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A Dedication to Classics Scholarship 29

The character 治 used to be written as 始. As a homonym it was used interchangeably
in numerous works, such as in “Counsels of Gao Yao” of The Book of Documents (《皋陶
谟》), in “Annals of the Xia” of Records of the Historian (《史记 · 夏本纪》), in “Annals of
Law” of The History of the Han Dynasty (《汉书 · 律历志》); in Wan Zhang of Mencius (《孟
子 · 万章篇》), in “Treatise on Rites” of Xunzi (《荀子 · 礼论篇》), in “The History of Rites”
of Records of the Historian (《史记 · 礼书》), and in the “Strategy of Qi” of The Strategies of
the Warring States (《战国策 · 齐策》)(Wang et al., 2016,p.1594).

It isclearthat “经始”means“togovern”or“toregulate,”inwhichjing isused asaverb.

(3) The Prime Minister and the “Heavenly Ministry” of The Rites of Zhou
（I周礼 · 天官 · 冢宰J）
It is the king who establishes the state, distinguishes its boundary and rectifies its positions,
gives it structure and aligns the fields, sets up offices and designates the functions therein. He
thereby serves as the pivot for the populace. (Zheng et al., 2010, pp. 2–6)

Zheng Xuan’s(郑玄 127–200) exegesis reads: “Jing here means to measure the
distance.” By now, the word jing has come to mean “measuring and fixing a
location,” from which the sense of “constructing” (营造) is derived.
The above three examples show that jing may be as a verb. The usage is found
not only in Confucian classics, but also in other classical works. For example, “On
Seeing All Things as Equal” in Zhuangzi (《庄子 · 齐物论》) has the statement:

What is beyond this world, the sages do not discuss, although they do not deny its existence.
What is within this world, the sages discuss but do not make judgment on. About the his-
torical chronicles and records of ancient kings, the sages make judgment but do not argue.
(Feng, 2021, p. 32)
Wang Xianqian (王先谦 1842–1917) explains: “The words ‘Spring and Autumn’
mean that the years and seasons are there to demarcate affairs of the world, rather
than referring to The Spring and Autumn Annals (《春秋》) by Confucius.” In this
remark, the word jing means to give a longitudinal and latitudinal account of “a
conception of things in the dimension of time.” The phrase “records of ancient
kings” refers to historical documents, bequeathed by former kings and arranged in
chronological order.
Therefore, in this sense, jing, or the Chinese classics, should be used for
statecraft, which is conducted through reason, not pure reason, but historical
reason. Jing should not be taken as an activity that seeks only knowledge—as is
defined by Aristotle in the opening passage of his Metaphysics (《形而上学》)—
but must be employed to deal with current affairs.
To sum up, as the explanations have illustrated, jing, as a noun, denotes the
concept of “eternal Dao”; as a verb, it also denotes the senses of “governing,”