The May Day holiday is here, so when you go out to play, bring a set of "everyone's little books" that you can afford to put down. Since the first series was published in August 2022, more than 10 kinds have been published, which have been well received by all walks of life, and the third series has also been released to everyone. Today is the first article, which is selected from Mr. Guo Qiyong's "Four Books of General Knowledge."
1
The origin of the mean
The idea of "moderation" originated in ancient times. "The Analects of Yao" records that Yao Chan is located in Shun, and Shun Chan is located in Yu, and the only admonition is that we must do "allow to cling to it", and Yun is the meaning of faith. The herald said, "If you do not practice the Tao sincerely, the people of the four seas will be poor, and your throne will be lost forever." The use and pursuit of the "middle" way is the road of the kingdom that the holy king bestows and receives. The Book of Zhou in the Book of Shang has two articles, "Hong Fan" and "Lu Xing", both of which advocate the middle way. "Hong Fan" exalts the "three virtues", focusing on integrity, with rigidity and softness, and seeking to achieve the harmony of rigidity and softness. The "Huangji" of "Hong Fan" is "unbiased and unbiased, and obeys the king's righteousness...... There is no bias and no party, the royal road is swinging, there is no party and no partiality, the royal road is mediocre, there is no anti-side, the royal road is upright, and it will be extreme, and it will be the extreme". The so-called "pole" originally refers to the beams of the house, which are the tallest, most upright and most important parts of the house, and are extended to the standards of fairness and integrity.
We overlook the city of Beijing, from the Temple of Heaven to the Forbidden City to the Ming Ming Tombs, all of which are distributed on a central axis in the north-south direction, and are all built in a symmetrical and balanced manner based on this central axis. Ancient cities in China generally follow this philosophy, with a stable structure and a beauty of symmetry and balance. This is true in the city of Beijing, and it is also true in Xi'an. Neutrality, balance and symmetry are the aesthetics of Chinese architecture and urban planning.
(Ming) Zhu Bang's painting of the Ming Dynasty palace city
The Forbidden City, the imperial palace of Beijing, looming in the clouds, presents a symmetrical beauty.
Going back further, in the Liaohe River Basin of Liaoyang, there is a Hongshan cultural site that dates back four or five thousand years, which is a cultural site of the Neolithic Age. There, there is also a central axis, and on the north-south central axis, there are the remains of the sacrificial altar to the heavens, which is equivalent to the Temple of Heaven in Beijing in later generations. The office place, of course, is very simple, but it is equivalent to the Forbidden City and the Forbidden City. There is also a place to bury the ancestors, called "Jishi Mound", which is equivalent to the royal mausoleum of the Ming Dynasty. The sacrificial altar, the palace chamber, and the stone mound on the Hongshan cultural site are also symmetrically and balancedly unfolded on a central axis. In Yuhang, Zhejiang, the ancient city of Liangzhu, which is 5,000 years old, is also laid out in this way.
2
Neutrality and moderation
Our Chinese nation, her aesthetics, her view of the world and the universe, now called the cosmology, believes that the good things in the world must be symmetrical and neutral. There is a main axis, there is symmetry, there is such a structure, it is both stable and beautiful. This is called the mean. Our ancestors' views on the universe have slowly spread to the present day.
In the past, when we talked about the golden mean, we thought it was quite conservative and philistine, called it eclectic, unprincipled, and labeled it negatively. In fact, in the history of world culture, the idea of the middle way and the idea of the mean are the common aspirations of all nations. Aristotle in ancient Greece had the idea of the middle way, and Buddhism and Mahayana Buddhism in India also had the idea of the middle way. In the Chinese academic tradition, "moderation" is the supreme virtue. So what exactly is "moderation"? What is "moderation"? What is "moderation"? We can make the following summary:
There are several ways to say the original meaning of the word "zhong": like the shape of the target in archery, like the shape of the target in archery, like the shape of the sun and shadow on the standing wood, like the flag, the clan leader sets up the flag in the middle to gather people from all over the world, etc. "Saying": "Middle, inside." From the mouth ∣, up and down. The word "middle" is "inside" relative to "outside", inside, in orientation, it is the "center" of equal distance relative to the surroundings, in degree, it is medium relative to the superior and inferior, in the process, it is "half" relative to the whole process, and in relation to "partial", it is "positive" and impartial. Duan Yuju pointed out that "medium" refers to "outside" and "partial", and at the same time refers to the meaning of "appropriateness". The "middle" of the "mean" we are talking about today refers to the standard of moderation, legitimacy, proportionality, impartiality, and no fault.
