Rising Together to the Ranks of Lords: Innate Equality and the Pre-Qin Vision of Self-Cultivation, Compared with Western Freedom and Equality
Starting from a brief episode in the Analects, in which the noble Wenzi of Wei promotes his own household steward, Zhuan, to stand alongside him among the lords, this essay reads that small event against the great declarations of freedom and equality since the Renaissance: the West places its ideal at the starting line, while the pre-Qin thinkers built the ideal into lived reality.
XI. In Conclusion: This Is Worthy of Being Called Wen
11.1 An Equality Spoken of for Three Hundred Years, and an Equality Accomplished Once
The modern West has spoken the words "all men are created equal" with tremendous power and reach. It left behind, for the enslaved, for women, for colonial subjects, and for all who were treated with contempt, a language with which to turn and question power in return — this contribution should never be erased. And yet language still has to wait for labor: who will teach people, recommend the worthy, and bear failure; who will make those who gain opportunity worthy of greater responsibility. Without such mediation, equality stalls at the starting line, and may even harm the very people it means to protect when it is redeemed too hastily.
The story of Wenzi of Wei and Zhuan carries no grand declaration, yet it carries out a single ascent in full: Zhuan learned and served in a low position; Wenzi, in a high position, recognized talent and yielded precedence; and public memory honored this choice with the word "wen." Here, no one is declared identical to everyone else, and no difference of rank is declared eternal; mobility opens up within difference of rank, and responsibility expands within mobility. Such an equality makes no noise, yet it can be imitated by those who come after, and it reminds us that an ideal must land on an action that can be repeated. It asks us to do the labor together, rather than merely make the proclamation.
11.2 What a Civilization Should Honor
A civilization will, in the end, grow into the shape of whatever it chooses to honor. If it honors only possession, victory, and never letting another surpass oneself, people will come to treat their companions as tools; if it honors learning, keeping faith, recommending the worthy, yielding precedence to the worthy, and giving the common people peace, human effort gains a higher direction. What the Yi Zhou Shu's "Explanation of Posthumous Titles" calls "to be diligent in learning and fond of inquiry is called wen," together with the Master's judgment on Wenzi of Wei, "this is worthy of being called wen," together point to a single standard: to have talent, yet not grow complacent; to hold a position, yet be willing to bring others to completion; to have achievement, yet not keep it to oneself alone.
Today, East and West alike still need to press the question "people ought to be equal" all the way to its end: how should people treat one another in the conference room; how should newcomers be allowed to rise; how should a leader learn to accept criticism; how should a single failure be turned into shared learning$2 The answer does not lie in a louder slogan, but in the labor each person is willing to complete. Even Yao and Shun feared they could not accomplish "cultivating oneself so as to give the common people peace"; all the more reason for us to begin from the one person, the one matter, the one responsibility before us. If, through this, someone learns to do better, stands more firmly, and in turn yields his own position to someone still more suited to it, civilization can once again say to him: this is worthy of being called wen.