Chen Yingnian | "The Heart Has the World" - a priori interpretation of Xunzi's "heart"

"The heart has the world" - a priori interpretation of Xunzi's "heart"

Chen Yingnian

Source: Qilu Academic Journal, No. 3, 2020

Abstract: "There are three traditional interpretations of "synaesthesia theory", "Pingbi theory" and "chabi theory", and their disputes make the "contradiction" of Xunzi "both affirming and denying" and "heart goodness" open to the table, and the fact that people have the dual nature of "self-love" of "shunshi" and "shunliyi" is sharply revealed, constituting the existential theory of Xunzi's argument. Xun Zi's dialect is said to be "things", which is the "discernment" of "discerning white and black beauty and evil", and it is also the "discernment" of "correction and governance", and then there is the so-called "argument". Therefore, on the one hand, Xunzi did not just circle in the category, but "introduced history", from "the heart is good", through the "heart allows it to choose" can be good or evil, to "the heart has the world" Of the full beauty, it is an infinitely fixed long list of time. That is, it is only through the bottom-up struggle against evil, through bargaining by various means, especially intellectual and political bargaining, that goodness can be attained. On the other hand, in order to prevent "goodness" from being just a kind of "luck", Xunzi deduced a "new person", that is, a "saint". The "saints" proclaim the inevitability of the "revolution of the mind," so that free and willful people can take a direct interest in moral law and perform categorical moral acts. The former is the "moral practice" of empirical time, sexual evil has its use, and human society is not a natural state of innocence. The latter is the "moral theology" of the original time, the theory of sexual evil is useless, and in any bad situation one should maintain sufficient moral strength. Combined with the two, Xunzi's dialectics give a "narrow" and "beautiful" path of continuous progress from evil to better in contradictions and conflicts.

Feng Youlan once pointed out: "The philosophy of Chinese philosophers is much inferior to that of Western and Indian philosophers in terms of their arguments and explanations. This point is also due to the inaction of Chinese philosophers, not because of the inability of Chinese philosophers, the so-called 'folding branches, not carrying Mount Tai to surpass the North Sea' also. ”

Feng Youlan explained that Chinese did not attach importance to writing books and sayings, but regarded it as the most unfortunate thing, but it was a helpless thing to do after li de and meritorious service. Therefore, in the history of Chinese philosophy, it is often a book that is mixed with quotations from weekday books, and there are relatively few philosophical books that are carefully written, run through the end, and have a clear logical system. However, Feng Youlan stressed that this lack is only "formal", not that Chinese philosophy does not have a "substantive" logical system clarity. Thus the later Chinese had a conscious mission and responsibility: "One of the essential points of the history of philosophy is to find its essential system in a formally systemless philosophy." ”

Modern Neo-Confucians have taken this as their vocation, not only for Feng Youlan, who remained on the mainland, but also for Mou Zongsan and others in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Today, this distinction between ancient and modern has not lost its meaning, but has become more urgent. This article focuses on the interpretation of Xunzi's "heart has the world", and in the unfolding of its "logical system", proves the right of Xunzi's concept of "heart" to be used in this way. In essence, Xunzi's way of discerning has an essential historical dimension, he begins with "evil" (good intentions) and ends with "goodness" (heart knowing), so that morality is subordinate to history, knowing that the heart, moral consciousness, moral people, etc. are not ready-made things, but can only be gradually generated through and with the progress of history, the slow accumulation of knowledge, and the continuous improvement of the political system, and become a thing that can be hoped for (the beauty of the whole world). Therefore, the key to Xunzi's so-called ritual and righteousness, righteousness, and peaceful rule is not the "manifestation of one heart, the application of one heart, the coverage of one heart, and the omnibus of one heart" such as "the manifestation of one heart, the application of one heart, the coverage of one heart, and the omnipresence of one heart" as such as mencius, but in the various "struggles" and their intellectual and institutional solutions due to "self-love" of the "masses", which can be called "the system of the holy king". In today's parlance, the "system of the Holy King" is the republic, which is not established by a single person, nor can it be founded by morality, but is born out of the "non-social sociality" of the masses (the division of the masses) in the sense of world history, and morality can only develop well under republican government. Therefore, unlike Mencius, which was stripped out of the "mind" as a priori moral ontology and moral emotion, the purpose of Xunzi's dialectics is to deduce the "holy king" that allows the "heart" to finally "choose" the a priori absolute command, the law of etiquette, and so on, that is, the sacred, supreme, blameless, and irresistible "coercive force of the association" that can ensure the common existence of freedom and law.

First, the three interpretations of "the heart is the world"

Criticism of Xunzi can be roughly divided into three interrelated aspects:

First, the great foundation has been lost, the moral foundation is unstable, the law of etiquette, righteousness, and peace have no basis in the hearts of the people, and the "heart" knows that "etiquette and righteousness" cannot have absolute guarantees, but only by chance;

The second is the inability to explain how the "first saint" of sex is no different from the masses arises;

Third, relying on external authoritarianism, it is bound to embark on the road of authoritarian dictatorship.

In summary, it can be called the "Problem of Order": Since human nature is evil, where does goodness come from? Has the hypocrites abolished man's freedom?

According to Mencius's way of reasoning, the above criticism is undoubtedly correct: since Xunzi talks about sexual evil, then good has no ontological basis, and it is impossible to confirm and confirm the transcendental moral ontology of human goodness through the psychological emotions of the real human world. However, if we see that Xunzi does not want to strip away the transcendent good mental essence, but to give "contemplation and falsification" the meaning of ontology, then the above criticism may be frustrated. That is to say, Xunzi does not only circle in the category of "sex", nor does he set "pseudo" as a priori moral nature, but takes the "natural humanization" process of human beings from "sex" to "pseudo" as "ontology". History has become one of the essential links in Xunzi's dialectics. Therefore, in order to explain the substantive system of Xunzi, it is necessary to "introduce history."

