end of the Shang dynasty, and the rise of the Kau; and the maker or makers had personal and public reasons for anxiety about the signs of the times.
Paragraph 50 shows the particular phase of virtue in each of the nine hexagrams that are mentioned; 51, the marvellous character- CHAP. &. APPENDIX III. 399 rt we Chapter VIII. 53. The Yi is a book which should not be let slip from the mind. Its method (of teach- ing) is marked by the frequent changing (of its lines). They change and move without staying (in one place), flowing about into any one of the six places of the hexagram. They ascend and descend, ever inconstant. The strong and the weak lines change places, so that an invariable and compendious rule cannot be derived from them;—it must vary as their changes indicate.
54. The goings forth and comings in (of the lines) are according to rule and measure. (People) learn from them in external and internal affairs to stand in awe, 55. (The book), moreover, makes plain the nature of anxieties and calamities, and the causes of them. Though (its students) have neither master nor guardian, it is as if their parents drew near to them.
56. Beginning with taking note of its explanations, we reason out the principles to which they point. We thus find out that it does supply a constant and standard rule. But if there be not the proper men (to carry this out), the course cannot be pursued without them.
istics of each phase; and 52, its use. The ‘therefore’ with which paragraph 50 commences shows the process of thought by which the writer passed from the anxiety that possessed the mind of the author of the Yf to the use to be derived, in such circumstances, from the study of Li and the other hexagrams.
Chapter VIII, paragraphs 53-56, describes the method of study- ing the Yf as consisting very much in watching the changes that take place in the lines, and reflecting on the appended explanations; while, after all, much must depend on there being ‘the proper men,’ to carry its lessons into practice.
400 THE APPENDIXES. SECT. Il.
i a a ee Chapter IX. 57. The Yi is a book in which the form (of each diagram) is determined by the lines from the first to the last, which must be carefully observed. The six lines are mixed together, accord- ing to the time (when they enter the figure) and their substance (as whole and divided).
s§. There is difficulty in knowing (the significance of) the first line, while to know that of the topmost line is easy;—they form the beginning and the end (of the diagram). The explanation of the first line tasks the calculating (of the makers), but in the end they had (but) to complete this.
59. As to the variously-disposed intermediate lines with their diverse formations, for determining their qualities, and discriminating the right and wrong in them, we should be unprovided but for the explanations of them.
60. Yea, moreover, if we wish to know what is likely to be preserved and what to perish, what will be lucky and what will be unlucky, this may easily be known (from the explanations of the different lines). But if the wise will look at the explanations of the entire diagrams, their thoughts will embrace more than half of this knowledge.
61. The second and fourth lines are of the same cht <p) gl = BAe ee SS ee ee There seems to be a contradiction between the statements in paragraphs 53 and 56 about the book supplying, and not sup- plying, a standard rule; but the meaning, probably, is that while it does not give a rule generally applicable, it gives rules for par- ticular cases.
K& Hs? says he does not understand 54, and thinks some cha- racters must have been lost. ‘The six places of the hexagram’ in 53 are, literally, ‘the six empties. The places are so called, be- cause it is only a temporary possession of them, which is held by the fugitive lines, whether whole or divided.
CHAP. Q. APPENDIX III. 401 capers es ee en a quality (as being in even places), but their positions (with respect to the fifth line) are different, and their value is not the same; but the second is the object of much commendation, and the fourth the subject of many apprehensions,—from its nearness (to that line). But for a line in a place of weakness it is not good to be far (from the occupant of the place of strength), and what its subject should desire in such a case is (merely) to be without blame. The advantage (here) is in (the second line) being in the central place.
62. The third and fifth lines are of the same quality, (as being in odd places), but their positions are different; and the (occupant of) the third meets with many misfortunes, while the occupant of the fifth achieves much merit:—this arises from one being in the noble position and the other in the mean. Are they occupied by the symbol of weak- ness? There will be peril. By that of strength? There will be victory.
Chapter IX, paragraphs 56-62, speaks of the hexagrams as made up of the different lines, and various things to be attended to in those lines to determine their meaning.
Paragraph 57. The time or order in which the lines enter de- termines of course the place and number of each in the figure. Their ‘substance’ is their form, as whole or divided, being yang or yin.
Paragraph 58 belongs to the first and sixth lines. We are hardly prepared for the statement that ‘the maker or makers’ had so much difficulty in determining the meaning of the first line. Of course when they had fixed that and completed the figure, ex- plaining all the lines, it was easy for the student to follow their exposition, as paragraph 59 says.
