Spirits and Sincerity in the Zhongyong: The Metaphysical Foundation and Manifestation of the Dao-Substance
This article offers an in-depth reading of the chapters on 'the virtue of ghosts and spirits' and 'sincerity is self-completing' in the Zhongyong, exploring their significance as the core of Confucian metaphysics. Through an analysis of pre-Qin conceptions of ghosts and spirits, it demonstrates that the chapter on spirits serves to prove that 'sincerity cannot be concealed,' and further elucidates how the substance of cheng (sincerity) matches Heaven and supports all things, revealing the ontological foundation of the Doctrine of the Mean.
Introduction
The Zhongyong (Doctrine of the Mean), traditionally attributed to Zisi, inherits the teachings of the Master above and opens the way for Master Meng below, serving as the pivot of pre-Qin Confucian learning on mind and nature. Though its words are concise, its purport is exceedingly profound — it encompasses Heaven and Earth, penetrates ghosts and spirits, threads through the myriad things, and exhausts the principles of human relations. Proceeding from the subtle to the manifest, from sincerity (cheng 诚) to illumination (ming 明), it advances layer by layer until it reaches the ultimate of the Dao-substance.
The present discussion concerns two passages of supreme importance within the Zhongyong. The first reads: "The Master said: 'How abundant is the virtue of ghosts and spirits (guishen 鬼神)!... That the subtle becomes manifest — such is the impossibility of concealing sincerity.'" The second reads: "Sincerity is self-completing, and the Way is self-directing... Without being seen it is manifest, without moving it effects change, without acting it brings completion." These two passages — the one discoursing on the virtue of spirits to reveal that sincerity cannot be concealed, the other expounding the self-completing nature of the substance of sincerity to encompass the transformative nurturing of Heaven and Earth — are internally linked and mutually illuminating, constituting the very marrow of the entire Zhongyong.
Why so$1 The opening of the Zhongyong states: "What Heaven decrees is called the nature; following the nature is called the Way; cultivating the Way is called instruction." These three sentences, proceeding from Heaven to humanity, from the nature to the Way, from the Way to instruction, already contain the root of the sincerity-substance in latent form. When we reach the chapter on "the virtue of ghosts and spirits," the text moves from the unseen subtlety of spirits to the grand thesis that "sincerity cannot be concealed," providing an initial point of manifestation for the metaphysical Dao-substance. The chapter on "sincerity is self-completing" then unfolds the content of the sincerity-substance from the front, speaking of its self-completion, its completion of things, its matching with Heaven and matching with Earth, its boundlessness and ceaselessness — pushing the Way of the Mean to its highest realm.
Therefore, interpreting these two passages is not merely a matter of parsing sentences and glosses; it is the key to understanding the pre-Qin Confucian views of the Dao-substance, ghosts and spirits, the relationship between Heaven and humanity, and sincerity and illumination.
This article proceeds from the perspectives of pre-Qin and high antiquity, drawing extensively from pre-Qin texts. With "ghosts and spirits" and "sincerity" as two main threads, it penetrates layer by layer to exhaust their meaning. The full text is divided into three parts: the upper part discusses "the virtue of ghosts and spirits," the middle part discusses "sincerity is self-completing," and the lower part jointly examines the relationship between the two, revealing the complete picture of the Zhongyong's metaphysical thought.