Published on 2022.12.13

 

On the hierarchy of “Yong”(courage)

 

Mencius proposed a three-level hierarchy of “Yong” (Courage, 勇): the first level of courage is the determinacy to fight back those who jeopardize our dignity, which was illustrated by Beigong Yu(北宮黝)’s example; the second level is the willingness to sacrifice one’s life, which was illustrated by Meng Shishe (孟施舍)’s example, and the highest level of courage is illustrated by Zeng Zi (曾子), which is the courage to choose the morally right action and reflect upon one’s own behavior. Those who could reach the highest third level of courage would also manage to sublime from the quality of the first two levels, i.e., the determinacy to protect one’s dignity and the willingness to sacrifice oneself regardless of the likeliness of success. In The Book of Rites, Chapter on Confucian’s Behavior standard (禮記‧儒行), it is said that “one can befriend with a Confucian but cannot threaten a Confucian, one can be close with a Confucian but cannot force a Confucian to do something, one can kill a Confucian but can never insult a Confucian”. Confucian does not care one’s own face but cares one’s own dignity. When people possess power, some of them easily fall into evil by abusing power to insult their subordinates. However, how to defend for one’s dignity depends on how one conducts oneself.

Beigong Yu’s courage could be illustrated in Mencius’ description, “If someone touched a single hair on his body, he would regard it as if he had been publicly beaten in the marketplace. What he would not take from a bum in the street, he would not take from the rule of a ten-thousand chariot state. He regarded the stabbing of a ruler of such a state just the same as the stabbing of a bum. He had no fear of the great nobles. If slanderous words reached his ears, he would never let it go by without revenge.” (思以一毫挫於人,若撻之於市朝。不受於褐寬博,亦不受於萬乘之君。視刺萬乘之君,若刺褐夫。無嚴諸侯。惡聲至,必反之) (translation by A. Charles Miller, 1995). Here we find that Beigong Yu did not accept the slightest act that seemed to hurt his pride, even a very trivial conversation led to his revenge. However, if one fails to respect oneself, how can one expect others’ respect? Here comes to the idea of dignity: You must respect yourself, then the others will respect you.

On the other hand, Meng Shishe’s courage is the willingness to sacrifice oneself in order to accomplish the mission. This courage goes beyond one’s fear. A Chinese proverb says, “if one doesn’t fear for death, then there’s nothing can stop one from doing something” (除死無大礙). If one is not afraid of dying, what else would one be afraid of?

Nonetheless, both levels of courage were fulfilled by the courage demonstrated by Zeng Zi. In Book of Mencius, Conversation with Gongsun Chou part 1 (《孟子.公孫丑上》. Mencius described Zeng Zi’s courage. “If I reflect on myself and find that I am not right, then won't I even fear of facing a coarse fellow on the street? But if I reflect on myself and find myself to be right, then even if it be an army of one hundred thousand, I will go forward.” (自反而不縮,雖褐寬博,吾不惴焉;自反而縮,雖千萬人,吾往矣。) (translation by A. Charles Miller, 1995)

The highest third level of courage require us to deeply reflect about oneself. If we are sure that our behavior is based on righteousness (義) and reason (理), one would reach Zeng Zi’s caption that “if we find that we are correct, though there were thousands or even millions people against you, you still choose to go.” This motto from Mencius is such an epic and a majesty! We should further ponder what is right and what is wrong. This is of ultimate importance because the courage will just make things worse if one cannot make impeccable judgment on what is a moral act. The question is that even though we undergo deep reflection on standard of morality, but how could we be sure that our moral standard is correct? Therefore, the self-evaluation of morality is still questionable if one doesn’t know what the acts that are fulfilling kindness and righteousness (Ren and Yi, 仁義) are. That’s why Mencius’ philosophy is also called “the knowledge of one’s heart”. If we can follow our “heart”, the ultimate and direct judgment should be based on this criterion: “What you do not want something to be done to yourself, you should not do it to others.” (己所不欲,勿施於人).

Philosopher Tang Chun-I (唐君毅, 1909-1978) annotated, “Mencius’ way of cultivating one’s Qi (氣, spirit) is to strengthen one’s willingness to act in accordance with righteousness and to compliment it with reason. As reason provides substantives for the act, those with righteousness understand the reason of the act and why they are taking the correct action. Therefore, to cultivate one’s spirit, one must be determined to understand the reason”. (孟子以養氣之道在集義,而配義與道。道者當然之理,義者知此當然之理而為之,即知理而行之,以合當然之理。故養氣必先志於道). The idea of “Qi”, despite being invisible, is the most influential and audacious. If one keeps on cultivating it without hindering, one will soon find the profound influence of Qi (spirit) that can be seen everywhere. We should be aware that the pre-requisite to cultivate such “Qi” (spirit) is to have an everlasting fondness towards righteousness and reasons or one will easily get frustrated (nei 餒). To achieve an act of enormous courage, one must improve our act so that it is more in accordance with righteousness and reason. Therefore, whenever I read the quote “an educated person must be audacious as one has a very important responsibility to take a long way to go.” (士,不可以不弘毅,任重而道遠), I will feel the weight of such a great responsibility.


 

 

 

Dr. YEUNG Wing-hon

Dr. YEUNG Wing-hon, President of New Asia Arts & Commence College and Principal of Confucius Hall Secondary School.
Higher Diploma (Hong Kong Shue Yan College), MA & PhD, (New Asia Institute of Advanced Chinese Studies), MA (Chinese University of HK), MSW (Hong Kong University, Med (University of Nottingham), PhD (Beijing Normal University).
Author of Study of the balance of soldier’s pay of Liao of Late Ming and Fabrication and Facts of Ming’s Novel.


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