Page 83 - 2022(1) International Confusion Studies

76 J. Ren

the age of Confucius, as the social and political environment shifted. Briefly put,
the old political framework of separate states in the Spring and Autumn and the
Warring States periods (722 B.C.E.–481 B.C.E.) eroded while a new imperial po-
litical system came into being. Governance thereafter could no longer be based on
the primacy of individual self-cultivation, and this brought to the fore the collec-
tive narratives of “regulation of family affairs, good state governance, and
ensuring peace to all under heaven.”

4 Modern Slicing Up of the “Eight Essential
Principles”

The “three cardinal guides” and the “eight essential principles” are the basis of
Confucian philosophy. The “three guides” have the single goal of morality, namely
virtue/goodness reaching the highest excellence (至善), and two purposes, namely
expounding illustrious virtue, and renewing the people. On the other hand, the
“eight principles” follow a progressive order of “studying things, acquiring knowl-
edge, being sincere in thought, rectifying one’s heart, cultivating oneself, regulating
one’s family affairs, governing the state well, and ensuring peace to all under
heaven,” and then a recursive order of “ensuring peace to all under heaven, gov-
erning the state well, regulating one’s family affairs, cultivating oneself, rectifying
one’s heart, acquiring knowledge, and studying things.” This circular discourse
actuallylaysoutthe two phasesof “expounding illustrious virtue”and “renewing the
people,” first in the recursive order of studying things, and then the progressive one
of ensuring peace to all under heaven. After all, “expounding illustrious virtue”
composed of four elements: “studying things, acquiring knowledge, being sincere in
thought, and rectifying one’sheart”;while “renewing the people” is also made up of
four elements: “cultivating oneself, regulating one’s family affairs, governing the
state well, and ensuring peace to all under heaven.” Together they make up the full
“eight essential principles” framework, so strictly speaking they should not be
separated. However, “expounding illustrious virtue” and “renewing the people” can
also be understood in a two-way recursive/progressive process. For “expounding
illustrious virtue,” everything begins with “studying things,” which means both
moral understanding and actual practice should not be divorced from external
things. Without the study of things leading to being sincere in thought, the whole
moral goal of knowing will be lost altogether. As for “renewing the people,” self-
cultivation is the most solid foundation for ensuring peace to all under heaven, while
bringing such peace is also the loftiest moral goal of self-cultivation. By comparing