{74} Letters and Miscellaneous from Wu Yubi’s Collected Works
When Chinese communicate with each other, whether in speech or letters, they often engage in what is known as ke-qi hua 
, “polite talk.” It involves conventions such as adopting a humble tone, putting oneself down, and couching what one wants to say in indirect ways. The speaker adopts a level of formality befitting the status of the recipient. The more superior the recipient is, the higher the level of formality. Since one’s father was regarded as a superior, Wu Yubi adopts a very formal tone in his letters to him. He also does so with his brother-in-law Sun Yuerang. At another place on the spectrum of formality, communications among friends, a level of informality can be found, as in the letters Wu writes his friend Hu Jiushao. Most of the other letters included here are somewhere in between. For names of texts mentioned, refer to the Glossary of Book Titles. Only names of well-known figures are identified.
Of the forty letters in his Collected Works, I have selected fifteen. They have been selected for their insights into Wu’s philosophy of education or his personal efforts at self-cultivation. Most come from the years 1421 to 1425. I have numbered them from one to fifteen to make referring to them in other parts of the book easier. The number at the end of each piece indicates its location in his Collected Works.
(1) Letter to My Esteemed Father 1421
On the twenty-eighth day of the third month, I saw Qiu Yanyong and learned that you had returned to your official position in the capital and that the whole family was doing well. I was overwhelmed with joy to hear this. At first, I was only thinking about Grandmother (the Master’s maternal grandmother), that she would be returning home here this spring. However, according to Qiu Yanyong, no date has been set for her return. {75} Consequently, the following day of the twenty-ninth, I obtained a travel permit and set out to visit you.
Day and night I have been bitterly upbraiding myself about what has happened between us. I remember how when I was young and still immature, you were far away at the National University in Nanjing. It was only when I was twelve years old1 that Uncle took me to the capital to be with you. But you and I, father and son, didn’t recognize each other at first. During the time I lived in the capital, you once told me at night in bed, “In the past, while I was away from home, I often thought of you, but not being able to see you, I was moved to shed many tears. Now that you are here with me, you must exert your efforts to advance in your learning, striving to become a mature and accomplished person.” At the time, I did not yet realize how apropos these words were.
When I got to be eighteen and nineteen, even though I was fairly good at my studies, still, since I was overly self-confident and pushy, I would boast to myself that to match the achievements of the ancients was not all that difficult. I would frequently slight the men of the past and carry out my affairs carelessly and disrespectfully. Even though you would severely take me to task over and over again, yet in the end my unbridled mind would not be corrected.
When I was twenty-one, I returned home to the country. As I gained some experience in human affairs, I gradually realized that achieving the results of “practicing with vigor”2 was not easy and that “Heaven’s confounding a person’s undertaking”3 always goes to the extreme. At the same time, beset by various illnesses, I was confused and did not know which road to follow. How could I have hoped to please you? But even though we were physically separated by the distance of a thousand miles, still a night would not go by that my soul was not by your side. I would often grieve late at night that not even death could erase my guilt.
Last year, in the sixth month, I came to wait upon you, hoping to get one glimpse of your face. I wished to report in full what had been {76} happening these past ten years since I had left the capital for home, thinking I would rouse myself to action from that time on. But my offenses were so great that your mind remained unchanged and you refused to see me. Filled with great sorrow, I returned home. Is there any place in the world where one can be without a father? Truly I was like “a poor man who has no real home to which to return.”4
(For some unknown reason, last year his father, Guai, refused to see the Master. The Master bore his blame and accepted his guilt, wailing as he knelt from dawn to dusk. Even though he did so for a number of days in a row, his father still didn’t receive him. In the winter of this year, the Master again went for a visit. This time Guai was moved by the sincerity of the Master’s filial piety, and father and son became as close as in the past.)
This year after hearing the news from Qiu, I again wished to go pay you a visit and escort Grandmother home. My low spirits, however, caused me to vacillate. I wished to go ahead yet also to stay back. How could this unfilial son of yours be worthy of pity? To go would only add to your sorrow. Since my underlying desire was to please you, if, on the contrary, I only added to the burden of your sorrows, how could I be considered to have the heart of a human son?
Hence when the boat arrived at Hukou, I dared neither disembark in order to get a boat to Nanjing nor return home. Rather, I continued on westward as far as Hukuang. From Hukou to Hukuang is about a month’s ride. Along the way, I dared not discuss my family background with anyone I met on board, fearing that to do so would implicate your virtue. But now the time has come for the crops to be harvested, so I am taking a boat to return home. I have unexpectedly run into a friend from Sichuan on board who is on his way to Nanjing, so I am taking the opportunity respectfully to send you this letter to give a report of myself.
Since the beginning of this year, I have been reading the Four Books a great deal, not letting up for even a moment. I have some sense that my whole self—body and mind—has benefited from this in its own rough way. In my efforts at sharing the lot of the sages and worthies, I have made a good beginning. Only now do I realize why Heaven inflicted poverty and sickness on me and why you scolded and admonished me for my behavior. What a great blessing for me! Alas, although I still have much time ahead {77} of me to advance in my moral character, I am concerned that your own days are limited. I only wish that you would comfort yourself well, thinking of our ancestors. Many blessings upon you! Many blessings upon you!
