Wake Forest University

East Asian Languages and Literatures, Chinese,

Patrick Edwin Moran


Zhu Zi Yu-lei, Juan 1, item 24

utf-8:

Simplified: 清 刚 者 为 天 ， 重 浊 者 为 地 。 道 夫 。

Traditional: 清 剛 者 為 天 ， 重 濁 者 為 地 。 道 夫 。

GB:

Ϊ Ϊ

big5:

M A B a C D C

That which is clear (pure) and hard is called Tian (heaven), and that which is heavy and turbid is called Di (earth).

-- Dao-fu

Commentary: In general, the sky (day or night) is clear. The earth contains things like dirt, which causes water to become turbid, and stones and other minerals which are dense.

In other contexts the components of human beings that are derived from Heaven are the pure ones, motivationally speaking, and the components that human beings get from Earth are the impure ones -- sexuality and other motivations that the Confucians found troublesome.

  • Modified:2003/01/17
  • Created: 2003/01/07