5 The Heavenly Faculties and the Mind

5.1 Relying on the Heavenly Faculties

5.1.1 Same Kind, Same Sensation

The fifth section answers "on what basis is sameness and difference determined" with just three words: "one relies on the Heavenly Faculties." On what basis is sameness and difference distinguished$1 On the basis of the innate senses.

The reasoning is: "In every case, those of the same kind and the same sensation have Heavenly Faculties that register things in the same way. Hence, by comparing what resembles and what is doubtful, one arrives at mutual understanding, and this is the very basis on which people can share a conventional name in order to meet one another's expectations." People of the same kind have the same senses, and their senses register things in the same way. This is why people can compare similar things with one another and reach mutual understanding, and it is the very foundation that allows people to share a single agreed-upon name in order to meet one another's expectations.

This sentence is the bedrock of the whole study of names. Names are conventional, but how is convention possible at all$2 Because the two parties to the convention have the same sensation of the thing. When I say "sweet," you know what I mean, because your tongue tastes sweetness the same way mine does. If people's senses differed from one another, convention would have no basis, and names could not be established. Master Xun grounds the possibility of names in a common human nature, and this is his fundamental difference from those who treat the study of names as a purely speculative game.

5.1.2 The Five Senses, Each with Its Own Distinctions

What follows is a detailed inventory: "Shape and bodily form, color and pattern are distinguished by the eye; the clarity or murkiness of sound, its harmony, and strange sounds are distinguished by the ear; sweet, bitter, salty, bland, pungent, sour, and strange flavors are distinguished by the mouth; fragrant, foul, aromatic, heavy, rank, musty, moldy, and strange smells are distinguished by the nose; pain, itch, cold, heat, smoothness, sharpness, lightness, and heaviness are distinguished by the body; and delight, causation, joy, anger, sorrow, happiness, love, hatred, and desire are distinguished by the mind."

The significance of this inventory lies not in how many sensations it enumerates, but in how it distributes the basis of "difference" across the various senses. Shape and color are distinguished by the eye; sound is distinguished by the ear; flavor is distinguished by the mouth; smell is distinguished by the nose; touch is distinguished by the body. Each sense is responsible for one category of "difference." Sameness and difference are not conjured up out of nowhere by the mind—they are sorted out sense by sense.

Worth noting is the final item: "delight, causation, joy, anger, sorrow, happiness, love, hatred, and desire are distinguished by the mind." The mind, too, is a faculty, and what it is responsible for distinguishing is feeling and intention. Here "mind" stands alongside eye, ear, mouth, nose, and body—it is the sixth sense. What it perceives is inner feeling, just as the eye perceives outer color. That Master Xun counts the mind as one of the Heavenly Faculties agrees with the "Discourse on Heaven" (Tian Lun) chapter's statement, "ear, eye, nose, mouth, and body each have their own point of contact and cannot substitute for one another—this is called the Heavenly Faculties."

The phrase "sharing a conventional name in order to meet one another's expectations" lays bare the social nature of names in full. A name is "shared"—used by everyone together; a name is "conventional"—agreed upon; a name exists in order to "meet expectations"—to bring about mutual encounter and mutual understanding. A person living alone has no need of names. Names exist because people must interact with one another.

This echoes the fourth section's "different forms leave the minds of those who name them to communicate with one another." People's bodily forms differ, their minds differ, and yet they must understand one another—this is what requires names. A name is a bridge between separate minds. The two ends of the bridge can connect because they share the same foundation, which is the Heavenly Faculties.

5.2 The Mind Has Verifying Cognition

5.2.1 Verifying Cognition Waits on the Heavenly Faculties Registering by Kind

The second half of the fifth section discusses the function of the mind: "The mind has verifying cognition. With verifying cognition, one may rely on the ear to know sound, and rely on the eye to know shape. Yet verifying cognition must always wait upon the Heavenly Faculties having registered things by kind before it can proceed. If the five faculties register something but do not know it, or if the mind has verifying cognition but no account of it, then in either case there is no one who would not call it 'not knowing.'"

Verifying cognition is cognition that checks and confirms—the mind's capacity to verify, classify, and account for the material sent to it by the senses. The mind can know sound by relying on the ear, know shape by relying on the eye. But the mind's verifying cognition must always wait for the Heavenly Faculties to first register the material by kind before it can proceed.

