194 Diagram of the Admonition on
"Rising Early and Retiring Late"
Text of the
Admonition
When the cock crows and you awake, thoughts gradually
increase their pace; at this time how can one but compose himself
and bring order to them. Sometimes reflect on your past faults;
at others follow out what has been newly apprehended. With proper
order and sequence, lucidly ponder this matter in
silence.
The foundation being thus established, as day breaks, rise, brush
your teeth, comb your hair, and don your robes and cap. Then,
sitting erect, compose your body and recollect your mind, making
it as luminous as the rising sun; become solemn and silent,
ordered and even, empty and lucid, still and
undivided.
Then open your books and enter the presence of the sages and wise
men; Confucius is seated, Yen Hui and Tseng Tzu3
attend before and behind. Personally and reverently attend to the
words of the sage Master; carefully going over and
reconsidering the questions and discussions of the
disciples, settle them [in your own mind].
When some matter arises, respond to it; then you may experience
[what you have been learning] in actual practice. The clear
Mandate will shine forth; keep your attention constantly
upon it. When the matter has been responded to and is finished,
be as you were before, with your mind clear and calm. Recollect
your spirit and dispel distracting thoughts.
Over the cyclic alternation of activity and quiet, the mind alone
presides; it should be possessed in quiet and discerning in
activity. Do not allow it to become divided into two or three. In
the time left over from reading, from time to time take a swim to
relax your mind and refresh and nourish your feelings and
nature.
As the sun sets one tends to slacken and a dull spirit easily
comes upon one; purify, refresh, order, and settle yourself,
rein-
Diagram of the
Admonition on "Rising Early and Retiring Late"
195
vigorating your mind. When the night is far gone, go to bed,
lying with your hands at your sides and your feet together; do
not let your mind wander in thought, but make it return to abide
[in repose]. Nurture it in the restorative atmosphere of the
night;4 after Steadfastness there is a return to
Origination.5
Be mindful of the matter at hand, industrious day and
night.
T'oegye's Comments
The above Admonition was composed by Ch'en Mao-ch'ing
(Po)6
of Nan-yang as a self-reminder. When Wang Luchai
[Po]7 of Chin-hwa was master of the Shang-ts'ai
Academy in T'ai-chou, he emphasized this [admonition] as
the basis for his instruction, and had all of the students recite
it, become thoroughly versed in it, and follow it in
practice.
I have ventured to imitate Wang's diagram of the
Admonition for
Mindfulness Studio and made this diagram to correspond with
that one. The Admonition
for
Mindfulness Studio
presented the various topics to which one applies himself [in the
practice of mindfulness], and so the diagram of it is arranged
topically. This admonition presents the application [of
mindfulness] according to the different periods of the day,
so its diagram is arranged according to temporal
divisions.
Indeed, the uninterrupted flow of the Tao throughout the affairs
of daily life is such that there is nowhere one can go that it is
not present; thus there is not a single foot of ground in which
principle is absent. What place is there that one may cease his
diligence? And [the Tao] does not pause for the least instant;
thus there is not a moment's time in which principle is absent.
What time is there that one must not apply himself? Therefore Tzu
Ssu has said: "As for the Tao, one may not depart
196 Diagram of
the Admonition on
"Rising Early and Retiring Late"
from it for the least moment; if one could depart from it, it
would not be the Tao. Thus the superior man is careful and
cautious even when he is not seen, fearful and anxious even when
he is not heard."8 And again: "Nothing is more visible than what
is concealed, nothing more manifest than what is subtle;
therefore the superior man is cautious when he is
alone."9
This is how, in harmony with the alternation of quiet and
activity and in accord with the time and the place, one carries
to the utmost the complementary practices of preserving and
nurturing [one's innate, good dispositions in quiescence] and
exercising reflection and discernment [in activity]. When one is
finally able to conduct himself in this manner, there will be no
topic which is neglected, and so there will not be "a hair's
breadth disparity"; there will be no time of day which is not
attended to, so one will not "falter for a single moment."10 One
must advance in both respects in unison; in this lies the essence
of becoming a sage.
[T'oegye's note:]
The above five diagrams are based on considerations of the mind
and the nature; their essential theme is the exercise of
diligence in cultivating oneself in the course of daily life, and
esteem for the practice of mindfulness and reverent
fear.
