Mencius on the Mind: Experiments in Multiple Definition (review)

Features 333 I. A. Richards. Mencius on the Mind: Experiments in Multiple Definition. Richmond, Surrey, England: Curzon Press, 1996 [1932]. 192 pp. Hardcover $49.00, £40, isbn 0-7007-0434-5. Introduction First published in 1932, Mencius on the Mind is not very well known, although it was written by a famous author. One of the reasons for its general neglect may be that I. A. Richards' expertise was in the field of English literature—he was much better known for his literary criticism—and not Chinese studies. Yet despite the fact that he was not a sinologist, and that his purpose in writing Mencius on the Mindwas not specifically to contribute to Chinese studies, it is nevertheless a significant work. Being outside the field of Chinese studies, it enabled Richards to offer many interesting observations about classical Chinese texts in general, and more specifically about the book of Mencius, with an awareness and sensitivity that was informed by his knowledge of English literary theory and criticism. Hence he was able to approach the Mencius from a perspective very different from the established views of both Western and Eastern Chinese scholarship. Even today, Richards' book still offers the modern reader many rewarding and interesting insights on the Mencius in particular and on Chinese philosophy in general. Ivor Armstrong Richards (1893-1979) had a long and productive life that spanned three careers. He first taught literary criticism and was subsequenüy professor ofEnglish at the University ofCambridge (from 1922 to circa 1939) and later a professor of English at Harvard (1944 to 1963). He is credited with the founding ofmodern literary criticism.1 His two other careers began later in life— promoting the use ofbasic English as a means for international communication (from around 1936) and writing poetry (publishing from around 1958).2 His favorite pastime was mountaineering. Mencius on the Mindwas written quite early, during the period when Richards was a visiting professor at Qinghua (Tsing Hua) University in Beijing in 1929-1930 and when he was at Harvard in 1931.3 It was also written just after one ofhis better-known works, Practical Criticism: A Study ofLiteraryJudgment (1929), on the systematic critique ofpoetry. Thus Mencius on theMindwas a departure from his usual territory, and was a subject that he did not return to again except for a briefchapter in his So Much Nearer: Essays toward a World English (1968).4 As suggested by its subtiüe, Mencius on the Mindwas truly an experi-© 1998 by University ment,5 the work ofan amateur and not a professional sinologist.6 Nevertheless, he ofHawai'i Presscame to have a deep concern for the problems ofcommunication between China and the West, and his promotion of"basic English" was an attempt to address this very issue. According to Richards, his writing ofMencius on the Mindwas in- 334 China Review International: Vol. 5, No. 2, Fall 1998 tended to serve two purposes: first, to highlight what he calls "an extremely puzzling set oflinguistic situations"7 (i.e., classical Chinese writings, and more specifically the Mencius), and second, tentatively to suggest a technique for dealing especially with texts written in languages very different from English. In this review I am concerned not so much with Richards' proposed technique but rather with a philosophical interest in those features that he found puzzling in a text like the Mencius. Richards selected a good number ofpassages from the Mencius as essential texts for discussion, basing his choice on what he called Mencius' "psychology." While the modern student of Chinese philosophy may recoil somewhat from Richards' choice of this word, and find his preoccupation with the subject puzzling , it was merely a reflection ofhis times—psychology was just beginning to assert itself as a discipline distinct from philosophy. Also, there is a prevailing interpretation of Mencius that has a real tendency to "psychologize" him. We may need to remind ourselves that, for the most part, what Richards meant by "psychology " is covered by such familiar philosophical concepts as mind, will, intention , desire, and so on. Richards has identified in the Mencius some thirty-two passages covering such topics as xingO., xin ¡\j, zhi J&, ren Cl, and yi Ü. These passages are arranged...