Name and Mind: A Study of Xunzi's "Rectification of Names"
A complete study of the *Zhengming* (Rectification of Names) chapter of the *Xunzi*. It takes up the Master's chain—"if names are not rectified, speech does not flow"—and opens onto the distinction between names having no fixed appropriateness and names having a fixed goodness; it traces in detail the boundary of convention-becoming-custom, the Heavenly Faculties' sorting of categories and the mind's verifying cognition, the three delusions and the inevitability of disputation, the three grades of speech, how order and disorder lie in what the mind approves, the Way as the true balance across past and present, and ends with "the self enslaved to things" and "valuing the self and putting things to service." It takes Confucian and Daoist principle as its foundation, drawing on the *Analects*, *Mencius*, *Doctrine of the Mean*, *Laozi*, *Zhuangzi*, *Zuo Tradition*, and the *Book of Songs*.
9 The Way: The True Balance Across Past and Present
9.1 Balance-Beam and Weight
9.1.1 No Action of a Person Can Ever Be Without Weighing
The seventeenth section opens by saying: "In every case of a person taking something, what he desires never comes to him in pure form alone; in every case of his relinquishing something, what he dislikes never departs alone in pure form either. Hence no action of a person can ever be without weighing."
When a person obtains something, what he desires never arrives in pure, unmixed form—it always carries along with it something he does not want. When a person gives something up, what he dislikes never departs in pure, unmixed form either—it always takes with it something he wanted. So every action a person takes cannot help but involve weighing.
These lines describe the human condition with great clarity. There is no purely good thing in the world, and no purely bad thing either. Every act of taking or relinquishing is a choice made between gain within loss and loss within gain. Given this, a person cannot help but weigh things. The weight (quan) is the steelyard's counterweight; the balance (heng) is its beam. Every time a person acts, gain and loss must be placed on the scale and weighed.
This character quan (权, weighing, or discretionary judgment) is a major concept in Confucianism. The "Zi Han" chapter of the Analects records the Master saying: "One may study together with someone, yet not necessarily be able to walk the Way together with him; one may walk the Way together with someone, yet not necessarily be able to stand firm together with him; one may stand firm together with someone, yet not necessarily be able to weigh things together with him." One may study together yet not necessarily walk toward the Way together; walk toward the Way together yet not necessarily stand firm together; stand firm together yet not necessarily weigh together. Weighing is the highest level—the judgment made in the face of a concrete situation, after the Way has already been established. Master Meng says in "King Hui of Liang I": "Only after weighing does one know what is light and what is heavy; only after measuring does one know what is long and what is short. All things are like this, and the mind especially so." Only after weighing does one know light from heavy; only after measuring does one know long from short; all things are so, and the mind is especially so.
9.1.2 When the Balance Is Not True, the Heavy End Rises
"When the balance is not true, the heavy end rises, and people take it for light; the light end drops, and people take it for heavy—this is why people are deluded about light and heavy. When the weighing is not true, misfortune is concealed within desire, and people take it for good fortune; good fortune is concealed within what is disliked, and people take it for misfortune—this too is why people are deluded about fortune and misfortune."
When the balance beam is untrue, and a heavy object is hung on it, the beam tips up, and people take the object to be light; a light object is hung on it, the beam dips down, and people take the object to be heavy. This is why people are deluded about light and heavy. When one's weighing is untrue, misfortune hides inside desire, and people take it for good fortune; good fortune hides inside aversion, and people take it for misfortune. This too is why people are deluded about fortune and misfortune.
This metaphor is extremely precise. When a scale is untrue, it is not that the weight of the object has changed—it is that the scale displays it wrongly. When a person's judgment of fortune and misfortune is wrong, it is likewise not that fortune and misfortune themselves have changed—it is that the scale within the person's mind is displaying them wrongly. A misfortune remains a misfortune, but hidden within desire, desire tips the beam up, and the person takes it for good fortune. A good fortune remains a good fortune, but hidden within aversion, aversion presses the beam down, and the person takes it for misfortune.
This is why order and disorder lie in what the mind approves. The mind is the scale; when the scale is accurate, taking and relinquishing are correct; when the scale is inaccurate, taking and relinquishing go wrong. The fourteenth section says, "what the mind approves accords with reason"—according with reason is the scale being accurate. The seventeenth section expresses this same principle through the image of the scale.
9.1.3 The Way Is the True Weighing Across Past and Present
"The Way is the true weighing across past and present; to depart from the Way and choose according to oneself alone is to be ignorant of where fortune and misfortune are concealed." The Way is the accurate scale, unchanging across past and present. To depart from the Way and make choices purely according to one's own mind is to not know where fortune and misfortune are hidden.