Of course, this inevitably brings about some "contradictions", such as the "duality" of nature and sex. In terms of formal logic, this "duality" seems to mean that Xunzi often makes the mistake of "evil is good", that is, "A is non-A": "the heart" is both the "heaven" and "sex" (evil, human feelings are not beautiful, the division between heaven and man, the heavenly official), and the "heaven" and "sex" that can cure the false (good, the nature of beauty: the love and the establishment of the text, the unity of heaven and man, the heavenly king). On the one hand, Xunzi must "manage the hearts of the people", on the other hand, he must "follow the hearts of the people", and the relationship between "management" and "shun" is often inaccurate, so many controversies have arisen. For example, at the end of the first "Persuasion", it is said:

The gentleman knows that the husband is not complete and not pure enough to be beautiful, so he recites the number consistently, thinks about it, treats it for others, and keeps it in order to remove its harm, so that the eyes are not desireless to see, so that the ears are not desireless, so that the mouth is not desireless, and the heart is not desireless. And as for its good, the five colors of good eyes, the five sounds of good ears, the five tastes of good mouths, and the world of heart benefit. Therefore, power cannot be poured out, the masses cannot be moved, and the world cannot be swept away. Birth is by the cause, death is by the cause, and the husband is the virtue. Virtue can then be fixed, can be fixed and then can be responded, can be able to respond, the husband is called an adult. The heavens see its light, the earth sees its light, and the gentleman is precious to his wholeness.

If we are purely concerned with the style of this article, the meaning of this passage is obvious, similar to Mencius's "reason and righteousness please my heart, Jujutsu delights my mouth", and has the taste of "not moving the heart" and "I am good at nurturing my mighty qi". However, if you look closely, there are many explanations, and there are many "contradictions".

The first interpretation is that "heart is good", "good heart", "of" can be understood as "in", or auxiliary words, meaningless.

This is a kind of "synaesthesia", the eyes are good five colors, the ears are good five sounds, the mouth is good five tastes, the heart pursues the possession of the world, etc. regardless of boundaries, from the human nature, to the feelings of people, naturally, moral discipline adults. For example, Yu Fan believes that the "ancient" word 'yu' is common. "The four 'zigzag' words of this text are also 'in' also. The eyes are better than the five colors, the ears are better than the five sounds, the mouth is better than the five tastes, the heart is good for the world, the words are deeper than the scholars, and other things are not enough to still be. Liang Qixiong went on to explain: "When the most good learning and music reaches the extreme, it is like a good eye, a good ear, a good taste, a good heart, the same nature, never reluctant." ”

The second interpretation is that "the heart is good", "the heart is good", "the", pronouns, refer to the beauty of the whole.

This is a kind of "year-on-year", that is, "like a foul smell, such as lustful" in "University", which means that the beauty of the heart is the same as the heart is good. For example, Liu Tai gong said: "Words, ears, ears, and mouths are the same as the five colors, five sounds, and five tastes, and the heart is the same as the world." An Jixin also believes in the "Xunzi Brief Sayings" that "under the word 'Zhi' in the four sentences, if you add the word 'ru' to see, the meaning of the text is smooth." Gai province syntax also. ”

The third interpretation is that "heart is good", "heart is good", "of", pronouns, refer to the beauty of the whole, "of" under the word "to" omit.

This is a kind of "difference ratio", emphasizing that the beauty of the heart well triumphs over the heart of the world. For example, Sheng Lulai pointed out in the "Reading Xunzi" that "under the four 'zhi' words such as "good eyes", the word 'Yu' is hidden, and it is said that it is worse than the other. Wang Tianhai also said: "This saying 'and its best' is better than the good five colors, five sounds, and five tastes of the eyes and ears, and the heart benefits more than the world." In this way, it is not that the eyes are lustful, the ears are good, the mouth is good, and the heart is good, but the beauty of the whole thing is better than the good five colors, the beauty of the ears is better than the five sounds, the beauty of the mouth is better than the five tastes, and the beauty of the heart is better than the world.

According to the first interpretation, good eyes, good ears, good taste, and good heart are "all the beauty", but cannot be "tilted", "moved", and "swung". In this way, the so-called "zhizhi", "tongzhi", "treatment", "maintenance", "good" and "good" characters, as well as the four "non-yes" "yes" words, all refer to the beauty of the whole, but also mean that the lustful eyes, good ears, good taste, good taste, good heart and other emotions can naturally realize themselves. This is obviously an affirmation of good intentions, emphasizing the unity of good intentions in the world, that is, Yang Liang's so-called "after completing your studies, you will be honored and noble, so you can do your best."

Compared with Mencius's "righteousness pleases my heart, judas joys my mouth", this explanation can be described as a big step forward. On the one hand, Xunzi obviously faced and affirmed the problem of human desire more seriously than Mencius. Mencius said: "Nourishing the heart is not good at widowhood." Xun Zi said, "Whoever speaks and treats those who want to go, cannot be trapped in the desire of the Tao." Whoever speaks and treats the widowed, cannot abstain from abstinence and is trapped in the desire. There is desire and no desire, the alien also, life and death, non-chaos also. The number of desires, the number of different kinds, the number of emotions, and the non-chaos. As Guo Songtao said, "People are born with desires, and they do not wait for them to be available and then desire them, which is rooted in sex." "Indulge their desires, combine their feelings", the pursuit of possession of the world, to occupy the world as a pleasure, to have benefits, to accept the world as their own property, wealth, etc., is everyone's legitimate desire, regardless of whether it can be truly obtained in the end. Xunzi, on the other hand, places greater emphasis on the realization of desires. Mencius's Taoist virtue focuses on expanding the original mind, so it is mainly in a negative sense to talk about "the property of the people", and its so-called "will make the people look up enough to serve the parents, stoop enough to live the wife, enjoy the age of life, and avoid death in the fierce years", "the valley and the fish and turtles are invincible, and the timber and wood are invincible", etc., are means rather than ends, far from the satisfaction of desires themselves, but only for the sake of "driving out the goodness" under the basic conditions of survival such as "health and death without regret" and "the people are not hungry and cold". Of course, Mencius's so-called "fifty people can be clothed" and "seventy people can eat meat" may be just a helpless false finger in the poor economy. However, under the same poor economic conditions, Xunzi demanded that "the world benefit the world" and "the system of the holy king" that could produce "surplus food," "surplus use," and "surplus material," and demanded that "the goods are as muddy as a fountain, as muddy as rivers and seas, and as violent as hills and mountains, and the whole world is rich from top to bottom," and demanded that "the world be big and rich, make merit, and strike bells and beat drums and make peace." The "Poem" says: "Bells and drums, pipes and chicks, blessed, blessed, blessed, and transgressed." Drunk and full, Fluke comes against the '" situation. Compared with Mencius's "no hunger and no cold" and "no regrets about health and death", the "drunk and full" in Xunzi's music is obviously more positive and more beautiful. In this regard, the good heart dominates the world, and the desire to indulge, "the heart has the world", that is, "the beauty of the whole", seems to be a link in the essence of Xunzi thought. If Mencius mixed the "transcendental transcendental a priori ontology with the perceptual psychology" and let the heart of the four ends "be love and reason", then Xunzi seems to have further mixed the "transcendental transcendental a priori ontology with the perceptual psychology" and let the good mind "be love and reason".

