Week 2 - Expansion and Contraction, Humanity and Righteousness

 

91m. To justify changing the laws, Lord Shang suggests to Duke Xiao that the role of a ruler is to “spy what has yet to put out sprouts” (90m) and “discuss…what is beyond the law” (92t). We see that Shang’s changes are, in the end, disastrous, but given that Sima Qian himself suggests that a virtue of the Qin was its ability to “change with the times” (87m), is he not correct to emphasize the importance of foresight? But if a state’s continuity through history requires change at least as a mediation between its goals for the future and the reality of its past, why are Shang’s changes ultimately ineffectual? Perhaps it is helpful here to draw in Cai Ze’s notion of the importance of expansion and contraction (152m, 155t). Cai Ze speaks of it in relation to the individual man, but the metaphor can also be applied to the state when one considers how the state must both dare to expand, venturing new solutions, and concede to retract, returning to old, tested solutions in response to difficulties. Shang’s reforms establish “profound order,” but perhaps this order is itself antithetical to both directions of movement (93b). For instance, Shang insists that the common people exist in a state of strict rigidity, allowing them to be neither lazy nor industrious, applying themselves to approved professions only. They may own neither more nor less than what is prescribed by their rank, down to the number of articles of clothing (93t). This imposed inflexibility impedes both their expansion and contraction, forcing them to live within a narrow scope like inelastic stones, not dynamic sprouts.* How, then, could Shang have correctly perceived that which is beyond the law? He decreed that the customs should be changed “so that the proper distinctions are observed,” but from where does he derive his notion of what is proper (96m)? Immediately proceeding his downfall, Shang ignores advice from Zhao Liang, who quotes the ancient classics multiple times (98). Perhaps this provides a suggestion that judicious consideration of the old ways is not, paradoxically, an impediment to expansion into the future. Just as one learns from one’s father how to nourish a sprout but adapts this knowledge to a new terroir, so the old laws serve as patterns or systems of change to aid the growth of a state in response to new challenges. Further investigation of the nature of the laws will be on my mind in our continued reading.

* The metaphor of expansion and contraction is especially apt in this context when one considers that it mirrors the most basic act of life: breathing!

80b. Jia’s assessment of the downfall of Qin indicates two shortcomings: their failure to rule with “humanity and righteousness” and their failure to realize that acquisition and retention must be achieved by different means. The Qin rulers did not fail to acquire the empire, using “deceit and force” which even Jia concedes as permissible in the annexation of lands (81m). Therefore, the failure to rule with humanity and righteousness must be what prevented them from retaining their empire. But what does it mean to rule with both humanity and righteousness? Righteousness, taken as moral rectitude, seems to be sufficient in that it would allow a ruler to set up laws which encourage the people to act with virtue, which in turn allows the state to flourish. What does humanity add? The character for humanity* consists of components meaning “person” and “two,” indicating that the concept is both fundamentally relational and tied to being human. It is elsewhere translated as “benevolence,” which emphasizes the relational aspect (i.e., how one treats others)(82t). Jia indicates that the first Emperor failed in this regard, “never getting to know his people…, relying on private procedures,” and, of course, acting with cruelty (82m).** I have difficulty understanding, however, how this sense of the word differs from righteousness. Perhaps humanity is the condition for righteousness, the more fundamental virtue which makes it possible and directs it. For instance, humanity could be the self-knowledge which is the pre-condition for knowing how to be righteous. This hypothesis merits further inquiry but may go beyond the scope of this historical text. The other semantic component of the character is human-ness. Unfortunately, the August Emperor failed on this front as well: his desire to end the tradition of posthumous names (43m), his attempts to immortalize his deeds in stone (47), and his search for immortality (57t) all point to an obsession with unnatural fixity, a discomfort with the limits of his temporal human existence. How would the emperor’s acceptance of his natural lifespan have changed his behavior and manner of rule during his lifetime? This consideration opens the questions of how the rejection of human nature influences one’s rule, and, more paradoxically, how an acceptance of finitude could help one retain what one has gained.

*I found out which character he uses on ctext.org: [68] 何也？仁義不施而攻守之勢異也。**Emphasis mine.

- Lauren Delucchi