XXXIX. "One's Place Is Formed in the Very Midst of It": A Person's Position Is Not Self-Conferred, but Achieved

The whole chapter finally returns to "one's place is formed in the very midst of it." "The very midst" is the midst of Heaven and Earth, and also the midst of Qian and Kun, the midst of the myriad things, the midst of change. A person does not form his place by fleeing Heaven and Earth, nor by standing above Heaven and Earth issuing commands. A person, observing image and examining shape, knowing beginnings and completing things, loving his kin and establishing merit, takes part in ceaseless generation through virtue and achievement, and only thus forms his place within it.

"Forming one's place" differs from "occupying a position." Occupying a position relies only on an outward title, while forming one's place demands that virtue and achievement correspond to the position. A ruler holding the ruler's position must be benevolent toward the people; a minister holding the minister's position must be loyal to his duty; a father holding the father's position must be kind in his teaching; a son holding the son's position must be filial and respectful. Name and position first give the framework of responsibility; only sustained fulfillment of that responsibility over time truly establishes the position. To occupy a position without carrying out its Way is a position in form only, not yet formed in substance.

Human nobility is likewise seen from this. A person can observe the patterns of Heaven and Earth, examine what suits the myriad things, reflect on fortune and misfortune, choose among groups and kinds, adjust the firm and the yielding, regulate movement and stillness, and assist transformation and growth through action. Birds, beasts, grasses, and trees each fulfill their own nature; a person carries one further layer of conscious responsibility. Yet this consciousness is no privilege, but a burden. The more a person is able to know, the less he can plead ignorance as an excuse; the more he is able to act, the less he can act recklessly on the strength of his own power.

The Doctrine of the Mean says, "Only one who can fully realize his own nature can fully realize the nature of others; only one who can fully realize the nature of others can fully realize the nature of things; only one who can fully realize the nature of things can assist the transforming and nurturing power of Heaven and Earth; and only one who can assist the transforming and nurturing power of Heaven and Earth can form a trinity with Heaven and Earth." Forming a trinity with Heaven and Earth can precisely explain the forming of one's place. A person does not create the transformation of Heaven and Earth, but can assist it; he does not decide everything for the myriad things, but can let each fulfill its own nature. Forming a trinity is not the three parties contending for greatness, but a person, through his virtue and achievement, taking up the one place that ought to be his between Heaven and Earth.

Master Meng said that fully realizing the heart and knowing one's nature leads to knowing Heaven, and that preserving the heart and nurturing one's nature is the way to serve Heaven. Knowing Heaven does not mean gazing upward and then claiming some mystical enlightenment, but preserving one's original heart and extending benevolence and righteousness. Serving Heaven does not mean seeking some marvel apart from human relations, but cultivating oneself and awaiting one's fate, whether in adversity or success, whether long-lived or short-lived. A person's place is formed within fully realizing the heart and fully realizing his nature, not within any mysterious identity.

Master Xun placed still greater emphasis on being clear about the distinction between Heaven and humankind. Heaven has its constant operation, unaltered by any single person's rise or fall; a person should govern what can be governed and revere what lies within his own power. Praying for rain is not as good as repairing water conservancy; hoping for a good harvest is not as good as not seizing the farming season. Forming a trinity with Heaven and Earth does not confuse Heaven and humankind, but lets each fulfill its own office: Heaven carries out its seasons, Earth generates its resources, and humankind governs its ritual propriety and righteousness. Only after the distinction is made clear can cooperation follow -- and this runs in the same vein as the establishing of Qian and Kun's places.

What the Most High said -- "man models himself on Earth" -- also lets a person's forming of his place begin from humility. Earth does not contend, and yet it bears all things; Heaven does not speak, and yet it moves all things; the Dao does not act, and yet it completes all things. If a person wishes to form his place between Heaven and Earth, he cannot learn only the awe of thunder and lightning without learning the moistening of wind and rain; cannot learn only Qian's beginning without learning Kun's completion; cannot learn only loftiness and exaltation without learning lowliness. A person's true place holds humility, reverence, responsibility, and effect all together.