III. The Three Roots of "Li": Life, Lineage, and the Foundation of Order

3.1 Heaven and Earth, the Ancestors, the Ruler and Teacher

Having discussed the origin of li, Master Xun presses the inquiry further: if li is the fundamental institution of civilization, on what foundation does li itself rest$10

"Li" has three roots: Heaven and Earth are the root of life; the ancestors are the root of one's kind; the ruler and teacher are the root of order.

Without Heaven and Earth, whence would life come$11 Without the ancestors, whence would one's kind issue forth$12 Without the ruler and teacher, whence would order come$13 Should any of these three be lacking, there would be no peace for the people. Thus "li" serves Heaven above, serves Earth below, honors the ancestors, and exalts the ruler and teacher. These are the three roots of "li."

— Xunzi, "Discourse on Ritual Propriety," Passage 5

"Li has three roots: Heaven and Earth are the root of life; the ancestors are the root of one's kind (the transmission of one's lineage); the ruler and teacher are the root of order. Without Heaven and Earth, from where would life be obtained$14 Without the ancestors, from where would descendants issue$15 Without the ruler and teacher, from where would order be obtained$16 If any one of the three is lacking, there is no settled peace for the people. Thus li serves Heaven above and Earth below, honors the ancestors, and exalts the ruler and teacher. These are the three roots of li."

This passage establishes a three-tiered structure:

3.2 Heaven and Earth: The Root of Life

"Heaven and Earth are the root of life" — Heaven and Earth are the fundamental source of all life.

In pre-Qin thought, "Heaven and Earth" (tiandi) does not mean merely the physical sky and ground. "Heaven" (tian) at once encompasses the physical firmament, the patterns of nature, and a certain transcendent power or will. "Earth" is the foundation that bears and nourishes all living things.

The "Great Treatise" (Xici zhuan), in the very first section of its opening, states:

"Heaven is exalted, Earth is lowly; thus Qian and Kun are fixed. The lowly and the high are set out; thus the noble and the base have their places. Motion and stillness have their constancy; thus the firm and the yielding are distinguished. Things gather according to their kind, and beings divide into groups; thus fortune and misfortune arise."

This passage describes precisely the fundamental order between Heaven and Earth — and this order, in Master Xun's view, is the first root of li.

The relation between Heaven and Earth is not chaotic or random, but ordered and rhythmic. Heaven is above, Earth below; Heaven governs motion, Earth governs stillness; Heaven moves vigorously and unceasingly, Earth extends yieldingly to bear all things. This order is not imposed by human agency but is simply how things naturally are — yet it is precisely this natural order that li takes as its model in organizing human society.

A profound philosophical insight lies here: "Li" is not invented out of nothing; it takes the Way of Heaven and Earth as its archetype. The ranks, divisions of labor, and order found within human society are not the arbitrary invention of any ruler, but an imitation and application of a pattern of order already present within the cosmos.

3.3 The Ancestors: The Root of Lineage

"The ancestors are the root of one's kind" — the ancestors are the fundamental root of one's kind (one's clan, one's lineage).

In pre-Qin society (and for a long age before it), ancestor worship was among the most central of religious practices. A person exists because there were parents; parents existed because there were grandparents; and tracing this back further and further, one reaches the remote founding ancestors. This chain of lineage, extending from remote antiquity to the present, constitutes the foundation of one's "kind" (the same clan, the same lineage).

The function of li in this dimension is to maintain and reinforce the awareness of this chain of lineage. Through sacrificing to the ancestors, maintaining the ancestral temple, and recording genealogies, people continually reaffirm their place within this chain — at once a continuation of those who came before and a guide for those who come after.

Master Xun further points out that people of different rank serve different numbers of generations of ancestors:

Thus one who possesses the realm serves ten generations of ancestors; one who possesses a single state serves five generations; one who holds land sufficient for five chariots serves three generations; one who holds land sufficient for three chariots serves two generations; and one who lives by the labor of his own hands may not establish an ancestral temple at all. This is the means by which accumulated depth is distinguished — one whose accumulation is deep has bounty that flows broadly; one whose accumulation is shallow has bounty that flows narrowly.

— Xunzi, "Discourse on Ritual Propriety," Passage 8

The Son of Heaven, who possesses the whole realm, sacrifices to ten generations of ancestors; the feudal lords, who possess a single state, sacrifice to five generations; the lesser nobility, who hold smaller fiefs, sacrifice to three or two generations; while commoners, who live by the labor of their own hands, may not establish an ancestral temple at all.

To modern eyes, such a differentiated system of sacrifice may appear unequal. But Master Xun's explanation is this: "one whose accumulation is deep has bounty that flows broadly; one whose accumulation is shallow has bounty that flows narrowly." Here, "deep accumulation" refers not merely to the accumulation of material wealth, but more importantly to the accumulation of virtuous conduct and contribution. The reason the Son of Heaven sacrifices to ten generations is that his ancestors made tremendous contributions to all under Heaven, and so his "bounty" covers the broadest range.

3.4 The Ruler and Teacher: The Root of Order

"The ruler and teacher are the root of order" — the ruler and the teacher are the fundamental root of governance.

Note that "ruler" (jun) and "teacher" (shi) appear together. In pre-Qin thought, the governance of a society depends not only on political authority (the "ruler") but also on moral instruction and guidance (the "teacher"). A society with authority but no instruction is mere tyranny; a society with instruction but no authority to guarantee order cannot see that instruction take root.

Confucius says in the Analects: "Guide them with governmental policy, keep them in line with punishments, and the people will evade these and have no sense of shame. Guide them with virtue, keep them in line with li, and they will have a sense of shame and moreover will govern themselves." (Analects 2.3) — guiding with government decree and restraining with punishment leads people merely to avoid wrongdoing, without any inner sense of shame. Guiding with virtue and restraining with li, however, gives people not only a sense of shame but also the spontaneous inclination to return to the proper path.

This is the significance of the union of "ruler" and "teacher": political authority supplies the framework of order, while instruction (the function of the "teacher") causes people to identify with this order from within. Li is precisely the meeting point of the two — it is at once an institutional arrangement and a means of moral instruction.

3.5 The Union of the Three Roots: An Integrated Worldview

Taking these three "roots" together, we find that they constitute a complete picture of cosmos, humanity, and society:

• Heaven and Earth give us life and natural order
• The ancestors give us the transmission of lineage and the identity of kinship
• The ruler and teacher give us social order and cultural cultivation

The function of li is to run through all three of these levels — "serving Heaven above, serving Earth below, honoring the ancestors, and exalting the ruler and teacher." Through li, human beings are connected at once to Heaven and Earth and nature, to the transmission of lineage, and to social order. Li is the thread that weaves together cosmos, bloodline, and society.

This resonates deeply with the cosmology of the "Great Treatise." The cosmos depicted in the "Great Treatise" is a whole of nested layers: at the outermost is the Dao; within the Dao is the cosmos (all that lies between Heaven and Earth); within the cosmos is the operation of change (yi); and within change is contained the whole of human affairs. These layers interact with and influence one another.

Master Xun's "three roots of li" describe precisely this same structure: Heaven and Earth (the cosmic level) → the ancestors and lineage (between nature and society) → the ruler, teacher, and politics (the level of human affairs). Li is the means by which harmonious relations are maintained among these levels.