Respectfully submitted by your son, Yubi, on the fourth day of the sixth month aboard ship at Wuchang (Hubei province) (8:13a–14b)
(2) Letter to Xu Xiren, Assistant Director in Local Schools5 (1421)
I have heard that, of the most excellent things in the world, there is nothing to compare with the Way of Sagehood. Because the Way is brilliant, it is easy to perceive; because it is simple, it is easy to practice. The reason, however, that few in the world succeed in following it is because they do not study how. If we trace the reason for this, we find there are two types of people. The first type is the simple, ordinary person, ignorant and dull, who does not devote himself to learning. The other type is one who studies the Way yet finds himself inadequate for the task because he is not sincere enough. Because he is not sincere enough, when he is confronted with external events, he experiences conflict within himself between moral principle and selfish desires. When he seeks to follow principle, he finds himself entangled in desires; when he seeks to follow his desires, he realizes that there are indeed things which he will not lower himself to do. Inner vexation and depression ensue. When even one of his thoughts is in error, he is aware of the distance separating him from the Way of Sagehood and the depth of his descent into bad habits. Doesn’t this not only lead to the diminishment of what little goodness he already has achieved and eventually to even losing that? How can he fulfill what he seeks? Even though he is considered one who studies the Way, he is just the same as the first type of person who does not pursue learning.
For more than ten years, I have been guilty of this fault, finding myself filled with depression day and night to an extreme degree. Ever since the spring of this year, however, I have completely immersed myself in the Great Learning, the Analects, Mencius, and Practicing the Mean. One day, in a kind of an awakening, I found I had a few rough insights into these works. Thereupon I heaved a deep sigh and told myself that the Way of {78} Sagehood is, after all, easy to understand and, after all, easy to practice. Ever since then, I have learned ways to avoid the daily depression and how loftily to enjoy the outer manifestations of things. Because I have stepped up my efforts in following the Way, I have a much more personal appreciation for what I’ve learned.
Thereupon I sighed again and said, “The mundane world indeed forsakes me, but I try my best to help myself. The mundane world indeed laughs at me, but I try my best to enjoy myself. In intimate association with the sages and worthies, why should I care about these others?”
For many years, I undeservedly have received kindnesses from you. The ancients placed much value on friends “helping to encourage goodness”6 so how could I be selfish and not share with you what I have learned? Now I know well that you understand what constitutes the excellence of the Way of Sagehood, because I’ve been in your presence when you’ve expressed admiration for another person’s good behavior. You have also confessed to me your sense of personal insufficiency. How could this be any different from my own problem with low spirits? Please realize that it isn’t impossible for you to be released from your distress and for you to enter the realm of happiness. You just must trust that the capacity for doing so lies within yourself and that the methods for activating it are all in the writings of the sages and worthies. So how could you not strive to exert your efforts in this regard?
Recently I did some traveling. On my way back I caught a cold, which has made it difficult for me to get around and relate all this to you in person. I hope you won’t begrudge me the honor of writing me every now and then. I would be most fortunate if you would. (8:14b–16a)
(3) Letter to Zhang Shiyan, Assistant Director in Local Schools7 (1421)
Recently, while looking through some old papers of mine, I came across several scrolls of poetry we had exchanged in the past. I was once again moved by the friendship I have shared with you, my old friend. This led me to recall how last year, when I went to the capital to visit my father, you {79} kindly gave me some words of advice about how I should take the great sages Yao, Shun, the Duke of Zhou, and Confucius, as my models and expressed your hope that I would reach to such a high state.
Alas, this is something only a great worthy can hope to achieve. How could such a small, unimportant person as I dare to have such wild hopes? Yet, I have observed that the ancients embodied the Way and its virtue in their own persons, and their achievements have illuminated the Way for thousands of years. This was all because they did not underestimate their capacities but preserved the mind in its full purity. Your words of advice to me were for the sake of enlarging my capacity and purifying my mind. How marvelous are the results of friends “helping to encourage goodness”!
The ultimate in sagehood was reached by Yao, Shun, the Duke of Zhou, and Confucius, and nothing further can be added. Yet even they did not rest content with their original capacities, nor did they allow themselves any rest with respect to the cultivation of their minds.
They in turn were followed by heroic men who bravely stood out above their contemporaries. These figures aspired to have the same capacity as these four sages and to make the mind of the sages their own. In all their thoughts and actions, they kept the various sages continually before their eyes as models. When they looked at them with respect to moral character and found themselves not yet adequate, or when they looked at them in terms of achievement and found their own not yet great enough, they would exert their efforts tirelessly, refusing to be satisfied with their present capacities. How could they have settled for what was limited? How could they have allowed their minds to be less than fully focused on the Way? They did not allow their capacities to remain limited or their minds impure. As a result, in the end they were able to accomplish something.
If we take the next group down, there are those who aspired to be like these great worthies who had come before them, strongly exerting their efforts in moral conduct. In all their undertakings, there was nothing they did not succeed in: indeed, in each thing they proved effective.
Now if a person aspires to become a sage, even if he does not make it all the way, he will not fail to become a great worthy. If a person aspires to become a great worthy, even if he does not make it all the way, he will not fail to become an ordinary worthy.8 Now, when people of the world {80} look at these outstanding figures of the past, they just say that their success was due to their Heavenly endowment and not something they achieved through their own efforts. Whenever anyone mentions the ancients, they put them aside as being outside their range of consideration. But whenever people mention their own contemporaries, they say, “I am better than he is,” or, “I am the same as he is,” or “Even though he is better than I, it is not by very much.”
Even if there is one in a hundred who sees his own limitations, he resignedly regards the ancients as too difficult to follow and readily contents himself with easy accomplishments in minor skills. He doesn’t try to expand his capacity but allows his mind to become mixed and adulterated. Any insignificant accomplishment makes him proud and overbearing, as he regards his responsibilities to human society as going no further than these. Alas, isn’t this what distinguishes the ancients from men of the present? Even though I feel I hardly deserve your high aspirations for me, still I dare not fail to take this worldly way of thinking as something against which to caution myself, and to maintain my determination to dedicate myself completely to the great worthies of the past.
