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THE ROLE OF QING 情 IN THE HUAINANZI'S ETHICS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2015

Matthew L. Duperon
Matthew L. Duperon*
Affiliation:
Matthew L. Duperon, 杜培倫, Susquehanna University; email: duperon@susqu.edu.
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Abstract

Through an analysis of every instance of the term qing 情 in the text, this article explores the role of this concept in the ethical thought of the second-century b.c.e. text Huainanzi. The Huainanzi authors draw on several features of the semantic range of qing in the early Han dynasty to help support their overall argument that the text provides an exhaustive and authoritative account of how to effectively govern an empire. As part of this project, I argue that the authors also use qing to articulate the meta-ethical features of the cosmos and human beings that make ideal moral action possible, as well as to explain the process of how humans can cultivate themselves to the ideal state of sagehood. Understanding the role of qing in the Huainanzi is thus essential to understanding the text's ethical content.

提要

這篇文章分析《淮南子》中每一個情字來探究該概念在全書倫理思想中的地位. 在漢代早期情字有好幾個意義, 而《淮南子》作者用這些意義來提倡他們的總主張,即《淮南子》可以提供關於有效治理天下的詳盡而權威的解釋. 我認為該書作者也用情來闡述宇宙與人類所具有的原倫理的特色， 而這一特色使得理想化的有道德的行為成為可能。作者也用情來解釋人怎樣自我修養以達到理想化的聖人的狀態。理解《淮南子》中的情的作用因此對理解該書的倫理內容至關重要。

Keywords

Ethicsmoral psychologymeta-ethicsHuainanziDaoismself-cultivationemotion倫理《淮南子》道家原倫理學道德哲學情感修身
Type
Articles
Information
Early China , Volume 38 , 2015 , pp. 79 - 107

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References

1. Hansen, Chad, “ Qing 情 (Emotions) in Pre-Buddhist Chinese Thought,” in Emotions in Asian Thought: A Dialogue in Comparative Philosophy, ed. Marks, Joel and Ames, Roger T. (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995)Google Scholar, 183. Graham, A. C., Studies in Chinese Philosophy and Philosophical Literature (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990)Google Scholar, 59.

2. Graham, Studies in Chinese Philosophy and Philosophical Literature, 63.

3. Graham, Studies in Chinese Philosophy and Philosophical Literature, 60.

4. Graham, Studies in Chinese Philosophy and Philosophical Literature, 60.

5. Graham, Studies in Chinese Philosophy and Philosophical Literature, 61–62.

6. Graham, Studies in Chinese Philosophy and Philosophical Literature, 62.

7. Graham, Studies in Chinese Philosophy and Philosophical Literature, 63.

8. Graham, Studies in Chinese Philosophy and Philosophical Literature, 63.

9. Graham, Studies in Chinese Philosophy and Philosophical Literature, 64.

10. Graham, Studies in Chinese Philosophy and Philosophical Literature, 65.

11. Hansen, “Qing 情 (Emotions) in Pre-Buddhist Chinese Thought,” 181.

12. Hansen, “Qing 情 (Emotions) in Pre-Buddhist Chinese Thought,” 196.

13. Hansen, “Qing 情 (Emotions) in Pre-Buddhist Chinese Thought,” 198–99. The Zhuangzi passage is in chapter 5, see Graham, A. C., Chuang-Tzu: The Inner Chapters (Indianapolis: Hackett), 1981 Google Scholar, 82.

14. Graham, Studies in Chinese Philosophy and Philosophical Literature, 60–63.

15. Puett, Michael, “The Ethics of Responding Properly: The Notion of Qing 情 in Early Chinese Thought,” in Love and Emotions in Traditional Chinese Literature, ed. Eifring, Halvor (Leiden: Brill, 2004), 37–68 Google Scholar.

