Heaven Is Exalted, Earth Is Lowly — The Positioning of All Transformation
A reading of the first chapter of the Xi Ci Shang (Commentary on the Appended Phrases, Part I). Addressing why 'Heaven exalted, Earth lowly' is not a hierarchy of rank: exalted and lowly denote spatial position, not judgments of worth. Lowliness is where abundant virtue resides. Through the hexagrams Qian (Modesty), Tai and Pi (Peace and Stagnation), and the pairing of Qian and Kun, we see how the pre-Qin Confucian and Daoist traditions envisioned the intercourse of Heaven and Earth — positioning that gives rise to ceaseless generation.
I. A Question That Must Be Faced
This series of lectures begins with a question.
Reading the opening line of the Xi Ci, a certain perplexity arises almost inevitably: why must Heaven be "exalted" and Earth be "lowly"$1 Qian and Kun are two indispensable cosmic forces, mutually dependent, each the condition of the other, together constituting transformation and constituting the Dao. Neither is in any way lesser than the other, nor is either in any way nobler. They stand facing each other, yet deeply need each other. If that is so, the hierarchy implied in this opening line reads like an unnecessary distinction of status — a ranking that has "neither love nor wisdom" in it.
It is excellent, first, because it is asked of the very first line of the entire work. The first line of a book is like the cornerstone of a building: if the cornerstone is suspect, the whole edifice trembles. If the Xi Ci truly inscribed an oppressive decree of hierarchy at its very opening, then all the beauty that follows — "one yin and one yang, this is called the Dao," "ceaseless generation is called yi," "utterly still, without stirring, yet when moved, it penetrates all" — however magnificent, would amount to an ornate mansion erected upon an unjust foundation. Unless this question is resolved, the Xi Ci cannot be read further. That is why we place it at the very head of all twelve lectures.
It is also excellent because it is not a quibble from an outsider, but the unavoidable question every serious reader must pass through. For three thousand years, Chinese readers grew up inside the connotations of the word-pair zun-bei (exalted-lowly), like fish in water, often not sensing that this line needed explanation. Then a reader from another land, bringing the conscience forged in a different language and a different history, stops before these two characters. That reader is right to stop. Translation is the most honest form of reading — whatever was glossed over in the original has nowhere to hide when rendered word by word into another tongue. This question forces us back into the pre-Qin context to weigh the characters zun and bei afresh. Let us state our conclusion at the outset: the zun and bei in this line of the Xi Ci denote positions of high and low, not valuations of noble and base; they describe the positioning by which all transformation becomes possible, not a ranking by which all beings are judged. And the character bei (lowly), in the pre-Qin tradition, far from being a mark of humiliation, is where abundant virtue resides and from which great power issues forth. How we arrive at this conclusion — allow us to walk toward it step by step, through the length of an entire essay.