Focusing the Familiar: A Translation and Philosophical Interpretation of the Zhongyong

Appendix

Appendix 1. the text of the ZHONGYONG 1.1 The Zhongyong and the “Zisi-Mencius Lineage” Kong Ji
 (483–402 bce), was the grandson of Confucius (551– 479 bce), born to Confucius’s son Boyu
 who appears twice in the Analects. Kong Ji is best known by his “style” name Zisizi

or “Master” Zisi. In the early record, his name is associated with the Zhongyong and with three other documents that, along with the Zhongyong, found their way as chapters into the Han dynasty compilation, the Record of Rites: “A Record of the Gnomon (biaoji ),” “The Black Robes (ziyi
),” and “A Record of the Dike (fangji
).” Master Zisi, the putative author of the Zhongyong, is becoming an increasingly important philosopher in our present historical moment. Because of documents recovered in recent archaeological finds, he is emerging out of the mists of history as one of the missing links between the teachings of Confucius captured in the Analects, and the early evolution of classical Confucianism found in the Mencius and Xunzi. He is but one of the missing links, because in these finds there are appearing texts associated with several familiar names in the early Confucian tradition. Besides the abundance of new textual materials that contemporary scholars want to ascribe to Zisi, we now have other documents with titles such as the Zengzi
, the Zilu
, and the Yan Yuan
, all texts named for these close personal protégées of Confucius who appear prominently in the Analects. Zisi was not only a grandson of Confucius, but was also a student of Zengzi
, one of the major figures in the later books 131 132 Appendix of the Analects, and one of the eight most prominent proponents of Confucianism after the death of Confucius. The Records of the Historian also tells us that one of Zisi’s later disciples was the teacher of Mencius. It is because of this direct historical association between Zisi and Mencius that the school coming down from Zengzi is often called the “Si-Meng lineage
 ,” or “the lineage of Zisi and Mencius.” This relationship is further corroborated by philosophical resonances between the Mencius and the newly recovered Zisi materials. In the later tradition, it was this lineage that was celebrated as the orthodox Confucian transmission . The Mencius and the Zhongyong overlap in their deference to the Analects and in their use of a standard Confucian vocabulary, as well as in their shared reference to a cast of early cultural heroes provided as models for emulation. Another commonality of early Confucian texts such as the Analects, the newly recovered Zisi materials, the Mencius, and the Zhongyong is the extensive use of verses from the Book of Songs as a source of canonical authority that both explains and is explained by the philosophical points under discussion. In fact, the Zhongyong, like the Analects, the Mencius, and the Xunzi, appeals to the Book of Songs more than any other source as an authority for its precepts.1 It is interesting to reflect on how the Songs functioned to promote the philosophical message of this text. David Schaberg explores the way in which uncanonical songs underwent a process of historical framing during the Warring States and Qin dynasties.2 It was felt by the commentators that a song, often enigmatic and sometimes even incomprehensible, is an encoded means of communication that could only be understood and appreciated by fitting it with and within a particular historical anecdote of some interesting individual or event. It is only when the singer and the audience are properly astute that the song will yield up its coded message. A similar kind of process seems to be at work in the Zhongyong and other philosophical literature of this period in which the ca- Appendix 133 nonical songs such as those collected in the Book of Songs, presumably even more widely remembered and sung by the population, are decoded by using them to punctuate a particular philosophical point. The songs as a shared repository of ancient meaning are thus clarified in a process that then allows the author to claim the prestige of the tradition for the assertion at hand. The song is a particularly effective addition to the argument for several reasons. It is persuasive by virtue of being widely known among the audience of the philosophical text. Again, the original source of the unauthored song is the daily life of the people, where song...