I am now thirty-one years old. When I was six, I entered primary school. At seven, I was learning couplets; at sixteen, I studied poetry.9 At eighteen, I was studying for the official examinations. When I turned nineteen, I got hold of the Record of the Origins of the School of the Two Chengs and read about the doings of the various Song masters, Zhou Dunyi, the Cheng brothers, Zhang Zai, and Shao Yong, with respect to taking up or declining office. Generally speaking, I knew then the excellence of studying to become a sage or worthy, and that sagehood was what my mind longed for. Thereupon, I completely burned up all my examination papers and totally set my mind on studying to be like these Masters Zhou, Cheng, Zhang, and Shao. I studied this for several years and then noticed that my behavior began to differ from my contemporaries. For some, my ways were too much of the past and inappropriate for the present. For others, they were impracticable and inapplicable to the conduct of affairs. Some called them eccentric, others called them strange, the ridicule and criticism both reaching an extreme.
Even though I have never dared completely forget my original ambition, still, at the same time, I have had to make some concessions to go {81} along with the times. Yet the deeper the tendency to follow along with the times, the more lax my original ambition has become. At the same time, one illness or affliction has led to another, my living situation has been miserable and joyless, and I have been confused and at a loss as to what to do. Troubled by my present situation and longing for the past, with the morning wind and the evening moon, I become overwhelmed with sorrow.
Since the beginning of spring this year, however, I have been focusing solely on the Great Learning, the Analects, Mencius, and Practicing the Mean, feeling that I have gained some insights from doing so. My former ailments have somewhat abated, and my vital spirit has somewhat improved. Only after meditating on this back and forth, day and night, have I come to realize that the Way of the sages and worthies is not solely of the past and inappropriate to the present, that truly it is not impractical and inapplicable to the conduct of affairs, that really it is neither eccentric nor strange, as my critics have charged. The setbacks and antagonisms of the past ten years were due to the fact that I neither clearly understood nor vigorously practiced it. The criticisms that I received then were not totally unjustified. But now, relying on the spiritual intelligence of Heaven, on the blessings of my ancestors, and on the teachings of my father, older brothers, teachers, and friends, I have obtained some guidance to help me go forward. How fortunate I am!
However, time is passing by. The youth and prime of my life will never come again. I am remorseful for all the time that has been lost. I take it, sir, that with your perspicacity, you understand what I mean here. One of the reasons I deign to bother you further now is to let you know that I sincerely believe that your son, Chen, is quite a talented youth. I hope that you will do a good job of guiding him along the Way so that, at a later period in his life, he will not have the kinds of regrets about wasted time as I now have. If you weren’t such an old friend of mine, I wouldn’t dare trouble you about this. If your son were not so capable of learning, I wouldn’t try to encourage him like this. It is for you to decide and settle this.
Some other students of mine such as Fu and Lou have benefited from the progress they’ve made in their studies. They are worthy of affection and respect. You, too, should exert yourself, yes, exert yourself.
I recently returned from a trip and caught a cold. I cannot travel very far, so there is no way to see you. But I would count it a blessing if you would continue writing me with your helpful instruction. (8:16a–18b)
{82} (4) Letter to Fu Bingyi10 (1421)
For several months now I have been reading only the Four Books. What I have gotten out of the reading is somewhat different from the time we last parted. Returning home from a recent trip, I paid another visit to your Yiqiu studio, but you were at your school teaching and had not yet returned home. But I saw your older brother Shiwang and learned that my letters from Xunyang had all arrived.
The last time we did meet, I was honored by your seeing me off at the bank of the river. At that time you told me that you felt you must begin afresh and study harder from then on. I wonder what the results of your resolve have been since we parted. What were your reactions after you received my letters and heard that I had returned home? If you only want to make a living like a common man, then you can say “that’s enough.” But if you wish to advance a step higher to become the type of good human being who honors his ancestors, makes his family great, and has something to hand down to his descendants, it would be fitting that you accompany your son to the mountains here where we can meet together. I live in a remote place, removed from everyday affairs. Every day with two or three students, I engage in the practices of book reading and plumbing principle, delighting in the Way of Yao and Shun—that is all. I dare make no claims of anything beyond this. (8:18b–19a)
(5) Letter to Fu Bingyi
How has your progress of “daily renewal” been since we parted? I’ve spent the first half of this first month of the year, poring over the Analects of Confucius from beginning to end. On the evening of the fifteenth, I recited all of the Great Learning as well as Zhu Xi’s Answers to Questions on the Great Learning. My whole self—body and mind—seem to have made some progress from this. If a person could continue applying effort like this, why should he worry about whether there are any advantages for him in it? Only if one is on and off with his efforts will he fail in the end.
Yesterday, while reading Zhen Dexiu’s Extended Meaning of the Great Learning, I contemplated his descriptions of the sage kings Yao and Shun, {83} and the flourishing of the Three Dynasties.11 That the rulers were truly rulers and the ministers truly ministers at that time was the result of their being rooted in the basic items of self-cultivation presented in the Great Learning, namely, the investigation of things, the extension of knowledge, making the will sincere, the rectification of the self, and the cultivation of the mind. In contrast, even during the heights of good government reached by the Han and Tang dynasties,12 when the desire of some rulers to follow the Way at times was quite sincere and the guidance of their ministers at times was quite outstanding, still they were not clear enough about the Way of the Great Learning. They only reached the heights of the Han and Tang and that is all. Thus it is all wrong for a person to be engaged in learning and not be rooted in the teachings of the Great Learning.