Diagram of the Admonition on
"Rising Early and Retiring Late" 197
Commentary
This chapter presents mindfulness as practiced in the course of a
daily routine characterized by an alternating rhythm of quietness
and activity. Quietness and activity represent not only the ebb
and flow of events, but, as we have seen, fundamental conditions
of the mind, each of which must have its appropriate cultivation
through mindfulness. Our comments, then, will first address
various aspects of self-cultivation through mindfulness as
it applies to these two conditions, a matter which was a constant
source of questions for young Neo-Confucians as they
embarked upon serious practice.
The General Context: the Moral Life as Response
If, as is common in the West, the moral life is conceived of
primarily as a question of deciding between and doing either good
or evil, attention is naturally directed toward the exercise of
judgment and will, the decisive and directive functions of the
moral subject. In the Confucian tradition, however, the moral
question is primarily framed as one of appropriately responding
to a situation; this leads to a focus on what distorts or hinders
the appropriate response, and results in a mode of
self-cultivation designed to minimize or remove the
distorting factor. In this context self, or
self-centeredness, emerges as the principal problem. The
philosophy of principle set up a framework for
self-cultivation which de jute solved this problem in terms
of the transcendent unity of principle, the one,
all-embracing normative pattern which transcends the
distinction of self and other. T'oegye says:
Although there are ten thousand differentiations among things,
principle is one. Because principle is one, the nature has no
distinction between inner and outer. The means by which the
mind-and-heart of the superior man is able to be vast
and empty in exercising all-embracing impartiality is that
he
198
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Admonition on "Rising
Early and Retiring Late"
is able to make his nature integral and so be without the
distinction of inner and outer [i.e., self and nonselfJ. The
means by which he is able to respond appropriately to something
that presents itself is that he follows the oneness of principle
with no distinction between this or that. If one only understands
that things are external and does not understand that principle
has no distinction between this or that, this is to
distinguish principle and things as if they were two; this is
certainly impermissible. Or if one only understands that things
are not external but does not recognize principle as the
standard, this means that there will be no mastery within and
things will finally seize control; this likewise is
impermissible. The superior man understands that there is no
distinction between inner and outer in the nature, and in his
response to things he uniformly follows principle. Therefore
although he continually deals with external things, such things
can cause no hindrance to the self; [within] he is limpid with
nothing [having a hold on him] and so his nature is settled. (A,
13.16a-b, p. 353)
That is, dealing with affairs is problematic only insofar as
selfcentered desires give things a hold over the mind, which
causes disturbance, confusion, and inappropriate responses.
Accordingly the ideal condition of the mind is presented in terms
appropriate to its perfect responsiveness:
[Yi] Tŏkhong asked: As for not a single thing being
permitted [to have a hold] within the mind-and-heart,
does that mean that even such a thing as a norm of what is
appropriate likewise should not be permitted?
[T'oegye] said: No, that's not it. The integral substance of the
mind is perfectly empty and perfectly still, like a clear mirror
that reflects things. When something presents itself one
responds to it but it does not clog up [the mind]; when it goes,
one is as previously, empty and clear. If [the mind] becomes
fixated with something it is like a mirror soiled with mud; it is
entirely unable to attain its empty, clear, quiet, undivided
condition. (ŎHN 1.14a, B, p. 795)
Buddhists were fond of the mirror image as a description of a
selfless consciousness untouched by the phenomena reflected in
it, but here the point of the image is totally Confucian: quiet,
emptiness of self or any fixed object, and clarity are not ends
in themselves, but mental qualities that make one perfectly
responsive to the ever-changing
Diagram of the Admonition on
"Rising Early and Retiring Late" 199
situations encountered by one involved in the affairs of the
world. Mindfulness is the practice by which such qualities are
cultivated.
Making Quiet the Primary Thing
Looking at the mind as a basis of response easily leads to the
view of the mind as essentially empty and quiet when not
responding, as we have seen above. A distinctive
Neo-Confucian development was the systematic expression of
this view in terms of two interrelated states or conditions of
the mind: quiescence (substance) and activity
(function).
As the basis of response, the quiet state has a certain analytic
priority. Chou Tun-i emphasized quietness as primary, and
Ch'eng Hao instructed his students in a meditation method known
as "quiet-sitting" (ching-tso, chŏngjwa. ) Ch'eng I
admired the spirit of seriousness and discipline in this
practice, but also was concerned lest this quietness become a
countervalue to activity and take on a Buddhist rather than a
Confucian cast; thus he introduced the doctrine of
mindfulness.
