Treatise on Spirit

AnonymousBashu Publishing House · ChinaAug 2020

4.3

Word count: 5.3K words
Chapters: 6

Summary

In the era before heaven and earth existed, there was only an image without form, utterly dark and obscure, vast and boundless, chaotic and merging, and no one knew its gate. Two deities were born together, ordering heaven and establishing earth. So profound that no one knew their ultimate end, so vast that no one knew where they rested. Thereupon they separated into yin and yang, divided into the eight directions, and hard and soft completed each other; only then did the myriad things take shape. The turbid qi became insects; the refined qi became human beings. Therefore spirit and consciousness belong to heaven, while bones and body belong to earth. When the spirit enters its gate and the bones return to their root, what then remains of me? For this reason the sage models heaven and follows his nature, is not bound by custom, is not led astray by others, takes heaven as father and earth as mother, takes yin and yang as the guiding principle and the four seasons as the order. Heaven is still and therefore clear; earth is settled and therefore peaceful. The myriad things that lose this die; those that model it live. Now stillness and quietude are the settling of spiritual clarity; emptiness and non-being are where the Way dwells. Therefore some who seek it outside lose it within; some who preserve it within lose it outside. It is like the root and the branches: pull from the root, and the thousand branches and ten thousand leaves all follow.

Editor's review

Jing Shen Xun (Training the Spirit) is an ancient intellectual document discussing the genesis of heaven and earth and the relationship between spirit and body. It begins with the undifferentiated chaos "before heaven and earth existed," explains the formation of all things through yin and yang and hardness and softness, then proposes a distinction whereby spirit belongs to heaven and the skeleton to earth, and finally arrives at the self-cultivation claim that the sage models himself on heaven, follows his true nature, and guards the inner through stillness, indifference, and emptiness. The metaphor of "root and branches" is especially striking: pull at the root, and the thousand branches and ten thousand leaves naturally follow. This makes the piece more than cosmology; it points to an attitude to life that proceeds from within to without. The Bashu Shushe edition offers modern readers a path toward the original text. Read slowly, first grasping the structure of argument from heaven to man and from the external back to the internal, then considering the place of concepts such as stillness and emptiness in the theory of cultivation; it is suitable as a close-reading text for a topic in ancient thought.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in ancient cosmology and ideas of cultivation
Self-learners who enjoy close reading of original texts and pondering conceptual relations
Those concerned with the traditional question of the relation between spirit and body
Students who need a short classical text as an entry point to intellectual history

Not a good fit for

Beginners seeking a systematic history of philosophy
General readers who prefer light, story-driven reading
People looking for concrete cultivation exercises or practical steps

Reading tips

First read the whole text and summarize in one sentence the line of advance from the genesis of heaven and earth to the claims about self-cultivation.
Copy out the sentence "spirit enters its gate, the skeleton returns to its root" and repeatedly consider it in context.
Find two passages each related to "stillness" and "emptiness" and compare how they are used in the piece.
After reading, write a short commentary explaining whether you agree with the choice between "guarding the inner" and "seeking the outer."

About the publisher

Bashu Publishing House China · Founded in 1983

Bashu Publishing House is a publisher centered on collating and publishing classical Chinese cultural texts, with its main publishing areas covering classical literature, Eastern philosophy, ancient poetry, and educational classics. Its library currently holds 1,075 titles, including representative works such as Dream of the Red Chamber, the Preface to the Orchid Pavilion Gathering, Renjian Cihua, and Out to the Frontier, involving authors such as Cao Xueqin, Wang Xizhi, Wang Guowei, Wang Changling, Liu Xie, and Yan Yu. These reflect the publisher's focus on literary classics, poetry criticism, and philosophical readings. Its publishing character lies in working around ancient texts and canonical works, with attention to textual collation and presentation. Public information on its more detailed publishing background and series plans is limited; this introduction is based only on the library's book information.

版权信息
卷七
正文一
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正文四

FAQ

What is Jing Shen Xun mainly about?

It begins with the genesis of the cosmos from the undivided state and the differentiation of yin and yang, distinguishes the origins of spirit and skeleton, and then advocates that the sage model himself on heaven, follow his true nature, and guard the inner through stillness and emptiness. The whole piece moves from cosmology to cultivation theory, with its core being how people should settle the spirit and handle the relation between inner and outer, root and branch.

Is "spirit" here the same as what we mean by spirit today?

Not entirely. In this text "spirit" is set against "skeleton" and carries the sense of something belonging to heaven, close to a subtle qi or principle of life rather than the state of consciousness in modern psychology. Read it according to the original context and avoid directly applying modern meanings.

What background knowledge do I need before reading this piece?

Basic ability to read classical Chinese is enough; familiarity with traditional concepts such as yin and yang, hardness and softness, and non-action will make it easier. You need not read the whole ancient book first, but pay attention to how the cosmology and the cultivation theory are connected, for this is key to understanding the structure.

Is this suitable for reading in one sitting?

It is not long and can be read through in one sitting, but the conceptual density is high, so at least two readings are recommended. On the first, grasp the movement from heaven to man; on the second, look closely at how key terms such as stillness, emptiness, and root and branch support the argument, using annotations to work through it sentence by sentence if necessary.

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About the author

Anonymous Author

Anonymous is not a real personal name but a general Chinese designation for authors whose names are unknown, lost, or unsigned. Neither nationality nor dates of birth and death can be verified, and available public information is limited, so the works attributed to this name are the only basis for description. The collection holds 2,078 works under Anonymous, spanning medicine, classics, historical readings, ancient poetry, classical literature, and philosophy. Representative works include The Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon: Lingshu, Mencius, The Book of Documents, Nineteen Old Poems, Complete Song Ci, and The Peacock Flies Southeast. Most of these works took shape through long transmission and editing, emerging either from collective folk creation or from authors whose names were lost over time. In ancient China, the Book of Songs, the Great Learning, and many popular storybooks and plays were signed Anonymous because their authors could not be traced. Anonymous works cross the classics, histories, philosophical writings, medical texts, and poetry; their subjects are broad, and their styles vary from archaic simplicity to clear naturalness, making them important and influential sources for understanding ancient Chinese thought, medicine, and literature.