Nature and Principle in Islam

The third volume sets out in order how the small world (the microcosm) becomes manifest. The small world has a manifestation that has form and a manifestation that is formless. Observing its manifestation with form, one can know the wonder of the Creator's natural working; observing its formless manifestation, one can know the fine point at which heaven and humankind are one. The form of the small world comes after heaven and earth and is smaller than heaven and earth; the principle of the small world comes before the space between heaven and earth and is wider than that space. This is because the great world (the macrocosm) has boundaries while the small world has none, and the principle of the great world has a beginning and an end, while the principle of the small world has a beginning but no end. Yet it is not that it lacks the condition of having neither beginning nor end.

Scan vol. 3, p. 63Transcribed from the scan by AI (Claude), checked as described on the About page. Share

Heaven and earth are the great world; the human body is the small world. Before the great world existed, there were first six grades of formless principle, and afterwards six grades of formed images. When the small world comes to be, there are first six grades of formed images, and afterwards six grades of formless principle. The great world is first formless and then formed: this is proceeding from principle to reach vital energy (qi). The small world is first formed and then formless: this is returning from vital energy to principle. Its formed part arises from a single point, which is what was left over from the natures and principles of the Former Heaven and became its sediment; it is the root-seed of human life for all generations under heaven. When Adam (Adan) was formed into a body by gathering the refined essence of the four elements, this point was lodged in his body; and when Adam begot sons and his line spread to grandsons, this point flowed out into countless millions of bodies. Now countless millions of bodies must have countless millions of points; yet these countless millions of points did not come forth by the transformation and multiplication of Adam's one point. The reason is that in the world of nature and principle of the Former Heaven, every nature was endowed with such a point; only, once Adam's body was formed, all these countless points entered Adam's body and were stored there. As a thing it is too subtle to be glimpsed, beyond colour, image, sound and smell. While it was stored in Adam's body, merged as one root, though it held the bodies of ten thousand generations it did not seem many; when it flowed out to his descendants and each became a root of its own, it did not seem few. Is it not the most wondrous of things, continuing the Former Heaven? That a person has a heart and a body; that the body has outer and inner parts, members and apertures; perception and awareness, nature and feelings; movement and action; success and failure, long life and early death: all of these are held within it and made wondrous by it. When it flows forth and becomes manifest, it too divides into six grades: first, the grade of origin, which is this seed; second, the grade of generation, when the embryo first forms; third, the grade of transformation, when the four roots come to be; fourth, the grade of taking form, when outer and inner divide; fifth, the grade of settled substance, when members and apertures are complete; sixth, the grade of disclosure, when the living spirit appears. The six formed grades of the small world are in no way fewer than the six formed grades of the great world. Note (Hei of Qingyuan): The seed is the Real Existent. The seed of the small world is the primal qi of the great world. In the Former Heaven each principle embraces a qi, just as in the Latter Heaven each qi embraces a principle. What is called 'returning from qi to principle' means causing that principle to be brought fully to light; this is what makes a human being human. 'Take from things afar, take from the body near at hand': what is it one takes? Those who contemplate principle should pay close attention to this chapter.

Scan vol. 4, p. 4–8Transcribed from the scan by AI (Claude), checked as described on the About page. Share