As applied to the quiet state, what is entailed in the practice
of mindfulness may be virtually identical with
quiet-sitting; the important difference is that
mindfulness was explicitly formulated as a practice that
encompasses both quiet and activity and gives priority and
preference to neither. One is quiet when it is time for quiet,
active when it is time to be active, and that is all. It was Chu
Hsi, who had himself been trained in the quiet-sitting
tradition by his teacher Li T'ung, who most clearly formulated
the mindfulness doctrine in such a way as to balance
one-sidedness in either direction.
"Balance" can also mean tension, however, and there was clearly
scope within the mindfulness doctrine for widely differing
lifestyles vis-a-vis the place of activity and
quiet. T'oegye approached the question of quiet and inwardness
with caution due to its proximity to Buddhism; we have seen his
emphasis on external propriety as a fundamental and reliable
approach to cultivating mindfulness. But in his view quietness
occupies a fundamental and important place;
mind-
200 Diagram of the
Admonition on "Rising Early and Retiring Late"
fulness is a doctrine to ensure balance, but not to undermine
that place:
The purport of making quiet the primary thing has been spoken of
by Confucius, Mencius, Chou [Tun-i], and the Ch'engs;
in the school of Kuei-shan [Yang Shih] what was passed on
as the essential key until it reached Hui-am [Chu Hsi]
likewise consisted in this. How much more is it so since it is
the medicine which fits your particular problem! But if one makes
a single slip in this matter he will fall into Zen. Therefore
Master Ch'eng [I] and Master Chu also have a thesis about
employing mindfulness rather than quietness. This was because
they feared people would mistakenly slip into [Zen] and so they
put forth this explanation to save them; it was not that they
regarded making quiet the primary thing as impermissible.
Nevertheless one likewise should not get fed up with the
complexity of broad study and restraining oneself with propriety,
and exclusively devote oneself to concentrating on quietness. (A,
28.29b-30a, p. 666, Letter to Kim Ijŏng)
Mindfulness, then, is a broad-gauge doctrine that ensures
balance; it encompasses and goes beyond quiet-sitting, but
does not supplant that practice. T'oegye had the highest respect
for Li T'ung and his teaching regarding self-cultivation,
and he accepted the deliberate, disciplined approach to
cultivating quietness entailed in quiet-sitting:
[Kim Sŏngil] asked about Master Yen-ping [Li T'ung]'s
theory of quiet-sitting.
Master [T'oegye] said: Only after [practicing]
quiet-sitting can one's mind and body become recollected
and moral principles finally all come together and be anchored.
If one's form and bones are heedlessly relaxed and without
restraint, then the body and mind are darkened and disordered and
moral principle no longer has a place to which to gather and be
anchored. Therefore Kao-t'ing [Chu Hsi] quiet-sat
facing Master Yen-ping for an entire day, and after he had
parted from him likewise did so on his own.
[Further] question: How about if one has the problem of feeling
constrained in quiet-sitting?
Master [T'oegye] said: If this body made of flesh and blood has
been entirely without restraint from its youth, and then in a
single morning one suddenly wants to quiet-sit and be
recollected, how can there but be the problem of feeling
constrained? It is necessary to steadfastly endure a very painful
period during which there is no feeling of lively animation; then
after a long period of years of practice one finally will no
longer have the problem of feeling
Diagram of the Admonition on "Rising Early and Retiring Late"
201
constrained. If one dislikes constraint and expects to do this
with natural spontaneity, this is what pertains to the state of
sages and wise men whose entire body follows what is ordained
with reverence and serenity; it is not something that is possible
for a beginning student. In general the problem of feeling
constrained is in fact due to one's continually wanting to steal
some relaxation while one's practice of maintaining mindfulness
is not yet perfect. If the mind is bright and alert and not slack
and unrestrained, then the entire body naturally becomes
recollected and composed and follows what is ordained. (ŎHN 1.16b-17a,
B, pp. 796-797)
Quiet, objectless consciousness is a unitive, integrating
experience that takes on different meaning and different
experiential significance in different philosophic or religious
frameworks. In the above passage, T'oegye's phrase, "moral
principles all come together and are anchored," indicates
its meaning in the Neo-Confucian context. In activity the
mind pursues and concentrates on this or that matter, or
principle in this or that manifestation; in quietness, there is a
coalescing and unification that transcends what may be
spoken or expressed, but is nonetheless intimately related
to the particularity of what is experienced and understood in the
active state. The relationship of activity and quiescence
thus understood is an experiential reiteration of the
philosophical dictum, "principle is one but manifested
diversely." The gathering together of principle reflects the
transcendent unity and nonspecificity of the Supreme
Ultimate, the sum of all principle which is also the substance of
the mind. "Nurturing the nature in quietness" is an experience of
this all-embracing unity; but the Supreme Ultimate as real
and concrete value is nothing apart from its diversified
manifestation in the beings and affairs of the real world, and
this likewise must be the final reference point and value of
quietness.
