中庸齊道 (Zhong Yong Chi Dao - Center Express Harmony Way) part 3
(PD) 中庸齊道 Zhong Yong Chi Dao - Center Express Harmony Way — Zhong Yong Chi Dao on Golden Pheasant
(Wording and photograph enhancements by Larry Neal Gowdy.)
Copyright ©2018 August 16, 2018
中庸齊道 Zhong Yong Chi Dao - Center Express Harmony Way — part 3
The first sentences had established the harmonious sequence of Zhong Yong's logic.
Zhong Yong Chi Dao:
Source nascents, it call nascent-ness.
Ratio nascent-ness, it call way.
The first sentences say enough for an individual to reason all that is necessary to know. However, it is very helpful when additional explanations are given.
修 (xiu) implies 'build, construct, decorate, edit, embellish, mend, repair, study, to cultivate, to write, trim'.
道 (dao), as before, implies 'way'.
之 (zhi) is again 'it'.
謂 (wei) still implies 'call'.
教 (jiao) implies 'instruct, religion, teach, teaching'.
The Source of Creation did not make use of Creation, nor did the Source make use of previously created things to 'build' or to 'decorate' Creation, and, so, 'xiu' is best interpreted to imply the original act of creating Creation itself.
By how 'jiao' is translated, so also will the translation determine whether the whole of the book is to fall into conflicts of man-made instructions and teachings, or whether 'jiao' is permitted a translation that is harmonious to the inner-nature of quality individuals.
Teachings and instructions are things to be memorized and to then 'act with obedience' by physically moving the body within gestures that obey the authoritarian rules. The quality man's way, however, does not follow teachings, nor instructions; the quality man lives his own life while holding 'fist fist to chest' Nature's way to be the standard of his own dao.
Most importantly for Zhong Yong, if 'jiao' were accepted to imply teaching and instruction, then the whole of the book's concepts would be contradictory.
The concept behind 'teaching' is that of the words being the rule of doing a thing. The verb-action and mental pattern behind 'teachings' is of the individual accepting and adjusting their own thoughts and behaviors to agree with the teachings. Therefore, the underlying concept of 'standard' is agreeable with 'teaching', but while also giving a useful concept that does not do harm to the idea of what a quality man is, nor harm the idea of what a quality man does.
Also, the word 'standard' is in agreement and harmony with Source, nascent-ness, ratio, and create. The words 'teaching' and 'instruction' are not in agreement — nor of harmony — with any other words within the sentences.
Zhong Yong common translation:
Heavens fate, it called nature.
Command nature, it called way.
Cultivate nature, it called instruction.
The common English translations of Zhong Yong are not ideal, nor of much meaning unless the reader already has the firsthand experience of what the original words likely implied, and the individual then extrapolates the words to find the meaning that the original concepts might have intended. Reading the English words as they are written, the words make no sense, and the words create contradictions of thought and behavior. If the heavens fate, giving people no choice, then it cannot be logical to 'cultivate' what already exists and cannot be changed. An individual cannot 'cultivate' the inner nature of the Source if the individual cannot possibly know the Source's nature.
As the common English translations stand, they contradict the other, and have no chi dao. An individual who accepts the translations' words to be true, will be harmed by accepting contradictions.
Zhong Yong Chi Dao:
Source nascents, it call nascent-ness.
Ratio nascent-ness, it call way.
Create way, it call standard.
When the words of Zhong Yong are permitted to be translated into English words that relate to firsthand experiences and to what is real within this Reality, the Chinese words then become beautiful of harmony. The Source created Creation, and the manner of how Creation was created then becomes the standard, which is fully logical as well as being fully correct.
Correctness is an attribute of the quality man, and since Zhong Yong speaks of quality individuals, then the quality individuals would know if the first sentences were rational or irrational.