This is the image of the single point entering the mother's womb and first transforming; it is the grade of generation. Before it enters the mother's womb it is kept in the father's spine, pure, subtle and imageless; once it leaves its original place and enters the womb, the imageless has an image. The image is formed from the qi of the mutual stirring of father and mother: the father's yang moves and produces water, and the water, carrying yang qi, conveys it to the mother; the mother's yin moves and produces fire, and the fire, carrying yin qi, receives this point into the womb. Yin and yang meet and water and fire gather; therefore the one then transforms into two: the clear is stored within, the turbid guards without. The clear belongs to yang: it is the father's yang, wrapped by the mother's yin and so transformed. The turbid belongs to yin: it is the father's water, blazed upon by the mother's fire and so transformed. Someone asks: 'Since the clear belongs to yang, it ought to issue outward, yet here it is gathered inward; since the turbid belongs to yin, it ought to be gathered inward, yet here it issues outward. Why?' The answer: 'The generation of the small world and that of the great world neither add nor lack a single grade, but their division of form into inner and outer is truly reversed. In the great world's division of form, what issues outward is the greater and the higher; hence its yang issues outward, and when yang issues outward its yin gathers inward of itself. In the small world's division of form, what is stored within is the greater and the higher; hence its clear is stored within, and when the clear is stored within its turbid surrounds it outside of itself. The reason form is divided in reverse fully shows the wonder of creation, and that the small world, as a thing, is finer and subtler than the great world. For the great world transforms from formlessness to form, and its course runs wholly from inside to outside; running from inside to outside, its meaning is exhausted in the outside. The small world transforms from form to formlessness, and its course runs wholly from outside to inside; running from outside to inside, what is joined within it is subtle indeed. Take the human body: the heart lies innermost, and what the body cannot reach, the heart can reach. The heart reaches the station of the formless, just as the Throne (al-ʿArsh) reaches the station of the world of principle. Therefore the small world takes what is stored within as the greater and the higher.' And again: 'The human heart is like heaven, the human body like earth. What is like heaven is above, what is like earth below. Going from the body to the heart is ascent; going from the heart to the body is descent. This wonder of reversed division of form suffices to show the marvel of creation; and at the meeting of heaven and humanity, the giving and receiving is subtle indeed.' Note (Hei of Qingyuan): By one movement of a human thought there is a small world, just as by one movement of the thought of the True Governor there is the great world. But the True Governor's movement is a movement within the all-knowing; a human's movement is a movement within what one does not perceive. What one does not perceive is still the True Governor moving of Himself: without the True Governor there would be no human being. The principle of reversed division of form is most wondrous.

Scan vol. 4, p. 9–13Transcribed from the scan by AI (Claude), checked as described on the About page. Share

This is the image of the embryo in its first month. That which moved from the father's spine into the womb, the clear and the turbid, receives the warm nourishment of the womb, and the two halves divide into four layers; this is the grade of transformation. That the one point divides into clear and turbid is like the primal qi splitting into the two modes (yin and yang); that the clear and turbid transform into four layers is like the two modes dividing into the four images. The outermost layer is black in colour and belongs to earth; the one next to the black is red and belongs to wind; the one next to the red is yellow and belongs to fire; the one in the very centre is white and belongs to water. White is the extreme of clarity; yellow is the slightly turbid within the clear. Black is the extreme of turbidity; red is the slightly clear within the turbid. These four are the roots of the blood, flesh, essence and qi of the human body. The four roots do not go beyond the two, clear and turbid; what divides them is their colour. The colours divide into four because of the blazing of the yin fire of the womb: the layer lying outside and nearest the fire is therefore black; the second layer, somewhat kept apart from the fire, is therefore red; the one lying somewhat inward and receiving only the fire's qi is therefore yellow; the one lying in the very centre and far from the fire is therefore white. When the four colours are distinct, the four elements wind, fire, water and earth each attach according to the colour formed. Another account: the colour of the clear is originally white, the colour of the turbid originally red; for the clear is transformed from yang water, and yang water is white, while the turbid is transformed from yin fire, and yin fire is red. Once red and white are distinct, they are again warmed and nourished by the yin fire of the womb, so that the outside of the red changes into black and the outside of the white changes into yellow. This is a further account of how the four roots divide into four colours. Note (Hei of Qingyuan): I have read Western books, which also speak of four humours, but I have not seen them explain the principle. Here the source of the four humours is traced and why they are so is fully clarified, which shows that the learning of Arabia (Tianfang) excels through principle.

Scan vol. 4, p. 14–17Transcribed from the scan by AI (Claude), checked as described on the About page. Share

This is the image of the embryo in its second month. At this time the four, white, yellow, red and black, have received the warm nourishing qi of the womb longer than before; and after this length of time the original natures of the four elements, wind, fire, water and earth, rise and stir, leave the layers in which the four colours first formed, and each returns to the proper place of its element. Wind returns to wind's place, and so rises to reach the innermost. The small world takes the inner as the higher, so its innermost is its highest; wind rising and returning to the innermost is returning to the highest. Fire returns to fire's place, rising to next after wind; its place too is inner. With wind and fire inside, water cannot remain inside; its tendency must be to descend and go down, attaching itself to earth. Going down means going to the outside. Wind and fire rise inward, and their form is the heart; water and earth descend outward, and their form is the body. The heart is heaven; the body is earth. When outer and inner are divided in form, the heaven and earth of the small world are fixed in their places. Fire and wind combine to become the heart, water and earth attach to become the body, and between them there is emptiness, just as heaven stands above and earth below with emptiness in the middle. This is the grade of taking form. Note (Hei of Qingyuan): Air and fire rise and become the heart; water and earth descend and become the body. Once outer and inner are divided, an empty space is left in the middle, the four elements interact, and generation and growth begin to flourish. So heart as heaven and body as earth is clear in principle and consistent in fact. Why should anyone make a fine saying of 'head as heaven, feet as earth'?

