間注 Notes
1. Confucius
2. There is a pun here, since "humanity" is also pronounced jen. Thus, in Chinese, this phrase says "jen is jen."
3. Used in I-Ching divination.
4. An ancient method of divination where tortoise shells were heated over a fire until they cracked. The cracks were read according to their patterns to diagnose a situation.
5. At this point in the text, one would expect a clear enumeration of three essential points. But following this are only a set of two, followed by a set of four. James Legge and Wing-tsit Chan, following Chu-hsi, say that these three essentials should be the ceremonies, regulations and formation of ideographs mentioned in the prior passage. This judgement may be questioned, since in Confucian texts, errors in rulership are generally shortcomings in the personal character or errors in judgement on moral issues.
Since these are three essentials of rulership, we might look to the end of section 20 above, which says: "Loving study, you approach wisdom; loving energetic practice, you approach jen. Understanding shame, you approach courage. If you understand these three, you know how to polish your character; knowing how to polish your character, you know how to handle others; knowing how to handle others, you know how to govern a state or clan."
6. This is another passage which seems to be deficient in the necessary contextual background for solid interpretation. But again, I must differ with Chu-hsi's interpretation which reads shang ( ) as "former times" and its antonym hsia ( ) as "low position." Since shang and hsia are so clearly contrasted here in consecutive sentences, it seems much more sensible and natural to read them antonymically. Furthermore, though to read shang as "formerly" or "antiquity" may be possible in Classical Chinese, we rarely see it used in that way in the Analects, Great Learning or Doctrine of the Mean. The two terms almost always mean "superior" or "above" and "inferior" or "below," usually in terms of societal rank, or level of personal enlightenment.
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