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to Vietnamese Missionaries in Taiwan Home PageIn the summer of 1949, an International Conference of Philosophy was held in Honolulu with representatives of more than fifty nations. Most of the participants were Occidentals; a few Asians came from India, China and Japan. I particularly paid much attention to this conference because it focused on looking for a leading Philosophy of Mankind. The conference attributed to the lack of such a philosophy the cause of the two world wars. Then the conference elected "Ju" to be the leading philosophy with Confucius as the conductor of the orchestrated unity. The reason is "Confucius keeps his feet in two boats in accepting and transforming this life, especially in its human relations and while not accepting Taoism's exclusive concentration in the spiritual life, makes room for spiritual values also".
That is a statement which first honors the participants of the conference themselves, because it implies some remarks very deeply and beneficially. One can say, it was the highest peak of achievement that any international conference could have ever reached. Usually, the conference of this kind have rarely attained unanimity about anything. There was simply a string of monologues among the deafs; the subjects to be discussed were far away from life. Fortunately, this time, the participants has some direct insights into life; they found that the world was sick and the cause of such a disease was the lack of the red blood of unity, and the increase of the white blood of disunity. The world is pale, disoriented, or, in their language, "homeless". Such a disease appeared more dangerous than ever, so that the participants of the Honolulu conference thought that they had a certain duty to look for a certain medicine which can harmonize both spiritualism and materialism. In the prescription, they took the precaution to notice that such a medicament is "to be filled by Confucius, the magic pharmacist". This prescription is certainly correct as I will show in the following parts.
The statement on Confucius is indeed the great result of a long process of inquiry about Ju. It stretched more than a hundred years and was carried out by many outstanding sinologues and philosophers as H. G. Creel, Marcel Granet, Keyserling and Karl Jaspers... Although the declaration of Honolulu conference has been expressed within the field of philosophy, and although very little attention has been paid to it, it can be considered as a cultural event of enormous importance for it pointed out that "it is the thoughts which lead the world" and that is the thoughts of Confucius. When the Honolulu conference elected Confucius as the leader of the universal philosophy (Oriental and Occidental...), it is implicit understood that Confucius was considered as the leader of the world. That was an honor without precedent. Furthermore, we know that beside Buddha, Socrates, Plato... Confucius appears somewhat duarfed, similar to a bungalow near a skyscraper. But even so he has been elected. Such an event implies that Confucius must have some hidden extraordinary quality to match such an honor. Confucius' originality is, according to the Conference, that Confucius has conducted a wonderful life constituted by harmony. By choosing Confucius, the conference chose a better life instead of beautiful and colorful ideas, harmony instead of conflict.
But sadly enough, this proclamation has been quickly forgotten. It has produced no observable echo, even in the field of philosophy. Why? We certainly need to inquire on the reason of such an indifference. In my opinion, the statement of Honolulu conference is entirely correct, but it is no more than a road sign; it is not yet the road itself. Before and during the conference, and even in the subsequent generation of sinologues, there were no works worth to be called the road. I found regrettably, no work picturing Ju in its total figure. What is the reason of this failure? In this paper, I try to look for an answer by indicating the shortcomings of Sinology up to now. Through such a critique, we to the authentic Confucianism. Before discussing further, I wish to open a parenthesis: to me Confucius is only the main representative of Ju. As we know, Ju had appeared long before him. More exactly Confucius is rather a transmittor, a very great transmittor indeed. By naming Confucius, I really mean the original Ju which is much broader and deeper than Confucianism.
Let me start now with an analysis of the statement of Honolulu conference. My method used to analyse the statement is the old methold of the original Ju. It consists in condensing the whole doctrine into one sentence considered as its quintessences, then comparing it with the quintessences of other doctrines. Then this quintessence is itemized in four points:
Words
Images
Numbers
Institutions
These four points can be considered as the four-prong test which any genuine interpretation needs. In my views, such a way will bring to Ju more accuracy in confirming its highest values. In other words, the more a philosophy is beneficial to life, the more it needs these four steps which embraces the whole life. More precisely, these four steps can be also considered as a measure to evaluate a philosophy. It seems to me that most philosophical schools have taken only the first step, namely words. Only Ju has achieved all four steps. However, from the Han time Ju was declining and becoming more inefficient, because it was abandonning the original four steps. To be more authentic, it needs to have someone who can go through all four steps. Such a man is called "The right man of Ju".