Scan vol. 4, p. 18–20Transcribed from the scan by AI (Claude), checked as described on the About page. Share

This is the image of the embryo in its third month. In the second month the outer and inner first divided in form; now outer and inner each undergo transformation. In the outer part, what belongs to earth becomes the flesh of the whole body, and what belongs to water flows to become the pathways of the vessels and channels. In the inner part, what belongs to air becomes the substance of the heart, and what belongs to fire issues as the apertures of numinous clarity, facing each other on the left and right of the heart. Once heart and body are formed, the four viscera gather between heart and body as the dwelling places proper to the four elements. Once the four viscera are formed, the six bowels are provided in turn, and ears, eyes, mouth, nose, the four limbs and all the members become distinct. This is the grade of settled substance. All the members and apertures of the body are joined to the viscera and bowels, but what is most joined to the members and apertures of the whole body is the brain alone. For the viscera and bowels each have only their own charge among the things joined to them, while the brain has overall charge of everything joined to it. The brain is formed from the numinous qi of the heart and the essential qi of the body knotted together. In its function it takes the formed into the formless and conveys the formless into the formed; it is the general source of all the vessels, and the perception and movement of all the members depend on it. What is meant by taking the formed into the formless? Whatever the eye has seen, the ear heard, the heart known, the brain gathers and stores within itself; this is what it can take in. What is meant by conveying the formless into the formed? Within the brain dwells the power of general awareness. Its sinews run from the brain to the eyes, and the eyes, receiving the force of general awareness, can see; they run to the ears, and the ears can hear; they run to the mouth and nose, and the mouth knows taste and the nose smell. Thus the liver opens into the eyes, but that the eyes can see is the brain's force; the kidneys open into the ears, but that the ears can hear is the brain's force; the spleen opens into the mouth and the lungs into the nose, but that the mouth knows taste and the nose smell is the brain's force. Its sinews run from the brain to the whole body, and the whole body receives the force of general awareness: the hands can grasp, the feet walk, and all the members feel pain and itch. Even the heart, the seat of numinous clarity, cannot but rely on the brain: when the brain is nourished, the heart's clarity is doubled; when the brain loses its nourishment, the heart's will and qi grow dim. This is what is meant by conveying the formless into the formed. Again: the heart is the chamber and the brain the hall; nothing planned in the chamber fails to appear in the hall. The brain receives what the heart bestows and bestows it on all the apertures. When the members and apertures are complete, the human form is complete. From then on, nourishment has two roots: the outer root is the navel, the inner root the gall bladder. The navel draws the mother's qi and blood into the stomach to take nourishment from them; the gall bladder, from the qi and blood drawn in, distinguishes good from bad, using only the good and gathering up the poisonous. These two roots are how the inner and outer members and apertures obtain their nourishment. Note (Hei of Qingyuan): The outer and inner parts, members and apertures are already present in the seed; here they merely appear in their season. Since everything outer and inner in the body depends on the brain, one who treats people should first know how to treat the brain. Hence Arabian medicine has a branch for the brain, of which the other schools know nothing.

Scan vol. 4, p. 21–26Transcribed from the scan by AI (Claude), checked as described on the About page. Share