However, didn't Xunzi still know the "distinction between heaven and man" and "the distinction between sex and hypocrisy"?

If the "emotional nature" such as good intentions is not "evil", at least it should not be "pure beauty", right? Even if human nature is evil, even if it is "after learning" and "when it reaches the extreme", it cannot be said that "the heart has the world" is "the beauty of the whole", right? There is only one in the world, and between each other who pursue to occupy the world, can they "fight" without being "poor", "both profitable" and "sufficient"? Xunzi-style indulgence seems to be far away from mainstream values and makes people confused.

The advantage of the third interpretation is that on the one hand, we can admit the theory of sexual evil, and on the other hand, we can maintain the Mencius-style "pleasing my heart of reason and righteousness, and pleasing my mouth with judiciousness", so that we can deny goodness in the relationship of "difference ratio", and emphasize that the "great goodness" of "having the world" does not corroborate the "coolness" of "pure beauty", that is, the so-called "good nature" of man is more in line with man's "nature" and "nature" than "good nature". But there are problems with this interpretation. One is the question of moral time. Does "all-round beauty" mean the method of sustainment, or is it talking about the realm of sustainment? Did "all-in-one beauty" come from the beginning, or did it happen after "adulthood"? Is "adult" a "process" or a "result"? Is moral time historical or round? The second is the question of moral motivation. That is to say, even if you can "know" and "full beauty", because "knowledge" is not a perceptual psychology, you can still have no interest in the beauty of the whole after "knowing", and suffer from "adults" and do not want to be "adults". In other words, in Mencius, it is natural that "virtue is good", and in Xunzi," "the heart is profitable and has the world", "the beauty of the whole perfection of heart interest" has no "emotional nature", so "good morality" can only be a "self-contradiction" for the theory of sexual evil.

The second interpretation is most similar in form to Mencius's "the reason of righteousness pleases my heart, and the righteousness of judas delights my mouth", but it is uncertain in content, it is up and down, and can be strengthened and attributed to the first explanation, or weakened and attributed to the third explanation.

In this way, the difficulty of understanding the "five colors of good eyes" clouds does not lie in whether it is "the beauty of the whole eye is as good as the five colors" or "the beauty of the whole good is better than the good five colors", but whether it is "affirming" the five colors and so on, or "denying" them. The first and third interpretations have strong bases, but they also seem to have "logical contradictions" that they cannot avoid. If it is said that the "good" of the eyes, ears and mouths is natural and cannot be denied, then the question is: Why does Xunzi say that human nature is evil? From "the world of heart interests" to "the beauty of the whole of heart profits", is Xunzi's "both affirmation and denial" a kind of unclear and arbitrary decision, or is there some clear and obvious logical system that I have not been able to reveal?

The dual possibility of "self‐love" (Selbstliebe).

It is not yet known whether there is a substantive logical system in Xunzi's "heart and profit has the world", but in Mou Zongsan's view, the full text of the "Mencius Confession" where "the reason and righteousness delight my heart, and the joy of Juju is pleasing to my mouth" is "one in one go, very systematic."

As we all know, Mou Zongsan's "Theory of Yuanshan" takes the way of interpreting the classics directly according to the sentences of Mencius' confession, and "does not take the way of 'building up a system of righteousness out of thin air according to the decomposition of concepts'" in the way. Therefore, the intuition of wisdom, the "four noes", the devious phase of Defu, and the existence of the wisdom of meditation and enlightenment are very crucial. However, Mou Zongsan also stressed that "the beginning of wisdom and the development of ideas are two things, that is, the development of ideas and the practice of achievements are two things", so it is not enough to have wisdom, but also to express wisdom logically and systematically. Mou Zongsan pointed out that in ancient and modern Chinese and foreign history, wise people have long put forward many insights, but many of them do not pay attention to logic when expressing themselves, and there are many jumps and slips, jagged and perverse, thus affecting the spread of insight. For example, Xiangshan, reading Mencius is self-satisfied, and also advises people to read Mencius often, but when it comes to "the meaning of life", he advises students to "not have to take a deep examination, gong strength has not arrived, and anti-confusion spirit", in fact, he himself may not be able to express the righteousness in detail and logically. Here, like Feng Youlan, Mou Zongsan believes that although the clarity of the logical system of expression may not be a great event, it cannot but be ignored now, and admits that in thinking about the work of expression, "the Chinese tradition is always insufficient." In other words, the ancients could write books and say that there was no formal system, but in the final analysis it was a lack and regret, and today's people cannot but have it. Mou Zongsan even quoted Chuanshan as "more harmful than superficial" to criticize, "Those who cannot discern problems in order to seek answers, reactively to destroy them or rambling them, and learn to be beautiful in their name, ethereal, but they are only dropped; in the name of the beautiful things, revolution is really just riots." Drowsiness is foolishness, and falling is riot, and they are not strong enough to be competent for discerning and solving problems. ”

Mou Zongsan did not "erect" a system of righteousness out of thin air, but he could not fail to pay attention to the decomposition of concepts and the logic of speculation itself, and his arguments were based on Mencius and Kant. Mou Zongsan admitted, "Sexual goodness must be established in the end, but it is not easy to identify. "I am now in today's place, borrowing the way of thinking in the recent past, and expressing in detail the argument of 'the predicate of life' on the basis of the various divisions of the words (each of which has its own meaning and conclusion), and cannot be said to be unhelpful to understand."

