analyze Chu Hsi's complex notion of ch'eng as self-realization in terms of his mature philosophic system. (..) I find that the Watson- Dilworth method of archic analysis (their term for the application of the 'architectonics of meaning') sheds considerable light on the affinity of the Southern Sung master and the Anglo-American professor as well as helps to place Chu Hsi in the unfolding of Neo-Confucianism. (..) Justus Buchler: claim that all texts (along with their four archic analytic variables) have assertive, active, and exhibitive modes of expression or judgment. Dilworth believes that Buchler's division of the modes of expression of any texts adds to the richness of archic analysis (..) 1. The first cluster or division of terms defines what Chu Hsi takes to be the formal aspects of the world. These terms signify his rational principles or modes of analysis of any object, event, or person in our universe. The most common and well known of these are ii (principle) and ch'i (configurational force). (..) 2. Ch'eng belongs to the second focus, the dynamic or active aspect of the person. These dynamic terms (and jen/humanity is a prime example of such concepts) are descriptive of the active process by which the emerging person becomes or embodies a particular mode of excellence. (..) 3. The third cluster of terms is concerned with the actual and concrete unity of processes, events, things, or persons. (..) The obvious concepts are the linked terms of hsin (mind-and-heart), ch'ing (feelings or emotions), and hsing (normative human nature). (..) Generally speaking, Chu Hsi defines ch'eng in two distinct ways, the ethical and the cosmological. The first meaning of ch'eng is grandly ethical in the classical Confucian fashion: the sincere, the genuine, the true, the factual, free from error (..) Still there seems little doubt that the most important new interpretation of ch'eng has to do with its dynamic role in Chu Hsi's thought as it points to the realization of the values of sagely excellence. "Ch'eng is that which really has principle (shih yu tz'u /i)." Or, as the next section has it, "Ch'eng is solid (shih as real/actual)." Or, finally, "Ch'eng is principle (ch'eng shih /i)." All these short assertive statements point toward the axiology of ch'eng as the focus of dynamic reality. (..) According to Dilworth, Chu Hsi's archic profile is: diaphanic perspective, essentialist reality or ontology, dialectical method, and comprehensive principle. (..) In fact, a great deal of modern research on Confucianism has demonstrated persuasively the religious dimension of the tradition. (..) However, it does not follow that just because a tradition is religious it must have a diaphanic perspective. (..) why not disciplinary? (..) Dilworth may be predisposed to assume that because Chu Hsi expresses a profoundly religious vision that Chu's perspective must be diaphanic, as would be the case for most Western and Indian religious traditions. (..) Part of Dilworth's diaphanic bias stems from the ahistorical bias of the archic analysis as formulated by Watson and applied by Dilworth. As Watson notes, "... the chief difficulty of this book will be that it treats doctrines as relative to philosophic principles rather than philosophic principles as relative to historical situations." (..) What does ch'eng tell us about Chu Hsi's archic perspective? Evidently it is a perspective dependent upon sagely wisdom; of that there is no doubt. Yet in many ways the warrant for ch'eng is not so much diaphanic as disciplinary. (..) The truth arises for Chu Hsi within a community of scholars, within the self-discipline of getting the truth for oneself in service to others. (..) Just as with Aristotle's contemplation of the divine, Chu Hsi can have a disciplinary perspective and be profoundly religious at the same time. (..) On the other hand, I agree with Dilworth's assignment of the other three archic variables in Philosophy in World Perspective. Hence my revised archic profile for Chu Hsi is a (1) disciplinary perspective on (2) an essentialist reality with a (3) dialectical method projecting (4) a comprehensive principle. A future task for the application of archic analysis to the Chinese tradition will be to take a careful look at the other three variables to see how they shape the complex development of the Neo- Confucian revival. (..) Chu Hsi and Whitehead have a close affinity save for Chu's comprehensive principle and Whitehead's creative principle. It would be a fascinating exercise to compare the Confucian comprehensive principle with the Anglo-American creative principle of Process philosophy and theology. (..) Archic analysis is a particularly useful tool for dealing with a scholarly tradition such as Neo-Confucianism, which pours so much new meaning into the old wineskins of classical vocabulary. (..) As Whitehead once pointed out, all thinkers have a dominant "scheme of ideas," however well hidden it may be. One of the tasks of comparative philosophy and theology is to get at these deep structures of a text. |