As for you, what in fact are you doing about your own commitment in these matters? The day before yesterday, your son, on the point of his departure from here, said that he might come back to see me in the mountains in the fourth month. This is now just the first month and he wants to wait until the fourth. He is lazy and not working to establish himself. What’s to be done about him? Moreover, from his use of the word “might,” his laziness is even more apparent. Alas, it is clear that he is incapable of being taught! Will you follow in his same tracks as this overturned cart?
Last night I was again reading the Extended Meaning of the Great Learning, examining excerpts Zhen included from the classics and histories dealing with fraternal relationships. I saw that in these matters, friends should be close and not distant, generous and not harsh with each other. I found this to the point and profound. Reading this certainly made me fear-stricken with my hairs on end. I wish I could have read it together with your brother, Shiwang, and you so we could encourage each other in our pursuits. (8:19a–20a)
{84} (6) Letter to Hu Jiushao13 (1421)
After we parted, I wrote you two letters that I trust you received. I took a trip to the city for a little over ten days, staying temporarily at the home of the Battalion Commander Niu, which was very pleasant. Someone had returned from the capital and told me that my father had returned home in the first month to resume his official post, and also, that everybody in the family, young and old, were doing well. This news added to my happiness.
Still, for the last half a month, this feeble body of mine has been plagued with boils. It has been painful, but I have tried to accept it as my lot in life. From morning to evening, I have been devoting a lot of time to reading Practicing the Mean, and seem to have derived some small benefit from it. What I’ve learned is that a person should take the upright and illuminating learning of the sages and worthies as his fundamental basis. Then when external things impinge on the self, one has the means with which to illuminate them. The mind remains totally present and not lost. Once the mind is lost, is it not like the wandering of water and the drifting of the wind in that no one can get hold of it? What I fear is this losing it and nothing else. What I hope for is having it present and nothing else. Anxious that I won’t reach it and dispirited as if I had already lost it, I am unaware of the passing of time, from the evening changing to dawn and dawn receiving the night. I’ve written several poems that give vent to my feelings, but I’ll have to wait to share those when I have more time.
I’m curious what you, my friend, in the time you have left over from your responsibilities of taking care of your parents and managing family affairs, have gained from the efforts you have put into the Four Books. You can’t ever have your youth and prime of life back again. So, exert yourself! Exert yourself! The heroic great man14 must not fall into the ways of the world. This will be all for now. (8:20a–21a)
{85} (7) Reply to a Letter from Hu Jiushao (1421)
On the twelfth of this month,15 you and I stayed up talking until midnight. The next day, the lingering joy was still special to me. It was just as a former worthy said, “In learning one needs to have discussion before one comes to understand the Way. And the friendship derived from teachers and friends is the way to get this.” “Because the sages knew that the most benefit comes from friends, therefore they rejoiced when friends came to see them.”16 Even though a person might frequently repeat these words, it is only when he has personally experienced them that he knows the full taste of these words of the sages.
On the evening of the fourteenth, I was enjoying the nearly full moon and waiting for you, but you never came. On the evening of the fifteenth, a couple of local fellows, among them Student Zong from Fengcheng and Student Wang from nearby Dongpo, joined me. We sat under the moon, strumming the lute and singing poetry while we drank. We were extremely happy, yet your being absent again caused me deep concern. Afterward, I still heard no news of you at all and feared that you had gotten sick. Today, I received your letter and learned that, just as I had suspected, you had been ill. You now must do a good job of nourishing your mind in order to nurse yourself back into good health.
In your letter, you said, “I’ve lost my grip on things and my actions go contrary to my intentions.” Is this really a problem unique to yourself? This is just the kind of thing I have been constantly suffering from. You are only now becoming aware of this problem. The trouble with most people is that they are ignorant of their problems. At the very moment when a person has even a little bit of insight into his faults, that is the time to vigorously exert effort.
Your younger brother, Ziyong, wants to come to study with me. That is very good to hear. How dare I not follow your instructions to take him on as a student? However, he must have firmly made up his mind to learn.
The messenger is in a hurry to get back to you, so I will stop here for now. (8:21a–b)
{86} (8) Letter to Fu Bingyi (1421)
A person cannot but follow the Way because the Way has never been something that could not be followed. If a person applies himself to the Way for just a moment, he will have one moment’s worth of results; if he applies himself for a day, he will have one day’s worth of results. If he can accumulate these results over a long period of time, his disposition naturally will be transformed.
Recently, we were able to talk together for several days. I observed that you certainly cannot be compared to the stupid, dull kind of person who is unaware of things. If you are capable of devoting your energies to this self-cultivation, so that at a later time I can get some help from you and your sons, there would be no greater good fortune for me.
Once there was an old man who went to see Master Zhou Dunyi. He voiced his admiration of the Way yet pitied himself that he was already too old. Master Zhou advised him, “There is no harm in being old. If only you follow my teachings, then you can hope to have some results to show for it.” Looking at it from this point of view, people’s trouble is merely that they do nothing. Even though I dare not hope to be even a fraction of what Master Zhou was as a teacher, yet you are younger than this old man speaking to Zhou. So you cannot but exert yourself! (8:21b–22a)
(9) Short Note to Hu Jiushao (1421)
After parting from you recently, I have been deeply pondering how mediocre my life is. I have been just passing the days, mixed in with the crowd, unaware of any righteous principles. I have failed to make the most of my Heavenly bestowed endowment. In what way do I differ from the common herd? Time moves on. How can I prolong my youthful vigor? I am overcome with signs of regret.
For several days, I have been reading four commentaries on the Spring and Autumn Annals and am almost through with them. Yesterday I reread the “Zuo” and “Guliang” commentaries and the text itself. By evening, I had read one complete section, gaining a rough sense of its meaning.