When it comes to the establishment of sexual goodness, we cannot but pay attention to this famous quote of Mencius: "The mouth is also the taste, there is the same age; the ear is also the sound, there is the same hearing; the eye is also the color, there is the same beauty." As for the mind, is there nothing to do with it? Where is the same as the heart? Reason also, righteousness also. The saint first heard the same thing in my heart. Therefore, righteousness pleases my heart, and Judas delights my mouth. Compared with the paragraph quoting Xunzi on the beauty of the whole essence, if the two coincide, they are "analogous" to put together the goodness of the five senses and the goodness of the heart. "The analogy is not strict reasoning, but only a metaphor for the other side." As a result, there is a lot of room for explanation, and opinions are divided, as shown in the previous section. Mencius was good in nature, and the situation was better. Mou Zongsan believes that this passage highlights a divine will, that is, a mind of strict universality, which is existence, activity, transcendence and experience, that is, transcendence and innerness, that is, subjectivity and objectivity, that is, universality is special, that is, mind is reason and nature ("mind is reason is my human nature"), and is the "driving force of the final and fundamental essence" of morality.

However, even if it is admitted that "the nature of the mind is the reason is the driving force of Mencius's teachings", this is still only a "development of direct enlightenment". Mou Zongsan must have a reasonable argument: If the moral impulse is so strong, how can there be a problem of evil in the world? Does "righteousness please my heart" deny "the joy of righteousness to my mouth"? If not denied, how can the transcendental rational emotions coexist with the sensual emotions inherent in the experience?

Mou Zongsan argued that Mencius was good in nature, but "did not necessarily oppose" or "did not deny" that food color and so on were sex, so Mencius not only distinguished between "the sex of reason" (the song Confucian name "the nature of righteousness") and "the sex of breath" (song Confucian name "temperament of temperament"), and was able to "point out the nearest point" that rationality and qi are "always present". In this way, regardless of the dispute between sexual good and evil, the modern expression of Meng Xun actually encounters the same problem: how exactly does "the heart of profit" be distinguished and related to "the heart of the world"?

Mou Zongsan's "manifest" argument is carried out with the help of Kant's religion within the limits of reason. The first chapter of the Treatise on the Circle of Good, "The Basic Doctrine of Righteousness," is followed by a sentence-by-sentence explanation of the Confession, followed by the translation of Kant's first book, On the Fundamental Evil in Human Nature, as its appendix. It can be said that the first chapter of the "Theory of the Circle of Goodness" is the dialogue between "Confessions" and "On the Fundamental Evil in Human Nature", not only in the interpretation of the main text, Kant is used as the background to interpret Mencius, but also many long "translator cases" are added to the translation to use Mencius to explain Kant.

In Kant, the nature of man is unquestionable. What Kant could know was the phenomenon of human nature, or the possibility of human nature. There are only two possibilities, namely, the goodness of human nature and the evil of human nature, which are often spoken of in ancient and modern China and abroad, and Kant's name is "natural goodness" ("the ability of the root to be good") and "fundamental evil" ("sexual habits are evil"). In Kant's view, both natural good and fundamental evil are human nature. Natural goodness includes three kinds: first, man's animal nature or life instinct can be classified under the concept of "physical natural and pure mechanical self-love"; the second is man's emotional ability, which does not allow anyone to be superior to himself, and thinks that the happiness that others should have, can be classified under the concept of "physical nature but it is a contest of self-love"; the third is the personality talent of man, the kind of "can" that "can respect moral laws". That is, a "moral emotion" that is the "subjective basis". Fundamental evil also contains three kinds: one is the fragility of human nature, which is willing to be good but often wavering, weak and incompetent; the second is the impurity of human nature, which mixes immoral motives with moral motives; and the third is the evil nature of human nature or the human heart, the sexual habit (tendency) to adopt bad aphorisms (norms).

Mou Zongsan already knew that Kant let human goodness and human nature evil coexist in human nature, but still insisted on Mencius's theory of sexual goodness, so this sexual goodness theory has already produced some more things than Mencius. That doesn't matter. Interestingly, according to the original formal system of Meng Xun's theory of human nature, Kant's personality talent in natural goodness and the whole fundamental evil are not discussed in it, and the life instinct and emotional talent in natural goodness are the focus of the two people. What is even more intriguing is that Kant believes that these two natural goodes will automatically graft "vices": the former such as gluttony, carnal lust, rudeness, etc., Mou Zong's three cases are known as "this is the so-called sexual evil of Xunzi"; the latter has jealousy, ungratefulness, resentment, etc., that is, Mencius's "heart without words" or Xunzi's "contention", Kant calls it "cultural evil", and Mou Zongsan emphasizes that it is the "evil of the magic way" that leads to "great destruction".

The question now is, how did it become "evil" when we were clearly talking about "natural goodness"? Kant, who is known for his analysis and criticism, is also logically confused, and there is no formal system when speaking?

Kant admits that he used a phrase that "allows two completely different meanings," or "selbstliebe, self-love." To put it simply, self-love can refer to selfishness and self-greed, emphasizing that people are mainly happy and pursuing their greatest and most permanent interests, but also can refer to self-love and self-respect, compassion and compassion, which means that people give up all self-interest and pursue unconditional moral self-satisfaction and satisfaction. As noted above, Kant used the term "self-love" that accommodates two very different meanings at the same time. As far as animal sexual talents are concerned, since self-love is on the one hand the ability to "be good", it has a good meaning, and it is distinguished into three talents such as personal self-preservation, racial reproduction and preservation, and social consortia; but on the other hand, since it is animalistic, it will automatically breed beast-like evils such as gluttony, carnal sexual immorality, and rudeness, which is obviously inferior. As far as erotic talent is concerned, self-love is, on the one hand, the means of "competition" which nature uses to obtain "mutual love", and is therefore not evil; but on the other hand, it does not see that others are superior to itself, so it fights for the sake of fighting, destroying and destroying everything, and can never be called good.

