TZU-SSU (483-402 B.C.E.)
Tzu-ssu was Confucius’ grandson; tradition ascribes to him The Central Harmony, the second of the four Confucian classics, from which the following passages are taken. The central figure in this treatise is “the mature person,” mature spiritually, emotionally, and ethically, in every situation acting with grace, dignity, and compassion. How civilized these ancient Chinese are! There is nothing here that Thomas Jefferson couldn’t have embraced with his whole heart.
What is bestowed by heaven is called human nature. The fulfillment of human nature is called the Tao. The cultivation of the Tao is called true learning.
The Tao is the law of nature, which you can’t depart from even for one instant. If you could depart from it, it wouldn’t be the Tao. Thus the mature person looks into his own heart and respects what is unseen and unheard. Nothing is more manifest than the hidden; nothing is more obvious than the unseen. Thus the mature person pays attention to what is happening in his inmost self.
Before pleasure, anger, sorrow, and joy have arisen, we are in the center. When these passions have arisen and when all attain their proper degree, we are in harmony. That center is the root of the universe; that harmony is the Tao, reaching out to all things. Once we find the center and achieve harmony, heaven and earth take their proper places, and all things are fully nourished.
The Book of Songs says,
The hawk soars to the heavens,
the fish plunges to the depths.
This means that there is no place where the Tao doesn’t penetrate. For the mature person, the Tao begins in the relation between man and woman, and ends in the infinite vastness of the universe.
Confucius said, “To find the Tao, there is nowhere you need to search. If it is not inside you, it is not the Tao.” The Book of Songs says,
When you carve an axe handle,
the model is near at hand.
In making the handle of an axe by cutting wood with an axe, the model is indeed near at hand. Thus, in dealing with people, we already have the perfect model of behavior inside us. Just act sincerely, in accordance with your true nature. Don’t do to others what you wouldn’t want done to you.
The mature person accepts his situation and doesn’t desire anything outside it. If he finds himself rich and honored, he acts as a rich man should act; if he is poor, he acts as a poor man should act; if he is among barbarians, he acts as a barbarian should act; if he is in trouble, he acts as someone in trouble should act. Life can present him with no situation in which he isn’t master of himself.
