First Reading of Chapter One of the Upper Xici: Heaven and Earth Take Their Places, and Virtue Is Formed Through Ease and Simplicity
A close reading of Chapter One of the Upper Xici within the context of pre-Qin thought, moving through the layers of Heaven and Earth, Qian and Kun, the firm and the yielding, image and form, change, ease and simplicity, virtue and achievement, and the taking of one's place -- to see how the Yi runs through the Way of Heaven, the Way of Earth, and the Way of Man.
XLIII. Further Reflection One: Viewing "Taking One's Place" Through Ritual Propriety, Viewing "Mutual Stirring" Through Music
If one views this chapter once more through the pre-Qin Confucian teaching of ritual propriety and music, Heaven and Earth taking their places is like ritual propriety, and the firm and yielding stirring one another is like music. Ritual propriety gives above and below, closeness and distance, elder and younger, inner and outer, each their distinction; music lets differing sounds correspond and the feelings of the multitude communicate. Ritual propriety without the flow of music easily sees only rank and not closeness; music without the regulation of ritual propriety easily sees only harmony and sameness and not responsibility. That the Yi speaks of taking one's place and mutual stirring in sequence is precisely like ritual propriety and music, neither of which can be neglected.
The root of ritual propriety lies not only in human institution. Seeing that Heaven and Earth have their order, the four seasons their measure, and the myriad things their distinctions, people established regulated forms within their shared life. Mourning rites regulate grief through grief itself; sacrificial rites form reverence through reverence itself; guest rites fix deference through the act of association itself. Ritual propriety settles feeling into position, so that it is neither suppressed to the point of extinction nor allowed to overflow into disorder. Hence the gradations and roles of ritual propriety should perfect feeling and righteousness, not replace them.
Music, meanwhile, lets positions already distinguished communicate with one another once more. Within the ancestral temple, singing poems and playing music let the feeling between ancestor and descendant carry on; within the community wine-drinking ceremony, beyond the bowing, ascending, and descending, there is also song and music, letting elder and younger draw close; court assemblies and military gatherings likewise use rhythm and tone to align the resolve of the multitude. Music is no mere idle accompaniment, but what gives order its living feeling. The "stirring" in the eight trigrams stirring one another into motion carries precisely this quality of flowing without stagnation.
Master Xun said that music unites and harmonizes, while ritual propriety distinguishes and differentiates; sameness brings mutual closeness, difference brings mutual reverence. Mutual closeness and mutual reverence together sustain communal life. Closeness without reverence easily becomes over-familiar; reverence without closeness easily becomes estranged. This chapter, deriving closeness from being easy to know, and establishing distinction from Heaven and Earth taking their places, contains both these sides at once. The Way of Qian is bright and clear, letting people trust and draw close to one another; the Way of Kun is simple and compliant, letting people work together and achieve merit; closeness and merit keep position from being merely an external constraint, and turn it instead into a shared achievement.
Ritual propriety and music also show that "the mean" (zhong) is not compromise. Ritual propriety is elaborate where elaboration is called for, and reduced where reduction is called for; music grieves where grief is called for, and rejoices where joy is called for. Only when cold and heat each reach their fullest extent in their own season do they together complete the year; only when thunder and lightning, wind and rain each fully perform their own function do they together complete things. If everything is halved to avoid conflict, the result is neither drumming nor moistening. The mean lies in fitting the moment; harmony lies in each thing attaining its own proper share.
Hence, reading "the noble and the humble take their places," one must at the same time read the later "wins closeness"; reading "the firm and the yielding are distinguished," one must at the same time read "rub against one another"; reading "the eight trigrams stir one another into motion," one must remember the earlier "Qian and Kun are established." Ritual propriety and music correct each other's bias, keeping order from growing rigid and change from falling into disorder. Only when human institutions can do likewise are they worthy of being called modeled on Heaven and Earth in forming one's place.