Why is Kant so "rounded" that a word retains two distinct meanings at the same time? If Kant is not contradictory and confused, then what is the reason for his deliberate ambiguity (upstream and downstream migration) and his failure to finally determine good or bad (ambiguity)? This involves a formal system of Kant's philosophy. First of all, Kant believed that man could know only phenomena and not things themselves, so when we talk about man's "nature", epistemologically we are only talking about some empirical phenomena, that is, "good" or "bad" empirical events, and if we are willing to observe the world, we will find that they are everywhere, no one is more than anyone, no one is less than anyone. Thus, Kant's ambiguity means precisely that the "possibility" of either "good nature" and "bad nature" cannot be excluded, otherwise it would not be our world. Secondly, Kant, after all, in addition to the "phenomenal man" who depends on the perceptual object, also sets up the rational and free "ontological man", so that in ontological goodness has nothing to do with phenomena, it has nothing to do with a "good" and "evil" that can be endowed or tendentious, and the ontological good lies only in whether rational and free people can purely and unconditionally act according to moral laws (aphorisms). Third, Kant's focus is therefore not on the good or evil of human nature, but on the dialectic between the belief in good and the coexistence of good and evil, in which aesthetics play a key role.

When Mou Zongsan decided that Mencius's "mind is reason is my nature" wisdom can "stabilize" the distinction between Kant's phenomenon and the object itself, this "double possibility" of Kant's "self-love" has its use, which can be used to express the "simultaneous presentation" of Mencius's "rationality" and "qi", as well as Xunzi's "full beauty of heart interest" and "the world of heart profit".

Iii. The "Spiritual Revolution" and the Birth of the "Holy King" as a "New Man"

In the debate that connects Mencius and Kant, Mou Zongsan clearly knows where the line between the two sides lies:

Kant does not have the meaning of "mind is reason". Although "the legislative nature of the will" is "the mind is the reason", Kant does not speak of the heart in terms of the will, and the conscience he speaks of is not the reason, so that there is no "heart is reason" in the end, but only the moral law as the driving force, not the "legislative nature of the will" as the driving force, the cover of freedom is only a quasi-reason, the moral law is a fact (the fact of reason), and freedom is not a fact. It is the nature of the mind that is the righteousness of reason, which is the driving force, and the most pertinent of Mencius' teachings. But the qi or talent or good or evil is the subjective basis for man's adoption of aphorisms, and it is precisely because of man's use of good or evil aphorisms that the qi or talent is made good or evil, and this meaning has never been enlightened by Mencius or the Lord's "birth is the nature", which is the precision and urgency of Kant's thought. But if the good or bad nature of innate qi or talent is a fact, then what Kant says is what it deserves.

With the help of Kant, Mou Zongsan admitted that "the good or bad nature of qi or talent is a fact", which is equivalent to acknowledging the "equality" and "mutual seeing" of Mencius's theory of sexual goodness and Xunzi's theory of sexual evil: since everyone recognizes the fact of self-love of duality, it is from this point of view that although the system of representation is different, this difference is precisely existential, and can make each other dialogue, mutual support and mutual argument, which is called harmony and difference. In other words, no one can deny the fact that there is a double possibility of "the beauty of the whole of the heart" and "the world of the heart" in human nature, which constitutes the existential theory of man and the given, which is the common problem faced by everyone, and it is also the common premise of various arguments, and the different only deal with the difference in the plan.

According to Kant, self-love is a double possibility, stemming from the fact that man is free and can adopt the maxim of good (the norm) and self-determination for good, or the aphorism of evil (the norm) and self-determination for evil. Without this freedom, then man cannot be blamed.

Thus, "man is not born with a definite good or definite malignant tendency", and "the determination of man to adopt this maxim or the aphorism is the cause of the good and evil character (sexual orientation) as it is - the causer; simply put, man himself is the cause of his good and evil character (sexual orientation) - the causer". But since it can be good or evil, and moral law can be used as the criterion or not, then why must man obey the command of the moral law and be good? Kant replied that this was unknowable. But he went on to say firmly that a transcendental absolute command that transcends the experience of sensual happiness, pleasure, and benefit must be assumed to be the source of morality, and that man must be conceived of the ability to possess this moral root, that is, to possess the origin of divinity, or there is nothing good to speak of. In other words, Kant, though he does not have the meanings of "mind is reason" and "sex is reason", cannot but demand a "revolution of the mind" or a "change of the heart" in order to be able to logically "change the maxim of the sanctity of the mind" and thus become a "new man". Kant believed that only this praiseworthy and astonishing "revolution of the mind" (a revolution of the soul erupting deeply) was sufficient to arouse the human spirit to a state of enthusiasm, to awaken man's moral emotions and interest in moral laws and to give birth to the motivation to act, and finally to produce a good way of life. Here, in order to express the purity of the moral idea, the sanctity, and the transcendentality and absoluteness of the moral law, Kant also returned to his religious tradition, reinforcing himself by invoking John 3 verse 5, Genesis chapter 1 verse 2, etc. This is tantamount to acknowledging that "there is a God," that is, a moral legislator, "to make up for our own lack of justice in a way that we cannot conceive of." Mou Zongsan duly pointed out: "This statement can be compared with Mencius's righteous principles and the Buddhist sayings of those who purify their minds. But Li Zehou said: "This is actually the boundary between people and birds that the Chinese Xunzi said about 'etiquette' is the distinction between people and birds." "Is it near Mencius or Xunzi?"

Kant's theory of the "revolution of the mind" highlights the importance of the subjective root and subjective condition that adopts the moral law as the criterion, and Mencius's argument grasps this point, further speaking of the will with the heart, making the will a sacred will, thus highlighting the righteous heart that is pleasing to the heart, the transcendent righteous heart that is pleasing to the heart, or the free infinite mind, the free intuitive mind, and so on. This is the raising of what Kant called 'conscience' and the integration of it with reason.

This subjective and objective 'mind is reason' mind is our human nature. In this way, everything is true. In other words, when our mind, sex, and will are one, that is, activity is reality, that is, freedom is law, that is, emotion is will, it must be pleasing to reason, reason is spontaneous, it is pleasing to what it is and obeying it, then the external moral law is normalized into an inner conscious consciousness. Thus, Mencius's derivation of this transcendental absolute mind, without assuming the existence of God, can already answer the question of how Kant's pure reason can be practiced, how freedom is possible, and how man can be directly interested in moral laws.