Spontaneity and Naturalness
Neo-Confucians accepted the tradition that commonly
described the sage as spontaneously perfect: his response to
every situation would be invariably correct with no need for
deliberation or
202 Diagram of the Admonition on
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thought. The key to this perfection, it was agreed, was the fact
that in the sage there is no self-will. Activity is
physically the activity of the self or person, but there is no
self-centeredness disjoining the person from the Tao or
principle, and so actions are spontaneously in accord with the
norm.
With such assumptions regarding the nature of the ideal
condition, the temptation was to construe spontaneity not
only as an attribute of the perfect state, but as a means to its
attainment. The mind in quiescence is in perfect unity with
principle, its substance; if in moving into activity one could
avoid deliberation, a function of the self, would not activity of
itself become perfect? The doctrine of mindfulness counters this
Taoistic approach; it makes unremitting self-possession and
attentiveness, not spontaneity, the key to
self-cultivation. T'oegye says:
In general, the way one should pursue learning does not take into
account the presence or absence of affairs [to be dealt with] or
the presence or absence of intention; one should only regard
mindfulness as the primary thing and then neither activity nor
quiescence will miss the norm. Before thoughts have arisen the
substance of the mind will be empty and clear and its
fundament deep and pure; after thoughts have arisen moral
principle will be clearly manifest and [selfish] desire will
recede and be cut off. The problem of a confused and disordered
[state of mind] will gradually diminish in proportion as one
accumulates [practice] and comes closer to becoming fully
accomplished. This is the essential method. But now if one does
not concern himself with this and instead regards the spontaneous
arising of thoughts as one deals with affairs and interacts with
others as what is permissible, then he will want to be absolutely
without thought when there is no affair to be dealt with. If one
regards having [deliberate] intentions and thoughts as a
hindrance to the mind, this means one would have to be like a
sage who has no [deliberate] intentions or thoughts; then there
would be no hindrance to the mind. Wanting to cut off thoughts is
close to [Taoist] sitting in forgetfulness; being without
[deliberate] intention or thought, furthermore, is not something
that one who is less than a great wise man can approach. I fear
this is all wrong. What's more, as for what has been said about
there being a self-centered intent as soon as there is
[deliberate] thought, that is certainly true if one is speaking
with regard to someone whose original nature has been ensnared
and submerged. But if one considers it in terms of moral
principle, how can the arising of self-centered intentions
be considered the
Diagram of the
Admonition on "Rising Early and Retiring Late" 203
fault of [deliberate] thought? Mencius says, "The office of the
mind is to think. If one thinks one apprehends [what is right];
if one does not exercise thought, he does not attain it."11 . . .
This means that the arising of self-centered intentions in
ordinary people is in fact due to their not exercising thought.
(A, 28.17a-b, p. 660, Letter to Kim Tonsŏ)
According to the Ch'eng-Chu school the
no-thought/spontaneous-response paradigm of
cultivation fails to take into account the ordinary person's
imperfect psychophysical endowment, the "physical nature." The
physical nature has no role in the quiescent state, but exercises
a potentially disruptive function as soon as there is activity.
Its imperfection is manifested both as self-centered
inclinations and lack of clear knowledge; these can be remedied
only by long and strenuous application to the discipline of
mindfulness and the investigation of principle. Thus
constant self-possession and alertness is paired with study
and reflection in this chapter's presentation of an ideal daily
routine.