Something else, my poor wife is extremely ill. I must trouble you, my worthy friend, to come and accompany me to Zhonghu to consult a doctor. I would be most appreciative if you would. (8:23a)
{87} (10) Letter to Hu Bian17
Last night I met Student Suo on the road. We talked for a long time. It was midnight before we parted. The general sense of our conversation was quite good. He told me that since the last time he saw me, he has been able to stick to his schedule of his reading for a considerable period of time. Gradually his studies have enabled him to get a grip on his whole self—body and mind. How worthy of respect he is! He went on to say that he has been trying to be more economical in household affairs, and this has helped him better concentrate on the application of his mind to his studies. Recently he considered buying a new house and having a decorative pond dug, but thought better of it. Thinking about this, I feel he is really worthy of respect. During our talk, the great enthusiasm he has in his commitment was evident. I wonder whether you can match him and progress as he has. There is even hope for the lazy! (8:24b)
(11) Letter to a Friend 1422
I understand that you received the letter I wrote you last year from Xiaogu. The fact that you did not take my clumsy words as foolish, and that you have abstained from alcohol to progress in your studies, shows that you are a person who rejoices to hear about your faults and courageously tries to correct them in your practice. How worthy of joy and respect you are!
Recently I ran into Wu Derang, who told me you had suddenly fallen ill from exhaustion. This is the result of reading books to a harmful excess. The best thing for you is to do a good job of getting yourself back to good health. I myself, in the past, when I was inexperienced and green, was so eager to get ahead that I would over and over exhaust my energies in reading books. I would recite them aloud in a great loud voice, dissipating my vital energies18 until I reached the extreme of causing great harm to myself. During the time I was living in the capital, I became seriously ill and no longer dared to read books in such a loud voice. After moving back to the country, however, it happened once that, after having expounded on the Great Learning at a friend’s house for several days, I exhausted my vital {88} spirit19 and the old illness recurred. Ever since then, I have been careful not to over expend my vital spirit. Each time I engage in reading, I try only to do as much as my energies allow me. If I become even the least bit tired, then I stop. It is only cultivation of the mind that should not be interrupted, not reading.
As for the basis of learning, one must try for daily progress and monthly advance with a free and easy, unconstrained manner. Then and only then can one sustain his efforts over a long period of time. If one is in a hurry and presses for quick results, then he will only cause himself pain and end up in failure.
On the whole, the essentials of what the sages and worthies transmitted are all contained in the one word “reverence” (jing 
). If a person can put his attire in order, make his speech and actions correct and dignified, and conduct himself with a sense of propriety, then his mind naturally will be collected. Even if he does not read books, he still will gradually make progress in his self-cultivation. All the same, it is an even better thing if he can read books and understand principle in order to better nourish and care for the mind.
However, if this mind is constantly enslaved by external things, the body has nothing with which to restrain it, and then one’s passions are given full rein. Then, even if one invests great pain and worry day and night into his practice of reading books, I’m afraid he will have no way of escaping from confusion. What benefit ultimately is there for the body and mind if a person is only able to expound on some hackneyed words on paper? It merely wears out his vitality and causes him to pass the years in vain. How extremely regrettable!
I share this little bit of insight I have gained from my own past exertion of efforts. Please bear with me in doing so. (8:25a–26a)
(12) Letters to My Esteemed Father
(a) 1423
In the spare time from my work in the fields, I dare not dispense with my program of reading books. Still, while I am aware of some gradual progress {89} in my studies, I also feel my moral character has become harder to cultivate. This village is a secluded place, and I haven’t the benefit of help from teachers and friends. At the same time, because I have been bothered by various ailments and have had no one to whom I can entrust household responsibilities, I have been unable to make any significant progress in my self-cultivation efforts. Yet time passes by. I’m ending up falling into the status of a mean and petty person, with no reason for even the slightest hope of ever reaching the realm of the sages and worthies. Time and again, I heave a deep sigh that there is no place where I can hide in shame.
As for my younger brothers, the best thing for you to do is to require them to work hard. I anxiously hope that you will be good at nurturing them, enabling them to have abilities in areas where they have none, to have a sense of balance in areas where it is lacking. How fortunate, how fortunate for them! As for the books they should read, it is only the Elementary Learning and the Four Books that are the most crucial. After that they should read the plain texts of the various classics, without their commentaries. Since other writings in philosophy and history should not, on any account, be read in a light, superficial manner, they must follow the reading of these more basic texts.
My few insights have all come from the Elementary Learning, the Four Books, the Digest of the Recorded Conversations of Zhu Xi, Reflections on Things at Hand, and the Records of the Words and Deeds of Eminent Officials of the Song Dynasty. (At this time, the Master had not yet seen the Written Legacy of the Cheng Brothers or the Classified Conversations of Zhu Xi.)20 With respect to these several books, if a person hasn’t any deep understanding of them, then other books will easily ruin his processes of thought. The harm from this is not insignificant. This is why you have continually tried to provide me with instruction. Only now have I come to appreciate this, and I fear my exertion of effort is too late. I am overcome with sighs of regret! (8:26a–b)
(b) 1423–Tenth Month
In my leisure time from working the fields, I have been delighting in Zhu Xi’s Collected Commentaries on the Analects. Whenever I get to parts that I understand, immediately and without realizing it my hands and feet move in joyful response. Ever since the eighth month, I have been aware of having made considerable strides in my advancement. Each day I scrutinize {90} and personally examine what Mencius called the “four beginnings,” and have discovered the means by which to conduct myself, manage the household, and deal with other people. And in each of these, it seems I have something to hold on to and follow. What I dislike is having to study alone in this lonely and rustic place without teachers or friends to explain and clarify matters for me.
