An In-Depth Interpretation of Mengzi's 'Ox Mountain' Chapter: The Core of the Theory of Innate Goodness and the Cultivation of Heart-Mind
This article takes as its core text the 'Ox Mountain' chapter from the Gaozi section of the Mengzi, and draws upon a wide range of pre-Qin philosophical sources to analyze the argumentative structure for innate human goodness, the mechanisms by which external forces damage the heart-mind, and the philosophical foundations and cultivation methods of the theory of innate goodness.
Chapter 9: "The Rest That Days and Nights Provide, and the Air of the Pre-Dawn Hours" -- On the Night Air
"The air of the pre-dawn hours" (pingdan zhi qi) -- the moment when dawn is about to break but has not yet broken -- is when the heart-mind is most lucid. It occupies the juncture of yin-yang transition: the stillness of yin has completed its nurture, while the activity of yang has not yet begun its interference.
The relationship between "the air of the pre-dawn hours" and "the flood-like vital energy" (haoran zhi qi): the former is the seed and foundation; the latter is the fully expanded realization. "The flood-like vital energy" is a towering tree; "the air of the pre-dawn hours" is a shoot that has just sprouted.
"The degree to which their preferences resemble those of others is slight" -- "slight" (jixi) is exquisitely precise: a state of extreme faintness that has not yet completely vanished. Mengzi both acknowledges reality (the conscience is very faint) and insists on principle ("slight" is not "none").