Because of the objectively rooted imperfection of the physical
nature, then, reflection, deliberation, and self-possession
are required. Pure spontaneity does not mean pure perfection. But
on the other hand, principle or the Tao is not just an abstract
norm, but a reality operative within us and in the world around
us. Self-cultivation is in one respect a process of
overcoming oneself, but it is also and more ultimately a matter
of becoming truly natural:
The substance of the Tao flowingly operates in the course of
one's daily dealing with affairs and interacting with others
without a moment's cessation or pause; therefore "[the mind] must
be occupied and one cannot be heedless."12 It does not
permit the least bit of manipulation; therefore "one must not
look for results or help it grow."13 Only then will the
mind-and-heart be one with principle and the
[function of the] substance of the Tao be faultless and without
obstruction. (A, 25.37a, p. 609, Letter to Chŏng
Chajung)
This perspective balances the critique of spontaneity. Diligent
self-restraint and reflection are necessary, but on a
deeper level the mind-and-heart is naturally quiet
and properly responsive. A gentle, quiet, and protracted
corrective tendency will allow these qualities to
204 Diagram of the
Admonition on
"Rising Early and Retiring Late"
emerge; a deliberate, aggressive attempt to subdue the
mind-and-heart will only cause problems. In the
following passage, T'oegye reviews and answers the question of a
student having difficulty finding the proper balance:
[Your letter says]: "Formerly in teaching how to practice
maintaining mindfulness you [i.e., T'oegye] said if there is
an intention to seize and hold [the mind] it will become burdened
and disturbed. As I think it over again nowadays, in times
of quietness sometimes it is possible for [the mind] to be
possessed of itself with no need for me to try to seize and hold
it. But when it comes to activity, if I do not make efforts to
seize and hold it, it wanders far afield and is not settled and
fixed. How is this? In general, my old habits have not yet been
gotten rid of, so it is difficult for the new efforts to take
hold. If I strain my mind and employ effort, it is close to being
doable, but when external things approach I always experience the
problem of hunting after the happiness of my
mind-and-heart, which turns me about and soaks in,
until finally I do not myself recognize it as wrong. If one
wishes to scrape away the old habits to strengthen the new work,
what way is there to make this possible?"
How
can a beginning student be able to have the strength to deal with
the active aspect without an intent to seize and hold [the mind]?
But it is absolutely impermissible to be excessively intent and
be too urgent in holding it; one should just apply oneself to a
timely practice which falls between not exercising a deliberate
intent and not not exercising a deliberate intent. When one has
practiced this for a long time and is thoroughly versed in it he
will gradually see that activity and quiet become as one. My
meaning is that truly one cannot expect rapid results which are
arrived at overnight. How much more so in a case like yours where
one is entangled in old habits; how can it but be extremely
fearful! Nevertheless, this likewise is just a matter of
earnestly fixing one's intention, diligently practicing,
concentrating on mindfulness, clarifying principle, and
repressing and reforming [old habits]. (A, 31.1a-b, p. 720,
Letter to U Kyŏngsŏn)
The Ch'eng-Chu school of thought constantly emphasized the
need for earnest and diligent practice over a long period of
time. Taken alone, such exhortations seem to present
self-cultivation as an extremely arduous process of
continual and strenuous exertion. Concrete advice such as the
above, however, puts this in a somewhat different light. The
length of time reflects not so much the difficulty as
the
Diagram of the Admonition on
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quiet, patient, almost indeliberate nature of "earnest and
diligent practice." One does not storm the gates of heaven;
natural processes are constant but gradual in effecting their
results. The assurance that the desired goal is in line with the
innermost tendencies of nature is the Neo-Confucian's
surety that over a sufficient period of time this gentle but
continuous effort will bear fruit.
An Alternative Lifestyle
The Admonition on "Rising
Early and Retiring Late" depicts a daily routine of
quiet-sitting, reflection, and scholarly pursuits,
interrupted only occasionally by the need to attend to some
other affair. It is not the life of a busy government official,
but of a scholar living in relative retirement from the affairs
of the world-the life T'oegye longed for and finally
achieved in the last decades of his life. The routine described
here is the natural expression of the type of
self-cultivation we have been considering. In theory it
might be possible to pursue the investigation of principle and
maintain constant mindfulness in virtually any kind of life
situation, but in fact this type of self-cultivation could
hardly be pursued by a busy official unless he were already
deeply grounded in it by prior training in a more secluded and
quiet environment.