Sun Yuerang21 told me of your idea to send my three younger brothers back home here to the country. Truly this is a far-reaching plan that has actually been a deep wish and pure hope of this, your unfilial son. Not only is life in the country simple, honest, and frugal so that a person can advance in his learning and moral character, but also it allows a person early on to learn the toils and hardships of a farmer’s life so that at a later time he will not fall in with the reckless and lazy. I have no doubt but that you will decide in favor of this. I pray that you will send them right away.
As for the various writings you promised to give me, that is, your collection of books, handwritten personal papers from the past, and letters from relatives and friends, I’m looking forward to receiving them. If you could send them back with Yuerang and Zhicheng on their return, that would be wonderful. (8:26b–27a)
(c) 1425–Seventh Month (intercalary)
Lately, I have been deeply apprehensive about my inability to make any significant advancement in my learning. Looking above, I have disgraced my ancestors; here and now, I have dishonored you, my father, and my teachers. Grieving over this day and night, I have had no time to manage my daily routine.
I’d like to ask you to please be sure to send me back the copy of the Collected Works of Zhu Xi. Lately I have felt even more how profound and appropriate are the sayings of Master Zhu. Still, my own efforts at cultivation have not reached his standards. (8:27a–b)
(d) 1425–Twelfth Month
On the eighth day of the eleventh month, I was visiting the youngest son of a fellow villager, Huang Zixiao. He had just returned from the capital {91} with news that you are enjoying many blessings and that the whole household is well. My sad countenance changed upon hearing the news, and I became overwhelmed with joy. I also heard that you would be returning home next spring for the sacrificing and sweeping of the family graves during the Qingming Festival. The prospect of our whole family reassembling is cause for great joy. What greater good fortune could there be!
As for me, I have been just living in the country, following a constant routine. The autumn crop is doing fairly well. My only resentment is that I have been encumbered by illnesses. As for my books, I have neglected them; as for my body and mind, I have become lazy and remiss. I don’t even dare put myself in the category of a human being. The years and months gallop by, while my physical vigor declines with each day. What has happened today to the determined, rousing will of my youth? Confucius said, “When a man at forty is disliked by others, he will always be so.” Isn’t it just as he says! When my younger brothers were here, they didn’t at first take to their studies. I sincerely hope they will not follow in the tracks of an overturned cart like me, their older brother.
Speaking of my younger brothers, colleagues and friends returning from the capital speak with deep concern that they have grown used to the wealth and high living of the capital, and that they will find their return here difficult. As I silently reflect on it, I don’t find it surprising that they should react thus, having been born and raised in the midst of plenty and then having to change their residence and its comforts. I humbly hope that you will be good at teaching them so that they can eliminate their old habits. If they return to the country here with its simple life, gradually get more involved in the farming, and gradually improve themselves from their daily associations with colleagues and friends of the village, then their advancements and achievements truly will be immeasurable. From what our ancestors accumulated in good deeds, it is only fitting that my brothers be able to accomplish this. At least, this is what I deeply long for day and night. (8:27b–28a)
(13) Letter to Hu Jiushao 1426
Since we last parted, I have been beset with several ailments that have been quite painful. Still, I have tried to accept them as part of my lot. I’ve put new efforts into my studies and moral practice, and for consecutive days {92} I’ve found that some progress has been made. Recently I received your gift of a copy of Master Zhu’s Works on the Management of Human Affairs and Providing a Standard for Literature. Every day I read it with great reverence. My response to it is just like a mountain stream swelling forth, followed by a sudden and heavy rainstorm. The threads of my thoughts are too many to express well in writing. Also, because you have yet to establish the kind of foundation that only long efforts in moral cultivation bring, it is difficult for me to pour out everything to you at once.
The main essentials for entering the gate of the Way are just to put aside all other books and concentrate solely on the Four Books and the writings of the Cheng brothers, Zhou Dunyi, Zhang Zai, and Zhu Xi.22 Read these thoroughly in a set order, “neither forgetting nor helping to grow,” and “being easygoing but thoroughly absorbing what you learn.”23 If you therein accumulate efforts over a long period of time, you will naturally accomplish something. But this is not something you can force. The taste of this is truly difficult to appreciate. It is exactly what Master Zhu Xi meant when he said, “Although plain looking, it is really rich.” How fortunate that I have suddenly reached this realm by reading this book! What great joy! What great joy!
In your letter, you stated that, compared with the last few years, you have been better at overcoming your faults. This is extremely good news. Still, do not be too severe in the application of your mind to these things. As Mencius said, “He who advances with precipitation will retire with speed.”24 Truly, these are not empty words! Since your vitality is in short supply and your body is weak, you should double your efforts to nourish and care for yourself. I hope you will be all right! (8:28a–29a)
(14) Reply to a Letter from Sun Yuerang25
I can’t believe that a year has passed since we parted on the hilltop. Though separated, we share deep feelings of longing and remembrance. As for my efforts at moral cultivation since last winter, I can’t say that those efforts {93} at learning have not been painstaking. In my daily affairs, I can’t say they have not been productive.26 Still, my sickly body is in declining health and I am tied up with household matters. I have no way of making any kind of significant improvement, yet time continues to pass by. Looking up at the ancients, I find the distance that separates us to be beyond calculation. This is what pains my heart from morning to night.
This fall, I unexpectedly received a letter from you. From it I realized that you have not been remiss in your determination to advance in your moral character. I was overwhelmed with joy! I reread your letter by the window of my study so as to console my feelings of longing and to rouse my own self to action. At the end of your letter, you requested that I send you some advice. Since you have kindly chosen not to look down on me, how can I remain silent?