According to Xun Zi's discernment, the "spiritual revolution" is also very important and cannot be bypassed. Xun Zi said, "The mind knows, then it can be Tao, it can be Tao, and then it can keep the Tao to forbid the non-Tao." He also said, "The One of the Heart, the King of Form, and the Lord of the Gods, gives orders and does not receive orders." Self-prohibition also, self-making also, self-conquest also, self-taking also, self-also, self-stopping also. Therefore, the mouth can be robbed and make the ink cloud, the form can be robbed and the curse is made, the heart cannot be robbed and makes the intention easy, yes is accepted, and if it is not, it is resigned. "It's also a work from the heart. However, Xunzi's mental work is not similar to Mencius's heterogeneous mutation of the advance, but is closer to Kant. Why?

First of all, on the surface, Xunzi's "knowing mind" is no different from Mencius's free infinite mind and free intuitive mind.

But what Xun Zi is talking about is precisely the free and willful mind, that is, Kant's mind that can adopt the criterion of good and self-determination for good, and can also adopt the criterion of evil and self-determination for evil, whose good and evil, "cannot be robbed and make easy wills", completely in the self-choice of the mind, that is, the so-called "mind allows it to choose". If the mind allows for its choice, it must be calculated and compared, and even the hammer and baht must be compared to see the eyebrows. Xun Zi said, "How can people know?" A: Heart. How does the heart know? A: Void and quiet. The mind has not tasted the zang, but there is the so-called emptiness; the heart has not tasted dissatisfaction, but there is the so-called one; the heart has not tasted the immobility, but there is the so-called stillness. People are born to know, to know and to have aspirations. Zhiye, Zang Ye, but there is the so-called void, not the so-called void that will be harmed by what has been done. The mind is born and knows, and the knowing is different, and the different are also known at the same time. At the same time, both know, and both, but there is the so-called one, and it is not said that the husband and the wife harm this one. The heart, lying down is dreaming, stealing is self-seeking, making it conspire. Therefore, the mind has not tasted and not moved, but there is a so-called stillness, which is not known as quiet in the dream drama. Those who seek the Tao without attaining the Word are said to be vain and quiet. Obviously, this mind has not yet been raised from the "calculation comparison" of experience or intellect, and the "great clarity" of "emptiness and stillness" is not yet the fusion of freedom and moral law, but only the possibility of choosing one side and stubbornly calculating between the dilemmas of hiding the void, the two ones, the movement and stillness, and so on, so it is said that "seeking the tao without attaining the path." In this place, Mou Zongsan talked about Xunzi and Kant in the same tone, and Xunzi adopted the position of "respecting the nature and despicable heart", and "Kant's realm is similar to the respectability of the humble and the unworthy."

Secondly, if Xunzi is only a free and willful mind, then there is no "spiritual revolution".

Kant talked about the unknowability of the integration of free will and self-discipline with the supreme command of moral law, and did not hesitate to use the biblical tradition to emphasize the meaning of reverence and respect for absolute commands, the assumption of god's existence, and so on for becoming a "new person". In order to compensate for moral "incompetence", Xunzi also introduced a traditional belief to regulate people to achieve something that must be self-inflicted. This is the faith of the saints. It was only when Xunzi deduced the faith of the saints that the "spiritual revolution" was finally declared possible. This is because:

1. The saint is no different from ordinary people, and is undoubtedly a definite "new person".

On the one hand, Xun Zi strictly divided the saints, believing that "all those who are righteous and righteous are born of the hypocrisy of the saints, and they are not born of human nature", "sexual evil is related to the holy king, and the nobles are righteous", emphasizing that the distinction between saints and others is the difference between new and old people. On the other hand, Xunzi also built a bridge between the saints, believing that "the people of Tu are good and the people are all the saints", "the saints, the accumulation of people", etc., emphasizing that everyone can become a "new person" like a saint. As for "the reason why the saints are the same as the multitudes, they are not different from the multitudes, and so are the hypocrites", this "inconsistency is not different" between the saints, rather than regarding them as "logical contradictions" or "speculative errors" of Xunzi, it is better to compare them with Kant and regard them as Xunzi's "existence and disregard". That is, when "allowing one's heart to choose" becomes the only channel to reach the "new person", whether it is understood or not, Xunzi must set the faith of the saints, otherwise the "spiritual revolution" is not inevitable.

2. The saints strongly proclaim a source of moral talent, a endowment of the origin of divinity.

Xunzi renders this in many ways, and here is just one example. Xun Zi said: "If the law of cultivating the hundred kings distinguishes between white and black, it should change from time to time, and if the ritual should be tempered and peaceful, if it is born with four branches, if it is skillful in making meritorious deeds, if it is the four times, the peace and righteousness and the goodness of the people, and if it is hundreds of millions of people and one person, if it is, it can be said to be a saint." JingJing Xi is reasonable, strict and strict is able to respect oneself, divide and divide its end, hate its ability to last a long time, le le xi its way of doing not perish, Zhao Zhao Xi its use of knowledge also, cultivation of its use of the unified line of action, Sui Sui Xi its article also, Xi Xi Xi its happy people Zang also, hidden its fear of people improper also, if so, it can be described as a saint. This is out of the ordinary. What is one? A: Clinging to God and being fixed. What is God? A: The one who is perfectly ruled is God, the one who is not enough to pour out is god, and the one who is solid is a saint. The saints are also the ones, and the pipes of the Word are also. Here Xun Zi did his best to lay out the best of his ability, using five "if" characters and ten "兮" characters in succession, expressing the saint's "attachment to God and solidity", that is, the fusion of pure and sacred moral ideas with the moral laws of transcendental and absolute. Therefore, the "pipe of the Word" is the "pivot" or "proclamation" of the Tao.

3. The saints play an uplifting role in the heart, inspiring people to respect the law unconditionally in order to obey the absolute command of the a priori and complete the "spiritual revolution" in the present.

