University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER XXXII.

On Original Nature (Pên-hsing).

Natural feelings and natural disposition are the basis of human
activity, and the source from which morals and music spring. Morals
impede, and music checks the excesses of original nature. The
natural disposition may be humble, modest, and yielding. The
moral laws are enforced with a view to generalizing such praiseworthy
qualities. The natural feelings may be good or bad, cheerful
or angry, mournful or merry. Music is made in order to make
every one behave respectfully. What morals and music aim at are
the natural feelings and natural disposition.

The ancient literati and scholars who have written essays
have all touched upon this question, but could not give a satisfactory
answer. The philosopher Shih Tse[1] of the Chou time held that
human nature is partly good and partly bad, that, if the good
nature in man be cultivated and regulated, his goodness increases,
and if his bad nature be, his badness develops. Thus in the human
heart there would be two conflicting principles, and good and evil
depend on cultivation. Accordingly, Shih Tse composed a chapter
on cultivation.

Fu Tse Chien, Ch`i Tiao K`ai; and Kung Sun Ni Tse[2] also discuss
this subject in very much the same way as Shih Tse, all declaring
that nature is partly good, partly bad.

Mencius wrote a chapter on the goodness of nature,[3] contending
that all men are originally good, and that the bad ones are corrupted
by the world. Men, he says, are created by heaven and
earth; they are all provided with a good nature, but when they
grow up and come into contact with the world, they run wild,

and are perverted, and their wickedness increases daily. According
to Mencius' opinion, man, when young, would be invariably good.

Wei Tse[4] said, "I have formerly remarked, that as a child
the prince (Chou) did not show off."

When Chou was a child, Wei Tse observed that he had no
good character. Inclined to evil, he did not eclipse the common
people, and when he had grown up, he caused endless revolutions.
Therefore Wei Tse's remark.

When Yang-Shê Shih-Wo[5] was born and Lady Shu saw him,
and upon entering the hall heard him cry, she went back and said,
"His voice is that of a wolf. He has a reckless character, destitute
of all affection. But for him the Yang Shê family would not
perish." Afterwards she declined to see him. When he had grown
up, Ch`i Shêng made a rebellion, in which Shih-Wo took part.
The people killed him, and the Yang Shê family was extinguished
thereby.[6]

Chou's wickedness dated from his childhood, and Shi-Wo's
rebellion could be foretold from the new-born's whine. As a newborn
child has not yet had any intercourse with the world, who
could have brought about his perversion?

Tan Chu was born in Yao's palace, and Shang Chün in Shun's
hall. Under the reign of these two sovereigns, the people house
by house were worthy of being entrusted with fief. Those with
whom the two might have mixed, were most excellent, and the
persons forming the suit of the two emperors, were all most virtuous.
Nevertheless, Tan Chu was haughty, and Shang Chün brutal.
Both lacked imperial decorum to such a degree, that they were
set up as a warning to coming generations.

Mencius judges men by the pupils of their eyes. If the heart
be bright, says he, the pupils are clear, if it be dark, the pupils
are dim.[7] However, the clearness and dimness of the eyes reaches
back to as far as man's birth. These differences are due to the
different fluids received from heaven. The eyes are not clear during
childhood, or dimmed, when man grows, and associates with other
people. Nature at first is spontaneous, goodness and badness are

the outcome of different dispositions. What Mencius says about
original nature is not true.

Yet something may have contributed to the idea of the goodness
of nature. A man may be benevolent or just, it is the wonderful
proficiency of his nature, as in his locomotion and movements
he shows his extraordinary natural ability. But his colour, whether
white or black, and his stature, whether long or short, remain unchanged
until old age and final death. Such is his heavenly nature.[8]

Everybody knows that water, earth, and other substances
differ in their natures, but people are not aware that good and
evil are due to different natural dispositions. A one year old baby
is not inclined to violent robbery. After it has grown up, its
greed may gradually develop, and lead to ferocity and aggressiveness.

Kao Tse, a contemporary of Mencius denies the difference of
goodness and badness in nature, comparing it to flowing water
which led to the east, runs eastward, and to the west, westward.
As water cannot be divided according to its eastern or western
direction, a division of men into good and bad ones is untenable.[9]
Therefore Kao Tse asserts that human nature is similar to the
nature of water. Such being the case, water may well be used as
an illustration.

