忠經 Zhong Jing #2
聖君章 Sage Noble Chapter
(PD) Mt Seoraksan Republic of Korea
Skies, earth, footprint...
(Photo clarity, angle, and wording by Larry Neal Gowdy)
Copyright ©2019 October 23, 2019
The second chapter of 忠經 (Zhong Jing) is titled 聖君章, which is loosely interpreted to be Sage Noble Chapter. Within popular Confucian texts, 君 (jun) is the word that is combined with 之 (zhi) to form the concept of 'junzi', the 'quality man' or 'noble man'. 君 (jun) has numerous English definitions that include 'gentleman, lord, monarch, noble, ruler, superior' etc.. However, an individual's occupation does not magically transform the employee into a quality individual, and, so, the better choice here is to apply the reasoning that 君 best implies quality attributes, of an individual who is of noble inner nature and noble outer behavior.
'Upper behavior, lower transform, Rational-logic it oneself correct. (draft translation of a sentence within 忠經 Zhong Jing chapter 2 聖君章)
It is very rare, and very pleasing, to observe a writing that speaks of self-thinking, that speaks of using one's own logic, instead of the writing preaching 'do this', 'do that'. When 'doing this' and 'doing that', the individual is as a puppet, of no self-qualities, no self-value, and is not able to change. If an individual is unable to self-think and to self-choose, then no quantity of 'do this - do that' will better the individual, nor make the individual intelligent.
'Therefore beautiful-jade person-ist upper matter-thing towards skies, Lower matter-thing towards earth, Middle matter-thing towards ancestors, Together approach towards people'. (draft translation of a sentence within 忠經 Zhong Jing chapter 2 聖君章)
As used within the sentence, 中 (zhong - middle) implies 'between skies and earth'. Within the sentence's allegory, ancestors' souls are in-between the earth and the uppermost skies, while not inferring exactness of position, nor a mathematical-statistical average-mean.
Therefore, the four-way idea is of [1] giving due respect towards to the things that are related to the skies above, [2] giving due respect towards to the things related to the earth below, [3] giving due respect towards to the things in-between the skies and earth, and [4] to use a logically relative approach towards people. A 'four-way person', therefore, is like 王 (wang): 'beautiful, great, jade, pure'.
'Day increase one day, Virtue increase bright-understanding {also}'. (draft translation of a sentence within 忠經 Zhong Jing chapter 2 聖君章)
Each sunrise, merely adds one more day... all days, remain days. Virtue is an ingredient, of when possessed and applied, increases the whole of one's life, enabling, among other things, increased understanding. Memorizing words, and obeying teachings, is, merely memorizing words, and obeying... just another day of the same things... there is no self-betterment, nor an increase, except for more of the same. Combining new ingredients, self-creates a new self... Qinren spoke of similar in 道德經 Dao De Jing... it is, a good dao.
A poem remains a poem, but when Li Xiangting's guqin music of Sleeping Lotus is added, the ingredients become a pleasing song. Knowledge is silent, has no rhyme... bright-understanding and virtue, sing in harmony.