Wake Forest University

East Asian Languages and Literatures, Chinese,

Patrick Edwin Moran





Zhu Zi Yu-lei, Juan 1, item 31

Traditional:
山河大地初生時,須尚軟在。{氣質。}方子。
Simplified:
山河大地初生时,须尚软在。{气质。}方子。
big5:
sejaͮɡA|nbC{C}lC
GB:
ɽӴسʱڡ{ʡ}ӡ

Translation:

When the mountains, rivers, and the great earth were first produced, it all must still have been soft (i.e., plastic).
{Note: Qi4 zhi3, materialized lifebreath}
Fang Zi

Commentary:

Zhu Xi hypothesizes change on a geologic scale. In this passage, Zhu Xi may have in mind wave-like formations in stone. The interlinear note is interesting because it implies that the note taker, Fang Zi, believed it appropriate to use the idea of qi zhi to account for plasticity. If one believes that at an early time the earth was fluid, and that it gradually became more solid, then one can parallel that belief with the belief that the ontological development of the Universe proceeds from the Tai-ji (Great Ultimate), which is totally without any sensible qualities (not even the quality of emptiness), to the most abstract and widespread characteristics of existence (waxing and waning, rising and falling of any cyclical process), and on through stages to the most concrete and specific things of the world.

For instance, a diamond or a diatom is a discrete entity with very sharp edges that separate it from the rest of the universe. However, the root of any such discrete entity is the same as the root of any other entity. The root of all creatures is the one Tai-ji.

-- PEM