De la continuité dynamique dans l’univers confucéen. Lecture néoconfucéenne du ≪Zhongyong≫: Nouvelle traduction du chinois classique et commentaire herméneutique par Diana Arghiresco (review)

BOOK REVIEWS DIANA ARGHIRESCO, De la continuité dynamique dans l’univers confucéen. Lecture néoconfucéenne du %Zhongyong&: Nouvelle traduction du chinois classique et commentaire herméneutique. Paris: Les Éditions du Cerf, 2013. 412 pp. J35 (pb). ISBN 978-2-204-10026-7 Diana Arghiresco, Professor of Chinese Thought at the Université du Québec (Montréal), gives us a new French translation of the Zhongyong 中庸 (ZY) and its commentary by Zhu Xi 朱熹, with the Chinese texts, followed by her own commentary. The introduction presents briefly the life, work, and influence of Zhu Xi. Because the ZY is quite abstract, Arghiresco illustrates it with many passages from the Lunyu 論語 and their commentary by Zhu Xi, presented also in French translation with the Chinese text. This arrangement reflects Zhu Xi’s own idea about the ZY as being a generalization of the Lunyu. I shall present first Arghiresco’s interpretation of the Zhongyong, and only in the end my evaluation. ZY1 (Chapter 1 of the Zhongyong) and its commentary by Zhu Xi leads Arghiresco to explain key concepts: zhong 中, what contains things together, in an undifferentiated state; yong 庸, the ordinary course of things; li 理, the inner principle of coherence; qi 氣, movement of breath giving rise to concrete things; xing 性, true nature without ontological separation; dao 道, spontaneous attitude of human beings in regards to all reality; and so on. ZY2 introduces the notion of zhongyong, interpreted as a polarity between a constitutive continuum (zhong) and its functionality in ordinary affairs (yong). So zhongyong is read as maintaining oneself ordinarily within the continuum. ZY3 treats zhongyong as knowledge, not in the gnoseologic sense, but in the sense of assimilation and integration through practice. In the realm of human relations, zhongyong refers to the just mean, correct behavior with its rules of differentiation. The Confucian tradition focuses on social differentiation, but this should be understood in contrast with a Taoist tradition which aims at reaching a state before any differentiation. ZY4 describes the flavor wei 味 as a practical mode of knowledge of the Dao, which is quite different from the intellectual knowledge of the West. Arghiresco claims that Confucians and Taoists share the same vision of an ultimate reality that is undifferentiated, but the Confucians reach it through their engagement in society, and the Taoists by withdrawing from it. ZY6 describes the behavior of the ancient paradigmatic wise ruler, Shun 舜, free from any desire to dominate others. By his self-cultivation, Shun continues to have an effective influence on others who are invited to engage in a similar process of transformation. ZY7, ZY8, and ZY9 give the personifications of the three virtues of knowledge (zhi 知), humanity (ren 仁) and courage (yong 勇), respectively embodied by Shun, Yan Hui 顏回, and Zi Lu 子路. One should strive to possess each of those three virtues and to practice them together. Furthermore, the constant (chang 常) is understood as what is just and correct (zheng 正). The Confucian scholar develops those virtues by inserting himself within the Journal of Chinese Religions, 42. 2, 213–259, November 2014 # Society for the Study of Chinese Religions 2015 DOI: 10.1179/0737769X14Z.00000000015 framework of the imperial administration, playing the moral role of regulating society, but he is morally obliged to resign if the administration is irremediably corrupt. ZY12 opens a new dimension, with the reality of the Dao as being hidden, infinite in its usage, beyond human understanding, not unlike the Dao in the Laozi 老子 and Yijing 易經. In ZY13, the Dao is perceived as immanent presence beyond the senses and impossible to isolate. While ZY14 emphasizes the positioning of the junzi 君子 within the social hierarchy as a way to coincide with the unique Dao, ZY15 stresses the importance of familial harmony, of the familiar. ZY17 shows the naturalness of the moral law immanent in the cosmos and the human condition. Inside an order which is somehow enclosed, human beings cannot claim, as in the West, absolute freedom, but only relative autonomy. Though the Song dynasty implemented social differentiation, it also allowed social mobility through its system of meritocracy based on examinations opened to all. Ancestor worship in ZY18 points to the importance of the biological line, and filial piety is precisely to show respect...