This sentence supplies a standard for "weighing." Weighing is a scale, but a scale needs a basis for its calibration. What is that basis$2 The Way. The Way is "the true weighing across past and present," a scale accurate and consistent from past to present. When a person uses his own mind to weigh, if the mind accords with the Way, the scale is accurate; if the mind departs from the Way and "chooses according to itself alone," selecting purely by its own likes and dislikes, the scale is inaccurate.
The three words "chooses according to itself alone" (nei zi ze) matter. This does not mean a person cannot choose for himself—it means a person must not depart from the Way and rely solely on his own choosing. One's own likes and dislikes are the object placed on the scale, not the scale itself. To use the object as though it were the scale can hardly yield an accurate weighing.
The "Great Treatise" of the Book of Changes says: "Through compliance one carries out weighing." Compliance (xun) is yielding, being humble. To carry out weighing requires compliance—compliance with what$3 With the Way. Weighing is not arbitrary judgment—it is judgment that complies with the Way. Master Xun's "the Way is the true weighing across past and present" is exactly the meaning of "through compliance one carries out weighing." Weighing must comply with the Way, not with the self.
9.2 Trading One for Two
9.2.1 A Clear Ledger
The seventeenth section goes on to turn the principle of the Way into a matter of accounting: "In an exchange, trading one for one, people say: neither gain nor loss. Trading one for two, people say: no loss and some gain. Trading two for one, people say: no gain and some loss. The calculating person takes the greater amount; the planning person follows what is feasible. No one would trade two for one—the arithmetic is plain."
In an exchange, trading one thing for one thing, people say there is neither gain nor loss. Trading one thing for two things, people say there is no loss but some gain. Trading two things for one thing, people say there is no gain but some loss. Someone skilled at calculation takes the greater amount; someone skilled at planning follows what is feasible. No one would trade two things for one, because the arithmetic is plain to see.
These lines are utterly plain and down to earth. Everyone knows that trading one for two is a good deal, and trading two for one is a bad one. This is arithmetic that needs no teaching. Master Xun goes on to say: "To proceed from the Way is like trading one for two—what is there to lose! To depart from the Way and choose according to oneself alone is like trading two for one—what is there to gain!" Following the Way is like trading one for two—what is lost by it$4 Departing from the Way and choosing on one's own is like trading two for one—what is gained by it$5
This is Master Xun's mode of argument: he does not say the Way is sacred, exalted, and not to be violated—he says the Way is simply a good deal. Following the Way, one gains much; departing from the Way, one loses much. Everyone can do this arithmetic—why, when it comes to the Way, does no one seem able to do it$6
9.2.2 Trading a Hundred Years of Desire for a Moment's Grudge
"Yet people trade the accumulated desires of a hundred years for the satisfaction of a single moment's grudge, and still go ahead and do it—this is failing to grasp the arithmetic." To accumulate the desires of a hundred years and trade them away for a moment's fleeting satisfaction, and still go ahead and do it, is simply not understanding the arithmetic.
This sentence gives a concrete description of "departing from the Way and choosing according to oneself alone." When a person departs from the Way and chooses by his own likes and dislikes, it is usually for the sake of a moment's fleeting satisfaction. A moment's satisfaction is "one"; a hundred years of desire is "a hundred." Trading a hundred for one is a far worse deal than trading two for one. And yet people still do it, because they cannot work out the arithmetic.
Why can they not work it out$7 Because "the balance is not true." The moment's satisfaction is right in front of them, and the beam dips down, making it look very heavy; the hundred years of desire lies far off, and the beam tips up, making it look very light. The scale displays it wrongly, and the person comes to believe that a moment's satisfaction outweighs a hundred years of desire.
This is precisely "misfortune concealed within desire, and people take it for good fortune." The moment's satisfaction is desire, and misfortune is hidden within it. The person sees only the desire, not the misfortune. By the time the misfortune arrives, the hundred years of desire have already been forfeited.
9.2.3 Grasping the Arithmetic
"Grasping the arithmetic" is the key phrase of this passage. Master Xun repeatedly says "grasping the arithmetic" and "failing to grasp the arithmetic." To grasp the arithmetic is to calculate it clearly. The principle of the Way, in the end, is a ledger that can be calculated clearly.
This claim echoes, from a distance, the ninth section's "verifying actuality and fixing its number." Names must be able to fix a number; the Way, too, must be able to make its arithmetic clear. The number of a name is the count of actualities; the number of the Way is the count of gain and loss. Both require clear counting. Master Xun's thought has a strong quality of computability: everything must be checkable, countable, verifiable. Names are so; the Way is so; order and disorder are so.