Regrettfully, this right man still not appears because the world of sinology canot yet bring out any right man of Ju. As we know from Chung Yung: "the wisdom of high politics of King Wen (the Idol of Confucius) still remains intact in the classics, but only when "his man" appears, these politics will be effective. As long as this man does not appear, this politics is inefficient". It seems to me that very few of us pays attention to this passage, although the classics are throughly studied for centuries. Why there is such a neglect? We forget the necessity of having a philosopher of Ju, do we? I mean here a philosopher and not a scholar or an ideologue, because only a philosopher can be the right man, of Ju: he must not be a philosopher in common sense. The right philosopher must be a person of action, engaging in real life, combining his deep thought with reality to attain the wisdom. He must be a personality of character, enthusiastically and decisively managing his life. In short, he can be called a person of living-philosophy. But I have to add here, as long as this true philosopher (a sinologue doubling as a philosopher) does not appear, the Confucius classics are nothing but a heap of mouldy books. Only when this true philosopher appears, then Ju can embody itself in living thoughts which can inspire human being. In this sense, this philospher must have Ju's spirit on one hand, and on the other hand he must be in conformity with the ideal today-man. That means that he has to have deep insights into the present thorny issues. Only under these conditions, he could be the right man.
We do not know when or whether this man will appear. Indeed, such a question might not be of importance. As long as Ju is a philosophy of action, it does not allow us to rely on a certain person, but everybody must do everything by onself and for himself. Therefore, according to Ju, the right question must be formulated as follow: How can we become the right man of Ju? Which way is more suitable for us to go, so that even if we do not have luck to become the Ju man, we know at least how to present an authentic Ju and how to express it more understandable for mankind of today. In order to know what is the most special characteristics of Ju, let us examine the four steps of Ju.
The words used in Ju philosophy are scarsely few. Confucius is most sober in speech: More than that, about Tao and Jen he had almost no words. That is a characteristic to which only a few of persons have paid attention. But this is not a casual fact, so we need to deal with that. Language is the most important mode of expression of mankind. It is language which opened every subsequent progress. Hence, it was hallowed by a hynoptic attitude which gave birth to a kind of worship of words. Such a vestige can be seen in the spells to which the ancient men have attributed, a lot of "miraculous efficiency". But only later, they knew that it was mrerely magical.
Besides magical effects, word had another metaphysical influence: Many paramount philosophers like Lao-Tse, Chuang-Tse let themselves be bound by words. Even though they claimed that Tao cannot be spoken and that "he who knows (Tao) does not speak, he who speaks does not know", they spoke a lot of words. Lao-Tse left to us five thousand words while Chuang-Tse produced a hundred thousand of words. But in comparison with the other philosphers such as Plator or Aristotle, Lao and Chuang are still much sober.
Bernard Shaw's painful teeth-example gives us the best picture of language. One talks noisy about the teeth when they cause him pain; similarly, one talks much about Tao only when he cannot attain it yet; one compensates for not attaining Tao by discussing more and more about it. Once attaining the utmost reason (Tai-Chi: the ridgepole) one also knows ten thousand minor reasons and does not need to speak many words. But if one does not attain the utmost reason, one needs to construct many trivial and complicated reasons.
The utmost reason comprehends Yin and Yang, No and Yes, One and Multiple, mobility and fixity. When the utmost reason is not attained, there will be only one side: it lacks the other sides. As such the word lacks efficiency as a man with but one leg; he cannot walk; he must lean on the the crutch. The crutch, in a word, is the complicated and trivial reasons.
For this reason, we are convinced that the value of Ju lies in its brevity. The few words here do not mean any inability but rather wisdom. What is the most important word in Ju? This is the axiom Chi Chung Ho drawn from the foreword of Chung Yung: "The Centering is the great root of the world. The Harmony is the fruit of attaining Tao. When the Centering is utmost, the Harmony is the greatest. The result will be: Heaven and Earth are in their right place: myriad things will be noursihed thereby." In a book of mine, The Time, I have developped further this axiom by saying "when the centering is utmost, the harmony is greatest". The role of Chi is to insist on the difference of centering from harmony. Centering is the root, harmony is the fruit; both express the "double way" on which the Honolulu conference mentioned as "keep his feet in two boats". Very few scholar had ever paid attention to this detail. Even James Legge who has translated: let the state of equilibrium and harmony exist in perfection". The translation is not wrong but it is ambiguous; it could not express the double way. Evidently, one cannot see centering as root and harmony as fruit. The word centering implies the action of going and progressing into the center. As such, it expresses the great harmony which comprehends Yin and Yang. That is the most fundamental harmony which covers Heaven and Earth.