The saints who are "clinging to God and being fixed" make the "mind tolerant of choice" of "being vain and quiet" have the inevitability of choosing the moral law as their own code of action, and "choosing" has a "good" place and a "stop" place. Xun Zi said, "Those who can be worried about can be solid, and those who are good are good, and the sages are sages." He also said, "He who learns is also the one who learns and stops." Evil to the end? A: Stop at the end. What's the point? A: Saint also. The holy one, the one who does the best, the king, the one who does the best. The two are enough to do the best for the world. The "addition" here means reverence and respect for moral laws, and "stopping" means that the free choice of the mind can be guided by moral laws. Thus, man's subjective "choice" and the objective "ritual" as a moral law are truly integrated, Xunzi's "spiritual revolution" ("pseudo") is realized, and the ceremony becomes the boundary between the "new person" (man/freedom) and the "old man" (fowl/willfulness).

4. The saints made up for their moral incompetence, established the inevitability of man becoming a "new man", and thus achieved the social order of the nation and even the entire race.

In this sense, only the saint is the king, the heart is good for the world, and only the saint can do it. Xun Zi said, "Non-sage Mo Zhi Neng King." The saint prepares the way of the whole United States also, is the right title of the county world. He also said, "He who is under heaven, the greatest, is not a saint who can have it." ”

5. The saint is so important, but he cannot include the saint in his own code of thought and action and call it "sex", which has its "name" because of "faith", and Confucius is the model.

Xun Zi clearly pointed out, "Sexual hypocrisy, and then become the name of a saint, and the work of the day is also done." The role of the "name" of the saint is to proclaim the possibility and inevitability of the "spiritual revolution", so that a good way of life can be established and a good social order can be established. In the past, the saint must "give way": on the one hand, no one can claim to have this "divinity", even if he is the actual "king", on the other hand, the saint has no reason to have the slightest influence on the order of the world, that is, the so-called "public defeat cannot be added to the rope, and the saint cannot be added to the ceremony." Such a saint is not an "intellectually arbitrary faith" that is arrogant or a means of domination, but a "faith that reflects." Such a holy king can be called faith, and it can be called a cultural ideal, and only Confucius can do it. "Confucius was benevolent and unabashed, so he learned chaos, which was enough for the first king." Therefore, "the saint indulges his desires and his feelings, and the one who controls the heart is reasonable." Fu He Qiang, He Forbearance, He Danger" and so on cannot be used at all to argue for the ruler's extravagant desires, or some kind of indulgence, etc., but only to express the joy that man can get rid of his poverty and gain freedom. The eternal "contention" of "the heart is good for the world" and "the beauty of the heart", "the heart is good" and "the heart is good" and so on has been truly solved. Xun Zi said: "Those who are righteous and profitable, there are two things in the place of man." To paraphrase Marx, this is Xunzi's answer to the "mystery of history" and "knowing that this is the answer."

Fourth, the dimension of history: the time of origin and the time of experience

Mou Zongsan translated the first part of Kant's "Religion within the Limits of Reason Alone" as an appendix to his first chapter in the Treatise on the Circle of Goodness. Interestingly, the last large paragraph of this passage, Mou Zongsan, was not translated. In it Kant, Kant speaks of human nature if the a priori absolute command is taken as human nature, then four categories of "errors of reason" or "ills" are inevitable:

1. The supposed result of internal experience (the effect of charisma) is fanaticism;

2. The result of the so-called external experience (miracle) is superstition;

3. False claims of intellectual epiphany in the supernatural (mysteries), the result of which is epiphany, i.e., the illusion of the warlocks;

4. The result of a bold experiment (means of invitation) to exert influence on supernatural things is magic.

This is tantamount to criticizing Mencius in the eyes of Mou Zongsan. Coincidentally, Li Zehou also criticized Mencius's "mysterious direction". Moreover, Li Zehou also stressed that although this mystical cult has made great achievements in cultivating a conscious moral subject, its social role is "conservative and even reactionary", because superstition and delusion of super-experience are the most easily exploited, so "the bad influence of ethics that turns politics into morality is still visible today, although it can be dressed in some kind of new clothing."

However, Li Zehou, who disagreed with Mou Zongsan in many places, or directly targeted Him, also had surprising agreements with Mou Zongsan in the key judgment on Xunzi, that is, Xunzi's "heart" was mainly "cognitive mind". This kind of cognitive mind can easily be combined with despotism and become an immoral counter-revolution. Therefore, while commending Xunzi for "overcoming and diluting" Mencius's "mysterious direction", Li Zehou also criticized that "Xunzi lost the democratic and humane atmosphere of the clan tradition, but won the realistic argument of class rule, which actually created the ideological basis for the authoritarian state in later generations with strict equal rank as the ruling order." This means that neither Mencius nor Xunzi, whether it is the theory of sexual goodness or sexual evil, cannot get rid of the fate of being exploited, and is related to authoritarian politics.

Who can avoid such accusations? Isn't Kant's transcendental absolute republican coercive power, Hegel's rational state, etc., also criticized for losing democracy and humanity?

Here's the divide between morality and politics:

Philosophers always envisage "moral statesmen", that is, politicians who reject all immoral statecraft and adopt only the principles of statecraft that can coexist with morality;

Politicians, on the other hand, are always "political moralists", that is, those who do whatever it takes for the benefit of politicians and can specialize in forging a moral that is compatible with them.

In this regard, the "Holy King" who criticized XunZi for "living like a great god and moving like a heavenly emperor" is making a fuss about autocratic politics, not without reason, but obviously failing to grasp the key point of the problem. If we do not need to shy away from the moral intuition of "mysticism" or the moral law of "authoritarianism", then the crux of the matter is: how to embark on a difficult upward path towards goodness under the premise that this human nature of "righteousness and profit" is "the given"?

Are human beings constantly progressing towards betterment, or are human beings so unbeautiful that there is no possibility of improvement at all? Is history subordinate to morality, or is morality subordinate to history? Thematic answers to these and other questions are clearly beyond the scope of this article.

It should be emphasized here that when Kant achieved a civil society of universal rule of law through the "non-social sociality" of mankind, he had reconciled the "contradictions" of morality and history, transcendence and experience, ontology and phenomenon, freedom and necessity, intuition and knowledge, self-confirmation and mechanical law, class and individual, and so on.

