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Defense of an Essay, &c.
JULY,
From the inability to produce any proof that Tien, or Shángti, produced the heavens and the earth, recourse is had to passages where heaven is said to generate all things, and “all things are said to come from Shángti, as men from their parents." But the Chinese phrase here used, win wuh, never includes, according to the
6. "Should any one ask an explanation of the assertion that the principle of order (li) exists first, and the primordial substance (kf) afterwards; I answer there is no need to speak thus: but now that we know they are united, whether the Lí was first, and afterwards the Kí, or the Li afterwards, and Kí first, all this is a matter into which we can not search ; but should we endeavor to form some idea of it, then we may suppose that (kf) the primordial substance relies upon (f) the principle of order, when it acts, so that whenever the primordial substance is collected, there (14) the principle of order is present: for the pri- mordial substance (ki) can coagulate and collect, act and make, but the prin- ciple of order (16) neither wishes, nor plans, nor does; but where the primor- dial substance (ki) coagulates and collects, the (lf) principle of order is in it. Just as between heaven and earth (i. e. in the world), men and things, grass, trees, birds, and beasts, in their generation (sang) all of them require a seed, and certainly there can not without a seed (omnia ez ovo?) from nothing be ge. nerated a single thing; this is (illustrates) the primordial substance (kt),i.e. the ki performs the part of the seed. " With respect to the principle of order (任), it is a pure, empty, wide world, without form or trace, it can not make or do any- thing; but the primordial substance can ferment and settle and generate things.
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問先有理後有氣之說。曰。不消如此說而 今知得他合下是先有理後有氣耶後有 理.先有氣耶皆不可得而推究然以意度 之。則疑此氣是依傍這理行及此氣之聚 則理亦在焉盖氣則能凝結造作。理却 情意無計度無造作。只此氣凝聚處理便 在其中。且如天地閒人物草木禽獸其生 也莫不有種定不會無種了。白地生出
物事。這箇都是氣若理,則只是個潔净 空濶底世界無形迹。他却不會造作。氣則 能醞釀凝聚生物也
7. "With respect to the constitution of man, his lf (i. e. the principle, or law of order which determines his form, constitution, &c.), is the principle of order (li) of heaven and earth; and his kí (i. e. the primordial substance of which his body, soul and anima-the whole man is made), is the primordial substance (kí) of which heaven and earth are made. The li (inherent principle of order) has no trace and is invisible; we must therefore look for it in the k{-primor- dial substance. In the world we have both the principle (law) of order (lí), and the primordial and substance (kt). The principle of order (4) is the [pri- mitive] Reason (táu) which is inherent in material bodies, aud is the root of