Traditionally there was but one ideal Confucian lifestyle: that
of an official career in government. Self-cultivation had
been regarded as the preparation for that career. But, as we have
seen, the Neo-Confucian movement deepened the inner
dimensions of self-cultivation, arriving at a full
cultivation of the mind-and-heart that could rival
the profundity of Buddhist asceticism. And like its Buddhist
rival, this new Confucian self-cultivation could constitute
a total way of life. The new style of life related ambivalently
to office holding: like traditional self-cultivation, it
could be thought of as an ideal preparation for an official
career, but it could also be considered as an attractive and
worthy alternative to such a career. In either case, new and
distinctive tensions were involved.
206 Diagram of the Admonition on "Rising
Early and Retiring Late"
T'oegye's young friend and correspondent in the Four-Seven
Debate, Ki Taesŭng, passed the civil service examinations
and was on the threshold of a promising career; but instead he
wished to pursue a life of quiet retirement, study, and
self-cultivation and wrote to T'oegye for advice. T'oegye
observed that he had already gone too far: had he made this
choice earlier in his career it would have worked out, but now
there is no chance the government would permit him to live in
retirement. Then he warned:
But if you once make a slip with regard to what I have said, you
will fall into being content with common practice and fitting in
with convention, following the ignoble way of the world in every
respect. One must without fail constantly maintain a firm
intention that cannot be wrested away, a spirit that cannot be
bent, a discernment that cannot be clouded, and a strength of
learning that is tempered and hardened as days and months pass;
only then will you perhaps be able to stand firm and not be taken
up and overturned by worldly fame, profit, and majesty. If not,
what you now have a taste for will become insipid and you will
not be able to attain it; it will "get harder as you bore into
it,, 14 and you will not be able to enter in. If you allow a
slight gap you will not be able to avoid your mind becoming lazy,
your intention becoming lax, and your thoughts being turned
about. The worldly notion of what constitutes profit and loss,
disaster or blessing, consequently acts as a pressure and
threat that gradually dissolves and melts [one's original
resolve]; thus there are few who do not change from the ends they
initially served and come to regard accommodation with the world
as acceptable and turning their backs on the Tao for the
pursuit of gain as the most profitable course. This is the most
fearful thing of all. (A, 16.6a-b, p. 404)
The value conflict spoken of here is to a certain extent a common
theme in Confucian writings of whatever period, and the negative
aspect has undoubtedly been heightened by T'oegye's personal
experience. But there is a difference in T'oegye's frame of
reference: he speaks not just of negative forces, but of a total
environment characterized by such forces. It is "the world"
in the sense of the term as used by ascetics of virtually all
religious traditions in speaking of the common way of life in
contrast to their own special and pure way of life and spiritual
cultivation. It is a viewpoint that arises from
different
Diagram of the
Admonition on "Rising Early and Retiring Late" 207
and contrasting types of life that may be entered upon or left;
to be "in the world," is in this perspective a choice, since an
alternative is possible.
Life in retirement was not totally cut off from "the world,"
however; a deliberate rejection of society could be viewed by
Confucians only as an aberration. Rather a life of scholarly
retirement and self-cultivation was viewed as the ideal
preparation for life in the world as well as an alternative to
such a life. The point was not to produce delicate spiritual
flowers that could survive only in a pure environment:
[Yi] Tŏkhong asked: Confucius said: "Do not have friends who
are not as good as yourself."15 Does that mean that if someone is
not better than oneself one should have absolutely nothing to do
with him?
[T'oegye] said: Ordinary people's feelings are that they like
having as friends those who are not better than themselves and
dislike having friends who are better. Therefore the Sage spoke
in this way; he did not mean one should have absolutely nothing
to do with them. If one wishes wholly to select only the good as
friends, this likewise is one-sided."
[Tŏkhong] said: But as for having to do with evil men, how
about being swept away and falling to their level?
[T'oegye] said: If good, one emulates it; if bad, one emends it.