Now, you have already said yourself what I would say to you. Your letter stated, “I have put all my energies into the Four Books.” All I can say is that this is not a waste of your energies but rather the way to get to the root of all learning. Even though I might wish to say anything beyond what these texts say, what would it be for? Not only is this true of me, but even if one of the sages and worthies came back to life to teach, how could he go beyond what is contained in these books? Since parting from you, my own moral practice has concentrated on these books and nothing else.
In your letter you also asked, “Even though I am able for a while to understand the words on paper, in the end what benefit does it have for my body and mind?” These words of yours raise an important issue which is precisely what you should reflect upon. Now the problem for people is that they don’t know how to turn inward and seek within themselves. For them, books are just books, the self is just the self, and there is no connection between the two. When the books that a person reads only benefit his mouth and ears, then it is all a great failure. Since you now are aware that books have not been benefiting your body and mind, you should move in the direction of finding such benefit. You should focus your mind on this, sincerely believe in this, strongly hold on to this, and deeply long for this. When reading, don’t calculate your results based on the number of times you read a book. Polish yourself for months and years, but do not be eager for results. As Cheng Yi advised, “Be leisurely and at ease, thoroughly {94} absorbing what you learn,” in the midst of it all. Then benefits from your “daily renewal” program will naturally arise. Don’t expect it to be thus and it will be thus. (8:29a–30a)
(15) Letter to Sun Yuerang (1429)
I remember back when I first returned home from mourning the death of our father.27 Because some matters had not yet been resolved, my sense of guilt was deep. I didn’t feel at ease anywhere, and a hundred other worries piled up on me. I was unable to fulfill in the least bit the duties of etiquette due to my older sister and you. Even though those who understood the situation have not borne me a grudge, still how great has been the sense of remorse I have felt inside!
The day you came to the local magistrate’s office was just when I was harvesting rice in nearby Huangbo. When I looked out into the distance and saw the dust you had raised in leaving, I was overcome with feelings of shame. For a while now I have had the wish to go east to visit you and to unburden myself of all that I have kept inside. Exhausted from bearing my burdens, I haven’t been able to find even a little bit of relief, and so this wish of mine to visit has not been an easy one to fulfill. Still, even in sending you greetings in letters, I have been remiss. I know I am at fault, yes, I know I am at fault.
All this while you have continued to send me gifts. While gratefully receiving them, I only feel even more ashamed and uneasy. My younger brother, Yunian, tells me that you have been conscientious in the performance of your job. How worthy of joy and respect you are! I remember once when we were talking together on the road to Huangbo, you told me of your resolve to read the Four Books and Five Classics over and over again in a set order. How has that been going?
In the twelfth lunar month of last year, I moved to the village of Xiaopo. Because everything is so new and unfinished, there have been lots of {95} difficulties and hardships. Still, I can only manage according to my given abilities. But I find that my physical vigor is further declining, and that I haven’t advanced much in my studies and moral character. I have nothing with which to wash away even a fraction of my guilt as an unfilial son and uncaring brother, heavily burdened as I am by the expectations of father, brothers, teachers, and friends. Day and night, alarmed by it all, I have no place to hide myself in shame.
This new year, there have been some students in the village who have come to study with me. But each day, with my many ailments, I can only make a small amount of substantive progress with them. This has been a source of additional shame for me. Brother-in-law Xu Daying recently paid me a visit. What’s more, he has a mind to move here, which would be a wonderful thing indeed.
While your son is still attending you, how fitting for you to teach him with diligence. Have him thoroughly read the Elementary Learning, the plain texts of the Four Books and Five Classics. Have him nourish his moral nature, not allowing him to become lax and remiss in his efforts. Your own curriculum, too, should not depart from these essentials. As for the Elementary Learning, a person cannot but take pains to apply his efforts to mastering it. Proceed chapter by chapter, passage by passage, carefully digest it and allowing it to enter your mind. You will then come to understand that the meaning of the sages’ teachings clearly appears beyond the actual words used. In this way, you will be able to make some progress.
In my humble opinion, I have always thought that the management of affairs by later generations has not been up to par with the ancients because people have failed to take the Elementary Learning as their basis. Once you have thoroughly mastered it, then apply your efforts to the Four Books and Five Classics. Recite them until they are committed to memory, causing the words to come out of your mouth as if they were your own. Then your own sense of their meaning will be special to you. The ancients said, “In reading a thousand pieces of writing, the meaning will naturally emerge.” How true!
After you have mastered the plain texts of the Four Books and Five Classics, then you can read their various commentaries, and after that go on to the philosophical and history writings. If a person, intent on penetrating the essence of these writings, doesn’t follow this order but reads them in a careless, random way, he will fail in the end. He will have wasted {96} his vital energies and passed the years in vain. What a great pity that would be! In my own life, I have found myself mired in this fault. My regrets come too late!
With your youth and your ability, you should by all means hasten each day to push ahead with your moral efforts. Do not disgrace those who gave you birth. In recent years, I had a certain student who was completely lazy, enslaved by motives of profit and desire, unable to control himself. The source of his problem was just that his past efforts with the Elementary Learning were slapdash, his reading of books in general was haphazard, and he had never established a firm foundation to his learning. Therefore, it was easy for external things to agitate and disturb him. Take this as a warning! Take this as a warning!
What sorts of book collections do you have in the various counties of Huizhou where you are stationed? If you would be so kind as to tell me each and every title, I would be so grateful. As there is no way for us to get together any time soon, I only hope you will love and cherish yourself. This will be all for now. (8:30a–31b)
“Encouraging Learning,” an Essay Presented to Yang Dequan
The reason human beings are different from birds and beasts is that they are replete with the four beginnings of humaneness, righteousness, a sense of propriety, and wisdom. Once these beginnings are obscured, then a person loses the substance that makes him human and he becomes no different from the birds and beasts. But even among animals, bees and ants have some sense of the ruler-subject relationship, tigers and dogs have some sense of the duty to repay their ancestors, and ospreys have some sense of the complementary roles of married couples. So even though they are animals, they all embody one of the four beginnings. In contrast, a human being who drowns his mind in selfish considerations of profit and desire and remains unsettled and obstinate, is not even as good as these animals.
