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Chapter 13. Honoring the Ancestors, the Ultimate Duty
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Chapter 13 Honoring the Ancestors, the Ultimate Duty Verse Summary For filial duty, nothing is greater than comforting parents. For comforting parents, nothing is greater than comforting the spirits.1 And for comforting spirits, nothing is better than cheering the hearts of the whole realm. Thus, I have compiled chapter 13, “Honoring the Ancestors, the Ultimate Duty.”2 13.1 Filial duty is surely best of all!3 All is encompassed in that single word xiao 孝, meaning “honoring the ancestors and family reverence.” No person , not even the sage, could say or do anything more than that!4 1 Zuozhuan, Zhao 20.6, talks of the denizens of the spirit realm refusing to consume the domain’s sacrifices whenever they felt that the ruler was not worthy enough. As seen below, this becomes an important theme in the chapter. 2 Fayan 13 presents filial duty not as the foundation of morality, as in Analects 1.2, but as the “ultimate” achievement of the moral and political life, as in the Han dynasty text the Xiaojing 孝經. However, Yang also redefines filial duty, as noted in Nylan, forthcoming-b. Notably, the last chapter contains key historical assessments and a return to “honoring the ancients” (e.g., Yao, Shun, Tang, King Wen, Kongzi) as a final refuge and comfort; in this Yang may be imitating the last chapter of the Xunzi, which ends with “Questions for Yao.” 3 Yang here may be thinking of the “Xici” formulation that says that the Changes is “the ultimate” or “best” (易其至矣乎) or the Analects line that gives the same praise to the “centered usages” (zhong yong 中庸). The phrase qi zhi yi hu occurs many times in the Fayan. 4 This translation is an expanded version of the more literal “Nothing can be added [i.e., thought superior] to it.” 224 | 225 Exemplary Figures 13. Honoring the Ancestors 13.2 父母, 子之天地與。無天何生。無地何形。天地裕於萬物乎。萬 物裕於天地乎。裕父母之裕。不裕矣。事父母自知不足者。其舜 乎。 13.3 不可得而久者。 3 事親之謂也。孝子愛日。 13.4 孝子有祭乎。有齊乎。夫能存亡形, 屬荒絕者。惟齊也。故孝子之 於齊。見父母之存也。 4 是以祭(=齊?)不賓。 5 人而不祭。豺獺乎。 6 13.5 或問子。曰死生盡禮。可謂能子乎。 13.6 曰石奮石建。父子之美也。無是父。無是子。無是子。無是父。 3 See Hanshi waizhuan 7.7/51/5, speaking of a filial paragon’s view of one’s parents: “Once gone, they cannot be brought back” (wang er be ke huan zhe 往而不可還者). 4 Li Gui’s commentary, cited in Wang Rongbao (1987, 19.525), refers to the fast, where on the third day, the fasting person sees the object of cult. Therefore, Andrew Plaks (pers. comm.) prefers “he sees them as alive.” 5 However, Sima Guang, cited in Wang Rongbao (1987, 19.525–26) reads this as “That is why, in offering sacrifice, he does not revert to the formality of host and guests,” arguing that the filial son does not wish to treat his parents with the formality due guests, since his love for his parents exceeds his feelings for guests. In some sense, Sima Guang’s reading follows more logically from the preceding phrase (見父母之 存也). Still, Yu Yue (1874) objects to Sima Guang’s reading, on the grounds that it imagines a regrettable departure from the old precepts embodied in the Yi li; Yu Yue therefore reads bu bin as I have, “not entertaining guests.” 6 See, e.g., Huainan zi 5/39/5 (時則訓). [3.81.57.77] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 12:23 GMT) 13.2–4 “Parents are heaven and earth to their children.5 Without heaven, how could they be born? Without earth, how would they have assumed form? Are heaven and earth generous toward the myriad things, or are the myriad things generous towards heaven and earth? To be generous to the parents who have shown generosity to oneself is not generosity at all!6 Was it not Shun who ‘in serving his parents came to recognize his own inadequacy’?7 Serving parents is rightly called ‘the duty that cannot be sustained for long enough.’8 The filial child regards every single day that he has to express his love as precious.” “Does the filial child9 offer sacrifices? Does he fast?” “Only fasting and sacrifice can preserve those who no longer have form and are already relegated to a shadowy realm. Therefore, the filial child in fasting and sacrifice makes his parents appear before him as they were in life.10 That is why he does not entertain guests during the times of sacrifice.11 To be human yet to fail to make the offerings—is that not to be even less than the jackal or otter?12 13.5 Someone asked me about good sons. “In death and in life, can we not call those who carry out the...