"Shuo Wen Jie Zi" (Chinese classics full annotation and full translation)
The original meaning of the word "Yong" is also a matter of opinion. Some people say it's a big bell, which leads to "Yong"; some people say it's a city, and it's "Yong"; some people say it's a "maid" because of labor righteousness, and some people say it's merit, and so on. The "yong" of "moderation" has three meanings: first, He Yan said that it is "constant", and Cheng Zi said that "what is not easy is mediocre", that is, the principle of being constant and not easy, and the truth that does not change in change; second, Zhu Zi said that it is "ordinary", that is, the virtue of being ordinary and ordinary, and Xu Fuguan said that it is the behavior that everyone should practice and can achieve; and third, "Shuowen": "Yong, use." "It's about application. Zheng Xuan said that the article "The Mean" is used to remember neutralization.
3
Confucius's idea of the mean
For Confucius, moderation is both the realm of moral cultivation and the general methodology of thinking.
First, let's look at the realm of self-cultivation. Confucius said: "The golden mean is also virtue, and it is the utmost thing! The people have been there for a long time." "Moderation" is the highest state of moral cultivation, and it is difficult for ordinary people to attain it.
Confucius's disciple Zigong asked him, "Who is the best teacher or Shang?" and Confucius replied, "The teacher is also good, and the Shang is not as good." Zigong asked again: "Then the teacher will be more and more?" Confucius said: "It's too much." This is a dialogue from The Analects of Progress.
Zigong's surname is Duanmu, the name is given, the word Zigong, the Spring and Autumn Period Patriotic People, also known as Wei Ci, is one of the "Ten Philosophers of Confucius", good at "language". Zigong is good at farming, and he is very successful in financial management and business. Farming refers to the accumulation of wealth and the reproduction of it for profit, which is what we now call business.
Shi refers to the grandson of the division, the grandson is the compound surname, the division is the name, the word Zhang, is the Spring and Autumn period of Chen Guoren. Confucius said that "the teacher is also open", the teacher refers to him, and the "secluded" is the meaning of extreme. Zizhang has a brave personality, and Qingliu is not kitsch. Confucius thought that his personality was too flamboyant, so he said that he had an extreme temperament.
Portrait of Confucius (detail)
Shang refers to Bu (bǔ) Shang, Bu is the clan, a famous Shang, the character Zixia, is a patriot in the Spring and Autumn Period, and he is also listed as the "Ten Philosophers of Confucius". Zixia is good at literature, is the successor of Confucian poetics, from Zixia six to Xun Qing, Xun Qing awarded Fu Qiubo, the ancestor of "Lu Poems", re-awarded Mao Heng, the ancestor of "Mao Poems". In addition, the second pass of "Spring and Autumn" ram and grain beam are all passed on from Zixia. After the death of Confucius, Zixia lectured in Xihe, and Wei Wenhou taught him.
In terms of personality, Zizhang is a bit overdone, and Zixia is "not as good". One has a more arrogant temperament, a little more excessive, a little more intense, and the other has a sluggish temperament, which is insufficient, and cannot be attained. Confucius replied that it is equally bad to be too much and not to catch up, and that it does not meet the standard of Zhongzheng. People have to keep the middle way, Zixia's handling is a little too late, and Zizhang's handling is a little too much, which is not good.
Confucius praised the "Bank of China" people. He said: "If you don't go along with it, you will also be mad! The madman will be aggressive, and the ruthless will not do anything." The madman is a heroic and generous man with a calm heart, and the ruthless person does not take anything from it, does not want ill-gotten gains, and has an independent personality and cultivation. Confucius said that if you really can't find a person whose words and deeds are in line with the middle way, you must make friends with a madman! An enterprising madman and a virtuous person are very good, but they are not the first class, and the first class is a person who combines the advantages of the two.
Confucian disciples said that Confucius's character was "gentle and powerful, mighty but not fierce, respectful and peaceful" (The Analects of Confucius). Confucius has a majestic side, and he is very kind, which is called "gentle and strong"; "Mighty but not fierce" means that he is majestic, but not excessive; "respectful and peaceful" means that he is respectful and serene, serious, cautious and very calm. Confucius also advocated "Tai but not arrogant" and "desire but not greed". Shutai is not arrogant, there is desire but not greed for money. This is the golden mean in terms of human temperament and principles of life, and it is also the realm of self-cultivation.
Commentary on the Analects, translated by Yang Bojun
In terms of the relationship between literary quality, in terms of the relationship between the beauty of form and the simplicity of content, Confucius advocated that "quality is better than literature, and literature is better than quality." The literary quality is polite, and then the gentleman" ("The Analects of Yongye"). This is the middle way in the relationship between form and content. In terms of poetic expression, Confucius commented that Guan Ju is "happy but not lewd, sad but not sad" (The Analects of the Eight Hundreds). Happiness without being too wandering, sadness without being too painful, this is the middle way of emotional expression. Confucius praised the music of "Shao" and put it forward