Paragraph 60 seems to say that the work of the duke of K4u on each line was but an indicating in detail of the processes of his father’s mind in explaining the whole figure.
402 THE APPENDIXES. SECT). 311+ i ee Chapter X. 63. The Yi is a book of wide com- prehension and great scope, embracing everything. There are in it the way of heaven, the way of man, and the way of earth. It then takes (the lines representing) those three Powers, and doubles them till they amount to six. What these six lines show is simply this,—the way of the three Powers.
64. This way is marked by changes and move- ments, and hence we have the imitative lines. Those lines are of different grades (in the trigrams), and hence we designate them from their component elements. These are mixed together, and elegant forms arise. When such forms are not in their appro- priate places, the ideas of good fortune and bad are thus produced.
ie ew Se SS ee eee eS The last two paragraphs mention several points important to be attended to in studying, more especially, the duke of Kau on the several lines. Three different views of the concluding statement,— ‘are they occupied.’ &c.,—are given in the imperial edition. ‘It be- longs,’ says WO Kang, ‘to the fifth line; ’ ‘to the third line,’ says HO Ping-wan (also of the Yiian dynasty); while Han Hsing-kwo (of the Thang dynasty) held that it belonged to both. The Khang-hsi editors say that ‘ by discriminating and combining these views, we get to the meaning of the text.” Iam unable to do so.
Chapter X, paragraphs 63, 64, speaks of the great comprehen- siveness of the Yi, its figures and explanations being applicable to the three Powers—heaven, earth, and man.
With paragraph 63, compare paragraph 4, Appendix VI. In the trigram the upper line represents heaven, the middle line man, and the lowest earth. This paragraph and that other are the nearest approach I know to an attempt to account for the doubling of the number of lines, and stopping with the hexagram; but the doing so was entirely arbitrary. Ad Hs? says:—‘ The upper two characters belong to heaven, the middle two to man, and the lower two to earth.’ No words could be more express; and yet Canon McClatchie says (p. 354):—‘ The two upper strokes represent Heaven, or Thai- yi, the husband; the two middle strokes, Earth, his wife; and the CHAP. II. APPENDIX III. 403 Chapter XI. 65. Was it not in the last age of Yin, when the virtue of Aau had reached its highest point, and during the troubles between king Wan and (the tyrant) Kau, that the (study of the Yi) began to flourish? On this account the explana- tions (in the book) express (a feeling of) anxious apprehension, (and teach) how peril may be turned into security, and easy carelessness is sure to meet with overthrow. The method in which these things come about is very comprehensive, and must be acknowledged in every sphere of things. If at the beginning there be a cautious apprehension as to the end, there will probably be no error or cause for blame. This is what is called the way of the Yi.
two lower strokes, Man, their son; all being animated by the same Divine Reason (tao) or Supreme God (Chih Shan).’ This note shows how one error, or misunderstanding of the Chinese original, draws other errors withit. The character tAo in the paragraph has not at all the sense of reason, human or divine, but its primary and ordinary signification of the path or course. As Li 3? (Han dynasty) says:—‘ In the way of heaven there are the changes of day and night, sun and moon; in that of earth, those of hardness and softness, dryness and moisture; in that of man, those of action and rest, of movement and stillness, of good fortune and bad, of good and evil.’
‘The imitative lines’ in the translation of 64, is simply ‘the Yao’ in the Chinese text, which I have rendered according to the account of them in paragraph 8, et al. Their different grades are their position as high or low in the figures (paragraph 1, Section i), and their ‘component elements,’ literally ‘their substance, or thing- nature,’ is their structure as being yang or yin, according to the use of wuh in paragraphs 57, 59, et al. A yang line in an even place, or a yin line in an odd, is not in its appropriate place, and gives an indication of what is bad.
Chapter XI, paragraph 65. P. Regis observes on this chapter:— ‘I do not hesitate to say that there is found nowhere in the whole 404 THE APPENDIXES. SECT. II.
Chapter XII. 66. (The hexagram) A’4ien repre- sents the strongest of all under the sky. Through this quality its operations are always manifested with ease, for it knows where there would be peril and embarrassment. (The hexagram) Khwan represents the most docile of all under the sky. Through this quality its operations are always mani- fested with the promptest decision, for it knows where there would be obstruction.
67. (The sages, who are thus represented, and who made the Yi,) were able to rejoice in heart (in the absolute truth of things), and were able (also) to weigh carefully all matters that could occasion anxiety; (thus) they fixed the good and bad fortune (of all things) under the sky, and could accomplish the things requiring strenuous efforts.