This is the image after the members and apertures are complete. When they are complete, the living spirit arises. The living spirit is the nature by which a human being is human. That nature is one root but contains six grades: first, the continuing nature; second, the human nature; third, the qi nature; fourth, the living nature; fifth, the growing nature; sixth, firmness. Firmness is not called a nature, because it is the same as the nature of metal and stone and has no growth. The continuing nature is what exists by continuing the Original Suchness of the True Governor. The nature of the True Governor has nothing that precedes it, only what continues after it; this nature takes the True Governor's Original Suchness as its own suchness, and so is called 'continuing'. It is the first manifestation of the True Governor, and the root-source of all natures. The human nature is the nature each person received as their allotted share in the Former Heaven. It is not far from the continuing nature, but because of the allotment in the Former Heaven its name and meaning come to differ slightly without one noticing; it is called the original nature. The qi nature is the nature of bodily endowment received in the Latter Heaven; it is called the nature of liking and disliking. The living nature attaches to the body and serves for perception and movement; it is called the nature of food and sex. The growing nature is what makes the body grow from small to large; it is called the nature of development. Firmness is what keeps the body firm and whole and prevents it from falling apart; though not called a nature, it is a nature too. One root containing six grades: truly, divide it and it cannot be divided, unite it and it truly has this natural, wondrous difference; this is why it is the living spirit. The human body divides in form from a single point and gradually reaches the manifest functioning of the living spirit: this is the small world transforming from form to formlessness. The living spirit is the formed within the formless and the formless within the formed; it is the one great mechanism by which heaven comes to humanity and humanity is united with heaven. When the formless attaches, what makes the person human is complete; when the formless returns, what unites the person with heaven is perfected. This is the grade of disclosure. Note (Hei of Qingyuan): From formless to formed, the formed moves and the formless is still; from formed to formless, the formed is still and the formless moves. It is not that the living spirit begins here; rather the living spirit becomes manifest here. The living spirit is the movement of a single thought.

Scan vol. 4, p. 27–30Transcribed from the scan by AI (Claude), checked as described on the About page. Share

This is the first grade of the manifest functioning of the living spirit. The living spirit as a thing is one root containing six grades. Going from the continuing nature and the human nature to the qi nature, the living nature, the growing nature and firmness is going from the fine to the coarse. In manifestation, firmness appears first, then the growing nature, the living nature and the qi nature, then the human nature and the continuing nature: this is going from the coarse to the fine. Going from the coarse to the fine is again the meaning of transforming from form to formlessness; the small world becomes a small world in this order. That is why what appears first is firmness. Firmness is the nature of metal and stone: growth is not its office, but firmness can truly remain without the slightest change. When firmness appears, the suspension of the viscera and bowels [the text breaks off here at the end of p32] [...] the suspensions [of the viscera] each settle in their proper places and do not come to be shaken; the circulation of qi and blood each returns to its channels and vessels and does not come to overrun them; the bones, great and small, each rest within their measure and do not come to spill sideways; the whole body is firm, ordered and bound together so that it cannot come apart: all of this is the work of the power of firmness. The small world derives strength from the nature of firmness just as the great world derives strength from the nature of firmness. Because the great world obtains this power of firmness, the nine heavens and seven earths never change their positions from the beginning of time, and the sun, stars, rivers and mountains never alter their constancy from the beginning of time. That by which the Maker holds heaven and earth together is precisely this. Because the small world obtains this power of firmness, its whole body is secure and ordered and does not change its position, just as the great world never alters its constancy. The nature of firmness is, further, the very means by which the Maker holds the small world together. The Maker's entire capacity has been wholly entrusted to the human body, and this is the first of its manifest functions to appear. Note (Hei of Qingyuan): "In the fifth month of the embryo the sinews and bones become strong and hard, like metal and stone enclosed within their ore; therefore it is said that the metallic nature has become manifest. The transformation of the formless into form stops at metal and stone; the transformation of form into the formless begins with metal and stone. Its firmness is not only the firmness of the hard: the soft is firm as well. Its fixity is not only the fixity of stillness: movement is fixed as well."

Scan vol. 4, p. 31–34Transcribed from the scan by AI (Claude), checked as described on the About page. Share