This is not a demotion of the Way to mere calculation. On the contrary, it makes the Way something no one can escape. If the Way were only lofty, people could revere it from a distance and leave it alone; but if the Way is a good deal, no one has any reason not to follow it. With this ledger, Master Xun pulls the Way down from the heavens onto the scale, forcing every person capable of doing arithmetic to acknowledge the benefit of the Way.
9.3 The Metaphor of Traveling South
9.3.1 The Desire to Go South Is No Small Thing, and the Aversion to Going North Is No Small Thing
The sixteenth section offers a metaphor: "Suppose there is a person who desires to go south—his desire is no small thing—and dislikes going north—his dislike is no small thing either. Would he, simply because the south cannot be traversed to its very end, abandon traveling south and run north instead$8"
Suppose there is a person who wants very much to travel south, and dislikes very much traveling north. Would he, simply because the south has no end to be reached, give up traveling south and run north instead$9
This metaphor addresses the fact that "desire can never be fully satisfied." Someone might say: since desire can never be completely satisfied, what is the point of pursuing it$10 Master Xun answers: the south has no end—does that mean one should travel north instead$11 Desire cannot be fully satisfied—does that mean one should go and do what one finds hateful instead$12
"What people desire now is no small thing, and what they dislike is no small thing either. Would they, simply because what is desired cannot be exhausted, abandon the way of attaining what is desired and take up what is disliked instead$13" What people desire is extremely great, and what they dislike is extremely great. Would they, simply because what is desired has no end to be reached, abandon the path toward attaining what is desired and take up what they dislike instead$14
9.3.2 Approving the Way and Following It
"Hence, if one approves the Way and follows it, what could ever diminish it and bring about disorder$15 If one disapproves of the Way and departs from it, what could ever augment it and bring about order$16"
So, if a person approves of the Way and follows it, is there anything that could diminish it and lead to disorder$17 If a person disapproves of the Way and departs from it, is there anything that could augment it and lead to order$18
The meaning of these two lines is: order and disorder depend solely on following or departing from the Way, and on nothing else. Follow the Way, and nothing can diminish it—order is certain. Depart from the Way, and nothing can augment it—disorder is certain. The earlier metaphor of "traveling south" says that once the direction is right, however far one travels remains right; here it is said that once the Way is right, nothing can alter its rightness.
The sixteenth section opens by saying: "There is no one who does not follow what he approves and abandon what he disapproves. There has never been anyone who, knowing that the Way is incomparable, still fails to follow it." No one exists who does not follow what he approves and depart from what he disapproves. There has never been a person who knows that the Way is beyond comparison in goodness and yet still fails to follow it.
This line reveals Master Xun's basic trust in people. People will follow whatever they approve of. So the only question is whether a person "knows that the Way is incomparable"—whether he knows that the Way is the best of all things. Once he knows this, he is certain to follow it. Those who do not follow it do so only because they do not know.
9.3.3 The Wise Discuss Only the Way
"Hence the wise discuss only the Way, and everything the petty schools' cherished doctrines hoped for has withered away." So the wise person discusses only the Way, and everything the treasured doctrines of the petty schools hoped to achieve has come to nothing.
This sentence is the conclusion of the sixteenth section, and also the conclusion of the entire discussion of desire. Eliminating desire, minimizing desire, indulging desire—all the various theories about desire are, in Master Xun's view, "the cherished doctrines of petty schools." Each seizes upon one aspect of desire, believing it has found the root of order and disorder. Master Xun says: the root of order and disorder does not lie in desire, but in the Way; the wise discuss only the Way, not desire.
The "Way" here, brought down to concrete terms, is precisely "what the mind approves according with reason." The mind takes the Way as its weight, the Way as its scale; taking and relinquishing rightly, it makes no difference whether desires are many or few. This is "discussing only the Way." All the disputes about desire lose their meaning in the face of the Way.
This is also why the Rectification of Names, an essay ostensibly about names, turns in its second half to desire and mind. Because whether a name is rectified or not is, in the end, determined by whether the mind is rectified or not; and whether the mind is rectified or not is, in the end, determined by whether the mind takes the Way as its weight. Name, mind, and Way—the three form a single line. Name is the manifestation of the Way in speech; mind is the artisan-steward of the Way within the person; the Way is the ultimate ground of both name and mind. Proceeding from name to mind, and from mind to the Way—this line runs through the entire essay. And the Way, in this section, is rendered as a scale, a ledger, a direction. It is not something unreachably lofty—it is something every person capable of arithmetic, every person capable of recognizing direction, can understand. This is Master Xun's Way.