We develop the axiom more fully by saying that "the deeper the centering, the greater the harmony" in line with the philosophical principle: "the smaller the comprehension, the wider the extension". Here we use Harmony as a criterion to evaluate how deep is the centering. That is like something of inside which one cannot realize, but one can know it by means of the priciple of harmony. Harmony has the visible sign such as:
In the metaphysical field: Heaven and Earth are in their right places.
In the physical field: the myriad things are noursihed.
The myriad things can stand for every aspirations of the soul: thoughts, feelings will all are satisfied. That is to say, philosophy must not be merely conceptual, sentimental or willing alone, but a unity of intellect, sentiment and will. In other words, Heaven and Earth, Yin and Yang cannot be analysed in a single theory but united in the whole. This harmony indicates that the centering is the utmost and it reveals as the great harmony, in which myriad things are nourished thereby. In this way, no aspiration is dissatisfied, and consequently, philosphers do not need to speak much. The sobriety of words is the first sign of health (then the balance of its few words comprehending the two-foldness). We can deduce that Ju has succeeded in the steps of words.
The next step after words is images or symbols and legends. Images represent the conceptions of life. A culture that sticks to words does not have much symbol, or even if it has some, symbol is used only randomly. On the contrary, the culture which expresses life, used more symbols. In fact, symbols are nearer and concreter to action. They are more flexible, and easily adjustable to various circumstances.
The most important symbol of Ju is that of Heaven and Earth in form of circle and square. Circle designates Heaven, while square expresses Earth. More exactly, this symbol was not only found in Ju, but was present also in other ancient cultures. However up to now they have been so blurred that it is impossible to know whether or not in the beginning they did symbolize Heaven as circle and Earth as square. Historians and archeologists have not given yet an adequate answer. We know, for example, in the era of megaliths, the big stones were round shaped as in Menhir or Stonehenges. In Indian culture, the picture of a snake biting its own tail in its mouth expresses the same circle. Differently, in Sumer and Assyria, we found the square "ziggurat". But we see no circle and square together there. Only in Ju culture, there is a combination of circle and square. Hence, this symbol seems to be the Ju's own characteristics. Many examples affirm the evidence of this characterisitcs. In Chinese architecture, The Heaven worshipping temple is round build in the roof and square build in the foundation. The same thing can be seen in the royal carriage. The Ju scholars were square shoes and round hats etc. The above observation leads us to classify the world cultures in three categories:
* The first one with the symbol of "round" alone is inclined to the negative "NO"; the One in exclusion of the multiple with sign a O.
* The "square cultures" are inclined to the multiple or to the Yes (to have) in exclusion of the No, the One; its sign is .
* The third category combines both square and round together with the signs: round (mother), square (son).
The Philosophers of the first category insisted on going into the mind and tried to guard throughly their tranquillity, their aloudness. They neglect or rather ignore the social life. They avoid to involve themselves in it. Despite their brilliant eloquence with beautiful metaphor, they could not even bring a variety of subjects into their speeches. Their basic themes seemed to be unique: always towards emptiness, negativity. Although they spoke much about things they could not deal with the concrete things: one can say that they could contribute nothing of nourishment to the myriad things. Their thoughts were high, too high for ordinary people to understand, let alone to realize them in real life.
The second category philosophers keep running from one idea to other, but as various as their ideas are, these ideas are of the same level, there are no relations to the Unity. Though their thoughts are abundant, they are unable to nourish, to animate society (institutions). Their words remain speculative; their ideals are degenerated into a pure intellectualism, incapable of satisfying human aspirations. In such a way, as Chung Yung says, "the myriad things do not get nourished thereby".