68. Therefore amid the changes and transforma- tions (taking place in heaven and earth), and the words and deeds of men, events that are to be fortunate have their happy omens. (The sages) knew the definite principles underlying the prog- nostications of the former class, and the future of Vi a passage which affords more light for the explanation of the book.’ Paragraph 49 told us that ‘the study of the Yi flourished in the middle period of antiquity, and that the author of it was familiar with anxiety and troubles.’ That information becomes here more particular. The Y?, existing when this Appendix was written, was made in the closing period of the Yin dynasty, and the making of it was somehow connected with the attempts of the tyrant Kau against king Wan. We are not told expressly that the book was written, in part at least, by king Wan; but the tradition to that effect derives a certain amount of support from what is said here. The general object of the author is also stated clearly enough,— to inculcate a cautious and reverent administration of affairs, never forgetful of the uncertainties of life and fortune.
CHAP. 12. APPENDIX III. 405 those of the latter, (now to be) ascertained by divination.
69. The places of heaven and earth (in the dia- grams) having been determined, the sages were able (by means of the Yi) to carry out and complete their ability. (In this way even) the common people were able to share with them in (deciding about) the counsels of men and the counsels of spiritual beings.
70. The eight trigrams communicate their infor- mation by their emblematic figures. The explana- tions appended to the lines and the completed figures tell how the contemplation of them affected (the makers). The strong and the weak lines appear mixed in them, and (thus) the good and the evil (which they indicate) can be seen.
71. The changes and movements (which take place in the manipulation of the stalks and the formation of the diagrams) speak as from the stand- point of what is advantageous. The (intimations of) good and evil vary according to the place and nature (of the lines). Thus they may indicate a mutual influence (in any two of them) of love or hatred, and good or evil is the result; or that mutual influence may be affected by the nearness of the lines to, or their distance from, each other, and then repentance or regret is the result; or the influence may be that of truth or of hypocrisy, and then the result is what is advantageous, or what is injurious. In all these relations of the (lines in the) Yi, if two are near and do not blend harmoniously, there may be (all these results),—evil, or what is injurious, or occasion for repentance and regret.
72. The language of him who is meditating a 406 THE APPENDIXES. SECT. II.
revolt (from the right) betrays his inward shame; that of him whose inward heart doubts about it diverges to other topics. The words of a good man are few; those of a coarse man are many. The words of one who slanders what is good are un- Chapter XII, paragraphs 66-72, is generally divided into three sections;—the first, embracing 66-68, and treating of the sages, the makers of the Y?, as themselves independent of it, knowing all that it enables us to know, and able to accomplish all that it en- ables us to accomplish; the second, embracing 69-71, and telling how the sages formed the Yi, and made all men, by means of it, partakers of their now unlimited knowledge and power; the third, comprised in paragraph 72, and saying, if it be genuine and in its proper place, that the ordinary speech of men is as mysterious and indicative of what is in them, as the explanations of the Yi? are, when we consider who were its authors.
‘The sages,’ who are the subject of 65-68, are not mentioned in the text; but 67 makes it plain that the subject must be some per- sonal being or beings. Neither AZien nor Khwan can ‘rejoice in heart, and weigh carefully matters occasioning anxiety.’ The com- mentators generally interpolate ‘the sages;’ even Ying-ta of the Thang dynasty, who does not introduce the sages in his exposition, yet makes the subject to be ‘the disposer and nourisher of all things.’ He gets to his view by an unnatural interpretation of two characters in 67, which are now thrown out of the text by all critics as not genuine. ‘That ‘the sages’ is really the subject in the mind of the writer appears from the express mention of them in 69, when also ‘heaven and earth’ take the place of Ahien and Khwan. It is absurd, not to say blasphemous, to assume that the sages who made the Yi had the knowledge and ability here ascribed to them; but the theory of the Yf as containing a scheme for the discovery of the future necessitated the ascribing such attri- butes to them. Compare with the whole Section, and especially with paragraph 68, what is said in ‘the Doctrine of the Mean,’ chapter 24.
The first Section shows how the sages were themselves indepen- dent of the Yi, and had no need of it; the second goes on to tell how they devised and constructed it, to make all men equal to themselves in a knowledge of phenomena and human events, and of their indications of, and issues in, the future. Summing up its CHAP. I2, APPENDIX III. 407 substantial; those of him who is losing what he ought to keep are crooked.
lessons, the editors of the imperial edition say, ‘ There is no passage in the Appendix more full and clear than this on the five points in regard to the lines which the student of the Yt has to attend to. Those points are:—their time, position, quality, mutual nearness, and responsive relation. It is by a consideration of the two latter points, moreover, that he must form his judgment on their appro- priateness or inappropriateness in the three others.’