Nature is as metal is metal, and wood, wood. A good man
has a natural bent towards goodness, and a wicked man to wickedness.
Man is endowed by heaven with a spontaneous mind, and
has received a uniform disposition.[10] Therefore portents appear at
the time of birth, from which man's goodness and badness can be
discovered.

People with whom no difference of good and bad exists, and
who may be pushed one or the other way, are called average
people. Being neither good nor bad, they require instruction in
order to assume a certain type. Therefore Confucius says that with
people above the average one can discourse on higher subjects, but
that with those under the average one cannot do so.[11] Kao Tse's
comparison with channelled water applies only to average people,
but does not concern extremely good or extremely bad persons.

According to Confucius people are nearly related to one another by
character, but become very different by habit.[12] The character of
average people is the work of habit. Made familiar with good,
they turn out good, accustomed to evil, they become wicked. Only
with extremely good, or extremely bad characters habit is of no
avail. Therefore Confucius holds that only highly cultured and
grossly ignorant people cannot be changed.[13] Their natures being
either good or otherwise, the influence of sages, and the teaching
of wise men is impotent to work a change. Since Confucius, the
Nestor in wisdom and virtue, and the most eminent of all philosophers,
asserts the unchangeability of highly cultured and grossly
ignorant people, we may conclude that Kao Tse's sayings are not
correct.

However, there is some foundation for Kao Tse's view. The
Shiking[14] says:—"What can that admirable man be compared to?"
The Tso-chuan answers:—"He is like boiled silk; dyed with indigo
it becomes blue, coloured with vermilion it turns crimson." Leading
water eastward or westward is like dyeing silk blue or red. Tan
Chu and Shang Chün were also imbued with Yao and Shun's doctrines,
but Tan Chu remained haughty, and Shang Chün cruel. The
extremely bad stuff they were made of did not take the blue or
the red colour.

In opposition to Mencius, Sun Ching[15] wrote a chapter on the
wickedness of nature, supposing human nature to be wicked, and
its goodness to be ficticious. Wickedness of nature means to say
that men, when they are born, have all a bad nature, and ficticiousness
that, after they have grown up, they are forcibly induced
to do good. According to this view of Sun Ching, among men, even
as children, there are no good ones.

Chi as a boy amused himself with planting trees. When Confucius
could walk, he played with sacrificial vessels. When a stone
is produced, it is hard, when a fragrant flower comes forth, it
smells. All things imbued with a good fluid develop accordingly
with their growth. He who amused himself with tree planting,

became the minister of T`ang,[16] and the boy who played with
sacrificial vessels, the sage of Chou. Things with a fragrant or
stony nature show their hardness and fragrance. Sun Ching's
opinion is, therefore, incompatible with truth, yet his belief in the
wickedness of nature is not quite without foundation:

A one year old baby has no yielding disposition. Seeing
something to eat, it cries, and wants to eat it, and beholding a
nice thing, it weeps, and wants to play with it. After it has
grown up, its propensities are checked, and its wishes cut down,
and it is compelled to do good.

Liu Tse Chêng[17] objects that in this case heaven would have
no fluid. Where would the first good deed come from, if the Yang
and the Yin principles and good and evil were not counterbalancing
each other?

Lu Chia[18] says that, when heaven and earth create men, they
predispose them in favour of propriety and justice, that man can
see what for he has received life and act accordingly, which accordance
is called virtue. Lu Chia thinks that the human mind
is turned towards propriety and justice, and that man also can discover
what for he has come into life. However, the right-minded
do good of their own accord without waiting for this discovery,
and the evil-minded disregard propriety and defy justice, although
they see quite clearly in the matter. It is impossible that justice
should win them to the good cause. Thus the covetous can speak
very well on disinterestedness, and the rebels on good government,
robber Chê[19] condems theft and Chuang Chiao[20] stigmatises lawlessness.
They have a clear conception of themselves, and know how
to talk on virtue, but owing to their vicious character they do not
practise what they say, and the good cause derives no benefit from
it. Therefore Lu Chia's opinion cannot be considered the right one.