In the same way, the study of philosophy degenerates itself into a swallowing act of many collections of thoughts which, although systematized, point to no haven. Kant had once called philosophy the torture of Tantalus and Nietzsche compared the students of philosphy to martyrs. The philosophy is unable to inspire noble feelings and to provide energy to human life. For this reason, philosphy paves the way to the religion's claim of spiritual task. Consequently, ethics must be constructed largely on religous beliefs. As we know, religion and philosophy is the cause of the separation between state and religion. But it is only a makeshift to avoid the worst. The ideal must be a cooperation of religion and state. Regrettfully, for the time being, this ideal is still unattainable because religion itself does not rise up to the invisible and untouchable God (without sound and without smell). On the other hand, philosophy does not attain the universal mind or the pacific thinking, namely being still immersed in the "szu lu", or the thinking with contradictory terms.
In the third step, philosophy succeeded in putting the square into the circle or in attaining the utmost centering as the root and therefore the harmony as the fruit. If we compare the second category with "Gung gung" who is responsible for destroying the support of heaven, the spring of all noursihment, then we can also compare the first category to the immortal who once climbed up the top of the mountain, just stayed there for good and enjoyed the blissful life. The third category would be similar to many legendary wisemen who once arrived in the region of immortals, stayed there for a while to be steeped in the blissful ambiance; then they descended from the mountain and returned back to their villages, and made them more habitable for mankind. Of course, I do not venture to say which kind of philosophy belongs to the first or to the second category. I only wish to give some prior images to render palpable what I want to say. But there is an evidence concerning Ju philosophy: Ju had approached nearest to the third category. Its way goes through four stages: the two first steps, climbing up to the mountain of wisdom, the next two steps, descending from the mountain to spread out the wisdom to society, hoping to make life more beautiful. I am conscious that this image could be claimed by most of doctrines (philosophies and religions), but the way of Ju is so specific that nobody else can claim it. I will show it further by the symbolic numbers and then by institutions.
Number is the third step after symbol. In fact, number is also a kind of symbol; it is a kind of a more abstract symbol. Any culture which used few symbols also used few numbers. It is interesting to learn that Ju used a lot of numbers and then systematized them in a certain structure.
The basic numbers of Ju are 2 and 3 as we learn from I-Ching: "Heaven three, Earth double are the numbers on which one has to rely". This sentence is the result from the analysis of the five agents, the original structure of Ju (that, until now, has been neglected or ignored): so that the five agents are used only from the magical point of view or used to be the categories of classificiation for example in medicine. Consequently, they are usually understood and translated as five elements and not as five agents. They have never been used purposely as structure. We must pay a special attention to this aspect.
By classifying philosophies in three categories, I come to a conclusion that only Ju can permanently exhibit the "double way" in a unique structure, which is none other than the "Five Agents". It comprises Yes and No or the basic opposition which is the essential characteristics of structuralism. In many philosophical doctrines, we find no original structure because of the lack of this fundamental contradiction, i.e. the metaphysical ambiguity between No and Yes. Usually, they have only No or Yes; only Ju has both. Yes is exhibited in four agents surrounding No placed in the center. The Yes-No composition is called Tu (Earth). However, Tu is not the visible earth but the invisible or metaphysical earth for it comprises heaven in itself, so that this earth is not the opposite side of heaven. It is spaceless and timeless, therefore it is called also "Dia vo dia, hanh vo hanh" the earth namely without earth means without cardinal point (without space). Earth is also a timeless agent, because it has no season; it has been regarded by many shcolars as "parent pauvre" as it is completely empty. However, precisely because of this emptiness that earth becomes miraculously rich; it is inexhaustible: the more one takes from it, the more it grows up (springs). It is like a supersanatorium: earth gives birth to man, cures and reinforces him just like Antee who knew how to do in his truggle against Hercules. That is the reason why the early Ju scholars have attached much important to earth as well will see later.
Earth has the miraculous power, because it includes heaven in itself. As such, it can conciliate all contradictions, between all other elements e.g. fire and water, metal and wood as one can see in the chart.