Reconciliation is, of course, beautiful. Or rather, the United States makes reconciliation possible. When Kant said that "beauty is a symbol of virtue-goodness", Kant, like Xunzi, placed in "the beauty of the whole of the mind" the teleology of the unity of heaven and man and the separation of heaven and man, and the historical practice of human society itself (a long list of empirical time, man) and its absolute totality (an eternal/transcendental time, heaven) came together.

From a moral point of view, virtue cannot begin at all with the "improvement of friendship" (the "transformation of customs"), cannot be learned the day after tomorrow, but must originate from "the transformation of the mind and the transformation of the foundation of a character." This requires an external moral "new person" of pure good and no evil, that is, the belief of the saints, or some kind of internal moral round intuition, that is, conscience and conscience, to ensure the inevitable occurrence of the "spiritual revolution". The latter is Mencius's method, and the former is Xunzi's way. Although the two are different, neither the saint nor the conscience can be placed in the sequence of empirical time, both are the eternity of transcendental total time, but can trigger the consequences of action in empirical time. This means that man is the creator of virtue, and virtue must be bound by man's free determination, and this free determination constitutes the original time.

From the historical point of view, man is a multitude of beings who compete for the necessities of survival, and etiquette is only a "means" to clearly divide the masses and raise people's desires. Xun Zi said, "Where did the ceremony begin?" A: Born with desires, if you want to be undesirable, you cannot be without demand; if you want without measurement and demarcation, you cannot be indisputable; if you are chaotic, chaos is poor. The first kings were evil and chaotic, so they made rituals and righteousness divided, so as to nourish people's desires, to give people's demands, so that desires will not be exhausted by things, and things will not succumb to desires, and the two will be held together and long, and they are the origins of etiquette. The one who is the one who is the one who worships, the one who raises it. From this point of view, virtue must be learned acquired, and there are no innate moral laws, a priori absolute commands, etc., and everything can only be created, learned, and passed on by human beings in an infinitely fixed string of time. In other words, a group of people are pursuing the satisfaction of desires, pursuing their own happiness, and therefore cannot but gradually develop intellectual concerns and even knowledge, politics, morality, etc., to deal with endless disputes. Here, any progress in the experience of time, such as the accumulation of knowledge in the slightest, the acquisition of rights one foot deeper and one foot deeper, and the cultivation of cultural practices little by little, are crucial. This is the existence of man, this is human society, this is human history. This point is also touched upon by Mencius's "property of the people", but it is not as clear and important as Xunzi's.

However, if we look at man strictly according to the historical point of view, what is learned in an infinitely fixed string of time can only be a "person who is legally good" and not a "morally good person." That is to say, if morality is only a consequence of human strife to satisfy each other's desires, then it is doomed to be unreliable. People will have to reach some kind of agreement or contract because of the balance of power, but as the power grows, this agreement or contract is bound to be destroyed and subverted. In this way, all laws are temporary, and man may obey this agreement or contract of that kind and become a good man of the law, but he will always be obedient and profit-seeking, and never a morally good man.

Thus, Xunzi not only introduced a historical point of view, criticizing the completeness and self-sufficiency of the individual virtue consciousness of Mencius's theory of sexual goodness, but also used the faith of the saints to ensure that the whole society could establish the transcendental and inevitability of virtue from top to bottom. The historical point of view implies "moral practice", which is useful in this theory of sexual evil, emphasizing that we cannot talk about social problems from the point of view of a natural state of innocence, that evil is the driving force of historical progress, and that it is only through the bottom-up struggle against evil, through the bargaining of various methods, especially intellectual and political bargaining, that it is possible to attain or rise to the level of goodness. The faith of the saints speaks of "moral theology", where sexual evil is useless, and the human being emphasizes the necessity of admitting interest in moral law, and the morally good must be recognized first from top to bottom in order to be able to educate the masses to maintain moral strength and to perform decisive moral acts in any bad situation.

In the tradition of a Saint King's strong plot and everyone's love to talk about morality, what kind of status should Xunzi's sexual evil theory of acknowledging the existence of the Holy King really deserve?

The Holy King himself is not enough to fear. As Heine said, Kant raised his great sword and cut off the head of God. Xunzi could not but inherit the Confucian doctrine of morality, but by introducing history, the head of the holy king in political mythology had long been raised in The hands of Xunzi. The Holy King in "Teaching Can't Be Done" can only prove himself through "work can't be done", and Xunzi's Saint King who "thinks about it, practices hypocrisy, and rises from the Law with the righteousness of life" has completely become a subjective moral ideal, which only exists in people's categorical moral behavior. In this way, what is important is not how to "argue", but how to "act". The concept of rights in empirical time, which is opposed to each other because of "self-love", is more realistic and closer to morality itself than any moral myth or political myth that is timeless. History has proved that the state of peace is compromised by the forces of all sides. "Just as a good state system cannot be expected from morality, on the contrary, the formation of a good morality of a nation must first be expected from a good state system."

From this, looking back at the three interpretations of Xunzi's "there is a world of happiness in the heart", we will find:

Yang Liang in the first interpretation is not confused about the text, and his annotation that "after learning, he will be honored and noble, so he can do what he wants" is not so unbearable;

The third explanation is accepted by most people, but it is not so natural.

"The mind benefits from the beauty of the whole" or "the beauty of the whole beauty of the heart" is not a matter of "art appreciation" or "artistic creation", but a question of "natural humanization" by "sex" and "pseudo". This "natural humanization" does not begin with God, God or the Holy King, nor with religious, moral or innocent people, but with collective, social, and thousands of "profit-seeking" people, who, in the long historical practice of production, distribution, and consumption, fight and bargain with each other, thus making "the pursuit of profit" a "world of benefits." Therefore, the so-called "the beauty of the heart is better than the heart is better than the possession of the world" is just to say that the road of continuous progress from evil to better can only be "narrow", but it is also "beautiful", and the free and pleasant "new person" is born here. This also means that the method of holding the "heart benefit has the world" and the "heart benefit has the world" state of holding the world must obtain their integration "in time" and "not in time".

【Notes and references from omitted】