VOLUME VII, CHAPTER 11, SECTION 2
Carrying On the Ancestors' Vein: the Root of This Road of Lawmaking
The last section made plain that the root purpose of this road of lawmaking is to serve the people with all one's heart, and pointed out that these six characters carry on a vein of the ancestors. This section goes one layer further along it: this road of lawmaking, which vein of the ancestors does it carry on, exactly? In that long passing-down of the sages, what position does it stand in? The answer: what it carries on is the sages' vein of thousands of years, take the human as the root, all under heaven is shared, be humane to the people and care for all things. It is not a new teaching invented out of nothing. It stands on the line drawn on from that vein of the sages, receiving their vein, and carrying on meaning the sages did not reach. See this layer clearly, and you know why this road of lawmaking is laid deep, laid firm, laid with somewhere it comes from. And you know too that the line, credit to the ancestors, is no polite, modest phrase, but a real and solid owning of the debt.
One. This Road of Lawmaking Is Not Invented Out of Nothing
First, break open one possible misunderstanding: this road of lawmaking seems to lay down many new teachings, but in fact it is not invented out of nothing.
The whole book laid down the tool and the real human, laid down the living mechanism of the four institutions, laid down the five, laid down 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 beneath these new teachings, the vein beneath them, is not new. It is that heart handed down by the sages over thousands of years: take the human as the root, be humane to the people and care for all things. The book only takes over this old heart, uses it to shine on today's new situation, where tools flourish, and lays down new teachings to meet the new situation. So these new teachings are new in form, but the heart in their bones is handed down in the ancestors' vein. This road of lawmaking is not invented out of nothing precisely because it has somewhere it comes from, has a passing-down, has a line: it stands on the sages' shoulders, receives the sages' heart, and answers today's change. What is invented out of nothing often cannot stand and cannot go far. Only what carries on a deep, rich passing-down stands firm and lasts long.
This layer must be said all the way through, because people today, laying out their teachings, often pride themselves on being original, on overturning, on the never-seen-before, as if the more wholly newly made, the more sharply cut off from those before, the more remarkable. This is a shallow view. A tree cut from its root, pulled from its soil, however thick its branches and leaves for a while, does not live long. A body of reasoning cut from its passing-down, with nowhere it comes from, however novel and dazzling for a while, cannot keep its footing. A truly deep teaching never takes pride in breaking with tradition, but takes carrying on a vein as its root. It knows it is not something from nothing, and that it can take one more step forward only because it stands on the thick soil gathered by those before over hundreds and thousands of years. This road of lawmaking from the start never dared to call itself original. It honestly admits that all it laid down, the heart, the vein, was taken over from the ancestors, and that it only carried on down, walking one more stretch to meet the new situation. This self-knowledge is not belittling oneself. It is the clear head of one who knows deeply how heavy the passing-down is, and how much it matters where one comes from. And only by keeping this self-knowledge do the things laid down escape becoming rootless, floating talk.
Two. Which Vein It Carries On
Then which vein of the ancestors does this road of lawmaking carry on, exactly? 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.
Take the human as the root: the sages set the human as the root of everything. Governing the world, making law, running affairs, all should take the human as the root, not things, not profit, not any one family or one name. All under heaven is shared: the sages set the world as the world of all the people in it, not the private holding of one family or one name, but meant to be for all, for the many, for the ten thousand people. Be humane to the people and care for all things: the sages pushed that love out from loving people to loving things, humane to the common people, and caring for the ten thousand things too, reaching every blade of grass and every tree, every bird and every insect. These three, take the human as the root, all under heaven is shared, be humane to the people and care for all things, are exactly the vein this road of lawmaking carries on. The book's guarding the five and laying down that the real human cannot be replaced is today's echo of take the human as the root. The book's laying the four institutions for all and for the people is today's carrying-on of all under heaven is shared. The book's loving the five, guarding paradise, even loving down to the tool, is today's pushing-outward of be humane to the people and care for all things. One vein handed down; line by line, they match.
These matchings, line by line, are not forced, not dragged over to lean on the sages. That heart runs through as one vein to begin with, and where the water comes, the channel forms. When the sages laid down take the human as the root, they had never seen today, when a tool can replace a real human. But within that heart of taking the human as the root there already lay one layer: the human is more precious than things, the human cannot be replaced by things. Today tools flourish and have forced this layer right before our eyes, and the book, following that heart of the sages, lays down that the five cannot be replaced. This is exactly to make plain and make solid a layer that was already in the sages' heart but not yet put into words. All under heaven is shared, be humane to the people and care for all things, are the same. So this road of lawmaking's carrying-on of the sages' vein is not hanging new teachings forcibly on old sayings. These meanings were already held within the sages' heart; only the time had not yet come, and they were not unfolded. Today the time has come, and the book unfolds for the sages, layer by layer, what was not yet unfolded. Only this is true carrying-on: what is carried on is the inner growing of that heart, not an outward clinging to words and phrases. Such carrying-on, were the sages here, they too would nod.
