From where do our judgments arise? They arise from our “heart-mind of judging right and wrong.”¹ From where does the heart-mind of judging right and wrong arise? It arises in the midst of uncertainty ...and doubt. Where does the heart-mind of judging right and wrong reach its extreme limit? It reaches its extreme limit in approving of Yao and disapproving of Jie.² For the world to be without the distinction of Yao as right and Jie as wrong would be like its being without the distinction of Heaven as high and earth as low. Sharp-sightedness reaches its extreme limit in
While in the study of my friend Zuo Mei, I happened to notice a copy of the Records of the Grand Historian.¹ Opening it, I discovered that different sections of the text were marked with circles and ...dots in five different colors of ink.² Examining it carefully, I could not understand what it was saying. I asked Zuo Mei about it; he smiled and said that he had long ago grown tired of looking at it. He told me that this text originated with the Ming scholar Gui Youguang³ and that the markings in five colors each had a distinct
This chapter presents the English translation of a letter written by Zhang, which contains a lengthy quote attributed to the brilliant and famous scholar Dai Zhen. The central point of the quote, ...which Zhang endorsed heartily, is that students need to know a great deal of technical, background information in order to read the different classics with any degree of comprehension; to study the classics without such knowledge is a waste of time. Zhang goes into considerable detail recounting and lamenting his own, mostly misguided, early efforts at learning, but then he uses these pieces of autobiography, as well as the quote from Dai Zhen, to emphasize several of his own most cherished and original insights.
This chapter presents the English translation of a letter written by Zhang, which offers insight on the motivation and intention behind his most important essay, “On the Dao.” The letter begins with ...Zhang's noting the criticisms his essay had received and responding that at least these critics did not really understand the central argument of the essay or the larger project, the General Principles of Literature and History, of which it is a part. He suggests that the likely source of their misunderstanding is the fact that his essay shares its title with several famous predecessors, but notes that the point of his essay is fundamentally different from any of them. Zhang goes on to explain that “On the Dao” was written to show the historical origins of the dao in a way that would make clear what the dao essentially is. He further says that “On the Dao” plays a vital role within his larger work, the General Principles of Literature and History, which is why it is the lead essay in this collection of writings.
