VOLUME VII, CHAPTER 11
The Root, the Purpose, and Where It Comes From
The last chapter set down how this book holds itself: one small lamp; the ones who do the great work are the readers; and what becomes of it hereafter is left to letting it be as it naturally is. With the book having set itself down, what remains to account for is this road of lawmaking in the book itself. The whole book went all along the road saving people, growing the heart, laying institutions, guarding the five, going back to the human world, guarding paradise, its branches and leaves by the ten thousand. This chapter traces it to its source, and traces it too to where it comes to rest. The chapter's three sections account for the purpose, the source and the root of this road of lawmaking.
Section One begins with a string of questions. Why save the ones pressed down at the bottom? Why grow that heart that guards others, lay that floor of living so none go hungry? Why guard the five, go back to the human world, guard this paradise? Question by question, answer by answer, traced to the very first thought, it is always for the people. The seven volumes' branches and leaves all sprouted from this one seed; grasp the six characters, serve the people with all one's heart, and you grasp the headrope of the whole book. These six characters are also the ruler for testing: with every law laid, look back and ask, is this with all one's heart for the people? Lawmaking most easily goes out of shape partway, and harming people lawfully, laid out in the last volume, is exactly this: the form of the law still there, the soul of the law already gone. Of the six characters, the four, with all one's heart, weigh the most. Not three parts for the people and seven for oneself. It can be done only by setting that "I" down very light, very faint, and so it is one with the book's ground color, Originally, not a single thing. At the end the section points to where these six characters come from. The ancestors long had: The people are the ground of the state, and when the ground is firm the state is at peace. They long had: All under heaven is shared. They long had: Rejoice in the people's joy, grieve at the people's grief. The sages mostly warned those in high seats. Today these six characters have turned into a charge everyone can carry and everyone should carry.
Section Two first breaks open a misunderstanding. The whole book laid down the tool and the real human, the living mechanism of the four institutions, the five, going back to the human world and guarding paradise. At first glance these are new teachings that those before never spelled out, but the heart in their bones is old. People today, laying out their teachings, often pride themselves on being original, on overturning. This section takes a tree as its likeness: cut from its root, pulled from its soil, however thick its branches and leaves for a while, it does not live long. The vein it carries on has three: take the human as the root, setting the human as the root of everything; all under heaven is shared, the world is the world of all the people in it; be humane to the people and care for all things, pushing that love out from people to every blade of grass and every tree, every bird and every insect. Each of the three has its match today: guarding the five is the echo of take the human as the root, laying the four institutions for all is the carrying-on of all under heaven is shared, and loving the ten thousand things of paradise, even loving down to the tool, is the pushing-outward of be humane to the people and care for all things. The section lays down one layer more: receiving their vein, and carrying on meaning the sages did not reach. The sages never saw a tool strong enough to replace a real human, and so did not reach the point of laying down that the five cannot be replaced, did not reach the living mechanism of the four institutions, did not reach guarding this one and only paradise. Receiving without carrying on is clinging to the old; carrying on without receiving is rootless. Carrying on this vein is also a humility, and that is the true meaning of the signature line, credit to the ancestors.
Section Three draws in to the plainest place. The seven volumes laid down so much, and traced to the end, it is a homely saying, let people live as real humans, that an old farmer who cannot read can understand: let people live like human beings. Living as a real human is letting the five, keep, guard, love, mercy, heart, in one body after another, not go out, not wither, not cool, not shut, not gather dust. This ruler is utterly equal. It does not ask noble or lowly, rich or poor; it asks only whether the five are present, alive, bright. Why is this the last root? Laying institutions, guarding paradise, saving the tool, asking all along the road what it is for, all point to this one place; and this one place can be asked no further, for it is itself the end. So keep it, and you keep the soul of the whole book. Not remembering the complex institutions does not matter. Meeting a matter, ask only one question: which road better lets people live as real humans, better guards the five from going out?
The layer this chapter makes firm is this: this road of lawmaking has a purpose, a source and a root; it is not rootless, floating talk. First the purpose is laid: to serve the people with all one's heart is the starting point of all lawmaking, and also the ruler for testing it. Then the source is laid: this road of lawmaking is not invented out of nothing; it carries on the sages' vein of take the human as the root, all under heaven is shared, be humane to the people and care for all things. Last the root is laid: thousands of words, traced to the end, come home to one place, let every real human live as a real human. With the reasoning made plain here, the next chapter speaks across time, one set of words left for the next generation of real humans, one for the AI of the future.
Chapter contents:
Section One. The Purpose in One Line: to Serve the People with All One's Heart.
Section Two. Carrying On the Ancestors' Vein: the Root of This Road of Lawmaking.
Section Three. What It Comes To at the Root: Let Real Humans Live as Real Humans.
Credit to the ancestors; the mistakes are mine: Tiger Lyon.
Section One. The Purpose in One Line: to Serve the People with All One's Heart.