REFORMING CHINESE

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXVII, Issue 4459, 19 October 1933, Page 8

REFORMING CHINESE

“ In the book ‘ Ta Hsueh ’ (The Great Learning), we find a unifying conception of world order which seeks to lay its foundation in the psychology of the individual,” writes Professor Tsai Yuan Pei. “ This book was written two thousand years ago bjy Tseng Ts’an, a disciple of Confulcius, later incorporated in the Ifi-Ki by the Han Scholars, and finally chosen, as one of the Four Books to be studied by every schoolboy, by the scholars of the Sun Dynasty. Dr Sun Yat Sen, in his ‘ Sanmin Doctrine,” also regards this book as containing a most profound political philosophy. The passage I wish to refer to reads as follows: “ ‘ In ancient times, those who wished to make clear their virtue before the world would first put their country in order; those who wished to put their country in order would first bring about right relationships in thejr family; those who wished to bring about right relationships in their famlily would first cultivate their own self; those who wished to cultivate their own self would first rectify their own heart; those who wished to rectify their own heart would first make thieir will sincere; and those who wished to make their will sincere would first try to attain knowledge, and they would attain knowledge by studying matter. “ ‘ Wlhen matter is studied, then

knowledge may be attained; when knowledge is attained, then the will becomes sincere; when the will is sincere, then the heart is rectified; when the heart is rectified, then the sielf is cultivated; when the self is cultivated, then there exist right relationships in the family; when right relationships exist in the family, then the country is in order; when the countries are in order, then there is peace in the world.’ “ It will he seen that in the first paragraph quoted above a rational world order is first stated as the object, and then the writer proceeds to describe the method by which this object is to be attained —not only by attending to smaller units of humlan society of which the individual is the irreducible element, but also extending the study of the individual from his conduct to his mind in the last analysis. 1 “ The problem of virtue is thus reduced to a problem of knowledge, which is thus seen to be the final basis of world order. In the second paragraph), the reverse process from cause to effect is again successively traced, from knowledge as. the starting point to the attainment of a rational world order as the final end. This end to be aimed at is described as ‘ world peace,’ while the method of attaining this peace begins with ‘making clear one’s virtue before the world.’ This virtue is regarded as rational conduct, and proceeds, neither from superstition nor from blind acceptance, but from the exercise of intelligence. The development of intelligence is again described as the attainment of knowledge through the objective study of matter. It is therefore characteristically free from theological and metaphysical fancies. . .”