Paragraph 72 has really no connexion with the rest of the chapter. I have stated above how the critics attempt to make out such a connexion; but I agree myself with P. Regis, who appends to his version of the paragraph this note:—‘ Quae sententiae qui- dem sapiunt doctrinam Confucianam, at non ordinem, utpote cum praecedentibus minime cohaerentes, sed omnino ab iis abscissae avulsaeque.’
ata oe N Pe LV Supplementary to the Thwan and Y4o on the first and second Hexagrams, and showing how they may be interpreted of man’s nature and doings.
Section I. AdAIEN.
Chapter I. 1. What is called (under AZien) ‘the great and originating’ is (in man) the first and chief quality of goodness; what is called ‘the penetrating’ is the assemblage of excellences; what is called ‘the © advantageous’ is the harmony of all that is right; and what is called ‘the correct and firm’ is the faculty of action.
2. The superior man, embodying’ benevolence, is fit to preside over men; presenting the assemblage of excellences, he is fit to show in himself the union of all propriety; benefiting (all) creatures, he is fit to exhibit the harmony of all that is right; correct and firm, he is fit to manage (all) affairs.
3. The fact that the superior man practises these four virtues justifies the application to him of the words—‘ Aien represents what is great and origin- ating, penetrating, advantageous, correct and firm.’
The title of this Appendix is in Chinese the Wan Yen Kwan, ‘The Record of Wan Yen;’ and according to the analogy of the titles of the three Appendixes that follow, Wan should per- form the part of a verb and Yen that of a substantive. So the characters are usually taken, and to W4n is given the meaning of ‘Explaining (Shih);’ and to Yen that of ‘ Words or Sentences,’ meaning the Thwan of king W&n, and the Y4o of the duke of Kau on the first two hexagrams. The document treats of these, CHAP, 2. APPENDIX IV. 409 Chapter II. 4. What is the meaning of the words under the first line undivided, ‘ The dragon lies hid (in the deep);—it is not the time for active doing?’ The Master said:—‘ There he is, with the powers of the dragon, and yet lying hid. The influence of the world would make no change in him; he would do nothing (merely) to secure his fame. He can live, withdrawn from the world, without regret; he can experience disapproval without trouble of mind. Rejoicing (in opportunity), he carries his principles and of no others. ‘It shows the amount and depth of meaning in them,’ says AK@ Hsi, ‘and the other hexagrams may be treated after the analogy supplied here.’ Confucius, it is said by others, died before he was able to carry out the plan which he had formed. But, as I have shown in the Introduction (pp. 28-30), it is more than doubtful whether we have in this Appendix anything at all directly from the sage.
Chapter I, paragraphs 1-3, shows how the attributes of Xhien, as explained by king Wan, are to be understood of the constituent principles of human nature. What is remarkable is, that we find paragraphs 1, 2, with very little variation, in one of the narra- tives of the 80 Awan, as having been spoken by a marchioness- dowager of Lf in B.c. 564, several years before Confucius was born. One so familiar as KG Hsi was with all the classical literature of his country could not be ignorant of this. His solution of the questions arising from it is, that anciently there was this explana- tion of the characters of king Wan; that it was employed by Shi Kiang (of Li), and that Confucius also availed himself of it; while the chronicler used, as he does below, the phraseology of ‘The Master said,’ to distinguish the real words of Confucius from such ancient sayings. But who was this chronicler? No one can tell. The legitimate conclusion from £‘’s criticism is this, that so much of this Appendix as is preceded by ‘The Master said’ is from Confucius;—so much and no more.
The ascription in paragraph 3 of ‘the four virtues’ to the supe- rior Or normal man, man in his best estate, and yet inferior to ‘ the sagely man,’ is Confucian,—after the style of the teaching of the Master in the Analects.
into action; sorrowing (for want of opportunity), he keeps with them in retirement. Yes, he is not to be torn from his root (in himself).’ This is ‘the dragon lying hid.’
5. What is the meaning of the words under the second line, ‘The dragon shows himself and is in the field;—it will be advantageous to see the great man?’ The Master said:—‘ There he is, with the dragon’s powers, and occupying exactly the central place. He is sincere (even) in his ordinary words, and earnest in his ordinary conduct. Guarding against depravity, he preserves his sincerity. His goodness is recognised in the world, but he does not boast of it. His virtue is extensively displayed, and transformation ensues. The language of the Yi, “ The dragon shows himself and is in the field;—it will be advantageous to see the great man,’ refers to a ruler’s virtue.’