That way everyone is my teacher. If you are swept away and fall
to their level, for what have you been pursuing learning? (ŎHN, 3.3a-b,
B, p. 820)
From Confucius onwards the orthodox Confucian view was that the
foundation for office holding must be sound character
formation. Neo-Confucian self-cultivation
practices were ideally suited to that end. But the emergence of
this type of self-cultivation aggravated a
long-standing Confucian tension regarding the chief
institutionalized means of recruitment to office, the civil
service examination system. The basic problem was that moral
cultivation could not be measured by objective examination; such
examinations could assess only such matters as literary skill,
familiarity (memorization) with the classics and their orthodox
interpretation, etc. Not only could "real learning" not be
tested, but preparation for such examinations involved a
time commitment, methodology, and cast of mind that
were
208 Diagram of the
Admonition on
"Rising Early and Retiring Late"
often perceived as antithetical to the demands of
self-cultivation or "real learning" in Neo-Confucian
terms. One section of T'oegye's recorded conversations (Ŏnhaengnok) is entitled,
"On the Corruption of the Examinations." What is meant is not
that the examination system was itself corrupt, but that its
influence tended to corrupt those who submitted themselves to the
process. The following illustrates T'oegye's
sentiments:
I [Chŏng Sasŏng] was sitting in attendance in the
study. The Teacher [T'oegye] said to those assembled there: "The
meaning of the Confucian school is of itself something apart.
Proficiency in literary skills is not Confucian; passing the
civil service examinations is not Confucian." Then he sighed and
said: "In the world a great number of men of excellent ability
become completely absorbed in conventional studies. Who is there
that is able to succeed in liberating himself from the
mortar-bowl of the examinations!" (ŎHN, 5.lla, B, p.
855)
If committed Neo-Confucian scholars felt the exam system
ground up men of great potential, parents and relatives concerned
with the worldly fortunes of their families felt the problem from
the opposite direction. They were not pleased to see their
promising young men absorbed in a form of learning that had
little direct connection with conventional careers and worldly
success. Proponents of the new learning of the
mind-and-heart such as T'oegye were under pressure to
focus on more immediately "relevant" kinds of
teaching:
Our Teacher [T'oegye] also said: "Fathers and elder brothers
nowadays always regard expounding the Classic of the
Mind-and-Heart and the Reflection on Things at Hand as
wrong and criticize their sons and younger brothers [for engaging
in such studies]. Scholars likewise are intimidated by public
opinion and few expound this learning. In my lecturing on the Classic of the
Mind-and-Heart I feel a certain uneasiness, but I
am unwilling to put aside our kind of learning and lecture on
other texts." (ŎHN, 5.18b-19a, B,
pp. 858-859)
There was, then, a very imperfect fit between the
Neo-Confucian pursuit of learning and
self-cultivation as described in the Ten Diagrams, and the
institutionalized criteria of achievement related to government
careers. This warns us that in reflecting upon the
"Neo-
Diagram of the Admonition on
"Rising Early and Retiring Late" 209
Confucian society" of Yi dynasty Korea it is important to
distinguish between Neo-Confucianism as an
institutionalized ideology and NeoConfucianism as a way of
life. As an ideology it furnished the entire elite class with a
shared vocabulary and a common conceptual framework that
served to order and legitimate their world. But as a way of life
it marked out a distinctive and demanding path of spiritual
cultivation that was pursued by a self-conscious
minority who were often at odds with the mundane values and
systems accepted by their fellows.
NOTES
10. Diagram of the Admonition on "Rising Early and
Retiring Late"
1. The title is a reference to
a passage in Book of
Odes, #256. The author of the Admonition is Ch'en Po, a Sung
dynasty scholar. His courtesy name was Mao-ch'ing and his
honorific name was Nan-t'ang. There is no mention of him in
the Sung-Yüan
hsüeh-an or other standard biographical
sources.
2. A, 10.14a, p. 288, Letter
to No Susin.
3. Yen Hui and Tseng Tzu were
two of Confucius' foremost disciples.
4. Ref. to Mencius, 6A:8, which describes
how the atmosphere of the night tends to restore human nature to
its proper condition and repair the violence done to it during
the day.
5. Changes; the Ch'ien (Heaven) hexagram
mentions four characteristics of Heaven. These were commonly
matched with the four seasons, with steadfastness and origination
belonging to winter and spring, respectively.
6. See above, number
1.
7. See chapter 9, number
25.
8. Doctrine of the Mean, ch.
1.
9. Ibid., ch. 1.
10. Reference to the final
passages of Chu Hsi's Admonition for Mindfulness Studio, which
appears above, chapter 9.
11. Mencius, 6A:15.
12. Ibid., 2A:2.
13. Ibid., 2A:2.
14. Analects, 9:11. In admiration on
Confucius' teaching, Yen Hui says, "The more I try to bore into
it, the harder it becomes."
15. Ibid., 1:8.