In the vertical line, we see that fire and water have its commoness in earth. In the same way, in the horizontal line, metal and wood have its center in earth also. In I-Ching, the basic numbers of Ju are 2 and 3. But the most basic number is 2. Two is the number of Yin and Yang, the fundament of I-Ching. Now the number 2 is very rarely found in other cultures. It seems to be that in these cultures, things are conceived as monolithic and solid. The same happens to number 3. In other cultures, 3 is rarely used if not ignored or even rejected with the principle "tiers exclu", "tertium non datur", "excluded the middle". Why so? Because these two numbers express a truth which is regarded by ordinary eyes as contradictory. In the eyes of the ordinary people, man is a weak, very weak animal, a reed as Pascal said. In Ju, man is, on the contrary, raised to the rank of heaven and earth, as one of three powers: if heaven is king, earth is king then man is king also. That is the deep reason why Ju emphasized so much number 3 and raised it to the level of Tao; the Tao of tree. All three numbers 2, 3 and symbolize the most basic truth which should be called root truths, while its tops pushes up toward the sky, while its roots sink into ground. The opposite direction, or the contradiction is the symbol of basic truth. The truth is possible only if it radically goes into the essence of thing, in opposition to our empirical observation or to what we sense. That is why the number 2 is the most important, for it expresses the change and the force of unity at the same time.
Besides the two numbers 2 and 3, Ju had also paid attention to number 5. Number 5 implies the command of going toward the fifth agent which is none other than emptiness of nothingness. This seems to be puzzling. We know, everybody wishes to have something, why do the five agents require us to return into nothingness? That is nothing strange because nothingness here is regarded as the origin of all the existings as the spring of an overflowing stream which embodies all social and existential institutions. The numbers 2, 3 and 5 express truth contradictory to the common sense. They all are basic as they are often used in the original Ju. To be more easily to understand the original Ju, I think, it is necessary to say that the number in the structure of five agents confirms the utterance made about the symbols of round and square. Square and round in unity are symbolized by numbers 2 and 3 respectively. But if the square is alone, it is described as number 4. Round alone with number 1; thus we have: round: 1 --- square: 4 --- nothingness: 5 --- round-square in unity: 2+3=5.
Institutions are the concrete forms of numbers and of five agents. More exactly, five agents make all institutions fully of life, or in other terms, they make Tao reveal itself in institutions, and make the spiritual animate the world. To express it, the original Ju had doubled the lines of five agents in two circles, one inside and one outside as described in the followed picture:
The inside circle is composed of dots or broken lines and indicates emptiness, unconciousness; it makes that which is called "internal holiness". The outside circle consists of an uninterrupted line; it symbolizes the phenomena or the visible things expressing five elements (inside, five agents) and making "external kingdom". The great pattern with nine sections is nothing but the nine numbers of the inside and outside circles arranged in the form of the well as follow:
4 9 2
3 5 7
8 1 6
This is considered as the ideal fram for all institutions. Li-Ki enumbered nine kinds of institutions or the basic works of a good government. The fruit of which will be the royal perfection (in the middle section). This chart seems to make the statement of Chung Yung more clear: "When there is utmost centering, there will be greatest harmony which is manifested by myriad things being noursihed". It means that life or all institutions are noursished or permeated by the harmony which is a well ever springing to bring the nourishing thoughts, the feelings to all people. Of all the institutions, the most basic is the "Universe house" and the "montly order".
Hereby is the chart of the "Universe house":
It is called by this name because it consists of three stages to indicate Heaven, Man and Earth. It is nothing other than the great pattern with its four corner sections divided into two parts constituted 12 sections for 12 months. That is why it is named "montly orders" or "commands". This is the institution which helps to perfect the order: "perfect yourself as the basic job", "perfect yourself so that you can match with the heaven and the earth". This level is also called harmony with heaven. According to the "monthly orders", the king must stay each month in a specific room. Three rooms are used for one season. The harmony is symbolized by color, number and cardinal point. For example, the spring goes with East, green and number 3; the summer with south, red and 2. The last week of each season, the king has to stay in the central room which symbolized the transcendence of space and time, as we already know that the fifth agent is "without direction, without season". It is truly empty. What did the king do in these rooms? Nothing. Or if you want, he had to do with the "not doing", or according to Chuang Tzu, "doing the Empty Heart". Yen-Hui, for example, sat down forgetting every worldly thing and letting his mind completely free, unburdened in order to make room for the spiritual. Only then, the interwinning of the heaven and earth will happen. It is the great harmony. I-Ching described it as "stay tranquil with the earth to improve your humanity, then you can practice charity"15. "Stay tranquil with the earth" means going into the central room and sitting there, forgetting every disturbed thing. Only then, we can see and know the real humanity which is as vast as the universe. This knowledge will help us to embrace all men in the universal brotherhood. Then, only then, we can practice charity (without harming other people by our charity).
