Chapter Seven: Great Clarity and Luminosity -- The Highest State of Cognition

Section 1: The Meaning of "Great Clarity and Luminosity"

"Xu, yi, and jing -- this is called great clarity and luminosity."

When xu, yi, and jing become one, the state of "great clarity and luminosity" (da qingming) is attained. Da qingming is not the simple sum of xu, yi, and jing but the holistic effect produced by their fusion and interpenetration.

Da -- not ordinary clarity and luminosity but the ultimate, the limitless.

Qing -- pure, without any impurity, free of all obstruction and interference.

Ming -- brilliant, transparent, capable of perceiving everything.

Da qingming is the mind's optimal state and the highest exercise of cognitive capacity. In this state, the mind becomes a perfect mirror, reflecting all things without error.

Section 2: Cognitive Capacities in the State of "Great Clarity and Luminosity"

Master Xun depicted the cognitive capacities of the "great clarity and luminosity" state in a series of parallel phrases:

"Among all things, none that has form goes unseen; none that is seen goes undiscussed; none that is discussed loses its proper place."

Everything that has form can be seen; everything seen can be discussed; everything discussed finds its proper place. This is a comprehensive, accurate, and orderly cognition -- with no omissions, no errors, and no confusion.

"Sitting in one's chamber, one sees to the four seas; dwelling in the present, one discourses on the remote."

Sitting in one's room, one can comprehend what lies at the four seas; living in the present, one can discourse on the distant past. This is a cognition that transcends the limitations of time and space -- without personally traveling to distant lands, one can know their conditions; without personally experiencing the past, one can understand its lessons.

Why, in the state of "great clarity and luminosity," can the mind transcend the limitations of time and space$7 Because although things are scattered across different times and places, the "principles" they embody are interconnected. If the mind grasps these "principles," it can extend its understanding from oneself to others, from the near to the far, from the present to the past. This is not supernatural power but the force of rational inference.

"Surveying all things broadly, one knows their true nature; comparing and examining order and disorder, one comprehends their principles; weaving the warp and weft of heaven and earth, one assigns each thing its proper function; cutting and dividing the great pattern, the entire cosmos is set in order."

This is a grand cognitive panorama -- from the true nature of things to the principles of governance, from the warp and weft of heaven and earth to the totality of the cosmos, all are clearly present in the mind of "great clarity and luminosity."

Section 3: "Great Clarity and Luminosity" and the "Great Person"

Master Xun designated the one who attains the state of "great clarity and luminosity" as the "great person" (da ren):

"Boundless and vast -- who can know its limits$8 Towering and broad -- who can know its virtue$9 Seething and profuse -- who can know its form$10 Its brightness rivals the sun and moon; its vastness fills the eight extremities. Such a one is called the great person. How could he still be obscured$11"

Boundless and vast -- who can know its limits$12 Towering and broad -- who can know its virtue$13 Seething and profuse -- who can know its form$14 His brightness rivals the sun and moon; his vastness fills the eight extremities -- this is the "great person." How could he still be subject to obscuration$15

The "great person" is Master Xun's supreme paradigm of cognition and cultivation. The great person's defining characteristics are: freedom from obscuration, clarity and luminosity, and boundless vastness.

This concept of the "great person" has wide precedent in pre-Qin thought.

The Yijing, "Qian," "Wenyan," says:

"The great person is one whose virtue accords with heaven and earth, whose brightness accords with the sun and moon, whose order accords with the four seasons, whose discernment of fortune and misfortune accords with spirits and gods. He may precede Heaven, and Heaven will not oppose him; he may follow Heaven, and he receives Heaven's timing. Heaven itself does not oppose him -- how much less will people$16 How much less will spirits and gods$17"

The great person's virtue accords with heaven and earth; his brightness accords with the sun and moon; his order accords with the four seasons; his discernment accords with spirits and gods. The phrase "whose brightness accords with the sun and moon" directly corresponds to Master Xun's "brightness rivaling the sun and moon." The great person's ming has reached the level of shining alongside the sun and moon -- this is da qingming at its zenith.

Master Meng also spoke of the "great person":

"To be full is called beauty; to be full and radiant is called greatness; to be great and transforming is called sagehood; to be sagely and beyond knowing is called divinity." (Mengzi, "Jin Xin Xia")

From beauty to greatness, from greatness to sagehood, from sagehood to divinity -- these are the ascending levels of personal attainment. "Greatness" is characterized as "fullness with radiance" -- inwardly full, outwardly luminous. This is consistent with the meaning of da in Master Xun's da qingming.

Section 4: "Great Clarity and Luminosity" and "Ming" in Pre-Qin Thought

Ming is an absolutely central concept in pre-Qin thought; virtually every important pre-Qin thinker discussed it.

