VII. "Things Gather by Kind and Creatures Divide by Group": The Myriad Things Are Not One Formless Mass

Once Heaven and Earth have taken their places and movement and stillness, the firm and the yielding, can be distinguished, the myriad things show their tendencies and their groupings. "Things gather by kind and creatures divide by group" speaks of how like follows like, of how those close in nature, aspiration, or circumstance draw one another together. Birds and beasts have their flocks, grasses and trees have their families, water and soil each have what suits them; human beings likewise draw close to one another when their Way is the same, bond together when their interests are the same, and seek one another out by resonance of voice and disposition. Gathering and dividing happen at once: wherever one side gathers together, it divides from another. Without discernment, groups and kinds cannot be seen; without gathering together, things cannot form any force at all.

The Yi's observation of gathering and dividing does not encourage a person to cling stubbornly to factional bias. Classification is first of all a kind of ordering of knowledge. The farmer distinguishes the five grains, the physician distinguishes cold and heat, the artisan distinguishes the properties of materials, the herdsman distinguishes his flocks and herds -- only thus can each put things to their proper use. To force what is different into sameness harms things; to deliberately sever what is alike also loses their combined force. Planting according to the soil, fashioning implements according to the material, raising animals according to their nature -- all of this rests upon the discernment of kind. The Guanzi, in discussing the properties of land, distinguishes soil color, springs and streams, grasses and trees, and what each is suited for, showing precisely that managing livelihood cannot be imagined out of thin air. Land has its gradations, things have what suits and what does not suit them; only by knowing their kind can one accomplish one's work.

The gathering of human groups requires still more careful discernment. The Master said, "Virtue is never alone; it is sure to have neighbors" -- virtue calls forth virtue. He also said, "The noble person unites broadly but does not form cliques; the small man forms cliques but does not unite broadly," pointing out that gathering has its public and its private forms. To unite broadly is to draw close to one another widely through the Way and righteousness; to form cliques is to bind together through private interest. Both look outwardly like "grouping," yet inwardly they are entirely different. Those who gather through righteousness can correct and complete one another; those who gather through interest scatter once the interest is exhausted, and may even turn on and plunder one another. Hence, on seeing a gathering, one must still ask why they have gathered; on seeing sameness, one must still ask what Way they are the same in.

The Book of Songs uses the calling of a bird seeking its friend's voice to liken how like resonates with like: "Ying it calls, seeking the voice of its friend." Friends seeking one another out is not mere pastime, but an important condition for virtue and achievement. To study alone without friends easily narrows what one hears and sees; to dwell among those who surpass oneself lets one hear one's faults and move toward the good; to dwell among flatterers lets private desire grow day by day without one's own awareness. Master Zeng held that a friend assists benevolence, and Zixia likewise valued friends who examine and encourage one another earnestly. A person, within a group, is quietly transformed by language, habit, and likes and dislikes; hence choosing one's friends is choosing the shape one is about to become.

Master Xun said, "Mugwort growing amid hemp stands straight without support; white sand mixed into black mud turns black along with it" -- stating with full clarity the effect of the group and its environment upon a person. A person is not fixed once and for all at birth; custom, accumulating gradually, can change one's resolve and conduct. Dwelling in Chu one becomes like Chu, dwelling in Yue one becomes like Yue -- this is what daily contact through ear, eye, mouth, and body brings about. Hence moral instruction cannot rely only on occasional admonition, but must build a shared life in which ritual propriety and righteousness are visible and good conduct is something one can draw close to. The group of teachers and friends, the customs of one's neighborhood, the values esteemed at court -- all of these encourage a certain kind of conduct and restrain another kind.

And yet a person also has the possibility of exceeding the group and kind he already belongs to. If it were simply "like follows like," the small man would forever be able only to gather with small men, and good and evil could never be transformed. The very reason the Yi speaks of change is precisely that a person can see what he has gathered with and still choose for himself. The group one finds oneself in is a configuration (shi), not a fate; however deep the influence of habit, turning back to examine oneself can still redirect one's course. Master Meng held that every person has the possibility of becoming an ancient sage; Master Xun likewise held that an ordinary person could, through learning and practice, accomplish the achievement of an ancient sage. Though the two differ in their theories of human nature, both acknowledge that learning and practice can let a person form his own virtue. The dividing into groups reveals influence; it does not abolish the subject's careful choice.

Political factions, too, can be discerned by this. Worthy people advancing together in the same Way may be slandered as a faction; private cliques bound by mutual support may likewise call themselves united in virtue. The distinction lies not in numbers, but in whether what they do serves all under Heaven or serves only themselves. If they together advance the worthy, remove what harms, and give the people peace, then even sharing the same resolve, this is not private clique-forming; if they exclude dissent, shelter one another in turn, and harm the public good for private gain, then even while professing the Way and righteousness with their mouths, this is gathering by kind toward evil. Fortune and misfortune arise precisely from this: when what gathers together is upright, it completes itself and brings fortune; when what gathers together is depraved, it obscures itself and brings misfortune.