Text of Confucianism Part 02

SR No.: 007676
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: James Legge
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1882
Total Pages: 2405
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 43 MB

Page 72

CH, III.
INTRODUCTION.
45
As in the first Appendix, so in this, the name kwei-shăn occurs twice; in paragraghs 21 and 50 of Section i. In the
The name former instance, each part of the name has Kwei-shăn. its significance. Kwei denotes the animal soul or nature, and Shăn, the intellectual soul, the union of which constitutes the living rational man. I have translated them, it will be seen, by the anima and the animus.' Canon McClatchie gives for them'demons and gods;' and Dr. Medhurst said on the passage, The kwei-shåns are evidently the expanding and contracting principles of human life. .... The kwei-shăns are brought about by the dissolution of the human frame, and consist of the expanding and ascending shăn, which rambles about in space, and of the contracted and shrivelled kwei, which reverts to earth and nonentity?'
This is pretty much the same view as my own, though I would not here use the phraseology of 'expanding and contracting.' Canon McClatchie is consistent with himself, and renders the characters by 'demons and gods.
In the latter passage it is more difficult to determine the exact meaning. The writer says, that 'by the odd numbers assigned to heaven and the even numbers assigned to earth, the changes and transformations are effected, and the spirit-like agencies kept in movement;' meaning that by means of the numbers the spirit-like lines might be formed on a scale sufficient to give a picture of all the changing phenomena, taking place, as if by a spiritual agency, in nature. Medhurst contents himself on it with giving the explanation of KO Hsi, that 'the kwei-shăns refer to the contractions and expandings, the recedings and approachings of the productive and completing powers of the even and odd numbers. Canon McClatchie does not follow his translation of the former passage and give here demons and gods,' but we have the Demon-god (i.e. Shang Tî)' I shall refer to this version when considering the fifth Appendix.
Dissertation on the Theology of the Chinese, pp. 111, 112. • Theology of the Chinese, p. 127 • Translation of the Yi King, p. 312.
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