The Master on ming:

"When gradual slanders and stinging accusations do not take effect, one may be called ming (perspicacious). When gradual slanders and stinging accusations do not take effect, one may be called far-sighted." (Lunyu, "Yan Yuan")

The ability to see through insidious slander and stinging accusations without being misled -- this is called ming. Here, ming denotes judgment and discernment -- the ability to perceive the truth amid complex situations.

The Most High (Laozi) on ming:

"To know others is wisdom; to know oneself is ming." (Daodejing, Chapter 33)

Knowing others is called "wisdom" (zhi); knowing oneself is called ming. The Most High (Laozi) linked ming with self-knowledge -- the profoundest ming is not seeing through others but seeing through oneself.

"To see the small is called ming." (Daodejing, Chapter 52)

"Not to know the constant is to act blindly and court disaster. To know the constant is called ming." (Daodejing, Chapter 16)

The ability to perceive the minute is called ming; knowledge of the constant is called ming. Combined, ming means the ability both to perceive the subtle and to grasp the constant -- both to see the minute transformations of things and to understand their enduring patterns.

Master Xun's da qingming synthesizes all these dimensions of ming: it is judgment (discerning right from wrong), self-knowledge (removing one's own bi), the power to perceive the subtle (seeing the minute in things), and the wisdom to comprehend the constant (grasping the fundamental patterns of things).

Section 5: "Great Clarity and Luminosity" and "the Way"

Da qingming is not merely a description of a cognitive state; it is essentially connected with "the Way" (dao).

Master Xun said:

"Those who have not yet attained the Way but seek it are told: xu, yi, and jing."

Xu, yi, and jing are the method for "seeking the Way." And da qingming is the result of xu, yi, and jing. Therefore, da qingming is also the state of "having attained the Way" -- or rather, the cognitive horizon the mind displays after attaining it.

"To know the Way and thereby be perspicacious, to know the Way and thereby act upon it -- such a one embodies the Way."

After knowing the Way, one can be perspicacious; after knowing the Way, one can act upon it -- this is "one who embodies the Way" (ti dao zhe). Da qingming is not only cognitive clarity but also demands practical enactment. To know and thereby perceive clearly, to know and thereby act -- this alone is the complete "embodiment of the Way."

The Most High (Laozi) said:

"The Way that can be spoken of is not the constant Way." (Daodejing, Chapter 1)

The Way cannot be expressed in ordinary language. This is because the Way transcends the domain of concepts and words; it can only be grasped through ti -- personal experience and practice. Master Xun's "one who embodies the Way" refers precisely to those who have not only understood the Way cognitively but also manifested the Way in practice.

Section 6: "Seeing" in the State of "Great Clarity and Luminosity"

When describing the state of da qingming, Master Xun repeatedly used the character jian (to see):

"Among all things, none that has form goes unseen.""Sitting in one's chamber, one sees to the four seas."

This character jian deserves deeper exploration.

In pre-Qin thought, jian signified not only physical sight but also the insight of the mind. Physical sight is limited -- it can see only what is present and nearby. The mind's "seeing" is unlimited -- it can "see" things in distant places, in past and future, in the subtlest recesses.

The Zhuangzi, "Yangshengzhu" (Nourishing the Lord of Life), contains a famous passage:

"What your servant cares about is the Way, which goes beyond mere technique. When your servant first began to butcher oxen, all he saw was the ox. After three years, he no longer saw the whole ox. Nowadays, your servant meets it with his spirit rather than seeing it with his eyes -- his sensory knowledge stops and his spiritual desire moves forward."

Cook Ding at first saw the whole ox; after three years, he no longer saw a whole ox -- he saw the tendons, joints, and spaces within the ox's structure. Eventually, he no longer looked with his eyes but "met it with his spirit" (shen yu) -- his spirit directly engaging the inner structure of the thing.

Cook Ding's "meeting with the spirit" is a form of da qingming -- no longer relying on the surface observation of the senses but directly perceiving the inner essence of things.

Section 7: "Great Clarity and Luminosity" and the "Great Person's" Freedom from Obscuration

"How could he still be obscured$18"

Master Xun concluded his description of the da qingming state with this powerful rhetorical question: how could such a "great person" still have any bi$19

This rhetorical question implies that before attaining the state of da qingming, bi is universal -- virtually everyone is more or less subject to its influence. Only the exceedingly rare person who has attained da qingming can be entirely free from bi.

This is a view both awe-inspiring and heartening. Awe-inspiring because it reveals the universality of human cognitive limitation -- we are all obscured. Heartening because it points to the possibility of transcending this limitation -- through the cultivation of xu, yi, and jing, one can attain the state of "great clarity and luminosity."