Through the above analysis, we know that the institution "Ming Tang" is the quintessence of Ju; it is the same to say that the essential teaching of Ju aims at cultivating oneself. This can be seen in the role of the king. For example, according to the original Ju, the king governed but not administered. Administration was delegated to the mandarins so that the kind could spend all his time in the universe house. That was called governing but not doing. Therefore, in ancient times, the king was at the same time the supreme Pontiff and emperor. He is the supreme pope because perfecting oneself is the principal role while emperor is something secondary. That means that administration is only inferior while the superior thing is perfecting onself. The tribute of Ju in the Shu-King is not at all historically. Yu man was said to be the founder of Hsya (Hea), but he was indeed not found in the historical records. One could explain such a phenomenon by saying that it is merely an ideal dramatization of the way by which the ideal man or the so called great Yu was presumed to practice the institution of universe house. It can be seen in the way he divided the land in 9 provinces. The soil was rated in three degrees, each again in three subdivisions. We can see here at once the relation between numbers 3 and 9. According to legends, the great Yu spent four years inspecting 4 cardinal directions, then he came home and resided in the central room. Historical records noted, Yu made sacrifice Fong on the Tai-Shan and Chan on the Kouei-ki (capital of Yue, Che Chiang). The character Chan is the same as Zen, to yield. That is the spirit of the fifth agent going into emptiness, getting rid of all worldly dust in order to enter in the universe house which is nothing other than the image of Primordial man.
The above great pattern still provides the frame for many other institutions of which I will only mention two: one high and one low. The high one is the River Map, the Book of River Le (Lac). Those two charts were used mainly for philosophical speculations which insisted principally on the law of action and reaction. The River Map implied the source of action and of the involvement in the worldly affairs. Once one is exhausted, must return back to the Mother earth in order to restore the inner force by drinking from the everlasting spring. The other one is the well-field institution. This institution has stirred a lot of unnecessary discussion because it is literally understood. Actually, the well-field was a symbol of the equal distribution of national property and of the avoid of the monopolization of the land. The equality is in accord with the spirit of the great pattern which used the number 9 as happened in the "Nine Sections" emphasized by the great Yu. More exactly, the well-field is nothing other than the chart of the great pattern applied to economics. It pointed out that heaven, earth and man, all three participated in the inside circle which is designed by the inner number 3 and the outer number 9. They mean that all men have the right to share the wealth of nation. It is worthy to note that this double number 3 and 9 was called also Goddess tree (tree : wood : 3) who had another name of "Nine Heaven-mysterious-female", or the "Mysterious Female of Nine Heaven", who represents the mother priciple which is never absent in the original Ju. Through this mother principle, an equilibrium between earth and heaven, between mother and father could be established. In I-Ching, earth and heaven were called the Creative and the Receptive respectively. The harmony itself was symbolized by music or the queen of the arts of harmony. The importance of music as harmony was visible in the kingdom of Shun where the ministry of musics (preside by Mr. Qui' Dragon) was found. The flag was saluted by dance.
The quintessence of the original Ju is condensed in three words Chi Chung Ho which I have tried to develop through four steps: words, symbols, numbers and institutions and which could help us to recognize more easily the genuine characteristics of Ju:
--- Words help to sharpen the language and to understand more deeply the two-foldness, the Double way.
--- Images assist in seeing more accurately the position of Ju philosophy.
---Numbers serve to go deep into the roots of things and confirm the value of Ju philosophy.
---Institutions make us see more lucidly how deep Ju engaged in action.