Three. Receiving Their Vein, and Carrying On Meaning the Sages Did Not Reach
This road of lawmaking carries on the ancestors' vein, yet does not copy the sages' old words. It receives their vein, and carries on meaning the sages did not reach.
The sages in their day never ran into today's new situation, where tools flourish. They never saw a tool strong enough to replace a real human, to be pushed up onto the person's place, to stir up the whole of paradise. So the sages laid down take the human as the root, but did not reach the point of laying down that the tool is a tool, the real human is a real human, and the five cannot be replaced. They laid down all under heaven is shared, but did not reach the point of laying down that whole living mechanism of the four institutions sustaining and checking one another. They laid down be humane to the people and care for all things, but did not reach the point of laying down: guard this one and only paradise, and do not be misled by the story of abandoning Earth and running to Mars. These were all things the sages in their day had no way to lay a hand on, left for those after to write on. This road of lawmaking took over the heart of that vein of the sages, set it down on today's new situation, and carried on meaning the sages did not reach. Receiving the vein is not forgetting the root, having somewhere one comes from. Carrying on new meaning is answering new change, laying down what should be laid. Receiving without carrying on is clinging to the old: it takes over the old heart but cannot meet the new situation. Carrying on without receiving is rootless: it lays down new teachings but cuts the line. Only by receiving their vein and carrying on what they did not reach does this road of lawmaking have both a deep place it comes from and the edge to meet the new situation. Holding this balance shows the sense of measure most: keeping that heart of the ancestors unchanged is receiving; laying down new teachings to meet today's new situation is carrying on. The heart unchanged and the teaching ever new, this is how this road of lawmaking looks, receiving what went before and opening what comes after.
Four. Why Carry On This Vein
Why must this road of lawmaking carry on this vein of the ancestors, and not build a new stove and invent out of nothing? Because only by carrying on this vein is the lawmaking laid deep, laid firm, laid with backbone.
First, the heart of that vein of the sages, take the human as the root, all under heaven is shared, be humane to the people and care for all things, has been proven, tempered and guarded by generation after generation over thousands of years. It is a true heart that has stood the test of time. Taking over this heart, this road of lawmaking is not the empty dream of one person at one moment, but stands on thousands of years of deep deposit. Second, carrying on this vein, the lawmaking has a root, a source, a place it belongs. When a person's heart accepts a reasoning, what it accepts is often not only the reasoning itself, but the deep passing-down behind it. This road of lawmaking carries on the ancestors' vein, and readers reading it feel it is not rootless duckweed, not an odd tale made up to be different, but the continuation of the heart of their own ancestors: close, trustworthy, able to stand. Third, carrying on this vein is also a humility and an honesty: not daring to take the sages' credit as one's own, saying clearly and plainly that the root of this reasoning lies with the ancestors, and the one laying it out has only received it, gathered it up, and said it once more. This humility is exactly the true meaning of the signature line, credit to the ancestors. Most who write books in this world hurry to take the credit for themselves. Only this road of lawmaking pushes the credit all the way over to the ancestors, and keeps only the possible mistakes for itself alone to bear. This pushing away and keeping back looks like a loss, but is in fact clear-sighted. Name and credit are things outside oneself, not to be fought for, not to be grabbed. And admitting that what one laid down is only the continuation of the sages' vein instead sets this lawmaking firmly into that deep passing-down of thousands of years, and gains the weight and backbone of that passing-down. The one who fights for credit cuts himself off from the passing-down, and becomes instead a tree with no root. The one who yields the credit joins himself into the long river of the passing-down, and gains instead the river's vastness.
Five. The Layer This Section Makes Plain
This section makes plain that what this road of lawmaking carries on is that vein of the ancestors.
It is not a new teaching invented out of nothing, but handed down along 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. 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, loving the ten thousand things of paradise is the pushing-outward of be humane to the people and care for all things. It receives their vein, and carries on meaning the sages did not reach: setting the sages' old heart down on today's new situation, where tools flourish, and carrying on new teachings to meet it. Receiving without carrying on is clinging to the old; carrying on without receiving is rootless. Only by receiving their vein and carrying on what they did not reach does this road of lawmaking have both somewhere it comes from and an edge. And only by carrying on this vein is the lawmaking laid deep, laid firm, laid with backbone, and only so does it have the humility and honesty in that signature line, credit to the ancestors. With where this vein comes from made plain, the next section draws it in further along it: this road of lawmaking, carrying on the ancestors' vein, what then is the root it finally means to lay down and to keep? This road of lawmaking, receiving what went before and opening what comes after, after all its thousands of words, what is the one place it finally comes back down to?
Credit to the ancestors; the mistakes are mine: Tiger Lyon.
Section Three. What It Comes To at the Root: Let Real Humans Live as Real Humans.