16. Puett, “The Ethics of Responding Properly: The Notion of Qing 情 in Early Chinese Thought,” 42.

17. Puett, “The Ethics of Responding Properly: The Notion of Qing 情 in Early Chinese Thought,” 45.

18. Puett, “The Ethics of Responding Properly: The Notion of Qing 情 in Early Chinese Thought,” 45–46.

19. Puett, “The Ethics of Responding Properly: The Notion of Qing 情 in Early Chinese Thought,” 47.

20. Puett, “The Ethics of Responding Properly: The Notion of Qing 情 in Early Chinese Thought,” 50.

21. Puett, “The Ethics of Responding Properly: The Notion of Qing 情 in Early Chinese Thought,” 56–57.

22. This includes, most importantly, the “Neiye” 內業 and two “Xinshu” 心術 chapters of the Guanzi, as well as Zhuangzi and Laozi. I do not mean to imply that there was any sort of self-identified “Daoist” lineage prior to the Han dynasty, nor argue that Huainanzi is directly related to those texts. However, Harold Roth has argued convincingly for an identifiable theme relating to meditative practice running throughout these texts, such that we may retrospectively identify it as early “Daoist” literature, even if its authors would never have used that term. For more on the debate about the existence of pre-Han Daoism, see Csikszentmihalyi, Mark and Nylan, Michael, “Constructing Lineages and Inventing Traditions through Exemplary Figures in Early China,” in T'oung Pao 89.1 (2003), 59–99 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For Roth's argument about the continuity of early Daoist contemplative literature, see especially his Original Tao: Inward Training (Nei-yeh) and the Foundations of Taoist Mysticism (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999)Google Scholar, and for his argument for Huainanzi as a Daoist text see “ Huainanzi and Han Daoism,” in Dao Companion to Daoist Philosophy, ed. Xiaogan, Liu (New York: Springer, 2015)Google Scholar.

23. Harbsmeier, Christoph, “The Semantics of Qing 情 in Pre-Buddhist Chinese,” in Love and Emotions in Traditional Chinese Literature, ed. Eifring, Halvor (Leiden: Brill, 2004), 69–148 Google Scholar.

24. Harbsmeier, “The Semantics of Qing 情 in Pre-Buddhist Chinese,” 71–72.

25. Harbsmeier, “The Semantics of Qing 情 in Pre-Buddhist Chinese,” 72.

26. Harbsmeier, “The Semantics of Qing 情 in Pre-Buddhist Chinese,” 76.

27. Harbsmeier, “The Semantics of Qing 情 in Pre-Buddhist Chinese,” 84, 86.

28. All references to the text of Huainanzi are from Huainanzi zhuzi suoyin 淮南子逐字索引, Chinese University of Hong Kong Chinese Ancient Texts series, ed. D. C. Lau (Hong Kong: Commercial Press, 1992). I do not include the instance of qing at 20/226/16 because Lau emends the text here to drop the character.

29. Graham, Studies in Chinese Philosophy and Philosophical Literature, 59.

30. I follow the translations of chapter titles used by the editors and translators of the full English translation of Huainanzi, as well as their division of sections within chapters. See Major, et al., The Huainanzi: A Guide to the Theory and Practice of Government in Early Han China (New York: Columbia University Press, 2010)Google Scholar.

31. 1/9/6–7, translation Major, et al., Huainanzi, 73

32. 14/133/1–3, translation Major, et al., Huainanzi, 539.

33. 17.228/184/14, translation Major, et al., Huainanzi, 708.

34. 2/13/6, translation Major, et al., Huainanzi, 94.

35. The other passages including qing that I have identified as carrying the sense of something's actual circumstances or constitution are: 2/16/10, 2/16/17, 2/16/24, 3/19/13, 4/35/5, 8/64/13, 9/71/10, 9/75/2, 9/75/4, 9/75/8, 11/96/2, 11/96/15, 11/101/5, 13/120/26, 13/128/13, 13/128/21, 15/149/21, 15/149/24, 15/151/24, 15/151/29, 18/193/1, 19/207/1, 20/219/8–9, 21/226/26, and 21/227/13. Most of these cases can be grouped under this category without much controversy. In most of these cases Major, et al., translate qing as “essential qualities” or “true conditions.” In 9/75/2, 9/75/8, 15/149/21, 15/149/24, 15/151/24, 15/151/29, and 18/193/1, however, qing refers to an individual, such as a ruler, military leader, or minister. These instances may also fit into the category of qing as an individual's genuine responses, but I decided to include them here because the context suggests to me that the qing of these individuals are not being considered as individual responses but rather as part of the qing of the situation (e.g. a tactical or political situation).

36. 7/54/28–7/55/1, translation Major, et al., Huainanzi, 241.

37. 13/129/14, translation Major, et al., Huainanzi, 520.

38. 7/60/29, translation Major, et al., Huainanzi, 260.

39. 14/133/8, translation Major, et al., Huainanzi, 539. Note that this part of the text is actually one of the “sayings” in the Quan yan 詮言 “Sayings Explained” chapter, and thus (presumably) not written by the Huainanzi authors, though they do endorse it in the accompanying explanation.

40. See 14/133/8–11, and Major, et al., Huainanzi, 540.

41. 13/129/28–13/130/1, translation Major, et al., Huainanzi, 521.

42. 憂弗近 (13/130/2, translation Major, et al., Huainanzi, 521).

43. 10/86/24–10/87/1, translation Major, et al., Huainanzi, 368 with my emendations.

