“Learning to be a Sage: Conversations of Master Chu, Arranged topically” by Master Chu, translated with a commentary by Daniel K Gardener.
The roots of Chinese medicine are inextricable intertwined with Chinese culture and philosophy. Understanding Chinese mores of behavior and history might help me as I study these ancient texts on health and disease. Master Chu’s conversations form the ground beliefs that most native Chinese medical practitioners understand innately as so much Confucian thought is contained in their culture. And as Master Chu focused his teachings on education and actually how to learn, I thought could be useful in my last year of university….
Who is Master Chu?
Chu Hsi’s prodigious scholarly output in his life (1130-1200) influenced Chinese culture for centuries. His commentaries on the Confucian classics made his brand of Confucianism the accepted interpretation from the early fourteenth century to the early twentieth century. He developed for his disciples a systematic, step-by-step program of self-perfection. He spent his life endlessly teaching and writing with a missionary zeal in the hope that the moral cultivation of the individual would lead to social and political harmony.
Master Chu believed that his highly elaborate program for the self-cultivation of the individual was the key to solving society’s ills. He felt that Chinese society and culture in the 12th century was in crisis and only if the proper values were transmitted could the crisis be resolved.
What was a sage according to Master Chu?
Learning to be a sage was to become fully moral. And while every man is born with the same good nature, the same principle, few are able to make that nature manifest in their lives. All are also born with a psychophysical endowment that determines whether an individual can make their highest nature manifest. Master Chu believed that even the most evil of people still had the same good nature, but that it was simply badly obscured. So the dilemma was how to refine and perfect one’s psychophysical qualities so they did not obscure one’s true nature.
For Master Chu, education held the power to reform, perfect and polish one’s true nature. But the nature of this type of education bears no resemblance to what we think of as schooling, no, he had a more comprehensive understanding of education, which included the transmission and absorption of cultural values, customs and modes of proper behavior.
He wrote a work called ‘Family Rituals” which functioned as a manual offering guidelines on how to behave with others in the community as well as the family. Ritual acts in the Chinese context were thought to breed in the individual an inner correctness.
In his lifetime, Chu, in his capacity as an official, had many shrines and memorials built honoring men who in their lifetimes had displayed exemplary moral qualities. This was an extension of the Confucian belief that thru the power of moral example, a good person would through “magical charisma” transform those around him into morally superior individuals.
The Articles of the White Deer Hollow Academy
Chu was critical of the educational system. His system of education was practiced at the White Deer Hollow Academy. The following is the basis for its curriculum that is reverently referred to as ‘The Five Teachings’ which were a model for education throughout East Asia until recently.
Affection between parent and child;
Righteousness between ruler and subject;
Differentiation between husband and wife;
Precedence between elder and younger;
Trust between friends
In studying there is also a proper sequence of five items:
Study extensively
Inquire carefully
Ponder thoroughly
Sift clearly,
And practice earnestly
For self-cultivation the following is part of practicing earnestly:
Be loyal and true to your every word.
Be serious and careful in all you do
Curb your anger and restrain your lust
Move toward the good
Correct your errors
And in handling your affairs:
Accord with the righteous,
Do not seek profit
Illuminate the Way
Do not calculate the advantages
And in dealing with other people:
Do NOT do to others what you do NOT want done to you (sounds familiar?)
Whenever you fail to achieve your purpose, look into yourself
On reading:
Master Chu lived when books were only beginning to become available outside of the palaces and temples. Memorization of the classics was no longer necessary. Chu worried that this would lead to laziness in thinking. People would read indiscriminately and not really THINK. (What would he make of the internet?). He calls for limiting the scope of one’s reading and reading intensively the source material – the Confucian classic canon in this case.
Quotes from the conversations that I like:
“4-18 Your reading will be successful only if you understand the spot where everything interconnects-east and west meet at this pivotal point. Simply dedicate yourself to what you’re doing at the moment, don’t think about the past or the future, and you’ll naturally get to this point. But now you say that you’ve never been able to do it (i.e. read properly), that you fear you’re too slow, or fear that you’re not up to doing it, or fear that it is difficult or fear that you’re stupid or fear that you won’t remember what you’ve read – this is idle talk. Simply dedicate yourself to what you’re doing at the moment don’t be concerned whether you’re fast or slow and soon you will naturally get there because you have never done it before, exert the right effort now, and make up for past failures. Don’t look to your front or back don’t think about east or west or soon you’ll have wasted a lifetime without realizing that you‘ve grown old.”
4-23…keep the curriculum small, but the effort you make on it large….
4-24…don’t strive for quantity, instead become intimately familiar with what you read… only if you read for the meaning of the ancients will your reading be right.
4-28 I especially don’t want people to skip around as they read. It is essential to focus on each and every paragraph.
4-38 …students are fond of breadth but often lack detailed understanding. They spread themselves over a hundred different books, which isn’t as good as having a detailed understanding of one.
4-51 A man reading is like a man drinking wine. A man who loves drinking will finish one cup and want still another. A man who doesn’t love it will force his way through one cup and stop.
4-52 In reading you must set a limit beforehand. Managing your reading is like farm work: in farming there are boundary lines. Learning is the same. Beginning student today don’t appreciate this principle. At the outset they are extremely zealous, but gradually they become more and more indolent. And in the end they pay no attention at all. This is simply because they don’t set limits at the outset.
Holding On to It (once you’ve read it very carefully…)
Master Chu spoke extensively on how to cultivate mental attentiveness and that this skill was vital if one hoped to become a sage. Many of the quotes mention quiescence, and learning to have the quality of quiescence even amidst swift activity. Quiescence = inner peace or calm. Although he advocated quiet sitting he cautioned his students about exaggerating its importance like the Buddhists did.
6-3 If the mind is not preserved, your entire person will be without a master.
6-8 A man confused isn’t lucid: it’s only as he begins to acknowledge his confusion that lucidity sets in. !!!
Energetically Putting it into Practice
Master Chu spoke often about the civil service examinations that were required to advance in Chinese politics. He felt the emphasis on preparation for the exams often compromised true learning, yet he felt that this could be balanced with the right attitude – “It’s only if one first fills one’s mind with thoughts of success and failure that injury is done. – Just use the examinations as an instrument to straighten your own moral principle”
7-7 To engage in learning is like climbing a pagoda. If you climb one story after another, you’ll personally get to know the top story, without inquiring of anyone else. If you don’t actually walk up it, but just fantasize about it you’ll be incapable of understanding even the lowest story. JFDI?!
7-24 In teaching and guiding the younger generation, you must be stern and untiring. But only if you’re able to inspire and enlighten them as well will you be successful. If you’re simply stern with them, restraining them and that is all; it’ll be of no help.
7-41 Discussion that sidesteps and avoids the issue is most harmful to matters.
This is just a recap of the book really, to keep after I have sent it back to the British Library where it lives. It is out of print and maybe I will have to find a copy as I just love the title….cause it seems to be what I have been trying to learn my whole life.
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