Splendid Virtue

AnonymousBashu Publishing House · ChinaJun 2024

3.7

Word count: 1.8K words
Chapters: 2

Summary

The flourishing virtue of the sage king: the people are free of illness, the six domestic animals are free of plague, the five grains are free of disaster, the feudal lords are rectified without arms, the common people are governed without punishment, and the barbarians are won over and submit. In ancient times the Son of Heaven always examined virtue in the last month of winter, to observe order and disorder, gain and loss. Where virtue flourishes, there is order; where virtue does not flourish, there is disorder. Where virtue flourishes, one gains; where virtue does not flourish, one loses. Therefore when the noble man examines virtue, the order and disorder, gain and loss of the world can be known while sitting in the hall of the temple. When virtue flourishes, laws are cultivated; when virtue does not flourish, government is adorned. With laws and government, virtue does not decline; therefore one is called king. In general, illness among the people, plague among the six domestic animals, and disaster among the five grains arise from Heaven; when the way of Heaven is not in accord, it arises from the Bright Hall not being adorned. Therefore when there are natural disasters, the Bright Hall is adorned.

Editor's review

The piece "Flourishing Virtue" centers on "the flourishing virtue of the sage king," treating the people's freedom from illness, the six domestic animals' freedom from plague, the five grains' freedom from disaster, the feudal lords' being rectified without arms, the common people's being governed without punishment, and the barbarians' being won over and submitting as outward proofs of virtuous rule. It also proposes the institutional idea of "examining virtue in the last month of winter": the Son of Heaven's examination determines the world's order and disorder, gain and loss. Its approach is distinctive: it attributes order and disorder not merely to government orders but to the rise and fall of virtue, and further infers from "natural disasters" that "the Bright Hall is not adorned," forming an argument in which celestial phenomena and political virtue corroborate each other. The text is concise and clearly structured, suitable as a short piece for understanding early ideas of rule by virtue and the correlation between Heaven and humanity. Bashu Press issues it separately, convenient for focused reading and teaching use. Readers can observe how the ancients wove natural calamities, social order and the ruler's virtue into one explanatory framework, and can also reflect on the boundaries and tensions of the discourse of rule by virtue.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Scholars and students of pre-Qin and Han political thought
Readers interested in ideas of rule by virtue and the Heaven-human relationship
Teachers who need short materials for guided reading of classics
Readers of classical Chinese who enjoy excerpting lines for reflection and reading short pieces slowly

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking a complete institutional history or concrete details of governance
General readers who prefer long narratives and character-driven stories
Readers who rely entirely on vernacular translation and do not wish to engage with classical Chinese

Reading tips

First list the contrasting items of "virtue flourishing" and "virtue not flourishing" in the text, making two-column notes.
Separate the two threads of "examining virtue" and "natural disaster—Bright Hall," then see how they are brought together.
After reading, connect with known discussions of rule by virtue and compare their similarities and differences with this text's approach.
You may excerpt key sentences and read them aloud repeatedly to appreciate the rhythm of short classical Chinese prose.

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
盛德第六十六

FAQ

What is the core claim of "Flourishing Virtue"?

The core is to tie the world's order and disorder, gain and loss to the rise and fall of the ruler's virtue: when virtue flourishes, the people, the six domestic animals, the five grains, the feudal lords, the common people and the barbarians all show order; when virtue does not flourish, the opposite occurs. The piece also proposes examining virtue in the last month of winter and infers from natural disasters that the Bright Hall is not adorned, emphasizing the connections between virtue and government, and between Heaven and order.

What does "Bright Hall" mean in this piece?

In the context of this piece, the Bright Hall is related to political and educational order and is regarded as a symbolic place of virtuous rule. "When the way of Heaven is not in accord, it arises from the Bright Hall not being adorned" means that disorder in the seasons can be traced to a failure to cultivate political and educational order. Readers need not dwell on textual research into its architectural form; the point is to understand how the author uses the Bright Hall to connect celestial phenomena with political virtue.

Is this piece suitable for classroom discussion?

Yes. It is short and its argument is focused, and the inference that "where virtue flourishes, there is order" carries discussable tension: are virtue and order cause and effect, or two sides of the same coin, and can natural disasters serve as evidence of political virtue? Teachers can have students list the arguments one by one and then debate the leaps in them, training close reading and argument analysis.

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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.