Über den Begriff des Nützlichen bei Mengzi (review)

554 China Review International: Vol. 2, No. 2, Fall 1995 lieve the actual situation of Daoism in the PRC today is brighter than Schipper has depicted in the book. I would like to mention four works dealing with Daoism in the 1980s since the publication of Schipper's French edition: Kenneth Dean's two books on Daoism deal primarily with the revival of communal Daoism in Southeast China, and Thomas Hahn's two essays describe the restoration of Daoist monasteries on the mainland.5 David C. Yu Richmond, California NOTE S 1. For a review of Schipper's French edition, see Norman J. Girardot, "'Let's Get Physical': The Way ofLiturgical Daoism," History ofReligions 23 (1983): pp. 169-180. 2.R. H. van Gulik, Sexual Life in Ancient China (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1961). 3.Michel Strickmann, "On the Alchemy ofT'ao Hung-ching," in Facets ofTaoism, ed. Holmes Welch and Anna Seidel (New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1973), p. 173. 4.Ibid., pp. 137-138. 5.Kenneth Dean, Taoist Ritual and Popular Cults ofSoutheast China (Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, 1993), and "Revival of Religious Practices in Fujian: A Case Study," in The Turning ofthe Tide: Religion in China Today, ed. Julian F. Pas (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989), pp. 51-77; Thomas Hahn, "The Standard Taoist Mountains and Related Features ofReligious Geography," Cahiers d'Extrême-Asie 4 (1988): 145-156, and "New Developments Concerning Buddhist and Taoist Monasteries," in The Turning ofthe Tide, pp. 79-101.© 1995 by University ofHawai'i Press Jörg Schumacher. Über den Begriffdes Nützlichen bei Mengzi. Schweizer Asiatische Studien, vol. 12. Bern: Peter Lang AG, Europäischer Verlag der Wissenschaften, 1993. ix, 345 pp. In the conversation with King Hui ofLiang that opens the received version ofthe Mencius, Mencius rebukes King Hui for asking him whether he has "some way of benefiting his state" (ifcjfxr^JìAiOfìcS^2). "Do you really have to say 'benefit'?" (5EMiEi1HiIJ), answers Mencius; "It suffices that there are such things as humaneness and Tightness" (MtEMB^).1 According to Schumacher these statements ofMencius are to be taken very seriously. They are not just the grumbling of a tired old man who traveled a thousand miles to see the King ofLiang, but are subtle enunciations that contain in a nutshell Mencius' entire philosophy. Schumacher prides himself on being the first reader to uncover that core ofMencius' thinking. While the earlier tradition of Reviews 555 commentators and translators construed a conservative portrait ofMencius as a 'moralist,' Schumacher appreciates the innovative and unconventional nature of Mencius' thought. Schumacher develops his view ofMencius in five chapters. The first chapter is devoted to a discussion oíMencius IAl, and the ways it was read and misread by later commentators and translators. Chapter 2 develops Schumacher's own reading ofMencius in terms ofpart and whole. Chapters 3 and 4 deal with other passages in Mencius where the word Ii ?? is used, either negatively within the context ofclosed systems or positivelywithin the paradigm ofgrowth. Schumacher's reading ofMencius is indeed original. He brings to it concepts that derive from recent developments in science—the twentieth-century discovery ofuncertainty and indeterminacy in natural processes—and from theories about science—especially Karl Popper's ideas about the "openness" of scientific knowledge and their application to human society and values. Schumacher builds his interpretation on two major claims. The first is that Mencius is concerned with "open systems." He condemns those people—among whom is King Hui of Liang, his conversation partner in IAl—who limit their scope of action to the "closed system" ofwhich they are a part. An "open system" comprises all that is, while in a "closed system" one part or several parts ofthat totality are singled out, excluding what lies outside their boundaries. Two things can go wrong when people think of themselves as agents within closed systems. Firstly, they can appropriate more than their share ofthe limited amount ofgoods available within the closed system ofwhich they form a part. Secondly, they can transfer undesirable goods outside the boundaries of their system. While this benefits the closed system, it burdens that which lies outside its boundaries. While errors ofthe...