Reflections on Things at Hand

Reflections on Things at Hand

Zhu Xi; Lü Zuqian

In the summer of the second year of Chunxi, Lü Zuqian came from Dongyang and passed by my Hanquan Retreat, where he stayed for more than ten days. Together we studied the writings of Zhou Dunyi, the two Cheng brothers, and Zhang Zai. We marveled at how vast their contents were and how profound their thought, seemingly without bounds. We therefore worried that beginners might not know where to start. So together we selected from these writings passages that dealt with fundamental principles while remaining close to everyday life, and compiled them into this book. There are altogether 622 passages, divided into fourteen volumes.

Generally speaking, scholars who wish to discover where to begin their efforts, how to cultivate themselves and deal with others, how to distinguish heterodox and erroneous teachings, and how to observe the general character of the sages and worthies can find an outline of all these matters here.

I believe that young scholars who aspire to learning while living in remote places, and who have no good teachers or worthy friends to guide them, can find the way of entry simply by studying this book earnestly and reflecting carefully upon it. After completing it, they should then study the complete works of the four earlier masters, examining them closely, reading them repeatedly, seeking their meaning calmly, and savoring them deeply. In this way, through broad learning they will ultimately understand the central principles, and the exquisite ideas and rich contents contained therein may then be more or less fully comprehended.

If, however, someone fears complexity and is unwilling to endure effort, seeking only convenience and simplicity and imagining that this one book alone is sufficient, that would not accord with our original intention in compiling it.

Respectfully recorded by Zhu Xi of Xin’an, on the fifth day of the fifth month.

After the Reflections on Things at Hand was compiled, some people worried that the discussion in the first volume concerning yin and yang, transformation, human nature, and destiny was perhaps not something beginners ought to engage with.

I understand something of the reasoning behind the arrangement of the book. Although young students cannot immediately discuss the ultimate source of moral principle, if they are completely unaware even of its general outline, how can they know what their learning is directed toward? Placing these matters in the first volume was intended specifically to let them understand some of the central ideas and thereby arouse in them an aspiration toward them.

As for the remaining volumes, the methods of instruction and study recorded there, together with the forms of cultivation that may personally be practiced in daily life, all follow a proper sequence. If one proceeds step by step according to this order, moving from the lower to the higher and from the near to the distant, one will more or less avoid departing from our purpose in compiling the book.

But if one despises what is simple and near at hand, pursues lofty and remote matters, refuses to learn in sequence, and seeks only empty and abstract principles, then in the end one’s learning will have no foundation whatsoever. How could that be the intention behind our naming this book Reflections on Things at Hand?

Readers should understand this.

Respectfully written by Lü Zuqian of Donglai, on the fourth day of the fourth month of the third year of Chunxi.