After firmness has become manifest, the nature of growth and nurture becomes manifest. Growth and nurture is the growing nature, the nature of plants and trees. The nature of plants and trees also contains everything, but growing is its special office. Before the growing nature is manifest, the embryo's drawing-in is not yet free: in receiving nourishment from its mother it merely depends on how far the mother's vital strength reaches, and so obtains its nourishment. Once it has become manifest, its vital force is strong and its drawing-in can act freely: in taking its resources from the mother, whether the mother's strength suffices or not, without knowing how it comes to be so, it knows how to seize the mother's vital strength to nourish itself. Having obtained nourishment, it grows. The growing nature, as a thing, has a power of attraction, a power of transformation, a power of retention and a power of expulsion. Because it can attract, it takes things in as the cause of nourishment and growth; because it can transform, what it has drawn in ripens and change comes out of it; because it can retain, it gathers up all the fine essence it has transformed and distributes it among the viscera and limbs; because it can expel, it removes whatever is left over from that fine essence and keeps nothing of it. These four powers are the wondrous root contained in the growing nature. When growth has reached adulthood, from within the fused four powers there further appear two powers that it has always possessed: the power of the wondrous seed and the power of transmitting the image. These appear in due time at the season of procreation. The wondrous seed: before food and drink have been transformed into qi and blood, this power picks out their finest portion and nourishes the primal vessel, and so works wonders in forming the seed. Transmitting the image: when the seed is about to be sown as an embryo, this power impresses into it the form, shape, nature and disposition that its own substance possesses, and so serves to transmit the kind. The seat of the growing nature is the liver: since this nature is able to grow and put forth, and moreover borrows the fire of the liver to assist its strength, its growth and putting forth are twice as easy. What the great world forms as images by the power of this growing nature does not decline in its images; what it forms as shapes flourishes daily in its shapes. The growing nature of the small world is almost the very growing nature of the great world. Note (Hei of Qingyuan): "In the sixth month of the embryo the hair grows and the limbs stretch out freely, like plants and trees sprouting, soaked in dew and facing the sun, growing and transforming of themselves. But since it is called growth and nurture, why do some afterwards die young or suffer, unequally? I reply: the qi one receives may be thick or thin, so the form produced may be long or short; this half comes from the Former Heaven. Outwardly one is affected by the four airs and inwardly one is harmed by ten thousand desires; this half comes from the Latter Heaven. If one traces it back to the root-suchness of the nature, no seed fails to sprout."

Scan vol. 4, p. 35–39Transcribed from the scan by AI (Claude), checked as described on the About page. Share

Once the growing nature is manifest, the living nature appears. Before this there was no perception, but now there is perception; before this there was no movement, but now there is movement. Perception and movement arise at this juncture, and this nature becomes the root of food and sex for the whole of life. Perception, as a thing, has ten functions: five lodged outside and five lodged inside. Those lodged outside are sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch, housed in the ears, eyes, mouth, nose and limbs. Those lodged inside are called common sense (總覺), imagination (想), deliberation (慮), judgement (斷) and memory (記); their seats never depart from the brain. Common sense gathers and governs all perceptions, inner and outer, and all the members rely on it in order to perceive; its seat is lodged in the front of the brain. Imagination recalls what has already been obtained and so responds to the use of common sense; its seat comes next, behind common sense. Deliberation takes what has been imagined and weighs whether it is right or wrong, possible or not; its seat is lodged in the middle of the brain. Judgement, spiritually clear and decisive, directly decides what in the deliberation is fitting; its seat comes next, behind deliberation. Memory holds in store, without losing it, everything inner and outer that has been seen, heard, known and perceived; its seat is lodged in the back of the brain.

Scan vol. 4, p. 40–42Transcribed from the scan by AI (Claude), checked as described on the About page. Share

Movement, according to where perception reaches, moves in response to it. Movement within the viscera is the work of qi; motion in the four limbs and hundred bones is the work of qi and blood acting together. There is a power of command and a power of service. Command is lodged in the heart and is that which initiates movement; service is lodged in the body and is that which answers the command and accomplishes the movement. All things possess the living nature, yet some have perception and some lack it, some move and some do not move; it is not that their nature is in some cases whole and in others not. Seen from the outside, some seem to lack perception and some seem not to move, but in reality they never lack perception and movement; it is only that their perceiving is perceiving where people cannot see it, and their moving is moving where people cannot glimpse it. Take metal and stone as things: people think they have no perception or movement, yet melt them and they transform, strike them and they ring: is this not their perceiving? They are born in mountains and flow into waters, are produced at the bottom of the ore-bed and appear on its surface: is this not their moving? If even metal and stone are so, how much more what is more spiritual than metal and stone! Note (Hei of Qingyuan): "In the seventh month the embryo acquires complete perception; once movement appears, one sees it leaping as if eager to be born. Yet why is it born only after waiting one or two more months? I put the question to Yizhai, who said: 'In the mother's womb a person receives the illumination and nourishment of the Seven Governors: in the first month Saturn shines on it, in the second month Jupiter, in the third month Mars, in the fourth month the Sun, in the fifth month Venus, in the sixth month Mercury, in the seventh month the Moon. When the Seven Governors have shone on it in full, the embryo is ripe and is born. If it waits a further one or two months, it must be that during those seven months one or two of the Governors were weak in strength, so that the illumination and nourishment were not ripe, and an intercalary illumination must be added. One with an intercalary Saturn does not survive; one with an intercalary Jupiter lives; one with an intercalary Mars succeeds; one with an intercalary Sun becomes noble and eminent. Venus, together with Mercury and the Moon, are the three yin and receive no intercalation; therefore those who pass ten months are few.'"