One who wishes to distinguish himself from an animal will indeed say to himself, “When I turn inward and seek my mind, I will certainly find there humaneness, righteousness, a sense of propriety, wisdom, and {97} nothing else. If I wish to substantiate these four in my own person and yet dispense with the writings of the sages and worthies, then there will be no place where I can direct my efforts.”
Yang Dequan of Fengcheng (Jiangxi province) was a university student returning home to pay his respects to his parents. As we happened to be on the same boat, we talked to each other for several days. He enthusiastically set his resolve on cultivating himself like this. He was worried, however, that once he arrived home, he would be confused by worldly affairs and his bad habits wouldn’t be easy to overcome. He solicited my advice for some ways to advance in self-cultivation as well as ways for him to maintain a sense of alertness.
This is what I told him. In the affairs of the world, there exist only two poles: the common good or private interests, moral principle or selfish desire, rectitude or profit. Their power constantly alternates between the two. When the former (the common good, moral principle, and rectitude) is strong, then the latter (private interests, selfish desire, and profit) is weak; when the latter is strong, the former is weak. Once the strong and weak have been distinguished, the benefit or harm from some affair will be made clear. If one understands this, he will not be upset when the latter’s power is strong but will pay attention to how he is going to accumulate and increase the strength of his own position.
Go home, and clean and sweep out a room. Set up some maxims of the ancient sages and worthies on your desk. In your free time from serving your parents, enter your chamber, straighten your clothing, and sit in a serious and proper manner. Thoroughly read and digest the writings of the sages and worthies, examining their application for yourself. Whether active or quiescent, whether talking or silent, always seek what is worthy of the sages and worthies, and get rid of whatever is not worthy. If you accumulate your efforts over a period of time, then the power of your tasting the Way and emulating the worthies will daily strengthen, and the power of your old habits and past defects will daily weaken. Don’t worry that you will not reach the gate of the ancients.
Whenever you get together with your relatives and friends, loyally admonish them and skillfully lead them on. Since every person has a mind that holds to moral principles and is fond of virtue, I can foresee all of you enthusiastically working together to make advancements in this. How can you then be upset about being confused about affairs? Exert yourself, yes, exert yourself, and be not remiss. (8:41b–43a)
{98} Standards for Learning (1430)
Item: It is necessary for all to follow a fixed order. Begin by thoroughly reading the Elementary Learning and the plain texts of the Four Books, committing each of them to memory. After that, read the plain texts of the Five Classics. Become so well versed in them that you can recite them from memory. Do all this with a view to gradually gain entrance into the Way. For your efforts to be effective, you must work hard at this for months and years. How anyone can think he can plant a tree in the morning and enjoy its shade that very evening is something I don’t understand!
Item: The goal of study is to learn to become sages and worthies. In the classroom, it is absolutely necessary to engage in discussing and clarifying matters such as the principles of righteousness, self-cultivation, and solicitude in action. If anyone wishes to wade and hunt through books only to benefit his mouth and ears, and to be skillful in poetry and couplets for superficial showing off, then that is something I don’t understand.
Item: When the ancients engaged in book learning, all of them committed their whole selves to it and didn’t waste time in other activities. In this way, they vigorously undertook their moral practice. In three to five years, they were able to establish a firm foundation and advance to higher matters. Now, if a person sometimes works hard and sometimes slacks off, with one hot spell to every ten cold spells, then even if he were to read books for a hundred years, I can’t see how he would succeed. (8:43a–b)
“Colophon” to the Record of the Origins of the School of the Two Chengs
In the winter of 1409, the Honorable Li Nengbai, who was the Assistant Sub-Prefect to Suzhou Prefecture (Zhejiang province), sent my late father this collection of biographies. I pored over it by lamplight, humbly examining the single thread of the true transmission of the Way. Without realizing it, my mind became intoxicated. I was especially moved by the story of how Master Cheng Hao curbed his love of hunting.28 Now in the past, {99} before reading this, I had said that those sages and worthies who bore the responsibility for the continuation of the Way were all specially endowed by Heaven, that sagehood was not something that could be reached by ordinary efforts. Consequently, I had set aside sagehood as something outside my range and had given up on myself.
When I got to the point of examining the matter in light of this text, I realized that even Master Cheng made mistakes and that even he relied on learning to correct them. At that very moment, I was inspired to rouse myself to action and ventured to set my hopes in this direction. Thereupon I completely burned all my old examination papers and vowed not to stop my moral efforts until I had reached the level of the sages and worthies.
The winter of 1411, after I had returned to my native place in the country, our residence in the capital caught on fire. I thought for sure this book must have been among those reduced to ashes. Since then, I have continually wished for the opportunity to read it over again but have been unable to get hold of a copy. In the spring of this year, while going through the books left by my late father housed in our ancestral home in Liantang, I was delighted to discover this text was still intact. Consequently, I have with great reverence brought it back with me to my humble abode in Xiaopo.
Every day I respectfully read and savor its flavor in order to satisfy my lifelong wish of becoming a sage. Ah, that I, Yubi, altered my course away from the path of error even a small bit really did begin with the reading of this book. From this, one can see how great was the generosity of Master Zhu Xi in compiling this collection of biographies so that later generations can benefit by it. And as for the Honorable Li’s deep gift of encouragement, how dare I ever forget it! (12:1a–b)