The statement of Honolulu "Confucius keeps his feet on two boats" was symbolized with the most concrete manner by the above four steps, so it is hoped they would help Ju's man appear, because if the right man does not show up, there will be no one for Tao to be based for the present implementation, "because without its man, Tao will not gratuitously act". Here we can clearly see how the original Ju differed from Han Ju. There was an consistent transmittal handed on saying that after Confucius, Ju ceased to be authentic; and Han Ju, termed also as Confucianism, is only a kind of distorted Ju. That radition has been admited by nearby all scholars, at least implicitly, but there was not yet an unearthing, a careful investigation to tell how Han Ju differed from the original Ju. In my opinion, Han Ju had neglected three steps: symbols, numbers and institutions. It had exclusively specialized in the words. This tendency had enormously been reinforced by the contact with the occidental culture which worships the words. The words are the manifesting sign of ideas, the art of manipulating ideas is logic, and the result of logic is ideology. Ideology, logic and word are the trilogy which has hynoptized the Asians when they got in touch with the occidental culture. We do not need to go further in the past; just take two recent examples: Hu Shih and Fung Yo-Lan. Hu was so mesmerized by logic that he condemned the Confucian ethics as a hinderance to progress in sciences. He tried to endow the Asian philosophy with a logic taken from Mo-Tsu school. However, his endeavour got nowhere. Hu Shih was succeeded by another scholar Fung Yo-Lan who was much more brilliant that he has been bestowed the title philosopher. But this title given by Demieville is not widely recognized yet. Though from the academic point of view, Fung's merit is more than sufficient. Even in the philosophical field he has had some respectable insights, for instance, he perceived the importance of the uselessness. He had some convictions of the two last steps: numbers and institutions. But regrettably, he turned out to rely almost exclusively on intellectualism and positivism so that he finished by also using economical categories to explain culture exactly as Karl Marx did. Actually, he reduced Confucianism to some abstract notions. As such, he forgets that Ju is ever an action-philosophy. By exposing it with intellectual categories, Fung uproots it from its whole hearted human of heart spirit, and transplants it in the intellectualist soil. Evidently, we can also add that Fund is cutting one leg from Ju so it could no longer go its double way. By doing so, Fung Yo-Lan is no longer a Ju man. The right man whom we are looking for must be a scholar doubling as a philosopher. That means, the Ju man must be the inside and outside circle man. "Inside" is composed of symbols numbers and institutions; without them, man is only an intellectual scholar who does not know what tool will he use to grasp truth which is present only in the opposite direction of the intellectual view. Because Fung sticks to the words and its company: logic and ideology, he could not be regarded as the philosopher in the Ju's sense; he is rather an ideologue. Surely, I do not blame him, but I rather want to say that I merely feel frustrated at not having the chance to welcome him as an Ju's philosopher and that because he has put too much importance on logics. But logic is a kind of incurable disease, so that once one is caught by it, one can no longer get rid of it. To show the effect of such a disease, I will mention only one example of Hegel. Everyone knows to what length Hegel went to beat logic. He condemned it as immobile and that logic composed as its was by solid ideas. So, Hegel destroyed logic to make room for dialectics, which, is opposition to logic, is mobile and composed of contradictory elements. Hegel extolled contradiction as the mother of all progress, and struggle as the root of evolution. As such, he stirred a wide hope endowing us with a colorful bridge, in order to help us to grasp the brilliant world of two dimensions. But unhappily, we are more than frustrated: his build bridge turns out to be a certain kind of rainbow: it goes up very high indeed, but winds up by bending to earth again. His dialectic has again become the undimensional subjectivism. Some of scholars would like to call Hegel an abortive child of Asia. "Of Asia" because he might be inspired by Yin Yang of I-Ching in discovering the dialectics because his main theses were somewhat similar to the Ju's vision: pantheism, historicism, organism (but not mechanism). But "Abortive", because he did not penetrate into the inner circle of the production and he ended so quickly with the outer circle or the phenomena by extolling the Prussian state of his time as the crown of dialectic revolution and as such he paved the way to the worst disaster: dictatorship and proletarian despotism.
Marx criticized Hegelian dialectic as a dialectic standing on its head. Marx turned it over and let it stood on its feet. In such a way, dialectic materialism is born. To us, whether materialistic dialectic is standing on its head or on its feet, is not important. The most important thing is that both are undimensional. Mao Tse-Tung has opened his career with a booklet entiled "Contradiction" in which Mao proved himself deviating from the two foldness of I-Ching and drifting into the undimensionalism of Hegel and K. Marx. The example of Hegel is sufficient to show that logic alone is a kind of incurable cancer. This fact, always observable, ought to make every sinologue suspicious of logic. The proclamation of Honolulu is one warning. Why did the philosophers not elect Plato or Aristotle but Confucius instead? The reason is that Confucius was gone double way. But unfortunately, by an ironical twist, many Ju scholars have wholeheartedly driven to mold Ju in the Occidental framework. They forget completely the Ju's axiom "taking the cultivating oneself and not taking logic as basic". If someone could ask Confucius, had he been still alive: "You have been assigned as conductor and the orchestra has been ready atime, and you did not show up. Why?"