Tung Chung Shu[21] having read Mencius and Sun Ching's writings,
composed himself an essay on natural feelings and natural disposition,

in which he says:—Heaven's great principles are on one
side the Yin, on the other the Yang. The great principles in man
are on one side the natural feelings, on the other natural disposition.
The disposition comes out of the Yang, the feelings out of the Yin.
The Yin fluid is base, the Yang fluid humane. Who believes in the
goodness of nature sees the Yang, who speaks of its wickedness
the Yin. That is, Tung Chung Shu means to say that Mencius saw
only the Yang, and Sun Ching the Yin.

The opinions of the two philosophers may well thus be
distinguished, but as regards human nature, such a distinction does
not hold good. Goodness and badness are not divided in this way.
Natural feelings and natural disposition are simultaneously produced
by the Yin and the Yang combined, either more or less copiously.
Precious stones growing in rocks are partly of a single colour,
partly multicoloured, how can natural feelings or natural disposition
growing in the Yin and Yang be either exclusively good? What
Tung Chung Shu says is not correct.

Liu Tse Chêng teaches that the natural disposition is formed
at birth, that it is inherent to the body and does not come out,
that on the other hand natural feelings arise from the contact with
the world, and manifest themselves outwardly. That which manifests
itself outwardly, he calls Yang, that which does not appear,
he calls Yin Thus Liu Tse Chêng submits that the natural disposition
is inherent to the body, but does not come out, whereas
the natural feelings unite with external things, and appear outwardly.
Therefore he designates them as Yang. The natural disposition
he designates as Yin, because it does not appear, and has
no communication with the outer world. Liu Tse Chêng's identification
of natural feelings with Yang and disposition with Yin leaves
the origin of these qualities quite out of the question, insomuch
as the Yin and the Yang are determined in an off-hand way by
outward manifestation and non-appearance. If the Yang really
depends on outward manifestation, then it may be said that natural
disposition also comes into contact with external things. "In
moments of haste, he cleaves to it, and in seasons of danger he
cleaves to it."[22] The compassionate cannot endure the sight of
suffering. This non-endurance is au effluence of benevolence. Humility
and modesty are manifestations of natural disposition. These
qualities have all their external objects. As compassion and modesty

manifest themselves outwardly, I am afraid that the assertion
that natural disposition is something inside without any connection
with external things, cannot be right. By taking into consideration
merely outwardness and inwardness, Yin and Yang, without reference
to the goodness and badness of nature, the truth cannot be
known. As Liu Tse Chêng has it, natural disposition would be Yin,
and natural feelings Yang, but have men not good as well as bad
passions?

From Mencius down to Liu Tse Chêng the profoundest scholars
and greatest thinkers have propounded a great many different views
without, however, solving the problem of original nature in a satisfactory
way. The arguments of the philosophers Shih Tse, Kung
Sun Ni Tse, and others of the same class[23] alone contain much truth.
We may say that it is easy to understand the subject, but the
difficulty is to explain the principle. Style and diction may be
ever so brilliant and flowery,[24] and the conceptions and arguments
as sweet as honey, all that is no proof of their truth.

As a matter of fact, human natural disposition is sometimes
good, and sometimes bad, just as human faculties can be of a
high or of a low order. High ones cannot be low, nor low ones
high. To say that human nature is neither good nor bad would
be the same as to maintain that human faculties are neither high
nor low. The original disposition which Heaven gives to men, and
the destiny which it sends down, are essentially alike. By destiny
men are honoured or despised, by nature good or bad. If one
disputes the existence of goodness and badness in human nature,
he might as well call in question that destiny makes men great
or miserable.

The nature of the soil of the Nine Provinces[25] is different in
regard to goodness and badness. It is yellow, red, or black, of
superior, average, or inferior quality. The water courses are not
all alike. They are limpid or muddy, and run east, west, north
or southward. Man is endowed with the nature of Heaven and
Earth, and imbued with the spirit of the Five Qualities.[26] He may

be benevolent or just, it is the wonderful proficiency of his nature.
In his locomotion and movements he may be majestic or agile, it
is his extraordinary natural ability. But his colour, whether white
or black and his stature, whether long or short, remain unchanged
until old age and final death. Such is heavenly nature.[27]

I am decidedly of opinion that what Mencius says on the
goodness of human nature, refers to people above the average,
that what Sun Ching says on its badness, refers to people under
the average, and that, if Yang Hsiung teaches that in human nature
goodness and badness are mixed together, he means average people.
Bringing people back to the unchanging standard and leading them
into the right way, one may teach them. But this teaching alone
does not exhaust human nature.