Wake Forest University

Traditional:

可幾問：「大鈞播物，還是一去便休，也還有去而復來之 理？」曰：「一去便休耳，豈有散而復聚之氣！」
道夫。
氣。

Simplified:

可几问：「大钧播物，还是一去便休，也还有去而复来之 理？」曰：「一去便休耳，岂有散而复聚之气！」
道夫。
气。

big5:

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GB:

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Translation:

Ke-ji asked: "When the great potter's wheel spins off creatures, is it the case that once they go out it is over with, or is it the case that there is a li that permits them to go out and come back again?"
[Zhu Xi] said: "Once they go out that is the end of it. How could there be any qi that is dispersed and then recombines itself?"

Commentary:

This short passage is interesting for a couple of reasons: First, it uses the word li where an English speaker would probably use the word "possibility." I think the question amounts to asking whether there is a persistent pattern (li) in nature that would account for entities that have been spun off of the engines of creation to return and somehow be used as material for future creations. That would be like broken pottery to be crushed into dust, mixed with water, and turned once more on the potter's wheel. Or, to use Zhu Xi's terms of reference, the creation of any entity is analogous to the exhalation of a breath. The breath was concentrated in the body, emerged from there, and in a very short time it has thinned to virtually nothing. There would be no way to recapture that breath and recombine it in the orderly configuration that makes it a certain kind of creature.

There is a pattern (a regularity) in nature that means that every time water at sea level air pressure is heated to 100 degrees centigrade, it begins to turn to steam. There is another li in nature by which water vapor in air that cools below the dew point will reform as water. Zhu Xi admits to the first possibility, but not to the second, at least in regard to this argument. In other places, Zhu Xi argues that we internally produce the breaths that we exhale, and that we are given only a certain amount to last us our entire lifetimes, so, if he were entirely consistent with himself, he ought to believe that the resources used for the formation of creatures are limited, and that Heaven and Earth ought eventually to become unable to create creatures to replace the ones that die.

As analogies go, to speak of clay rather than qi would work better. Once having been turned on the potter's wheel, dried, and fired in a kiln, the clay has turned into a different substance and cannot be successfully fired again. The question may be why Zhu Xi believes that there is no recycling of constituents in the formation of living creatures. The answer may have something to do with the fact that the idea of such recycling is a staple of the philosophies of Lao Zi, Zhuang Zi, and other daoists.

-- PEM