Scan vol. 4, p. 42–45Transcribed from the scan by AI (Claude), checked as described on the About page. Share

The three ranks of firmness, growth and life become manifest before leaving the mother's womb. Forty days after leaving the womb, the temperamental nature (qi-nature) becomes manifest. When the temperamental nature is manifest, one knows love and aversion. Love and aversion, viewed superficially, are no more than the general name for the seven emotions and six desires; expanded, they are in truth the capacity for leaving the ordinary and becoming a sage. At the first moment of leaving the womb, loving and averting are not yet clearly distinguished, and their first rough signs are seen in natural crying and laughing. Thus natural crying and laughing are where love and aversion first show themselves, and what the temperamental nature first manifests. The human being is the most spiritual of the ten thousand things and possesses this mechanism of being able to love and able to avert. When later it is expanded and filled out, one uses what one loves to strive to do what ought to be loved, and uses what one averts to strive to remove what ought to be averted; all this is done by this qi and this power, and it is thereby that such a person daily advances toward sagehood and worthiness. Although the temperamental nature belongs to the Latter Heaven, its bearing on human beings is like this. The former worthy Ye Zide said: "The temperamental nature is what obediently receives the function of the original nature and makes it its own function." What the temperamental nature can do is all that the original nature wishes to do; the knowing and capacity possessed by the original nature are wholly handed over to the temperamental nature to be manifested.

Scan vol. 4, p. 46–48Transcribed from the scan by AI (Claude), checked as described on the About page. Share

The temperamental nature is rooted in the bodily constitution (qi-substance), and the constitution in turn is formed from the four elements wind, fire, water and earth. When what a person receives from the four elements is balanced, the temperamental nature is harmonious and even, and the original nature can by it be fully manifested; when what is received from the four elements is unbalanced, the temperamental nature cannot be harmonious and even, and the manifestation of the original nature is likewise incomplete. It is also said that the temperamental nature has four names, assigned to the four elements: the first is the settled nature, belonging to wind; the second the ever-wakeful nature, belonging to water; the third the repentant nature, belonging to fire; the fourth the self-willed nature, belonging to earth. Those who use all four natures are middling people; those who use only the wind and water natures are above the middling; those who use fire and earth are below the middling. Someone asks: "Wind is what is unsettled; why does the settled nature belong to wind?" I reply: "Wind as a thing fills the space above, below and in the four directions, never swelling and never lacking; it seems unsettled yet is truly settled, seems unfixed yet is truly fixed. Therefore the settled nature belongs to wind." Those who use only the settled nature act in the same way as the original nature; they are of the order of the sages. Next, those who use the ever-wakeful nature act in close likeness to the original nature; they are of the order of the worthy and wise. Next, those who use the repentant nature still do not lose the original nature in their acting. Below these, those who use the self-willed nature are wholly perverse and unlike the original nature. This is how the temperamental nature is divided, and those who use the temperamental nature should value knowing how to discern and place themselves. Note (Hei of Qingyuan): "When the preceding three ranks become manifest, humans and animals share them; when the following three ranks become manifest, humans and animals are separated. Humans and animals both have the temperamental nature, but in their endowment each receives a particular disposition, and they are utterly unequal. Humans, birds and beasts all belong to the living kind, yet birds fly with two wings, beasts run on four feet, and humans walk and hurry on two feet. Crows cry caw-caw, ravens croak, oxen bellow and horses neigh, but humans can speak and laugh; and in eating and drinking, dwelling, warmth and clothing they are utterly different; all this is because the temperamental nature distinguishes them. At birth a human being is no more than a living thing: its voice is like those caws and croaks, its suckling like that of lambs and calves; like an insect just hibernating, it knows nothing at all. Once the temperamental nature appears, love and aversion, speech and laughter separate it from the animals. Animals do not speak or laugh, and do not love and avert as humans do."