To "register" (bu) is to record in a ledger. The Heavenly Faculties record what they sense in the ledger, and the mind then checks the accounts. This metaphor is vivid: the five senses are the bookkeepers, and the mind is the auditor. An auditor cannot audit out of nothing—there must be accounts to audit. So Master Xun says: if the five senses have registered something but the mind does not know it, or if the mind believes it knows but cannot give an account of it, both cases are called "not knowing."

This passage states the conditions for knowledge very strictly. Knowledge requires two things: material from the senses, and an account from the mind. Material without an account is not knowledge; an account without material is likewise not knowledge. True knowledge is the mind's well-founded, well-reasoned verification of sensory material.

5.2.2 A Comparison with Master Meng (Mencius)

Master Meng says in the "Gaozi I" chapter: "The faculties of ear and eye do not think, and are obscured by external things. When thing encounters thing, it simply draws the ear and eye along. The faculty of the mind thinks; thinking, one attains it; not thinking, one does not attain it. This is what Heaven has bestowed upon us." The faculties of ear and eye do not think, and are easily obscured by external things; the faculty of the mind thinks, and by thinking one attains understanding, while without thinking one does not attain it.

Here Master Meng sets ear and eye in opposition to the mind. Ear and eye are passive, led about by external things; the mind is active, capable of thinking and attaining. The point of this opposition is to urge people to "first establish what is greater," letting the mind take charge, and not letting ear and eye take charge.

Master Xun's account differs from this in a subtle way. He does not set ear and eye in opposition to the mind, but arranges them into two tiers, upper and lower: the Heavenly Faculties below, responsible for registering; the mind above, responsible for verifying cognition. The mind cannot know without going through the Heavenly Faculties, and the Heavenly Faculties cannot produce knowledge without going through the mind. The two work together; they are not opposed.

This difference relates to how the two men view human nature. Master Meng holds that the mind inherently possesses the sprouts of goodness, that the mind can attain understanding entirely on its own, and so he emphasizes the mind's independence. Master Xun holds that the mind's knowledge is learned from outside, that it must rely on material from the senses, and so he emphasizes the cooperation between mind and the Heavenly Faculties. Master Meng's mind is an original source; Master Xun's mind is an artisan-steward. An artisan-steward is an overseer, an administrator, and what it administers is the material delivered by the Heavenly Faculties.

Yet the two men also share common ground. Both hold that the mind occupies the leading position within the person. Master Meng says, "the faculty of the mind thinks"; Master Xun says, in the "Discourse on Heaven" chapter, "the mind dwells in the central emptiness in order to govern the five faculties—this is called the Heavenly Sovereign." The Heavenly Sovereign is the ruler of the five faculties. A ruler cannot do without ministers, but a ruler remains a ruler nonetheless. Master Xun's mind, though dependent on the Heavenly Faculties, remains their sovereign.

5.2.3 An Echo of "Dispelling Obscuration"

In the "Dispelling Obscuration" chapter, Master Xun says: "How does a person come to know the Way$3 Through the mind. How does the mind come to know$4 Through emptiness, unity, and stillness." How can the mind come to know$5 It must be empty, it must be unified, it must be still. Emptiness means not letting existing knowledge obstruct new knowledge; unity means not letting attention to one matter obstruct attention to another; stillness means not letting fantasy and disturbance throw knowledge into confusion.

"Dispelling Obscuration" discusses how the mind knows the Way; the Rectification of Names discusses how the mind knows things. Knowing the Way requires emptiness, unity, and stillness; knowing things requires relying on the Heavenly Faculties and verifying cognition. Taken together, Master Xun's mind has two directions: upward, according with the Way; downward, verifying things. Moving upward, it must be empty and still; moving downward, it must be well-grounded and well-accounted for. These two directions are not in conflict, because the Way is precisely the underlying pattern of the myriad things, and to know the Way is to know why the myriad things are as they are—and knowing the myriad things must always begin with the Heavenly Faculties.

