Directory_and_Chronicle_1850 — Page 413

1850.

Defense of an Essay, &c.

375

usus loquendi of Chinese writers, the heavens and the earth; and this t'ien tí wán wuh is used as a periphrasis

1st, because for the universe, but 2d, and still more conclusively, because the ge- neration of all things,

sung wán wuh is throughout the Yih King and all the Confucian classics, constantly referred to

天地

their generation (or the principle from which they emanate). The primordial substance (ki) is the material-the substance out of which things are generat- ed. Hence, when men and things are generated, they must received this f, (emanation from the primitive Reason), and then they have 性 sing, nature; thcy must receive this k臺 (primordial subalance), then they have hing 形 form." 人之所以爲人。其理則天地之理。其氣則 天地之氣。理無迹不可見。故於氣觀之天地 之間有理有氣理也者形而上之道也。生物 之本也。氣也者,形而下之器也生物之具也 是以人物之生必禀此理。然後有性。必禀此 氣然後有形

8. "That which is called the Great Extreme is only in the Yin-yáng. And what is called the Yin-yang-active-passive primordial substance-is only in the Great Extreme. What people at present say, about there being, above the Yin- yáng, a separate, incorporeal, shadowless thing, which is the Great Extreme, is

incorrect."

所謂太極者。便只在陰陽裏。所謂陰 陽者。便只在太極裹今人說是陰陽上。别有 一箇無形無影裏是太極非也

9. " The meaning of the Great Extreme just is, the extreme point of the prin~ ciple (law) of order (f); having Lí you have this thing, i. e.the Yin-yang; priority or posteriority of order can not be predicated of them (viz. of Li, and the Yin-ed-Yang-ed Ki, active-passive primordial substance); therefore we say, that when in the Yih King (or Book of Diagrams) we read of the Great Ex- treme, it means that the Great Extreme is in the midst of the active-passive pri- mordial substance (Yin-yáng); and that it is not exterior to, or separate froin the Yin-yáng. Now if we explain it (the Great Extreme) as the Great Centre, or regard it as having existed before heaven and earth, prior to the division of the great expanse, I fear it is not safe. That which is inherent in material bodies we call tau primitive Reason; the subtance out of which things are formed we call Ki, the material; now to speak of the Great Extreme as Divine (shin or as a Divine thing, or to speak of it as existing before the division

jilf) of the heaven and the earth, when the primordial substance was all united in one

niass; these propositions we also fear have no basis." 太極之義。 正謂理之極致耳有是理即有物 無先 後次序之可言故曰易有太極則是太極乃