Scan vol. 4, p. 48–51Transcribed from the scan by AI (Claude), checked as described on the About page. Share

The original nature is what is allotted from the Former Heaven and lacks no excellence. This nature is fused as one with the Latter Heaven's temperamental nature, living nature, growing nature and nature of firmness, but in its manifestation there is a distinction of earlier and later: the four Latter-Heaven ranks become manifest first in order, and this rank becomes manifest last of all. The original nature, the successor nature and the root-suchness of the Real Ruler have an order of sequence but no this-and-that. From the root-suchness of the Real Ruler comes the successor nature; from the allotment of the successor nature comes the original nature: this is their sequence. Yet in reality the knowing and capacity of the original nature are no different from the knowing and capacity of the successor nature, and no different from the knowing and capacity of the root-suchness of the Real Ruler: this is what is meant by having sequence but no this-and-that. Within the original nature all principles are complete, no affair is left out, and all things are provided: so vast is its capacity. Its light penetrates everything it reaches; and within this all-penetration it contains a kind of pure and subtle wisdom that governs all the perceptions of the living nature, and a kind of pure and subtle desire that governs all the loves and aversions of the temperamental nature: these are called the two powers. The two powers display their capacity specifically in the outward world of the Latter Heaven. Further, within this all-penetration there appears a kind of natural turning-back of illumination, which cuts off attachment to the Latter Heaven and directly sees the place from which the original nature came forth; and there appears a kind of natural inclination, which, made bright by that illumination, heads directly for the reality of the Real Ruler's root-suchness: these are called the two virtues. The two virtues display their capacity specifically at the original beginning of the Former Heaven. The two virtues become manifest only after the person's cultivation and illumination of them has reached its limit. Every person possesses this nature, and so every person possesses these virtues, these powers and this all-penetrating light; it is only that their manifestation is complete or incomplete. Master Chami said: "The human nature knows everything and can do everything. Where its use is not fully exercised, it is people who do not exercise it fully, not that its knowing and capacity are complete or incomplete." Chami's saying shows deep insight into this: that the original nature of a human being is the successor nature first manifested by the Real Ruler, and is also the Real Ruler's root-suchness itself! Note (Hei of Qingyuan): "The temperamental nature distinguishes dispositions; the original nature distinguishes meaning and principle. The distinction of meaning and principle is why human beings are more noble and more spiritual than the ten thousand things. The four preceding ranks become manifest according to timing; the manifestation of this rank depends only on whether the endowed qi is clear or turbid, balanced or partial, which shows it early or late, deficient or complete. Without the manifestation of the temperamental nature one has no claim to the name of human; without the manifestation of the original nature one has no reality as a human. Cutting off attachment to the Latter Heaven and heading directly for the Former Heaven: this is the proper work of the original nature."

Scan vol. 4, p. 52–56Transcribed from the scan by AI (Claude), checked as described on the About page. Share

The successor nature is the primal nature first manifested by the Real Ruler. The natures and mandates of all people and things, ancient and present, are all imprinted and divided off from it; it is what is called the one comprehensive mandate of the myriad mandates of all ages. When the Real Ruler begins transformation, it begins from this realm; when the myriad transformations return to the Real, they return by this realm. This one nature is the great metropolis where beginning and final return meet. As a nature it pervades the whole world, neither going nor coming, and is held in common by heaven, earth, humans and things. The original nature is the nature each person possesses individually. When what each possesses becomes manifest, what is held in common also becomes manifest. The original nature and the successor nature were never two. Before the original nature was divided off there was only this successor nature and no original nature; after the successor nature was allotted, it is called the original nature and no longer called the successor nature. Before the original nature is manifest, does the common successor nature not manifest itself daily between heaven and earth? It does, but its manifestation has nothing to do with me. When the original nature has become manifest, manifestation joins manifestation, and the two manifestations become one manifestation: as light joining light, where one cannot divide this light from that light; as water joining water, where one cannot divide this water from that water. Two lights become one light, two waters become one water: this is the meaning of two manifestations becoming one. When the individual manifestation returns into the common manifestation, the common manifestation seems to be manifest in me alone, and the successor nature becomes my successor nature: this is how the successor nature becomes manifest. Once it is manifest, the substance of the successor nature is my substance; how much more so its knowing and capacity, how much more so its operation! Once it is manifest, my substance forgets that it is the substance of the successor nature; why then should it trouble itself about knowing and capacity, about operation? Then my mandate is the one comprehensive mandate of the myriad mandates of all ages, and my condition is the great metropolis where beginning and return meet; and do not the Real Ruler and I then become different names for one reality?