The eleventh section of the Rectification of Names says, "the mind is the artisan-steward of the Way"—an artisan-steward is an administrator. What does the mind administer$6 It administers names, statements, explanations, and disputation, and it also administers the material from the Heavenly Faculties. It is the artisan-steward of the Way, and it is the sovereign of the Heavenly Faculties. Receiving the Way from above and governing things from below—this is Master Xun's mind.

5.3 Transformation and Singular Actuality

5.3.1 Same Form in Different Places, Different Forms in the Same Place

The ninth section discusses the essential pivot of instituting names: "Among things, there are those of the same form but in different places, and those of different form but in the same place—these can be distinguished. Things of the same form occupying different places, though they may be joined under one name, are called two actualities. Where the state has changed but the actuality has undergone no division, and yet it is treated as different, this is called transformation. Where there is transformation but no division, this is called a single actuality. This is how one verifies actuality and fixes its number."

Some things have the same form but occupy different places—for example, two identical horses. Some things have different forms but are one and the same thing—for example, a person as a child and the same person grown old. The former, though it may be grouped under one name, "horse," is nevertheless two actualities. The latter, though its form has changed, remains a single actuality; such change is called "transformation."

These lines are resolving a fundamental problem: how does one count$7 Are two identical horses one or two$8 Is a person in childhood and in old age one or two$9 Master Xun's answer is: the number is fixed by "place," not by "form." Place is location, the thing itself that occupies a position. Where form is the same but place differs, it is two; where form differs but place is the same, it is one.

5.3.2 Transformation Does Not Break a Single Actuality

"Where there is transformation but no division, this is called a single actuality." This sentence carries a depth of meaning that tends to go unnoticed. Transformation is change; division is separation. Where there is change but no separation, it remains a single actuality. That is to say, change is not sufficient to destroy identity. A person changes utterly in appearance from youth to old age, yet remains the same person.

Master Zhuang was likewise interested in this question. The end of the "Discourse on Making All Things Equal" says: "Once, Zhuang Zhou dreamed he was a butterfly... He did not know whether Zhou had dreamed he was a butterfly, or whether the butterfly was dreaming it was Zhou. Between Zhou and the butterfly there must surely be a division. This is called the transformation of things." Master Zhuang uses "the transformation of things" to show that between Zhou and the butterfly "there must surely be a division," yet within the division there is also transformation, and transformation lets the division flow. Master Zhuang's interest lies in how transformation blurs division.

Master Xun's interest runs in exactly the opposite direction. What concerns him is how transformation does not destroy division. "There is transformation but no division"—having transformed, it remains a single actuality. Master Zhuang sees, within change, the continuity that runs through it; Master Xun sees, within change, the constancy that runs through it. Master Zhuang finds in transformation the possibility that "the myriad things are all one"; Master Xun finds in transformation the possibility of "verifying actuality and fixing its number."

The two views are not in conflict, because they are looking at two faces of the same phenomenon. The "Great Treatise" of the Book of Changes says: "When a thing reaches its limit, it changes; when it changes, it penetrates through; when it penetrates through, it endures." Change that can penetrate through, and penetration that can endure. What Master Zhuang speaks of is "change, then penetration"; what Master Xun speaks of is "penetration, then endurance." Within change there is continuity, within continuity there is constancy, and only what is constant can be counted, can be named.

5.3.3 Verifying Actuality and Fixing Its Number

"This is how one verifies actuality and fixes its number." This sentence brings the essential pivot of instituting names to rest, in the end, on number. A name must be countable, and the count must be determined by the actuality. Two horses are two; a person young and old is one. Where the number cannot be fixed, the name hangs in the air, ungrounded.

This sentence lays bare the whole foundation of the study of names. Master Xun begins by discussing "relying on the Heavenly Faculties," moves on to "general names and particular names," then to "convention becoming custom," and finally to "verifying actuality and fixing its number." The whole progression runs from sensation to classification, from classification to convention, from convention to verification. And the final stage of verification is being able to count clearly.

This is also why Master Xun's study of names is always bound up with governance. To govern the realm requires counting: counting population, counting land, counting taxes, counting punishments. If the counting falls into disorder, governance falls into disorder along with it. If names cannot fix a number, names cannot be put to use in governance. To verify actuality and fix its number is the final account that names must render to governance.