44. I include the following instances of qing in this second category without mentioning them in my discussion: 1/7/25, 7/59/17, 7/60/8, 7/60/9, 7/60/20, 8/61/7, 10/84/25, 10/86/3, 10/86/12, 10/91/23, 10/93/13, 11/97/15, 14/142/13, 15/144/23, 18/199/17, 18/191/26, 20/217/16, 21/224/3, 21/226/10, 21/226/16.

The instance at 21/226/10 presents a very interesting problem, which I have not been able to solve yet: 懈墮分學, 縱欲適情, 欲以偷自佚, 而賽於大道也 “[But those who] idly and lazily set aside their studies, give free rein to their desires and indulge their feelings, and wish to misappropriate what they lack, will be obstructed from the Great Way” (21/226/10, translation Major, et al., Huainanzi, 856). Here, shi qing, which would be translated anywhere else in the text as something like “accord with their genuine responses,” has a clearly negative connotation. I suspect that this shift in usage has to do with the different circumstances in the composition of the Yao lüe chapter of Huainanzi, which stands as a post-face to the rest of the work. For more on the distinctive features of the Yao lüe chapter, see Murray, Judson, “A Study of ‘Yaolüe’ 要略, ‘A Summary of the Essentials’: Understanding the Huainanzi through the Point of View of the Author of the Postface,” Early China 29 (2004), 45–110 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Major, et al., Huainanzi, 841–47.

45. 10/85/16–17, translation Major, et al., Huainanzi, 362.

46. 10/84/26, translation Major, et al., Huainanzi, 359, with my emendations.

47. 8/64/26, translation Major, et al., Huainanzi, 280, with my emendation.

48. 11/97/16, translation Major, et al., Huainanzi, 408.

49. 禮因人情而為之節文 11/97/15, translation Major, et al., Huainanzi, 408.

50. 10/92/17, translation Major, et al., Huainanzi, 387, with my emendations.

51. 10/83/8, translation Major, et al., Huainanzi, 353, with my emendations.

52. I include the following instances of qing in the third category without including them in my discussion: 1/4/9, 2/16/7, 2/17/13, 2/17/17, 6/54/1, 7/60/6, 7/60/10, 7/60/16, 7/60/19, 8/62/10, 8/62/11, 8/64/24, 10/84/23, 10/87/7, 10/88/1, 10/88/14, 10/88/17, 11/96/10, 11/97/17, 11/97/18, 11/104/1, 19/205/13, 19/207/24, and 20/221/23.

53. See 7/58/13–14, and Major, et al., Huainanzi, 251.

54. 7/59/16–17, Major, et al., Huainanzi, 255.

55. 7/59/18–19, Major, et al., Huainanzi, 255.

56. 9/81/14–15, Major, et al., Huainanzi, 337. 15/142/23 has a very similar statement.

57. 16.36/157/20. Major, et al., Huainanzi, 636. There are similar passages at 10/88/21 and 19/206/2.

58. 14/138/18, Major, et al., Huainanzi, 559.

59. 1/8/27–28, Major, et al., Huainanzi, 72, with my emendations.

60. I include the following instances of qing in the fourth category without including them in my discussion: 8/64/23, 10/88/21, 10/89/25, 10/93/13, 12/119/25, 13/127/10, 15/142/23, 19/206/2.

61. 1/2/14–16, Major, et al., Huainanzi, 53, with my emendations. Incidentally, this is the first appearance of qing in the text.

62. 10/83/7, Major, et al., Huainanzi, 353, with my emendation. The next part of this verse is a passage quoted above in support of the point that qing function as normative standards for conduct.

63. 10/88/13, Major, et al., Huainanzi, 373, with my emendation.

64. 11/93/27–28, Major, et al., Huainanzi, 398.

65. 10/87/19–21, Major, et al., Huainanzi, 370–71, with my emendations.

66. 11/96/21–22, Major, et al., Huainanzi, 406, with my emendations.

67. I include the following instances of qing in the fifth category without including them in my discussion: 9/69/13, 9/81/8, 10/87/9, 10/87/11, 11/97/25, 11/98/1, 14/139/13, and 17.65/172/32.

68. 11/99/16, Major, et al., Huainanzi, 414, with my emendation. I did not include this passage in any of my five categories of qing because it would fit equally well, I think, in the first category as the actual constitution of the myriad things, and in the third category as their genuine responses.

69. Roth, Harold, “Nature and Self-Cultivation in Huainanzi's ‘Original Way,’” in Polishing the Chinese Mirror: Essays in Honor of Henry Rosemont, Jr., ed. Chandler, Marthe and Littlejohn, Ronnie (New York: Global Scholarly Publications, 2008)Google Scholar, 275.