Hsün Tzu

Ritual is the means by which to rectify yourself; the teacher is the means by which ritual is rectified. [...] If you unerringly do as ritual prescribes, it means that your emotions have found rest in ritual.

-Improving Yourself (30)

 

When form and meaning are emphasized and emotional content and practical use slighted, rites [or ritual] are in their most florid state. When form and meaning are slighted and emphasis placed upon emotion and practical use, rites are in their leanest state. When form and meaning, and emotion and practical use, are treated as the inside and outside or the front and back of a single reality and are both looked after, then rites have reached the middle state. Therefore the gentleman understands how to make rites florid and how to make them lean, but he chooses to abide in the middle state, and no matter whether he walks or runs, hurries or hastens, he never abandons it. It is his constant world and dwelling.

-A Discussion of Rites (96)

 

Where does learning begin and where does it end? I say that as to program, learning begins with the recitation of the Classics and ends with the reading of the ritual texts; and as to objective, it begins with learning to be a man of breeding, and ends with learning to be a sage. If you truly pile up effort over a long period of time, you will enter into the highest realm. Learning continues until death and only then does it cease. Therefore we may speak of an end to the program of learning, but the objective of learning must never for instant be given up. To pursue it is to be a man, to give it up is to become a beast.

-Encouraging Learning (19)

 

It is the way of all men that, if they do something only for the sake of winning rewards and benefits, then, the moment they see that the undertaking may end unprofitably or in danger, they will abandon it. [...] Rewards and punishments, force and deception may be the way to deal with hired laborers or tradesmen, but they are no way to unify the population of a great state or bring glory to the nation. Therefore, the men of ancient times were ashamed to resort to such ways.

Lead the people by magnifying the sound of virtue [....]

-Debating Military Affairs (73-74)

(Citations are to page numbers in Burton Watson translation of Hsün Tzu [or Xun Zi])

December 1, 2008 · Literature, Quotations · (No comments)

Lao Tzu

On non-being (or emptiness — wú 无):

Thirty spokes are united around the hub to make a wheel,

But it is on its non-being that the utility of the carriage depends.

Clay is molded to form a utensil,

But it is on its non-being that the utility of the utensil depends.

Doors and windows are cut to make a room,

But it is on its non-being that the utility of the room depends.

Therefore turn being into advantage, and turn non-being into utility.

(Tao-te ching, 11)

On war:

Weapons are instruments of evil, not the instruments of a good ruler.

When he uses them unavoidably, he regards calm restraint as the best principle.

Even when he is victorious, he does not regard it as praiseworthy,

For to praise victory is to delight in the slaughter of men.

(31)

On executions:

There is always the master executioner (Heaven) who kills.

To undertake executions for the master executioner is like hewing wood for the master carpenter.

Whoever undertakes to hew wood for the master carpenter rarely escapes injuring his own hands.

(74)

(Translated by Wing-Tsit Chan)

December 1, 2008 · Literature, Quotations · (No comments)