Confusius would certainly reply:
--- "I have been crippled. I am lamed now."
--- "Who did this crime; who chopped your leg off? Tell me the name
of your enemy and I will avenge for you."
--- "There was no enemy at all. Those who cut my leg were my friends,
even my students. They all forgot my values scale: first cultivating virtue,
secondly, achievement and thirdly, the words. The words come lastly and
not firstly as we have done up to now."
So if anyone wishes Ju playing its role, it is necessary to return again to the road of four steps: words, symbols, numbers and institutions. Only by that way will Ju be able to go its double way. Somehow we could yield to the modern mentality and modify the four ancient steps by replacing them with Actions, words, Ideas and structuralism. Words can remain intact, or even enhanced a little in this loquacious world. In the same manner, it would be wise to replace images or symbols by ideas. Ju's scholars should learn from the Occidental schools how to reason and to clearly analyze and finally to systematize thoughts. All that to be in mood of modern man. To numbers, we do not use them in the ancient way but in the modern one, somehow like that of structuralism. We know that structuralism is using a lot of numbers, diagrams, myths and comparisons which are very suitable to rediscover the original Ju and might be helpful to sinologues in satisfying the requests of modern man. Today, man is tired of the abstract ways of classical philosophy; he would like something concrete, colorful, full of activity, i.e. near to the way of the original Ju. Through legends, symbols, numbers, dance, we could go into the most recent philosophy and at the same time the most ancient Ju. However, it is necessary to say that the most important thing to be treated is the act understood in the largest meaning, namely Yung which is the opposite side of Ti (the essence or Spirit). I would like to use it to replace institution to further extend institution. First such use is to designate: every word about Ju should be directed into action. It is necessary to stay away from Tao academic topic and theoretical problem, and then to mention all activities aiming at perfecting man like poetry, rites, dance, game and above all, music of special kind which is considered as a kind of Yoga: The Karma Yoga. Under Yung, we must have some kinds of zen which, are the most appropriate to our preference. I am convinced that zen was not something foreign to the original Ju; on the contrary, it was its stapple possibly designed under the Ming Yang. The order "stay tranquil with the earth" was the same as to say: let's practice the zen. Of course, it is hard to say, what kind of zen should we choose, but we can surely see its existence or a certain way of practice as already suggested by I-Ching: "changes have no consciousness, no action, they are quiescent and do not move. But if they are stimulated, they penetrate all situations under Heaven". Or as we read from the Analects: "Isn't it pleasant to learn and perseverantly to put it into practice", or in the Great Learning: "The gentleman cultivated himself as he cuts and files, as he chisels and grinds". Clearly, the existence of some contrete activity as zen is the precondition of such statements. The above quoted "exercise" in the Chinese Classics is certainly in relation with a certain kind of exercises which the Great learning had itemized in four steps in the beginning of the book.
The ancient Ju had emphasized the act before the word but never excluded the word: "Of all importance, study the rites and vitues first, then the letters." That is the characteristic of Ju: keeping our feet in two boats that I have tried to develop through four steps: words, images, numbers and institutions.
The election of Confucius as the conductor has been happened for 35 years, but we still wonder why the elected conductor does not show up. My answer is that because Confucius is still lamed. The scholars of Ju had explored only two steps: words and ideas (logic) and they still neglected numbers and institutions or the way of cultivating themselves, but only that exposition would be the way, not only the sign of the way. That is also the reason why they were up to now only scholars, some ideologues but not the philosopher who could bring the fresh ideas to Ju. The ideas must be the fresh one that only philosophers can bring it forth. Our task is to make this scholar-philosopher appear sooner or later. What I have presented above is only a small effort contributing to this urgent task. I have tried to present Confucianism in its most complete form which I rediscover through my study of structuralism, archeology, history, sociology, depth psychology and arts (Folklore...) etc.. and I hope, through it, we can easily discover the Ju man whom we badly need.
(C) Copyright. Last updated April 5, 1997 by VietMissio
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